Week 6 blog 2

Last blog post, here we go. These past six weeks have definitely been interesting, but in a good way. This is a super bittersweet feeling, writing this blog. Today was a really relaxed day, which was nice because the kids weren't as crazy today as they were yesterday. Hallelujah for Mr. Stefanek's return. honestly that man needs a raise or something. Throughout my time in the classroom it honestly makes me realize how under appreciated teachers actually are. They are shaping the future and the next generation and get almost little to no credit. On a lighter note, I refuse to end my last blog in a sad tone, so i'm going to talk about some of the amazing kids i've gotten to work with and i'm going to use names because these kids honestly made my score project so much more enjoyable. I loved working with every single student, but these students are some that I became really close to. 

I'm going to start with Paul. He was certainly one of my favorites. He's so funny and sweet and he just was one of the best parts of my day. Then there was Alice and Emily, who were the first two students who even thought to acknowledge me as an actual person rather then the teachers assistant in the back of the room which was nice. Next was Will and Brandon who are probably two of the funniest people i've ever met, and i loved being able to work with them.

I've become so close to each of the students within the 7th grade class. not just the ones above and I'm going to miss seeing them everyday, and I hope they have an awesome rest of the year and an awesome high school career, and i hope they just keep rocking.

PEACE OUT S.C.O.R.E.

Week 6 blog 1

The last week is so bittersweet. Today there is a substitute so i'm really excited to be more hands on then usual. There were a lot of issues with some of the students goofing off, but once they were seperated everything went smoothly. It's really fun to compare the students behaviors to when there is a sab and when Mr. Stefanek is here because it is completley different. Some students were amazing today adn toher were just hard to control. I have a lot of respect for substitutes because I know how 7th graders think whent here is a sub. They think that they don't need to do work and they can goof off the whole entire class, which isn't the case. I'm excited to see how the rest of the day goes and I hope it goes better rather then worse and there are no repeats like there were second block. It really stinks to seperate kids but when they aren't getting any work done while sitting next to eachother then it's the only option.

Week 5 Blog 2

On the upside tomorrow is Friday, on the downside Ellie slipped in puke today and it got all over her, the poor girl. Yesterday was actually a really fun day. After MCAS the entire 7th grade sat in the pod and had a quizbowl. Each teacher sponsors a team and in the end a winner will be chosen, it's like the Hunger Games, but without the killing because there can only be one winner. During the break there was a contest in which each team had to make up a cheer and Elli and I got to give a score between 1 and 5. Stefanek and Whittredge recieved 5's, so call us Bias but we gave them a well deserved Score. I mean, come on! There were back flips and tebowing! Mr. Sheilds team recieved a 4.5 because well...We felt bad that they were in the negative points. All of the kids started chanting that the scores were rigged because I'm working with Mr. Stefanek and Ellie works with Mrs. Whittredge, but it wasn't! It's been a really fun week and i'm kind of sad that next week will be my last because i'm getting to know a lot of kids I wouldn't know other wise.

Olivia: Week 5 Blog 1

Two more weeks of score! Yesterday was a very calm day because of the MCAS. the 7th graders had the first part of their math MCAS and it reminded me of how wild we probably were after MCAS. During the last 3 blocks of the day with Mr. Stefanek we played some really fun games. We played the box game with two teams and the goal is to fill four boxes in your section, the red team always won. RED RULES. In one class they did boys versus girls and it was interesting because there were more girls then there were boys and it was a large amount difference. The second game we played was top 10, which is when Mr. Stefanek googles a top ten list of some year and the students have to guess them to earn points. That one was my favorite because I was pretty good at it, which is exciting because i'm not good at those types of games, but if you don't know that Justin Bieber was the most googled person in 2011 then get out because that is an obvious give away. Today is going to be fun because we are doing quizbowl after MCAS with the entire grade, so I can't wait to write about that in my next blog!

Week 4 Blog 1

What do you call a person on a S.C.O.R.E? Scorians? Oh well. These past few days have been an interesting one, i'm going to start off with a funny story about one of my students, without using names of course. A student just messaged me on facebook accidentally and their final response to me asking if they had a math question and their response was "this is awkward.. i feel like im talking to mr.stefanek on facebook... haha" and I'm not sure if that is a compliment or....but I hope it is, so thank you. On a more score related note, the other day I was nominated to be in a professor team with Alice, Emily, and Abby Buck, which was fun because those girls are seriously so sweet and I Abby and I teamed up and taught a question to the class. I like being professor because i get to go to professor island and its fun. MCAS is coming up next week and I hope the 7th graders are super prepared because I think Mr.Stefanek did an awesome job preparing the kids by coming up with a creative and fun way to keep the kids interested. I think that is something that will be difficult for me when I become a teacher, keeping the kids engaged and interested, and also helps them learn as well, I should work on my creative abilities I suppose.

