Sunday, January 20, 2013

Blog Post 1

About Me

My name is Brelyn Searcy and I am a junior at South Alabama. I live in Hurley, Ms, which is about 45 minutes away from the college. I am an elementary education major. I am a newly wed and he is truly a wonderful man. I am a step-mom to two wonderful little boys, Zeke and Peyton. They are my absolute world. I have a 7month old Siberian husky named Wolfie and he is my little buddy. He is the one in the picture. I am a volleyball coach at Resurrection Catholic High School n Pascagoula, Ms. My team of girl are my life. I love those girls like they are a huge part of my life. I want to go into the elementary education field because I want to show children that they can make a difference in the world no matter how old they are. My two step-sons have inspired me to be a teacher. My husband and I are teaching them while they are young that they can do things to change other people’s lives. This past Christmas my husband and I found a needy family and told our boys that instead of Bre Bre and Daddy getting them presents this year they, the boys, were going to shop for the needy family’s children. They were surprisingly thrilled to go get stuff for the little boys! Santa still brought them a big present, but when we gave the mom the presents for her little boys that she could buy she cried and the boys were slightly confused that she was crying. We explained to them that she was just so happy because of what they did, they were so proud of themselves. The rest of the night they were saying “Bre-Bre, we made that lady so happy she cried!” I was so proud of them. They keep asking when the next time they can do it again.


My Future Classroom

As a teacher I will be very supportive of my students and I will use mainly hands on teaching methods in my classroom. For every lesson that I do I will come up with something that the children can do to use what they have learned and experience it in their own. Say we do a lesson on the letter "A", I may bring a bag of apples that Friday,and the students would bring their favorite thing to dip apples in to school and we would have apples and what ever they brought at snack time. If we were doing math problems I could maybe use something like gummi bears and show the students how to add and subtract.

My students will learn by true experience. I will teach my students very important life lessons. My students would be very respectful to other teachers and to their classmates. I will teach them manners and how to be independent, but how to work together very well. My students will be my best friends. They will learn to be confident in themselves at the end of our year. The students will work together in the classrooms and out on the play ground. I will always try to get my students involved in things that are going on in the community and teacher them about what they are truly doing. My students will be respected around the school and the community.

I will hopefully ne a first grade teacher. I do not know really know exactly the tools I will use in my classrooms. I will come up with tools for the students to use as I go along with my lessons. I think that our main tools for my students to use will be paint and canvases. Every Friday we will have a paint day. We will use what we learned during the week to paint a picture on Friday and we will hang them up for all of the next week and we will just switch them every week for the other classes and teachers to see what they have learned about that week.

Time Management

My favorite thing Randy Pausch brought up was at the end of the video when he was talking about how to eat the frogs. He was talking about taking on the biggest and ugliest thing on your "To Do List" and do it first. He said "If you have to eat a frog do not sit there and look at it for too long. And if you have to eat three frogs do not eat the smallest one first." I take these quotes as saying that if you wait and do the biggest thing on your list last then you may not have time to get it all completed because you did not use your time wisely with the smaller "To Do's" and you can't get it all done. But if you just go ahead and "eat the frog" then you will have time to finish all of the little things on your list and you are less stressed out about not finishing on time.

Another thing I like that he brought up about asking yourself, "Why?" You should always ask yourself that question because the answer to that question may be the inspiration to finish what you are doing. He shows a powerpoint slide that has a few very good questions on it that every student should ask themselves, "Why will I succeed?","What happens if I choose not to do it?", and then "Doing things right vs. Doing the right things." He tells us in the video that your work will mean more if you do the right things adequately then if you do the wrong things beautifully. That is a VERY IMPORTANT POINT for a student to understand. Randy says "It does no matter how well you polish the underside of the banister." This video was very helpful to me and I advise this to always stay in the requirements in Blog Post #1. This is a very good and resourceful video.

3 comments:

  1. Dear Brelyn,
    I have enjoyed reading your post. You are open-minded person and I feel you will help create well-rounded students.
    You have terrific ideas in your "My Future Classroom" section. My most vivid memories are of kindergarten projects. My teacher, Mrs. Phillip, taught us how oil and water do not mix by having us draw a fish with crayons and then paint over the picture with light blue watercolors. This may not seem like a big deal anymore, but when we were 5 and 6 years old, this was astounding! She also taught us the colors of the rainbow and which colors make other colors through play dough. We made a small red ball of dough one day and let it dry. The next day, we mixed red and yellow dough together and let it dry. We did this every day until we created a rainbow caterpillar. Children learn through experiences, not from pen and paper.
    Teaching teamwork in classrooms and outside the classroom is a great skill to reinforce. However, in the 2nd grade classroom I work with, being friendly in groups is a major issue. Children can being bullying towards other students. I see it daily. Small comments such as, "I don't want to work with her; she's weird", makes working together in classrooms hard on other students. Those comments do not just stay in the classroom. I feel that stopping mean and criticizing attitudes towards other students is a priority in elementary school.Do you have any ideas on how to decrease bullying problems and how to show students how to work together well in elementary schools?
    Sincerely,
    Kameron

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  2. What a great idea to have your boys shop for gifts for others!

    Well written. On time! Keep it up.

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  3. Thank you for the positive comment Dr. Strange!

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