What questions do you have about contextual factors?

Come on now--start thinking about how you're going to craft your contextual factors paper in regard to the class you're visiting...I'd love to see you answer each other's questions here...what contextual factors are you finding in your situation, and what are the implications for planning for  teaching?

This is Thomas Jefferson's kitchen garden in Monticello Virginia...I highly recommend a visit...

Hey Everyone! Sorry I'm responding so late but I am glad to see everyone had a great experience, I really enjoyed my day too with 2nd grade. Also, Professor Tomich I will be happy to pick up the pictures on Thursday at your office around 11:30? let me know if thats good. I was at valley road.

Photos in my office

Hi Everybody!

Can one of you from each school stop by my office to pick up the photos I took last Friday?

I won't be out to visit you this week, and I'd like each principal to have the photos...please let me know so I can make arrangements.

Thanks!

Harrison Elementary School

Sorry for the late response. I am glad to hear everyone did well on Friday. I also enjoyed my day. I was placed in third grade with a teacher who I can relate to. She is a first year teacher who had a change in career. The kids were wonderful and I took lots of notes. I am looking forward to next week. It's amazing how attached you can get to kids in such a short time!!

Harrison Elementary!

Hey Ladies,

I'm happy to read that everyone had such a good time in their classrooms. The principal let us choose so i chose the 3rd grade and I absolutely loved it! They were so well behaved and eager to learn. I took a lot of notes and the teacher set aside time so i could ask any questions. She's a great teacher with a whole lot of patience!... Can't wait until next week.

Reminder about reports...

 First of all, wouldn't you love to visit a place where animals like this walk around among the people?

OK--back to business.  I know I mentioned this, but before I get too many more reports:

Be sure to send them double-spaced

Proofread everything you send. Spelling, sentence structure, clarity...remember your writing is a reflection of you!  

Thanks for sharing first impressions....

Harrison Elementary!

Hi all!! My trip to Harrison School in Roselle was FABULOUS!! I really cannot say enough! In the morning, the principal allowed us to pick a grade level, and I chose kindergarten. Fortunately, the teacher protested to be strictly observing. She quickly ran through the school day routine and had me participate in every aspect. She also let me teach a sort of mini-lesson to the children. The kids were wonderful and to my surprise, very very well behaved! I could not have of picked a better teacher, she is awesome! She really knows her stuff and is willing to help me & answer any questions I have. I can't wait to go back!!!

I had a great time on Friday as well... I am sorry for the late post...seems Ive come down with something..I am feeling a little better today.. I observed a 2nd grade class and thought the children were just adorable... at the end of the day some of them gave me notes and some gave me hugs...(i hope this was OK... I know touching the kids is a touchy subject!) I took lots of notes and observed a lot of different methods... I also got to read to them at the end of the day... I helped them with their math and during center time... It was interesting to see how they interacted with me.....Cant wait to go back next Friday!

As for the tolerance center I am OK with the price.... I hope it is open ... I haven't been on a "class trip" (lol) in a very long time!

Congratulations to all on a successful first day! Good luck to all you ladies next week!

Hey Guys!

The first field day was so much fun! Like Rana I also chose the fifth grade, which at first I wasn't sure if I would like, but the kids were so much fun! They are very smart and VERY outgoing, which kept both the teacher and me on our toes!

Glad to hear that everyone else had fun their first day!! Can't wait to meet up and talk more about the observations!

Good luck next week!!

Hello... First field day was AWSOME !! I loved it and I had so much fun... I chose to be with the 5th graders which I thought I would not like but I really loved it. The kids are smart and they listen to the teacher in the class and I felt like I can have almost normal conversation with a fifth grader. :)

First Impressions-Questions-Comments

Glad to hear from two of you already...it was great to see you all in action.  And really--I was pretty impressed with how comfortable you all seemed in such a short amount of time.  Can't wait to hear some impressions and reflections...

Have a great weekend!

Teachers & Future Teachers!

Teachers & Future Teachers!

Teachers & Future Teachers!

First Field Experience

Hey girls, hope you had fun in your schools with your teachers, I sure did lol. The teacher i was with was great and everyone in that school, Harrison, was so helpful and nice. I was put in a 2nd grade Spanish-Bilingual class, and the teacher allowed me to interact with the students, she caught me by surprise when she told me to introduce the lesson. Well, I hope to hear about everyone else's experience =]

1st field day

Hey girls, hopefully everyone had a fun day at their schools today. I know I definitely did! The teachers and staff were extremely nice at Harrison and I love the little first graders! My teacher let me interact with the students so I got to be more of a teachers' aide, which was alot of fun. Looking forward to next week and hopefully everyone will post something on here so we can all "hear" about everyone's first visits!!

Good luck tomorrow!!!! Can't wait to see you all and talk about how everyone's visits went!

