Mythbusters Field Trip

11/17/14

    Hello teachers from all over the world! Today's post will be about my recent field trip to the Museum for a Mythbusters Exhibit! Does everybody know the show called Mythbusters? I don't watch their show but I heard that they test pretty crazy stuff! So let's get started! By the for more activities, you can click this link right here! Just click on "Link".

    When I was Mythbuster Exhibit, there was so many hand-on activities for us to try out! There are some of the activities that I did was the "Tablecloth Chaos" and "Dodge a bullet". Personally, those activities are my favorites and I really enjoyed it. It went really well for the field trip! Now the bad part... It would be better if the cafeteria allows us to eat inside since some of the students already took over the table outside. They told us that if we want to eat inside, we have to buy something from the cafeteria. We had no choice but to buy something from the cafeteria. At least it went well for the field trip!

        What is Tablecloth Chaos?  
                An experiment that requires speed, so the materials for the experiment is a table cloth and some dishes (or plastic if you prefer). The goal for the Tablecloth Chaos is you have to pull fast as you can in order to avoid getting your dishes broken. So I'm pretty sure you guys are thinking that if you pull slowly, it will not break or fall. Right? It does sound easy! WRONG.  So all you have to do is pull the tablecloth in ONE SHOT! Also, please don't use the glass or try it at home.

        What's a Dodge a bullet?
                Another experiment is how quick you react and no, there wasn't no bullet. It was only the sound of the gunshot and the flash. There was a machine with a big timer and a small light. All you have to do is press the button, stand at wall while facing the machine with a flash and the timer and watch for the flash. The timer starts as soon as the light flashed and you have to move quickly (Depending on how long your reaction) and it stop as you move away.

        What's Wind or Rain?
         There was the third activity that I tried but I can't remember the name. But There was a box and there was water dripping. There was two sides: the fast side and the slow side. I took the fast side and went around the box. When I went out of the box, there was two mirror and 2 dark mirror. I'm not sure what to call the 2 dark mirror but it was glowing little bit. All I did was run in the raining box and came out little bit wet but it was actually fun!

         That's all for my post! See you next time!
                     BYE~!

MIRROR MIRROR REFLECTION

       Good Morning Educators! Recently I attended to my TAFE Region competition and my experience in TAFE Region was really awesome! Today, my teacher posted her blog and asked us about our reflection. So in respond for my teacher, here is my answer.

Question number 1:
     I completed for TAFE Moment.

Question number 2:
        For my planning process, when I first got myself started for my TAFE Moment,  all I did was to type about my experiences from last year as a first year TAFE. At first, I wasn't sure about the topic and the rules for TAFE Moment so I had the opportunity to ask my teacher since she knew more about TAFE Region more than me. When I asked to my teacher, she gave me some advises and gave me the TAFE magazines and there was TAFE Moments section in the magazines so I took her advise and read the magazines. After I finished reading, I thought about typing about my background story so I made some changes and showed my TAFE Moment draft to my teacher. My teacher told me to get to more detail about what was the moment when I first decided about becoming a educator. I had to make changes and showed to my teacher and she approved my TAFE Moment.

Question number 3:
       My TAFE Moment presentation was wonderful! I think I could possible advance to the state! I hope I can win my TAFE Moment!

Question number 4: 
      What I learned from my experience was when I was working for my TAFE moment, I looked back about the day I decided that I want to become a teacher. I could barely recall my memory and I was able to remember little bit. Also, I checked my grammar skills couple times and my grammar skills got better!

Question number 5:
     I'll give myself 97.

Question number 6:
      If I got the chance to advance the state, I would include some of my experience for my TAFE Moment and I would tell my presentation from my heart.

How to Thrive During Your Field Site Experiance

   Hello, Welcome back to my first post of Ana's Sign 2 me! Today's topic will be about how will you expected to do on your first day in your field site. I will be talking about this topic, according to Mrs.Kallas's topic and this is my opinion about it. Also, here's the link to learn more about these tips about how can you use your experience once you enter to your class room and learn more about this
article.

