If I could teach whatever I want...

As this quarter comes to a close and I am completing my last homework assignments, I have a new task that I am working on.  I am applying to teach some summer enrichment courses and I need to have the proposals turned in within the next two weeks.  As a new teacher I am struggling with what subjects I want to teach.  Each class is a 15 hour week-long session.  The teachers who will be returning to teach in the program have years and years of experience to draw from. 

My mind is boggled with all of the possible topics I can teach about.  It is almost like having too much freedom!  It would be easier for me if they said, "We need you to teach a class about ladybugs" and I could research and prepare from there.  That is not what they are going to do, as the objective of this is for me to choose something I am passionate and knowledgeable about so that I can bring this excitement to the classroom. 

So while I am daunted by the task at hand, I am looking forward to getting to teach about something I love, and structure the class to my liking.  I am excited to use drama and read alouds in the class, because those are things I love.  After the stress of this quarter is over I will be able to more clearly reflect on what I would be the best at teaching and what I think students would be interested in.

Snow Math

So all this snow had me thinking about the addage: "no two snowflakes are alike."  Is this really true?  Are there really an infinite amount of snowflakes that never repeat?  Luckily, I have the internet to consult.  After reading a few different reputable websites (http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/alike/alike.htm
http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/are-all-snowflakes-different.html)

The answer appears to be that no two larger snowflakes are alike.  Wow!  That really boggles the mind! 

Critics--who needs 'em?

Love, love love, the quote on page 142 of Lamott: "A critic is someone who comes onto the battlefield after the battle is over and shoots the wounded."  Not many people love criticism, and if we're not careful, we can crush the spirit of the kids we teach.  Who wants to be told that they are a bad writer?  When reading anyone's work, especially kids, we need to be sure to emphasize the positive aspects, and choose our comments for improvement carefully.

Upon receiving criticism from a friend, Lamott writes, "My first thought is, 'Well, I'm, sorry, but I can't be friends with you anymore, because you have too many problems.  And you have a bad personality.  And a bad character.'  Sometimes I can't get words to come out of my mouth because I am so disappointed, as if they had said that Sam [her son] is ugly and boring and spoiled and I should let him go.  If we are barraging a child with criticism, they will no longer want to write.  They will put up a wall, tune us out, and the trust that they previously gave us would be lost.  

Routman also discusses criticism in her chapter about conferences.  She emphasizes that we should "always focus first on what the wrtier has done well.  Beginning with celebration affirms the writer and makes it more likely that she will be open to suggestions... Whatever you say to the child, be sure it encourages her to continue writing" (Routman, 2005).  In my dyad classroom, we spend a lot of time moving through the room doing just this.  We make sure that we compliment the student on what they are doing well, such as writing more than they did last time.  Our teacher emphasizes that she doesn't want just the children who had errors in their writing to receive helpful suggestions.  She wants them all to receive information on what they can do to improve their writing, so they know that no one is perfect and that everyone can improve their writing. 

This week's adventure...

Wednesday I had my observation by my field instructor.  I wasn't too nervous because I felt confident and prepared.  I did learn two things from this experience that: a. if something is going to go wrong, it will happen when you are being observed and b. when something goes wrong, don't stress, just be flexible and adapt.

Tina and I had scheduled our lessons back to back with a 15 minute recess in between.  We were full of nervous energy as we waited for the field instructor to arrive to observe the lessons starting at 8:45.  We thought for sure she would be early, but as the minute hand crept past the :30, to the :40, to the :50, we were beginning to get anxious.  At 9:00 our MT called down to the office to make sure that the field instructor wasn't lost in the school.  We confirmed she wasn't and also learned that many parents were commenting on how horrendous the traffic was.  She finally arrived at 9:10 after being stuck in traffic for an hour and a half, poor thing.

Tina's lesson went really well, the children went to recess, and my lesson started at 10:15.  My lesson was on money, and the whole introduction and modeling was to be done with the document camera so that the kids could all see what I was doing.  Lo and behold, the document camera refused to work.  I adapted by having the kids sit on the carpet and walked around showing them the coins. 

Just as I started to show them the quarter, the announcement came, "This is a lockdown drill...please follow lockdown procedures."  We hurriedly shut the blinds, turned off the lights, locked the door and remained huddled silently for an excruciating 20 minutes.  For any of you who've worked with 1st and 2nd graders, you know that this is no small feat.

