Stocking Service Project

On Friday Dec. 23rd, Ashley and Tiara delivered stocking filled with candy to sick cancer patients. Our chapter had been working on these stockings for a couple weeks before they were finall complete and ready to go. The two said it was a huge success and when the hospital called Levi (our student that brought this idea to us) they told him they'd "never seen the kids smile so wide." I'm very proud of our whole chapter for taking this project on because it was hard, but in the end it made children's day which is what we are all about. (:

Holiday Party!

The Holiday Party turned out to be a huge success!!! (: Thanks everyone for bringing delicious food and hanging out. It was a night filled with laughter and good times that brought our group closer together. We had fun with a white elephant exchange and playing Taboo and Catch Phrase. I never knew we could get so competitive! Anyway the holiday party was amazing and I can't wait to spend more time with everyone again. (:

Levi, Ashley, and Haley

MaryAnn and Levi

The group

MaryAnn and Mrs. Stockwell

Haley

Tiara

Hugs (:

Levi and his crocodile

MaryAnn

Alisa and Emily

Damiana

Laughing (:

Alisa

Emily, Haley, and Ashley

Tiara

Playing Taboo

Holiday Potluck Party!

When: Sunday, Dec. 18, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Where:  Mrs. Stockwell's house, maps available in class

What:  Great food, great company, great games

Mrs. Stockwell will have chili for dinner.  Everyone can bring one side dish or dessert 

and one 2 liter bottle of your favorite soda/juice to share.

Bring a crazy white elephant gift wrapped to share with everyone else 

in the traditional FEA white elephant gift exchange.

RSVP right here--comment below with whether or not you can come 

and what dish and soda/juice you're bringing.

Celebration of the Arts Dec. 2011

Celebration of the Arts at Greenway High School for the 2011 school year had many successful performances that included a few of our FEA students.

Seniors MaryAnn Puccio and Jenea Leschniok participated in a play for theatre. MaryAnn played a Tooth Fairy and Jenea was Lucky the Leprechaun. In this play, Santa becomes ill and cannot deliver Christmas presents to all of the children. This is where all of the other holidays come in. There is the Easter bunny, Cupid, Lucky the Leprechaun, Mother Nature, and the Tooth Fairy. In the end, they all learn the true meaning of Christmas.

In addition to theatre, the dance department put on an amazing performance as well. This included seniors Alisa Stockwell and Ashley Reynolds, and juniors Emily Mettes and Taylor Way. These girls did three dances that were all outstanding.

Lastly but definitely not least, Choir did their thing singing. This included Junior Dee Hicks. She definitely has an amazing voice as she is always singing in class. :-)

Excellent job, ladies!!!

Special Education Lesson

The hardest part of planning the special education lesson was by far putting myself into the place of someone with a disabilty.

It was fun to try and make the lesson but sad to know how little options they actually have.

--
- Kelli-Jo Hunter

Blog!

What class have you enjoyed working with the most in the past two years?  Why?

 

I've loved every class that I've had the chance to work with so much! They've each been a great experience and taught me very different things. The one class that I've enjoyed working with the most would be my second graders, Mrs. Konesky's class. It was my first time being in a classroom and the kids, teacher and envrionment were amazing! I felt like I was needed in that classroom even if I was only there for an hour a day. My two job shadowing experiences were so eye-opening and made me realize just how much work is put into teaching. It was so inspiring though! I loved when I got to hang out with the kids for their field day too; it was just a little reminder of the fun, crazy things you get to do as a teacher too :) Working with this class definitely reassured me of what I wanted to do with my future.

blog

Going into my class has really made me nervous.  I understand what to do and say, but it is being accepted into the class that I am nervous about.  I have seen classes where the student teacher is not active and just sits there in the back and does nothing.  Classes are like families. I am afraid of being the person that is brought home to meet the family only to find that everything around me is awkward and tense because they do not approve.  I am also petrified that once I get in the front of the classroom and I start to teach, I would either say something wrong or just not do whatever it is I am doing right.  I know that they are very young and not as judgmental as teenagers today, but having a shy 9 year old let you in is harder than trying to get someone your age, going through the same things as you, let you in and welcome you.

