I really enjoyed how in the “Be Boy Buzz” video she started out the read aloud with a question for the children. I think this generated a lot of critical thinking for the children, and as she is reading it lets them generate more questions and ideas. The concept of asking questions is so important, it really does allow for personal ideas for each child, and encourages them to share these ideas. This sharing of ideas makes children more comfortable in the classroom. She asked the question "how do you know they are boys?" Many of the children talked about how their hair is short, and boys can only have short hair and not long hair. She is starting to generate a lesson from the start without even reading the story. I think it is important for children to say their ideas, even if they may be a wrong idea or something not true. She allows the children to learn as they are reading the story and does not straight away say "boys can have long hair." I think allowing children to express their ideas and to allow them to think of the ideas on their own is very important for their critical thinking. I really enjoy this way of reading to children and I will be using this concept in my future teaching. She is using many of the tools we have seen this week and you can really see how beneficial this is for the kids, and how it really does work. She talks about the colors in the book, the skin colors as well and I think this is important to show the children different colors are beautiful. Letting children express their ideas of what they think a character is doing in the pictures really helps them with their understanding of images. I think by asking many questions throughout the story and allowing children to generate their own ideas really makes them appreciate the story more. By the end of the story all of the children loved the book, and I think this is because as she read the story, she asked so many questions to help students understand and comprehend what is going on within the story. 

       I think that reading aloud on zoom was a struggle for many teachers, but experienced readers such as Linda Duerr are great at overcoming this. Although the children are not responding to Linda with their voice, she still poses questions and ideas that she has about the book. She also describes the photos and allows for children to pose questions in their head. Using emotions while reading is very important, because it teaches children's emotions when reading, and can help them recognize this when they are reading on their own. Something I personally want to work on with reading storybooks is my emotions. Right now I am not great at it, and I know this so it is something that I plan to work on a lot before becoming a teacher. Since this reading is on zoom it is much harder for the children to participate, but I think this is something that can happen in real life in the classroom. Some classes may be quiet and not participate. Still asking questions and explaining what is happening is going to be very beneficial for the children. I think it is good to constantly describe and pose questions when children do not participate, and not force them to speak if they do not want to. At one point she recalls something that happened earlier on in the story, and I find this to be a good tool to add or be a part of the ones we have read about this week. Having children reflect and think back to the start can be beneficial for their memory and personal skills. I love that she allows for a lot of time for children to look at the pictures and pages. I have seen some teachers that flip through the photos quickly, and children want to be able to visualize and see what they are hearing. She also allows for response time to her questions even though the children do not answer aloud, they are answering these questions in their head. It is really beneficial as future teachers to think about ways we can be interactive with our readings in order to allow children to be more involved and enjoy it. 
     Grace Lin makes so many points about how as a child she never saw any representation of what she looked like in any movies, her surroundings, etc. Especially in books. She expresses how because of the judgements against her she felt she could not be her true self. Representation in books has been an issue for a long time. It is so important to have diverse books that show every race, ethnicity, and books that are inclusive overall. I want children to be in the classroom looking for books and being able to find a book with someone that looks just like them. This is so important so that children can grow up feeling proud of themselves and their cultures. Grace started writing her own books because she wished she had them when she was a child. Having books in the classroom is important, but also having books that show diverse characters is even more important.
     When it comes to reading with children it is important to let them ask questions and to let them be in control of the book pace. The last video from week 7 gives many good tips for when reading with children. One of those being to repeat the words that the children are reading to show them that you are listening to them. Talking about the pictures as well an asking the children to count, and explain certain things can really help their reading abilities. In my future classroom I plan on allowing my students to have access to an open amount of books. Books that show different cultures, colors, and even books with no words. I know that we talked a little bit about the books with no words in class, and I really find that these types of books are great for children. A big thing when it comes to reading to children for me is asking questions. I feel as though asking questions really allows the child to be comfortable in sharing their ideas and also lets them figure things out together.
     I chose the book Soup Day for the literacy project read aloud. I picked this book because upon looking at it it looked like a cute story. Upon looking into the author, this book is written by a women who shares the same kind of love for making soup with her child. I really wanted to use a book that related to food, and how food is different in different cultures, and something that shows children that is okay. This book was not exactly what I was looking for, so I found another that I think works perfectly. So the book I am changing to is My food, Your food Our food. This book is great at showing food from different cultures and sharing those ideas. It shows kids to be accepting of different foods that they may not be used to.  Link to read aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhMqCkP3UtQ

  

In the first video from week 13 (these are actually from weeks 11 and 12, week 13 is at the end of my entry), the children get to work on building and they get to visit an actual water tower. Giving the children an opportunity to draw the water tower while they watched was a great way for them to show their own creative expressions. Some children drew many details, and some children focused on other things. I think that this video particularly focuses on creative expression with children. I find this to be the same with the next video titled, “Nurturing the Love of Learning.” Children get to feel and see what they do, they get to use fine motor skills. These children get to experience very hands-on learning. The last video is the outdoor learning school, and I found this video very interesting. This type of classroom is definitely more directed to physical development. The children get to explore, and climb. I find this type of learning to be very interesting because they get to learn about what they see. 

