And we're off!!

Brooke Myrick
Dr. Parker
Elementary Education 250
1/31/18

And We're Off! 

Wow! I have begun my first elementary education class in the Spring of 2018. Going into the class I was unsure how I would be taught how to teach others. Somehow the first class had made me feel as if I was already behind! I have mother nature and snow days to thank for that great start! Things settled down once I figured out how to use Google Docs and Dr. Parker's Blackboard. Just when things felt settled, I attended the student orientation hosted at Gardner-Webb for all Education Majors. I met tons of new people and by the end of the day, I knew this class was going to be rigorous. I enjoyed being a "student" in the classroom for other students to practice teaching and lesson plans on me. It gave me a lot of great ideas for when my time has come to do the exact same thing! Shout out to September 8th!! I had my work cut out for me, I had liability and volunteer forms and even background checks all due days later on a foreign website called Taskstream. I was tweeting about class and questions I was unsure about! I think my followers are loving the hashtag #educ250! We examined all sorts of standards and how to "unpack" them effectively. Standards are the requirements and expected as a teacher you are required to cover. Fortunately, North Carolina has a handy-dandy list of every standard for every grade, skill level, and class. It is called the NCSCOS which stands for the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. Throughout the class so far I have realized teachers LOVE acronyms making this is one of the many that is being ingrained in my head. Another great acronym "KUD" stands for know, understand, and do. This helps unpack standards to better comprehend what the objective of each standard. As a teacher, it's important for me to determine what my students already know by using their past experiences and knowledge. When teaching a lesson it is vital to start building off of previous understanding to increase the amount of comprehension. Previous understandings could be facts, vocabulary words, places, dates, and examples. If the students clearly KNOW these things they will be better prepared to build upon that information and learn.  After teaching the engaging lesson during the teacher input students should be challenged to expand but not overwhelmed completely. Guided practice and individual practice is important to make sure the students understand the new information. This can be determined if the students feel confident within the new information and are able to make correct assumptions or get correct answers by themselves. The last and most important part of the acronym is the "DO"! This truly tests the students and makes them apply the new information and concepts to everyday life. The "do" is what every teacher aims to do within every lesson and what I hope to accomplish daily in my future classroom!! There were many ways shown to me on how to make a lesson engaging. Dr. Parker had us walk around outside while listening to a podcast of the lesson on our phones. He called it a walking classroom, I was surprised at how much more information I retained from the lesson from being active while listening. This idea of a walking classroom would definitely be an idea I would hope to explore in my future classroom. Dr. Parker also used many teaching tools on his computer that could tell you how loud the classroom was being and how much time students still had to work! I thought these were great and hope to implement them into my classroom as well. I could use them when the students are in guided or independent practice to control their noise level and to also make sure it is clear how much time they have left to continue working. Outside the class elementary education 250, I have also been researching ways a teacher can keep control and respect in his/her classroom. The best way to gain the respect from the kids is to be consistent! If you say you're going to have a consequence you must go through with it if the rule is broken. This will show the students you are not messing around. Be confident and do not show that you are uncomfortable when assigning a punishment when a rule is broken. If that doesn't seem to work many websites suggested moving the seating chart around so the students can better focus on learning by not being around their friends. I am really excited to go visit the schools in Febuary! Many more updates to come! Thanks for reading and joining me on my pathway through elementary education!!