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Name: Carolyn Braun
Year: Senior
Hometown: Lanoka Harbor, NJ
Major: Elementary Education; minors in Math,
Art and Special Education
Why I chose LHU and what I love about it: I chose Lock Haven because I was looking for an amazing teaching school.
My cousin had graduated from here and it was recommended to me that I look at it. Since I was transferring I knew exactly
what I wanted in a school. Lock Haven had it all. The class sizes are small and the professors are great. It is a very
friendly area, too. I love it here because of the friends that I have met and the opportunities that I have here through
the various clubs and organizations. There is nowhere else that I think would have been this perfect for me.
Clubs/Organizations I'm involved with or plan to become involved: I spent the last year being the President of
the Physics club. I am also involved in the math club and I am very involved in the outing club.
Other personal interests: I love to spend time with my friends. We have movie nights and once a week we have a
dinner night at someone's apartment. Last year I began whitewater kayaking and playboating and I spend as much time doing
that as I can (it is so much fun!). I love to be outside hiking and camping. I also like to be crafty, scrapbooking and
sewing when I have the time.
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So this is the last full week of block classes. Participation starts in two weeks. I am working on completing my unit plan for environments and my mini unit for my participation class. I am also working on my portfolio for computers class and my reflections on all the lessons hat I have taught this semester. I am glad that I have kept caught up with my schedule this semester. If I can give any advice, that would be to schedule out the time it takes you to complete work. I know what I would have to do throughout the semester so I made myself a to-do list for each week and made sure to complete it to stay on track.
I haven't had much time to kayak lately... haven't been in my boat in over 3 weeks. It is a sad thing, but I have not been feeling well so that should not be what I should be doing.
Open house is the weekend coming up and they are expecting over 2000 people! That is crazy!!
I am off to finish some more work now so that I can get to bed early. Tomorrow is the last day of block classes!!
It's hard to believe that that there is only two weeks left of my block classes... not even! We have one full week of classes left then finals right before Thanksgiving. The last couple weeks of the semester are spent in the school participating. I was in the school participating on friday as usual and it went well. My students had forsight testing which they have 4 times a year.
Today I had 2 praxis tests. I had the curriculum test and the content knowledge test. Two down, three to go. I am going to take the middle school math, the middle school science, and the environement k-12 test. I am glad to have 2 done, I will find out the score in 4 weeks.
This past weekend was a lot of fun. I was able to visit with a friend of mine and we had a great time in the city. I hadn't been there in so long that I really enjoyed my day.
Now, the girls are going to come over and we are going to have a great relaxing post-praxis movie night.
So this past weekend was halloween weekend. I spent friday night hanging out with some friends. We all dressed up and I was a biker chick. It was a lot of fun. Saturday night was a nice low key night. I spent it just relaxing because I don't get much time to relax lately.
Around the world day was on friday. It was a day that the entire elementary education block class went to Belefonte elementary school to teach the second graders about different countries from around the world. My group had Mexico so we taught about the art of the Mayans of Mexico. We taught about symmetry of their headresses. The kids really seemed to enjoy the day, especially when they were able to make their own head dress.
After we were done teaching, we all went to lunch at Indian Pavillion in State College for Indian food. The day went well and it was a nice day to get out with my fellow students and the professors and have some fun time out of class.
So this week I had two days of participation in the school mith my 6th grade class. I love my 6th graders in Central Mountain Middle School. I was able to teach a math lesson on Tuesday on frequency tables that went really well. I have to thank ym 8th graders for all the practice I had teaching them math. I have so much work to do in block this semester, but as long as I keep my schedule I am able to have some free time too.
This past weekend was open house. It went well, having arould 30 people for physics, nanotechnology, and general science. I was so excited to have so many people come to the open house. It rained in the morning, but ended up being very nice in the afternoon. I am able to do student pannel during open house and I love it. I love to be able to share about my time here at lock haven.