•        I think the easiest tips that I can do is to get to know my kids. The reason why I think it's easier is that you can use this child's interests for education use like for a example. Who watched the movie called "TEACH"? There was one teacher who worked with these kids who are way behind and he used the same books from the school over and over and over again. Those kids probably got bored with the same books so what he did was he used the kids' interests and in the end, their reading improved.

• One of the tips that I find challenging is reflecting my lesson. Honestly, I'm scared about my own future lessons because you created a lesson and you have to present the subjects to your own students. As a teacher, you aren't sure if your students understand the lesson and that's what I'm worrying about. What if your students took a STARR test and your students failed because you didn't taught the lesson the right way? It actually happened to me but I'll explain in a moment. Well. Now on my next bullet list!

•    So as I was saying on the last bullet point, last year, I used to work with my former teacher and their grade level was about kindergarten through 1st grade in Deaf Education. I was teaching for my first lesson in forever (see what I did there?) and I was pretty nervous. In the end, it didn't go well as I thought, thanks to my currently Deaf Ed teacher who explain my mistakes. On the second lesson, I got better with more research and advices from my mentor(s).

               If you are reading my post, thank you for helping me and supporting with my second lesson, you rock!
        Any way, that ended my topic so thanks for reading!
                            - Ana Avalos

Welcome back!

WELCOME BACK!

     Hi guys! I'm glad to make a comeback for my first blog of Education and Training years 2! Let me introduce myself, My name is Ana Avalos and a Senior at Birdville High School. Yeah...My last year in High School, the time has fly by quickly! So I better enjoy writing my blog while it lasts!
    
     Facts!:

• My goal is to become a Deaf ESL (English as Second Language) teacher. 
• This blog will talking about Education only. EDUCATION ONLY.
• I'll try my best to make a brief topic since I tense to type and make my blog much longer. But hey, that's my opinion! THIS IS FREEDOM OF SPEECH!

Anyway I hope you will enjoy my blog about education!

                 -Ana Avalos               

The Senior Year Checklist

05-02-14

  Hello, welcome back to my blog! Today's topic will be discussing about my soon-to-be senior checklist   for next year! Once again, this topic only related to KALLAS! If you checked out my first post in my blog, introducing myself, I'm Junior and for the past 7 months, I had been learning all about education and working with younger students. Now onto the checklist!

    SOON-TO-BE SENIOR CHECKLIST! 

•    For my collage year, I plan to go Austin Community Collage for 2 years in Austin. After my college, I plan to go to university but the problem is I'm torn between Stephen F. Austin and Gallaudet University.

AUSTIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE VISIT-
  College doesn't start until September 12 so they will accept tour request on September 1st, 2014.
AUSTIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE ADMISSION-

• Must earn High School diploma, certification of High School Completion or GED
• Ability to benefit student(s) who are over 18 years old can demonstrate skills to benefit from college level.
• Student(s) who attend a public, private, charter or home school (Early College Start) within ACC (Austin Community College) service and complete their sophomore year academically prepare college level instruction.
• Be eligible student(s) to enroll in Texas Educational Agency approved Early College school with Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors.
• Also, In order to take the classes, you are require to take TSI Wavier before enrolling.
• Sadly, there is no due date for the ACT tests for ACC. (Austin Community College)

FUN FACT!: If you're blind or Deaf, You are exemption from paying tuition and fee. Lucky me!

APPLICATION DEAD LIST:
Fall- July 1st, 2014
Spring-October 15, 2014
Summer- March 1st, 2014

  What actually make me feel nervous is everything in the admission except the High School diploma. To my opinion, It actually look hard to be able to meet the requirement of ACC but I hope everything will be fine once I get all the admission done soon in the future.

