So I need some closure.

As I look back on this semester there is one thing that comes to the forefront, “I am so glad its almost over.” But that is a really bad thing to say, so I rethought about my semester and I realized that I am so blessed to be given the opportunity of education.

Education is something that can bring someone out of any situation and it is the road to success. I believe that is the underlying theme of this course. That everyone deserves a quality and equal education, of course that doesn’t always happen even in America, but it should, and I will fight for that one child at a time.

Education is especially important for ELLs, they are coming into a new environment, one they are not familiar with and It is crucial that us educators make sure that their needs are being met. So if that means we prep them about an assignment before the standard students so be it. Yes, it will be more time consuming and it is also our JOB. We signed up for this. Making sure each student has the tools to succeed is in our job description. We can give them the necessary tools by:

1. Making the classroom environment one that is desirable and safe.
2. Differentiating education to meet where the child is.
3. Getting to know the student.
4. Noticing any change in the student that could be because of their home life.
5. If a child needs assistant in learning, then making sure it is known to the parents and to the higher administrators.

Through the trip to New York and reading the Kite Runner. It was so apparent the need for me to be able to connect with my students through any means possible, even if that connection is just caring for them and wanting them to succeed. I will not know what my students are always going through out side of the classroom or if they have a support group at home, but I can make their lives in the classroom be one of love and support. New York and the Kite runner expanded my cultural lens, made me appreciate what I have, and helped me to see that even though different places teach differently and have different ideals, we all are fighting for the same purpose. And that purpose is the importance of education.

#APPSTATETAKESNEWYORK

The trip to New York was one that I will never forget, and one that I believe should be offered to all elementary education students, no matter their directed elective. Looking back on the trip I feel so honored to have been given this opportunity.

This opportunity allowed me to experience being in one of the most diverse places I’ve ever been! I come from a hometown with no diversity and also App which is not that much better in the diversity department. What struck me first was walking down the street. Walking down the street you see and hear a variety of different races and a variety of different languages. You wouldn’t find that either places I am from. When my group of people went to the MET museum we did our assignment on finding different languages. What struck me the most was that I couldn’t recognize the different dialects of Spanish and would ask then what language they were speaking. You would think that after four years of Spanish, I could tell the language. Each person we spoke to were from different places that spoke Spanish. Its amazing the amount of diversity in a language.

I got to experience a role reversal when we visited Lehman College in the Bronx. I have never been the minority in a situation. This was the first. It was a little weird at first because a large group of white college age women walking together through this part of New York sticks out like a sore thumb. When we got into the classroom it was a little awkward at first but after we gave our introductions and they saw that even though we were all the same race we were all from different places. The students in this class were so nice and polite to us. They all came from a variety of back grounds and it was exciting to see how they precieved them self and how it did matter to how other people precieved them. One of the bigger topics we talked about was how they do not like being asked where their from because everyone assumes they are not from America, and are unsatisfied when they give that answer. I have been victim of asking someone where they are from without thinking someone could be offended by this.

This was one of the most beneficial learning experiences because it completely took me out of my comfort zone. I was the minority in a large city. This was something that I had never been in before! Having the stereotype of northerners being rude was also broken for me. I spoke to numerous people on the subway that were some of the sweetest people. I am so thankful for the opportunity to learn new things and get to know people in my class that I had never talked to before! 5-star trip!

Change Agent- Be Willing to Challenge the Status Quo

It was interesting to see the parallels between changing how lingusitc diversity is viewed and taught, to getting a struggling learner to actually learn and succeed in the classroom. The “Decision-Making Framework” article by Miramontes, was written for teachers and school personnel; however, I found that it is modeling the steps that could be taking when working with students.

Change Agent- Be willing to challenge the status quo

• Challenge the struggling learner’s thought that they cant succeed.

Communication:Establish strong lines of communication with and between teachers and students

• Let the student know that they can always come to you for questions and express expectations to student

Culture: Foster shared beliefs and a sense of community and cooperation

• Build a welcoming environment in the classroom that welcomes diversity and becomes a community they feel safe in

Relationships: Be aware of the personal lives of teacher sand staff and rely on face to face relationships, not bureaucratic relationships.

