2015-2016 Self Reflection

From the First day of School
Since the first day of school, I believe I have grown and matured a lot. Being my last year in high school, my life felt like a roller coaster! As we are now at the end of the ride, I'm glad I am off and ready for the next one.


My favorite Project
In the Ready Set Teach class, I worked on many projects that guided me to different areas of education. My favorite one is the Learning Disability presentation I made! On the presentation I talked about dyslexia, a learning disability that is involved with difficulty learning to read, write and talk. I believe this was my favorite project because although we've discussed kinds of learning disabilities, we never actually researched how its diagnosed and how people around the child with the learning disability deal with it.


Sites
I had the most amazing time in sites! The children are lovely and full of cuteness! Working with this bilingual group really encouraged me to reach for my goal of becoming an educator. I always helped them with spelling and matching letters and their sounds. They enjoyed having me as another helper, and I enjoyed having them in my life! From the first day of school I bonded with them and the teacher quickly. Ms. Ricardo is an incredible mentor, she always gave me good advice on parent cooperation, classroom management, and different teaching methods. I really did have the best time working with the Pre-K class!


TAFE
As the year began, my classmates and I were so focused on school work we weren't sure we were going to make it to the TAFE competition during regionals, but thank God we got through! We the shortest amount of time, we completed our project on time and gave our best during the presentation. We got qualified for state and were so surprised and excited! Going to state with all of the girls in the Elgin TAFE organization was a wonderful memory I will remember forever, I really bonded with all the girls and wish them the best in their future!

This year was full of wonderful adventures and activities, I learned so much about myself and who I really am as a person, I'm really excited to see what the future holds for me!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The very Hungry Caterpillar is a book about the caterpillar growing to a butterfly, during the story, the caterpillar finds different kinds of food, healthy and unhealthy and eats through them all. At the end, she turn into a big beautiful butterfly.


As a child, I LOVED this book, I believe the color, the sequence it forms, and the many kind of food I saw made me read this book all the time.


Now, as a future teacher, I still LOVE this book! There are so many lesson plans I can make using this book. I can do lesson plans about healthy foods, sequence, the life of a butterfly, etc. I plan to read it to students at least once. It is a fun and entertaining book for children to learn from. Also, there are so many activities/ worksheets that match this book, every time I search for an activity I always find so many!


I recommend this book to not just children but also teachers and parents! Its a great learning resource for the kiddos!

Dealing with Special Needs in my Future Classroom

After discussing the Special Needs Topic with Ms. Ricardo, (sites teacher) I learned that to be able to manage the special needs of students and the "gifted and talented" kind of students, I have to know what kind of needs I'm going to have to deal with. 

Before starting the school year, I would have to come up with different plans, obviously after having more knowledge of different kind of special needs. My plan would include separating the students based on how advanced or behind they are. 

In my current classroom, the students differ so much from eachother based on the skills they have learned. We have about 3-5 students that are advanced in building/writing words, and we have 3-6 students that don't even know how to spell their names. There is also the average students, the students that are on track and are learning the right things at the right time. From the beginning of the year, the goal would be to get all of the students at least to the average level.

Anyways, I believe that based on what me and Ms. Ricardo discussed, I would obviously separate the students depending on what level they are in. For the students that need a lot of help, or the students that are behind, I would not only offer more time and help to them but I would also communicate with the parents and ask for help. An important factor for children to learn is practicing their skills at home. I would ask the parents to spend at least 30 minutes studying with their children and ENCOURAGE them to do better! Its important for children to know that their education MATTERS!

To the students that are advanced or "gifted and talented," I would give them the choice of what to do next. I wouldn't want them to get bored working on lessons that they already know. For example, I would encourage them to help their classmates, but I will give them options. They can help or maybe have more centers time, or play with technology, or even read a book! At the pre-k age, students LOVE playing, which is how they learn social wise. Giving them extra time for playing is a great way to not bore them!

Creativity 📚

Creativity. Creativity is what one has that is unique from the rest of the people. Creativity is a big part of education. Education is made to develop creativity. I believe that when a child is edcucated, it's like giving them resources to develop their own creativity.

