My favourite subject has always been history. As a child I loved going to museums, seeing artifacts from cultures and situations long past, watching documentaries, and reading books that included everything from Little House on the Prairie to Clan of the Cave Bear. When I reached post-secondary I majored in History and completed a double-minor in Geography and Geology so that I could understand as much as possible about a situation: – What happened? When did it happen? Why did it happen? (History) – Where did it happen? What was there then? What is there now? (Geography) –… Read More
1 Year Blogiversary Celebration!
A little more than a year ago I decided that I wanted to begin blogging about what I was learning during my education degree and a few days later I officially launched my first ever blog! One year later I am still blogging regularly and can officially say that I accomplished my 2012 New Year’s Resolution (I don’t think I’ve ever accomplished one before). I saw a lot of people posting their blog stats in their New Year’s posts so I thought it might be interesting to share some of mine. Here are some stats that I feel… Read More
Where in the World is… Whole Brain Teaching?
I know that there will be some of you out there that have been wondering where my Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday posts have gone. Is it because I have been busy with my student teaching practicum? Partially. The main reason, however, is because I have been spending a lot of time reflecting on who I am as a educator and what my personal teaching philosophy is. In my first semester of my education degree I was asked to create a document that described my personal teaching philosophy. What did I believe the purpose of education was? What… Read More
Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday: Class Dojo Tutorial
Have you been seeing posts around blog-land about the classroom management website, Class Dojo? While I didn’t see an immediate need to check it out, the website’s cute little characters drew me in and I knew I had to see what all the fuss was about. As I started exploring around some of the features I immediately began thinking of how this could be customized to create a super cute, interactive, WBT Scoreboard!! If you’re naturally drawn to tech stuff this might be perfect for your classroom or, as Coach B often mentions, this could be the perfect… Read More
Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday! Student Teaching Thoughts
Student teaching is just a short 11 days away and I busily attempting to get everything together for the six units that I will be teaching to my Grade 4, 9, 10, 11, and 12 classes! Here is a reminder of what my schedule will look like: I mentioned before that I am going to, hopefully, be filming a video to submit for my WBT Certification while I am student teaching and I already have so many things to consider. – What class should I be filming? – Since I will also be using the video for… Read More
WBT Blog Bug Highlight: WBT Classrooms!
I think it is safe to say that us teachers are back into our regular school routines at this point. My American followers have been at school for over a month already while my fellow Canadians have now had a solid two weeks back in the classroom. As some of you may know I am in my LAST year of university before I become a certified teacher and, as such, I am living vicariously through all of you as you posted beautiful pictures of your classrooms. (I even posted about my “Dream Classroom” because I was feeling left out).… Read More
Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday! Road Block
So I have to admit that I have been conflicted over the past few weeks regarding what to post for my Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday posts. With the Whole Brain Teaching Certification program beginning this summer there was a huge jump in forum activity about a variety of topics as well as new activities and strategies being introduced by the WBT team but yet I still couldn’t figure out what to write about. If you have checked out my Whole Brain Teaching Certification tab at the top of the screen you’ll notice that I have previously written almost 20… Read More
WBT Blog Bug Update!
I have been trying to re-organize and update our WBT Blogger Master List on Google Docs over these past few weeks! Here is whats new: – I have updated to include recognition of our new Social Media Intern positions! – Some blogs have been upgraded from “dormant” to “active” status now that they have started blogging again, yay! – Some blogs have lost their “active” status 🙁 Make sure you visit these ones and get them back on the blogging bandwagon! – Some blogs now have more information available to fill in those sections that may have… Read More
Student Teaching Schedule
Today was the first day of school for student’s in our school and it was a busy one! During the first 3 periods of the first day of school, our entire school does a “trial run” of a full day’s schedule so I met all 125-ish of my Cooperating Teacher’s students in about an hour! To say it was a bit overwhelming would be an understatement but it definitely was interesting to see how our school began their first day with students. I also had my schedule change THREE times today… which makes that a total of FIVE… Read More
Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday! Certification Videos & 5 Step Lesson Plans
So today was my second day student teaching. Our day consisted of staff meetings, individual meetings with the principal and prep periods alternating throughout the day. I am going to provide an update tomorrow, as my student teaching schedule has changed DRASTICALLY (in a good way). In the mean time, I have exciting news!! Our principal, “Mrs. R” has told me that I should be able to film my class when I come back to student teach in October! 🙂 Our school has a letter that goes home to all students at the beginning of the year for… Read More