Almost at the end..

This school year is almost to an end. That means that the BIG presentation for this class is coming up. Now that is a scary thought. All of the work I have put into this project has to be drawn all together and made into a 40 minute presentation. I have to make sure that everyone can make it to my presentation, which will be on June 3 at 11:30 am. I am quite nervous; however, I hope that everything goes well and comes together nicely. I have to talk to my sponsor and mentor and go over it with them. Some things that worry me are not being up there long enough, or not being able to talk in front of all those people; many thoughts are going through my head about this final part of this class, although I am going to have to overcome those fears! Just wish me luck! (:

Peom I read to the class

A stranger you were once.

Then, with a gentle look you took my hand.

As our lives engaged,

you lit my life and I held both your hands.

Now that decades have passed,

our souls have indeed become one.

How fortunate we are

that we have found the love so true

that everyone dreams about.

I read this to the class today, in respect for National Poetry Month. (:

Beginning of a great week (:

Even though it is Monday, I just feel like this week is going to be a good one! I believe that the weather has a lot to do with it. Since it is so nice out, everyone just seems to be in a good mood! (: I woke up on the right side of the bed this morning and so far everything has gone the right way! Hopefully we win our softball game today against Camden because that would just make me even happier. This week will be a good one and I plan on being in this great mood all week. Even though we have 6 games this week, it will still be good and hopefully we win some of them! Also, I hope that the weather stays warm like this because it brightens everyone's mood! (:

What's going on...

So I had my weekly meeting with my mentor yesterday and we talked mostly about my big presentation coming up, too quickly. I was telling her that I am going to put together an actual lesson plan and teach it to my sponsor's third grade class. Miss Oswald thought it was a great idea and I also mentioned to her that I wanted to teach math! Then, I began telling her that Mr. Abrams was mentioning how I could use the SmartBoard. She then showed me some really neat things with the software. There are so many little things to learn about it and so much to use and do; I cannot wait to teach myself how to use the SmartBoard, but most of all to actually get up and teach the students. I do need to come up with an exact date for my sponsor, so that way she can give me a topic that the students are learning. This way I will be on point. I am going to talk to Miss Oswald today and get her opinion on when I should do my lesson plan. I'm going to need enough time to make up my lesson plan and prepare it for my presentation. Can't wait to actually get this all rolling!! (:

The Dictionary Game

Today we played a game in class to help us better our skills in public speaking. First, Mr. Abrams showed his skills by talking about the word, ding-dong. Turk randomly opened the dictionary and pointed to the word ding-dong and that is why Mr. Abrams had to get up and talk about it. He went on for about 2 minutes, with no problem at all. After he was done, he then picked a word for Cindi, which was improve. She got up in front of the class and talked about what it meant to improve and examples of improvement. Cindi talked in front of us for a little over a minute, she hesitated a little bit, but I definitely give her props for getting up at all!
This game was to help us be able to public speak better. We are going to need all the practice we need in order to make our big presentations at the end of this class. It gets very nerve racking having to get up and talk in front of people- and I HATE DOING IT! Maybe if we play this game several more times before our presentations, it will better prepare us. This game might just be the trick to help motivate us to get in front of people and speak with no problem. Everyone always has a problem with public speaking, but once you have the experience, you will do fun. The key to it, is just to HAVE FUN!! (:

letter to ms. carroll

Dear Ms. Carroll,

Senior Project Seminar is a class that lets everyone’s personality come out, in the way they want to be seen. For example, I would like to become an elementary school teacher; therefore, I picked elementary education for my project. My product part of this is to develop a lesson plan and actually teach my sponsor’s third grade class. I feel that this will provide me with great experience in my field of study. After I teach the third grade class, I will present my lesson to my Senior Project class, and maybe they will learn something as well. My project is unique and creative because it gives me a way to express the teaching techniques I have learned from sitting in Mrs. Teti’s class. Also, this will be a way to get a feel of what I would be in for, if I definitely decide to become an elementary school teacher.

