BlogPost10-THE FINAL BLOG

Wow, it feels like it was just yesterday I was typing up my first blog post! I came into college not really knowing what I wanted to do in the future, whether it was education or business. I am so glad that I took Edu 100 because it taught me so many things not only about education but about myself. In my blogs, I felt very comfortable writing whatever I wanted. I like expressing my opinions and I feel like I did that very well. One occurring theme I typically saw in my writings are that I talked a lot about feeling comfortable in the classroom. I believe that this is a very important thing for a student to feel and a very important thing a teacher should solidify. In my placements, I tended to always look into that and see what Mrs. Nemeth or Mrs. Bishko did to make students comfortable. I have learned a lot about myself from this class and from my blogs. I typically did not like note taking, but for some reason I really enjoyed going to Gesu and other schools like Shaker, Mayfield, and Gearity and observing and taking down notes and transforming them into a blog. Overall, I enjoyed Edu 100 and all the lessons I learned. As of now, I still plan to try and pursue a career in education, I just do not know what level yet. I am excited to see what the future holds as I continue education classes and discover more about myself!

FieldBlogPost-Gearity Elementary School

Our Edu 100 class took our last field trip to Gearity Elementary as our final placement. Overall, the school seemed fun! there were a lot of activities going on and a lot of intriguing learning. I sat in on Mrs. Bishko's fourth grade language arts class with three of my classmates. I was excited because I did all of my field experience in a fourth grade classroom at Gesu. When we walked in, she was very welcoming, she shook our hands and introduced herself. Her classroom was very creative because she had a lot of fun and academic posters. When we arrived, they were in homeroom. The homeroom class had thirteen students and they all had iPads, along with all the other kids in other classes. At about 9:15, the kids switched for the first class, language arts. In the first language arts class, 1A, there were only ten students, which surprised me. The class split into two different groups. The first group went with Mrs. Bishko and talked about "I can" statements, kind of similar to what Mrs. Nemeth had, and they also drew conclusions from text they read. Before we arrived, we had to formulate another question, and mine was how does the teacher offer equal opportunities? She answered that for me by calling on every student at her table and giving equal chances for kids to answer. The kids cut out their conclusions and glued them on a piece of paper and put facts underneath them. Mrs. Bishko has a lot of fun with her students, while still maintaining their attentiveness, and that is a very admirable trait in a teacher. In the other group, they went with another teacher who seemed to be an aid. They talked about why writers write stories and the purposes for writing. She gave the kids a chart and had them write down ideas that they could formulate a short story out of. She called it their "bank of ideas." She also said something that seems critical to what we have been learning this year. She said, "it's okay to use your imagination and be creative."

What Does A Good School Look Like?

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1y2pTmYe_aasTSmFvS5j5bkesubv5xKCEAf-7W5S-YoY/edit?ts=56322904#slide=id.p

FieldBlogPost8-GESU

Today was my last day of field observation at Gesu Elementary School. It was a Friday, and it was the day before Halloween, so we did a lot of fun Halloween activities. When I got there, I had a great conversation with the lady in the front office. It is always a good thing to be outgoing because you never know what kind of connections they may have. When I walked into the classroom, the kids were making Halloween birthday/get well cards. They were making the cards for the custodian at Gesu, Mr. Eugene, who is currently sick. While they were making the cards, Mrs. Nemeth had me and another student observer, Haley, look up educational Halloween games on the iPads for the kids to play. The next class then eventually came in and they had to take their bone/muscle test. She gave them the test, which looked like a model of a skeleton where the kids had to name the bones and muscles, Along with the model of the skeleton, she wrong additional questions on the chalk board. When the kids take tests, Mrs. Nemeth asks for complete silence and all eyes on their own papers. If she sees a kid look around or talk, she will move them to another desk. It is very proper of her to do this because then the kids will learn to study and take in information on their own for evaluations. After the test, that class made their Halloween birthday/get well cards. While they did that, Mrs. Nemeth had me and Haley go to the bookstore to get orange paper. We then went to the meeting room and made a giant jack-o-lantern because Mrs. Nemeth was planning to play pin the nose of the jack-o-lantern later in the day. When I returned to the classroom, the next class was in for reading. They were sharing all the things they found and learned on the word they looked up Wednesday. Some of the stuff was very interesting!
Two important things Mrs. Nemeth stressed today was that technology is huge and you must be flexible. We were on the iPads a lot and there are so many forms of technology around her classroom that are helpful, such as microscopes, iPads, the document camera, etc. You must be flexible on days like Friday. There are so many things going on and it seemed very hectic because of Halloween, but it seemed like Mrs. Nemeth had everything under control no matter what and was going with the flow, but still managed to have a lot of activities planned.
Overall, my experience at Gesu was unforgettable. I was able to not only learn from Mrs. Nemeth, but also from the kids. Before the experience, I was just thinking I wanted to get my feet wet and see how things were at an elementary level. By the end, I seemed to really enjoy the atmosphere and the way the kids acted towards me. I made many connections within the school and am very grateful I got to work with the kids and help out Mrs. Nemeth!