   To be honest, I don't know how if something block my admission but I guess I can contact the Admission Staff to help me out through the process. I guess I'm nervous about college admission.
  
  Anyway, check out this video about College Connection down here and listen about it!



 That would be all for today! This is Ana Avalos, signing out! May the sign be with you…..













This is Ana Avalos, Signing out! May the sign be with you.....

Teaching with Hope

04/2/14
Blog 12

This topic is only from my teacher's blog, just want to let you guys know.

• Not so long ago, I became hopeful when I first found out about the writing contest from RIT in New York. At first, I wasn't sure about me, joining for the writing contest since I never won in every contest that I joined before. My teacher thought that I would give a try since I like to write, wait, cross that part out, I LOVED writing. It makes me to write what I wanted from my imagination to go. So I decided to join the contest and luckily I was working on my essay about what kind of career after high school, I quickly applied and sent my best essay along with my draft essay to New York. Hopefully, I hope I could win for the writing contest soon!

• To be honest, I don't know if I'm giving hope to my students. But in my heart, I know that I'm giving hope to my students and myself. Not all times that students can just work hard and must have straight A+, students can work hard and try their best to achieve their own dreams. I want all students to drive their passion and become successful after high school because I know they will be the best person they will become and move on.

• According to another blog, I found out that there was another teacher who focus students one by one, always talking and connecting each other. I believe that If the teacher is hopeful enough, it might change one student to another students' life someday.

• For my future classroom, I think that maybe every once a while, we would sit down in a circle, we would tell our personal feeling (If my students are comfortable), what's going on our life, maybe some games to ignore stress. I want my students to live on a safe, comfortable area where my students can breathe and let it go whatever they have and focus on the positive side.

             That would be all for today! Stay faithful you guys! This is Ana Avalos, signing out...May the sign be with you......

Getting along with your roommates

03/4/14

Blog 11

       This link belong to KALLAS! 

     

        HOW TO GET ALONG WITH YOUR ROOMMATES MANUAL

               

             Back in Texas School for the Deaf (TSD), I stayed in the girl dorm and had to live with a roommate for a month. For my experience, it wasn't bad living with a girl as a roommate and it actually went well. I also found information if your roommate is not being a good roommate, here's the website and click it here!
     My best three points to live well with your roommate:

• Always let your roommate know where you are.   You don't have to tell your roommate where you are but it is the best for safety and check once a while.
• Plan with your roommate before doing anything else.  You need to plan on taking turn of cleaning the room or taking turn, take turn using the phone or etc. Also help each other to save money like combine their laundries. (I know, weird but it's a must if you are controlling money.)
• Always have a good friendship.  It's the best if we chat each other and you might someone little bit similar like you and enjoy having fun! You could make more friends through your roommates! I learned one quote from sixth grade:

"Make new friends, and keep the old...One is silver and the other is gold!"

                   Hope my three point helps and check out the video on how to pick and avoid roommates in College! (Seniors, it should help you survive college years, you'll thanks me for it.)
                        This is Ana Avalos, signing out!
                         May the sign be with you.........  

Should Enterance requirements to Teach Education Program be raised?

February 13, 2014
Blog 10
                                    REMINDER: This topic will be related to KALLAS!

Entrance Requirement or No Entrance Requirement:

Q: What are the positive or negative for raising their academics as a teacher candidate?
  
    According to Jalen's opinions about Education Requirement, he said about Confucius/Taoism, a Philosopher man's quote, "Success depend upon previous preparation and without such preparation, there is sure to be a failure". Well I think not, to my own meaning of success is when you learn your mistake, you use that mistake to prevent doing the same mistake.

        From Mollie's point of view, do we have to chose the best teacher that we could get and possible help their education system by looking their grades? Maybe yes or maybe not. Not all the time we should be just focusing on Jalen's point of view about choosing the brightest students who want to become a teacher, we should be focusing if the teacher, who is willing to risk for their student like the "Freedom Writer"! I read a book not so long ago and it actually based on discrimination on the teacher's point of view and how she managed to change from people who had been struggling with life between family, gangs and etc. One person in book that was almost in the conclusion, he is now a teacher in his former high school and back then, he used to be a troublemaker and kicked him out.

