V is for…

For the Blogging Challenge this week, the students get to choose from a wide range of activities! Some students are talking about their Vokis while others chose to create an avatar of their family!

Another option was to write about your place! I decided I would make a post like this as well! But, I have TWO places! I have my place at home in New Hampshire with my parents and family, and then I have my place here in Vermont for school with all of my college buddies!

VERMONT
V is for Village Kids, the afterschool program where I work in Essex Junction.
E is for early birds, which is what my friends and I are when we want to get first tracks at Smuggler’s Notch or Jay Peak.
R is for Red Velvet Ice Cream which you can buy from the Ben and Jerry factory in Stowe, Vermont.
M is for mountains which are so beautiful and green here.
O is for Open because Stratton, Vermont is home of the Burton Snowboards U.S. Open
N is never because I am never bored up here with all the fun things to do.
T is for time’s up! Because my time at Saint Michael’s College here in Vermont is almost over! Less than two months until graduation!

This is an aerial view of my college! Next to valleys, a lake and the mountains in the distance!

These are some of my college friends at The Round Hearth in Stowe! Some of the upperclassmen who helped greet first year students on a Pre-Orientation Weekend!

NEW HAMPSHIRE
N is for no place because there is no place like home.
E is for Elm Street in Manchester… Elm Street is the reason why they gave Manchester the nickname of “Manchvegas” because the street begins and ends with a dead end just like the strip of road in the real Vegas.
W is for West High because that is where I went to high school.

H is for Hooksett, which is where my parents mint green house can be found.
A is for always, because it is always nice to go home for a visit.
M is for Mom and Maggie because both my mom and my golden retriever Maggie are in New Hampshire.
P is for Piscataquaq and Play because that is where I used to play soccer games.
S is for Southern because I live in Southern New Hampshire.
H is for heart and home because Home is where the Heart is.
I is for ice cream because I grew up near Merriville Ice Cream shop.
R is for Robie’s Country Store and railroad tracks because I remember the nights of hearing the train whistle as it hustled down the tracks near the river.
E is for eternity because that is how long I will love my home there!

This is Robie's Country Store! My favorite spot in Hooksett! It sits right beside the Merrimack River and railroad tracks!

I went home to visit my dog Maggie one weekend during my Junior Year at SMC!

This is a picture of my dad, my brother Jamie, myself and my mom on my brother's graduation day from college! He went to Saint Michael's College too!

Wooooo! That was much harder than I originally thought! So many letters in New Hampshire repeat themselves! It was hard to come up with new ideas!

Stunning!

I had the best time listening to everyone in concert! Way to go!

no pain, no gain!

Trying to become a proficient snowboarder proved to be quite the challenge; on Saturday when the Saint Mike’s Ski and Snowboard Club had their first Meat and Greet (where we all hang out at the base of the mountain and grill up tasty treats for when we are done riding) I rode along with some of my friends to Stowe.
On my second run of the day, just as I was approaching the bottom of the Triple trail, I hit a patch of ice and washed out on my board! Now, I know they always tell you not to put your arms out to try and break your fall and because I am always sure to wear a helmet, I especially shouldn’t be worried about falling because my head is protected! ….but I did anyway; put both arms straight out and down to lighten my fall and my right arm snapped right back up with an awful snapping noise. Once I wiped away the tears that were freezing inside of my goggles, my friend helped me carefully ride to the bottom to check in with ski patrol.

Thanks to all the lovely workers at Fanny Allen Hospital, I received the decent news that my arm is not broken! I did, however, tear a muscle in my arm which has made it insanely hard to do anything. My right arm (I am a righty) is in a sling. I was still trying to become adjusted to the pain and sling and everything so I missed school Monday but was so impressed with how understanding everyone was when I came back into the class on Tuesday!

Mrs. Boucher has been extremely understanding of the fog my head has been in and all the students have been so aware of not backing into my arm or anything! They’re all so great!

I’m not really able to write with my right hand very easily and typing is a bit hard too, but definitely a bit easier!
On Tuesday, as we were doing a ball toss greeting, Livy chimed in and suggested that we all use our opposite hand to throw the ball with since I couldn’t use my usual throwing hand! It was so great to hear how eager everyone was to be sure I was still included in the greeting! (THANKS FOR THAT LIVY!!)

