Phew! I Think I Can, I Think I Can

Today I turned in my Masters' Thesis and I was so relieved after I hit the send button on my email. This last 11 months have been incredibly rewarding but also extremely exhausting. I'll be glad for the tiny break that I'll have between graduation and applying for positions in the schools.

For my thesis I studied the influence of specifically taught study skills on vocabulary acquisition. I had to conduct my own research, analyze the data, and then write a paper to boot. However, it was such an awesome experience to be able to conduct research in the classroom outside of standardized testing and benchmarks.

I used a mnemonic strategy and a semantic mapping strategy. Low and behold, my students did way better on their vocab quizzes when they had used the mnemonic strategy (LINCs) to study. The also loved the LINCs strategy. If you've never heard of it you should look it up.

Here's a picture of what one of my students did for the word tenant

They really had a lot of fun and after my research they asked if they could do the LINCs tables in lieu of their regular vocabulary homework.

Ahhh sweet success.

Winding Down

Now that I've finished my student teaching, I decided to create this blog. I created it so that I can not only document my experiences as a first year teacher, but also to receive tips and advice from the various veteran teachers that I follow on blogger. I hope to be able to keep up with this blog, but if the rumors are true about the first year, I'm not sure how possible that will be. However, I will remain positive, and at the very least, learn some tips and tricks from my fellow teachers.

Right now I'm going to be returning to campus to tie up some loose ends in my program. I will be finishing my Masters Research Project up as well as a few other projects, such as my ePortfolio that I had to complete for a Technology in the Classroom course. Even though my student teaching is over, I would rather be in the classroom in front of students, than be a student myself.

This year has been a whirlwind and I've been going non-stop for the last 11 months. Though it was worth it and I'm ecstatic to have my Masters degree, I will say that I am ready to have my own classroom with my own set of students to nurture and educate.