Sunday, December 13, 2009

A great semester at St. Mary's

Showtime in Park



On Thursday I had the chance to check out the best portfolio's around. These were some of the nicest, and well put together portfolio's I have ever seen. It was really helpful that they actually went to Cortland, so all the questions I had they had great answers. One portfolio I was looking at that was very catching because she used lots of colors that were separated perfectly so everything was easy to look up. I took a picture of her table to contents because it was very well put together and it helped when I was looking through it. Another guy I got the chance to speak with, had a different kind of portfolio. Instead of having it in a binder like everyone Else's, he had an online portfolio which was very impressive. We talked for awhile and he told me about how you have to pay a yearly fee for the website, but it was around 50%, which is well worth a good looking portfolio. He told me that this is probably going to be the future, in terms of portfolio's, because it can be seen by so many more people. When putting it together, he said it was just like making a blog, and that theirs different templates, and text boxes that you can add. Another thing that I thought was interesting about the online portfolio is that it's a totally different style, and that can attract a lot of positive attention, that other's may not get because it's the regular style. Just by walking around and talking to these people, I learned a lot about how I want my portfolio to start looking. After seeing all these nicely put together portfolio's it really makes me want to have mine looking just as good if not better. Talking to them about what artifacts I should put in their, and how to go about putting mine together. Overall I learned a lot from going to the showcase, and got a lot of great idea's for my personal portfolio.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Christmas Time At St. Mary's

This past Wednesday was our last lab at St. Mary's, and it was definitely exciting. To start, everyone was dressed up which was cool to see, and everyone was very upbeat and happy. Getting the day started in the gym was my group, and we had an interesting game set up for the kids. The name of the game was called Reindeer's verse Elves, and the story behind the game was that since elf's have some kind of power since they make all these crazy and cool toys, that it must work on reindeer too. The game started with one elf in the middle of the gym, while the other reindeer's were lined up on the baseline, trying to get to the other side. Every time an elf touched a reindeer, they were given a pinny, and turned into an elf. The game kept the kids moving and they really enjoyed it. Starting off was a little shaky because you could tell the kids were restless from being in school all day, and didn't want to listen to a us explain our game. Once everyone got the hang of it, they all got so much more active and hyper, which made the game more fun in the end.
After all the reindeer got tagged and turned into elf's we switched the game up a little. Instead of running everywhere, they had to crawl to the other side. One thing that stood out to me was that when I finally got the kids attention, and was saying 'Reindeer are you ready' they would all scream "YES" and "Elf's are you ready" they would all scream "YEA." To me this meant that we did a good job picking the game and creating a good story behind it. Seeing all the kids scream and be happy about what they are doing was really nice to see because it meant they enjoyed it. After playing our game for about 35 minutes, it was time to let the other groups set up their activity. For the remainder of the time I was helping other groups, and just playing with the kids and interacting with them. A couple of them I asked if they were going to miss the college kids and of course they screamed 'NO', but I think that means yes.
To end the day the group did a good job switching it up from our normal song ending to something really catchy. All the kids had big smiles on their faces and were doing exactly what Amanda was saying. At the end of the day we took group photo's and got the young kids in for a couple. Thinking back to the beginning of the year when we first went to St. Mary's, I can remember how shocking it was to me that I was going to have to teach these kids, something that I've never really done before. And know after we are done for the year, I can honestly say I have learned so much. Whether it be being assertive, coming prepared, how to talk to kids, how to keep kids from being distracted, the countless number of activities I've learned and the list could go on forever. The concepts, strategies and techniques I've learned at St. Mary's can be used in everyday life, especially when I being teaching, and will definitely be helping me in my future.