In ELA we cover so much material and not all of it is coherent and lends itself to easy access. Having students organize a blog to keep notes could be beneficial. For example, on one page or using hashtags, students could write their grammar notes, even keeping punctuation separate from things such as there/their/they're for easy access when studying for a test. They could write about books and summarize chapters or sections as they go to search their blog for where in the book a particular section might be if they can't readily find it.
Another section could be free writes to help students type to discover their thoughts and beliefs on a topic and even opens the door for peers to ask questions and encourage more in-depth thinking.
I saw a teacher one time create a class blog and he had a class of at risk students who hated writing. He set it up like a news paper and each student or pair of students had to write a portion, but it could be about what they wanted within reason. He was encouraging students to learn about their community, interview shop owners, grandparents, etc. and report on a wide variety of topics that you'd see in a newspaper. I thought that was a really awesome idea to get kids to discover their surroundings, but the assignment isn't as daunting as a 5 page paper. The students workshopped their papers, took photographs and posted their articles throughout the year to generate traffic on the class blog. If I remember correctly, the teacher even found a way to make some money off the blog to put back into the school.
I also like the option to have a portion of the blog dedicated to the parents to keep them updated on upcoming projects and to post rubrics for students, etc. It could be used as an excellent communication tool between parents, students and the teacher. The only downside is if the teacher requires students to use a blog and the student doesn't have access to a computer or internet at home and can't stay after, special accommodations may need to be made; this is true of the demographics that I will be likely working with.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Learner Analysis - Will Smith
I decided to take a look at Will Smith in Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire.
Will doesn't really excel in school. It's not that he's not smart, he just doesn't apply himself as much as he should. He is easily distracted by girls and often gets into trouble because of his immaturity and inability to anticipate consequences. He goes to school, but seems to be more interested in picking up girls than academics. His grades are lower and he receives a lot of detentions.
Will was raised in situational poverty by his mom after his dad abandoned them. He later moved to live with his Aunt and Uncle Banks in Bel-Aire who were wealthy.
Will is interested in basketball and girls. He appears to need to stay active and is distracted easily. He isn't so much a homebody, but prefers to be out socializing with others. He also values his family and will do anything to help them out - especially Hilary and Ashley.
Will appears to be college ready since he received a high score on the SAT, higher than Carlton even. He was also offered a scholarship to Princeton, which he turned down. Will did attend college in season 4 with Carlton. When the series finished, Uncle Phil helped Will find an apartment so he could stay in California to finish school. However, along the way, like most college students, Will lost direction, almost dropped out to be a car salesman, dabbled in publishing and struggled to figure out what he wanted to do.
Will doesn't really excel in school. It's not that he's not smart, he just doesn't apply himself as much as he should. He is easily distracted by girls and often gets into trouble because of his immaturity and inability to anticipate consequences. He goes to school, but seems to be more interested in picking up girls than academics. His grades are lower and he receives a lot of detentions.
Will was raised in situational poverty by his mom after his dad abandoned them. He later moved to live with his Aunt and Uncle Banks in Bel-Aire who were wealthy.
Will is interested in basketball and girls. He appears to need to stay active and is distracted easily. He isn't so much a homebody, but prefers to be out socializing with others. He also values his family and will do anything to help them out - especially Hilary and Ashley.
Will appears to be college ready since he received a high score on the SAT, higher than Carlton even. He was also offered a scholarship to Princeton, which he turned down. Will did attend college in season 4 with Carlton. When the series finished, Uncle Phil helped Will find an apartment so he could stay in California to finish school. However, along the way, like most college students, Will lost direction, almost dropped out to be a car salesman, dabbled in publishing and struggled to figure out what he wanted to do.
About Me
My name is Angela McKellar. My husband, Michael, and I have been married for 3.5 years. We have a daughter, Adia, who's 14 months old and just working on walking and talking. We also have a white, Siberian Husky named Stella. On September 19 we will be closing on our first house! Which is exciting and a little daunting. The house hasn't been kept up extremely well and is in need of quite a few updates. So, after possession we'll be tackling putting in new flooring and painting and buying new appliances. It's going to be a lot of work, but it will feel so good to have a house that feels more like our home.
