handwritten on November 19, 2014
Three weeks ago, I began a Realistic Fiction Unit using the Benchmark Curriculum Series for Reading and Writing. I was unsure exactly how to start this unit, but I soon realized it would be quite the adventure. Although our Benchmark Series gives us mentor texts to use throughout each unit, I decided to abandom the mentor text and come up with some of my favorite Realistic Fiction books of all time. I began the unit with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Many of my students loved this book and had also seen the movie, which added to their interest. Before reading the book, I introduced the term "Realistic Fiction" to my students as "something that could have...
handwritten on November 2, 2014
I do feel bad I have not written in quite some time! I cannot believe that October has ended and November has just begun. This, by far, has been the quickest fall I have ever encountered. I recently started a Picasso Geometry Unit (last week) and I am extremely excited about what is to come. I have now taken over the math block and will continue to take over a new subject each week until my student teaching placement is complete. My last day is December 23, 2014.
I began my geometry unit by introducing Pablo Picasso to my students. Pablo Picasso was one of the biggest artists during the Cubism movement! The first week, we practiced locating and naming shapes, sides and vertices by looking...
handwritten on September 7, 2014
A couple of months ago, I posted a creative writing piece about what I believed was the "things I know to be true" as a pre-professional teacher. Ironically, this past Friday, I experienced one of these "things," that I had written about previously. In my poem, I had always found the most important line to read "the students must know that teachers are students and, most importantly, people just like them." On Friday afternoon, I experienced what I'm sure many would label "silliness due to exhaustion." During the middle of a lesson, my mentor teacher and I were modeling how we wanted a specific activity to be run, and we began to laugh uncontrollably in the middle. Some may ask, well what...
handwritten on August 22, 2014
This week, I participated in a variety of professional development sessions/meetings at O'Hara Elementary as well as Hartwood Elementary. I found all of the sessions to be extremely beneficial. Particularly, I found the session on the online gradebook to be fascinating. For the most part, I have had very limited experience using an online gradebook system to relay important messages to parents/record grades on activities and assignments. Although it will take some time getting used to this system, I am eager to get started. In addition, I think it is important that I become familiar with the evolving technology out there so that I am confident using such technology by myself when I am a...
handwritten on August 14, 2014
Unfortunately, in the chaos that ensued during my final Spring semester of my undergraduate career at the University of Pittsburgh, I was unable to reflect upon what I consider to be the most important experience of my time at The University of Pittsburgh. Throughout my time as a student, I spent a considerable amount of time tutoring students from inner-city Pittsburgh. After becoming a teaching fellow through Summerbridge Pittsburgh for a summer, I realized the importance of a strong tutor for students who may attend schools that are not meeting his or her needs. After working at Margaret Milliones for a semester as well as tutoring students through the Summerbridge Pittsburgh program, I...