An educator that I met in my TAFE trip named Dave Burgess, also a keynote speaker talked to us about this topic. I remember him saying that his coworkers felt disencouraged because they thought they weren't as creative as him. He also stated that he didn't have his creative mind because he was born with it. He told us that he WORKED HARD to be be creative. 

That is what we do with students in school. We encourage them to see different things, find things they're interested in. When the students find what they are interested in, they will find the passion for it. Once they have become passionate, I believe they will create and work with creativity. They will become people that work hard for whatever they become passionate about. 

My point is that although creativity is something someone has or can do that is unique, it isn't natural, you work hard for it, that's why teachers help students. 

The Essential 55: 44-55

The last 55 essentials are honestly the best. I am extremely glad I read this book. Every time I read 10 rules, it somehow related to how I was doing during those days. Or basically it related to my life a lot.

As I am currently going through some dramatic events in my life right now, I feel like I needed to hear, or in this case, read something that made me feel positive again and to remember to never give up in life. These 10 rules are my favorite because not only it is giving me advice as an educator, but also as an ordinary person. 

As I am now finishing the book, I would like to share my thoughts on some of the rules. 

I love the story Mr. Clark had for rule 44. He made a super strict rule to be fun and creative at the same time. The fact that the kids enjoyed doing the line like all military style stated that not all rules suck! Just enjoy it. As he said, "You may think the kids would be resistant to asking them to be so quiet, disciplined, and orderly, but they actually enjoyed it."(126)

Another rule that I love from these ten, is 48. I think it is really important for teacher to let their students know that they are cared about. Like Mr. Clark said,"...building morale and a family bond in the class."(134) it helps the kids understand that they can trust the teacher.  The quote, "I want them to see me as someone who will fight for them if the time comes."(134) is something similar I've heard Coach Faulks said once. To hear a teacher say that gives us students the feeling of protection from a teacher or adult. Not a lot of teachers are capable of actually going that far to caring for a student. I'm really thankful I know one of my teacher cares about us to a point he will fight for us. Like Mr. Clark said, "Support from an adult means a lot to a kid, and it goes a long way toward building trust." (136) 

I love rule 49! Not all teachers or even adults want children or teens to do what they BELIEVE is right. Like the rule says, "You shouldn't take no for an answer if your heart and mind are leading you in a direction that you feel strongly about."(137) The right thing to do is how what your HEART AND MIND TELL YOU, not what other people want you to do! 

Here is a really good blog about a teacher that was inspired by the book! BLOG

The essential 55:33-43

Chapters 33-43 are all about people behaving in places that are not in the classroom. I like these ones because I've seen a lot of people not behaving the correct way when they are out in public. 

Rule 33 I believe that it applies not only to children but adults as well. It says, "Make sure to shake their hands and thank them, mentioning their name."(105) Although, sometimes it is hard to forget people's name, depending on the situation, I believe people should include it as they are greeting other people. 

Rule 34 I believe it's hard for most people. As we were in Houston, even I took more food than I ate for breakfast. I don't know why I do it, but I'm working on knowing how much to put in our plate. "You never want to be greedy and try to get more than you should, not only because it is wasteful, but also because it is disrespectful to others when you do not leave enough for them."(107) After reading that part of the quote, I realized that is it rude to do that, and I agree with Mr. Clark is trying to help the students learn to not do it! 

Again, I believe rule 36 should apply to EVERYONE! I think it is so disrespectful when people don't hold the door for you when you're coming in or going out. I always do it for people that are right behind me, because it's just a basic polite act. Like Mr. Clark said, "Teaching them small acts of kindness, such as letting someone else go through a door first as they hold it open, may seem insignificant, but it can go a long way toward helping students realize how to respect and appreciate others."(112) the little things can go a long way for the good.
Rule 37 is one of those rules that if you make pre-k or kinder kids do, it won't really go as you planned, but students in 3rd-4th grade, might do it better as well as understand it. It says, "If someone bumps into you, even if it was not your fault, say, Excuse me." (112) As I am older it's more upsetting when someone doesn't apologize because as adults we understand why forgiveness is important. In school, there are literally so many people walking everywhere, and it is annoying when they don't apologize as they bump into you.
Rule 39 is honestly my favorite! I love going to homes and complementing decorations and what not! Or also going to places like restaurants, hotels, classrooms and just compliment or say something nice that will make the person or owner feel good. Like Mr. Clark said, "It is usually obvious that they have spent time cleaning and preparing for the visit, and I want them to know I appreciate their efforts and that I like their home."(116) When we visited the hotel in Houston, I made sure I left a note to the person that did our beds every morning saying how much I appreciated their service and that everything was comfortable, nice and very clean, I included that it was really homey! I really do like doing this like this for people, it makes me feel good when they feel good!

