Final day to work on our projects and Harry Potter Dreams Come True

At the beginning of class, we wrote our pot notes and separated into our groups to work on our project. My group is creating a school called Big Top Elementary. This school's theme is focused around a carnival. I created the teacher recruitment letter that we would send out to all potential teachers. At the end of the class, we were sorted into houses based off of The Harry Potter series. Since I was a child, I have always wanted to be in Gryffindor. Unfortunately, I was placed in Hufflepuff. The activity was a lot of fun and brought us together as a class.

Projects

Today we worked on our projects the entire class - after we did pot notes of course. I had to work by myself because Katie was absent, and William doesn't do anything. I worked on the schedules for the  students that attend our school, among several other things. Our project is coming along, and I am excited to present it to the class.

Project Day

Today we began class with SSR and pot notes. After that, we continued to work on our elementary school projects. Some of the requirements for the project are: a teacher recruitment letter, a name for the school, and motto. We also have to finish making a our schedules for each grade level, find a mascot, and draw the layout of the school. We even have to do the smallest details such as school colors, hours the school is open, and when we will open the school. I am enjoying this project.

 

 

A visit from Dr. West

Today in Teacher Cadet, Dr. Tracey West came from Columbia College to talk to us about Autism. Luckily, Mrs. Sutusky let us do Pot Notes first - that is my favorite part of the day. Dr. West first read a book about Autism and explained the meaning behind it. The book was about a little boy named Louis who had different characteristics than other students. After discussing the book about Louis, she presented a PowerPoint on Autism. The best part was she explained her own connection with Autism because she has two twin nephews and one has Autism while the other has Asberger Syndrome. I enjoyed that she added  a "real world" connection in her lesson. Mrs. Sutusky always makes a point that we should have real world connections with our students. Then, she presented us with gifts from Columbia College and left us all with a pamphlet about college. Dr. West gave us these awesome purple cups that were filled with candy. We finished the class with watching videos about Autism on YouTube. I can't wait for Dr. West to come back!

Elementary School Assignment

We began class with our usual SSR and pot notes. For some reason, we did not have a journal. I eventually figured it out because people wanted to share their homework assignment. Everyone shared their homework "My Personal Growth" with the class. This assignment included several of our parent's memories of us as children. We also went over our newest project: creating an elementary school. Because this is a large project, Mrs. Sutusky broke us into groups. The project allows you to be in power of creating the school however you want, such as if you want a public or a private school, one built for sports or one meant for exceptionally gifted children. I am extremely excited to continue working on this project.

Developement

We started our day with a journal about what we value most in a student. After we finished with pot notes, we started notes on the different styles of developments: physical, cognitive, social, and moral. I never realized there was so much to developing - I just thought we grew up! After the lengthy PowerPoint, we completed several activities to try and identify all the development styles.

Research Papers

Today in Teacher Cadet, we started out by first writing our journals. Then we wrote each other pot notes. After that, we moved to the library so we could work on our special education research papers. We got to use the books and resources in the library. We also got to work on our Forrest Gump reflection papers.

Research Paper

After ten minutes of SSR, we began our morning with the ending of Forest Gump. After a few tears and sniffles, it was over. Afterwards, we had a discussion about the movie. As a class I believe we thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Some students had even never seen this number one movie of all time. However, for most of us this was only one of the several times we've watched the film. This was followed by instructions, on our assignment for the movie. For the remainder of class we worked on our research paper which is solely based on Special Ed. 

Columbia College

After SSR, we continued watching Forrest Gump. We didn't get to watch much of the film because the Teacher Cadet partner, Amy, came from Columbia College. She instantly grabbed our attention by sharing her detailed education background. Amy shared with us a story about an important person in her life (the only principal she ever worked for) who helped make her who she is today. She expressed that we will eventually have that same impact on the students we teach during our placement. The best part was - she brought us sausage biscuits and sweet tea! Mrs. Sutusky also brought us donuts, milk, and orange juice. We had our own breakfast buffet in first block. Following breakfast, Amy shared some good information about Columbia College. Even thought it is an all female school, men can get their masters from Columbia College. Amy did the coolest thing ever - she read two books to the class. No wonder she was a Teacher of the Year - she is an awesome reader. She read "Dream Big Little Pig," which she and Tracy donated to our classroom, and "You are Special" by Max Lucado. We truly enjoyed the visit from Amy.

Forrest Gump

Today after SSR and Pot Notes, we continued watching Forrest Gump. The objective of watching this film is to identify what special needs the main character, Forrest Gump, has. I have seen this  movie multiple times, but I have never thought about the main character having special needs. I always knew something was wrong with Forrest, but I never thought twice about it. Once I understood all the important elements and characteristics of students with special needs, I was able to instantly interpret what special needs Forrest has - and there isn't just one. Jenny also has a Barrier to Learning. Mrs. Sutusky said we are not supposed to talk about what we think they have because she wants us to use our own critical thinking skills and not use someone else's idea. Saying that, I guess I can't say what special needs I think Forrest has.......

