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Thanks to a family friend who is a teacher (and wonderful about sharing tips with me!), I discovered the program Photostory! I'm so excited about the possibilities with this program!

Essentially, Photostory creates a slideshow of your pictures. You can easily add music, text, and narraration. When I first read about it, it sounded similar to something you could do in Powerpoint. But, once I checked it out, I realized how much better it was! Photostory easily compiles all these elements for you.

The teacher who introduced Photostory to me said that she uses it in her Kindergarden class for show and tell. She takes pictures of the children with their belongings and then will post the Photostory on her class webpage. This allows the parents to see their children in school! This is especially good for parents who don't have the time to come into the classroom, because they are still able to see their children in school!

I've just downloaded the program, so I haven't had much of a chance to explore it, but I already have a project I'd like to attempt. I think Photostory would be a wonderful way to create a "virtual field trip." For a field trip lesson plan I had to create last semester, I went to Jamestown. While I was there, I took a ton of pictures. I think I could easily create a "virtual field trip" with these pictures. I could add my own narraration, and tailor the information to meet the SOLs. This would be a wonderful way for students to experience areas that are too far away for a field trip. And it is way more exciting than reading from a textbook!

Yay technology. I'm really excited to be able to try this out in my own classroom.

I want to have high expectations.

Ever since I started school, I have adored playing the part of the teacher. I set up an entire school room in my basement and scoured Goodwills for old textbooks. I begged my siblings to sit still for more hours of "school" after they got home from "real school" and even had a treasure box to reward those especially good students!

As I've gotten older and come to realize the other considerations that play into a career choice, I've debated the teaching profession. The salary, (sometimes) lack of prestige, never-ending work, and persnickety parents were all factors that led me to reconsider. But, I couldn't envision myself truly waking up excited for any of the other jobs.

So, naturally, I have high expectations for the path I've chosen. I expect that I'll wake up every morning thrilled to be in the classroom. I expect that my students will always make me laugh, giggle, and be excited to learn. I expect that I'll have fun at school everyday, something that is impossible in any other job I could have chosen.

And I'm scared that I'm wrong. This semester I've been in the school about three days a week. I'm starting to get a good feel for what it's all about, and it's not quite living up to my expectations. Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying it, but I'm just scared it won't be exactly as I've envisioned teaching.

Next semester, I'll student teach. I'm not going to lie. I'm petrified about student teaching. How will I ever be excited to teach every day if I'm starting out petrified? I'm scared the kids won't learn anything, I'll completely lose control of the classroom, my teacher will think I'm completely incompetent, I'll loose a student somewhere between homeroom and the cafeteria, or I'll simply burn out before I even graduate.

I'm excited, but the petrified feeling has pretty much taken over as I'm closely approaching student teaching. Why? I know I have the potential to do it, but somewhere along the way, I've lost my confidence.

I'm hoping that student teaching will be scary for a little bit, but end up reaffirming my desire to teach. I think of myself as an optimist, so I'd rather not go into this with low expectations. I want to go in with high expectations for myself, my class, my chosen profession.

The vulnerability scares me.

But it's a risk I'm willing to take.

"As pre-service teachers participating in practica and student teaching experiences in the schools, the SOE students are expected to meet or exceed the schools' expectations of appearance and behavior. Unkempt clothing, shorts, sandals, mini-skirts, bare midriffs, excessive body piercings, t-shirts, bare shoulders...are oftentimes unacceptable for school teachers. Students should dress professionally at all times in the schools, typified by slacks, skirts, collared shirts, ties, closed toed shoes, and the like." excerpt from Student Teaching Handbook

So don't get me wrong. I love sweatpants. I recently told my roomate that I sincerely believed sweatpants should become acceptable as daily casual wear. I'm a big fan of comfort.

But, I'm also a big fan of looking professional. Last semester, we had a long introduction to the School of Education. Somewhere in between testing requirements and evaluation forms, there was mention of appropriate dress. Being the eager student I was, I listened carefully and began mentally planning outfits for my first few visits to the school. Now, maybe I'm just excited to play teacher and dress the part, but I've noticed some slacking in the dress code department at my school.

