Animoto

A video of all of my memories over the 2015-2016 year!

Book Study, Part 1- The Smartest Kids in the World

Book Study Blog

I like this book so far, I'm not very much of a reader, but it is pretty interesting so far. I think reading this book is almost a good second hand experience. Especially, reading about how other countries' education systems work. I believe that I relate the most to Eric, who traveled to South Korea. Eric also found that math instruction in South Korea was very cool and much more interesting than he found in his math classes back home. And he also found the grit of the Korean kids to be truly impressive. I think math is so interesting and the way Eric thought it was so impressive and interesting about how Koreans learned and were taught is exactly what I would think about it. Especially seeing how quickly they maintain the knowledge of everything that they are taught. In my opinion, each of the schools in the three countries are very interesting in the way that they teach the students and how the students learn. It is pretty cool how each of them are different in their own way. I think South Korea's education system would be best for the U.S. because I think it would make our education levels higher and help students with testing and learning in general.

Class Tech Tools

This is the LiveBinder that contains all of the resources in class that we learned about that could be useful in the classroom. 

My web tool/app: Symbaloo

My web web tool/app is Symbaloo

How to Create a Symbaloo Webmix

SymbalooEDU is a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) tool that allows you to organize websites and resources in one place for you and your students. You can create webmixes, which are pages you can create to organize your web content and resources. Each resource is created in the form of a tile, making Symbaloo quick and easy to use. Follow this step-by-step guide to create your own webmix! 

1. Go to http://edu.symbaloo.com/. Click on Sign Up Free, create your account, then click on Get started with your webmix. According to Symbaloo's Terms and Conditions, if you are below the age of 16, then parent permission is required.
2. Symbaloo automatically adds webmixes that they think will be helpful to you. They are easy to delete if you don’t want them, but check out the resources they offer first (some are pretty good).
3. To delete a webmix that you don’t want, click on the Delete webmix tab and a dialog box will pop up that asks you if you are sure you want to delete it. Some Symbaloo pages will have a Remove tab – follow the same steps.
4. Symbaloo gives you the option of adding shared webmixes to your page. To do this, click on Add a webmix and do a search (ex. Teacher resources, Web 2.0, Reading, etc.).
5. Select a webmix from the list. If you find one that you like and will reference often, click on Add this page and it will appear on your Symbaloo page as a new tab.
6. To create a new blank webmix, click on the blue plus sign to the right of the webmix tabs and a blank webmix titled new Desktop! will appear.
7. Webmixes are meant to be personalized. Start by renaming your webmix. To do this, click on the Edit webmix button, click on the Rename webmix button, and rename it.
8. Another way you can personalize your webmix is to change the wallpaper. Click on Change wallpaper and either choose from the Symbaloo presets or upload your own photo or background.
9. Another way you can edit your webmix is to add extra space for tiles. To do this, click on the arrows that are to the left, right, and bottom of the tiles to expand one row over or down. This is helpful as the amount of tiles you create expands.
10. When you are finished editing your webmix, click on Done editing.
11. Now it’s time to add your tiles. Tiles can be created two ways. The first way (a) is if you are adding a public tile (a tile that has already been created and shared on Symbaloo). The other way (b) you can create a tile is if you want to add a tile that hasn’t been created (or shared) yet.
12. To add a tile to your webmix, click on one of the blank tiles and type in the title of a website that you would want to share with your students (wikispaces, youtube, etc.). As you type, public tiles will appear. Click on the correct tile and it will appear in your webmix. If no tiles exist for the website you want to link to, click on click here to create your own tile. A dialog box will pop up. Type or paste in the URL, give it a name, choose an icon, and click on Add tile to webmix. Then, click on the tile to add it to your webmix.
13. Tiles can be personalized as well. To do this, right click on a tile and select Edit.
14. You can change several things to meet your needs. Display the name on the tile, change the picture on the tile, and change the tile color.
15. You can also copy and move tiles from one webmix to another. To do this, right click on the tile you want to copy or move > select Copy/Move and a dialog box will come up. Select the webmix you want to copy or move the tile to and specify whether you want to permanently move the tile or if you want to make a copy of it then select Move tile.
16. Tiles don’t just have to be links to websites, they can be links to embedded files as well (ex. YouTube). To do this, find a YouTube video, click Share (right under the video) and copy the embed code.
17. Then, in Symbaloo, click on an empty tile, click on click here to create your own tile, select Embedded from the drop down menu, paste the embed code into the box where you put the web address, title it, choose your icon, tile color, etc. and add the tile to your webmix. When you or anyone else clicks on the tile, it will open up the video in Symbaloo!
18. One of the best things about Symbaloo is that you can share your webmixes with others. To do this, click on Share, then you can either share it with the public, or more importantly with friends, colleagues, and students.
19. When you choose to share it with friends, Symbaloo gives you two options. Either copy the link and email it to whoever you want, or you can post it on your Toolbox Pro website using the embed code.
20. To embed your Symbaloo in your TBPro website, copy the embed code it gives you, then go into your TBPro account, open up the webpage you want to place it on, click on the HTML button, paste the embed code and then you’re done! You just need to resize it by clicking on it and dragging in the corners. 