Week 3 Blog 2

I'm writing two in one day because i'm a little behind this week, oops. Today was one of the best days i've had thus far in score. I walk into class this morning and there was treats! I received a brownie from one of the girls in my E block class, which was really nice, unfortunately I missed out on the cupcakes, but so didn't Mr. Stefanek, those kids are animals when it comes to sweets. Today there was no photocopying though, sorry guys. But I did get to work with this awesome kid on his take home test. He was really engaged while i was helping him and it made my work so much easier, which was awesome. He really liked working the math out on the bored and i think it helped him concentrate a lot more, but unfortunately I didn't get to see every single class today because it was a half day. If one thing is for sure, those 7th graders are all crazy on half days, I was shoved in the hallway like 3 times. I also raced this kid during a clicker challenge, little did he know mine was already done...I won.

Week 3 Blog 1

Long time no blog! I guess I'll start off with Tuesday? Sure. Well on tuesday a new round of clicker challenges started and it was actually a difficult one for me, I'm horrible with probability and I believe that a few questions were on that one. During C Block I did a lot. I made some photocopies which took forever. Who would have thought that 240 photocopies would take almost the whole block. After I finished my photocopies I went and helped Ms. Vidala work with some of the kids who struggle with math, much like i did in 7th grade. I made sure that they finished the work that they were assigned and helped them if they had questioned. I like doing that a lot because its nice to work with the kids one on one and really start to help them learn things. The classes were assigned take home tests, which is something that I desperately missed about middle school because you would think that a take home test would be almost an easy hundred because you can use your notes and a calculator. And then on Wednesday I was sos ice, so I didn't go in, but I didn't even feel that behind when I went in for the new clicker challenges today. I actually did miss hanging out with all the 7th graders yesterday while I was laying on my sick bed.

Olivia: Week 2 Blog 3

Another week for score is coming to an end and I’m so glad. I don't know how Mr. Stefanek can do this teaching thing all year, I’m exhausted. I'm walking, sleeping through the summer, exhausted. But enough about how tired I am, no one cares about that. Yesterday Mr. Stefanek wore this hate, and I’m talking like a crazy, funky hate. It was green and it had these horns things that came off of it, who owns those kinds of hats? That is the only thing that was running through my mind. But during G block Abby Buck and I were nominated to be team professors, which was excited because I’ve only ever been nominated once during clicker challenges! We won, obviously and we were sent to "Professor Island" which in reality is just sitting in the pod. Reviewing for MCAS has been actually kind of fun because it made me realize how lucky I had it in high school because I HATED MCAS. I'm sure is still would if I even had to worry about it, but I’m senior and done with high school, so no. I think I’ve also mastered all of the photocopiers that exist in this school, just a few minutes ago I used the coolest photocopier in the library and it just shot the paper out like it was nothing. After spending ten minutes in the 8th grade copier it was nice to have copies that took less than a minute. It is my new favorite copier and I have named it speedy. Not really, but when I need to make single copies I’m going there instead of waiting for ten minutes. ALL HAIL SPEEDY.

Week 2 Blog 2

During my internship with Mr. Stefenk so far I ahve definitley decided that 7th grade isn't a grade I want to teach. I love the kids that i've been working with and they are all awesome kids, but seeing how much they chatter would frustrate me too much and I know it's just because of their age and I was the same way in 7th grade. I think that when I go nito education next year that i'm going to focus on early childhood/ elementary because I love kids so much. Yesterday I got to tag team a question with Mr. Stefanek and I helped him explain it to the class and luckily the class got a 100% on the question that I helped explain, which meant I atleast did a decent job explaining it. Working in a classroom has been really beneficial for me because I see how Mr.Stefanek works with these kids and he's amazing with all of them, and i'm learning some awesome things and approaches from working in his classroom. Today i'm going to write up some interview questions and do the clicker challenges for the next few classes so that I can help when students have questions. I find it easier to explain after I have completed the packet myself. It's strange, but concepts that I didn't understand in 7th grade seem much easier now, and that is kind of cool because going into this internship I was worried that my math skills wouldn't be up to the level they should be in order to help the students in each classes. I think next blog post I might give a feel for each block because they are all so different, and some of the kids are so awesome to work with and i'm learning a lot from them as well.