In an elementary school context there are many aspects from these videos that I would incorporate into my classroom. I really enjoy the idea of allowing children to learn about building, and how to build things. I think that a project based on something specific that can then be turned into a field trip will be beneficial to all ages in elementary school. Another aspect is free open learning for the children to use whatever materials they like, to create something they want. I believe that it is important to let children still have creative freedom when they get to elementary school. Personally I do not believe that I will ever have a full time outdoor classroom, but I really like the learning they do and there are still ways to incorporate this into my classroom. By going outside and allowing children to have time to explore, and to look for bugs, and to teach lessons on things in the moment is still something that can be present in elementary school. 

Week 13 videos:

The first video focuses on physical development with children, and different ways they use gross motor play. In an elementary school context I can incorporate many of the ideas of play into my classroom. In an outside setting children can have freedom to run, climb, jump, and many others. In an inside setting children can have more chances by dancing, playing games, and many others. In my classroom I think it would be fun to allow children to create dances. I think this is one way all children can have fun and work on movement control with their bodies. It also allows them to have freedom of expression as well. Another way to bring it into the classroom is to allow children to do small tasks in class, such as building, molding, cutting paper, drawing, and many more. There are a variety of ways to bring physical development into the classroom besides recess and gym. 
The next video focuses a lot of music, and how it is used for movement development as well. I have already talked about how dancing will be included in my classroom because it is a great way for movement and expression. Bringing in instruments or even allowing children to create their own instruments allows for movement and fine motor skill development. 
The last video is the shining star class. I really enjoyed how within the warmup she includes questions about what the children may be doing right now, and she also makes the warmup interesting. She is almost always encouraging movement the entire time. In my future classroom, movement will be very important for the kids, and incorporating things they may like to do like splashing movements, jumping movements, etc are all ways to encourage the kids to want to move and participate.

Another aspect of how different tools I have learned about this semester is specific to a video we watched towards the beginning when a teacher was playing Go Fish with her students. Thinking about the interactions in that video, I realized how tools like Go Fish, and other games that include cards or regular board games can be beneficial for the students. They also allow for good child teacher interactions as well, which are very important. In my future classroom incorporating tools like card games, board games, etc are important to me. There are many tools I have learned about this semester that can be used to benefit a child's learning. Something like straws, hair curlers, clips, and many more, are all items I never realized were such good tools for learning. 

The next key learning tool I want to discuss is when we learned about how some learning can be on the spot. For example there was a point where we talked about how students came across a bird that had passed away, and the teacher decided to make it a learning tool. Another example is the Fiddleheads Forest School. In that school environment there are many instances where there are a lot of on the spot teaching moments. As a student I always imagined that I would have to follow a strict lesson plan to teach children. These examples have shown and taught me that I can go beyond the set teaching requirements and teach important things that kids may have questions about, like a bird they may see, or a type of flower, etc. 

In my future classroom I want there to be opportunities for children to expand their learning, and ask questions. I feel as though asking questions is yet another learning tool I have learned about this semester that ties in with on the spot teaching moments. In my classroom I want children to be comfortable asking questions, and I will encourage them to. There are definitely opportunities for me to see a teaching moment, but when children feel comfortable to ask questions around me, that just allows for many more opportunities to teach them. Overall I have learned this semester from our readings, in class discussions, and videos that it is important for children to be able to ask questions, and it is important to allow for in the moment teaching. 

The final learning tool I want to discuss is the aspect of resolving issues. Going into this field I know that I am going to have to help resolve issues, and this is always something that I have been worried about. We watched many videos where we learned about different ways to resolve issues. This was something really important to learn for me. One example is the Tricycle Solution. When she sees a conflict, she chooses to take the item from the children until they can resolve their issues. We have also seen some other examples where one child wants a toy another is playing with, and we have discussed the teacher's options in these scenarios. 

I feel as though learning how to resolve issues is a huge aspect of becoming a teacher, and I am glad I have learned a lot more about the topic this semester. In my classroom I know I will have to resolve many issues that are related to sharing. I have a few ways that I want to try in the future to resolve these issues. One of these ways is to simply take the object away if the children are fighting over it. Another is to ask the child in possession of the toy if the other child may play with it when they are done, but allowing them to communicate as well. One more way will be to simply allow the children to talk about it and try and resolve the issue themselves. I believe that I will want to try multiple approaches, to find out what works best for my teaching practice. 

Overall, this class has been one of the best learning experiences I have had so far at Penn State regarding my major. I know my attendance has been rough, as I have had a rough semester regarding illness and emergencies, but I genuinely really enjoyed this class and the information we learned about. I wish my attendance could have been better, but I am confident in knowing that I did learn so much information this semester that will really help me in the future.