Re: Trip To The Tolerence Center

Hi All! I'm sorry I forgot to post something. Professor Tomich posted this comment a couple days ago after Anna posted all the due dates, etc. I just wanted to bring this to light because I had just noticed it and I haven't seen any other people respond.


Thanks Anna--I'm going to have to call the Tolerance Center; they may not be open on Fridays...AND it's $15 for students...I was wondering if that was going to be OK with everyone...?

-Caitlin

Good Luck :)!!

Hello ladies!!! Like everyone has previously said, good luck tomorrow!! I don't know about everyone else but I am really excited for my first day!! I can't wait to see how everyone's day went!! See you all later!!

-Caitlin

Heyy everyone! Just wanted to wish everyone a good day tomorrow!!!!! Hope everyone has a great day!

Good luck & have fun tomorrow! Can't wait to hear...

Ditto!!

Good luck everyone!! Always think positive and give 110%!! Enjoy!

Hey Ladies!!!

Hey,
I just wanted to wish everyone GOOD LUCK for tomorrow!! Can't wait to hear about everyone's day!!! See you soon!

Good Luck!!!!

Good Luck Girls!!!!! Hope you have fun in your schools can't wait to talk about our experiences in our next class...

something else to read & think about...

Higher education --from the Sunday Times Magazine

Make up your own mind

This has nothing to do with our class...just wanted to give you the opportunity to define your views a little more clearly...don't feel obligated to participate.

What are your views?

Correction

Those of you going to Valley Road--there was a misprint on your sheet--the principal is Mr. Beltramba NOT Ms. Bergin.

two more presentations...

Thanks for introducing us to Gardner's Multiple Intelligences & Tips on Motivating Students. You'll hear and learn a lot more on these topics!

Housekeeping: Those of you who have NOT turned in Mantoux results; bring them directly to your school on Friday morning...I'll bring the ones I've collected either today or tomorrow. (Don't forget to make copies first.)

I visited both schools today; you'll be meeting your principal in the morning--don't forget to report to the main office to sign in and get a name tag...

Please look over your handbooks and jot down the observations you'll need to make in your field reports (Or just bring the handbook w/ you.) Take some notes, but most importantly keep your eyes and ears open--soak it in--there'll be lots to digest and discuss.

See you Friday out in the field!

The attributes of great teachers

I thought you might like to take a look at this blog entry--it may give you some ideas when you're working on your personal philosophy statement...

Class Information

Hey Guys!

Just wanted to put up the due dates for the assignments....the contextual factors paper is due 10/24 and the My Philosophy essay is due 11/21.
10/24 is the trip to the Tolerance Center. The times that I wrote down were 9:30 meeting at Union Station or meeting at Penn Station...is that right? Laura said to bring student id's too because of a discount.

This is the website for the Tolerance Center

10/10 Presentations:
Laura-organization and class management
Nicole C-critical thinking
Kirstin-digital stories
Erin-Myspace/Facebook
Raquel-twitter

Good luck to everyone with their observations!
See you on the 10th!!!

Sing it

You're no one if you're not on twitter

Resource room/ Critical thinking

hey everyone, 1st off I'd like to respond to Raquel's 'resource room' post. I think that comment made to her in front of her friends was very inappropriate. I don't think that treating your daughter differently that any of the mainstream kids is fair at all. Yes, she should have extra attention but I think that she should be exposed to the same work as the others kids are, even if she doesn't complete it all or if the teacher gives her less than the others.

Secondly, I'd like to make a comment about the critical thinking and say that I don't think there are enough educators, in any grade level including college, that really push for critical thinking in the class. The world is not just regurgitating information word for word and passing tests. Even if the student is getting the great grades,it doesn't mean that they're necessarily learning much because they could just be memorizing facts for the test! I really had an eye opening experience when I was 18 ,fresh out of high school and started nursing school. I was actually in the hospital,on the floors, working with individual patients and dealing with nurses and doctors on the units every week. It was very hands on and we student nurses were the ones who were responsible for all the patients' needs for that day. It was a really great experience. You have to learn how to critically think for that specific situation you're in and decide, sometims in a split second, what is best for the patient (or in our case, student) and also yourself. I'm not saying that textbooks and lectures aren't important because they are. They give you the foundations for what you need to be applying later on in a 'real life' scenario but I think that schools should introduce more hypothetical situations and questions for the students to think about on how they would handle it and the 'game plan' (for lack of better words) that they would use.

I'm not sure if that's the response you were looking for, Prof. Tomich but that's pretty much what I have to say on the matter! lol

What is critical thinking?

Here are some definitions of critical thinking

Let's start a discussion around these definitions and Nicole's presentation...

