Ideas for next Classroom visit

I really enjoyed my day at Hehnly school. The teacher I was visiting with had some suggestions I wanted to share with everyone. She said that I should bring my camera next time and take pictures of any bulletin boards that I liked so I'd have ideas for when I have my own classroom one day. She also suggested starting a folder and making copies of any handouts that I liked or make copies of any activities that I thought would work well in the classroom. She showed me the Back to School Folder that she gave the parents and said I could make copies of it if I wanted to. Did anyone else get any good tips on things to do next time we visit or on things to look for to help us out with our own classrooms one day?

Housekeeping

Hi Everyone!
I take it you all survived your first day back in elementary school? Can't wait to hear all about it...which leads me to clarify some confusion as to how you're to send me your assignments.

Each field report & reflection (two separate documents) are due exactly one week after your visit, regardless if we meet or you're in the field and the easiest is for you to email them to me as attachments. IT'S IMPORTANT THAT YOU SEND THESE REPORTS & REFLECTION ON MS WORD ONLY. ALSO, BE SURE TO SAVE THEM FOR POSSIBLE FUTURE USE.

Please name your assignments like this: YOUR LAST NAME, Field Report 1. (Then 2, and 3, and 4, etc...)
Example: Tomich,Field Report 1. Tomich, Reflection 1. In the body of your document please include the date of your visit.

Again: your email may bounce back, saying my mailbox is full (I'll try to free up some space). Don't worry--I have a back-up mailbox (and you should too since we don't have too much memory in Kean email).

Questions on field report/ journal

Wow today was such an amazing experience! :0)I was about to sit down and write my journal entry when I realized I was not sure what the journal/ field report procedure is. Do we put the information on the blog, or do we email it right to the Prof. Tomich?
I also know we are not to include teacher/ student names in our field reports- is this also the case with the journal entries?

I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did. Have a great weekend.

First Field Visit

Hope everyones first field visit goes well. Have fun and don't be nervous, even though I know I am !!

It's time to comment on your speaking and writing skills

Suggestion: Make it a point to review the "oral" and "written" rubrics you have in your folders. With your first visit coming up, it's important for you to be conscious of the way you communicate to the personnel and students in your school. (I want you to make a good impression--who knows--it may help you get a job in the near future!)

Never hand anything in that hasn't been proofread. If you don't trust yourself to catch your own errors, make an arrangement with a classmate or friend to trade papers and proofread for each other. (It's insulting to receive student papers that haven't been proofread).

Check this list of commonly misspelled words:

http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/misspelled.html

Please know the difference between "their, they're and there," and use the right one.

We converse--it hasn't officially evolved into conversate yet...

Know when to use "I" or "me" (I'll give you a great tip in class next time if you remind me).

Remember: First impressions are important!

Testing....what do you think about this idea?

Just wanted to see what everyone thought about this idea regarding testing.......

I thought of Lynn's presentation this morning as I was sitting in my Disabled Persons in American Society class. This class basically goes over in depth different learning disabilities. Today in particular my professor started talking about how testing really screws around with a students mind and how she understands the pressure that students go through even to the point that she told us today that all of our tests including our midterm and final are all take home tests. Right when she said this I was a little surprised becaue that is not something you hear very often especially in college but she had really good reasoning behind her choice. She started to tell us how so many students will just memorize either a few nights before the upcoming test or even cram the night before and then the second we hand in our test, it is completely forgotten. Then theres the student that will study so much but when the test is put in front of them everything is competley forgotten. So how much is testing really helping us?

My professor went on to explain how by letting us take home all of our tests she has a better chance of us actually learning the information, plus it takes off a lot of pressure knowing that we do not have to study crazy and then possibly have an anxiety attack when it comes time to take the actual test.

I just thought this was a little interesting and made me think of Lynn's presentation that she gave on Friday in refrence to Standarized Testing. So the question is....are take home tests better or worse for the students?

Bill Gates has his own ideas about testing...

Hi Everybody!
Saw this in yesterday's Parade...please read it and tell us what you think:

http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2007/edition_09-23-2007/Intelligence_Report

Updated Syllabus/Due Dates

Essay: My Philosophy of Education 20%
Six Field Reports/Reflective Journals 30%
Class Participation/Blog/Presentation 30%
Teacher Work Sample (TWS) 20%

Due Dates (All assignments can either be handed in or e-mailed)

TWS- November 30th
Essay- November 9th
Six Field Reports- are due one week after class visit
Dates: Oct. 5,12,26
Nov. 9
Dec. 7,14

Information for Contextual Factors--Not too early for you to start looking at these factors during your first school visit

The Teaching Performance Center (TPC-W110) has an excellent website and I recommend that you become familiar with it. Here's the URL: http://www.kean.edu/~tpc/

You'll find everything you need to know about all phases of your fieldwork, Teacher Work Sample (TWS), Educational Portfolio, the PDS program, various seminars, and much more.