Here is a link, a blog of an elementary education expert talking about some important rules that come from the book and different ways to use them.

The Essential 55: Chapter 22-32

On these chapters, I like how Mr. Clark talks more about the students behaving in the classroom and being comfortable in there as well. I love rule 22! It is so uncomrtable when I'm in class and teachers don't let us have food with us. We're literally in school for about eight hours. We need to be able to stay hydrated and have food with us to be able to learn while being comfortable. As Mr. Clark said, "We all perform better when we are comfortable with our surroundings."(77) We all know that being comfortable and living comfortable is probably the most important thing in life. To live comfortable we need our necessities like food and something to drink. Especially in school! 

Rule 23 Mr. Clark says that learning teachers names is important and beneficial. I totally agree with him. I might not know the names of ALL of the teachers in my school, but I make sure to know their names when I need something from them. Teachers are people that help you on anything. Which is why I agree with the statement Mr. Clark says, " The more adults in the school they know, the more people there will be for them to turn to when they have problems or need help."(82) If for some reason a teacher isn't available to help a student, there are like 30 more around school available. Even the administration people or librarian! Any adult in school is helpful! 

Rule 24 is literally what Ms. Ricardo (my sites teacher) has to remind the kids of! Since they are pre- k students, they don't understand that not flushing the toilet or washing their hands after going to the restroom. Although, according to Ms. Ricardo, it's something they should be learning at home from THE PARENTS, she feels the need to remind them everyday until they understand that it's pretty gross and dirty to not wash their hands or flush the toilet. When I reas the following quote from Mr. Clark, "I talk to the students a lot about how hard the custodians work and how it is easy for us to help them by doing a few very small things..."(85) Reminded me of what Ms. Ricardo tells the kids. She usually starts with saying how irresponsible it is for them and then she states that it is really, really rude to the people that take their time to clean their pee. She is very descriptive when she talks about stuff like this. 

Rule 25 is something that needs to be done all the time for any occasion when someone is new to a place. For example, I've been to parties or reunions where I literally know NO ONE! Everyone is a stranger and I'm just sitting there waiting for the one person I know. Or in some occasion, a new job. Where I know absolutely no one and feel so awkward just being there. People should at least greet or introduce themselves so the new person can feel a little bit comfortable. But just like Mr. Clark said, "It is all about making the person feel comfortable and welcomed in their new surroundings."(85-86) This is so true, if you don't know how to act in front of a person, just imagine what you would like someone to tell you or treat you when you are new somewhere. 

Rule 28 is my favorite of this 10! When a teacher gives the class or their students their information, I know I can trust them, or even when they tell us we can email them. In my high school years is when teachers should be more accessible since we as high schoolers are a little bit busier and need help with school stuff. For example, my teacher; Ms. Barron, in my first year being in her classroom she gave all of her students her number on the first day of school explaining to us if we need any help with what we were working on, we could send her a message. She obviously had rules towards the messaging thing, but it made me feel like I had her support and help when I needed it. Also, children that didn't understand a thing or two of what went on in classroom or just need individual attention benefit from this. Mr. Clark says, "Giving my phone number to them gives those kids and opportunity to get individual attention from me that isn't possible in school" (92) 

These 10 rules were really interesting. I liked reading Mr. Clark's point of view for each of them. 

Here is a Link of a blog I found that talks about an activity you can do with the students using the essential 55! I read it and I would totally love to do it in my future classroom.