Andi+Cooper

Placement Info: Dillard Drive Middle School 8th Grade Social Studies with Mary Cummens

11/9/13 Where have you gone Alice? the blonde haired girl in the blue dress who chased the rabbit down the hole who met the Mad Hatter and had some tea
 * Wonderland**

I have a unit plan to construct and only 2 weeks in order to finish it My cooperating teacher can't make up her mind and I fear that I'll be teaching something completely different than what I'm planning

What should I do Alice? Dream of a world far away? and use my imagination can take me there? Yes... I believe that sounds like an amazing idea

11/6/2013 Thematic Unit Focus:

Primary Theme: Conflict

Well, I was told by my CT to do my Unit Plan on "Pre-Civil War into the Civil War" but after talking with several of my classmates who are also doing 8th grade social studies I have a feeling she is going to change this to WWI. My CT and I have a meeting set up on Friday to confirm what she wants me to do. At my last observation my CT was teaching about the American Revolution and I really feel that they will already cover the Civil War by the time I start actively student teaching.

For my original 5-week unit I was going to prepare powerpoints for several days (not to lecture for several days from the powerpoints but to use them as an area of information students can access when needed). I was planning on accessing primary source documents from DocsTeach.org and create handouts to go over with my students. I wanted to show some "re-enactment" video clips from the history channel (my CT likes these). Along with probably having my students do some sort of final project. A possible project idea is to have students pair together and to do a poster board on their topic. They will have a list of topics (possibly 10) to choose from. Students must research their topic, decorate their poster board and write a short 2-3 paragraphs describing what they learned about their topic.

My reasons for this original unit are that: 1. North Carolina has a huge history with dealing in the Civil War, we held one of the main ports for the Confederate Army (Fort Fisher & Wilmington). We lost several men fighting. Students need to understand and appreciate the reasons our country was divided and why we eventually went to war. Students will learn about the presidents during the time period and the struggle with slavery, etc...

10/17/2013 Paul Harvey rough draft 10/3/2013 Inquiry- Paul Harvey- The irony that I see in my question: which is "how was John D. Rockefeller, Sr. negatively portrayed in the media?" is that even though he was so negatively portrayed by the media he did so much good for the American economy in the late 1800's - early 1900's. He created jobs, he created a booming business, he basically created the monopoly of businesses. He was an amazing business man.

9/25/2013 Name Inquiry Project My name is Andrea Colleen Skurski Cooper, but you can call me Andi. My name comes from a family member, someone from my dad's side. All I know about this person is that he, yes I said he, was named Andrew and I'm named after him. I actually don't like my first name and I have gone by the nickname of Andi since I was around 18 months old. I got the middle name Colleen simply because my mom liked the name. I actually tried going by Colleen for a year when I was in elementary school, but it never stuck. Skurski is my maiden name.... and I have to say I am so glad I married someone with a common last name of Cooper, because people cannot pronounce Skurski without messing it up. My family is Polish, and we celebrate that. My dad's is 100% Polish, his grandparents were immigrants from Poland. His mom was born is Niagara Falls, NY, in the early 1900's, but she spoke full Polish.... she taught me a few phrases ;)

Andrea  It means womanly, honest and beautiful lady,  It is the number 13,  It is like rain drops during a summer storm,  It is sitting on my Polish grandma's kitchen floor watching her make pierogies, It is name built from family bonds, It is Polish and I'm proud of it, My name is Andrea.

Polish Heritage- this is my brother's tattoo of the Polish eagle. We're proud!

8/26/2013

Getting Started: After reading the exert from the Tchudi and Mitchell article I've come to realize the importance of the first day and really the first couple of days. It's very important for me as the teacher to get to know my students from the beginning. I like that we got to write letter's to Dr. Young and Clarice before the semester started. I also liked that we were given a list of questions to choose from but that we were also given specific questions that had to be answered. After reading this idea in the article I really see the reason behind having us write the letters. I allows our teachers a chance to get to know us on a private level. They are able to learn details about our lives that we normally wouldn't have time to discuss during the class period. I really liked all the ideas that were given in the text as well. I thought the idea of letting the students write "The Fib". To me this sounds like something students would love to write. Not only are they allowed to be creative and use their imagination but they can also get a sense of how their classmates think if they are allowed to share their writings. I for one believe that I will use some type of questionnaire during the beginning weeks. Possibly one that contains a multitude of questions and each day we explore some questions and learn more and more about each other. I think it would be neat for the teacher to fill one out as well. For example, let the students decide which questions they would want the teacher to answer. This way the students are having some control over the classroom and they are learning things they'd like to know about the teacher.

9/6/13 Write yourself into being: I've had social media accounts for years now. I had a Myspace account back when it was popular, but never really took to it and I eventually deleted it. I got a Facebook account in 2007 and I have all of my family and friends on there. I've never posted anything inappropriate. I love Pinterest and my account is public, so anyone can see it. Again, I have nothing inappropriate on it. I just recently got a LinkedIn account to build a professional image. I hope to build more of that throughout this class.

9/5/13 [|My Timeline]

9/11/13 Statement of Teaching Philosophy My philosophy of teaching is that I create an environment that allows for supervised exploration. In order to allow my students this exploration they must be given the chances to improve their skills and knowledge. The best way for my students to gain these skills and knowledge is by hands on learning, collaboration with their peers, and guidance from me, as their teacher. The environment that I would like to create for my students will be one where they feel safe to examine their own ideas, to raise the questions that may not get raised otherwise, to feel empowered to develop their own skills and knowledge and grow from there. I want my students to see my classroom as a place where they can be themselves, where they can be free to express their needs and wants, where their voice will be heard. I see teaching as a continuation of my own growth and development. Everyday brings a new adventure and I cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings.