Week 4 - Narrative Writing

I remember the night before my first day of school.  I was near the dining table with my mom and older sister anticipating how the next day will be.  I had my school supplies laid out and organized in my school box.  Mom was going through the checklist and naming the items off to make sure we had everything.  The next morning the school bus came to a halt on my long dusty gravel road.  My sister was entering the 8th grade while my three older brothers were in high school.  I was relieved to have my sister along with me to make me feel better about this new journey as a Kindergartner.

I remember my Kindergarten teacher.  She was stern, knowledgeable, and had many years of experience as a teacher.  She was intimidating and even scary to us at times, but her classroom was fun and memorable.  I learned a lot of information from her and my other teachers at High Point.  High Point is a small rural K-8 school.  Besides the Kindergarten class, we had two grades in each classroom.  I was blessed to have multiple memorable and influential teachers that made a positive difference in my life both academically and personally.  They taught me how to read, write, speak, history, science, math, etc.  I enjoyed school during most of these years, until I reached 7th and 8th grade.  I started to lack in my studies during 6th grade due to my increasing interest in my social life and sports.  My grades began to decline during 7th and 8th grade, which was largely due to my 7th and 8th teacher (1 teacher per classroom of 2 grades) that lacked the heart to teach.  This teacher was new to our district and did not put forth the effort into teaching.  I began to fall behind in math because I wasn't able to understand the concept(s) before we moved on to a new one.  Although this teacher was not the best one I had, he taught me how important it is to provide examples, give great instruction, reach different learning styles, and put forth the effort into my teaching.  Otherwise, I enjoyed school and excelled in it until around the 6th - 7th grade.  I loved reading, English, and writing.  I even enjoyed and excelled in math until 7th grade.  I used to be on the math team and would compete in math contests.  Once I started to get behind though, I became disappointed, disengaged, and frustrated.  This is when my interest and grades in school declined.

Unfortunately, this attitude stuck with me throughout my high school years, too.  I no longer enjoyed reading and I especially didn't enjoy math.  I was more focused on my social life and sports during high school and did enough to get by when it came to academics.  In high school, most students want to fit in and/or gets caught up in other social aspects.  I regret not trying and applying myself during my high school years.  I can admit that I've paid the price for that throughout my college years.  I will use my experiences and knowledge to inform my future students how important it is to apply yourself in your studies.  I will also encourage them to speak up and let me know when they are confused or not ready to move on so they don't feel like I did.  I want to be that influential teacher that will be able to reach each student and help them succeed.

I have been enrolled in college since I graduated high school in 2008.  I was not focused or motivated to be in college and my grades reflected that.  I took extended breaks throughout these 10 years because of my grades and did not know what degree I wanted to pursue.  Once I decided that I will pursue my childhood dream of becoming a teacher, I became motivated and determined.  School became my priority and nothing stopped me from excelling in my courses.  I had to overcome many obstacles throughout the years.  It took me 10 years to graduate with a Bachelor's degree, which I just accomplished this last month on April 28th.  I was supposed to student teach in August along with many of my classmates that I've been on this journey with since the beginning.  Due to family situations and financial reasons, I had to make a difficult decision.  The logical answer versus what I want to do are two different things.  I had to make the difficult choice of withdrawing my student teaching request (already placed at the school just not with a teacher yet) and postpone it.  That's why I decided to graduate in April and go post-bac to finish out my student teaching to become certified at a later date.  Unfortunately, many people have to make tough decisions in life that may detour them from their goals for however long and this time it was me.  Although I recently made this decision that truly saddens me, I will not quit.  I will fulfill my dream of becoming a teacher within the next year or so.  I can't wait until the night before I anticipate my first day of school as a teacher.  I'm sure i will have all my supplies laid out and going through my checklist in preparation for the big day just like I did before my first day of Kindergarten decades ago.

http://quotesfact.com/going-away-to-college-quotes/going-away-to-college-quotes-012/

Week 3

We just finished week 3 and now onto week 4.  This past class challenged me to think creatively and on my feet when our professor assigned us to choose one of these random 5 words that I've never heard of and think of a way that I would teach it.  We were given a time limit to figure out the word and come up with an idea.  I chose the word nesh, which means delicate or overly sensitive to cold.  The way that I would teach this word is to have the students write a story about the time that felt nesh.  Then, I would instruct them to share their stories with a partner or the whole class.  I would encourage them to illustrate their story, too.  Young students love to draw and color.  I want them to explore their artistic and creative side as well.  I enjoyed hearing my classmates' ideas to teach their chosen words.  I also enjoyed hearing the definition of these words.  I've never heard of these words before, so this activity was interesting.