Elementary school doesn't necessarily lend itself to high fashion. Kids throw up, wet their pants, wave magic markers and wipe their noses on the nearest adult. So naturally, I'm not expecting to see people in their most fabulous outfits. But I do expect to see slacks and a button up shirt,or something along those lines. I've surprised by the number of jeans that I've seen teachers and other faculty wearing. I've seen jean shorts, and even occasionally sweatpants!

Personally, I think we should try to hold ourselves to slightly higher standards. Although we are working with children (who can be more than messy at times), as teachers we are still professionals. By dressing the part, I feel you will demand more respect, and also expect more from yourself.

We've all heard the saying where you know a Mom has given up when you only see her in sweats. It's essentially the same thing when you see a teacher constantly dressing down.

So, here's to a challenge for all the teachers (and student teachers!)- don't forget that you are a professional as well! Dress the part!

I would like to do something similar to one of my classmates and reminisce about the past few months. This semester has been a busy one, but if we just think about this spring - when we get to teach all day our wonderful kids, it is inspiring. The 9 other people in my education classes have been wonderful companions and I, like Tiffany, hope we stay in touch for a long time. We are all quite different from each other, yet we all want the same thing - to be teachers. I realize today, after eating lunch with my cooperating teacher and the other first grade teachers at my school, that I am almost one of them. I feel almost like I am accepted in their group. One step closer to my dream.

I had this longer narrative planned, but at this time, this will suffice.

I was looking for some childrens books to read for my language arts class, and I came across some books about sexuality. I was shocked! I had no idea that they made childrens books that deal with sexuality. Some of the titles of the books were: King and King, Molly's Family, My Two Uncles, and so forth. What with all the stipulations on schools, with religion or whatever, I don't think there is anyway one would be allowed to read these books in their class. But suppose you do have a student (or students) with 2 mommies or 2 daddies!? I mean, the other students will find out i'm sure. Do you just ignore this like you might religious questions? I have heard some schools that have issues with christmas books or so forth, even with other religion books read as well, how would they respond to sexuality books?

I was reading this blog earlier at work, and it was talking about how their district is teaching sexuality and diseases in kindergarten! I can't believe that. Those kids can't even read when they get there! True, these days, middle school maybe too late to have those presentations, but kindergarten. I think that is too young and just ludicris. I'd like to know others thoughts on this topic!

In mid November, I taught my technology Implementation lesson on Jamestown. Which, by the way, I spent a lot of time working on, so y'all should check it out! That was an experience! My school does not have a computer lab, so I did my webquest with 7 kids sharing 3 computers. Because I wanted all the kids to experience the webquest (and the other two projects I had), I did not pick a select few to do the assignment with. However, realistically trying to do the webquest with 3 computers touching side-by-side and 7 kids, almost sitting in each others lap, was not a good idea. To add to that dilemma, my kids weren't very computer literate because unlike many neighboring schools, they don't have computer as a resource, and they don't start work with computers that much in kindergarten.

This was about a month ago, but since then, my school had gotten a lot more technologically advanced. While they still don't have a computer lab or smart boards, they do have two laptop carts with about 30 computers and every classroom the teacher has a laptop that connects to the screen that comes down. They also now have video cameras, which they didn't have before, and some other things. The other day, I got to watch my class being introduced to the laptop. The technology person talked about the rules and such, and the students task for that 35 minute lesson was to turn the computer on and off twice, which some of them had trouble with. For some, i'm sure this was the first time they ever touched a laptop. Seeing them that day made me think about my technology observations at other schools.

Because many of the schools in the neighboring county have computer labs, the students can interact with computers on a weekly basis starting in kindergarten. When I observed some k, 1st and 2nd grade classes, they were drawing and doing things on the programs, that I had no idea how to do. I just think it is amazing how much technology does matter. These kids are way more advanced tehcnologically than my kids; while that doesn't mean they are more intelligent, they do have 1 up on them. Since much of the present (and future) is technology based, essentially, they are ahead.

