Provident Living - Education

 I've just started a company called Cynthia's Seeds, Worms, and Compost LLC -- I've been working to save seeds since the Covid school closures. I've learned about heirloom seeds and have been purchasing them from many sources. But, now after 5 years, I have thousands of my own seeds. I've been very successful with Romaine Lettuce, Kale, Mongolian Sunflower, Stevia, and Radish. I'm in the beginning stages of Strawberries, cucumbers spinach, and corn.  

Please visit my Facebook group and business pages.

I've also listed my seeds in Facebook Marketplace. 

My own ads

 Also, I'm making my own ads. It's for the company I'm so passionate about.  You don't have to click on them or buy anything if you don't wish. They are just a simple banner. But, I've learned so much from their course and highly recommend them. #Cashflowacademy

Financial Literacy

 I have been heavily influenced by Robert Kiyosaki's book Rich Dad Poor Dad, and this blog will be taking turn and shift towards financial education. I've been taking some courses related to stock market investing and real estate investing. I've also been delving into what it would take for an LLC to succeed. I'll be documenting my own success in the near future as well. The courses I've been taking that have given me so much knowledge about the stock market are from Andy Tanner's Cashflow Academy. His team is great. They are good at simplifying the investing process, and I've been so privileged to learn from them.

New Job

 It's been a really long time, but I've started a new job in a special class and I'd like to start this blog up again and post some of my creations.

Put Reading First

I think it's important to have personal reading goals. I've been trying to read all of Charles Dickens' novels. I've been at it for a few years. And now look at this progress:

I have a passion for exploring the science of reading through practice. I feel like I've done very well. I have to post a link to, what I believe, is one of the most influential documents of my career. It became the only textbook in my first reading class that I took for my Special Education license/bachelor's program. 

Other really amazing tools include:

gutenberg.org

https://librivox.org/

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/

Because they're in the public domain and FREE!!! Other things I think are useful are the gospel library from https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/ -- I've used the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon and other religious books to practice with too. I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and we are encouraged to read from the scriptures daily. I think that one of the things that actually helped me learn how to read is reading both the Bible and the Book of Mormon daily.

So, besides my progress with the writings of Charles Dickens, I've been using these, plus other books and also my SIOP training to help me increase my ability to read. I started in 2006 with Moby Dick. That was a hard book, and I ended up quitting, but I started it again in 2013 and actually finished it with the help of the free resources above. I used some SIOP techniques as well, like chunk and chew and two-word strategies (summarizing my reading in approximately 2 words). 

I hope you find these links helpful. They've been phenomenal in my own personal reading goals.

Gamify Your Classroom

I love making things. I took a lot of classes this summer. One of them was about how to gamify your classroom. This sparked the idea for a new product:

Gamified Behavior Trackers

I've already started using these in my own class. There's a place for a name and a word or two just to remind the student about what they are working for.

You can use a highlighter, pen, marker, etc. to color them in. It's way easier to incrementally reinforce behavior because you can be organic in the amount you fill this in. 

I think these are really great, and I hope you do too.

Assignment 5 - Peer Review Video Lesson using YouTube

Shoe Tying

I filmed myself teaching basic shoe-tying. Overall it was a great learning experience. I was very quiet in the video, and I re-film myself, but I just have a naturally quiet voice, which works out in the small group instruction. That’s what I do most of the time. I think if I recorded myself teaching I would be able to improve. The basics of voice projection and body language are something I’ve been fascinated with and working on. I’d love to work on that and record myself to see what improvements it would have on my teaching.

In receiving feedback, I think we are all trying to be very nice to each other. I expected more criticism. I know I was too quiet to be heard on my device at certain points. I think it would be good to film ourselves enough that we no longer pay attention to the camera. I think I’d be more natural either without a camera, or if I used it enough that I forgot it was there. In giving feedback, I wanted to point out the good things more than I wanted to critique or criticize what I was seeing. I think feedback can be great, and I also think we can be harder on ourselves than others are--so videoing ourselves can be great for self-critiquing as well. I think I learn something new whenever I am given the opportunity to watch myself teach.