I don't wanna grow up!

This is me a little over a year ago. I had long hair, it was brown, I weighed more than I do know, and I didn't want any kind of change to happen. Ever.

My senior year. Was I ready to get out of high school? Duh. Did I really want any kind of change to take place. Heck no! I was happy in my little bubble of a world with all my friends. I just didn't want to be in high school anymore. The girl in this picture feared change in every sense of the word. She didn't like the tiniest little thing to change. It was unfamiliar then. This is very different from the picture of me now. She jumped straight into college, with a room mate she didn't know anything about and was prepared to face the worst. Fortunately, this was not my experience.

I had developed from my high school bubble to say the least. And I want to make sure my students know that change isn't always bad, and some change is good. I want my students to know that it's ok to be afraid, but it's not ok to let those fears take control and prevent them from being fantastic. I want my students to learn that it's ok to not have all the answers. Those were all things that held me back, and I'm a better person now for breaking free from all those things and embracing the changes as they happened.

I still may not act like an adult sometimes, but I promise that I'm much more mature that I was. Growing up doesn't mean you have to become boring. That's something else I've learned.

Fun: Coming to a classroom near you

This was my bed, until I took two cardboard boxes from my learning center, a hanger, a picture, some paper, a little time and effort. It is now my pirate ship, sans the water, and it's free to sail the open seas.

Ok, so it's not really the most sea worthy vessel, but it can hold its own. I am the kind of person who likes to create. When I get an idea, I run with it and see how far it takes me. I decided to turn my bed into a pirate ship, and, although it would never make it in the ocean, my bed is a pirate ship. So, what does this have to do with teaching? And who let me out of the Psych ward?

As a teacher, it's important that everything you do in the classroom has a lesson to it, whether the children know it or not. If I sat down and told all of my children the history of piracy, no one would pay any attention. That's why tests are such a bad idea- all students do is memorize instead of learn, but that besides the point.

If I get my children up moving around and building a pirate ship, and then talk about pirates, they're going to gain so much more than if I just put it on the History Channel. This has been proven time and time again, with many different situations. At work, a child will be playing with something, like a toy dinosaur, and I teach them things they didn't know, like what a carnivore is. Learning can happen at any time with any actvity. It doesn't all have to be book work.

I think I would just much rather not even have desks in my room, and no T.V. Just a lot of random materials and willing students. Fun and learning can go hand in hand if you're a good teacher, and learning doesn't have to be boring. The most memorable learning experiences I have had all occurred when I was doing something fun. I want to make sure that the fun and random experiences are also learning experiences, because every opportunity counts.

COW!!!!!!!!!!

This is a picture of a cow. On our trip to the pumpkin patch, we had to count how many cows we saw. Our driver, Lisa, had no idea what was coming. Every time we (meaning Amanda, Olivia, and I) saw a cow, we screamed it.

So, I need to relate this to diversity some how . . . let me see. Well, children react differently to different situations. For instance, I think we were the only car that almost had an accident because the students were screaming. The other cars didn't do that. That's diversity. Children react differently to different situations. If children get upset, so cry, some pout, some throw things, and some sit quietly and don't say anything. Children also get excited and are interested in different things. Not every child is going to think cows are fascinating, but some will. Others will find the leaves, the clouds, or the journey more interesting.

As a teacher, I have to keep all my children interested, no matter how diverse they are. So, my classroom won't be focused on one way of learning. There will be multiple ways to learn one thing. There will be diverse ways of learning! (I'm on a roll now!) But seriously, diversity is a big issues in classrooms, and it's mainly because teachers don't know how to handle different learning types and all the students are forced to do the same thing. Not everyone wants to color, but some children do. To get children to learn material, they don't have to be forced to do the same thing. It's as simple as creating different activities. Some children are more physical, while others would rather read a book. And as a teacher, it's important to meet all of these needs. Yay, Diversity!

I'm a role model ?!?!?!

This is a picture of me and my mini-me, Rachel. It was before I left for prom my junior year. She had to come over and see me all dressed up, and then we took a picture together.

For the longest time, I never thought of myself as a role model to young children. I mean, Rachel called me her best friend, but I never thought that meant I was a role model to her. I was just her best friend. It wasn't until I started college that I realized that this kids thought of me as a role model and someone they would like to be like when they got older. That puts a lot of pressure on your shoulders, and sometimes it's hard to deal with the fact that children are looking up to you.

As a personal goal, I want to make sure that my behaviors are one that I would want children to do. If I have good manners and don't do anything crazy, the children that look up to me will do that. As a teacher, it's important that my behaviors match what I want my students to do. If I tell them that chairs are for sitting, and I stand in it, they're going to stand in the chair. It's a very monkey see, monkey do process, and it's important that my actions match my words.

Well, what is it, anyway?

