Sorting Animals

Teaching the day of the week with shortText

Words starting with "CH"

Words starting with "CH"

Toondoo

Social Story For Children with special needs

Animals in Spanish

SPANISH VOCAB QUIZ!

Sharing Lesson

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Slide show lesson on The Four Seasons

James and I exploring APRIL IN PARIS

Rags to Riches!!! HARD beatles quiz

Check out my Beatles quiz :) Beware it's HARD!!! http://www.quia.com/rr/591028.html

My learning Styles

According to the "What's your Learning style?" survey I am...


50% Naturalistic

67% Bodily-Kinesthetic

69% Musical

63% Interpersonal

63% Intrapersonal

42% Visual-Spatial

50% Logical-Mathematical

33% Verbal-Linguistic

I thought the results were actually quite real. My highest intelligence is in the area of music. Growing up I have always been very musical and so had the rest of the people in my family. I also agree with what my lowest ability is. I have always had trouble with English papers, speaking in front of groups (without a script), and have trouble with spelling and grammar.

A few fun things about my mac!!

To move between tabs on your internet browser: press command and the number 1 (if it was the first tab on the left) 2 (if it was the 2nd) and so on and so forth.

To go to the bottom (or top) of the page: Command and down (or up) arrow key

To find a certain word or phrase on your screen: Press command, shift, and the "f" key. Then type in the word at the bottom of the page. It will appear highlighted on your screen.

How I plan to teach versus how I was taught

Looking back I see that my grade school education can be broken up into 3 phases.

PHASE 1 (k-2nd) I spent a great deal of time learning about how school is going to work, how to behave in a classroom setting, how to walk down the corridors, and the sheer basics of reading, writing, and math. A large portion of the day is given to teaching life skills. I spend the majority of my day on the rug, or in group learning settings. I do very little independent work.

PHASE 2 (3rd-5th) My time in school is becoming more informational based, I am beginning to "read to learn" as opposed to "learn to read". This is sort of the transition phase between learning how to learn and learning how to gain information. I spend some time in group learning setting and start to spend more and more time doing independent work. By the end of this phase I am expected to be ready for middle school and then high school.

PHASE 3 (6th-12th) The last half of my free education is dedicated to informational based learning. I am now expected to read a text book and come away with a full understanding of the subject so that I may move on to a harder subject. Little to no life skills are taught. I am getting prepared for college, but I am not getting prepared for the vocational world.

Luckily, I was a student who strove for a college education. I believed that was my next step if I was to be able to survive in this world. Now, what would have happened if I had not had the grades for college, or perhaps I despised school and wanted to go out into the job world. Did my education prepare me for that? I believe not.

I see our school systems become more and more curriculum based and it scares me. It scares me because I know that most students will never; one, remember half of what is being taught in school, and two, never need to use this information in the real world. This is where I plan to be different as a teacher.

Life skills needs to be one of a teachers top priorities. We can not simply expect students to learn on their own we can not expect parents to teach their students these skills, and we can not expect them to make good life choices without the knowledge. As Kindergartners we are taught to share, to say please and thank you, and to respect others but I don't see those skills being carried on into the upper grades. My hope is to incorporate daily living skills, social skills, and general life skills into my classroom. I believe that if these things are taught, we will not only turn out great learners but also caring and thoughtful individuals.