Blog #2

I really enjoyed reading Crystal Wolf's blog because of all of her opinions about teachers! It is very true that we, as teachers, will be making a big impact on the lives of others.  Especially as an elementary school teacher, we will help determine what that child learns in a year.  I also enjoyed reading Kayla Kirk's blog because of her feelings towards math.  We have completely different opinions because I love math and she is not as confident! However, she enjoys science, which is not my favorite subject! Maybe we could help each other this semester!

While reading 'Writing to Learn across the Curriculum' written by Knipper and Duggan I learned a lot about different ways to get students to write to learn.  As I was reading, something that stood out to me was the way that a rubric was defined.  I always have trouble putting into works what exactly a rubric is and I think that their explanation was great.  The article stated that 'a rubric reveals the scoring rules and explains to the students the criteria by which their work will be judged.'  I thought this explanation was great!


I really enjoyed reading about the different strategies for helping students write to learn.  I wish that my teachers would have used some of these methods in the classroom when I was younger because I think I would be a lot more confident in my writing!  My favorite strategy to help students prepare for reading assignments was the structured note taking.  If I had started to learn note taking skills at a younger age I would have been a lot more confident going into high school and even college!  Note taking skills are a very important skill to have and this is a great way to start them at a young age.  My favorite strategy for reviewing and summarizing was the framed paragraphs!  These , like the note taking, is a great way to help students become confident in writing paragraphs.  Lastly, my favorite critical and creative writing-to-learn strategy was the ABC list.  This is a very creative and fun way of looking at important points!! You could do so many great things with this in the classroom!  Overall I really enjoyed reading this article!  It gave me a lot of great ideas for my future classroom!


What would be a good subject to use the ABC list in?
What are some ways to make framed paragraphs fun?

Introduction

Hi. My name is Allison Coon and I am a Senior Education Major. However, I am only 20 years old.  I am from the Mississippi Gulf Coast and plan to return there for my student teaching in the fall.  I absolutely love the water!  I have enjoyed my experience at USM in Hattiesburg; however, I am very excited about returning to the coast in May permanently.  

I have always wanted to be a teacher.  When I was a little girl I pretended to pay school all the time.  My grandmother was a teacher and I went to her classroom a few times to help out and loved it.  I have always also loved children.  Most of the jobs that I have had were with children.  I have been a counselor at many camps and my current job is at the YMCA in Petal.  These jobs have helped to reassure me that education is the right major for me.  Although I am majoring in Elementary Education,  I would love to teach middle school math.  I am endorsed in mathematics.  Math has always been my favorite subject and I am very confident in it.  Therefore, my dream job would be to actually teach my endorsement area.

As I was reading the syllabus the Elizabethtown Pennsylvania Project seemed to stand out the most.  This project seems very exciting because we get to communicate with people in Pennsylvania.

I am also excited about blogging.  I have only blogged once before and it was for a computer class.  However, I am concerned about blogging weekly.  Blogging seemed to be very time consuming but I do enjoy blogging and reading about my classmates and learning their opinions.  

I think that this course will teach us about different literacy practices to use in the classroom.  I hope to become a better teacher when this class is over.