I am certified in Secondary Education with an English major and Biology minor. I spent almost 4 years as a pre-med major before I realized I hated the medical field. I was working full time in a mail order pharmacy, handling growth hormone patient profiles when some scheduling issues forced me to quit. I got a job in the Butterworth inpatient pharmacy soon after, which lead me to realize I hated the medical field. That semester I had an English class leading me to realize I was spending all of my spare time and then some trying to keep my grades up, I was always stressed out and never had time to recharge. After reading literature for my World Literature class, it dawned on me that part of why I was so unhappy was because I hadn't been reading what I enjoyed for years and that's what recharges me. Even when I was a pre-med student I was looking forward to educating my patients; I had so many mom's ask me about their kid's diagnosis and what else they could do besides just give their kid hormone shots. I realized a lot of doctors don't actually educate their patients well and I wanted to be different. So, becoming a teacher and getting involved in education was an obvious choice. I just wished I had made the switch earlier.
This semester I'm teacher assisting at Wyoming Junior High in a 7th grade English class. I have one hour that's general education and the other two are honors classes. So far my CT has been awesome and GVSU faculty and WPS teachers adore her.
In my spare time I usually have my nose in a book. Lately I've been big into young adult books because I figure I need to know the field well since that's what the bulk of my students will be reading [side note: if you're looking for a good YA book, Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard is fantastic!]. My CT has her students do reading logs and I want to do that with my future students as well. I hear a lot of complaints from students about not liking to read, when I think if I can help them find a book that's a good fit for them, it may solve some of the problem. So, I try to be well versed in YA literature. If I'm not reading, I'm usually doing something else artsy like writing or painting or crocheting. In the evenings, I like to kickback with shows on Netflix if my kiddo goes to bed nicely.
I haven't had a ton of experience using technology in the classroom. My CT usually has a powerpoint slide up when the students come in the classroom with the bellringer on it or with instructions for the kids. We enrolled the students in our google classroom the other day and gave them an assignment to complete with it. A handful of students wanted to edit the HTML code instead of typing their assignment or messed around flipping the screen. I can see it being possibly a bit more than some students can handle, but I think it will be nice when having students do timed writing or certain activities because it helps with legibility problems when grading it and is a nice resource to have.
Below is video of my husband, myself and our daughter on her first birthday that we celebrated this July.
I am certified in Secondary Education with an English major and Biology minor. I spent almost 4 years as a pre-med major before I realized I hated the medical field. I was working full time in a mail order pharmacy, handling growth hormone patient profiles when some scheduling issues forced me to quit. I got a job in the Butterworth inpatient pharmacy soon after, which lead me to realize I hated the medical field. That semester I had an English class leading me to realize I was spending all of my spare time and then some trying to keep my grades up, I was always stressed out and never had time to recharge. After reading literature for my World Literature class, it dawned on me that part of why I was so unhappy was because I hadn't been reading what I enjoyed for years and that's what recharges me. Even when I was a pre-med student I was looking forward to educating my patients; I had so many mom's ask me about their kid's diagnosis and what else they could do besides just give their kid hormone shots. I realized a lot of doctors don't actually educate their patients well and I wanted to be different. So, becoming a teacher and getting involved in education was an obvious choice. I just wished I had made the switch earlier.
This semester I'm teacher assisting at Wyoming Junior High in a 7th grade English class. I have one hour that's general education and the other two are honors classes. So far my CT has been awesome and GVSU faculty and WPS teachers adore her.
In my spare time I usually have my nose in a book. Lately I've been big into young adult books because I figure I need to know the field well since that's what the bulk of my students will be reading [side note: if you're looking for a good YA book, Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard is fantastic!]. My CT has her students do reading logs and I want to do that with my future students as well. I hear a lot of complaints from students about not liking to read, when I think if I can help them find a book that's a good fit for them, it may solve some of the problem. So, I try to be well versed in YA literature. If I'm not reading, I'm usually doing something else artsy like writing or painting or crocheting. In the evenings, I like to kickback with shows on Netflix if my kiddo goes to bed nicely.
I haven't had a ton of experience using technology in the classroom. My CT usually has a powerpoint slide up when the students come in the classroom with the bellringer on it or with instructions for the kids. We enrolled the students in our google classroom the other day and gave them an assignment to complete with it. A handful of students wanted to edit the HTML code instead of typing their assignment or messed around flipping the screen. I can see it being possibly a bit more than some students can handle, but I think it will be nice when having students do timed writing or certain activities because it helps with legibility problems when grading it and is a nice resource to have.
Below is video of my husband, myself and our daughter on her first birthday that we celebrated this July.
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