Today, we are learning about the blogging challenge we will be in!
SO EXCITING!

During Recess, some buddies stayed in the class and we had a great time looking at different photography programs available on Mrs. Boucher’s I-Pods!

Well, on that note, I need to go and ice my arm…

Lexi and Livy keeping me company during Recess! thanks ladies! Thanks Carson for capturing this wonderful moment!

unique as snowflakes in the lighthouse

Another week has flown right by!
For this week, I continued to work with the yellow spelling group. This week our words were a big trickier! Instead of focusing on just one vowel that was R controlled, we worked with ALL of the vowels that can be controlled by that stubborn “bossy R”.

We also worked a lot more with precise verbs and concrete nouns! Mrs. Boucher did a fun activity with the class on edmodo! She would post one sentence, and every student would need to respond to her post with a new sentence that used a more precise verb! The sentences became more and more vivid as the exercise progressed and it was fabulous to read all the sentences they were able to come up with! Phenomenal!

Today is Fun Friday so everyone is working on their blogs! I can’t wait to see what everyone writes about! While people were filling out their communication journals which they share with their parents over the weekend, it was awesome to see the wide range of topics students decide to share with their parents!

This morning during morning meeting, we learned the alphabet in sign language! As I begin to revise my teaching philosophy for my on campus class, I realize how much I value inclusion as a teacher. Jean Paul Sartre’s theories on education focused a lot about the idea of valuing ourselves as individuals; in the same way each snowflake is totally unique and individual, so too, are students! While I would like to receive my Master’s degree someday in Deaf Education, I think it could be beneficial to begin to introduce some of the simple sayings in sign language now! Just because I am not currently partaking in educating the deaf, does not mean that I cannot try to incorporate it into my class! I remember one job I worked during high school and I worked with a deaf woman… granted, she was impeccable at reading lips but I so wish I had known a more effective way of communicating with her! I think it is extremely useful to know a few key phrases!

I also think it’s important to not only recognize our uniqueness, but also find ways to add to our uniqueness!! Every student in our room is a bit more unique now that they can say they know how to say good morning in sign language! By adding extra little bits like that to our repertoires of knowledge, we become more unique as well!

“Education is to help the human being come to terms with his individual project, accept his freedom and facility, and emerge as the unique human being that he is” -Jean Paul Sartre on Education.

Monday! Time for a new week!

Last week was a whirlwind of activity!
I was able to substitute teach for Mrs. Boucher while she was out for a few days. I was so impressed with how willing students were to help me locate things in the room I couldn’t find or help one another with gentle reminders about what was expected behavior.
They all did so well- both academically and behavior wise which was greatly appreciated on my part (and I’m sure Mrs. Boucher’s as well!).

After a long week, I spent much of my weekend up at Smuggler’s Notch! It was great to try and get back on a snowboard and make my way down the mountain! Definitely have some sore spots here today but I feel like I learned a lot! I think I even saw a few buddies from class there!

This week should be great! I will be teaching a Science lesson on magnets as well as working with my own Reading group! I will also be continuing my work with the Yellow Spelling group and working on a Reading mini lesson on determining importance in reading!

Very exciting week ahead! Stay tuned for awesome updates about all this work!

homophones!

Andrew putting the correct form of "their" into our Morning Message!

whirlwind of a week

It felt great to be back in Mrs. Boucher’s class for the second week of student teaching this week!
My supervisor Lissa came in for my first triad meeting and we decided that some good goals for me to work on this semester in the class would be classroom management and incorporating technology in the classroom, which as many of the “techkids” could tell you, I am in the right class for advancing my technology use!

I was able to write a lesson plan to execute with a small group this week as well! We played Addition Around the World! A fun, little competition using Mrs. Boucher’s addition flashcards. I would hold up a card and two brilliant world travelers would go head to head trying to state the sum of the addition problem first! If they were the first one to provide the correct answer, the would move to a “new country” (new student) in the circle and compete with them! It was great to hear some of the places the world travelers wanted to travel to. One popular destination was Austin, Texas! Another was Ireland! I think if we play this game again it could be fun to use the “around the world” aspect and try to tie a lesson on measurement; for each fellow student you go by, we could use a measuring tape to travel around the world an additional centimeter for each addition problem solved correctly. Could be a fun way to add in an additional Mathematics problem or two during Math time!!

