Inquiry Celebration- Blog Post 3

I was unable to attend the Inquiry Celebration due to being ill. As a result I asked one of the Interns from my PDS to send me her Power Point so I could look at it. I really relate to this inquiry because it was based off of the  classroom I am now placed in. From looking at this Power Point I discovered that the intern looked at sight words and how they are best taught. Sight words are extremly important in Kindergarten because they are the beginning of reading. This intern worked on sight words through various physical activities. What my intern found was that the more physical the activities were the more words students learned. I think this is extremely important because many teachers just sit and read students words and the students may do activities with them, but most of the time they don't. I think that in my future teaching career I would like to use physical activities to teach sight words as well as many other things!

Blog Post 2

The first Characteristic of the Novice Teacher I would like to explore is characteristic number four; be a facilitator of learning for all students. I think that the big idea of this characteristic is that all students in the classroom are different learners. These students bring different learning styles and abilities when they enter your classroom and as their teacher you must adapt curriculum and activities so everyone can be successful; no matter what the ability level is. As a teacher you must consistently evaluate students work and how you teach to be sure that each student has the exact opportunities for success. I think a good artifact for this characteristic would be the differentiated lesson plan we had to write for SPED 460. This assignment was to write a lesson plan and then take the same lesson and differentiate it by learning style, ability level, and the product the students created. This directly links back to the characteristic because by adapting a lesson plan for learning style, ability level, and product you are making the lesson accessible for all students to have success. The second characteristic I would like to explore is Characteristic number eight; be a reflective practitioner. I think that the big idea for this characteristic is that a teacher must always be reflecting on what he/she can do differently to ensure the success of the whole classroom. This means that after a lesson, activity, or situation the teacher thinks about what he/she could do differently next time or what went well. This helps the teacher because the next time he/she is faced in a similar scenario the teacher will know how to handle his/her actions. I think a really great artifact for this would be our teacher researcher notebooks. We have to reflect on our experiences in the classroom everyday that we attend our PDS. This strongly agrees with the characteristic because it shows that we are constantly reflecting on how we can become better teachers.

Blog Post 1

The first Characteristic I am going to look at is “have a commitment to and skills for lifelong learning”. This characteristic describes how teachers need to always be willing to learn new “tricks” and they need to be committed to always making their teaching experience better for their students. I think that a good artifact for this characteristic would be a screen shot of a Pinterest board that I have created related to teaching and the classroom. I think this is a good example of this characteristic because it shows that you can go online and research new ideas. It also shows when you have researched these ideas and that is an example that a teacher is always looking for new ideas.

The second Characteristic I am going to look at is “be an effective communicator”. The big ideas in this characteristic are that a teacher must have communications skills to effectively communicate with various people in the school and community. A teacher must be able to orally communicate to people but also respond through written pieces and technology. One artifact that can be used with this characteristic is our parent letter home we were required to send out in Education 401. This letter was sent home to parents to inform them about who we were and what we would be doing in their child’s classroom. This would work for this characteristic because it shows that teachers need to be in contact with parents at all times. Parents need to feel like they can trust you and by having effective communication with them you are opening the lines for them to trust you. 

Test

Test =)