Caroline+Mobley

==== My name is Caroline Mobley and I am from Irmo, SC. I am a senior at Clemson University studying Early Childhood Education. For my practicum experience I am in Mrs. McKenzie's first grade class at East End Elementary in Easley, SC. I love being in the classroom and helping students learn about the world around them! In my spare time, I love to bake, read, hang out with my friends, cheering on my Tigers, and dance. I am a member of the Clemson Dancers organization and spend most of my weeknights in the studio taking dance classes with some of my closest friends. My family is very important to me and we're all very close. I have one younger brother and love spending time with him, along with the rest of my family. I am so excited to have a classroom of my own and to help my students develop a love for learning! ====

=**Caroline Mobley's PLN**=



The first site that I added to my PLN was a blog called **The First Grade Parade**. This is a blog written by a first grade teacher about the things that she does in her classroom. She adds lots of pictures of activities and lessons that she does in her classroom that she thinks could be helpful for other teachers. On Wednesdays, she writes about other teaching blogs that she thinks her followers would like. The second site that I added to my PLN was a blog called **Kindergarten Hoppenings**. This is a blog written by a kindergarten teacher about the things that she and her class do in their "pond". She writes about books that she likes to share with her class, things that they do as a class, and lessons that she teaches. The third site that I added to my PLN was a blog called **Castles and Crayons: Fairy Tales in First Grade**. This is written by a first grade teacher in Alabama and I love this blog! She has different sections for each of the content areas that she teaches in the classroom and is sure to provide pictures and details of what she does in her own classroom and suggestions for other teachers' classroom.

After creating my PLN, I found that it is going to be really helpful to have all of these resources in one place. I really liked finding the blogs that are written by other teachers because I think that it's really helpful to see what other teachers are doing in their own classrooms. I also think that it's useful to get other teachers' perspectives on a unit that I may also be doing.

= Blabberize =

"My Turtle is the Sporting Sort" by Kenn Nesbitt

I got this poem from the website Poetry4Kids (http://www.poetry4kids.com/poem-518.html) and the turtle cartoon from http://www.how-to-draw-cartoons-online.com/cartoon-turtle.html. media type="custom" key="10856602" align="left"

This assignment would correlate with the 2nd grade ELA state standard 2-5 which states that students will write for a variety of purposes and audiences. I specifically chose indicator 2-5.4 which states that the students will create written pieces to entertain others. As a teacher, you could ask students to pick a topic that interests them and write a poem about it. They could then record it and create a Blabberize. This would give them the opportunity to improve their writing skills and give them the opportunity to write something other than a research paper or journal entry. This activity would also correlate with Guiding Principle 5 which states that oral language and expression is foundational to literacy learning and development. Being able to communicate their writing orally will help them with their written language and help them learn to convey different messages. Another Guiding Principle that this activity correlates with is number 8. This principle states that an effective English language arts curriculum utilizes all forms of media to prepare students to live in an information-rich society. The Blabberize website gives them the chance to work with a form of technology and media that they may not have had any interaction with prior to beforehand.