To Sum It All Up

    I have gained so much knowledge about how to become a terrific teacher throughout this course. It's crazy to think about all of the things that I've learned about within just a couple of months. Before taking this class, I didn't even know what direct, inquiry, and cooperative lessons were. Now I know that direct lessons are where you repeat the information over and over until the students get it and provide guided practice activities along the way to help them remember the information. Inquiry lessons are where students follow a similar process to the scientific method and research the topic their learning about or do some kind of activity that requires them to think more. Cooperative lessons allow students to work in groups on some kind of project or activity, while following the 5 PIGS (Positive interdependence, Individual accountability, Group processing, Social skills, and Face-to-face interaction). I've experiences a lot of success throughout this class; I can't recall many times where I think I failed because I really tried my best on every assignment and I received a lot of positive feedback.
    I would love to incorporate all three types of lessons into my social studies lessons, especially because social studies can get boring at times, so it's important to keep the students engaged by doing various interactive activities. I completely understand how to implement all three types and have experience with the various types, so I'm confident that I could plan effective and engaging lessons. I really like inquiry-based lessons because it requires the students to really think about what they've learned as opposed to just reciting facts, so it would make the material much more memorable. Another thing that I learned are the five key elements of Social Studies: making it meaningful, active, value-based, integrative, and challenging. These are all very important to keep in mind when planning any lesson. Not only have I learned so much, but I  have had the opportunity to apply that knowledge by teaching both my peers and a second grade class. I can honestly say that I have gained so much from this class and I genuinely think that I will be a better teacher because of it.

I made comments on the following blogs:
Sam's blog
Emily's blog
Bryanna's blog

Mock Interview

    Today we conducted a mock interview in class where four of my classmates pretended to be administrators and interview us to become a teacher at their school. The whole experience was nerve-wracking, but it was also very fun and helpful. I think that it has made me feel more prepared for an actual interview because I felt confident in answering all of the questions. There was one question about flip-teaching that took me a minute to realize what it was, but the rest weren't that bad. I think that the question that made me think the most was what animal I think of when I think of direct instruction because there are so many animals, so it was extremely difficult to think of the perfect one on the spot. Overall, I think the interview went really well and I enjoyed having this experience. I'm really glad that we did this!
    I was actually picked as the best candidate in my group! Each "administrator" picked a person from each group and I was the one that they chose for my group! I didn't realize how much I've learned throughout this course, until this experience. It was crazy to see how much information I knew and all of the questions I was able to answer on the spot that I definitely wouldn't have been able to answer at all before taking this class. The class was a lot of work and very overwhelming at times, but it was a terrific learning experience that I'm really glad I was able to have.