Week 15

Read Aloud
This week’s read aloud was called Buzzle Billy written by Michael Waite. I really enjoyed this book! I plan on being kindergarten teacher and think that reading this book to the class would be very helpful. It teaches kids that sharing is important, how to make friends and how to play with others. It also has repetition, alliteration, and social development in it. I think this book would be a great book to read to preschoolers to first graders.

Learning Experience
This week we went on a field trip to TCNJ! It was definitely a field trip full of learning experiences. First, the state teacher of the year spoke and I can definitely see why she was chosen! She seems like such an amazing teacher. She loves her job, all the kids, and everything that goes with it. That is very important because if you hate your job, then it would be fun for the kids that you are trying to teach, and it can be ineffective. She seemed like she made every lesson fun and that helped the kids to get into learning. She really did make learning fun. She also said that outside of school she has a whole different persona. As a teacher she is fun, loud and outgoing. However if you were to see her outside of school she said she is shy and would totally blend into her surroundings. So being a teacher may make some people go completely out of the way they actually are, but it helps in the long run. I also went to two lectures on disabilities. Both were very interesting, however surprisingly different. In one we were told about laws on disabilities, and at the other we had a speaker. The speaker as born with no arms, just hands. In other words his hands were attached to his shoulders. I was very impressed by his positive attitude. He really worked hard in his life, learned how to do everything differently. Now he has a good job and he said he is very thankful for his teachers who had to think of ways for him to be able to be in a college prep course. For example one teacher had to think of a way for him to write.

Quote Of The Week
This week’s quote is “Learning is not a spectator sport.” Written by D. Blocher. This quote means to me that if you want to learn, it won’t happen by sitting back and watching. You need to become interactive, and try, in order to pick up new skills and learn new things. People don’t realize what they want to do in life until they learn new thing and see what their interested in. Learning is the base of everything and isn’t effective if you sit back and don’t try.

Current Event
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/us/fatally-ill-and-making-herself-the-lesson.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&ref=education
This current event really stood out to me. It was about a lady who had a profession as a nurse. However, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer but survived for six years with it where most people don’t survive the first few month of being diagnosed. She knew she was reaching the end, so she called a school of students who wanted to go to school for nursing to have a real study of hospice care for her last few weeks. This lady took teaching into her own hands. She thought that the best way for someone to learn a profession is to get a firsthand look and experience. The students not only took care of her, but also talked to her. She told them everything from her life growing up, to all the details and horrors of this illness. My take on this current event is that the student who got this experience will have an advantage in their field because they had a firsthand look. I think that going out and seeing if you want to do that profession for sure is an important aspect. Also the lady who was ill was a teacher to the kids. She taught then by telling them, and obviously showing them.

Observations
This week I observed one of my teachers. I was not doing my best in one of my classes. I was struggling because it was a ton of work and it involved studying things that we didn’t go over in class and you had to learn it on your own. However, I went to extra help and already I feel like it helped. I have a test coming up soon, and I feel that the extra help will be positive and I am hoping I will get a good grade. I learned that some student may need some extra help on some topics, and if the kids have the option of going to extra help, it can completely change how they do in that class.

Reflections
This week I want to reflect on the new safety precaution rules for our school. The new rules are that the door has to be locked at all times. I think that there are positive and negative things for this. Positively is that is there is a lockdown, the door will already be locked and you won’t have to waste time when you should be hiding and keeping safe. Negatively, if a student is out at the bathroom and there is a lockdown, that student has nowhere to go and has to fend for their self. In any situation there is going to be positive and negative effects, but there always has to be safety precautions to keep everyone safe.