Week 2 Blog 1

Monday was a really fun day because I got to switch it up by grading one of the MCAS clicker challenges. A few classes were behind in their clicker challenges so in order to catch them up I had to percentage out their answers instead of having them buzz them into the clicker game. It was actually kind of time consuming, but I enjoyed it. Grading the papers was actually really relaxing and it was nice to do something that was outside of what I had been doing. I also made photocopies for Mr. Stefanek for the days work and the next days. Using the copy machines the day back from vacation is a disaster because anything that could possibly go wrong did. I was in the 6th grade copy room making copies, minding my own business when the copy machine ran out of staples, in my nervous break down I wasn't sure what to do because i thought I broke it, so I texted my friend Chloe, who is also working in the school and she then helped me find a teacher who knew how to fix it. I learned how to put the staples in and I also learned that teachers aren't supposed to change the staples, let alone students. Then after it ran out of it staples, it ran out of paper. What else could possibly go wrong? But luckily that was the only little hiccup in my adventure to learning how to photocopy. I'm enjoying getting more and more responsibility as we proceed in SCORE.

Week 1 Blog 3

These past to days of SCORE have been interesting, especially with Mr. Stefanek out. We've been working on MCAS review all week, so he left the students some worksheets and packets to complete for the Monday that we return from vacation. These past two days have definitely help me understand how teachers choose how much work to give and how much isn't enough. The students finished all of their work the first day, which was yesterday and that resulted in them not having enough to do today, which is difficult because 7th graders can get very anxious when they are bored and don't sit still. It's definitely hard to keep them under control when they get out of it and it's difficult for the sub, who has been awesome the last two days. I think that with the next two classes coming up i'm going to try and get a small game going to pass the time so that the students are just screaming and running around the room because they don't like to sit in their seats. Luckily our first block this morning was really good because they dropped yesterday, so that resulted in them still having to do the work that was left. I think it's interesting to see the classes the day before vacation because they act so differently then the rest of the week. So mostly today was just trying to keep the students in their seats and yesterday was more hands on because math wasn't the subs "greatest skill" so I helped more than i would on a normal day with Mr. Stefanek which is fun because I like getting to interact with some of the kids and help them work.

Week 1 Blog 2

Today was a more hands on day throughout the classes. During A block I was nominated with Mr. Stefanek to be the professor for Clicker Challenge #7 and needless to say I was kind for nervous. My biggest fear when i'm helping out the students is that i'll be teaching them the wrong way or give them the wrong answer, so when I was nominated to teach the class how to do one of the questions I was terrified. Luckily I had the answer right, but I don't want to teach them wrong and then they do horrible on the test. Luckily the question and subject I had to teach the class involved proportions which are what I'm best at. I think I do a good job explaining how the problems work and the how the result makes sense, but I understand how teaching can be stressful sometimes. As I observe the classes throughout the day i can tell that some classes listen to Mr. Stefanek more than others and at one point during F block the Clicker Challenge had to be cancelled because of the excessive talking, and it was good to observe the environment when the teacher is frustrated with the distractions as well. I also did a lot more hands on helping with the students by walking to them when they had questions instead of waiting for them to ask me directly if Mr. Stefanek is busy. I'm learning a lot just by observing and after break I can't wait to do even more. Tomorrow should be interesting because Mr. Stefanek isn't going to be here so i'm excited to see how the day will go with a substitute.

Week 1 Blog 1

Yesterday was my first day working with the 7th graders in Mr. Stefanek's math classes. It was really interesting to be back in his class as a teachers assistant and now that I can understand his jokes he is hilarious and it makes for an awesome working environment. We spent the day in most classes reviewing and working on some skills for the upcoming math MCAS by using the clickers in order to play "The clicker challenge" which is a series of questions and the classes compete amongst each other to see who can get the highest percentage right. I helped mr. Stefanek answer the students questions and keep them going on the right track. It's really interesting working with so many different students because each class has a different personality which makes the classes different to work with because the environment changes throughout every period.I really enjoyed getting to know some of the students and helping them work through some of the math problems on their sheets.I also learned how to use the photocopier which was actually kind of exciting for me because I had struggled the past four years with trying to learn more. Throughout the different classes i've answered a variety of different questions and i've helped run the MCAS review, which was really fun because in 7th grade we didn't have fun things to do for MCAS review. The students are very welcoming and I can't wait to get to know them even better. I've made it my goal to learn every single student's name, which if you've seen the 7th grade is a lot of students and names.

