Field Journals
Learning Philosophies
PBL and EL principles that we base our understanding from.
Classroom Observations
Reflection on our observation, participation, and Think Aloud visits.
Learning Philosophies
Field Journal #3- Old Guys
On my second visit to Ms. Leadbetter’s classroom, I was instructed to take on a more participatory role in class discussion. In that class discussion, students were tasked with answering prompted questions from Ms. Leadbetter regarding a section of a book they had...
Blog 4: Formative Assessments
The value of this research is set forth in the formative assessment aspect of it and how it can be used to support PBL and PBS to take full advantage of student success. It talks about how “formative assessment is any pedagogical strategy used to elect student...
Blog 4: Reading Identities
In "Reading Adolescents' Reading Identities: Looking back to see Ahead", written by Donna E. Alvermann, published by International Literacy Association and Wiley, there are multiple arguments explaining people's identities as readers. These identities that people get...
Story Maps: A Guide to the Self by Brianna Havron
"Behind the Story Map" is a teaching philosophy article that details the vast world of literature and how studying these worlds can give children valuable perspectives on the real world. This entire idea is something my partner, Rachel, and I have been exploring with...
Teachers teaching Teachers
Hello fellow teachers, we live in a time of great suffering as teachers, professors, and general educators there is a lack of appreciation and understanding for what we do. Often, we are seen as sources of information, banks of knowledge that lack any real experience...
Effective Scaffolding
For this blog, I chose to read "Instructional Scaffolding: Reading and Writing as Natural Language Activities" by Arthur N. Applebee and Judith A. Langer. This journal explains how to build up young readers and writers in a way that furthers their critical thinking...
Teaching Excellence
Article Link https://www.jstor.org/stable/40890944 In an article by Sabrina Hope King and Audra Watson, they discuss the necessity of improving the quality of education in American schools, focusing on the individual and providing effective learning strategies to all...
Voices of the High School Teachers
This article is about the many perspectives of examining a developmental education for college-level students: including students themselves, college professors, administration, and policy makers. With all these perspectives being heard from and considered, there is...
Community Based Learning, What About Family Based Learning?
Judy Dunn’s chapter “Understanding Feelings: The Early Stages” in The Child’s Construction of the World is fascinating. Dunn gives historical background on understanding children’s emotions and argues that the initial two ways of evaluating children's intelligence are...
School Visit: Expectation vs. Reality
During our first school visit at the local high school, I had the opportunity to observe a 10th grade classroom. The teacher was a VMI Alumni, so I had the opportunity to engage and bond with him before class began. We discussed our different experiences at VMI, along...
Classroom Observations
Working Together. Learning Together
During our last visit at the high school, Keenan and I were a bit nervous as we were not actually prepared for the assignment the students were learning for that day. You see, Keenan and I were awake until roughly around 4:00 am the night before working on our...
Group Reading for High-Level English
This had been my third visit to Mrs. Leadbetter's class, so I had a bit of familiarity with a few of the students. I had been gifted the opportunity to engage in interpersonal conversation with a few of them prior to teaching them. However, even with this advantage, I...
Learning then Teaching: A Sandwich of Ideas by Brianna Havron
This week, myself as well as my classmates had the privilege of going back to Ms. Cosgriff's 5th grade classroom. We were excited to see the kids and we think they were probably excited to see us, too. My partner, Rachel, and I have been specifically preparing for...
Teach In – MacBeth and Masque of the Red Death
Jarvis Chandler and I led a teach in on 11/17/22. We used a scene from Macbeth by Shakespeare and "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe to teach our lesson to the 12th graders in Ms. Leadbetter's class. Jarvis went through the slides during the...
Sandwiches: They Taste So Good
For our third visit to Ms. Cosgriff's classroom, Justin, Noah, Brianna, and I taught a short lesson on how to record a podcast. The students have been working for a couple weeks on gathering research and creating storyboards for a podcast project on different...
Engaging With Learning
On Tuesday, November 15th, myself and a group of my peers visited a 5th-grade classroom to teach a brief lesson that directly engaged with the project they have been working on in the long term. We collaborated to produce a lesson that would help prepare them to...
Teachers Learn from Students
Last Thursday, when my partner Declan and I arrived at Mrs. Payne's classroom, she told us, "They are all yours," and she was not joking. As soon as the bell rang to signal the start of class, the room full of eleventh-grade English students looked to me for the...
Dream Big Achieve Big
I recently went back in time and visited an eleventh-grade high school classroom, no longer as a high school student rather a college senior. I had a simple task while there, to be a "fly on the wall" to listen and learn. What I quickly realized is that the passion...
A Fly on the Wall: In Viserion the Dragon’s Cage by Brianna Havron
The last time I stepped foot inside an elementary school classroom was of course, when I was in elementary school. On the ride over to Rockbridge County Elementary School, I did not know what to expect. I wanted creativity and I wanted passion and I wanted to know...
Varying Levels of Engagement Among High School Students
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to observe a 12th grade English class. Before diving deep into how the students engaged with the material the teacher taught, I want to make clear my role in the classroom, as well as the purpose of the class. My role in the...