GPS

So.....today we tracked a hidden "something" via GPS. Even the rain couldn't/wouldn't dampen (pardon the pun) our spirits! We found what we were looking for thanks to Dr. Meiers and her reliable GPS device. I spend the entire time trying to find an app I could download onto my phone so I could do some navigating. But, noooooo.....wouldn't do it. I did have a little deja vu. It was a day much like today -- rainy and muddy on a downhill slope -- that caused me to destroy my ankle. That made me quite nervous.

Still, it was loads of fun. And, I'm no longer a MUGGLE!!!! Woooo hoooo. I can't wait til I start searching for more hidden "treasures". My daughter has a phone that should be capable of GPS latitude and longitude coordinates. Think I may bring her into the fold.

Thanks to Dr. Meier for all the WONDERFUL ideas of how to make Social Studies (and all it's parts) fun!!!!

Blockborough Box City Lessons

This week's class was held online. Felt kinda funny not having Dr. Meier in the classroom to get us up and moving and doing something fun, but it was also a nice change to finish classes a little earlier than usual to get home to prepare dinner and eat before 7 p.m.!

The question posted by Dr. Meier was a good one. What to do with a Box City in our own classrooms. I think the possibilities are nearly limitless. We would only be limited by our own imaginations. (And of course the level of our students.)

But, there were some GREAT ideas posted by my fellow classmates. I really look forward to using this idea in my own classroom! It will be soooo much fun to use this model for teaching about community, history, mapping, and all manner of things. Math can be incorporated. Language Arts can be incorporated. Science can be incorporated. Gosh....like I said, limitless!!!!

The Big City

Building our make-believe city was so much fun. What a wonderful way to get the kids excited about maps!

The names of our streets are so creative. And the buildings are really neat. It's gonna be so much fun adding to and changing our little "Blockborough".

What a bunch of great people I'm in class with!

Lights! Camera! Action!

Today's class was quite interesting. It was really a lot of fun. I love doing a bit of "acting" (reading from a pretyped script). It was great fun doing it with such an awesome group of people too.

What a way to remember boring history! I mean, if my high school teachers (or any other grades) had made learning that interactive and that much fun...why I'd have all manner of random information floating around in my head!

I now know Samuel Adams was more than just a beer maker! lol

Speaking of history; did you know that on today's date in:

1957: "Leave It To Beaver" debuted on CBS. (Does anybody besides me remember this show?)
1970: Janis Joplin died of a heroin overdose.

Critical Voice

The article, "Speaking in a Critical Voice" was a very thought-provoking one. I did try to make sense of some of the scenarios, but I really couldn't. I mean...why would you be so cocky as to tell a group of people that the teachers in your state "would do exactly what they were told to because they didn't have a union and therefore wouldn't do anything they weren't supposed to do for fear of losing their jobs." This is the first statement that angered me.

Then, there's the teacher, John, serving as a mentor to pre-service teacher, Jenni. Jenni is energetic and engages her students in hands-on learning -- something John doesn't agree with or like. Even after the students have proven proficiency in the subject matter, John dismisses Jenni from the classroom so that he can "teach" the students the subject matter so they will pass the test! How insulting!!! This is the second scenario which angers me.

I'm not so naive to believe that my teaching style will be totally accepted or appreciated by my fellow colleagues. But, I really want to engage my students in learning in a FUN way. I want them to learn all they can and I believe by making learning hands-on, challenging, and fun I can do just that. I don't want to be told that I have to do some cut-and-dry lesson plans or else!

Soooo.....let my critical voice be strong!

Grrrrrrr

Okay. So I drive to ETSU on the one day I usually have reserved for housework, laundry, yada, yada so that I can scan all my documents into pdf files for another class. I do this so that I'm not one of thousands crowding around a few scanners at the last moment next week. Brilliant, huh???? Well......I wind up scanning my documents (all 27 pages) about four times!!!! Why??? Because the first scan I do in black & white and I can't read half of what I hand wrote -- in pencil. I begin to rewrite all my pages with a pen and say to myself, "self...this is gonna take forEVER to do...gotta be an easier way." So I decide to rescan one page using grayscale settings. Eureka!!! It'll work just fine. So I then put all my pages back into the scanner for rescanning, wait several minutes and I realize that I forgot to tell it to use grayscale! You see, it automatically chooses black & white. I have to tell it EVERY TIME if I want to make a change. Grrrrr......so I rescan yet again ALL 27 PAGES!!! This time I am successful. You can read everything! Yay me.

I then send the documents to my professor via email. Aren't I smart? I decide to go ahead and send my powerpoint as well. Only one portion left to send later. Gosh, I'm brilliant...I'm cookin' now. I then decide to check out a large article sent to me by another professor. After I take a gander at that, I decide I need to check my ETSU email one last time. Oh CRAP...my pdf files have been returned to me. The file is too large. Okay...where is Tami Baker? She's teaching a class, of course. So I ask the guy in the lab for assistance. We study, we work, we look for a solution to the problem so that I don't have to scan ALL 27 PAGES yet again. FINALLY this brilliant young man finds how we can reduce the size of my file! Yay. We reduce the file. I resend via email. I'm done. I'm great. I'm thrilled!

I wake up early this morning (after a late night) and realize...I wasn't supposed to send my pdf files nor my powerpoint to my professor via email. I was supposed to send them via the D2L dropbox!!! Good Lord...deliver me.

I get up, go find my flash drive (thank you Lord for giving me the good sense to save all these changes on my flash drive). I start up the ole laptop. Go to my ETSU email only to find some emails from said professor that basically tell me I've screwed up. Take a look at the syllabus. Why am I sending her things via email? OMG....I'm such a doofus. So I reply to her lovely emails that I had a brain fart yesterday after my scanning and sending difficulties and just realized what I had done and had planned to resend via the D2L dropbox.

Okay......so what do I have on tap for today? FINISH the math remediation plan...FINISH the assessment write up...get together all materials for Mondays first class...finish an article (a long, yet very interesting one) for my first class...review my knapsack paper...read, read, read............

So why am I typing on my blog instead of getting my rear in gear? Well, ya know...when I get frustrated, I HAVE to vent. Since I didn't have anything or anyone to hit, I decided to smack the keyboard around a bit and vent on here.

Well, off to the papers!

Most Excellent Day!

I had the best day today. I spent the my first day in my third grade classroom at Blountville Elementary School. I LOVE my mentor teacher. She is awesome.

I was so blown away.....from the first thing this morning til the end of the day. Some children walked into the room early and just started passing out notebooks and folders. As others came in, they put their lunch boxes, bags, etc. in their proper spots, sat at their desk and began morning work. Without being told!

Even when the class was engaged in discussion or other lessons, the room was always under control. This teacher has the class well trained. They were so great. She only had to call down a student or two a few times during the day. Nothing serious. But, she said something once to the offender and that was it!

She is totally engaged with those kids. And you can tell how much they love her. It was an awesome experience and I can't wait to go back.

I got to help quite a bit too!!! Yay.....

Hope everyone else has a good placement.