Madison Pickens

Over the course of the past semester, I wasn't too sure what I was expecting. I enjoyed the psychology aspects of this class and how we can use that knowledge to help us understand the children of our future classrooms better. I enjoyed learning about the different theories and stages and truly think that I will look at my students differently now that I know a little more about what goes on inside of their head. For the deliverables, I think that having a wide variety of topics is something that is a good way to have fun and change up the curriculum from the monotonous daily learning. When we worked on 'Saving the Sea Turtle', it was a little challenging to think of something that they can do to show their application and understanding. I feel like the topic overall was something that would be interesting and would keep the class engaged, since it's relevant and trendy. For 'Active Listening', this is crucial that I teach this in my kindergarten class because kids have so much energy and have never been in a classroom for long hours before. I need to help them learn the strategies now that will bless them throughout their entire schooling career. 'Emotional Development' was one that we worked on as a team and later presented to the class. We broke down what emotions are and how we as teachers need to understand that we may never fully know what our students are going through, but we can do everything in our power to respond to how they best need us to respond. I think this is a good one to study on repeatedly because every person is different and has different emotions and ways to cope them, so continually trying to learn about them might be a good thing to do. 'The History of Thanksgiving' is a fun mini lesson that I plan to do the week of Thanksgiving. It'll be interactive and will keep the kids' attention since it's something they'll all be super excited for. 'Classroom Norms' was fun to make and to teach the class, because as teacher candidates we all will one day have to go over norms at the beginning of the year. By learning which ones are effective and which ones aren't we should be able to have a good understanding of what we need to do to execute them properly. The 'Health Lesson Plan' is very important in helping us think less about ourselves and more about others. I think it's important to make sure our own physical/mental/emotional health is where it needs to be, but I like that we focused on a selfless point of view and looked at where others were at and how they were doing. Overall, in creating the deliverables, sometimes it came easy to me and sometimes it did not. I think that planning lessons can be an easy process if you're constantly thinking of you students and their needs and your expectations for the lessons. I hope to continue to use these templates in my future college classes and even when I am teaching in my own classroom one day.