Paper Bag Scavenger Hunt Assignment

In this activity, each student was to decorate a bag relating to yourself. Then inside the bag had to contain five items that represented each individual. There were seven categories to chose five out of for the items that go inside the decorated bag. The categories were you as: a member of a family, member of a student body, a member of a larger community, as a teacher cadet, as a complete person, as a member of a gender, and as a member of an ethnic group. Then we presented these projects to the class. These bags helped to learn that knowing oneself is important because in order to do anything in life, you have to be comfortable with yourself. For instance if you don't like something about yourself, it may be hard for someone else to like that about you, if even you are unable to.
My own bag was decorated with sparkly letters for my initials. Also there were megaphone and pom pom stickers representing cheerleading. There was sparkly hearts on the bag as well. This represents me because I love sparkles, and the initials are for my first and last name, the megaphone and pom poms are for the activity I participate in and the hearts represent that I have a big heart. The first item inside my bag was a picture of my family. It was important to me because it was one of the few times my family of eight was able to be all together without interfering with school, college, or work. It showed how I have a big family. I have two loving parents,two older sisters, two younger brothers and a younger sister. The second item in my bag showed how I was a member of the student body and it was my student I.D. card. This represented how I am a senior at Middletown High School North. The third item was a cheerleading bow. This was a bow that the Middletown North Cheerleaders wore on the homecoming Thanksgiving day game last year. This represents me as a part of a larger community. The fourth item inside of my bag was nail polish. This represented me as a gender, a girl, and how I love to have my nails and toes painted all of the time! The fifth and final item inside my bag was a letter and envelope addressed to me from my preschool child I taught in the child development class last year. This envelope represented me as a teacher cadet because I taught this little girl and she appreciated it and had fun still while learning many subjects. It was a great experience for my future in teaching.
During the oral presentation, I felt a little nervous before I stood up. But as I began talking I felt more comfortable presenting. I knew my subjects well because each item represented me as a person. To improve I could have projected my voice more and made more eye contact. Overall the presentation in my opinion went well. I think that as the year goes on my presenting skills will improve and I will be able to breeze through presentations easily.
This activity taught me a numerous amount of things about each classmate. For example I have known Kayla Troia my entire life and knew she was Italian, but I was unaware that she was 100% Italian! Also I learned how Lauren is Scottish and knows how to cook Scottish food that she brought in for the class to enjoy. I had no idea that Sarah also had a big family like me! I knew Tyler was wrestler but i didn't know he had a special pair of shoes that he wears all the time! This project also taught me things about myself. For example it taught me that each person has important things that make up who they are. Something that shapes who I am is my family. Growing up having my parents and two older sisters as role models helped shaped the person I am today.

Week Of September 24th

Read Aloud
This week was the first week of the read aloud activity. Tyler Wilton chose the book, "The Foot" written by Dr. Seuss. I thought this book was a good choice because it had  lot of things you could link into for many different lesson plans. I would use this book, to teach either about rhyming, opposites, counting, or diversity. I think this book would be best read to a kindergarten or first grade class because that is the age when the kids can get into the story and understand the meanings fully after being taught it.

Learning Experience
This week in the tomorrows teachers class Tyler read his current event aloud. He discussed how a nine year old boy was so smart that he is actually in college already. We discussed the pros and cons of this situation. For example, being so young and in college, he is surrounded by people who were alive over a decade longer than him. They are older and more mature. College kids normally do different activities then a nine year old would do. Also, this boy is missing out on being a kid. As a nine year old kid I enjoyed playing hide and seek with my friends and playing with toys. However, this boy is unable to do anything related to these activities because college has a lot more work and tests than an elementary student gets. I think this kid should have went through the grades normally so that he could grow up properly and have a normal childhood, even though he is extremely intelligent.

Current Event 
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/09/nj_education_system_must_focus.html 
This article deals with the education Commissioner Christopher Cerf and his plan to improve test scores for the year 2013. By third grade only a little more than half of the percentage of students are able to read efficiently. His plan is to ensure that each student is able to read by the time they are in third grade. In doing this, it helps the kids learn better and impacts the rest of their lives positively. It also may help improve test scores. I chose this article because the education commissioner saw a problem, came up with a hypothesis on how to solve the problem, and now set up a plan to help carry out the actions needed to improve the test scores for this upcoming year. I think that it is important when you come across a problem to analyze the situation and then think of a well thought out plan to positively change the issue.

Quote of the Week
"Teacher: The child's third parent." -Hyma
This quote is full of important meanings. For example, this quote recognizes how a child looks up to their teacher almost as much as they look up to their own parents. Being a teacher, especially for younger kids, means that your are an important role model in their lives. The teacher helps to mold the child as they grow up because a majority of the day children are in school. Teachers make the rules and guidelines the kids must follow just like their parents do. This quote is meaningful to me because my dream is to become a teacher and a positive role model the kids can look up to and strive to be.

Observations
 This week as I observed my teachers, fellow classmates, and students, I saw many things I can learn from as being a teacher in training. For instance, In one of my AP classes, my teacher was going over a model of something in the chapter. He went over each part of the model explaining what they did and their purposes. Then he picked on people to repeat the functions of the model. When he picked on me I froze up forgetting the names of each part! So instead of him standing there making me feel bad for forgetting a name, he asked the class to help out which took the pressure off of me, but still helping me learn the subject. Also after, he asked specifically if I had any extra questions about anything or was confused. I was very grateful for the way he handled this situation. Some teachers make the student feel bad about the situations, however when I become a teacher I want to be like him.

Reflections 
 At the start of the week I was overwhelmed by the amount of projects, essays, and overall work I had for all of my classes. However as the week progressed, I sorted out when to complete each assignment to ensure everything got done on time, but made it so that I wasn't stressing about all the work. This week helped me realize that I need to have schedule of when to do each subject so that I am able to manage my time efficiently. I will be sure to use what I learned this week in the future!