Extra helpful things:

• Here is a video tutorial. There are 2 helpful videos on that website.
• There is also a mobile app so Symbaloo can go where you go. 
• My example of Symbaloo

Ways to use Symbaloo in the classroom:

1. You can use Symbaloo to share classroom websites with your students and parents. For example, middle school or high school teachers can create a Symbaloo to share information about homework, projects, or information on anything to the students. For parents, teachers can create a Symbaloo to share classroom schedules, activities, calenders, etc. On my Symbaloo I have a link to my field site teacher's website.
2. You can customize your lesson plans with Symbaloo. You can make a webmix for every lesson you teach to stay organized and it helps you have a plan. Here is a social studies lesson plan webmix.
3. You can use Symbaloo to make digital portfolios for your students. For high schoolers, each tile on your webmix can be a link to your students' portfolios. Click here for an example.

I think Symbaloo could be helpful and productive in any subject. It helps you stay organized and it's all in one place.

Perot Museum Field Trip

PEROT MUSEUM FIELD TRIP

    

This Video features pictures and videos of my field trip with my teaching and education program. It includes photos of my favorite exhibits as well as me interacting with some of the objects in the   exhibits. It will also include a few pictures of my class and my chaperoned group. As you will see it was a very fun trip. Enjoy! 

Creativity Counts!

I encourage creativity in my kindergarten class room because I love to be creative. When the students are given the instruction to draw a picture about a certain subject they tend to ask me and Ms. Filis what they should write. Instead of really telling them what exactly to draw and write about, I ask them questions that may spark a creative idea for them. I believe that even asking a small question to spark a small idea of being creative definitely helps develop a student's creativity.
Creativity is being able to use your imagination and being able to act outside of the box. Being creative also may mean that you have no restrictions. Creativity matters in education because it sparks an imagination. Having an imagination helps in the future to develop a broad mind, instead of growing up narrow-minded. Some students, when given an assignment, tend to ask their teacher what they should write and how many sentences there has to be or what colors should be used.
I have been in a situation where I felt as if my teacher didn't let me be creative. We were given an essay to write and we were supposed to write a story about anything but she still gave us limitations on what to put in the story and how long/short it had to be. Which made it extremely difficult to write a good story and to use my creativity to make my story a story from my imagination. I've had a teacher that let me be creative, but not as creative as possible. I was still given some limitations.
To fix the problems described by Sir Ken Robinson is to focus on students and how creative they really can be. For example, maybe on the first day of school give an assignment where the objective is to be as creative as possible! I believe that focusing on the students and how their minds work is a definite way to fix those problems.

Fold It!

FOLD IT!

Seasons Foldable

Earth and space. The student knows that there are recognizable patterns in the natural world and among objects in the sky. The student is expected to: 

(A)  observe and describe weather changes from day to day and over seasons 

Materials Needed:

• Paper
• Colors (markers or crayons)
• season stickers

Steps:

1. Take the paper and fold it in half
2. Then take each side and fold it until the end of the paper touches the center crease
3. Then from there fold it in half (hamburger style)
4. Open it up
5. Cut where the fold lines are
6. You should have flaps
7. On the tops (outside) of the flaps write the seasons. One season per flap.
8. On the inside of the flaps, draw pictures that best represent the season that is on the outside if that flap
9. Use the markers or crayons to color the picture representations
10. You can use the season stickers to place on the outside of the flaps to decorate the words of the seasons

The foldable should help the students determine the different seasons and what each season typically looks like. For example, usually snow is a good representation of winter and leaves are a good representation of fall.

Semester Exam

Built For Learning

An ideal learning environment for me would be somewhere I can move around freely when I am working on a project. Also, having tables big enough for me to spread some of my papers or materials on to stay organized. I like to have a schedule in my classroom but I also like to have those days where there isn't a schedule and you just focus on doing things for me. When these characteristics are taken in and put into a classroom for students it helps a lot of the students that have these learning styles. It is always good to pay attention to your students and what makes it easy for them to learn. You have to create an environment in which makes the students wants to learn. In the Ted Talk with Will Richardson he introduces a quote from Seymour Sarason "Productive learning is where the process engenders and enforces wanting to learn more. Absent wanting to learn, the learning context is unproductive." Without the students wanting to learn it adds another difficulty to teaching. I think classes shouldn't last longer than an hour. After a while and after sitting down and listening to the same thing for more than an hour students get bored and start to think about other things rather than listening to who is speaking. If a class is longer than hour then maybe bring opportunities to not sit for an hour. For example, do activities in between the lecture or even do a lecture for half of the class and then finish class with an activity or game, depending on the class/age group. I would maybe take surveys every 3 weeks from the students to see what they like and don't like it the classroom. For their progress in the class and on the material I would maybe create an activity, worksheet or even a test to see where they all stand.