Once you get to the home page, look at "Handbooks" on the left, and click on “Teacher Work Sample Portfolio” and "The Guide to Compiling a Teacher Work Sample Portfolio" can be found here. I haven't added these links to this posting because you may want to browse around the site rather than go directly to this specific information. It will benefit you to access and take your time reading much of this on your own. Definitely bookmark the tpc website for future reference.

All of the information you need, including the rubric by which your paper will be evaluated, can be found here. In addition, I'll bring a sample contextual factors paper to our next class meeting for you to look at and discuss.

In addition, here's the link to the video we saw in class yesterday, just in case you wanted to look at it again: http://kutv.kean.edu/KU3_Sneak_Preview.html

That's it for now. Enjoy your weekend!

More then free apples for teachers:0)

http://elmers.discoveryeducation.com/site/index.cfm

Receive a free science fair kit and other resources from Elmer’s and Discovery Education. Loaded with great ideas and organizational tips, the FREE “Science Fair Central” kit and DVD will help your middle and elementary school students excel while making the process less stressful for students, parents and you!

My friend emailed me this site- it has free downloads and free teacher workshops. I signed up for the free science fair kit (If they won't send it to me I requested they send it to our program)

Check it out if you have some free time.

Standardized Testing & Classroom Management

We had two really informative presentations this morning. Does anyone want to comment or ask a question regarding either presentation?

Second Life Library instruction

Hi there!

This is Craig Anderson, librarian extraordinaire. (the guy in the hat) Professor Tomich gave me access to this group so that I could get an idea of what you guys are presenting in your class.

I'm going to be giving a demonstration in the library in a few weeks about the Second Life online virtual environment. (and I was reasonably certain that I was giving this demonstration on the 12th, but now I see it listed here as being on the 15th. Please advise!) So I was just curious to know if any of you have had the chance to check out Second Life, or if any of you are already familiar with it.

Feel free to e-mail me with your thoughts and/or experiences with this virtual reality platform, if you've had the chance to experience it. You can respond to me here, or e-mail me at cjanders@kean.edu. For those of you already ON Second Life, I am Draconius Merlin there, and usually can be found hanging around the Info Island reference area. :)

See you in a few weeks! :)

School Visit Info

For all three schools: You are to find parking on the street; please do not park in the school parking lots--there just aren't enough spaces for you. Be aware of street cleaning/alternate side of the street parking signs!

In Roselle you're to be there at 8:30am and stay until the 3:10pm. Students are dismissed at 2:55pm, but teachers stay 15 minutes beyond that. It's a 40 minute lunch, so chances are you won't have time to leave the building to buy & eat lunch out...(that doesn't mean you can't leave the building at all)

In Clark you're expected to report at 8am and stay until 3pm. Here you have a 50 minute lunch and you can ask for some nearby lunch places if you like.

Your lunch time is the same as the teacher and class your observing. You may or may not have the same lunch period as your classmates. In any case, I highly recommend that you brown bag it at least for your first observation--just to be sure that you are covered. You can check out the cafeteria and decide what to do for your second visit.

So: street parking only, brown bag it at least for the first observation, and be sure to be prompt. Please use this forum for any questions that come up prior to your first visit, and also to share info and tips you may have after your first visit!

Grading

Since I forgot to bring this up during the last class, let's begin the discussion here. The six elements you'll be graded on for this course are the following:

1. Essay "My Philosophy of Education." Be sure to consult the rubric you were given.
2. Reflections on Readings...(handouts and web pages from fellow students and me)
3. Class Participation...this includes the Blog postings/comments (consult rubric).
4. Six Field Reports (consult rubric).
5. TWS element: Contextual Factors
6. Reflective Journal

Please give this some thought prior to our class on Friday and we will spend a little time discussing and finalizing this before student presentations.

See you on Friday!

Faculty may be armed

Since we talked about attacks on teachers last week I had to do a little research to see if there are any laws allowing teachers to practice self defense if needed.

I did not find anything on that yet-but I had to share the below links with you. It is a crazy/sick world out there! I am very glad I live in NJ!