Today I had a rare and delightful experience... being able to kick back and visit with my cooperating teacher while the students were at P.E.! We discussed classroom management issues, talked about lesson plan ideas, and shared cute and funny stories about some of the students. Our conversation took a more serious note with the topic of "uninvolved" parents. She mentioned that one particular student's parents had not been in the classroom or even been in contact with her since the very beginning of the school year. No replies to notes sent home, no parent-teacher conferences, no communication whatsoever. At first, I was annoyed with the thought of how this inconsiderate behavior would make it difficult for the teacher. But my perspective and sympathy shifted from teacher to student when she commented, "Yeah, way to show your child you care about them, huh?"

What message does that send a child, when they draw a picture and leave a note for their parents on Open House day, and then the parents never go and miss that gift? Or when they're in a play at school, or have a special presentation, or a game for a sports team, and no one is there to see them and cheer them on?

I began to understand why this particular child is always seeking attention and seems so sensitive and "needy"... she's insecure. My feelings of frustration and annoyance at the parents turned to pity for the student. Every child needs and seeks encouragement and approval from those they love or look up to. Love is a basic human need. I began to understand how much of a void is left when they don't see it expressed. This really pulled on my heart strings! Knowing where this child is coming from sort of automatically increased my patience for her attention-seeking. More than anything, it reminded me of the critical role and incredible potential a teacher has, and it reinforced my determination to a make a difference in my students' lives. I can't be their parent, but as a teacher, I can show them that I sincerely care about them and their future. This is hope and desire for making a difference is the very core of why I want to teach.

While spending time in my technology practicum working with the technology teacher at my elementary school, I had the opportunity to assist a lesson of fourth graders who use the internet to track hurricanes. The lesson is really neat--the research the chosen hurricane, and once they have written an article on it (the end project is to create the front page of the newspaper from the day after it hit), they use GoogleImage to find pictures of the destruction. It is, as the tech teacher put it, "the carrot at the end of the stick".

While I was there, the class was transitioning from research to writing their "article", and some students even made it to the point where they searched for images. The teacher mentioned to me at the end of the lesson the differences in the level of students--not only was there an apparent difference between kids who could easily construct a paragraph and those that had trouble just forming a sentence, but also a difference between those that were familiar with computers and those that were not. And the kids who had trouble both typing and writing...their disadvantage compared to the rest of their peers was overwhelming.

The experience underscored for me the need to have technology integrated as much as possible. Students should learn how to print, write cursive, and type. And if we were only to teach two of those, I'd say cursive should be out first. Just as we're changing our definition of literacy, we need to rethink what we're asking when we want someone who can write. Because, more often than not, it will be more important to type information than it will be to print information.

I had to fill out a bunch of worksheets for a children's lit project I have for a methods course... and even after very little writing my hand really began to ache. Writing is hard work...and I'm out of practice--because I type everything. And typing should be considered an alternate form of recording. For a lot of kids, typing is a skill that could maximize their rapidity at recording information, which would help them to boost their academic performance.

Unfortunately, though, typing isn't taught in my elementary school at all--the technology teacher aligns all of his lessons with what the grades are doing from the SOLs. And, each class only sees him once every seven school days--not a lot at all. But not even one class period can remain untouched by the SOLs. And I'm not saying that kids should spend hours upon hours of doing typing drills--I certainly hated it. But at least the opportunity to learn should be available. Because otherwise, how are the kids who are behind going to catch up? Frustration with the tool (because they cannot type adequately) is certainly not going to encourage students to use technology more--and would probably discourage it.

I am posting an original recipie for an apple cake, because I love cooking, and while I love teaching, it's often refreshing to take off the teaching hat. It's a good season for apples so I think it's only appropriate, and with finals approaching, it's an even better season for stress eating. At least this has some fruit in it.
;o)

Did I mention that after teaching, I'd like to be a food critic? Mmmm. (I'm not gonna lie, I'm really looking forward to tasting all the food in Ecuador...)

