elisa schwartz

My big thing is having a messy desk. I didnt think they kids would think I am disorganized if my desk is messy. 

It does drive me crazy having papers to grade and having them sit on my table. 

I can learn names pretty fast and I tend to be a fun teacher which makes my rapport with students easy. 

I learned something that will help with students, this was not in the module but if others read it will help too. Ask the angry student: Do you want to vent or do you want solutions. You can tell when a child is having a hard time and having that rapport with them allows you to know who they are as a person. If the frequent flyers are having the disruptions get to know them the most. It helps. Sometimes it can be hard to be calm with them but having consistency throughout the classes is key. 

I have students at every end of this. Cell phones are a huge deal. It takes away from the lesson and work time. I always do a class remind then take them if necessary. I do have students who just wont participate no matter what gets done. I like to keep students near me, sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. I will take the lessons in this module and move forward.

for this section I learned removing the teacher from the dialogue helps provide greater authentic communication practice between students leading to the deep understanding and those neurons firing. 

I like the activity scenerios. This can be done with so many things meaning it is very versatile, I like the entry and exit cards, I do need to get into that routine more but I will get the kids who see it isnt graded and just not do it, thank you middle school. 

There is so much to take from that section. My main thing I took away was setting kids up to purposely fail the task, then have one ask a question, have another student try to answer it and keep it going until we can piece together the final. Also changing the classroom around to help with the learning. That would be so helpful if I could actually do that but my kitchens get in the way. 

I wish I could produce more talk in my classes. Everyone is too afraid to speak no matter what I do. I cannot wait to learn more and get these kids more productive in class!

WBL has many opportunities for students at the high school level. I would like to see some opportunities at the middle school level. This is where creativity will impact the classroom more as we can simulate high school and after. 

Students these days do not have the work drive (at least in middle school) that we did when we were younger. I like the idea of having an interview and application process, submitting quarterly reports could be like grades at terms, establishing work teams and switching throughout the class. This section really opened up a lot of ideas on how to make classes fun and still structured at the same time. 

Planning is obviously what every teacher is supposed to do. The better the plan the better the behaviors become in class. I have been trying the flipped classroom approach being CTE and having the 21st century skills incorporated and it has been nice.