I was very excited about being able to plan and execute a lesson of my own in Mrs. Boucher’s class!! I hope the Addition World Travelers enjoyed the game as much as I did!

I will try to post another entry later about the fun filled day I had as substitute teacher today!! Wahoo!

exciting day in this technological world

Today has been a great day for learning about WordPress!
It amazes me how well these brilliant students are able to navigate their way around their blogs and internet. They don’t hesitate one single second when it comes time to make a new Voki, or post one to their blog, or just blog in general!
During lunch/recess Mrs. Boucher and I put all of the kids into Blogging Buddy groups, so for the last half hour or so they have all been diligently writing away to their buddies and posting new blog entries to their own blogs… all in between teaching me how to use my blog!
Haley taught me how to add shortlinks, which in turn led me to changing the layout of my blog to one with columns on the side, which in turn led me to needing to get rid of my header…. CRAZINESS!
I need to become even more familiar with this blog so I am able to upload a video or pictures or something!
I am a bit jealous by the kids’ blogs. They blow mine out of the water!

RAZKids

After a great second day in Mrs. Boucher’s class, we’re back at it again today!

Yesterday during Reading I was moseying around the classroom looking at the different types of books these brilliant kids are reading on the website RAZkids. They offer a rather broad selection of reading and it always amazes me to see what students choose to read. I listened in as Griffin read a book All About Chocolate and learned so much! Did you know that the country Switzerland consumes the most chocolate in the world? Or that chocolate has been around for over 2,000 years!? I had no idea that chocolate had been around as far back as the Mayans and Aztecs!

I really enjoyed the facts that he was sharing with me as he was reading. I was able to learn so much! Other students were reading more fictional stories while Aiden had been reading about the attack on Oklahoma City in 1995. It’s fascinating to see how much students are able to do on this one site. They can record themselves reading a passage and deliver it to Mrs. Boucher’s basket for her to listen to. I think that’s extremely beneficial when it comes to things such as reading the punctuation. Being able to hear a recording of yourself reading can be so helpful to build off of! You can play it back and see if you are reading too fast for comprehension, or if you are skipping over the pause that comes when you see a period at the end of a sentence.
There are also quizzes for every  book that they are able to take and earn stars for. The stars are like the stickers that I used to receive when I was in third grade doing the Accelerated Reader program. It wasn’t quite as high-tech as RAZKids, but still great. Students are able to buy a RAZRocket with their stars or aliens and shelf items to add to their personal site as well. What a website!

All the students are back on RAZKids now, so I better get going and see what more the site has to offer!

excellence.

What an excellent first day of student teaching!
I was slightly worried at first when I spoke with other education majors from Saint Michael’s who were saying that they were very nervous and didn’t think they were ready for student teaching. I wondered if I was missing something and if I should begin to get nervous too, but realized that I wasn’t nervous, only excited to get to it!!

I arrived at school just slightly before 8 to get all settled in before all of the brilliant students arrived and was put at Table 4. I was even upgraded to a rolling chair and Mrs. Boucher gave me a stapler to bring to my desk which I thought was insanely exciting… on both accounts and I then spent most of my day just tediously taking notes about EVERYTHING I could! I don’t want to forget a single second of this amazing experience!
I feel extremely lucky for being placed not only in Malletts Bay, but also with Mrs. Boucher and her wonderful class! Everyone seems so bright and so eager to learn new things! (they already all know SO much!)

My favorite part of today was probably the Knock, Knock activity during Morning Meeting! To help me memorize everyone’s names, which, not to brag, but I already feel fairly confident about knowing It was great! You stand in a circle all facing the same way, staring at the person’s back in front of you. You then tap them on the shoulder and say:
“Knock knock!”
“Who’s there?”
“Maegan.”
“Maegan who?”
“Maegan Gorton”
*person finally turns around, shakes hand*
“Good morning Maegan Gorton!”
EXTREMELY helpful in getting to know everyone’s names! There were a few I was weary of until we played that game and now I know I’ve got it!!

I am excited to see what tomorrow will bring!