The Ideal Learning Environment

My ideal learning environment is when everybody is congregated and brainstorming as one. In my experience, I have a hard time learning in a classroom where it was sort of an "every man for himself" type of atmosphere. In almost every successful classroom, kids work together. Even if it wasn't up to the classroom, it's within student-nature to congregate and create study groups. So why not remove all the scheduling stress for the students and learn in groups inside the class. Here's a great article on why learning as a team has so many benefits.
Here's some examples on how to reform your classroom.

From This   

 To This  

                          

Maybe you don't have to be this radical but it is the general idea. It may even be more subtle like partners or groups of four or five. Either way, incorporating teamwork is the way to go. 

My Portfolio

Here is my portfolio on wikispaces.

Learning Activity

I made a board builder activity on Discovery Education for phonic awareness. It's touches a lot of different sounds and how they are spelled. The english language is can be a little difficult to explain when it comes to phonic awareness and how they are spelled. I think the best way to learn is by repetition. 

Board Builder

My learning activity needs a cube and several items. You should to get short worded items and you can get a dice by making one using a template, or just any dice will work.

First, you can make a cube or just labeling an already made cube beginning, middle, and end twice on the cube. 

Then the box of items. 

You let students roll the dice and if it lands on beginning, it means whatever item they pick out of the box they have to guess the beginning letters or letter. 

Eg. I roll and it lands on "end." 

I pick out a watch. I would say it ends with an "ch" because a ch makes a CH sound. 

If the dice lands on beginning then you would say it begins with the letter "W" because it makes the "WH" sound. 

You can repeat over and over again and have fun with it while learning. They eventually will learn more awareness on how to spell things and how to sound things out when writing. 

NO, DAVID!

"No, David!" was always one of my favorite children's book. Written and illustrated by David Shannon, it can be seen in almost every elementary classroom.

This book is about a little boy who does bad things, just like every other little kid at his age. His mom yells "NO, DAVID" several times. It teaches kids that no matter how many times you do bad things or get yelled at, your parents still love you. It has a lot of repetitiveness like a bunch of children's book does. It definitely teaches what are the no no's in the house and etc. It has a very original illustration and entertaining to look at. The word "NO" is heard quite often. In the end of the book, it is finally closed by the word "yes," and followed by, "I love you." It's a break in a pattern which is a nice and innocent surprise for little kids ages 4-8.  It's a great book to real aloud to the class and I recommend even just reading it to your kids. 

It's important to ask questions throughout the book. Like, "Why can't David do this?" or "What would be a better way for David to do this without making a mess?"  For an activity, you could let your kids draw what their parents usually don't let them do. It lets them think and reevaluate why or why not they can't do something. And no matter what, you and their parents will still love them. 

Becoming a Teacher

Learning the information that you will teach and practicing it is important to how well you get to teach. You should look for a college that's fairly known for its education program. UNT in North Texas and University of Texas at Austin is well known for its education programs because there's a lot of hands on teaching and student internship. Here are some links for more information on those programs: UNT and UT

You can get certified numerous ways or get any degree depending on what sort of teaching job you want to have. It would cost 24,000 dollars to go to UNT each year and around 5,000 a semester with prices growing year by year. Overall you should~ 

*Invest Time in Teaching Intern programs

1. College Education

2. Credentials 

3. Find A Job (NY, NJ, and RI are the highest paying states with salaries up to $65,000 SD being lowest with $35,000)
4. Focus on Career!

Investing time in programs early on will help your credentials and reputation for your future career in teaching. Programs like Education and Training at the BCTAL could save time and money. I currently am taking the EAT class and find that it's very helpful and definitely prepares me for my future. 

Yes, Spelling Should Count

In the article, "Does Spelling Count," the writer is mainly pointing out how in today's education system we label things and slap any name we could think of on an education skill. It takes the life out of learning and makes schools seem like a military base. A big and very true point that the writer made in this article was when she said, 

"These children have been taught from a very young age that their "grades" matter more than the actual purpose of the assignment -- just like "subjects" trump true learning."

I agree with this statement very much. If you were to give students an multiple choice answer sheet and tell them that every single letter answer will be in order, they will memorize the letters, not the content. The harsh truth is that most kids don't care about the content. They care about their grades. If kids cared about content they wouldn't be asking, "Does spelling count?" 
The more we realize the actuality of how little kids care, the more we can work on it and get them to love learning. 

