Marquetta Strait April 24, 2013 CU Life Reflection: 10 While working with Claflin Universitys Learning Improvement for

Future Excellence (CU L.I.F.E.), I have definitely increased my desire to teach. The students at Mitchell Math and Science Elementary School were a pleasure to work with in the classroom. The teachers were also amazing and gave ample advice that will be beneficial to me as a future educator. Today was the last day, for the semester, working with the students at the Charleston school. While in Ms. Blacks third grade class, the students were preparing for the PASS test. The students were working on mathematics. Some of the students were still experiencing difficulties with finding the range. Majority of the students were able to read the chart and see the importance of using the charts key to aid their problem -solving. As I walked around to observe the students work, I noticed that many students were not responding to the questions in regards to the directions. The directions wanted the students to identify which triangles were scalene, isosceles, or equilateral. Many of the students were writing words such as length. After noticing many of the students writing length, I advised the class to read the directions and acknowledged that they should be writing one of the three triangle types. After a while, the students eventually started placing appropriate answers. Another challenge was that the students did not know the characteristics of scalene, isosceles, and equilateral triangles. students recalled the characteristics of each triangle, they quickly knew the answers. After the

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Working with the third graders has been a stepping stone for me. This grade is so important because it is the beginning of testing for the PASS test. I believe Ms. Black has done a phenomenal job in getting her students to really reason their responses. This is extremely important, especially when Common Core comes in. Students need to be able to think critically and use reasoning to select their answer choices. In this class, the students are great motivators to each other and have a great community of learners-like atmosphere. The students help their peers by discussing what they learned in their prior lessons. At the end of the class, I announced that I really enjoyed my time in their class. The students seemed sad to see me go and embraced me with hugs. In Mr. Wingards class, the students were participating in a planetarium exploration. Before going to the planetarium, the students reviewed the phases of the moon. They used their Ipads to search for images of the moon phases. Afterwards, the students went to the cafeteria to participate in the planetarium exploration. To participate, they had to crawl into an inflatable planetarium. While inside, the exploration was led by a professional that worked at a local planetarium. Inside the dome, the students sat and watched the stars go around the dome. The instructor discussed how the stars do not move, but Earth moves. He discussed why Earth experiences seasons and temperature variations. He gave each student a golf ball that

represented the moon, and had them demonstrate the phases of the moon. To represent the moon phases, there was a flashlight in the center of the dome that represented the sun. The students had to hold their golf ball and turn their bodies. The flashlights glare of light would appear on the golf ball, which showed the phases, such as a waxing gibbous and crescent. The instructor also discussed the stars in the sky, such as the Orion, Scorpion, and the Milky Way. At the end, the instructor showed all of the star designs in the sky, which were beautiful.

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When we finished the planetarium exploration, we headed outside to take pictures. In addition to taking the pictures, the students gave me hand-made cards expressing their gratitude. Many of the students said that they were glad that I taught them about not being greedy. This topic was brought up because I told the students that they should take advantage of their opportunities. I wanted them to know that there were other schools that did not have Ipads, yoga, workout rooms, and the Green Heart program. I acknowledged that this is a great school and that they all should continue to do well because there are many students that wish they had this opportunity. I also told the students that I wanted them to take advantage of opportunities that allowed them to travel and see the world. Overall, I had an excellent time in both classes. The experience in CU L.I.F.E. is very eye-opening. It makes me aware of all the wonderful possibilities that are out there in the world. The education field is so broad, but yet, so vital in every way. Often, the students had a series of questions about my college experience. To respond to their questions, I plan to create a PowerPoint presentation of Claflin University to expose them to our wonderful university. I also told the students about my summer UNCF internship. This internship will assign me to one of their six locations, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, New York City, or Washington, D.C. I plan to also create a PowerPoint on my destination. I really want to make sure that I expose students to other places, especially because many students do not travel outside of their town. As future educators, I believe it is our mission to prepare our youth for the world, and not just for their town. We want them to be able to make decisions that would impact the world positively and grow to become successful individuals.