This is a picture of something we found while pumpkin hunting. I have no idea what it is, but someone said it was used to ward away spiders.

I love finding new and interesting things, and then trying to figure out what they are. I have seen this in the classroom I work at. They bring in interesting thing things from nature and have each child guess what it is. This not only brings science and nature into the classroom, but it allows the children to think freely about what each item is. The one I remember most was a cocoon, but the children really didn't know what it was. The most common answer was a leaf.
Children learn by relating things they know to things they are unfamiliar with. In this instance, the cocoon was on a twig, and leaves grow on twigs, so it must be a leaf. This is how children learn about new things. They build on the knowledge they already possess.

In my classroom, I'll be sure to allow this kind of thinking and learning, because it's the natural process. Children need to be able to form their own ideas about things, and by bringing in elements of nature and allowing them to see it, touch it, smell it, listen to it, and sometimes taste it, they get a sense of the world around them and can freely form decisions on different subjects. Of course, some guidance is needed, but by allowing children to make their minds up on something gives them a freedom that they may not have experienced yet.

The Theatre is a safe place to do unsafe things- so what about the classroom?

This picture what from the last production of my Senior year of high school, A Midsummer Night's Dream. The arrow is pointing to a girl with teased hair, covered in glitter, wearing plaid, corduroy, and rope. She also carried around a bucket of flowers and chased butterflies that weren't really there. That girl is me.

You see, a very wise woman once told me that the theatre is a safe place to do unsafe things. This led me to be a braver person when it came to the theatre and what I did. It's better to give it all you have and to be brave with a role than just kinda go for it. It's better to leave it all on stage and put your all into it. This quote has not only applied to the theatre for me, but to a lot of other things I did. I applied it to my writing, making sure it didn't just half write pieces for my portfolio, but I put everything I had into them. Because of this, I recieved a distinguished on my portfolio. This quote is more than just something that can be applied to the theatre. It's a great thing to remember for everyday life.

This life lesson, if you will, is something I want to have in my classroom. I want my classroom to be a safe place for discovery, learning, and fun. I want children to be able to come to my class and be themselves without any fears. My students should think of my classroom as a safe place to do unsafe things. I mean, not dangerous things, but out of the social norm. Most people have certain expectations of children, and in my classroom, I want my students to be able to feel free to ask questions, create, and discoverthe world around them without someone always behind them telling them what to do. It's not fair to place so many obligations and responsibilities on a growing mind, and when a child is set in boundaries like that, they never discover what they're really capable of. My classroom will be a safe place to do unsafe things, and hopefully, the children won't regret the time they spent there.

Imagination is more important than knowledge

In this picture, I am taking a boat ride with a three year old to Great Wolf Lodge. As you can see, we really aren't in a boat, but it's a jungle gym.

I've said it before, but the amount of imagination that children possess fascinates me. I love how they can get in a slide and it suddenly becomes a boat that can take us anywhere. I think that as children, we start out with no limitations or boundaries, and our imaginations can carry us anywhere, and as we get older, the world says that imagination doesn't mean as much as knowledge, and you need to learn facts and put childish games behind you. I disagree. Imagination is more important than knowledge.

With a child, or anyone for that matter, they can learn facts and facts and facts, and just know the facts. You can train them to be a little computer, but that's all they'll be, and a computer isn't creative- they just know the facts. Don't get me wrong- I'm not bashing all education and I don't believe that children should do whatever they want for their creativity to shine, but teachers shouldn't bring down children's ideas, even if they don't make sense, because although a child's ideas may not make sense to an adult, imagination shows development. And the more creative, the more capabilities.

The little girl in this picture had knowledge of what a boat looks like, and knowledge of what a jungle gym looks like, but she used her imagination to put the two together and make a boat out of a jungle gym. I helped prompt her creativity by asking where we were going and what we were going to do. To this, she responded, "we are going to Great Wolfe Lodge." She had knowledge of Great Wolfe lodge because of a previous family vacation. She knows what all of these things are, but, using her imagination, she can go there anytime in a boat.

As a teacher, I plan on prompting my children's creativity and not stunting it. A child's imagination should be able to soar and not be limited by any person, place, or thing. I mean, if a jungle gym can be a boat, who knows what anything else can be. At work, I have seen normal wooden blocks become a bed, a stage, a zoo, and a house. Children have the capacity to expand anything and make it whatever they want, and most of the time, it's adults who stunt their imaginiations and make them boring. Children should never be stunted. Imagination is an extremely important part of their overall development, and as a teacher, I plan on letting imagination based of knowledge be the most important thing.

This is very philosophical to me and what I want to do because children have the capacity to imagine anything, and they should be able to do that in a safe environment. Chilren shouldn't be controlled by what the teacher tells them about things, and they should be able to take that, and expand on it.