Who has Inspired Me

Almost everyone you meet has someone they look up to or someone who's their hero. It is usually someone older than them, sometimes a celebrity or a parent. When I began thinking about this blog post I really wanted to write about my mother because she has worked so hard her whole life and continues to work so hard, she truly is an inspiration to me.

My blog post however, will be about my little brother Hunter. Hunter will be 10 on Christmas Eve, Hunter is the middle child, we have a younger brother, Isaac who is 6. The reason I am writing about Hunter as the person who has inspired me is because he has special needs and I have seen, lived and felt his challenges and what he faces on a day to day basis. Hunter is very high functioning but he struggles very much with academics.

Hunter inspires me so much because I have seen him do the impossible. I have seen him overcome so many obstacles other people have set for him or ones he may have set for himself. Hunter is the type of child who will not stop something until he has mastered it. He won't give up even when things are difficult. He has also grown to be a very caring and compassionate little boy and if that is one thing I will ever teach him I would be so happy.

Hunter inspires me because I see how hard he works towards overcoming the things that are difficult to him and how he pushes himself. He has done so much and come so far in his ten short years of life and I am so proud to call him my little brother.

Conflicts Adolescents are Facing Today

Children these days have been under the microscope in my opinion because of the new advances in technology. Teenagers especially have been scrutinized because they are being studied so frequently for a variety of reasons. Many of them being for test scores, the ways they use their phones, are they addicted to video games, the list goes on.

The one conflict adolescents are facing today that I want to focus on is bullying. Bullying is an issue that adolescents have been dealing with that has been around for years and years. There are lots of attempts to stop bullying and try to promote friendships at school but now the issue has gotten wider since social media plays such a huge impact on our lives today. It is sometimes difficult to leave your school issues at school these days because it is easy for the person who bullies you at home to log onto the computer and bully you from home.

I think that the consequences are heartbreaking when the child who is getting bullied decides to take matters into their own hands. Today people handle issues differently than 20 or 30 years ago. I feel very strongly about this issue because I have a brother with special needs that has gotten picked on and called names many times in school or on the bus. People don't realize that words hurt, especially to kids.

As future teachers we need to be mindful of what is going on in our classrooms. We also need to be proactive and try an foster a loving and caring classroom that everyone feels comfortable entering each day. I have heard my brother say too many times that he hates school. We should be the generation that changes that.

Fictional Character I look up to

Children are surrounded by fictional characters on the tv, posters, toys in stores, etc. There is only a matter of time that a child begins to show a growing interest in a specific character.

You could ask any kid these days who their favorite character on tv is and who they look up to and it is often times the same character. For me personally, the fictional hero I look up to is Hermione from the Harry Potter books. I have read and seen many of them and I have seen how strong willed she is. She sticks to her personality and doesn't let the boys do thing she can do for herself.

I think that children, especially young girls need to have strong, independent and hard working role models. They need to have role models who are smart and have worked hard for themselves. Many times young girls idolize the wrong characters on TV like the reality stars that sometimes seem fictional to me even though they are real people.

Realistic Fiction Post

Holes:	Magic Tree House #1: Dinosaurs Before Dark:
Takes place in present time	Goes back in time to the prehistoric time
The characters are involved	Not believable story
Very believable, realistic	Not similar reactions to real life people
Personal events, issues, and conflicts	No real personal and inner conflict between self and characters

Common Core and Literature: Assignment 2

file:///Users/clarisarodrigues/Documents/307%20take%202.m4a (Copy and paste the link into a new page) 

I felt that this was a very interesting assignment that brought me out of my comfort zone. I thought that both of the articles I read were very interesting and hearing myself speak after helped me pinpoint some target areas for improvement when speaking. The one I posted is my second try at recording myself but I feel like I could have done it 100 different times and not have been completely satisfied with it. This was very interesting and different and I liked having the opportunity to venture out and try something different. I found it difficult to speak what I was thinking while I was trying to read at the same time. I think this is where many of my errors in speaking came from.

CCSS Activity One

I really enjoyed this activity because it helped me see how the standards are scaffolding up to meet the anchor standard. It helped me see the transition and changes from each grade. I liked that I had to think about how to put it into my own words because that helps me think about it and understand it better.

Anchor Standard:	Grade 1: RL.1.3	Grade 2: RL.2.3	Grade 3: RL.3.3
Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.	Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.	Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.	Describe characters in a story (e.g. their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
Shifts Between Grade Levels:	In first grade they are describing the main characters, settings and events taken place in a story. They need to describe each of them with support of the details in the book.	In second grade they transition into looking at how the characters are responding to the events instead of just identifying them. In second grade they are also looking at challenges the characters might be facing in the book.	In third grade they are being to examine the characters more critically. They are looking into how the characters are feeling and what motivates the character’s actions. They are looking at how the character’s actions are effecting the story.
How It Can Be Taught Across Instructional Levels:	In first grade I think this can be done by reading picture books to the class and talking in detail about the characters and settings of the book as a class. I would ask the class questions such as ‘what happened in the book that makes you think that?’ I think that this can be taught by reading and looking at the pictures of the books with the class.	In second grade I can see the shift into slightly more critical thinking skills when looking at characters. This can be taught a number of different ways. This can be taught by having students break into book groups and have them discuss the major events in the story as well as the characters’ actions when these events occur. Another way to teach this would be to read a book as a class and have a class discussion on the characters’ actions when major events take place.	In third grade there is a larger push to emphasize critical thinking skills. This shift would be best taught in small reading groups. Kids can be separated into different book groups and they can answer questions and have discussions about how the characters are changing and why. They could make predictions on how they think the character’s actions will affect the story’s ending.