Intro to Ancient Egypt

My unit topic was Egypt. Some of the most fascinating things to learn about Egypt are abour ancient Egypt. This video was created by a teacher to show students about the wonders of ancient Egypt. It grabs the students attention by using the Indiana Jones theme and the selected music. I could use this in a classroom to introduce the unit on Egypt. It shows the students what all they will be learning about. It also could be used as a review activity. The students would have to use their Egypt vocabulary to identify the images in the video.

I Want ..... Wednesday.

Today is Wednesday, and what better way to celebrate it than to state some of the things that I want. Today I want to not live so far from each of my friends so that I can see them more. I live at least an hour from all of my closest friends, friends that I used to spend time with every day. Now I have to plan to go see them on a weekend, as if I can find so many where I do not have anything keeping me busy. I also want more interesting books. I spend most of my time reading, and I have run out of books that I have not already read at least three times. And my last want for Wednesday is....I want a job! They are hard to come by these days!!

Night.

I think of the night to be full of the unknown. Something that can be so familiar during daylight can completely change once night sets. The night can bring so many things: peace, wonder, fear, amazement, excitement, longing, and many other emotions that seem to hide during the day. Here are three pictures I have chosen to show some of these emotions.

Wonder and Amazement

Peace or Fear

Excitement

A regular day in the life of Lauren.

Every day starts the same. I usually get up at around 6:30 and go walking. I have started this new thing where I try and exercise every day. After I get back from walking, I let the dogs out and start cleaning. I start with the kitchen, and work my way from room to room. I do live with my parents. They both work all day, so I am "the force that keeps the gousehold running"...haha. I clean(which includes dusting and washing windows, the most dreadful things), I wash clothes, and cook lunch and supper. I also run errands for my parents and buy all the groceries. I honestly do not know what they will do when I finally move out! After I cool supper, my daddy and I usually have shows that we watch. My brothers and I do like to watch movies at night, because that is the only time I get to see them. They are always at some kind of sports practice. At the end of the day, I get ready for bed, and plan to do the same thing again the next day. It is not the most exciting plan I could have for spending my days, but it helps out and keeps my family going. If I did not have anything to do, I think I would go crazy just sitting at the house!

Book Review of "The Tipping Point"

            How does an epidemic start? Once we become part of an epidemic or one is thrust upon us, it can be hard to pinpoint how it started. Some epidemics, like fashion epidemics, just seem to rise up and take over before we realize that an epidemic is starting. Other epidemics, like health epidemics, become a part of society, and their origins cannot be found in order to calm them. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, he breaks down different epidemics and talks about just what makes them tip, or go from being hardly known to transforming into and epidemic that sweeps across cities or the country. Gladwell takes the reader through the different ways to tip an epidemic. There is always the easiest way, by the law of the few, or word-of-mouth, but he breaks down the tipping by word-of-mouth into three types of people that can tip an epidemic. These people are called connectors, mavens, and salesmen. The next factor that an epidemic has to have is stickiness. The idea, disease, product, etc. must be memorable or able to stick to people or in the environment. The last factor that can tip an epidemic is the power of context. Sometimes it only takes one of the factors for an epidemic to tip and become something everyone is talking about. Sometimes it is a combination of two or more factors. What Gladwell points out is that all epidemics can be traced back to these factors, whether it is a person or one thing about the epidemic that made it memorable.

A mistake that I have made and the lesson I learned from it.

I was in my second clinicals during my undergraduate work and was placed in third grade. One of my assignments consisted of me developing and teaching a science lesson. I chose to create a lesson teaching the students about the parts of a bee. I decided that instead of giving the students a picture of a bee to label, I would let them paint a picture of their own bee and then label the parts of it. I only had an hour to teach the lesson. Well, that hour was not long enough to have them discuss the body parts and point them out on a bee diagram, draw their bee, and then paint their bee and label the parts. I over achieved the activity. I did learn to scale back my lesson activities a little. It was chaos trying to get the students to hurry and finish their paintings. The projects did turn out good, but we had to take time out of the next day for most of them to label their parts.

Should My School Use Social Media?

Social media is a hot thing of the present and future. Students know how to use it and love to use it , so why not let them use it at school? This could be a great thing IF it is implemented correctly and is monitored. I read an article written by Shailey Minocha, titled "An empirically-grounded study on the effective use of social software in education". The article was the explanation of the study and results that were found researching the implementation of using social networks in the classroom. The results proved to be encouraging. The students liked using the social networks for group projects and learning technology efficient skills that they could apply outside the classroom. The use of these networks did prove to be more time consuming for the teacher. The teacher had to stay current with the technology, change lessons to incorporate the use of the social media, and be able to monitor the students use of the technology. Putting in more time could be a problem for teachers, but by using social media and staying current with trends, will give the teachers skills they can use outside the classroom as well. If using social media in the classroom enhances the students' learning experience, it should be used and supported by school systems, parents, and teachers.

Technology That Empowers Me

Feeling empowered is a feeling that puts me high above the clouds. Which is why it is such a bad fall when that feeling goes away. Luckily, I have some forms of technology that keep me feeling empowered 24/7. My cell phone, ipod, and ipad help me to feel empowered. I know I had a life before I owned all three of these things, but I cannot remember how I managed. Having my cell phone, ipod, and ipad by my side help me feel in control of my life. My life is always on the go, half of my time is spent in my car, so having some feel of control is a great thing. My cell phone is my link to the world. I can get in touch with every member of my family, my friends, or any other person I need to converse with. My ipod is especially important to me because I live my life through music. If I am not talking to a person, I am listening to something on my ipod. Whether I am in the car, exercising, or just sitting around the house, I am listening to my music. My ipad is the newest addition, and it has by far taken up most of my time these days. I love the ipad because I can keep up with everything from my facebook, email, news, and my internet shopping. It really helps me take care of all my needs. Having some semblance of power in my own life is a necessary thing to help me keep myself sane. I am just lucky that technology is advanced enough to help me accomplish this.

July 9, 2011: A book that impacted my life...

A book that I have always remembered is "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". I know that this book is universally known, but I really love this book because it helped me to grasp reality when I was little. When I was about 8 years old, I thought I lived the worst life ever. I thought only bad things happened to me and everyone else always got the better deal out of everything. One day my third grade teacher, who was my favorite teacher ever, read us this book. It really helped me feel like I was not the only person who dealt with an unlucky life. Alexander shared my grief. It also helped me realize that I cannot go around looking for all the bad things that could happen and have happened. I need to feel good about things in order to see the good that is happening to me. I will always be able to thank Alexander and his no good, horrible day for making me see that negativity only brings more negativity.

June 2, 2011

Hey! My name is Lauren, and this is my new blog! I just graduated from UWA with a bachelor's in Elementary Education. I decided to go ahead and get my Masters so I would not have to go back to school later. I do not have a job yet, but I am for sure looking. I have applied for some, now just playing the waiting game. I would love to get a job teaching first, second, or third grade, and I would love to move to Kindergarten after I get a few years experience. I am looking foward to starting my teaching career. I love children and cannot wait to spend every day teaching them!

A quirky thing about me is the fact that I am OBSESSED with turtles and the color green. I know these two go hand in hand. I have had numerous pet turtles, and every single one of them has been named Franklin....or Frankie for short. If I see a turtle trying to cross the road, I will pull over and help it across. I feel so sorry for them because they move so slow.