My girls...Alexandra and Bethany

School Report Cards

Here is a good link for anyone who is interested in the school report cards for the elementary schools we will be going to next week. http://education.state.nj.us/rc/rc07/menu/E/H.html

Ambient Awareness

I did a quick search on this because I wasn't sure what it was and found the following link.... I just hope I insert it correctly! http://www.experientia.com/blog/ambient-awareness/


It talks a little about twitter and how we are now moving into a whole new world of blogging.... much quicker and without thinking of what we are posting.... ( well not really me since I'm not much of a blogger yet! still working on the old way of blogging...) It is really interesting.... maybe I'll do a presentation on what all these different terms (IE: face book, blogging, twitters ) are and what they are used for!

Resource Room

OK so I have a small grip about my daughters resource room and I wanted to post to see what the rest of you thought about the issue. So as you all know my youngest is in a resource room for LAL and math because she learns at a different rate than other children and classifies information differently. This week I noticed that her homework seemed way to easy for her and didn't even come close to what her best friend was doing. So I questioned her on it and she said that her teacher said she didn't get the regular work cause she didn't know how to do it! I was able to speak to one of the aides after school who put my daughter on the spot in front of all her friends and said, " I think this is to hard for her she will never be able to do this" then proceeded to make her read it ... My daughter is a slow reader and needs some assistance still with some of the harder words. I told the aide thank you for your concern about her ability but that I would help her with the work because I wanted to expose her to what the other children were working on as well and proceeded to take the extra homework. That night we sat down together and did her regular homework (which took all of 5 minutes) and her extra work which she struggled a little on (the reading part) but thrived on the math part...
So I know I'm kind of letting off some steam here but I actually have a question, Is it unfair of "regular teachers" to dismiss the abilities of resource children because they are not in the mainstream classrooms all day? Should the resource child be given the work they are missing in the mainstream class? Even if it is only to expose the child to that work?
Thank you for listening (reading?) to me vent ....I hope I get some helpful responses.... I cant wait to hear everyone's opinions on the matter.....

Critical Thinking!!!

Hey Ladies,

My presentation is on critical thinking and I thought that by posting this youtube video you would get a better understanding of critical thinking and how teachers present it in a classroom. See you tomorrow!!!

Nicole C.

Inclusion Classrooms

Putting kids with disabilities in a regular classroom can benefit everyone.

Facebook!

I decided to take initiative and start a conversation. I choose the topic of Facebook. I can honestly say that I check my facebook between 15 to 20 times a day. I know, pathetic!!
How many times a day do you check your facebook??

Online Powerpoint!

Hey everyone,

Sorry it took me so long to explain how to make a power point presentation online. I did it by searching for free power point on google. There was this great link on there that brought me to a site where I could make a powerpoint online. The best part about it is that your presentation will be saved on the internet and you dont have to worry about it taking space on your computer. Also to log in you can use your gmail account! I hope you find it useful!!

Here is the Link!
http://show.zoho.com/jsp/zoho_login.jsp?serviceurl=%2FHome.do

See you friday!!
Erin

sophomore field @ Kean

Brave New World-Wide-Web

From: datruss, 7 months ago

Brave New World-Wide-Web

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: web2.0 technology)

http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/do-not-go-quietly-into-your-classroom/ "Do not go quietly into your classroom."
Part of a presentation to student teachers.


SlideShare Link

I'M SO TOTALLY, DIGITALLY CLOSE TO YOU

Let's start a routine of discussing articles here on the Blog:

• What about ambient awareness?
• Have you tried Twitter, or something similar?
• What's your reaction to it--or is it too soon to tell?
• How often do you check in with Facebook (be honest)?
• Does what anthropologist Robin Dunbar say about maximum number of social connections make sense to you? Elaborate.
• Comment on the effect of this "incessant online contact."

Paying It Forward

Hi all!! First, like the others have said, great job to all the girls who presented on Friday! You all did great! It's wonderful to see how comfortable we are with one another already!


Secondly, and my main purpose for posting this blog is to inform!! As you know, I am a teacher's assistant at a pre-school & kindergarten. I have been looking for art projects and such to keep the kids active and I have found some great finds!! The books are called, From Your Friends at The Mailbox: Arts & Crafts. Each book is broken down by season and additionally by month. These books have fun & cute ideas. I thought this information might be helpful since I know many of you either subsitute, are teacher's assistants, work in after-care programs, etc.

You can order them online at www.themailbox.com

or

Buy them on Route 22 in Watchung, NJ in Blue Star Shopping Center at a Teacher's Store! (I'm sorry I forgot the name but the store is there!!)


I hope this helps someone =) !!

Take Care, Caitlin

P.S. The picture above is an example of the September edition of the book!

Hey Guys!

First, I would like to say that everyone who presented last Friday did a great job!

I am doing my presentation on Friday on Multiple Intelligence. I have posted the links to two online quizzes that deals with MI. If you could please take some time and do one or both of the quizzes, that would be great!! The results will make more sence on Friday.