• Know the student enough to know when they are having a bad day. Remember that our classroom may be the only place they have a good environment and is supported.

Resources: Provide teachers with materials and professional development necessary for the successful execution of their duties.

• Provide reading materials that are age and level appropriate that match to the student’s interests. Provide them with enrichment materials and differentiated learning.

Not only will this help lingustically diverse students and struggling learners but also every student in the classroom. These basic but crucial steps should not be overlooked in the classroom.

Differentiation: Puppet Style!

Teaching the chapters with our puppets was probably one of the most fun things we’ve done in class and also would be a fantastic activity for the kids as a part of mastery learning. Being able to teach something to someone else shows comprehension and that the student knows what they are learning. This activity led to me being able to get to know my classmates better and actually form relationships with them.

In Miramontes article, Standard Based Differentiation Instruction, the main theme of the article is differentiation of learning. The definition of differentiated learning is: providing personalized teaching to each child depending on how they best learn/ are at understanding the issue. The puppet activity allowed for a lot of non-traditional teaching styles. For example, learning through art and creativity by making the puppets and a theatrical performance by assigning a script to the learning. This concept will not work for everyone, but for a kinesthetic learner like myself, this was fantastic. Most of my classes in college have either been discussion, lecture, or research based; so I enjoyed a change up to this. Page 80 says, “Instruction should give students the opportunity to: Think critically, test and question ideas, interact fully with the content, learn to understand the perspectives of others, and discriminate among ideas. That’s exactly what this activity allowed us to do and by modeling this to a group of elementary majors will allow us to know and implement this into our own classrooms.

Teaching What You Believe

“… there simply is no other choice.”

This quote from Tomlinson & Imbeau article, Teaching What You Believe, struck me. These words have been rephrased throughout the whole article many times and it brought up the question to me, do we really not have any other choice?

I honestly do not think we do. If we “hold human life in esteem and regard it with a sense of awe,” then we want each of our students to succeed and to get them to succeed to the best of their ability we must incorporate differentiated education. Each of the students are each at a different level in their education and if we try to teach to them as a whole we will surely fail, especially if we do not try to correct many of their fixed mindsets.

As a child I believe that I have always had a growth mindset, but that is only because of the guidence of my grandmother. Without her constantly encouraging me to do my best and being a support system I do not think I would be where I am today. It is important to remember that, as teachers it is our jobs to change this common mindset. Yes, I believe it should start at home, but some children do not have academic support at home. If we can even offer a little bit of that support: mindsets can change, kids can grow academically, success is achievable, and the “child has control over their success.”

American Culture

What is the American Culture? Is it good ole southern charm?

Honestly, I have no answer to this question. We are full of so many different cultures that it is hard for me to think of one that is strictly American. Which is not a problem. It then leads me to the question of why we are so prone to keeping immigrants out such as the boarder control in mexico and how many Americans pride themselves too much by not wanting to learn another language besides English because “this is our country, and here we speak English.

In a couple of my classes, the issue of culture has been brought up more than once. Are we not based on immigration? The United States was founded on that. It is so sad to me to think that currently we are trying to assimilate cultures. We hold so highly our American Pride and would be so devastated if someone tried to force their culture on us, but it seems to me that we are slightly doing that to others. 

My own personal background/ culture is so important to me because it made me who I am, and makes each and everyone of us who we all are personally. People should be freely and openly allowed to show their culture as long as assimilation is not a front thought. As a teacher, this has became alot of thought of mine. Making sure there is a comfortable environment for them to express themselves and teach everyone in the classroom about their culture. As a teacher we are always learning and I am so excited that one day I will be able to have the opportunity to be taught so much about the world and human nature as I will from my future students.

Cultures are beautiful and should be preserved. Much love and express yourself.

Sam

It has ended… PRAISE THE LORD.

