Kristen+Watson

Student teaching : Sigga Mitchell 7th grade LA East Cary Middle

Language Today Posts

__**Getting Started 8/26/13**__ This chapter really helped me see how important the first few days of school are. I will definitely be taking some of the ideas from the chapter and implementing them in my classroom. By doing so, I hope to create a class that encompasses every students needs and skill and use this to help them succeed. I will begin class on the first day by greeting my students outside the class door and when the bell rings by introducing myself stating the expectations of the class and creating a collaborate set of class rules which the students help build. I will then get into some fun get to know you activities that incorporates writing and reading. I want to try the questionnaire on an index card activity that I create questions to so I can get the basic information of the students. I will then explain why the students need to get to know each other because they will be working together and the classroom will be an open environment which will lead into the silhouette activity. I will provide the partner list for this activity and explain what to do. Once the students have created a silhouette for someone I will have them share about their partner to the class. The following days will be spent on me getting to know the students. I want to try out the short story groups and if this works I will use it again when starting a new chapter with the students to find out what they are interested in and why. This way the students feel like they have a say in what we read as a class. I want to have them write something on the first few days so I can use that as a comparison to the work at the end of the semester to see the growth in the students writing ability. I want the students to create a file on the first day so they can store all of their major work in the file as a portfolio type thing.

As we learned in class, it is important to know how you are seen as a person by looking at your web identity. Web identity is important today because of the various sites that we all use. Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and even YouTube are great ways we can share information about ourselves. This information is public and anyone can have access to it with the right tools. Becoming an educator puts great responsibility on you. This is why I want to make sure my Web ID is something that I can be proud of and something that I want everyone to see. I need to make sure that the organizations that I am proud of appear in the google search. I also want to make sure the things that I post are respectable and things that I want my future employees to know about me. I want to be sure that I do not share anything too private on social networks. By having the twitter and electronic portfolio for CED I think this will greatly increase my chances of getting hired and also help people see me as a professional both in the real world and also on the WWW.
 * __ Write yourself into being... __**

__**timeline**__: http://kjwatson.edu.glogster.com/timeline/

__**Teaching Philosophy "Elevator Speech":**__

I believe that all students can learn no matter what. I want to motivate every student to learn and understand the importance of language arts as well as history. My students will be excited for class because they will know that they are leaving each day with more knowledge than they entered the classroom with. My class will be a student-centered learning environment because if the students are the main focus of the lesson, the learning process will be much more rewarding for them. By having the students inquire knowledge through questioning, scaffolding and working together to find answer, the knowledge they acquire will stick with them and will be more relevant and useful for them.

The classroom must feel like a safe place for each and every individual. It is imperative that the students are comfortable with sharing their own ideas with their peers as well as with me, the teacher. I will be sure that every single student is treated with respect. Because the students in my class will feel comfortable with sharing ideas and opinions, they will not only learn from each other but I will learn from them as well. Thus being said, providing different ways for students to learn and share ideas is important and students will have many ways and opportunities to show their capabilities and share their knowledge. Another thing that will be implemented in my class room is technology. It will be a focus for me because students are learning in a growing technological society and by including web 2.0 tools as well as teaching every day technological skills will benefit the students now as well as in the future.

__**Ideal Classroom:**__

Poem:

Education majors of today have it easy are lazy don't do anything drink too much wine and complain a lot. They must really love kids and they must really hate money. They cant do so they teach and then they will complain when kids can't read but it's their job so why should we help? They are crazy cat ladies run up daddies credit cards and drink like sailors Never spell anything right in e-mails to professionals and chose books to scar our kids. Glorified babysitters giving kids busy work to keep them quiet so they can get on facebook. They run up credit ca rds on diet coke bar tabs coffee wine cardigans and apples. But let me tell you I've been there and while the psych majors were partying I was unit planning, doing homework, observing doing laundry, washing dishes, cleaning digging for change, eating ramen going to class all on top of work. Does that really make us lazy, crazy drunk cat ladies?

My Name Inquiry Project 9/15/13

UNIT PLAN! (Rough draft/ Process)

Unit Plan Final Draft