Apple-Ricotta Kuchen
This cake has three layers: a hearty cake base, a cheese middle, and a layer of sliced apples on top.

Cake base:
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 c. plus 2 tbsp sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c. all-purpose flour (or for a gluten-free version, I recommend Bob's Red Mill millet flour)
1/2 c. almond meal (can be purchased at Trader Joe's, or made by processing almonds in a food processor until the texture of soft sand; but, can be substituted with flour if necessary)

Preheat oven to 375. Beat butter and sugar until light, add eggs one at a time and beat after each. Beat until fluffy. Add vanilla and and fold in flour and almond meal. Spoon into buttered and floured pan (I used a 9-inch cake pan lined with parchment instead of flour and butter, because that's what we have in our dorm room, and it worked perfectly). Set aside.

Cheese Mixture:
1 1/4 c. skim ricotta cheese
1 egg
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt

Combine all ingredients. Spoon on top of cake batter carefully to keep layers separate.

Apples: Peel and slice 2 apples. Arrange apple slices on top of cheese mixture. (Optional: soak or sprinkle the apple slices with apple juice before placing them onto the cake for extra flavor or moistness). Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon.

Bake cake in the oven about 45 minutes, or until the center of the cheese mixture has set. Allow to cool sufficiently and enjoy.

Bon apetit!

I just have to say it... I adore my classmates. I don't think I could be any luckier to have such intelligent and committed people to work with every day. It's so funny reading everyone's blogs because I can hear them saying it--I hear Rachel reading her blog with her softly southern voice that packs a punch when it needs to; Brittany when she hesitates before her face lights up in a smile; Meg when she talks about her kids. It's funny how clearly your voices come through. It's probably easier because we spend so much time together...but I take reassurance that even when we're all in our separate classrooms there's still hope that we can stay together by blogging.

I had the fortune to watch several of my classmates' implementation projects. It's been so interesting to see the ways in which they have chosen to use technology in their classrooms--a couple have gone to the lab and conducted the lesson there; and others have used laptops within their regular classrooms. The experiences have varied--while I would say that hands-down, every lesson was a success--most of us (except for Emily) walked away feeling like it was just a failure. It is really hard teaching a class, one class, a lesson with technology--essentially it means that it is up to us to establish procedure for technology (none of our teachers really had that in place) while asserting ourselves as their teacher (our capacity has mostly been to observe). It was no small challenge.

What I think I learned from this, though, is that the best use of technology is consistent and sustained. The logistical challenges to getting our lessons done were huge. And yet... if we were in our own classroom, we would probably spend at least a whole class period rehearsing procedures for technology. So this implementation project asked us to do a lot, and in doing so, I think, helped us to grasp the ideal situation with technology and why it is that ideal--make use of technology regular so that it is integrated into the children's classroom experience.

What was really remarkable, though, was the excitement of all of our students to be using technology. To have students that excited about anything was awesome. It caught me off-guard, actually--they just loved using laptops or the lab. It feels almost gimicky to use the technology to engage the students...but...engagement leads to better learning...I'll take whatever gimmick I can get.

In Scholastic's magazine for November/December, they promoted Imbee as a free and safe site for parents, teachers, and students to connect and blog. I felt so ahead of the game as Professor Nussbaum-Beach has already gotten us on that bandwagon.

I've decided that instead of going straight to the elementary classroom, and instead of getting a masters', I'm going to spend 10 or 11 months in Ecuador teaching English and becoming fluent in Spanish. The more I think about the idea, the more excited I become. I love being fluent in a language (French), but it will be so much better when I'm fluent in a language that more people use! And, for the classroom, well, it would just be fantastic.

I hope that I will have access to computers and to internet at my teaching site in Ecuador. There are so many resources online that make language teaching not only easier, but more meaningful. It'd be great to partner with an American class to have an exchange through blogging. Or even Skype, as Malini pointed out in her post about Chris Craft's blog.

