Wrapped up another week!

Well, it is the end of another week. Just 2 more before I have to say goodbye (to a certian extent) to the students I have now, and get to know a new group. I really have begun to have a great relationship with most of my students, I really do enjoy them.

This morning we took the middle school students to a play that the high school was putting on. It was the Lion King. It started off a little slow and dull, but it turned out to be a really great play. They did a very good job. That was my first play experience as a teacher, and it was rather fun. Have I mentioned before how much I enjoy my job!!!!!

Some more pictures of my room, classroom library, and my students.

Book Review #2


The book that I chose to read was What Great Teachers Do Differently, by Todd Whitaker. I had this book on the book shelf of my room with all my other teacher resources, and I have wanted to read it, so I was given the excuse to read it. I found the book to be really good. It gave me a great amount of information and strategies that I can use in my classroom to help me become a more effective teacher. One that my students will really benefit from. The book was basically about the differences between great teachers and what they do in their classrooms and with their students that others do not. It described fourteen things that matter most in respect to be a great and productive teacher. It talked about the importance of studying and learning from effective examples or models, instead of watching someone who is ineffective. While you will not learn everything there is to know by watching an effective teacher, you will certainly pick up some great examples/traits from them. It also mentioned that when you see an effective/productive classroom, it typically has to do with the great teacher and not the programs. You have to realize that it takes a great teacher to run those programs, and the great ones can take whatever they have to work with and make it work (not what you do, but how you do it!). Great Teachers have very positive attitudes and not only have high expectation of their students, but also have high expectations of themselves. They do a great job of establishing their expectations at the beginning so that they don’t have those problems of discipline most teachers do later in the year. They build strong relationships with their students and parents, as well as trust. Another aspect is the ability to ignore. They know through experience what situations require immediate attention and which ones can be dealt with later, and they know how to handle it in a discrete manner. They also always have a plan. Nothing random happens in their classrooms. Great teachers also base their decisions on how it will affect their students, and try to develop their lessons toward their best students in order to grow and mature their students, instead of teaching to the middle. They don’t get caught up in hot button topics; they stay focused on teaching and challenging their students, and expect the other stuff will fall in line. Finally, those teachers that are most productive are the ones who have an established core of beliefs and morals, and they live them, model them, and expect the students to use them in their classroom.

This Present Darkness Book Review

While there is so many books that I desire to read, I know that I just don’t have enough hours in the day to read them all. But I have read one recently that I found to be very good. It is a Christian fiction novel by Frank Peretti. The name of the book is This Present Darkness. It is a novel about spiritual warfare. The story takes place in a small town called Ashton. The local pastor of Ashton Community Church and the editor/reporter of the local paper (The Ashton Clarion) establish a relationship after witnessing and experiencing several strange circumstances. They soon realize the dark forces that were at play in their town. The spiritual warfare was revealed to them. As they investigated what was happening, they were able to discover some New Age philosophies that a few of the members of the community had been interacting in, which had apparently attracted the dark spirits that were now inhabiting their town. The dark forces against the two friends would intensify greatly as they learned and discovered more about what was going on. With the help of spirits of light from heaven, the two men were able to defeat the dark forces and thrust them out of the town, eradicating the darkness from Ashton.

Inside Mr.Bennetts' Classroom

Blog Reflection:
Well, this assignment has turned out to be much better than I anticipated that it would be. At first I really was uncertain and nervous about this assignment because I really didn’t know very much about blogging and stuff such as facebook and myspace. I never have really been fascinated with that kind of stuff, and to be honest felt that it was childish and stupid. But after finally working with it enough and learning how to use it, I actually find it to be very functional and easy to use. I also have decided that a blog of this type is also very practical if used as an educational blog to share ideas and experiences with others in the education field. I was also encouraged to see that most of my fellow classmates of the MAT program have experienced some of the same types of issues and struggles that I have, and that we can share them so that others can have some ideas, suggestions, etc. to help make things better or easier for them.
I can see the benefits of having and maintaining a blog such as this could have on your classroom and with your students. There are many advantages that you could utilize with this blog that could really promote and infuse great technology into your classroom. The only dilemma that I experienced with maintaining a blog was the fact that access to it has been limited for me. My school blocks all websites like this, so I haven’t been able access it while at school. As a result, I haven’t had the opportunity to share it with my students, which is awful because I would really like to expose them to this type of technology and to have an active role in the blog. I also had problems with my computer, which crashed on me, so I have had to gain access from other computers to finish out this semester, and that also limited the amount of time I could find to access my blog, but I am back on now and plan on making continual efforts of improving my blog to make it the best that I can.

Another Day in Paradise!!!

Well....Today was yet another great day.....We are 3 weeks away from wrapping up my first semester......After Christmas break I will be inheriting a new group of students, and will be starting back over in my content/frameworks........The year is just flying by......I never knew that you could love a career so much........I can get used to this!!!

The first few weeks!!!

Well, we are a couple of weeks into the school year now, and I am still loving it!!! The first day was spent laying out the goals and expectations of my class and letting the students get to know me by telling them a little about myself. The rest of the week was spent going over terminology and basic facts about computers and keyboarding just to get an assessment of where they were at and what they already know. I then starting reiterating the information they were not very familiar with from last year as well as throwing in some new terms and facts. We ended last week with our first test. Well, I had high hopes that everyone was going to do very good on it, because I thought that it was rather basic and easy. Also, I went over the actual test in class as a review the day before the test, as well as giving them a study guide. To my surprise, they didn't do well on it (with the exception of a few). So the past two days have been spent going back over the information. I let them know how disappointed I was that they didn't do better. I told them that they should have taken notes like I suggested during our review and that next time they should actually study the study guide. I threw out a couple of questions that everyone of my students missed, but warned them that I would be nice on the first test, but not to expect me to do it on the rest of our tests, quizzes, projects, etc. I let them know that they were going to have to put forth some effort because I will be challenging them all semester, because that is why I am there....to put them in a better position academically when they leave my class than they were when they entered it!!!! They will catch on, and I know they will do great!!!!