Creative Commons - Get Creative - Week 1 #2

This video made the cut for the blog this week, rather than the information in Chapter one of the textbook! While the information in Chapter One is rather informative and interesting, especially the list of the different terms with descriptions (really helped me!) this video takes copyright issues to a whole new level!



Taking the online plagiarism test through Indiana University made things seem difficult, but that only assessed on text to text copyright issues. This video address things that people not have known were copyrighted. I am sure that at some point in my lifetime, I have used something from the Internet that I wasn't supposed to use without proper attribution. However, after viewing this video and reading the provided articles this week, I find that it is easier than one may think to use images, videos, songs, etc. without violating any copyrights!



I teach Kindergarten, so this isn't an issue within my classroom, but I would STRONGLY suggest that this is a video that everyone from Middle School on up should watch! Even as an adult, I still found benefit!



Willmed. "Creative Commons - Get Creative" Published 10 Apr. 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io3BrAQl3so

Creating an Emotionally Healthy Classroom Environment - Week 1 #1

Creating an Emotionally Healthy Classroom Environment



So the blog for week one's featured article comes from Edutopia.org!  This particular article is written by Mark Phillips and discussed how to create an emotionally healthy classroom environment. I found this article to be of particular interest, as in a few short weeks (yikes!!!) it will be time to start preparing for the new school year!



Phillips suggests many different ways to help you build that emotionally healthy classroom, but below you will find a few of my favorite ideas and how I plan to execute those ideas!



             - Create a safe place for students

                         - Arrange my classroom in such a manner that would take away the opportunities for 

                           students to cause themselves or others any harm. (The balls to throw at the Smart

                           Board shouldn't be located near the gross motor movement area.)



             - Create an effective emotional environment

                          - Spend time allowing students to do things that help them get to know each other
 
                             and  allow them to each tell about their weekend or share special news (A lot of

                             times in  Kindergarten students will get wiggly teeth and need to share with their

                             friends NOW for support and understanding purposes).



Phillips has many more suggestions in his article! A great back to school read for all!

Hello!

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to put a post out there and introduce myself!

I graduated from CMU in December of 2008 with an Integrated Science Major and Reading Minor! I was hired into a school as a Kindergarten teacher in March of 2009. The situation that the previous teacher left was not a good one, but I taught that group the remainder of Kindergarten and the whole first grade year too! I am still teaching at the same school and now teach Kindergarten every year!

I have been married to my husband Dave for 5 years and we share our home with our energetic, busy little 2 year old, Owen. We also have a dog named Brewser. In the free time, that we struggle to find, we enjoy outdoor activities and camping! In fact we enjoy them so much that not only did we tear up and re-do all of our landscaping and add on to our deck, but we also bought an older pop-up camper and gutted the whole thing, just to re-build it all!!

I am looking forward to completing this course and becoming one step closer to that Master's Degree!!!

- Jenny