Today I had to say goodbye to my very first clinical class. Although it was a tough and challenging two semesters, I will forever cherish the learning, collaboration, laughs, and growth that happened in Mrs. Villani classroom! Super excited to see what the future holds #TeamTrace

The best way to learn is through practice!! Really love participating in literacy centers for the “I Survive” series.

I’m currently at an AMSTI training. It is so fascinating to see how we can use classroom resources as technology. An effective research based strategy to use for technology and engineering is to apply the transition of objects to systems to processes. #scienceasaverb DJoyner

Eric Metaxas opened his lecture series with the quote, “There is a lot of cliches, and I hate cliches”. Continuing the thought process of this quote, how amazing would it be if teachers stepped away from cliches and used evidence based strategies instead? #professionaldevelopment

Saddened to see news like this! Common Core is important. Education is important. Most importantly, our children are important. It is time to take a stand for what is in the best interest of our students’ education.

Poverty is relative and occurs in all races and countries. As I prepare to go to an urban clinical next week, I have to be intentional about allowing myself to step into my students’ shoes. I’m excited to look at the data of my kinder class and use the data to enhance learning ✏️

We had a blast going to the Gardendale Public Library! Samford Orlean Beeson School of Education represented well during Samford Gives Back.

Never underestimate the power of communication. My sweet friend has been struggling this week, but when I sat down with him to write a story, he created a masterpiece. It is so easy to overlook the hard kids, but it is so much more important to give them time! #Kindergarten

As I was preparing my lesson on the ch- digraph, I was researching how to incorporate an evidence based strategy. One of my favorites that I found was to use direct instruction through multi sensory teaching. Get ready kindergarten, we are becoming a choo-choo train tomorrow! 🚂

Meet Olivia Smeltzer and @msegrissom! We carpool together every day, and they inspire me to make the most of each day and find the best qualities in all of my students ❤️

What makes Samford Orlean Beeson School of Education different from other education programs? It’s the amount of meaningful information that is poured into us. From IEP’s to running records, I have absolutely loved getting the opportunity to practice new material in different clinical settings!

We wrote a bunch of letters, exchanged books, ate popsicles, and started a new friendship! I will definitely be implementing pen pals into my classroom because it was such an amazing and transitional experience!

Please consider donating to ⁦Terra Nova Uganda⁩ Trying to get 100 people to donate $10 to this ministry.

I cannot believe that I will be traveling with Ms. Michaela Hunter to Kampala, Uganda in one short month!!! The opportunities and education that Terra Nova Academy is providing for their children is truly inspiring. Help them grow, so more children can spread knowledge around the world!

“What do you see?” This was an easy and effective number talk to segment our kindergarten math lesson about identity and sorting. Terra Nova Uganda top class knows how to think outside of the box!

I love watching my students progress-especially in such short amounts of time. Today we finished day 3 of the scientific method. Day 1, the students had no idea what the scientific method was. Today, we wrote hypotheses using “if..., then...” statements! Tomorrow, we experiment!

Today was all about letter recognition! My PRE-K students loved being able to find the letters on the apple, and it required them to use their fine motor skills to put the clothespin on. We ended the lesson with a little apple tree art 🍎🍏

Acorn counting and leaf sensory painting made for a great introduction to Fall 🍁🍂 Today’s teacher takeaway: set HIGH expectations. My 3 y.o. students identified which squirrel had more nuts and which one was going to be the most hungry. I love watching them show their thinking!

We did some pumpkin investigating today in Pre-K! This fun activity integrated math, science, language arts, and fine motor skills through the comparison of the inside and outside of our pumpkins. And of course, we had to make a scary jack-o-lantern with shapes 🎃

Scrolling through my phone pics & found the experiments my 4th grade students were doing a month ago. How fun would it be to video your experiments and send them to students as the day’s science lesson instead of a YouTube video? Gives the students familiarity. #erosion #squids