Frontiero Outline

Olivia Frontiero
SCORE Research paper Outline


Introduction: Secondary education learning styles affect an individual’s ability to learn at a more mature age.
A. The origin of education

B. Stages of growth child development (8-12)

C. Learning Style Methods
D. Why incorporate learning styles into teaching?
E.  Advances in technology shape the learning of younger minds

P2: The origin of Education

1. How did teaching/ education develop?
2. The first schools created
1. Boston Latin School, established in April 1635
3. Education between boys and girls (difference)
4. What is still used today

P3: Stages of growth child development (12-18)

1. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory
1. Latency
2. Implications for in-school learning
1. Skills become more complex between the transition of Elementary to Middle school
2. Social trends, peer pressure, ect. affect upper middle school students
3. Transition from Middle to High school
1. Social media and social experiences impact behaviors
2. Social norms force students to conform

P4: Learning Style Methods

1. Kolb/Mccarthy learning cycle
1. A cycle of four learning modes:
1. Convergers
2. Accomodators
3. Assimilators
4. Divergers
2. Felder-Silverman Learning Styles Model
1. 5 dimensions:
1. Perception
1. Sensing and Intuitive
2. Input
1. Visual and Verbal
3. Organization
1. Inductive and Deductive
4. Processing
1. Active and reflective
5. Understanding
1. Sequential and Global
3. Grasha- Reichmann Learning styles:
1. based on students’ responses to actual classroom activities rather than on a more general assessment of personality or cognitive traits
2. Styles:
1. Competitive
2. Collaborative
3. Avoidant
4. Particiapant
5. Dependent
6. Independent

P5:Why incorporate learning styles into teaching?

1. Interactions between individuals differ
1. Not all students are the same, some learn in different ways
2. Creates a good environment within the classroom
3. The Learning-style hypothesis
1. The idea that instruction should be provided in the mode that matches the learner’s style.

P6: How technology shapes the learning of younger minds

1. Education within 3rd world countries
1. Lack of Technology- less oppurtunity
2. Education within 1st world countries
1. Technology is used for research
2. Collaborations that bring students, teachers, and researchers together to create new curriculum for K-12 learners and adult learners.
3. Technology: A school for the future
1. New communication should promote new collaborations and a higher level of cooperation and creative problem-solving.
2. Learners must be able to use technology to achieve new levels of learning and to acquire new information age skills and abilities.
3. Technology is used in order to hold files and keep organized
4. Discover new forms of learning methods and teaching methods

Conclusion

1. Certain learning methods help expand the mind of younger children, making them more open to learning
2. The role that early childhood plays on education is a huge factor in how children will learn as they enter high school
3. Learning Methods are used in order to challenge children’s mind and make them think rationally and logically.
4. Technology will expand and create more opportunities for students to come up with a learning style for their own mind.

Bransford, John. "Stages of Growth Child Development - Early Childhood (Birth to Eight Years), Middle Childhood (Eight to Twelve Years)." Http://education.stateuniversity.com. Google, n.d. Web. <http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1826/Child-Development-Stages-Growth.html>.

Canady, Robert Lynn., and Michael D. Rettig. Teaching in the Block: Strategies for Engaging Active Learners. Princeton, NJ: Eye on Education, 1996. Print.

Fine, Janet. Opportunities in Teaching Careers. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.

"The First Public School." Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. <http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/oldest-school-america.html>.

Montgomery, Susan M., and Linda N. Grout. Student Learning Styles and Their Implication for Teaching. Https://www.eecs.umich.edu. The University of Michigan, 1998. Web. <https://www.eecs.umich.edu/cse/cs_connections/cs4hs_presentations_09/Student_Learning_Styles.pdf>.

Pasher, Harold, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer, and Robert Bjork. "Psychological Science in the PUBLIC INTEREST." Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence 9.3 (2008): 107-16. Http://www.vashonsd.wednet.edu. Association for Psychological Science, Dec. 2008. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. <http://www.vashonsd.wednet.edu/mcmurray/science/justin/Resources/HOM/Pashler_et_al_PSPI_9_3.pdf>.

New Labels

New Labels