       I plan on going to Austin Community college for 2 years before heading straight to university. The only thing I need to require is 30 hours per week, 9-15 hours at Austin Community college for a year. Also, there is a website you should check out for the requirement! Click on the word, website.

        I think I agree with Mollie because you might become an amazing teacher, even if you have bad grades or not. The only reason for the entrance requirement only to be need to see if they are enough passion or not passion to teach these students who came to learn and impress their parents with all the students they had learn in the past.
            
               Check out this video and it had almost got me in tears. Literally, for real.

        
              That would be it, thanks for reading! May the sign be with you....
                           Ana Avalos, signing out!

Three things I'd share with my peers

January 28, 2014
Blog 9
          Welcome back to Sign 2 me blog! This topic link to KALLAS, just letting you know!

                 Last year, Ashton Kutcher who received a award show called "Teen Choice Awards 2013" and just in case if you don't know him, he is a actor who acted in the show called "That 70's" in 1998 and the movie called "Cheaper By The Dozen" in 2003. He spoke a really amazing speech by using his heart. He told us his achievements in life before he became a actor. Now I'm telling my advise to all people who are struggling life.

                                           For three things I need to tell to my peers is:

•  "Don’t run away, turn around and face your fears, Even if the world turns away from you.Turn your face to the rough world and clash and fight, Even if the high walls try to 
  
  block you, Jump over it all, even if you fall every time" This song I know of was one of my best favorite song called "One Shot" by B.A.P and I took some of the lyrics because I think it had a strong meaning. The reason why because I believe people are having a hard time to face all the hardest things in life, including myself. Sure, we know what's like if we are struggling with school, work and family all mixed up. All you have to do is take a deep breath and strive to achieve your goal, passing through the objectives and it will end all well.

• "But there are more important things, friends, family...working hard for them and spending time with them. That's happiness and happiness is being proud with the sun shining on your face and Money can't buy it. Do you know why? They have something they cherish." This quote came from the Japanese movie called Gokusen and it inspired me to become a teacher, but not all school is about work and drama and etc. You should spend time with your real friends and family for those who loved them very much and very wisely before you know the most important thing in your life disappeared in front of your eyes. Please watch this video and skip to 10:22-12:40.

• Just be yourself. It doesn't matter if someone are hiding the real person but as long they stay of who we are and who we are with. It is important to keep this real person happy with themselves and look up to the bright, happy future.

               That's the true advise to all the people who are struggling with life…Just look up to the sky and smile!
            
                  That's all, May the sign be with you.....
                     Signing out, Ana Avalos!

To-do list for 2014

January 14, 2014
Blog 8
     Welcome to our first post on 2014 of...SIGN 2 ME! Hey guys, it had been a long time since I post blog 6th isn't? Well, to make it up to you guys, I will have one more blog to post it up quickly so, hang tight! REMINDER: THIS TOPIC IS ONLY FOR EDUCATION(Kallas), just letting you guys know Just in case if you forgot.

       Since it's 2014, I have to do list of what I am expecting myself for this years:

• I will study my FCCLA test that is coming up on two weeks until February 5th. How will I do to success my test? Study for a hour and everyday until you have your study guide in my mind, but I'm pretty sure you guys are thinking, what is FCCLA stand for. Some of you guys know this but it stand for Family, Career and Community Leader of America and I'm part of FCCLA.

