My First “Class”

Lauren, Mariah, and Julia

When I was 8, a family who had newborn triplets moved in the house down the street. They had a night nurse named Abby. Throughout the past 12 years, I have watched those triplets and they just celebrated their 12th birthday on Dec. 2. A few years ago, I received a call from their mom and she asked me if I remembered Abby. She told me that Abby and her husband had just had triplets and they called her to see if she knew anyone who would be able to watch their triplets. I was the one she thought of so I went over and babysat them and I’ve been with their family ever since. I think of those girls more like nieces! They were truly my first class! I did lots of academic activities with them; helping them learn to write and spell their names and count. I would even experiment techniques with them that I learned in class! They are such a joy and now they are 5! Of course, they are the smartest students in their class!

My Inspiration

This is a picture of my mom and me in the summer of 2007. My mom has a lot to do with my decision to become a teacher. My mom gave me a lot of skills and ideas I have that would make me a great teacher. My mom was a teacher herself and then when she started having children she quit. When my younger brother was in middle school, she began substitute teaching. My mom was my inspiration for becoming a teacher. Unfortunately, I am also discussing her for another reason. Tomorrow, it will have been one year since she passed away from a four year battle with cancer. This year hasn’t been easy, but this past week has been extremely rough. When I started college, I was double majoring in elementary education and mass media. My mom always told me that I would be a great news reporter, but she just knew I was mean to be in the classroom. Over the holiday break last year, I woke up one morning and just knew I was supposed to be a teacher. I fimly believe this revelation came from a little help from my mom. I never knew that when I was 19 I would lose my mom to cancer, but I can honor her in many ways, and one of those ways is by being a great teacher. Instead of being sad all of the time (trust me I still have my moments), I try and stay as positive and determined as she was through her battle. My mom passed down her love for children, her love for teaching, her kindness and her patience (just to name a few) to me and I will use them to the best of my ability to become a teacher that she will be proud of. My mom was truly my inspiration for becoming a teacher.

Topics in Early Childhood Education

This blog is by a man who is a professor at the University of Utah and has dedicated lots of years to education. He was a teacher and then in charge of an early childhood program at a large district in Utah. This is an interesting blog, but one post really caught my attention. He was discussing how he wanted to help his students be better teachers, because that is one big problem with education right now. Yes, it is tough having a low salary and student with behavior issues, but the real problem is the poor teachers. Teachers don’t need to give up so easily and if they do, they shouldn’t be teachers. He wanted to teach his students to be better teachers, I hope he succeeds in this endeavor, because we need good teachers.

Elementary Teacher Blog

This is a very humorous and helpful blog. If you have a day and you just feel like no one knows what you are going through, it is quite possible that this teacher has talked about it on her blog. She speaks of one situation that I thought was extremely funny because it shows a child’s innocence. They had a reward party after every month for students who read 20 minutes a night. At this reward party, the students get prizes and ice cream. The teacher discusses a conversation she had with one of her students who stated “I’m not in it for the prizes.” The teacher believed he would say “I do it because I like to read” or something of that sort. Then the student said, “I’m in it for the ice cream!” This makes me believe that at the time students are completing tasks like ready for 20 minutes a night, they don’t realize they are doing it to make themselves better, but to get a prize. I think that this is a good idea, a good way to have students better themselves. We need to make sure though that students don’t believe that they will receive a prize or treat after every time they do something they are supposed to do.

Elementary School Blog

The elementary school blog on my blog post is a very interesting blog. Although it has not be updated since 2005, it offers many interesting ideas and links. One website it offered that was interesting to me was one about White House Kids, especially with the election of Barack Obama, this would be interesting because he has two elementary-aged children. It would be fun for students to read about kids their age who have a father who is now the president.

What a teacher makes…

I really liked this video. Everyone NEEDS to watch this. Even though I don’t quite agree with a gesture (you’ll see what I mean), Taylor Mali presents many excellent points. Sometimes people tend to forget all that teachers do, and if they have forgotten, they need to watch this.
It is definitely beautiful (you’ll understand after you watch!).

A song for high schoolers?

When I first saw this, I thought it would be great for kindergarten or first graders, and then I saw the info that said it was done in a TENTH grade classroom. I don’t know why the teacher did it, but it would make a great song for little ones!

No Teacher Left Behind Part 2

Part 2 of this fabulous speaker! Everyone should watch BOTH of these!

No Teacher Left Behind Part 1

This guy, Bryan Fiese, brings some great ideas to the table that deal with the challenges we will face in our classroom!

The Perfect Circle

This is one of the most amazing videos I’ve ever seen! I don’t know how he does it! Lots of practice I guess!