Special Ed Test

Today we studied during SSR for our special education test. I was extremely thankful for the extra time to study because I had a feeling this test was going to be hard. Then we had a few minutes of class time to study and ask any questions before we took our test. We spent the majority of class testing. As we individually finished our tests, we took the online Teacher Cadet survey. We finally got to write pot notes and completed our daily journal assignment. After much deliberation about what special education movie to watch, we began watching Forest Gump. This is the first movie we have got to watch in Teacher Cadet. I had Mrs. Sutsuky for English IV, and she is not a fan of watching movies but when she actually lets us - there is a point...and usually an assignment. We have to identify Forrest Gump's special needs throughout the movie. I am excited to watch Forrest Gump because I have never actually seen it.

Study Guides

Today in Teacher Cadet, we worked on our special education study guides. We went to the library to work because Mrs. Sutusky had a meeting to attend. Quietly and diligently, we worked. We had to use our notes and handouts we have received to fill out the study guide. This went really well considering that we have so many notes on special education. The most difficult thing for me on our study guide is the scenarios. There are so many disabilities and laws that it is hard to identify which is which. Our test is on Monday, and I'm sure we will all do well.

Barriers to Learning Presentations

On September 12th, 2013 we presented PowerPoints after SSR and completing our pot notes. The PowerPoints were on barriers to learning. They included abuse/neglect, bullying, death dying and grief, depression and suicide, eating disorders and substance abuse, latchkey and sleep deprivation, poverty, and teen pregnancy. The importance of our knowledge of these barriers are so that we will know how to notice these students in school and understand how to react. This took all but fifteen minutes of the class, so we worked on our Special Education Study Guide sheets for our test Monday.

Barriers to Learning

On Wednesday, we started the class with our journal and wrote pot notes to all of the other cadets. Next, we got into our groups and finished our Barriers to Learning projects. Breanna and I focused on latchkey children and adolescent sleep depravation. Other groups concentrated on issues such as depression, teen pregnancy, abuse and neglect, and poverty. I think this project helped us understand the different things that students struggle with and the things that we will have to adjust to when we begin our placement.

Learning Barriers

Today in Teacher Cadet class we came in and read, then did our pot notes. After doing our pot notes we talked about learning barriers, which keep children from learning. Some of the learning barriers we discussed were abuse and neglect, bullying, death, depression and suicide, eating disorders, sleeping problems, poverty, and pregnancy. After reviewing the barriers we were each assigned a partner and a barrier to work on. We had to discuss the barrier with our partners then create a slide show to present on it. My barrier that I was assigned was abuse and neglect. I read all the symptoms of abusive parents and the symptoms of children who were getting abused. Reading that was heart breaking and it opened my eyes to look for those things. I am excited to present these on Thursday!

Reviewing Special Needs

Today we started the class by doing our journals. After our journals we did "pot notes." We do both of these daily. After finishing with journals and pot notes, we began to review our notes on special education. We reviewed these by going over a worksheet that had examples of special needs students. After reviewing our answers we watched some videos. The videos explained the difference in a normal student learning and a learning disability student. It was an eye opener to see how a student with a learning disability learns things. After we watched the videos and discussed them, we watched a clip from "mean girls" that talked about labeling. Then we all got a "label" without us knowing what our label was. It was very hard to sit there and let people basically pick on me. I didn't know why people were picking on me and it was very hard. This was a good way to open my eyes about how I treat other people.

Reading Trip to Mt. Pisgah

Today in Teacher Cadet we went to Mt. Pisgah. For the past two weeks we've been creating our own children books. Today we took out finished books and went to Mt. Pisgah to read to the little kids. My group went to Mrs. Gainey's class, which is a kindergarten class. We got to interact with them for a little bit and then read out story, Toby and the Tunnel to them. Our story was about how Toby, the dog was afraid to go through a tunnel. At the end of the story he faced his fears, went in the tunnel, and won the dog show.  After we read the story to them, we gave them a activity to do. They had to draw their biggest fear. These kids had big imaginations. Their fears ranged from "devil-dogs" to zombies! Once they were finish drawing they went through a tunnel that I brought from home. This represented that they were not afraid of their fears, just like Toby in the story.  Overall today I had a blast, it was sad to leave though. I made two new friends today too!  Before I went to the kindergarten class today I wanted to teach 1st grade. Now I'm leaning more on kindergarten. I can't wait for my placement!