And then... the possibility of being fluent (at least functionally fluent) in Spanish just has my mind reeling with so many great teaching opportunities. I would love to work with Hispanic communities--what a difference it could make for these families to be able to talk to their child's teacher in Spanish! Even just to be able to incorporate some Spanish into the every-day routine, or be able to offer a center on Spanish (Spanish AND French!!!). Gee wiz, I just love teaching elementary students and I just love foreign languages. It's too bad that they don't intersect often enough.

After teaching my technology lesson, I had the chance to observe a friend teach hers in a 5th grade classroom that opened my eyes to a deeper perspective of teaching with technology. Her lesson was phenomenal! She had the students using the school laptops to learn longitude and latitude by tracking hurricanes. I was extremely impressed with the entire thing. What I was most impressed with was how she handled everything. She did a wonderful job teaching the lesson. The students obviously had experience with computers, but the novelty of having laptops created a surge of excitement, along with some rather uncooperative and disruptive behavior. What did not help was the fact that her cooperating teacher skipped out on the whole thing, and was not there to help. I marveled at how she remained composed and kept going, despite the students' behavior and even through technological glitches. What I learned is that technology can be a wonderful tool for education, but the students have to be taught how to use it before expecting them to use it to learn any content. I now understand how necessary it is to also have the proper support in the classroom to monitor and facilitate learning with technology. It can be a powerful and effective tool, but only when these things are in place.

Today I was walking down the hall with my cooperating teacher when we ran into one of her former students. Haze, who is now in the third grade, had been in my teacher's first grade class two years ago. She ran up, said hello, and gave her a hug. My teacher had to set something down on the table in a nearby classroom, and while she was gone from the hall for just those few seconds, Haze turned to me (a complete stranger to her) and gave me the biggest hug I've ever recevied from a child. She was very friendly and had no hesitation in talking with me. She wore a constant smile and her eyes sparkled. She had a cute, fuzzy, white hat on, which almost completely hid the fact that she has no hair. Haze has cancer. And yet she is happy and radiates a rare and true joy to everyone in her midst, inspite of her suffering and the struggle of fighting for her life. My teacher shared a little bit about her, especially how much of a "trooper" she is and how she never complains. How could a third-grader experience such painful and disheartening circumstances and still be overflowing with love to share with others around her? Somehow my own struggles and challenges now seem so trivial. I'm ashamed to think I complained about the paper I have to write, or the parking space I couldn't find. Today I was amazed and deeply touched by a young girl who values what matters most- and who has the wisdom and courage to share it, even with a stranger, through a simple hello and generous hug. She is a great deal wiser then so many beyond her age, and I am thankful to her for reminding me of what is important in life, how we really should live, and how much of a gift each day truly is.

When December 1st rolled around you could see it in the classroom...it is the holiday season. And with the holiday season brings the end of the semester. I now have two semesters of my "Teaching with Technology" class under my belt and looking back (to do a little reflecting, as we as preservice teachers often do) I have learned so much from this whole experience.

I have seen, learned about, and created things that have brought ideas to life using technology that before could only be found in textbooks. It is amazing the resources that we, as teachers, have at our finger tips because of the internet. We are able to see all that others are doing, share ideas, which is becoming even more important in a world governed by standards that decide our worth, we need to be able to help one another! This semster alone I was introduced to the world of webquest, sites such as Elluminate (which is amazing by the way!), and most impressively the K-12 Online Conference. And although I could not particpate while the conference was ongoing, all the materials are still there avaliable for me to look at. I particularly find the work of John Pearce who comments on blogs and other web related activities for students, particularly his third graders. Which was interesting because I am placed in a third grade classroom and have some of those same concerns. I loved the way the students could rate how much they liked or disliked the bloging and other activities because I am always worried about how the student feels.

I have enjoyed these past two semesters, my eyes have been opened to a new world. I hope that I continue to look toward the world of technology and blogging especially in my own classroom. In a few months I will be a full time student teacher, it's a scary thought, but a good one at that because hopefully I can continue to use more technology in my classroom to create a unique learning environment that can fit all of my students! (reaching all learning types is one of the ways I have seen technology used most effectively) I just can't wait!

