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. 

Link 

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. 

4.3 Mini teach #1

 My lesson plan for my first mini teach was a book that Mrs.Young had in her class over the unit they were going over. This book was about the earth by Stacy Mcanulty. It was a short small picture book that had tons of information over the earth. Mrs. Young helped me to hunt down some handouts for the kids, I chose to have them do a maze and a sheet over labeling the layers of the earth, followed by some questions. I believe that everything went particularly well other than I could have had more confidence and picked a harder maze to have them do because most finished in 5 seconds. I was very confident in my reading abilities in front of the students but when I got up there I suddenly had gained stage fright. In conclusion I learned to be more confident and to give the students work that is actually on their level. 

4.1 Observation 1-3

Unfortunately due to some family emergencies I missed my first observation of Mrs. Young's class so I don't have any data on 1-2 but I was there for our third day. Mrs. Young started her kids off on a gizmo activity online and some Google slides to work on. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her and the kids go through the gizmo activity, I believe that is something I will be using in my class room for the future. I also thoroughly enjoyed the Google slides, these Google slides had everything laid out for the kids and they were interactive so they had many resources and materials to go along with while Mrs . Young was going over it with them.

Mrs. Young had very many great methods but what I noticed the most was how well she paid attention to her kids and kept the ones she knows have a hard time paying attention in line and on track, she gained a lot of respect from her kids and it really shows. Another thing that I admired from her methods in my first day was how she allows them to talk as they work but she maintains it in an equal level. 

Mrs. Young really impacted my career choice by showing me that it is fun teaching some of the younger groups. I noticed how she made her class fun and the kids went along with everything.  I always thought that I just wanted to teach high schoolers but my first day in her class really changed my perspective.

Even though I was only in there for about a day during my observations I truly think that I learned a lot about what it's like to be a teacher who has a good class environment.