Learning Activity

The subject I am basing my activity on is reading and comprehension for kindergarteners. Students have to know how to use a flexible range of metacognitive reading skills in both assigned and independent reading to understand an author’s message. Also, students will have to know how to continue to apply earlier standards with greater depth in increasingly more complex texts as they become self-directed, critical readers. Their TEKS is that they need to be able to make inferences based on the cover, title, illustrations, and plot. They need to be able to retell or act out important events in stories and make connections to their own experiences, ideas in other texts, and to the larger community and discuss the textual evidence.

My activity I am making is called Story Ball.
The materials you will need:

• beach ball
• permanent marker
• first grade level book (or a story from your child's reading textbook)
• pencil
• lined paper             

To make the activity:

1. Using the marker, grab the beach ball and write one of the following in each of the colored sections of the ball: "Setting?" "Favorite Part?" "What does this remind you of?" "Beginning?" "End?" and "Sight Words?"
2. Once the ball is marked up play a game of catch, inside or outside (whatever suits your class). In the game of Story Ball, each time you toss your child the ball, he/she must answer the question written on the color which lands under his right hand. Where did the story take place? What happened in the beginning and in the end? What was his/her favorite part? Toss the ball back and forth, from student to student—the quicker, the better, since that makes answering in time more fun and silly. If your child can’t recall an event from the story give him/her some clues.
3. The game continues until all the questions have been answered. If you’d like to extend the activity, ask your child to write down what he’s said aloud on paper, then illustrate it. This is another great way to help him recall the events of a story and understand what he’s read.
   

Find the Treasure in Teaching

Ahoy! The criteria I used for my teacher created materials was the alphabet for kindergartners. I used the experiences in my field site classroom to make my decision about this creation. I saw that the students were working on lower and upper case letters of the alphabet. So, I decided to create something that could help them determine which is which. I didn't really encounter much difficulties other than just keeping everything organized and in order. It did take up a lot of my time, but it was worth it. The best thing about my created material was making it. It was fun to make and see it come out better than I thought it would. Going back and doing it all over again, since I used a metal board so it would be magnetic for the magnetic letters I created, I would change putting magnets on the board and just use the magnetism the board already contained instead of "double magnetizing." I would also have entered into the region competition and competed my teacher created materials. I have gained insight into how easy it can be to create something to help your students learn with a cool activity and how making it fun can be easy. I hope to be able to use this in my field site classroom and later on when I become a kindergarten teacher. I also hope that it becomes helpful to the students and helps them know the alphabet and the difference between lower and upper case letters. The TCU field trip was a blast. There were so many different teacher created materials that could be used for learning in a classroom.

My First Day As An Intern

I have been placed in W.A. Porter's kindergarten class with Lauren Filis. She has been teaching for about 3 years. When I went I took my purple and manilla folder. The purple folder had papers that I needed to get signed by Ms. Filis and a paper that she could put her contact information on. When I walked into class Ms. Filis introduced me and I did my introduction that I prepared the week before that had a few of my qualities. After my introduction they had quiet time and we walked to the computer lab where they did assignments based on the 6-weeks curriculum. Then, we walked back to the classroom where they did rug time and read a story about turtles. I was wearing jeans and my teaching and education polo on with my white high top converse with my badge on the left of collar. When I walked in, I was beyond excited. I had excitement in my eyes. After leaving the classroom, I felt happy that I was finally able to experience going to my field site. I can't wait to actually be able to help in the front of the class in front of the students.

This is Lauren Filis

Click here to view explained assignment
Click here to see field site teacher's website

What Do Teachers Make?

"Brianna, as a teacher, what do you make?"

As a teacher, it's not about the money to me. I make a student who didn't know how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide know how by the end of the year. I make things creative and fun for my students so no one is bored. I make my students push themselves so they how to as they get older. My students even make me push myself to be a better teacher. I make my students thrive to be something big and inspiring to the world as my teacher once did for me. I make little Sally feel better, even though she wants to cry because her mom can't sit in class with her everyday. I make my goals based on my students' needs and wants. I make my students happy and excited to come into class. I make my students learn even if they don't want to and not only because they have to but because I want to push them to want  to inspire others like I want to inspire them. So, I don't only make money, but I make futurists, leaders, and inspiration.

Click Here to See Rita's Speech

The Welcome Buzzz!

Here's my Buzzz for today. This blog is going to be all about my interning this year in my Instructional Practicum in Education and Training. I am all about teaching and experiencing new things. Being able to participate with interning in elementary schools excites me. I am all about doing big things to make a difference in children's' life. Hopefully my blog inspires others as well as I blog about my journey and all of my different experience!

"A teacher affects eternity; She can never tell where her influence stops."

-Henry Adams

Click here for Future Educators Association