Proctoring at SHHS

On Monday and Wednesday, I had the pleasure of proctoring for the 8th grade at Science Hill. I was placed in a small group classroom. These students were tested over Mathematics and Social Studies while I was in there. This particular class was made up of four students. These students had and IEP/ special for the test, which was the teacher read every single question and answers on the TCAP test. During the TCAP, I was asked to sit there so I caught up on my recreational reading time. But during the test, I would catch some of the questions being read. I thought they seemed really difficult. I do not remember TCAPs being so advanced but maybe it seemed difficult to me because I have not studied 8th grade mathematics or social studies in 9-10 years. I can only hope that one day TCAPs will not be the only evaluator of how well a student learns.

Part II of Geocaching :)

I love to geocache. I am so glad that the whole block class has become apart of the geocaching community. I have already blogged about Tia and I driving around Johnson City to geocache. I think this is an excellent way to involve our future classroom in learning subject matter such as longitude, latitude, historical places, and so much more. The activity is so engaging, even our block class was engaged when looking for the "Lower Learning" cache.  I may be bias to this activity because I enjoy it so much but I will try and find a way to incorporating this in to my future curriculum.



http://www.geocaching.com/

Effective Democratic Teachers

I believe an effective democratic classroom works when the students have an equal say in the how they are taught and how the classroom runs. Having the students make a list of expectations to follow, shows that the students have say so in the class and helps them feel apart of their learning experience. I also want the students to vote on how they want the material presented to them. I will give several options to pick from. I will have one student each day be in charge or be the leader for the day. The students will have to report to their leader for many tasks; for example lunch count. This classroom is promoting citizenship due to voting, leaders, and student input.

Seussopolis: our box city

Monday and Wednesday of last week, we worked on creating our Box City.  There were 2 different councils: the Zoning Council and City Council.  The Zoning Council had a job of naming the city, streets, and creating zones for the government buildings, commercial buildings and green space.  The City Council listed what buildings and businesses our city needed.  We ended up naming our city Seussopolis and going with a Dr. Seuss theme for the streets and buildings.  This activity was fun and very engaging.  I learned that we could use this for government, economics, and many other social studies standards.  This is a great idea to use in the classroom.






 

Can you point out all the continents, countries, or states?

This past week we were asked to fill out as much as we can on a blank world map. Now most of you would think "oh I got this", but once you look at that map one realizes that this map is filled of small spaces you do not remember being there or learning. I must admit I did not do so well on this assignment. It has been so long since I have had Geography or talked about all the different countries in Africa or all the Islands of the coast of Florida. I believe this is very important to teach our students, but we need to teach it in a way that is engaging and entertaining. We watched a you-tube video of a little girl that knows all the places around the world with ease. This activity points out to me that I need to review the map before I teach this to my future classroom.

Geocaching

Tia and my new favorite activity is Geocaching. We went to Sycamore Shoals to walk on the trail and explore our "nature" sides. While walking on the path, I remember looking up Geocaches around the Tri-cities area and seeing a couple at Sycamore Shoals. (Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.) I downloaded the app on my iphone and we followed the directions. Tia and I are walking around the general area that the "cache" is suppose to be. The hint said "a big tree with a knot". We found that tree and looked for a good 30 minutes. People passing by probably thought we were a little nuts. We finally gave up on finding that particular cache.

We soon became obsessed with trying to find a cache. So we found another spot while driving. As soon as we pulled up, we found it! We were pretty pumped to say the least. It was in a small, waterproof match container. We signed our names and re-hid the cache, but it did not stop there.

Later that evening, we were looking on the app and seen that there was a cache 27ft. from Tia's house. Needless to say we found our 2nd geocache, in a small plastic box!



(1st picture- our first cache near ETSU)                      

 (2nd picture- our second cache near Tia's house)

http://www.geocaching.com/

Flotsam

This book was an excellent hook. I loved all the pictures and the way you can interpret what you think is going on in the illustrations. This book can be used in many lessons and have many activities to incorporate into the lesson. One could use it for a reading lesson, Language arts lesson, social studies lesson, and even a science lesson. I really feel in love with this book and I will definitely use this in one of my lessons when I become a teacher.