Study: Student progress can be tied to teacher students-eSchool news

Teaching is becoming more and more competitive ech day it seems. The States are constantly changing curriculums, testing to certify future teachers and making sure that young canadiates like us, are going to be the best. Studies are showing that the best teachers, are the ones with that have been provided with the best training. So what exactly is the best training? According to this article, many believe it is where you attend college and what the school district provides you with their training. There is controversy over that because then there are others who believe that it has nothing to do with what school or the training schools provide you with, it has to do with the field experience that young future canadiates have had over the years. Many people from this article say that the one thing that they were not prepared for before going into the classroom was the knowledge on classroom management and field experience. Being able to get out into different schools and see what classroom settings are like, you can build you knowledge without even realizing it. It is extremely important for us to get the feel of classroom settings and learn about how teachers collaborate with their students, the structure, and most important teaching techinques. You can't be taught how to teach a classroom from professors because it is not realistic. Young future teachers can learn so much from spending time in classrooms and pick up ideas from their host teachers. In reality, when walking into an interview for a teaching position, it's going to be all about HOW you teach a lesson, rather than where you went to school or what grades you got. If you can teach and the teachers in front of you can understand, then the students should be able too!

Ten Ideas for Interactive Teaching-eSchool News

The title of this article says it all! Informing all of the viewers subscribed to this site, that teaching is not all based on lecture, and that students don't absorb the information and it's ineffective. It also states that "it's ok to try new experiments and have them fail." This is what we are always being told in EDU315 and all of our other Education classes. There is never going to be a time where everything we have planned goes perfectly because in reality, it's impossible. We think out our lessons in our heads, then we get to class and everything you planned in your head goes wrong. We are going to be constantly learning from our mistakes.

This article gives great tips about ten different techniques to incorporate into the classroom to help engage the students, and it's fun for you and the students. The students' will benefit more from doing lessons like this. I know that I am not a student who can just sit and listen to lectures all the time and I know that I will make sure that the students in my class have a variety of lessons with all different types of learning styles. 

About Me :)

Morgan :) 

• Friendly, outgoing, bubbly, fun!
• I have a younger brother who is 16 years old
• I'm a lover of dancing, being with my family, enjoy spending time with friends
• I fear spiders, field mice, and garden snakes
• I would like to visit Italy, Germany, and California

• I am from Geneva, New York so I'm pretty local!
• I spent my summer working for the Cornell Experimental Station working on projects and experimenting with different pesticides on onion plants, peppers, melons, and cucumbers.

Field Experience

Last week on Wednesday, October 5, 2011, it was my very first day exploring what it is like being in a 3rd grade setting all day! I have observed in a 4th grade classroom and a kindergarten room, so I have had some experience out in the teaching field. My first day, after the students were all settled in that morning and did their morning work to get their minds functioning, it was time for morning meeting! I was great because I get to sit in the circle with them all and we all went around and said our names and what was one thing we like to do. This was a way for me to see and understand what each child was about and now I can maybe asking them questions so they know I am interested and am here for them. I learned about their curriculum, what they were learning about in math, social studies, reading and writing. I didn't get to sit in on a science lesson, but I'm sure I will get to do that soon. I spent time seeing how the students interact with one another, what they social patterns were like, and who were the ones who had cliques. I am learning about how the teacher explains lessons to them, and how she monitors the classroom or how she keeps the students engaged during her lessons. My host teacher is great and all the students seem to like her a lot. It will be great to see how the rest of the semester goes with the class and hopefully get to learn more about them!

Technical Skills

We have been spending time in class exploring different websites we can incorporate into the classroom for the future. We did a project called Come To The Edge which was a great way for me to spend time exploring different websites and learning how to can use them in the classroom, or how it could benefit some of the students I might encounter with in my classroom. I learned how to make stories or draw pictures, or putting together a collage. All of these sites can be used for the students and get them to be more independent, but also to become more creative. I have also been lacking in the creative category, so this to me was quite a challenge. Knowing what I know now about all of these sites, I wish I was giving these options when I was in elementary school, because maybe I would not feel so in confident with using my imagination. I will make sure that when I start teaching in my own classroom, I will make sure to incorporate these into my lessons or even fun sites for them to play on when they have free time! I want my students to learn about these sites and become more creative!

ED Proposes Teacher Prep Reforms-eSchool News

I decided this week to start reading the articles on eSchool News, to get more up to date on what is going on out there in the teaching world. this next few years, things are going to get tough and jobs are going to be much more competitive, and I need to get up to par with my skills and more marketable than other canadidates like myself. 
This article informed me about the changes that the government wants to taking control over in the education fields. It's extremely important for not only the teachers, but the students as well, to build up their skills and become more educated. The teachers need to have the best training so their students can learn from the best and then this will greatly improve our education system, which is what we need right now. Instead of maybe getting rid of "bad" teachers, try to help and give them more training to learn how to improve. The have a plan for "teacher excellence" which is going to prepare all if the future tecahers to be the best and prepare us to be ready to teach in the classroom. School leaders feel that students coming out of school are not prepared enough to teach in classrooms so this plan will help everyone, even no education majors to be prepared about the teaching field. This also means we will be getting more assessments as future teachers, and tests will become more frequent. I overall will do whatever it takes to be the best and teach my students what they need to know to be successful!


http://www.eclassroomnews.com/2011/10/04/ed-proposes-teacher-prep-reforms/?

Freedom Riders

From middle and high school on, we have always been taught about freedom, liberty, justice for all. We have been taught about the civil rights starting back in the 1920's, but I am guitly of not fully understand and connecting with the people had to go through those struggles.
Freedom Rider's was an amazing, overwhelming, but courageous video that discussed all about the struggles these people faced to try to make a difference for our world. They did succeed of course, but it's sad that the ones that fought for this, didn't make it through the end to see the accomplishment they made. 
I am a history concentration so this to me very very interesting, and what made it better was me being able to feel and connect with Freedom Riders. Now I will never be able to feel the emotions that these people were feeling during that time, but to actually see what they were going through like being beaten to death by a white mob or being thrown in jail for no reason. I will never be able to understand the way they felt, but my feelings were embarrassed, sad and shocked were my emotions when watching this documentary.
I am going to some day have to teach my students about this subject, and it's challenging when they are younger, because they really can't see what was really happening, and lecturing about it, does not give you the same emotional connection as it would when watching it. Going into to teaching and knowing that many international students might not have even realized this was going on or even other students won't be aware of this, its shocking, but I have to think back and understand that I was not around during that time, and teachers had to teach me about this content.
Over all, I felt this documentary was a good eye opener for myself and I'm sure for the people around me. This really did happen and to actually see and here from the survivors of the Freedom Riders, made it that much more emtional and made me feel connected.