Excerpt from link one:

"It is unlikely that many teachers would participate if the laws were changed to allow them to defend themselves and their students. Fortunately, this concept does not depend on a high participation rate for success. Simply changing the policy from "this school is a gun free zone" to "faculty may be armed" would immediately reduce the chances of a violent attack.

http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0301armteachers.htm

Excerpt from link two:

Currently, 23 states allow corporal punishment. In six states, teachers are immune from liability for hitting students. Five of those states – Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia – rank in the top 6 of those states with the most number of students hit during the 1997-1998 school year. Texas ranks #1, with 81,373 children hit that year. (Wyoming also has an immunity law).

http://www.centerjd.org/private/mythbuster/MB_school_teacher_immunity.htm

Great article in the Times today about a school in Newark

Hi everyone. I'll be presenting on Standardized Testing on Friday and I just found a great article on how one school who is in danger of failing to meet the standards of No Child Left Behind is trying to turn things around. It's Newton Street School in Newark. There is also a good link to see what schools are in danger of not meeting the standards and how many years they have been in danger. The article is below

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/16rcover.html?_r=1&ref=nyregionspecial2&oref=slogin.

If you want to see what schools are in danger click below:

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20070916_NJGRAPHIC.html

Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Friday.

Please volunteer to present on 9/21

So far we have Lynn presenting on Standardized Tests...it would be great if two more of you would volunteer to present next Friday as well. The first two students to comment on this posting to volunteer will be able to present. Please let us know that you will, and what you plan to talk to us about.
Thanks.

Oct 12th

Please make a note: Christine's "Nature of Knowledge" will be the only presentation on Oct 12th--after that (at 10:15 or 10:30am) we're going over to the library to meet with Craig Anderson (Room 141) for an overview of Secondlife.com

No Child Left Behind

Kari and I will be presenting this Friday on the controversial issue of the No Child Left Behind Act. Seeing that we are all planning to be teachers, this law affects all of us no matter what grade you are planning on teaching.

Before class on Friday please look at the following websites, that way you have a general knowledge of the topic before hand

http://www.swexpress.com/website/newpages5.nsf/pages/nclb-facts
This website gives the top ten things every educator should know about the No Child Left Behind Act.

www.nochildleft.com

www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml

www.newjerseyunited.org/education/nclb.asp

Thanks in advance.....see you in class on Friday

***Take the Multiple Intelligence Test Online***Also a great site to use for your projects :0)

I will be presenting on Dr. Gardner with Dorese this Friday. Dorese will be specifically explaining some of the intelligence types after I provide some of the background information.

I thought it might be fun to have the class take the multiple intelligence test online prior to the presentation. (I will also have a printed copy to pass out- but the results are much quicker when done online)Please go to http://www.mitest.com/o7inte~1.htm and take the test. I have reviewed several online versions and this seems to be the most comprehensive free test available.

Also here is some vocabulary that will be critical to understanding the presentation fully:These definitions were taken from: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/multipleintelligences/***Discovery learning was a great resource for my project-please check out Discovery Learning and see if it can help you with yours.

Intelligence Definition: The capacity to learn, reason, and understand and the demonstration of such capacity

Howard Gardner’s definitions of intelligence take specific abilities into account.

Interpersonal Definition: Existing or happening between persons; of or pertaining to a relationship between persons. Professions such as teaching, counseling, and sales attract people with strong interpersonal abilities

Kinesthetic Definition: Pertaining to the position and movement of the body through stimulation of the nerves in muscles, joints, and tendons

Teachers may use kinesthetic activities that allow students to manipulate materials. The picture above cleary illustrates my lack of Kinesthetic Intelligence

Spatial Definition: Of, relating to, or occurring in space

Tests asking students to imagine how a flat piece of cardboard would look folded into a box assess spatial relations abilities.

Talent Definition: A natural ability or aptitude Gardner asks whether Leonardo DaVinci’s painting ability is a talent or intelligence.

See you on Friday!

Housekeeping

Just want to let you know that I've invited everyone who's emailed me...if you didn't get an email from me (an auto-invite-type-thing) then please email me again and I'll invite you again...(be sure to check at your new gmail account!)

Just wanted to be sure you all realize that you don't only have "permission" to make comments--please don't hesitate to post...and especially if your presentation is coming up--you may want to prepare your classmates by asking them to read, etc.

(This is in lieu of a reply to each of your emails to me...)

YOU

Ode Magazine : Dude, where's your community?

Ode Magazine : Dude, where's your community?