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Parents and guardians,

Welcome to our third grade Wikispace!

Let me begin by saying, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with your third graders! I recently graduated from Illinois State University with a Bachelors of Science in Elementary Education. I have wanted to be a teacher since I was in elementary school myself. The teachers I had when I was in elementary school inspired me to pass on the joy of learning to my students. I look forward to the fun we are going to have working together in a diverse classroom environment, but I also look forward to contributing to their intellectual growth as we prepare for the fourth grade. As their teacher, I welcome the chance to grow alongside your students. I believe in using an array of methods, technologies, and teaching styles in the hopes of reaching all types of learners.

Along with various methods and teaching styles, I will strive to meet each student where he or she is at and working from there. This will require me to communicate often with parents, guardians, and school staff in order to meet these needs. No one knows your child better than you do, so please communicate with me any concerns, questions, or ideas in correlation to your child. By working together, we can make sure to provide students with all the opportunities and assistance that will need on their educational journey. Thank you for entrusting me with your student and I cannot wait to start learning!

In my free time I love spending time with my family and friends, traveling, celebrating the holidays, catching up on my tivo, and watching the Chicago White Sox. I have a dog named Patches who I just adore; he's a Shitzu Pomeranian and I'm sure your students will be hearing lots of stories about him!

I am thrilled to be working with this third grade class and I hope that this site is able to provide a great resource to you and your students. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, comments, or concerns; I can be reached by email at mmbauer@ilstu.edu or by phone at (630) 715.7242. Don't hesitate to reach me, I would love to hear from you!

Sincerely, Michele Bauer

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My Teaching Philosophy:

 The ethical and intellectual demands comprise the foundation of becoming a well-versed and respectable educator. It is through these commitments that each future educator will be able to see their growth and success. Both the ethical and intellectual commitments are important in developing a vast amount of affirmed and new knowledge during college. Without all of this new insight, teachers would not be able to teach to their full potential and would not fully understand the learning environment.  The first commitment that I have chosen to focus on is a “reverence for learning and a seriousness of personal, professional, and public purpose”. I believe that this is important because as a student, the person our teachers are reflects into the educators they become. Their purpose and their love for learning, if present, has the power to transform a classroom. While I finish up my education I will continue to learn about what it means to be a teacher and the professionalism that must come with that. Having a passion for learning and a reason to educate others, I believe that this love and purpose will translate into my future classroom.  The next commitment that I found important is a “wide general knowledge and a deep knowledge of the content to be taught.” Parents and their children have high expectations of us as educators and we must meet these high standards. This means we must always be open to all questions that our students may have and to do our best to respond honestly. When your students know that you are a knowledgeable source for them to use, that is one way we can know we are doing our job well. There is no other way to gain this knowledge other than going to school and learning all that we can from our texts and from our instructors. I will also stay informed and keep up with the subjects that I am teaching.  The last commitment I found central to success is a “contagious intellectual enthusiasm and courage enough to be creative”. Students need to learn that learning is fun and it is the role of their teacher to teach them this. We must continue to look for new ideas and I will look for these from my surroundings; nature, family, peers, fellow teachers and administrators, magazines, and so on. Implementing these new activities in the classroom helps brings the attention and eagerness of the young learners. With this, students will find learning enjoyable, which makes the job of the educator more rewarding.  Being an educator is a huge undertaking and it can only be successfully obtained through hard work, and commitment to the education system and your students. The ethical and intellectual commitments provided give us future educators a structured and helpful way to embark on teaching journey. This is only the base, however, and we must come up with our own insights to make our classroom environment functional, cooperative, exciting, respectful, and learning based.

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011: <span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">We will be having a holiday party in the afternoon. We will have games, snacks, and other festivities! Volunteers are more than welcome to come help and join in the fun! If you have any snack, game, activity idea or would like to help plan, please contact me! Again, my email is mmbauer@ilstu.edu and phone is 630.715.7242.

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">Monday, January 23, 2012: <span style="color: #404040; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">To conclude our unit on China, we will be celebrating the Chinese Spring Festival. We could really use volunteers to come help with this since we will be welcoming other classes to join us throughout the day. The more volunteers, the better!

<span style="color: #008080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 130%;">I would highly encourage you all to check out this website to find more information on China. It is another great resource that has condensed and simplified explanations of the various aspects of China's people, places, activities, daily life/culture, and philosophies/religion. It is a great website to view with your students! <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 16px;">@http://china.mrdonn.org/index.html

Student Portfolios:
 * Lauren || Leuttich ||
 * Mike || Sarver ||
 * Chrissy || Walsh ||
 * Brittany || Musinski ||

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Resources <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">China for Kids. (n.d.). //<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;">Ancient China for Kids //. Retrieved December 11, 2011, from http://china.mrdonn.org/index.html