Today was amazing on multiple accounts even though a couple
of things could have been better… Let’s just run through the day, ready?
7:45(ish)- I get to campus and try to print out a paper but
the printers in the nearby buildings are down! So me and a few other classmates
run to find a printer we ended up finding one in the library and got everything
printed out before rushing back to class.
8:03(ish)- We show up a little late to class and our teacher
states that today is going to be a little different. Instead of a regular
lecture there are going to be four short rotations and at each of those
rotations we are going to get some new ideas for teaching!
At the
first rotation we were given materials to make ‘Palm Pockets’ and as we started
to make them Ginger explained to us how we could use ‘Palm Pockets’ in our
classroom. Just in case you want to know ‘Palm Pockets’ can be used for almost
anything! Each child gets one and is able to put almost anything on it to show
the teacher. I like the idea of using it for math students can put their
answer, in numbers, onto their ‘palm pocket’ and show it to the teacher when
he/she asks for the answer. This way every student is able to participate in
the learning. The palm pockets can also be used for vocabulary or to test
students on their knowledge of Adverbs vs. Verbs, etc. This was a cute cheap
way to increase student participation in the classroom!
At the
second rotation we learned about the best way to use whiteboards in our
classrooms. We also got a marker and put a pom-pom on the end to use as an
eraser, such a cute idea for a future classroom. We talked about how to make
sure that students got the most out of using the whiteboards, the importance of
having a set time limit and setting rules like the ‘poison area’ (Where the
marker goes when not in use). There were some really good ideas shared at this
area that will be extremely useful soon!
At the
third rotation we were told to quickly grab 30 red, green, and yellow papers.
As we counted them out we listened to learn how these could be helpful. The
papers could be used for understanding. Each student gets a set of papers and
are able to show how they feel about the new information when the teacher asks
about it (Green: Good, Yellow: Getting there, Red: Lost). The students are
asked to hold the paper next to the heart. That way the students don’t have to
feel self-conscious about the speed of their learning. If you only use two
colors the cards can also be used for yes or no questions or true or false.
These cards are another great but easy idea to use in the classroom.
At the last
rotation we were told to grab two markers, 30 popsicle sticks, and a paper of
our choice. Here we were making choice sticks for our future students. We glued
the scrapbook paper to the outside of a soup can to create a can for our choice
sticks. Then we colored both ends of each choice stick a different color. That
way we can pick a student’s name out of the can and put the stick back into the
can (with the other color showing). By putting the stick back into the can the students
will pay more attention because they think they might be called on again! At
the end of the class I had so many new ideas for my future classroom, it was an
hour well spent!
A picture of my productive class period!
9:00- 335 Was amazing today! The presentations were good my
favorite was the one on humor in teaching, and we got to tell jokes…
Q- What did the green grape say to the purple grape?
A- Breathe
Q- What has three E’s but only one letter?
A- Envelope
Q- What is smarter than a talking bird?
A- A spelling bee
11:00- I solved the mad gabs in the TEC lab and then
headed to take my math test… I felt pretty good about that one ;)
Mad gabs to try on
your very own ;)
Deled Elmer Made
Ask Rude Arrive
Her
Cry Cub Hook
1:00- Literacy was a good point of the day because let’s
face it Brother Wilcox is hilarious!
Today we
were talking about higher levels of comprehension and how you move from mastery
(who, what, when, where) to understanding (how, why) to synthesis (what if?) to
involvement (how does this relate to your life). After explaining this process
to us Dr. Wilcox told us to pick a fairy tale and apply the process. Afterward
he asked us to share with the class our answers the following is going to be anonymous:
-We chose beauty and the beast
for mastery we asked who is the main character of the story? Understanding was
why did Belle go to the beast’s house? Synthesis was what if Belle had gone
back to the beast too late? Involvement was… well *** explained it so well
-I just said that I should tell
the man I loved that I love him…
-Wilcox: Wow, I thought you were
just going to say something about men being hairy and ugly, but follow advice
like that and you will be engaged by the end of the semester! Her first child
will be named after me, even if it is a girl… Bradette!
For the rest of class Wilcox kept referring back to Beauty
and the beast ;)
Here are some other great quotes from today’s class:
-Brother Wilcox was talking about how he had his student’s
sneak empty milk cartons out of the kitchen to raise interest in a story he was
reading to them. The lunch lady found out and complained to the principal who
told Brother Wilcox: “Brad, it’s probably not good to teach your kids to steal”
-‘You can’t tell me what we just read? We are going to
read it again’ Oh that’s good, let’s do more of what’s NOT working!
- It’s En-Sign people! Not en-zine or en-sin… En-sign. I
swear that’s what it is going to say on my Tombstone!
-What would rhyme with Cricket
-SWKT!
-She’s been at BYU too long… But wait we could do a BYU
version. Milk and WILK, Trouble and HBLL. It could work
-Tell them to come to the power of teaching lecture tell
them he’s really hairy and ugly but tell him you love him anyway (Last beauty
and the beast jab as we left class).
**Moral of Today- I LOVE my classes!
Oh and here is an amazing video that one of my friends shared a while back:
Sorry that this post was so long! Congratulations if you made it through...
I absolutely love Sister Oaks, and every time I hear from her I appreciate her so much more! She spoke in our regional conference today and it was great! She talked about how when things are not going our way it is not necessarily because we are doing something wrong. Often we are doing things right and instead of asking the Lord what we are doing wrong we should ask how we could do better than we are doing at the moment. I thought that this was a great point! We are not always doing something that will hinder us but we need to focus on what more can we do right and see the kind of improvement that can make in our lives.
This clip is from the CES fireside last September that Sister Oaks spoke in...
We
were talking about something in my Religion class that got me thinking of a
parallel between God and I. My teacher was talking about why we get married,
why we follow the word of wisdom, why we are charitable, etc. and the answer
given was that we do these things because God does these things. Think about
how happy he is when we follow in his footsteps? Now here comes the parallel...
When I was younger, and my young cousins were younger they looked up to me!
They would walk around with me and often, when I would do something they would
do the same thing. It was always exciting for me to have my cousins doing the
same thing as I. I loved feeling so important. I enjoyed the friendship that
came as a result. Now that I am older and they are older things are different,
they do not always follow me they entertain themselves and I always feel a
little left out because they do not pay so much attention to me anymore. Of
course they still like me and occasionally we will play but not as often. I
think that God probably feels the same way when we do not give as much
attention to him when we get busy, when we start slacking on our relationship
with him.
I was watching some of the Mormon Messages today and I found this one that I really liked, so here it is...