Another concept that we discussed was word walls, which I have seen in most classrooms that I have observed in over the past couple years.  The recent teacher that I observed had a word wall on the other side of her bookshelf.  It was colorful and organized.  Her whole classroom is full of color and organized.  The first time I walked in her classroom I just felt at ease.  I loved her environment within the classroom and I know the students did, too.  I will definitely want to incorporate word walls in my classroom as well as a theme.  I aspire to teach Kindergarten or 1st grade and these younger grades tend to enjoy themes.  One of the many themes that I like is camping.  I think it would be fun to add a tent in my classroom with this theme for a reading area.  I found this cute idea for a reading poster that goes along with the camping theme.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/177610779034170494/?utm_campaign=networkstorydigest&e_t=97b65b91234042f68de122cb6434b336&utm_content=177610779034170494&utm_source=31&utm_term=1&utm_medium=2026

Overall, this past class was fun and challenged me to be on my toes so to speak.  There will be many times when teachers need to be "on their toes" and think of an idea for their students within a short time frame.  I believe this was good practice.

Week 2

Ashley Pearson
Ashley
Empathetic, Genuine, Insightful, and Caring
Sister of Matt, Jason, Tony, and Mandy
Lover of God, Family, and Sports
Who feels thankful for my loved ones, proud of my success and persistence, yet confused about my future endeavors.
Who fears losing my mother as well, being diagnosed with cancer, and/or not able to have children of my own one day. 
Who would like to see positive changes in this world, my loved ones who passed away, and the Northern Lights.
Resident of Wardsville, Mo.
Pearson

One of the vocabulary words from chapters 1-3 that stood out to me was special needs students.  Now, this isn't a new topic to me, but I'm not fully confident in my abilities to help my future students with special needs yet.  I aspire to be an effective and influential teacher that truly makes a difference in children's lives.  I think I need to learn more in-depth about different strategies and approaches to help students with special needs though.  The strategies that I have learned from various courses have been helpful, but I still feel like I have so much to learn.  I'm interested in continuously learning new tactics that work best for each special need so I can reach these students and help them succeed.

Another vocabulary word that I learned more about in chapter 3 was emergent literacy, specifically emergent literacy evaluations.  I think it's important to assess the level that each student is reading on instead of assuming each child is on the same level and ready to begin the program that is planned for them.  Instead of assuming the students are ready for the planned program, complete an assessment on each student by working individually with them at the beginning of the school year.  I love this idea and plan to use it in my future classroom.  I want to ensure that I am meeting the needs of my students before moving on past their level.  I think this causes them to be frustrated, discouraged, and/or lose their appreciation of reading.  I don't want any of my students having those feelings.  Overall, I want my students to learn, evolve, and succeed.  It is one of my many responsibilities as a teacher to ensure this happens, so I will do my best.  I believe that an emergent literacy evaluation is one of the many strategies that I can use to help reach this goal.  What are your thoughts on emergent literacy evaluations?  Do you think these evaluation are worth the extra time spent in class? 

The key point that I learned from week 2 is that I still have a lot to learn even though I'm nearing the end of this journey in school.  My teaching journey will be filled with many moments, feelings, success stories, and even failures.  It's important for teachers to continue learning new strategies and techniques to use in the classroom to continue growing as a teacher.  To be an effective teacher, one must continue learning.

https://www.quotemaster.org/lifelong+learn

Week 1

Our first class for this course, Teaching Language Arts, was on Wednesday evening.  I'm looking forward to this course because Language Arts is my favorite subject.  Even though our time in class seemed to fly by, we covered a lot of content about our future assignments.  The first thing that we did was an ice breaker activity.  We talked about books that influenced us as children.  I had to think about this for a couple minutes.  As a child I loved to read.  I remember getting upset if I was not done reading a book yet and the next day was library so I would have to check it back in.  I would stay up late just to finish the book.  I was read to a lot as a toddler, which I think really helped me grow to appreciate reading as a child.  My appreciation for reading helped me excel in English, spelling, writing, and reading classes as well.  As I aged, I began to lose interest in reading.  I am not quite sure what exactly pushed me away from reading, but it may be due to my interest and time spent in sports.  I was actively playing softball, basketball, and track during middle school and high school.  Today, I do not read often.  I have read a handful of books since I was in high school (10 years ago) and that is pretty sad.  I would like to have free time to read though.  If I do have the free time to read material other than news articles or magazines, I read a devotional book that I have on my bedside table.  I learned about the books that my classmates' were influenced by though, which was interesting.  One of my favorite books is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-great-gatsby-francis-scott-fitzgerald/1116668135#/

We discussed the assignments we have due throughout this course, especially our unit plan and Scope and Sequence.  I remember completing a Scope and Sequence during a recent science class, but need to refresh my memory on that task again.  I have used the Missouri Learning Standards on the DESE website several times over the past couple years and just learned of the simpler view, which is referred to as Crosswalks.  That would have been helpful in the past!  Haha!  At least I know now for one of my last courses though, right?  ;)

I included 2 truths and 1 lie below.  Let's see if you can decipher which is true and/or a lie!

2 Truths and 1 Lie

I like peanut butter.

I have never had the flu.

I like my steak well done.