Absences Add Up

Absences do add up quickly, many students fall behind in work and have trouble catching up. As a future educator this will be an issue I will have to face everyday with my students. To learn more about absences and the importance of children in school click here.






Some ways to help combat absences would be to implement a Big Brother/Big Sister program, enrolling them in an afterschool care program, and to do a word revel.

Big Brother/Big Sister programs are great to help boost attendance because the children get bonded and don't want to miss a day of seeing their "sibling". Last year, when I was a first grade intern, a child in my class had a Big Brother that would come on Thursdays. This student rarely missed class, especially on Thursdays, and he was also so excited to see his brother.





Afterschool Care Programs can help attendance because the student look forward to coming everyday afterschool, hanging out with their friends, and doing fun activities. As an afterschool care worker I see how excited the students are to come into the cafeteria and to do fun activities. If they miss a day of school, they miss a day of fun.

A word revel is helpful to make the whole class accountable for attendance. My fourth grade intern teacher does this with her class. She writes on the window with a marker and draws out spaces for letters. Everyday that there are no absences, tardies, or early dismissals the class earns a letter. Eventually they find out what it spells and it is a fun way to keep the kids in school.

TAFE Region Results

This past weekend my chapter and I competed in TAFE competition. I competed in three different events and I was lucky enough to advance to state in all three competitions.

I competed in the Chapter Scrapbook competition with Jessica F. and Skylar W. This year we did the scrapbook online on mixbook.com. Here is a picture of us with our award.








I also competed in Impromptu Lesson with Taylor King and we got 2nd place and are advancing to State. In Impromptu Lesson we have a propmpt and twenty minutes to create a lesson then fifteen minutes to deliver that lesson. It is a fun and exciting challenge.








The final thing I competed in was Ethical Dilemma and we placed 1st in that we are also advancing to state in that event. I competed with Ajmal M. Rachel S. and Taylor K. In Ethical Dilemma we are given an issue and we come up with solution, we then present our solution to the judges in a ten minute presentation.

My First Week as an Intern

This year I am interning at Snow Heights Elementary School in Mrs. Nickell's third grade class. I am there during PAW time and during reading or social studies time. This year I am looking forward to being with third graders. I wanted to try out older kids and I am already so glad I did. This week we already had technology failure and panic to get everyone in the class a laptop and logged on. I am so excited to go back every week and to be with them all year long.

Habits of Mind

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Ron Clark's Rules

Ron Clark is known for his "55 Essential Rules", but what do rules really do in a classroom? Don't get me wrong, rules are important and play many vital roles in a classroom and for learning. One of the most important roles in learning that rules play is setting a tone in a classroom. With rules in place a classroom is a calm quiet place to learn. Also, rules are important for learning in able to have a fun and safe learning environment. Without rules for safety kids will be running around and unable to learn.




Rules help a classroom run smoothly because rules require students to respect in order to obey. When the students listen and obey the classroom can run a lot smoother because there are no unnecessary interruptions of disrespect.






A classroom the has no rules can run crazy. In Ron Clark's movie it shows how a classroom with no rules run. Watch from 15:40-17:30 to watch how Ron's Clarks students respond to no rules to when Ron Clark first starts to make rules. (The whole movie is great so I would highly suggest to watch it all.)










The rules in my classroom are short sweet and simple but still very important. Consequences in the classroom include warnings the after two warning assigning laps at recess (or time out durning inside recess). If the problem persist I would talk to their parents about the students behavior.

Plan of Attack

I am so excited to be competing this year. I am planning on competing in two events.




I will be doing a State Competition with a group of four and will will be putting together the Chapter Scrapbook. TO be successful in this event we just need to pay attention to deadlines and make suer that we can finish 70% of it by region which this year is November
5th.

I also plan on competing in a National Competition  called Impromptu Lesson  again and I will be working with my competition partner from last year Taylor King. To be successful in this event Taylor and I will need to P&P (practice and Pintrest) to fin new and fun lesson plans for whatever the judges give us.

First Blog Post (this school year)

Hey! Welcome to my blog, I am excited to be sharing all the fun and exciting things I do this year. I am a senior at Richland High School.

End of the Year Video

A Year in Review 2016

Live Binder

Click here to open this binder in a new window.

YAKiT KIDS

YAKiT KIDS is a great tool to use in the classroom. Mrs. Roberts first grade class uses it all the time.There are infinate uses in the classroom. One of the best subjects to use YAKiT is in english to encourage the kids to write and draw. Another subject that YAKiT could be used for is science. Students could research an animal then use YAKiT to put a picture of the animal in and have the animal talk.

 There is no need to make an account. There is not a paid version, everything is free. There is no parent restrictions on the kid version.  

How to use YAKiT:

Click here to download this awesome app!       

Virtual Perot Trip

My virtual field trip to the Perot.

My Philosophy of Education

TAFE State Adventures

The TAFE State was hosted at University of Houston this year. We stayed at the Crown Plaza and had many fun adventures.







At State many of our competitors won awards. My chapter won the Outstanding Chapter Award. Taylor Anderton got an award in Teacher Created Material with her fishbowl. KyAnna Carrillo got the gold for her Portfolio. Our Chapter Scrapbook got a blue ribbon, congrats to Taylor S. King, Victoria Likeness, Caroline Greene and Makayla Penley.






Last but not least, my partner Taylor M. King and I got 4th place over all in State in Impromptu Teaching  and will be going to Boston in June for Nationals.


I had so much fun at State, but one of my favorite aspects was getting to spend the whole weekend with my best friend. I got to compete side-by-side with her and we were able to explore around the campus together. We got to room together and we were attached at the hip.




Competing at the state level taught me to be able to think on the spot and without any material. Together as a team Taylor and I were able to share on brain and one competitive spirit.

Creativity

Creativity is being able to solve complex problems without help. Creativity is doing something different, doing something nobody has done before. Creativity is thinking outside of the box (which that phase is un-creative).




Creativity matters in education because students
 need to be able to feel like they can solve problems. Without students being able to problem solve they can shut down. Student can figure out different ways to solve problems with creativity and if creativity is increased throughout the curriculum then students would benefit greatly.








There is a gap in students creativity now because schools are focused on test and test scores. If schools relied on projects or problems solving to measure
learning then the students could increase their creativity.