Right before the Thanksgiving break, I taught my technology lesson for my Implementation Project. I was really excited about this one because I knew it would be fun! I worked with my classmate, Emily, in developing the lesson, under the guidance of our cooperating teachers. The actual planning of the lesson proved to be somewhat difficult at first. After developing our first lesson, we quickly realized we had grossly overestimated the computer skills of most first-graders. Because I haven't had much experience teaching with technology (and unfortunately don't see it too often in the classrooms), I really didn't know what the students were capable of. Our cooperating teachers, as well as the computer teacher, advised us and really helped us develop a lesson that would both meet objectives of the curriculum and engage the students at an independent level.

We found a book called, "A Plump and Perky Turkey" by Teresa Bateman, and used it for the literature portion of the lesson. Our cooperating teachers had previously taught a unit on the different components of a story (i.e.- characters, setting, etc.), so this served as a review for them. They had not yet learned about the plot, or sequence of important events of a story, so this was the primary focus of our lesson. We developed a Kidspiration activity that would assess the students' comprehension of the material taught and which involved the students classifying the characters, different settings of the story, and the sequence of important events into their respective categories from a picture bank. This matched several first grade Technology and Language Arts standards (according to Virginia's Standards of Learning).

Overall, I think the lesson went very well! The students loved the story (as did their teachers!), and they seemed to grasp the concepts we taught. Some students had difficulty putting the events of the plot in order, but this was their first experience in doing anything like this. Most of them caught on quickly. What made me smile was how excited they were to be going to the computer lab for a language arts lesson!

This experience taught me that technology can be easily incorporated into "regular", conventional subjects. Before having this experience of planning a lesson with technology and actually teaching it, I thought using technology was a wonderful way of making lessons more interesting and I wanted to use it, but I sort of assumed that it would require a tremendous deal of effort and could only be applied to limited topics or subjects that catered to creativity and ingenuity. While some pieces of this may be true to a degree, I now truly see how technology can facilitate the learning of a concept even better than more conventional methods for a subject. Something as "normal" as a story in language arts can use technology and it didn't require a "computer geek" or "Teacher of the Year" to come up with it! I've been encouraged, and eagerly look forward to future opportunities to use technology in the classroom!

For my Social Studies Curriculum class, we were assigned to visit a museum and plan a lesson surrounding the student's visit. My third grade class goes to the Mariner's Museum (Newport News, VA) every spring, therefore I thought that I would visit this museum in preperation for my student teaching. -- one lesson plan down, many many more to go.

As I arrived at the museum, which was recently rennovated and absolutely beautiful, I was not sure what to expect inside. Of course I had gone online and did basic research on what I could find there. I knew the museum has various different exhibits all documenting maritime history, but I really had no idea what to expect.

I knew that I wanted my students to participate in the Age of Explorers docent-lead tour, but I needed more information on what the students would be learning in order plan my lesson. When I came up to the counter, two wonderful employees quickly came to my assistance. Each employee was also a teacher and worked at the museum on the weekend as a side job. They knew exactly what I needed and were very helpful. However they could tell me all about the museum but little about the tours offered. The education department was not avaliable on the weekends, but still I was led on a private tour of what my students would be seeing and other interesting parts of the museum. I left feeling very excited for my next visit, yet I still did not know too much about the program I was about to commit to.

I again looked online and this time I took my time to navigate through the website. It was AMAZING all of the information I found. The website is actually a huge resource of information on maritime history. It has many articles from its 1,750,000 item library avaliable online. I was able to find the entire curriculum that would be covered in the Age of Exploration tour. But most importantly I found activities and lesson plans that the museum recommends for students before or after their visits. The lessons could be used for almost any aged students and most were legitimate, but just needed to be personalized. It was great!