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What did you enjoy in the first days in your classroom? what was a challenge?

 

My first two days in the classroom I really enjoyed seeing how the kids work together and how well they follow procedures and workings of the class. It feels good to have them get excited when I come in the room and say bye to me as many times as possible before I get out of the room. I like to see how the kids work together and respect their teacher and its so fascinating to see their brains working and to remember what it was like to be that age. It was a little scary when I had to help a small reading group, and sometimes its hard to know how to correct the children. I don't feel confident enough or enough like an authority figure yet. I'm sill an observer right now. I cant wait to be more comfortable. I already love it so it can only get better.

Atlanta 2011

Nationals Blog!!

Kayla here!! :D
Well let me start by saying that the National Conference was outstanding! Georgia was beautiful, the Hyatt was great and the people were just plain amazing!! I am so glad that I got a chance to participate. The best part of the National Conference was the conference in it's self. I love love loved the whole thing. One of my favorite parts was when we broke out into the different sessions. I enjoyed all the sessions I did because there was so much student involvement. When the instructor would ask a question or for a volunteer, the students would happily answer or volunteer. The involvement made the sessions very entertaining. I loved the guest speakers too! Bill Nye and Dr. Christopher Edmin were amazing!! They were very inspiring. Their speeches were funny, inspiring, witty and contained so much personality. I could see that they really had a passion for what they were doing. I also loved seeing all the attractions around Georgia. I felt like such a tourist and I loved it! I'm also excited to see what the future holds for us with all the new tech from Georgia Tech coming out. I was left speechless after every presentation. Everything was so cool that I didn't know what to say about it. The hardest part was leaving the conference. I didn't want to come home because I was having too much fun. Overall the conference was not only educational but tons of fun too!! I recommend everyone to go next year.
draft

Blog contribution

I am most nervous about going to my elementary school class because I am terrified that the kids will hate me and that wont know how to teach them. I am afraid that I am going to get in the front of the class and forget what I am supposed to do and the kids will laugh at me. I know I have been taught what to do and how to work with child but I am afraid that I just wont be able to do it. I  am also afraid that I will teach the kids something wrong. I don't take math or science this year and I am afraid that I might forget what I know and teach them something totally wrong. I know all my fears irrational because I am an ADL peer trainer so I have experience getting up in front of a class and teaching valuable life lessons and I have also made many presentations in a number of classes in the past but getting up in front of a bunch of third graders just frightens me. 

Excitement in the Classroom

Torie Jones here, and might I just say that Thursday was possibly one of the best days of my life? I had always imagined how nervous I would be, and how the kids would view me, but none of that mattered once I was in there. All that mattered was that I was there to help, and Taylor* seemed especially pleased to meet with me. I spent the hour going over multiplication tables with her, and helping her grasp the concept of Greatest Common Factor. By the end of the class period she really seemed like she'd learned something, and I was proud to know that I had been the one to teach her that.

As for my future times in the classrooms, I must say that I'm far beyond excited. After the initial fears are gone, only happiness remains. I only wish that I was a junior rather than a senior, so that I'd have an entire year extra in the classroom to bond with the kids. They're such sweethearts and are quite eager to learn, though they may not always show it. Needless to say, this is going to be a great year :)


*name changed to protect identity

Nationals!

We just got off the plane and are taking the MARTA to our hotel.

Pictures

Here are some pictures from my classrooms.

Use them on the blog if you want.

 

-Tiffany

My blog contribution

Tiffany Keith

Period 1

My Blog Contribution

What class have you enjoyed working with the most in the past two years? Why?