Hope everyone's week is going well so far! See you all on Friday!!

http://www1.chapman.edu/soe/faculty/piper/teachtech/miquiz.htm
http://surfaquarium.com/Mi/inventory.htm

Hey everyone! I hope I'm doing this right! but anyway, hope you're having a great week so far. My presentation on Friday is on motivating students so i have a website that you all could visit and get a little background information about a topic that I will be talking about. It's called the Pygmalion Effect and the site will clue you in on what it is exactly,if you don't know already, as well as other information. So take a few minutes, read it over so everyone will have an idea about the topic and we can discuss it on Friday! Thanks

http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/4/cu7.html

Presentations

Just like Andrea, I too wanted to congratulate everyone who presented on Friday. I learned a lot of new things, and I'm glad that now we feel a lot more comfortable with each other. See you Friday!!

Feedback on Presentations

I wanted to take a moment and tell everyone that they did a great job on their presentations. I learned many new things and thank you all for the information. Have a great weekend.

Mrs. Pat Klein of the Teaching Performance Center

Located in Willis Hall 110...website:
http://www.kean.edu/~tpc/

Schedule for September 19th

Anna Vicci: Multiple Intelligences

Nicole Campo: Critical Thinking

Laura: Organization & Class Management

Natasha: How to motivate children

Me: Brief Advisement Session

Also, you'll want to look up (search engine) Harrison Elementary School (PDS) in Roselle, Valley Road Elementary & Hehnly Elementary in Clark...the "report cards" (that's what they're called) and/or websites will show up in your searches...you'll gain some important info on the schools you're visiting...(we still don't know who's going to Valley Road & who's going to Hehnly...)

Also, may I recommend that you mapquest or google map for directions AND do a dry run to the schools...BECAUSE you do not want to be late! We'll talk more about that on Friday.

Good job on those presentations today...

hey,

Sorry i for got one thing. For my presentation I would like for everyone to bring a scissor if possible. It would be a big help!! Thanks!

Extracurricular Activities

Hey girls!

Here is a link that has some really interesting information on it about extracurricular activities. There is a lot to cover so I will not get to all of it, but when you have time it may help you to take a look at this site. There are many different resourses on the bottom of the page and they lead to some great sites! Check them out!! See you tomorrow!!

http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr237.shtml

Erin Sugrue

Email your handouts to me no later than 10am tomorrow

Looking forward to the presentations this coming Friday. Mrs. Klein from the TPC (Teaching Performance Center, Willis 110) will visit towards the end of class to give you some information about your field visits.

Have you had a chance to check out any of the links?

What do you find useful?  

What's new to you and why is it interesting?  

Can you think of ways to use any of this for teaching?  

Fridays presentation

Hello all,
I have been researching Lev Vygotsky and am feeling a little overwhelmed with all the information I am finding. Below please find the link that I have posted. The site contains information on whom Vygotsky was and what some of his theories were.
http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/v/y.htm

Our first class

This is my first blog! This is all new to me so I hope that I am doing it correctly. I really enjoyed meeting everyone on Friday. I am looking forward to a very exciting semester. I am working on my project for Friday and will post anything there is to read as soon as possible. I am a bit behind since my sister has just had her baby over the weekend and she suffered some complications. I apologize for the delay. See you all on Friday.
Raquel Belo

OK...time to start posting & commenting!

Just checked & saw that 5 of you are already in...which means, I hope, that you've viewed some of the videos & maybe visited some of the URLs provided.

Now it's time for you to participate. Waiting to see what you have to say about any of this stuff, and can't wait to see what you'll bring here to us...

Presentation Schedule for September 12th

Here's what we have planned for next Friday:

The Montessori Method: Nicole W.
Vygotsky: Raquel
Skinner: Andrea
Extracurricular Activities: Erin
The Parent-Teacher Relationship: Daniella

Presenters: If you would like me to photocopy handouts for you, please send them as attachments to my email address (give me some notice please)

Any online readings, please create posts here with links and instructions.

Looking forward.

Welcome

Hi Everyone!

EMSE 2800 is your initial field observation course. It's designed to give you the opportunity to observe students and teachers in the elementary ed setting. You'll visit both an urban and a suburban school--each school three times.

You'll also experience delivering presentations in front of the class. In this course, I'm the facilitator...you will be in charge of what you learn and what and how you'll present to your classmates (I will help with suggestions). Although I'll be happy to answer your questions, and of course I'll share some of my experience with you, for the most part, you will be in charge of your own learning.

Please use this blog to ask any questions or to make any comments. This is a convenient place to meet with your classmates and discuss your activities regarding this course. From time to time I will post some URLs for you to visit, ask some questions, and generally check to see how you're doing...other than that, as stated above, you are in charge.

I look forward to this semester with you!