Where did the week go?...

Wow this week has flown by! This week something I was most proud of was improving my classroom management skills. I had been having troubles getting students to quiet down whenever my CE left the room or stepped away. So I tried to be more confident when I told them to quiet down and to my surprise it actually helped! This week I was most proud of the number students that have begun to connect and ask me questions. To me this proved that the relationships I had been trying to build with students were beginning to pay off. Also, this week I was able to sit in on a PLT meeting where we were discussing different units and lessons. Thankfully I was very use to the language used in the units such as performance task, generalizations, and guiding questions. I remember my confusion level when I first heard these terms and I was very thankful to not have that feeling of cluelessness while diving into these units. Over the next week I hope to begin checking more things off of my checklist for EDUC 435 and do better with my time management. In SCED class this week, I was able to assist my classmates as we developed a deeper meaning of the New Bloom’s Taxonomy.

This week for my outside learning I did some research on the math website my CE plans to use in her, Prodigy. The website mixes math problems, online manipulatives, and fun games. The teacher is able to log in to see each student’s progress and when they are using the site. You can also embed formative assessments into the game. This site helps make math fun and exciting for students. And it’s also FREE! This is definitely something I would consider using in my future classroom and I’m very interested to see how this year’s students respond to it. Here’s the link if you want to check it out: https://prodigygame.com

My first tweet is about an awesome way to integrate tech into the classroom. Using VR to view the eclipse. This would be such an awesome experience for students and would get them truly excited to learn about it.

My next tweet revolves around the growth mindset. If we are going to change our classroom mindset then we must also change our classroom rules to reflect that change. These rules can inspire a student to become a better student, learner, researcher and so much more.

My last tweet is about making learning relevant for our students. Too often in classrooms you hear "Why are we doing this?", this question doesn't exist if teachers integrate real life into their classroom. Students get engaged and plugged in when they can find reason behind what they are doing.

This week's current event is sadly again centered around, the growing Hurricane Irma. The students have had tons and tons of questions about it. It's been very exciting to see their interest level in learning about it. Today we had a 10-15 minute conversation discussing what a hurricane is, what different categories of hurricanes mean, and the path that meteorologists currently think Irma will take. This lead to a lot of deep thinking from the students, an awesome learning moment that was student driven! This connects to NCTCS standard 3D, teachers make instruction relevant to students, this a real life event that could possibly impact them so incorporating this into the classroom made learning real for students.