    Personally, I think I have enjoyed working with my 6th grade class the most. Mostly because the teacher gave me many chances to get up in front of the class and students seemed to think of me as an extra teacher. But I have to take into consideration the class taking place at Greenway. I have always wanted to be a teacher and the Education Profession class offered by high schools has just made it a permanent dream for me. I took my first year of the class at Moon Valley high school and I loved it, but now I am taking the advanced class at Greenway high school and it is even better than the first year. My Greenway classmates and teacher have been a great influence on me and I am glad to be able to meet so many others with the same interests as me. Thank you for all your hospitality and kindness even though I go to Moon Valley. :)

Courtney here :)

In three short weeks our Chapter will be heading to Grand Canyon University for the FEA State Competition. Everyone has been working REALLY hard on their competitions and making sure they are ready for March 3 and 4. All of our typed and video competitions are already submitted and the visuals are looking great! I can not wait to see how everyone does!

Fresh New Faces!

A new school year has started and Greenway's FEA program is full of new future teachers!

National FEA Readathon

In October, our chapter took a field trip to Acacia Elementary!

For some of us, this was our first classroom experience.

Each of us selected three books to read to our listeners.And we were only too willing to listen to everything the children had to tell us.

(Including stories about sick cats.)

The classes were all ready to head out on their field trip and were all decked out in their special class shirts.

Geocaching with AtLast

Today was my first ATLAST workshop and I'm so glad I got to go and experience it with two of my fellow FEA classmates and my teacher, Mrs. Stockwell. Usually workshops are pretty boring, but I was surprised to find out that this workshop was the most fun I've had in a while. The highlight of it was learning about geocaching, which is basically just a huge treasure hunt all over the world. It's crazy to think that I've been passing by caches my whole life and didn't even know about it. After the workshop I went geocaching with Chase, Kelli-Jo, and Mrs. Stockwell. Finding our first cache was an amazing feeling and I hope to continue geocaching for the rest of my life. A special thanks to my FEA Instructor, Mrs. Stockwell, for allowing me to go to this workshop and have a great experience. (:

 

~MaryAnn (:

Aspire Students Express Themselves

Torie Jones and Courtney Gibbs here, the current editors of the Greenway FEA Blog. We're here to show off all the talent that the students possess in our Chapter :)



Junior MaryAnn Puccio is singing throughout this whole thing, a special song she wrote just for our Chapter. This video is our PSA submission, made by Chase, MaryAnn, and Kayla.



Senior Torie Jones made this video for a project in the class.

Daycare Experiments

We traveled to a nearby daycare, where we were supposed to be testing the level of development a child was currently at. Obviously some students preferred to play with their new friends.

Courtney Gibbs found herself a new friend in this little girl, who not only liked My Little Ponies, but seemed to be obsessed with Courtney's extremely blue eyes

These two boys were only too eager to try the experiments, and showed that they were quite advanced for their age.

Puppet Shows

Earlier in the year, we traveled to Ironwood Elementary to perform Puppet Shows for the second and third graders. We put in a lot of work, but it was worth it. The children loved our shows!

Here are Sara Ramos and Kayla Freeman, who performed a puppet show version of 'Polar Bear Polar Bear, What do you Hear?'

This puppet show taught the kids about how bullying is wrong, as was shown with the adaptation of the book 'Tyrone the Terrible'.

Future Freshmen Night

On Future Freshmen Night, all the 8th grade students planning on attending Greenway come to the school to check it out. Junior Ashley Reynolds answered any questions that parents had about FEA, and there was a lot of interest in future enrollment.

Here we can see four of the students who helped with the booth, getting the future students excited about joining the class. There was a lot of interest that night, and it's obvious that our sponsor, Mrs. Stockwell, will have plenty of applicants to pick from.

Performance Pay For Teachers.

It's a pretty controversial topic. What do you think?

http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2010/12/17/20101217mesa-school-good-teachers-guerrero1217.html

One Thousand One Hundred Dollars?

That's right! The Greenway students and staff worked together to raise $1,100 for Chances for Children. That was more than our goal!

Because our goal was met, the cheerleaders performed with the administrators at the next assembly. It was a huge hit, and the students loved it.