Carman's Thoughts

Well in thinking about how I would give you a run down of what I was like as an elementary student and explain that in three paragraphs has proven harder than I thought it would be. I decided I would share a little about each topic we could choose from instead. I will start with what I was like as an elementary student and then share a few stories of things that didn't go my way. I was the kind of student that was excited about going to school. I loved, well I still love shopping for school supplies haha! I like summer of course, because what kid doesn't love sleeping in and swimming all the time! I also couldn't wait to get back to school to meet my new teachers and spend time with friends I didn't get to see over summer break. I would say I was an average student as far as my grades were concerned, I maintained, well in that time Satisfactory scores then when it shifted to letter grades I maintained A's and B's. I enjoyed anytime we did science experiments i...

Word walls were the main focus for the beginning of our class last night. I really enjoy seeing various word walls in the classrooms I visit. Each grade has different themes or topics they need covered on their word walls. Word walls are very beneficial not only for our regular English speaking students but they benefit our ELL students by giving them a visual of how our words look. Like we learned in class last night word walls do not always have to be just words, they can focus on Math or science or social studies or whatever theme we are focusing on that session. Themes such as Fall, Spring, Summer, Poetry, Dr. Seuss, 100th day of school and so many more options. The main purpose of a word wall is to be a visual aid to help students who need a reminder or refresher on words or topics. I have seen some word walls that are very overwhelming and I think we need to be cautious not to over load the information we are putting on these walls. I am more of a straight to the point k...

We covered a lot of great information tonight. I liked the quizizz but the competitive approach to answering the fastest gave me anxiety haha. I enjoyed talking about conducive classroom environments for learning and hearing everyone's ideas. I think we all agree that organization is key as well as specific areas around the rooms for the students to do stations or reading. A well- stocked library with a variety of genres is also essential. Word walls are great to help students use as a reference throughout various lessons. I was able to visualize several classrooms that i have seen either when I was on field experience or while subbing. It is nice to see that most of the classrooms I have been in have tried to incorporate a quiet reading area for the students. I also like that you can catch glimpses of the teacher's personality through the decoration choices they make. I felt like we cleared up some confusions we had with assignments last week which is good. I now have a set t...

I was surprised to see so many signed up for a summer class, my other ones only have like 4 or 5 other people in them. I was also glad to see so many familiar names that I have met along this journey to our certification. I felt like our first night was very informative. We went straight into how we need to do our lesson and unit plans and I thought that was great. I was a little sad that we had to actually do the 100 questions this time because that last class I took with Dr. Steffes we only had to do 10 :(. Honestly, we had so much information going on I think we needed longer than 3 hrs to cover it. I also liked how Dr. Steffes changed it up a little to where we are all responsible for having our lessons done on the same day and then it’s a surprise who gets to present each time. I think that will keep it interesting, like a game of chance or the Hunger Games haha. What else did you guys like from our first class? Ok so most of you know me already and I’m not sure who is in my ...