So this week has been crazy busy. Friday I taught my first lesson in my 8th grade pre-algebra class on Friday. Let me say that it was a little rough. It was my first exerience teaching at that grade level and it is much different than teaching to a first grade class. The students were a little shy ar first so student involvement was not as much as I would have liked it. So I felt sad about that. After I taught in that class I spent the rest of the day in a 6th grade classroom. THat will be my participation site for the sret of the semester.
Monday I had the second part of my math lesson to teach to my 8th graders. I was nervous from my Friday lesson, but I knew I had to do it. It went so much better than Friday. Monday the students actually listened to me and participated in my lesson. I also made sure to listen to their questions and stop when they needed more explination. It was an amazing thing and I felt so much better.
Now, Friday and Monday were not my normal days for participation, but they way my lessons fell I had to go on those days. Tuesday was a normal participation day. I walked in Tuesday, not prepared with a lesson and my co-op said, "Teaching is about thinking on your feet... you are going to teach today." I was so nervous, but excited all at the same time. The lesson was amazing and the students and I had a good flow going. THe superintendent of the school even came in and saw me teach and told me that I was doing a good job. I was litterally floating back to campus and the rest of Tuesday went so well. What an amazing experience.
Another bust week, but it is all good. I have been keeping up with my work and having a good time doing it. I went camping with the scuba club over the weekend and I was able to boat a little bit. I was glad since I had not been in my boat in weeks. Hopefully I will be able to be in it again soon!
This is the 6th week of classes and I can't believe that it is going so quickly. The semester will soon be half over and my senior year is just flying by.
This past weekend I spent a lot of time working on some homework, but it was a good thing because Sunday I went rafting with DJ, Ashley, Scott, and Jared. DJ recently bought a raft so we took it down the gorge section of the Lehigh. It was a lot of fun. At the end of the trip we purposefully flipped the raft... sometimes it is fun to swim.
Monday I taught my social studies micro teaching. I taught the History of Jamestown by providing the students with an archaeological dig to find artifacts that were left by the people of Jamestown. It was a lesson based on discovery learning, which I feel strongly about using in the classroom. In my opinion students learn better when they are able to personalize their education experience. I had never realized how much I actually enjoy social studies. I am looking foward to working with my co-op teacher because she is more of a social studies teacher.
Well... I am going to go now and do some homework because I am going to go camping tomorrow to Sunday. I am excited to get out into nature because it has been a while since I have been in the real environment.
Tihs is the start of the month of October and also the end of the 5th week of classes. This has been a busy semester so far, but it has been a good one.
Today my block class attended a program called Project Wild, put on by the Clinton County Conservation District. This is sponcered by the Game Commission. We learned how to encorporate the idea of environmental education into the classroom. We were also give cirrculum guides and a certificate for completing the program. I really enjoyed it because I am evtermly interedted in environmental education.
Next week is another super busy week with my social studies lesson, a presentation in classroom environments, and my guided reading lesson. Off to do some more homework now.
I can't believe that September is almost over, that means that we are now 4 weeks into classes. That is scary! This is my last year at Lock Haven and it is going so quickly already.
I presented my science lesson this week in class and I feel that it went well overall. The class seemed to understand the concept that I was teaching and enjoy the activity that went along with it.
Wednesday night I went out on a night hike with the outing club. It was a lot of fun, even in the light rain. We saw a yellow spotted salamander, which was awesome because I have never seen one before. Last night we saw the hipnotist on campus. I am glad that there is always something going on, not that I can make it to everything all the time but atleast I know that it is there.
Last weekend was open house and I also had a friend up to visit. Open house went well, there were a lot of people there, I really enjoyed being on the pannel. Also, my tour group was awesome!
This Saturday is homecoming and I have to work my Saturday group tour. It should be a good weekend.
So this is week three and my first lesson plan of the semester was due. This was for my science methods class. I will be honest and say that I changed that plan up until the minute before I had to submit it online. I think that it is good to have it due so far in advance because I can now focus on presenting the lesson and not changing it again. This lesson is on electricity and we will be using a hands on lab for the students to be able to light up light bulbs with batteries and wires. I an excited and I hope that it goes well when I present it nest week.
Tomorrow is our first open house for the semester. I am looking foward to seeing how many people will be attending.
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