The Smartest Kids In The World Trailer

End of Year Video

Thank you everyone for this great experience.

The Smartest Kids in the World

Amanda Ripley was just a reporter who took an interest in the education system. As a result of this interest, she has written a book, " The Smartest Kids in the World." This book explores the education system around the world from the perspective of three forge in exchange students. It was very insightful and informative.  

One thing I've definitely accounted for Finland was that it had a very high standard for their teachers. Getting into school to be a teacher was like getting into Ivy league. I think this part of the education system is very full proof. Although, this will push out maybe even more passionate teachers. Just because teachers are very smart does not mean that less intelligent teachers would not have as much passion. I can say that passionate teachers have truly motivated the most. 

South Korea's education system really invests in the idea of studying and hard work. The whole nation is devout to education and it's described as an "anti-poverty" vaccine. The education system works but it comes at a very crude price; your time and almost like your soul. There was even a murder of a "tiger mom" and the murder was almost entirely blamed on the victim.The whole system takes education to an entirely different level. 

Poland is slowly in the middle of the change and I think they're on the right track for the most part. The education system there takes it slow and will probably come together really nice. 

Make a change for the Future

The key to education to making sure its standards are achieved is all up to the parents. That's right! Not the teachers, not the students, but the parents. Studies have shown in the UK that parents hold that centerpiece of support to really develop a child's learning as reported by Education news.

If you really think about it, growing up in the right environment is crucial to a student's goals in life. Everyone should be at least focused in education for even just a tiny amount. Unfortunately, their parents could care less. If the students in a normal classroom even with nothing out of the ordinary what makes you think you can force education onto the student? Then it'll be a hostile classroom. It is no longer suitable for anyone to learn. You cannot force someone to learn. But what you can do is teach them the importance of learning. This is not a job for anyone but the parents. Some parents could care less due to their own parents not caring either. This also cannot be easily undone either. So, the real root is to prevent this from happening ASAP. We need to support parenting classes as a requirement by laws. It will be a long road but this is the root of the problem in why so many students strive for the bare minimum. Although you can't force someone to learn, you can't take learning away from a person either.

Tribes

Education is always trying to be revolutionized and made better. That's a good start but we really need to be thinking about what actually works. The education system seems to think that the standardized testing, the better. The tribes method is a good method to keep the classroom together.  The tribes method brings the class together mentally and the students a sense of morals. The students should be learning to mutually respect others and other moral values that would help the classroom.

. Learning is not about just getting an answer right or wrong. It's about gaining the knowledge that the student desires to achieve. I'm pretty sure no student wants to grow up filling out answer keys for a living. A good way to help this revolution is to support the fight against standardized testing. You can support by signing a simple online petition at this website. We need to change as much as we can with the little things we can do. The tribes method is a good way to add a change in the classroom revolution.

Answer Garden

Answer Garden is a great way to brainstorm with the whole class. The teacher can make a question for the classroom and have them shout out answers or ideas. Or, the students can download the app and just type their answers into their phones. This is an easy way to get the classroom engaged and see where all your students are at. If you wanna see how many things that they know starts with a certain letter in a kindergarten class then let them shout them out and type them into the garden. 

It requires easy steps: 1. Go to Create Page 

2. Type Question 

3. Send Link

4. Watch Your kids brainstorm! 

There is no log in but they do recommend a password so you can edit your garden anytime.

When trying to assess your classroom in a engaging way, this app will get your students brainstorming to where you can actually see. 

My Glogster

This is a glogster about shapes. It's short and simple and I used two images; one image is a real life example while the other is a clip art.

Ron Clark Academy

The RCA is the best hands-on school a student can ever experience. It is the best place to learn and it's a non-profit school. The RCA training program is a teachers workshop is where they can learn to get students to strive and help them reach success with various methods.
The school is for grades 5th through 6th and admissions are processed only at a limited time. As a teacher, you can get training days for one day or two days(price varies). Hurry before they sell out!
The school is funded by donations of parents, alumni, gifts from companies, faculty, staff, and annual fund. So there's a lot of love that goes into this school and a workshop from there would be really worth it. Here's their website to find out all about The RCA.

My Wikispaces

My wikispace is my own personal website that had tons of information about me. It's important when teaching that you have a website for parents to look over if they'd like.
Wikispaces is a nice website that lets you create your own site for free.
Here is my own wikispace.