Wednesday, June 18, 2014

I'm Special, I'm Me

During one of my student teaching placements in second grade I taught a lesson about being yourself. First, we read the book I'm Special, I'm Me by Ann Meek. The book was the school's Book of the Month book for May. The story is about a boy who tries to discover what makes him special in comparison to his classmates. It's a great story and would be perfect for a beginning of the school year read aloud!




After reading the story, the students had to think about what made them special. They wrote about the things that made them special in their writing journals. Their responses were adorable!



They then published their pieces onto final paper. I didn't get any pictures of their completed responses but I got the Final Copy paper off of Pinterest. You can get it here. Their responses were so amazing I knew I had to display them all somehow and our classroom bulletin board needed to be updated so I decided on a craft project to go along with our writing. 

I cut some head shaped tracers out of card stock and had the students trace them onto paper they thought best matched their skin tone. Then, they added features like eyes, a nose, and mouth. Some cut their hair out of paper and others chose to draw it on, I left that up to them. Then, using a big stack of fabrics my cooperating teacher had been given they cut their shirts out of the fabric. Some of them even chose to add ties and bows to their hair :) Finally, we mounted it on construction paper of their choice and added a frame. Here's the end result...
It came out so cute! I hadn't got the chance to put a heading up when I took this picture but you can see where it's going



 They're even cuter close up! Plus you could really identify which student it is based on their self portrait. I love their interpretations of what they look like, they were all pretty spot on!

You can get the paper I used for their final writing from Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas!





Tuesday, June 17, 2014

A New Adventure

Welcome to my blog and my first blog post! I started this blog after reading all the other teacher blogs on the Internet. These blogs helped me through my education courses and student teaching by providing ideas and advice on all aspects of the classroom.
I recently graduated from Hofstra University in New York with my Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood and Childhood Education as well as Geography. I recently accepted a position at a charter school in Massachusetts as a Teaching Fellow. Although I will not have my own classroom right away, I am excited to start my teaching career working with teachers that have years of experience and will be able to offer advice to improve my own teaching. I do not know what to expect from this type of experience but I am just excited to be able to be in a classroom come September! My new job begins on August 4th with extensive training including two weeks of English Language Learner (ELL) training which, I am excited to learn more about. I'll be sure to continue to update my blog with all my new adventures including my summer job working and planning activities at a summer camp in New Hampshire!

Post Graduation Picture