Adventures of Mrs. Sam-I-Am

Build-A-Classroom-Family What makes a great teacher? There are some set decided upon characteristics that “make”  for a great teacher, things like enthusiasm, creativity, humor, resilience, and other traits like these. While I feel like these things make for a good teacher there are more as well. A teacher needs to be loving, be stern, have common sense, and be flexible. Life in a school can be wonderful but also wild.     When it comes to my personal strengths, I believe that my creativity, compassion, and common  sense are vital in a classroom environment. I feel that I can be such an asset in any school with the  way I think outside of the box and can come up with different solutions to the same problems we  face over and over again. I can mix things up and create new adventures for the kids, new ways to  look at the learning, and hopefully break through some barriers that hold back some of our more  challenging students.   ...

Unity in Diversity...      What is Global Education and why do we need it? When looking at the whole of the earth and its history there are many different lessons that we can learn from it all. The benefits of the culture you can learn from, the community you can build, and the compassion that can be gained from learning about other cultures and their people can help change the world.       In the classroom you can easily add in global lessons by teaching about other countries, other holidays, other games, languages, types of arts. There are so many ways. I personally like to celebrate and learn about other holidays, learn about the traditions, crafts, and foods. I also love to learn about the history from other countries, the good and the bad. You can learn so much from the failures and successes of others as to not repeat the same mistakes.      I hope in my future classroom that i can teach students to be well-rounded childr...

Is Too Much Information, Too Much?     When I was growing up, access to the internet wasn't as easy as it is now. If you wanted to know about something, then you had to literally look it up in a book or encyclopedia. While yes, this took longer and was frustrating at times, the good part about it was for the most part you know you were getting accurate information. Now we live in the era of information, but not all the information is true and accurate.     So, what do we do? It is part of our jobs as teachers to teach children that not everything they read on the internet is true but it's also more than that. We have to teach kids how to find the true, unbiased information. For school, for projects, but also for themselves and their own minds and growth. While we need people to form their own options about things it needs to be based on facts and reality, the internet is really good at sharing false information.      Ultimately it is not solely our job...

We're All in This Together...     When discussing the trend of Inclusion in the classroom I get very excited. I love the idea of getting to help our friends in the classroom and help them join in in the general classroom with the typical kiddos. Where some might believe that this is not good because of distraction or whatever reason, I on the other hand believe that this is a wonderful thing for all the children. While yes, sometimes there can be a distraction from a child with special needs when they are in the classroom, but this is where the Paraprofessional or Inclusion teacher comes in. By keeping the children in the classroom, we are not only teaching them how to function in society but also helping the other children understand that not everyone is the same and some need more than others.      I personally love this trend and as someone who wants to be in the Special Education world, I will do my best to work with the General Education Teachers to make th...

Different Colors Make a Rainbow...      When you are looking at a rainbow you see many different colors and blends of color within the single image. This is like the diversity within a classroom. Each person: teacher, student, staff member, everyone brings their own unique life, culture, and individuality to school making for the opportunity to use that to learn about each other and each other's cultures.      Being that I am a white, middle aged, very quirky, alt southern momma style, I feel like I just give of the momma vibes and can be there for the kiddos. Even though I am sure that my students will be different in may ways, I am always interested in others so I will listen to anything they will want to tell me about their culture, lives, or even themselves. I love to learn new things so I would even love to help kids learn about themselves if maybe they need to explore their own diversity. 

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...     If I were to try and teach my students about a favorite hobby of mine, I would probably choose to paint. The thing about painting is that it can be so personalized to each person. We could paint hats, or plates, or paper, or canvas. I think for a classroom in the intermediate elementary age range the idea of a "feelings painting" would be something that could be used for the Window/Mirror concept within teaching.  By using this idea of "feelings paintings", I feel like the students could look through the window into me and see that maybe my life and since of self can be bright fun but also a little messy. When they use the paints to do their own paintings, the choices of colors and movements of the paint can really help them see a mirror into their own world while also giving me as the teacher, a window into my students.      One thing with children is that they all feel that they are not as good at something as someone els...