• I will improve my speech skills and able to make people to understand me until the end of the school year. How will I improve my communicate skills? I will practice my communicate two time a week. What was the reason that I have to improve the skills? Well, if you saw my very first blog post, after I lost my hearing loss, I was sent to another school where I learned sign language and started speaking. It took me very long time to be able make people understand me and other people who was similar to me and it feel like it takes so much energy like if you are running on the sidewalk, out of breath. I am actually still in speech right now but I noticed that I was lacking my speaking skills and decided to work on my skills but I didn't practiced my skills very well. BUT...there was something that cause to practice more. Not so long ago and before 2014 started, when I was staying over for a night at my relative's home, my youngest cousin in my relative's home. He told me that while we were eating at McDonald, he heard some kids telling that I was speaking weird, I didn't know that because I was so focused on my new laptop. When he told me that, I felt little bit insulted. I know they are kids and I can't blame them but I thought about it. What if people can't understand me? Will I get what I want and what I need? It's scary to think about it, to make people understand. I'm pretty sure you thought about it too.

• I will finish my epic story until May 30. How will I finish my story? I will complete my story by working 2 times a week. What was the reason behind this? I actually love to write story and be very creative. I remembered that if I have more energy, I would write story, even I don't finish my uncompleted stories, I write whatever thing I can write. As you can see, I really love to type and think of how I would type and post it. I should become a blogger...should I?

             That would be it, hopefully, my goals will be successful! This is Ana Avalos, signing off. May the sign be with you...

Tolerance

January 13, 2014
Sign Blog 7
       Hey guys, welcome back again to Sign 2 Me blog! Just want to let you guys know this is only for KKALLAS but enjoy my blog! (Warning, it might insult to people but I'm just telling from my heart.)
        Is there any class that we should be focusing on? Is there anything we should be teaching to all around the school? Should we choose what class that we really wanted? Should we act equal to all these people who came to school to learn new things everyday?
       What is tolerance? From my own words, It is based on their opinion on their races, practices and religious and etc. It's pretty cool to learn many cultures and it is really exciting to learn many languages! But what's really sad that there are many discriminate around in the 1600's where slavery were taken away from their family and forced to work on the cotton field. Many white people looked down on black people and paid less. As time passed on, the black people got what they wanted, thanks to the amendments but the discriminate still goes on.
       The good thing is that we are still equal to all of us, paid enough, able to feed people and socially other people to communicate. We are able to learn many culture like Asian, African, Mexican, American, Irish and all many neat things and able to use it for our education course and benefit our jobs! But speaking of education...how are we handling with our social communicate doing? There are the main problem with every schools around the world and should solve the issue. BULLYING.
       Bullying is not right to hurt and look down on other people, same with cyber bullying and discriminate. We are not perfect people, we make mistakes. Many people find many talents unique and make it their own way and I find myself interesting with foods, languages, styles, religions and make their opinions on their political statements.

 While watching this video, this shows them kindness, no matter the race, religious, clothes, we make our life to focus on our lives like Rachel's Challenge.
    Before we had our final preparing and Christmas getting closer, we learned about Rachel's meaning of kindness. The man talked about kindness, tolerance and bullying. He experienced the gunshot in his high school and it was a massive in his school due to gunshot. Rachel was the first person who died along with couple few people, but before she died, she believed that her theory that if you did a good deed, it will come back right at you. What was even more scarier that she said she will die young and many people was concerned about what was going on in her thought. What was even more scary that she knew that she was going to be the first person to die but she died first. That gave me chills. But her theory is actually right! I tested it to see if they will come back to me after doing a good deed and it came true.
           The next question was about what kind of class that I really wanted take. I wished I took Spanish class because I actually come from a Mexican family, I knew some Spanish words but I never knew what everybody was saying. I envied hearing and deaf people who knew Spanish better than me so that way it's much easier to understand everything than asking people what are they saying. The last class I really wanted to try is Korean class, Its actually cool to see hangul and speak their way of speaking! I enjoyed listening k-pop and I learned some Korean words, I noticed there was so many k-pop dance cover and I actually wanted to take k-pop dance class and just dance!
         Alright, that would be it! See ya next time and may the sign be with you...
         Ana Avalos, signing off!