My Family

 My entire family from my mom's side, all of us went out to dinner at Taber Road Tavern. This picture is from the summer though.

                                 My cousin and I eating our fondue dessert! So delicious!

The three oldest of the cousins! Nick is a senior at Sienna College and Danielle is a sophomore at the University of Maryland. It was great to be together again!

Family is Forever!

This weekend was a long weekend for President's day, so we had off Monday and Tuesday. During this break I went home and spent all the time with my family. My family is really close, we do everything together. On Saturday, my other two cousins in college came home for the weekend and my entire family on my mom's side got together and went out for a nice dinner. We went to Taber Road Tavern, which is a nice restaurant. There was fourteen of us, so we were able to get a private room. It was nice because we were away from all the noise of the other people there. The food was delicious! My favorite part was dessert though, we had a chocolate fondue. We dipped strawberries, bananas, apples, and pineapples. It was amazing. But my favorite part was being with my family. We have so much fun together, and spend the night laughing and smiling. The rest of the weekend I spent with my parents and my sister (when she was home). We relaxed during the day and watched movies at night. I love being with my family, nothing is better! I've been back at school for two days 
and I miss them already! I'm looking forward to my next trip home!  
Home is where the heart is! 

A Day At The Park!

The bridge we stood on at the park!

Sunny Weather

It was absolutely beautiful out today! The sun felt so nice and warm shining down. On this lovely day, Katelyn (one of my best friends) and I decided to take advantage of this beautiful day by spending part of it at the Verona Park. We walked around the pond and took many pictures. We stayed until after the sun went down. The sky looked so pretty as the sun was setting. We stood on the bridge and watched the sun set. Walking around the water was so relaxing and any stress we felt with all the school work we have to do on this long weekend disappeared. It was a lot of fun spending time there and a good way to relieve stress. It was a much needed escape from all the work awaiting us when we got back. Then we ended our day at the park with a laugh by walking to the wrong car in the parking lot. It was a good thing that no one noticed, or else we would have been really embarrassed!

(The picture at the top is one of the pictures I took right before we left.)

100th Day!

This past Wednesday was the 100th day of school where I am observing, and I was lucky enough to be able to be there that day. They had all different types of activities and a celebration that I was apart of. The teachers kept repeating to the students that they are 100 days smarter! One of the teachers even had a shirt that said "my students are 100 days smarter." I really liked this because it made the students proud of everything they have accomplished so far and excited to learn more. The teacher had several in class activities and worksheets for the 100th day. All the students were given paper crowns and stickers to wear. One of the girls in my class gave me a sticker to wear. She said she wanted me to be included as well. It was the sweetest thing. Then all the kindergarten classes went to lunch early and had a celebration. All the classes together counted to 100 by tens, ones, and fives. They sang a song that they learned and a teacher read them a 100th day of school story. The principal came and told them how proud he was of their counting skills and how impressed he was. Back in the classroom the students did a reading activity. The teacher reminded the class what good readers do. I learned that before reading a book, the students look at the cover and make predictions of what they think the story will be about. Then they take a picture walk, and after that they read the story. She also reminded them that good readers look at the pictures for help when they get stuck on a word. I really like this technique, and when students went off into pairs to read together, I noticed that when they were stuck they would look at the pictures for help.

There is also an aid in the class I am in because there are three classified students. On this day, one of the three students was having a bad day. He could not focus at all and was constantly misbehaving. While on the carpet, the students were all gathered around the teacher for the activity and he was in the back rolling around and playing with his crown. Then at lunch he pretended to shoot people. When the teacher asked him to do something he said no. The teacher explained to me that he is not supposed to say no to a teacher, and that this was something they discussed several times. The aid had to pull him aside several times to talk to him and he lost his play time because of his misbehavior. The aid had to talk to his parents about his behavior when they picked him up from school. By observing these types of situations I am learning how to handle them in the future, which is good experience for me. On Friday I will be starting my special education observation and I am excited for that! I am eager to learn how a special education teacher handles these types of situations.

Dandelions

Monday was my first day being in the classroom and I absolutely loved it. It was the best day. I spent the entire day with the class from the start of the school day until the end. I was able to interact with the kids and engage in the classroom activities. I was able to help out with the worksheets that the students worked on after the lessons. During the play time, the kids wanted me to help them with puzzles and a couple of the girls colored pictures for me, which are now hanging on my wall. Then at the end of each day the teacher reads them an end of the day story. She asked me to read the story to them, and I was delighted to. I loved it! Everyone gathered on the carpet and listened. The story I read to them was called Dandelion and it was about a lion who changed his appearance to attend one of his friend's party but no one recognized him. Then when he went back to his original self they recognized him. The book was about being yourself. The kids really enjoyed it and didn't want me to leave. The following day I got an email from the teacher I'm working with saying how the kids were looking for me and were upset when they found out I wasn't going to be there that day. As I was walking out of the building, I thought about how the day went and realized there is nothing else I would rather do. Spending the day in the classroom was amazing. Not only did I get the chance to work with students, I was able to watch lessons and see how the teacher handled the classroom, what techniques she used, and how she went about teaching the lesson. I loved the experience and cannot wait to go back on Wednesday. I am looking forward to spending the day and learning new things about being in the classroom and working with the kids again! 

For the CCEA, my board and I have set up a meeting for February 15th at 12 noon in Werner in the Education lab. Everyone is welcomed! We have great ideas to share for events and fundraisers and are looking for new ideas from the members!