I think that it is great that a museum is catering to a larger audience (the student, teacher, and parent) by provided such a wealth of information online. In an age when time is so precious it was great to see so much information on the programs avaliable from anywhere with internet access. It also allowed those who are not able to travel to the Mariner's Museum to retrieve much of the information one would recieve from a tour-pictures, movies, and articles are avaliable. Maybe I am just behind the times, but I was and still am very impressed with how much we are able to learn through the internet, no longer do we have to travel to museums to learn the information, although I am still a full believer that nothing can be better than the in-person visit, but this allows those who can't to be that much closer!

K-12 Online Conferencing: Personal Professional Development
"Toward a System of Online Curriculum Development"

"Teachers are busy people," a quote from Robert Lucas and Kevin Driscal's podcast. The podcast I listened to basically summed up the generalization I have learned in my second semester of the School of Education. Even though I do not spend all my time in the classroom yet, I have already spent many hours planning lessons and preparing materials for my fifth grade class. Robert and Kevin's approach to sharing lessons online may become my new best friend as I transition to student teaching in the spring.

I also liked the quote that "it takes longer to find a quality lesson online than to plan one yourself." I couldn't agree more. I know I have it better than the teachers of the past because of my access to Google and all the education websites geared to help teachers. However, it is difficult to filter through what lessons are applicable in the classroom and which are less useful.

Giving teachers the opportunity to collaborate with a creative common license really captures the essence of what teaching is all about. Sharing ideas, tweaking them to your preference, and becoming reflective practicioners are key to creating good teachers. In the world of education, teaching is not a competition; it is a combined effort to prepare the youth of our society for the real world. Teachers main objective is to equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to accomplish their goals and dreams, and teacher collaboration facilitates this unifed goal.

I plan to visit this site in the future and bookmark it as I prepare for the many upcoming lessons that I must plan and teach. Robert Lucas and Kevin Driscal have created an innovative approach to teaching that will help make the lives of teachers better throughout the world!

This past Saturday, I was skimming through "People" while working out. I noticed an article about something called "School on Wheels" and decided to see what it was all about. The article described a school for homeless children, founded by Agnes Stevens.

When I searched for more information on Agnes Stevens, a newsclip came up on YouTube.


This videoclip gave more information about her program and interviewed a few of the children that had been helped by her program. I'm in awe of this undertaking. I've seen the challenge teaching brings when in a structured classroom. Knowing that, I'm extremely impressed by the volunteers who run this program. It's wonderful to know that there are programs like this out there for students who easily "fall through the cracks" in public schools. Hopefully this is a program that will grow enough to branch out into other cities.

I was reading an article about a new teacher changing her classroom rules midway through the semester. She gave several reasons for the changes, and most of them were not as a direct result of what she had done. The main reason behind the changes included communication, the principal did not clearly share with her what classroom management support system the school had, then when she did learn what the school has the principal failed to include the fact that level of intervention was restricted to the principal or vice-principal.

This is a wonderful lesson for a new teacher, I will know to ask those questions of my first principal, I think Kunai-gurl was correct in a classroom management model must be adjusted to the students you are teaching, but I think there must also be a level of consistency. The principal could be more consistent in sharing the school’s policies with a new teacher, and the new teacher must be consistent in how she provided management rules in their classroom. I spent many years as a basketball official, and game management was always a significant issue, the players did not seem to mind a foul called on them as long as the same foul was called for the same infraction by the other team. All the problems for officials happen when a foul on one team is not a foul on the other for the same infraction. As I move from being a pre-service teacher to a full time one, I hope I can continue the consistency I have learned and bring it into my classroom.

I was reading articles on standardized tests, and I found this one on NCLB, as a football fan, and a pre-service teacher, I just had to add it to my Blog. Thanks to Liz Ditz for sharing it.

Did you see NCLB–The Football Version?

Author Unknown

l. All teams must make the state playoffs, and all will win the championship. If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable.

2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time and in the same conditions. No exceptions will be made for interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL

3. Talented players will be asked to work out on their own without instruction. This is because the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren’t interested in football, have limited athletic ability, or whose parents don’t like football.

4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, and 11th games.

5. This will create a New Age of sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimal goals.

If no child gets ahead, then no child will be left behind.