3 blogs down....

This weeks class was a very unusual schedule. While we usually meet 2 times per week, we were only able to meet once this time, because of the glorious snow that was sent to us!!  Anyways, in this weeks class meeting I was able to learn a lot and gain a plentiful amount of knowledge through teacher lectures, and class discussions. Whenever I heard on the first day of this class that we were going to have to "unpack standards" that phrase kinda scared me. I was thinking to myself, "I cannot do that", "I will never understand that", and "There is no way that, that is possible." Well, the day came, we were learning in class how to unpack standards but, the day I once dreaded turned around real quick. Once Dr. Clark started explaining the different techniques that she has used to unpack standards, it really was not a hard concept to grasp. I had to understand that there was a lot packed into one standard, for example from the Standard 1a1 when you look at it at first glance it seems like a lot but once you start to really study it, it becomes easier and easier to understand each standard. I actually enjoyed this class period because I was able to conquer my fear in this class. I cannot wait to go back Thursday and be able to learn a little more about how to "unpack standards."

It's not too bad!

After spending more and more time in the classroom, I am beginning to feel more and more comfortable with these people. I am really starting to enjoy this class, even though there is a lot of work that goes along with it, I enjoy the people and how we are really starting to gel together. The things that I was nervous about in the beginning are becoming less nerve racking, except for the flipped classroom certification, the whole process I am just really confused on. Some of the students are saying we have to do one thing and other students are saying we have to do another, and I just don't understand how we get certified, if we have to turn in a recording of us teaching a lesson or if we just answer the questions that we are given. But, other than that the class is great! I really enjoy being able to collaborate with students when we are having discussions within the classroom, it helps me be able to collect other ideas from people and understand where they are coming from. I learned that every professionals definition of literacy is different, but usually students have the same definition, because we do not fully understand the concept of literacy...yet! So far in this class (with the help of a scavenger hunt) I was able to find out a professionals view on literacy and she wrote "competency in reading, writing, and comprehension," which blew my mind because I was thinking, "wow, so it is not just about reading and writing, there is a whole different perspective on it." Anyways, so far I have learned a lot in this class, and I am so eager to learn a lot more!

Week 2 Blog

From the start of our Education 316 class until now, Dr. Clark has provided us so much material that will be helpful to us in our future classrooms. We have learned what a Candidate Learning Community is, and what it is constructed of, and lastly we have learned how to come up with an effective mission and vision for our classroom. I have learned that a Candidate Learning Community (CLC) is very important for success in schools nowadays. A CLC involves mostly just faculty members, but on rare cases such as when you are talking about a policy) there can be both administrative and parental involvement. When working within a CLC in your school, you do not need to just become comfortable within your own department, because CLC is all about collaboration, and figuring out 'what is the most effective way to enhance my students learning,' so within these CLC meetings, you will be able to gain both knowledge and understanding from your peers on the most effective way to teach a subject to your class. If you cannot already tell, the main idea that needs to be the center of every meeting is to "Help student learn." If we keep this our main goal, then everything should run smoothly. Within the CLC you have to have 5 main ideas that help you to achieve the goal of Improving Student Learning. The first one is Mission; you as a teacher need to set a mission that you would like to see happen within your classroom setting and also with your students. Secondly, provide a vision statement; it is also imperative to figure out how you are going to accomplish that mission and put it in a statement. Next is Values; make sure that your values are known within your classroom so that everyone will be respected. The fourth one is Goals, make a list of goals that you want to achieve throughout the year and hang it up in the classroom so that your students may have a visual of what they are expected to achieve. Lastly, develop Class Norms, come up with important rules and have them placed throughout your classroom so that the students know how they are expected to act at all times. So far this class has taught me how imperative it is to be a leader within the classroom (NCPTS Standard 1) and also how we need to establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of students (NCPTS Standard 2). The last thing that we did in class today was we came up with a personal mission and vision statement, then we came together as a class and agreed on  a mission and vision statement that we all wanted to achieve. This class has taught me a lot so far, and i cannot wait to learn so much more!