Lena+McKinley

Getting Started Reflection:
The mood and tone of how you want your classroom to be ran begins on the first days of school. That is why they are critical to carefully plan, structure and carry out. Middle school is a tricky age period because they are caught in the middle of being a child and adult. They need structure desperately but also have to be allowed freedom and expression. I want that to be the main idea the students catch on to during the first days of school. The first chapter of this book is extraordinarily helpful in designing and picturing your ideal first days of school. I want the first days of school to be a time period where the students get to know me and each other and feel comfortable in their classroom. Sitting in a classroom with twenty some peers and an adult can be completely overwhelming for a student and I never want that to hinder their input throughout the year. I think taking time to do some of the “icebreakers” or first day activities that this chapter mentions can save you a lot of time in the long run if as far as student contribution goes. Middle school curriculum, especially in language arts, is built around real life conflict, and relativity to the world around them. If students are not comfortable, they will not get the most out of the discussions, projects, and writings. After the students and I are better acquainted, I really want to get an idea of what my students interests and prior knowledge consists of. I can see myself on the first days of school doing a short introduction letter followed by taking interest surveys. I want to follow these more personal narratives with an interesting activity like the “fib” writing activity or the silhouette activity for more crafty students. Whatever allows them to express their identity is what I want as a product.

Writing yourself into Being:
I am not very "alive" when it comes to my existence on the internet. I have a searchable Facebook account that is very private as well as a Pinterest account. My myspace was deleted years ago but several images still show up when googled. I am okay with my students knowing that i am involved in social media and i hope to share a social media site with my students. I think it is a great idea to have a professional twitter or even Facebook account that is separate from your personal ones because social media is such a great outlet of communication. It is also a great way to keep parents posted on what is going on in their child's classroom. I think blogs are great things to have for classroom activities and alternative ways of expression during assignments. I hope that in the future, i have written my self into being online. I hope to have professional videos, blogs, and other educational resources.

My Academic Timeline:
http://www.dipity.com/klmckin2/My-Academic-LifeMap/

My Philosophy of Teaching:
I am not educating yesterday and I am not educating today, I am educating the future. This is no small responsibility and nothing could be more rewarding. My goal as an educator is to trigger the learner inside my students and create life long thinkers and creators. I am training my students to become well-educated citizens and contributors to society. I want them to seek a sense of empowerment in my classroom and grow as learners in the supportive environment that I create. Collaboration is key here and teaching should be centered around group effort and peer support. Knowledge is, in many ways, socially constructed. Every child will have equal and ample opportunities to learn through exciting and diverse projects and assignments. Relativity is also something that I am passionate about in my philosophy of teaching. It is important for students to know that what they are investing their time on matters—that it matters now, and that it matters in the long run. Teachers can do this by applying real life situations to classroom material and choosing content that the students can relate to. It is impossible to discuss lessons that students find relative without including technology because it is so integrated into our daily lives. It would be doing students an injustice to not prepare them for a world that revolves around technology. I do not want technology to be used as a supplement to learning, but as a mode of higher level thinking. It is a key aspect of communication and can open new doors for student expression and creativity. My philosophy of education boils down to passion. My desire to educate goes beyond a career choice, it is a personal necessity and dream. At its core education is growth, knowledge, connection, communication, and awareness wrapped in a classroom of context to be delivered to young minds by an educator.

My Name Essay: My Name Poem:

Name Visual: http://karalena28.edu.glogster.com/my-name-glogster-3973

Teaching Poetry Activity: Where have you gone?
Where have you been Laura Ingles? Small, but feisty young girl, her family oriented compassion creates a character of love and hope, as a young girl i hoped i would share her morals she discovered through her experiences, the humble, innocent approach to life struggles faced with the violence and discrimination of the world today, with her intuitive compassion it would break her heart she would approach it head strong no doubt with an open mind, the comprehension of why this was happening would baffle her the constant reminder of change over time.

= Thematic Unit Plan =

“The Power of Choice” **Introduction and Thematic Unit**

- Quotation exercise: pick a quotation out of the bag and free write what the significants of this quote is. Is this a big decision? Can you relate to this quote, does it trigger any memories? >  **Sub Unit I** //**(3 weeks)**//**:** Elements of a story (theme, authors point of view, setting, mood, characterization, compare and contrast genres) Group one- Cinderellla, Group two- Peter Pan Group 3- Snow White, Group 4- Sleeping Beauty, Group 5- Jack and the Beanstalk  **Sub Unit II** //**(2 weeks)**//**: Poetry**
 * Short story on a big decision, Would you have done the same thing in their situation why or why not?
 * Teaching Theme with theme: What is Theme, Teaching theme backwards: creating the theme
 * Figurative language: Fireworks song lyrics
 * Debate supporting details: This character should have done this OR this character should have done this. Support you're argument with supporting details
 * Characterization: guessing characters and placing characters in another situation and predicting outcome
 * Jigsaw Elements of a story
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Facebook Page of character


 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Bringing Poetry to life
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Simile poetry
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Breaking down lyrics
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Different types of poetry, Purpose, structure, figurative language, hidden messages