Blog 3.3: Elementary observation

 On Thursday, February 26th and March 5th I went with my Into to Education Technology class and observed at our local elementary. I spent both of the days that I went with the loveliest 2nd grade class. These students were very well behaved. After leaving this class I was thoroughly impressed with how their teacher stuck to schedule and seamlessly transitioned from one activity to the next. 

February 26th: my first elementary observation. On this day I was very nervous, I had never observed a second grade class so I wasn't too sure how it would be. Although I was nervous, I went in anyway and I was thoroughly surprised. When I walked in I was greeted by Mrs.Dayberry, she introduced me to the class and told them to be on their best behavior while I watched their class. During this class I observed them while they read aloud, timed themselves reading, sat quietly while they had carpet reading time, and did their online learning activities. Every student did what was asked of them very efficiently. 

March 5th: my second elementary observation. This time when I went back to Mrs.dayberry's second grade class, I was not nervous, I was genuinely excited to observe them again. When I stepped in they were doing an activity where they write a sentence and share it with other classmates, after that they transitioned into a reading passage where they had to do a dice activity on it. Every student did what was asked, after all of that they did carpet reading time, finnally they did their online learning activities. 

I learned alot about and with the 2nd grade class. Mrs.Dayberry is an amazing teacher whom I believe is bringing some pride to the elementary. I really enjoyed this observation and cannot wait for the next one. 

3.2 Observation Pre School

On February 12th and 19th we had scheduled observations at our local pre-school. I had to miss these two observations due to the Educators Rising State Conference and competition planning, and the actual competition itself. I am grateful to Mrs. Gillmore for allowing me to stay in on the 12th and do some last minute sort of planning on our competition. 

On Feb 12th I stayed in with Mrs.Gillmore to try and brainstorm ideas. This day allowed me to get a plan for our competition. I worked and brainstormed the rest of our 4 day weekend to get a layout for our Inside Our School competition video. Thanks to Emma I was able to get things filmed the following Tuesday and most of things edited by Wednesday. 

On Feb 19th we loaded up and headed to our Ed Rising state competition. On the way we made some quick final edits to our video. When we arrived we did a quick assembly then headed off to break-out rooms. When Emma and I went to our competition we were so proud of ourselves. We spoke Plainly and impressed the judges. In the end we won third place in our competitions. 

In conclusion I really enjoyed the competition, the work we put into it was hard and paid off in the end. Fortunately we will need to make up the observations, but I really look forward to it.  

3.1: My one word

 My one word for 2026 is action. This year will be about me taking action in my life. It is getting to a point in my life where I am about to start transitioning into an adult, therefore, I need to take some action with responsibility in my life. Coming up in August I will be turning 18 and starting my senior year; with that I will have to start actually having to get a job, save for college, apply for colleges. These are big step and transitions in my life. 

To start off my journey of action I will take my academics more seriously. What I mean by this is I will try and get the best grade that I can possibly get, whether that is on the ACT or regular assignments. Doing well on the ACT will allow me to be able to get some scholarships so college won't put me into debt. Doing well on regular class work will boost my gpa and hopefully that will get colleges to see that I am smart and hard working. 

Me taking action in 2026 is not all about academics, it can mean I can take action and control in my life over many things. I have deemed that 2026 is my year of growth and to prosper even when times get super tough. I cannot wait to see what this year of action will bring to me and the ones I love. 

3.2: 100th day of school

In my Education Tech class we are going over the 100th day of school. This momentous day is not here yet, but is coming up very soon. The sooner it gets the more we are trying to come up with ideas to celebrate. I really do not know why we stopped celebrating the 100th day of school. 

 I don't remember many of the celebrations that went on during the 100th day of school when I was little, but I do remember one. The one celebration that I do remember is the challenge to see who could stack the most pennies and get the closest to 100. I don't know why I remember this one the best but I do remember having a lot of fun doing it. 

If we were to celebrate the 100th day of school, I believe that these three activities would be the most fun: 1.  Make a huge poster and everyone put one thing they enjoyed so far in the school year. 2. Dress up as us in 100 years. 3. Scavenger hunt. 

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Pros and cons to canva

    Canva, some people love it and some don't. In my personal experience, I have had a neutral experience with canva. If you don't know what canva is then, here I am to inform you. Canva is a website where you can make presentations, videos and slides. Sometimes this site can be very confusing but that's with all new things you try out - especially websites. 

Canva at first can be confusing because sometimes it will do something that you did not want to do, then you don't know how to fix it. There is so much to canva that can be very difficult to navigate, like when trying to make a video, it was really confusing for me to try and find some of the editing tools. 

Canva also can be a very helpful tool to use when you need to do a presentation. Canva is an easy to access and mostly free tool with tons of cute templates. For the most part it can be easy to use when you get the hang of it but like with everything else in life you just have to learn and stick with it before it gets easier. 

4.2 Observations 4-6

 Mrs. Young was very organized and kept her kids on track. They wouldn't always do the same thing, sometimes they did slide or Gizmos or one day they did a prep for their state testing and got to go on science sights afterwards. My favorite part of her class was the gizmos activities and the Google slides, they were quick and easy and the kids seemed to really enjoy them and learn a lot. 

My first favorite method from her class was how she keeped the kids in check, she has this thing call class dojo and whenever the kids would get very rowdy or disruptive she had a fake class dojo that she would take points off so they would know to stop ( the kids didn't know it was a fake class). 

My second favorite method from Mrs. Young was how she was very confident in herself when she was up there teaching the kids. That is something I truly admire and aspire to work towards. 

4.4 Mini teach #2

This lesson plan was based on the sister book of the first book I did. This book was about the moon by Stacy Mcanulty. For this lesson I read to them out loud again but I only gave them one worksheet over labeling the moon fazes and a two truths and a lie game about the moon on the back of the book. Yet again I went up to read and teach and I got stage fright again. I learned from these teaches that I just have to find my voice and give more confidence.