Sooooo the diet is over, that is a plus. The minus is however, Thanksgiving Break ruined me…..I gained 3 pounds, I’m putting the blame on pumpkin pie. The worst part about this isn’t about the gained weight its about me now having to go to the gym…… BUT THE DIET WAS A SUCCESS… I LOST 4lbs OVERALL IN THOSE 3 WEEKS! (then Thanksgiving happened)Enough about that. Let me tell you about my diet, so basically it was just 2 week of portioning and 30 mins of exercise a day. Not too bad at all! Maybe this helped me out a little on Thanksgiving. Now that it is over I am sad to say that I have binge ate sugar… so this was all done for nothing. Please be disappointed in me, maybe that will be motivation.

Here is the link, the pdf is like 70 pages so skim it and then try it.

Why did I spontaneously try this? 

For my English final we had to do a research project, It didn’t have to be a paper just something we could research and then turn in what we learned. So I decided to do this, I am interested in health and finding the minimum I can do without gaining weight so I tried it. There was no harm done, okay… maybe there is  now that I gained weight after the diet… but I try not to think about that…. 😦 So I started the diet the 13th of November and ended the 27th… strategically placed the day before thanksgiving. 🙂

Reflection: 

As you can tell the diet was fantastic…except for the first week but it was SO worth it. I will be continuing the second part of the diet so I can loose my puggy tummy. Some advice for you? Slowly take sugar out of your diet before the sugar detox, so you don’t go through sugar withdrawal like I did. CAUTION: when you take that much sugar out of your diet that drastically you will loose weight! But when you go back to eating it you WILL gain it back. So not eating sugar in big amounts is smart all the time. ( I need to learn that for my self)

Well, Until my next spontaneous decision. Adventure on.

Xoxoxoxo,

Sam

Sugarless Weeks are Not Sweet at All

Here just take a look at these photos (thanks to Pinterest of course):

Hot Chocolate Truffle

Rocky Road Cookie

Pumpkin Dip with Apples

 Sorry that you are all extremely craving sweets now…. I am a dessert freak. Seriously, I have so much sugar a day. I know, I know its horrible for me. However, I went on a spontaneous diet to see just how addicted to sugar we actually are (well, I am), and I couldn’t eat any of the food in the pictures above….

The first week went like this:

Water:

1. Your weight: The first step to knowing how much water to drink every day is to know your weight. The amount of water a person should drink varies on their weight, which makes sense because the more someone weighs the more water they need to drink. A two hundred pound man and 100 pound woman require different amounts of water every day.
2. Multiply by 2/3: Next you want to multiple your weight by 2/3 (or 67%) to determine how much water to drink daily. For example, if you weighed 175 pounds you would multiple that by 2/3 and learn you should be drinking about 117 ounces of water every day.
3. Activity Level: Finally you will want to adjust that number based on how often you work out, since you are expelling water when you sweat. You should add 12 ounces of water to your daily total for every 30 minutes that you work out. So if you work out for 45 minutes daily, you would add 18 ounces of water to your daily intake.

***For tips on how to drink all your water http://www.slenderkitchen.com/how-to-calculate-how-much-water-you-should-drink-a-day/#**********

Food

Week One: Withdrawal.
Your first week will be difficult. If you’re lucky (and not too addicted), the difficulty will end after that. You will experience withdrawal in the form of intense cravings. Don’t worry. It’s normal, and when it passes, the energy and vitality you will feel is priceless. The most important thing is to stick to your guns. Remind yourself that it is only one week until the cravings stop and you can survive one week.

Things to Avoid:
– Anything that is obviously sugary. Candy, desserts, soda, pastries. These ones should be no-brainers. Also alcohol, which is pure sugar in the body. This means all beer, wine, and liquor.
– Highly Refined carbs. These foods behave like sugar in the body. Pasta, bread that contains any white flour, white rice, bagels, pretzels, crackers, most cereals, etc. It’s easier to just avoid processed foods, but if you’re eating something with an ingredient list, avoid any kind of “wheat flour.” If it doesn’t have the word “whole” in front of it, it’s refined white flour.
– “Health” food. Most things we consider “healthy” are laden with sugar. Fruit, while healthy in theory, is best avoided for the first week. You can have 1 serving a day of berries (which are low in sugar) if you’d like. Fruit juices and juice drinks are full of sugar; the fact that the sugar is natural is irrelevant. Granola bars and dried fruit are full of sugar. If you’re eating something with a label, aim for less than 5 grams of sugar. Natural sweeteners are out for now, too—that means honey, agave, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, etc.

