Happy Halloween

 

Exploring Teaching with their Compliment Chains on Halloween

Exploring Teaching celebrated Halloween in style today. Students brought in treats to snack on throughout the hour. We had hoho cakes, acorn donuts, cheesecake, cake balls, cupcakes, chips, Halloween mix and lots of soda.
    Part of our party involved passing back each student’s compliment chain to celebrate National Bullying Prevention Month. Every day in the month of October, each student in the class wrote a compliment to another student to create a chain of compliments for each individual. This activity helped our classroom climate become even more positive and allowed students to point out the good in others.

            While enjoying our treats we finished watching Adam and discussed strategies teachers can use to teach skills to students with disabilities. The movie had an unsatisfying ending for many students and we discussed how instead of portraying a happy ending, the movie reflected the reality of Adam’s life as an individual with Asperger’s who deals with everyday problems we all encounter.  

Emporia Guest Speaker and Second Guest

Today we were very fortunate to have Karen Bevis, the elementary education advisor from Emporia State come to our classroom. Karen Bevis oversees both the Johnson Country Community College and Kansas City Community College partnership program that allows students to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from Emporia at these satellite locations.

            She was able to answer many questions and explain the program in greater detail. She provided each student with the 4 year course plan and an information brochure. Kaitlin Williams was lucky to receive a free Emporia State Education T-shirt.

She also passed along the following links:

 http://www.emporia.edu/teach/ncate/documents/SecondaryEdflierfolded.pdf

-          Secondary programs at ESU

http://www.jccc.edu/campus-visit/schedule-tour.html

-          the link for JCCC campus visits:

http://www.emporia.edu/elecse/undergrad/

-          Undergraduate Elementary Education Home Page

            Some exciting news is that Emporia will be hosting an Educator Open House on November 7^th from 4:00-5:30 pm. This is located at the Emporia State University- Kansas City location which is 8400 W. 110^th Street, Suite 150, Overland Park, KS 66210. Please feel free to email me at valveros@usd231.com with any questions.

We had a second guest in our classroom today, John Duncanson, our assistant principal joined us after the guest speaker for part of the movie Adam. He noted that society’s treatment and perceptions of individuals with disabilities has changed. He contributed to our lesson by asking some thought provoking questions:

            If we as teachers are charged with preparing students for the future and life, what skills are necessary to instill in students?

            Compare how the law perceives individuals with disabilities and how schools do. What is the difference? How does these differences impact students?

Diverse Learners

Today we began our 7^th unit, Diverse Learners in Exploring Teaching. Today’s focus was on understanding diverse learners and the laws and principals that impact education. We discussed fairness, equity and how to ensure high achievement for all students.

Student began looking at differentiation and the need for modifications/accommodations for students and illustrated in the comic below.

 

We began watching the movie Adam. This movie follows Adam, an individual with Asperger’s during his 29^th year. While watching this video, students' will be pondering the following questions

·         What accommodations has Adam made for his life?

·         What strategies has Adam learned to help him cope?

·         What are Adam’s strengths?

·         What are his weaknesses?

·         What do you think Adam’s teachers were like?

·         If Adam was in your classroom, what kinds of modifications/accommodations would you utilize?

Classroom Management

This week we are focusing on classroom management. Yesterday students began exploring how to organize a classrooms physical space to create a warm, well-run enviornment. Students created their “dream” classroom and gained practice making seating charts (see below).  

 

To further prepare students for their future classroom, students created a new Pin Board called “classroom ideas, my classrooms, or classroom design" (see below).  Pinterest is a great resource for students that allow them to see other teachers creative ideas they can adapt for themselves. It can also be accessed from anywhere and has unlimited storage capacity enabling students to access their ideas for years to come.

      Today we began discussing expectations for student behavior and how to establish behaviors in students to create an environment of respect. Students followed the guidelines outlined by Wong and Wong and were responsible for creating their very own set of classroom rules.

          

Student Web Page Design Two

One of our Monday Mini-Series projects involved student’s designing their very own course website for their future. Sarybna Anderson, Tyler Sonneveldt-Gragg, and Caitlin Reynolds have been working hard the last few weeks and have fully constructed and launched their website.

Check out their awesome website below: http://xsxmxa.wix.com/exploringteaching

Student Bulletin Designs Project Three

Happy Mini Series Monday!
       Today we wrapped up our third Monday Miniseries projects. Students have really gotten into the fall mood and have created some fun door decorations for my classroom. Check out our three newest door decorations below.



The Greatest Oaks designed by Erikson Byrd and Catie Hansen.




Our Pumpkin Patch by Cassie Lee, Madison Miller and Jordan Krenger.

Be Friendly Like Casper by Shelby Fairchild, Stegani Maness and Erika Jaremko.

Parent Teacher Conferences: Choosing the Right Teaching College

In Kansas, there are 25 colleges/universities that have approved teacher preparation programs. This means by earning a degree from one of these universities, your teaching license from the state of Kansas will be approved (pending other requirements).

Colleges with Approved programs include:

·         ACCT   http://www.acck.edu

·         Baker University http://www.bakeru.edu

·         Benedictine College  http://www.benedictine.edu/

·         Bethany College http://www.bethanylb.edu

·         Bethel College http://www.bethelks.edu

·         Central Christian College     www.centralchristian.edu

·         Donnelly College www.donnelly.edu

·         Emporia State University http://www.emporia.edu

·         Fort Hays State University http://www.fhsu.edu

·         Friends University http://www.friends.edu

·         Haskell Indian Nations University http://www.haskell.edu

·         Kansas State University http://www.educ.ksu.edu

·         Kansas Wesleyan University http://www.kwu.edu

·         McPherson College http://www.mcpherson.edu/

·         MidAmerica Nazarene University http://www.mnu.edu

·         Newman University http://www.newmanu.edu

·         Ottawa University http://www.ottawa.edu

·         Pittsburg State University http://www.pittstate.edu

·         Southwestern College http://www.sckans.edu

·         Sterling College http://www.sterling.edu

·         Tabor College http//www.tabor.edu

·         University of Kansas http://www.soe.ku.edu

·         University of Saint Mary http://www.stmary.edu/

·         Washburn University http://www.washburn.edu/

·         Wichita State University http://www.wichita.edu

 Each program is approved based on the ages/grades/content of certifications and can be found at http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=303

Make sure your college is approved in the area you are interested in before you get a degree from there!! Or you may have to take extra hours and schooling to become a teacher. If you are interested in teaching in another state check out the links from the KSDE website for each state: http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=303