Katie+Foley

==== Hello! My name is Katie Foley, and I'm from Greenville, SC. I was born in Tucson, AZ and moved to Greenville when I was 14. I'm a senior at Clemson University, majoring in Early Childhood Education. I've always loved working with children, and I enjoyed spending the last 5 summers working at a daycare with 3-year-olds. I would love to teach Kindergarten, but I'd be happy in first or second grade as well. I am currently a practicum teacher at East End Elementary School in a third grade classroom. I am thoroughly enjoying the experience, and I'm beginning to think I wouldn't mind teaching third grade! When I'm not in school, I love to read and hang out with my friends. I also enjoy spending time with my close-knit family, which includes my three older brothers and a 6-year-old nephew who just started Kindergarten in August. ====

=Katie Foley's PLN=



====**The Inspired Apple:** The Inspired Apple is a blog written by a first grade teacher named Abby. In her blog, she shares many ideas for creative lessons, tutorials, motivation, and methods of organizing. Her ideas are inspiring, and I can see myself adapting many of them for my own classroom, even if I don’t end up teaching first grade. Most of the ideas on this blog are extremely creative, and since I sometimes struggle with creativity I appreciate the great ideas on this blog.====

====**Early Childhood Teacher:** Early Childhood Teacher, also called Christina’s Classroom is the blog of a Kindergarten teacher named Christina. She shares ideas for classroom activities, children’s books, educational technology, hands-on learning, lesson ideas for every subject, behavior management, character education, collaboration, and learning centers, along with many other topics which can be found on the right-hand side of the page for easy browsing. Since Kindergarten is where I ultimately want to end up and is also what I’ll be student teaching next semester, I think this website could be extremely useful for me.====

====**Early Education Corner:** Early Education Corner is a blog written by Dr. Patricia Vardin. Categories for this blog include ESL, health, infants and toddlers, literacy, music and movement, parent involvement, professional development, and social and emotional development. Because parent involvement is an area in which I’m not entirely confident, I think I will find that section particularly helpful. I also think the ESL section could be very helpful if and when I have ESL students in my class.====

====After creating my PLN, I’ve discovered that there are so many different resources to utilize. I found it difficult to narrow down my choices to just 9! I think that a PLN is a convenient way to organize all of my resources so that they are easily found and in one spot.====

=Blabberize=

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media type="custom" key="10825551" ====The Blabberize assignment is centered on ELA. It correlates with several of the guiding principles as well as the second grade state standards for ELA. The guiding principles that relate to this assignment are 1, 3, 5, 7, and 8. This activity is fun and engaging, and also gives students a chance to learn about their classmates, which meets principle 1. Guiding principle 3 involves the interdependence of reading, writing, and communicating. This activity can involve all three, because students can choose to write their own poem, read and record it, and communicate it by allowing the class to see their project and hear the poem. Principle 5, which is about oral communication, is also met because students need to use their oral communication skills when recording their poem. Students are encouraged to write their own poem, which meets guiding principle 7. Principle 8, which is about using various forms of media, is also met because students are using the blabberize program, which is on the internet. Second grade standards 2-1, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, and 2-6 are also used in this assignment. Students may choose to read a poem rather than write their own, which meets standard 2-1. Standard 2-3 is met because students are attempting to read fluently while recording their poem. Standard 2-4 is met by students who write their own poem, because they are creating written work. Standard 2-5 is also met by students who are writing their own poem because they are writing for a unique audience: their classmates. This activity is a very effective one for ELA in second grade because it covers many of the state standards and is active, engaging, and fun!====