It seems like nothing is left, right? Here are some ideas to get you thinking about what to eat without sugar in the picture. Focus on protein and fat to keep you from feeling ravenous and deprived.

So what did I eat? Well, I basically ate the same things over and over….. yeah..

• Breakfast: I don’t eat this… I cant force my self to wake up in time. Go ahead tell me how bad it is for me, I know I know. I do however drink COFFEE. Its my savior though really, I used sugar free syrups and soy milk (The half a cup of soy milk they put in my drink had 3g of sugar so I basically used my 5g up) Also, I know that sugar free is just as bad for you but I refused to research it because I had to have my coffee.
  

  Sugar free pumpkin pie and cinnamon is FANTASTIC

• Lunch: This is stir-fry veggies in garlic and olive oil with lettuce black beans, onions and salsa. It was good actually!
  
  

  give or take a potato

• Supper: Whole grain portobello sandwich with tomato and lettuce and pasta salad. 

Reflection:  So that is me, I lost 4 pounds over the course of the week, and begun to notice how sugar consumes my life. I think it was important for me to figure this out so I can change my life style before it gets detrimental. I am sure that when I get off of this part of the diet I will gain it back. Eventhough, this was super demanding It was so worth it and was a good adventure. Ill keep you posted on how the rest of the diet goes.

xoxoxoxo,

Sam

 

Adieu Grayson Highlands.

Day 4

Well it was the final day. Of course it was a sad moment, but my group got to be navigators and group leaders so that was awesome! Basically, we just looked at the map, saw the best way to go to the parking lot, and then monitored how the group was feeling as we were walking. Breakfast that morning was my favorite, it was oatmeal (maple & brown sugar for the win).  After breakfast, group debrief of the trip, hot drinks, and the sunrise the most beautiful one I have ever saw (I dont have a picture, sorry for that); we hit the trail back to the parking lot. I am sad to say that the trip ended, because it was one of the most fun things I have done. I know for a fact that I will escape technology and do it again. What was I looking most forward to during civilization? A SHOWER, but I would have gave that up for the opportunity to stay there longer. Our post trip debrief really made me reflect on the things I experienced on this trip:

1. Being without technology was not hard while I was constantly consuming my life with other things.
2. Without technology I was able to appreciate nature and actually have down to earth conversations with the people around me.
3. Relationships you make are so influenced by technology, the absence of my phone made me realize that it is so much easier to completely care for another person and be intentional with them through face-to-face interactions.
4. I still believe that technology is a fantastic thing, especially for education, that makes us able to do many things we couldn’t without it, but it is important to step back and see the natural world and see the beauty of it all and how we as human fall into such a crucial role with it.

Final day photos:

Lovely friend

Looking good on day four.

Group picture

Day 3: the place to be!

Day 3!
Such a beautiful day ! The day started with some group bonding! Another reason I was glad I had no technology so I could spend the time with all of the wonderful people around me, and story stretch does just that. The hike this day was very tedious at first but got progressively better. There were many gorp breaks along this 5.5 mile hike ( gorp is basically heaven, it’s like a trail mix with even better goodies)! Lunch was super windy, but there were MORE PONIES. So that made it even better.

When we got to the site to where we were going to camp there was a sign that said there had been an aggressive bear but it had been taken care of… However, there were outhouses (PRAISE)! Never thought I would be so excited for those. I mean the breeze is nice in the woods but when its windy and freezing that doesn’t end up well. As this was the last night we were giggling, telling stories, eating smores (WITH REESES), it was such an amazing time that I  wish I could reexperience now. Also, the next day our packs were super light because all the food was gone… that made me so happy!

BEFORE THE S’MORES.

Walked through a cave. That’s right, I am an explorer.

What could be better than hiking with friends?