By completing this project, I will learn and develop many skills in the field of my choice. For example, so far I have learned that being a teacher is not an easy job at all! There are some students that just don’t care and will do whatever they can to get attention from the class; in my opinion that is just absurd. However, by seeing the ways that Mrs. Teti deals with those students, it has shown that if you know what you are doing in the field of education, then you can deal with them easily. Also, there are so many different styles of teaching, and I have learned different sayings and games to play; instead of just getting up in front of the class and lecturing. To help me with my project and product, I have asked my sponsor and mentor to guide me along the way; however, it is all on me to get it done and the way I want it. I’m sure along the way I will encounter problems; for example, time I have and need to put into it, and the knowledge of the study to make my lesson plan polished. An elementary school teacher is not an easy job!



Sincerely,

Aliccia

Question & Answer

Q: What are you going to do over break to keep your project's music playing?

A: Over break, it will not be possible for me to see my sponsor because Lindenwold schools are closed for spring break. Therefore, in order to keep in touch with her I am going to be e-mailing her over the break. I want to ask her questions about my lesson plan because I brought up the idea to her and she thinks it's a great idea! She just wants to know what week I would be teaching, so then that way she can get me a topic that will correspond with what the students are learning at that time. She also gave me the choice of what I want to teach and a list of the times when each lesson is taught. So hopefully over break I can make a final decision of what subject I would like to teach and the week that I want to teach it. As soon as I decide, I will be on my way to producing my product. After I define and polish out the lesson plan, I can have it finished and ready to present to my Senior Project class; hopefully, they will learn something out of the lesson as well!
To keep in touch with my mentor over break (Ms. Oswald), I plan on seeing her basically every day. Since she is one of the softball coaches, it is easy to talk with her on the way to games and at practices. There are five games over break, so I will be seeing plenty of her. (: Maybe she will have some helpful input on what I should teach and a week I should teach it. Well this is what I plan on doing over the break to keep my project rolling, now I just have to keep up on it the entire time!

My Product

So I have thought more about my product I want to present along with my project. I was going to e-mail my sponsor to see if she could give me one of her lesson plans to look off of as an example. I really want to see if I can make up my own lesson plan and use the smartboard, which would mean getting to learn how to use that too. After I make my lesson plan and everything is finalized, I will not only present it to the class, but see if I could really teach the lesson to Mrs. Teti's class. Therefore, that would mean I would need to get a lesson topic off of her, so it would be something the class is learning at the time. This would really keep me interested and would be great experience in the field! Before I make this a definite idea, however, I want to talk to Miss Oswald (my mentor) and see what she thinks about the idea. Or maybe she will have more ideas! I will never know until I talk to her today (:

When I met up with Oswald today, I brought up my idea of my product to her. She thought it was a great idea and would give me wonderful experience! I definitely think I am going to do this, so I will e-mail Mrs. Teti today and see what she thinks. Hopefully, she can provide a lesson that I could develop a plan for, in order to teach her class. I cannot wait to get this product rolling because this will actually keep me interested! (:

My Idea for my Product...

I don't know exactly what my final product is going to be. I mean I have ideas for it, but I don't have a definite idea of what it will be exactly. My whole project deals with elementary education, so there are many different topics about it- but what exactly could be my PRODUCT!? I have no idea! Maybe I will talk to my sponsor and see if I could develop a lesson plan. I could pass out a copy to everyone of my lesson plan and prove to them what I would want to accomplish for the lesson... this is a start, but I don't know if this would be good! So let me know what you think (:

Finally.. (:

We finally handed our 6-page research paper in, and it feels like a lot of weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I was just excited to get it away from me because I was beginning to get frustrated over the matter. However, I was not happy at all with my finished product. It did not seem like quality material to me. I did do most of the paper ahead of time and worked on it a lot the past week in class; it just still did not seem complete to me! So I would like to work on the paper more because my sponsor is supposed to give me a lot of cool information supporting my thesis- that information might make my paper much better! (: When I receive the information from her I will add it to my paper and keep you guys updated!