The rest of the lesson went smoothly, but had to end prematurely as we had lost the 20 minutes, plus 5 minutes for the teacher to debrief and reassure the kids.  All in all, a success with a few glitches that we had to roll with.

Thursday arrived with the pressure off and eagerness to teach more lessons.  The teacher assigned us the dreadful task of teaching a drawing lesson.  While not dreadful to most, especially Tina who is a very good drawer, I am a kindergarten-level-stick-person-drawer at best.  I was to go first and teach them to draw a 3D stool.  Luckily I had a step-by-step drawing book to assist me. 

My part of the lesson was less about drawing and more about being brave and taking risks.  I explained to the class how apprehensive I was about drawing because I felt like I was not good at it.  I talked about how everyone has different talents, but with practice can get better at something they try hard at.  I told them how I was going to be brave and draw for them, and that's what I did.  I was rewarded for putting myself out there by two simple words: "That's awesome!"  The fact that they were coming from the child in class that has the most trouble focusing and people have a hard time working with was especially touching.  I felt like a million bucks! 

Stop and smell the roses

This week's reading by Lamott was not only pertinent to writing, but to life in general.  Her chapter, "Looking Around" really resonated with me.  I like her philosophy, "I think this is how we are supposed to be in the world--present and in awe" (pg. 100).  Lamott continues on to quote a poem by Rumi, which made me think of another poem that I found in high school that has stuck with me:

God, The Artist

God, when you thought of a pine tree,
How did you think of a star?
How did you dream of the Milky Way
To guide us from afar.
How did you think of a clean brown pool
Where flecks of shadows are?


God, when you thought of a cobweb,
How did you think of dew?
How did you know a spider's house
Had shingles bright and new?
How did you know the human folk
Would love them like they do?


God, when you patterned a bird song,
Flung on a silver string,
How did you know the ecstasy
That crystal call would bring?
How did you think of a bubbling throat
And a darling speckled wing?


God, when you chiseled a raindrop,
How did you think of a stem,
Bearing a lovely satin leaf
To hold the tiny gem?
How did you know a million drops
Would deck the morning's hem?


Why did you mate the moonlit night
With the honeysuckle vines?
How did you know Madeira bloom
Distilled ecstatic wines?
How did you weave the velvet disk
Where tangled perfumes are?
God, when you thought of a pine tree,
How did you think of a star?

                         --Angela Morgan

You don't have to be a believer in God to appreciate this poem and its outlook on life.  This poem to me is about appreciating the world around us, and being present in the moment.

Lamott ties this chapter with writing by linking it to perspective and detail in our writing.  I have seen that this is something kids struggle with in their writing.  Many times their finished writing lacks the details that could make the story come alive and be relatable to the reader.  As a teacher I think that it is important that we encourage them to first write about things that they know.  If they are an "expert" on the subject they will be able to add the little details that brings the story to life.  I wouldn't stress that these details needed to be included in the first rough draft.  Instead, I would have the kids edit their papers to add in these details.  If the children can visualize a picture in their head and focus closely on all of the details the reader will better be able to visualize it themselves.  

Math is Fun!

This video is just one of the many that is on YouTube by the group They Might Be Giants.  They put out a Friday night podcast of videos done to their educational songs.  These videos are a great way to get kids excited and interested about math.
The songs are catchy, and the kids love to sing along.  I was introduced to these in my dyad class, and have since shown them to my girls.  They cover different subjects such as math, science, and art.  

I really like bringing multimedia into the classroom, and I look forward to using it into my class.  One obstacle I see if that our district blocks the use of YouTube, so I don't know how they can be downloaded.  One possible option is to have a blog of videos to use in the classroom.  I think it would also be fun to have the kids create their own music videos about math.    
 

Routman--Wow!

I was very impressed with Regie Routman's Writing Essentials.  The school that my main placement is in does not have a set writing curriculum, but I can see that many great teachers that I've observed there are using principles that Routman discusses. 

For example, I observed a lesson taught by Mrs. T. about writing.  She puts a lot of emphasis on the telling of the story out loud or to yourself before you actually begin writing.  This is something that Routman discusses on page 37.  Mrs. T. also follows the next guideline of shared demonstration where she thinks aloud as she writes.  Mrs. T. demonstrated the writing of a memory about riding bikes when she was a kid.  As Mrs. T. wrote, she was constantly thinking, revising, and editing as she went.  Routman writes how important it is to let students see you as a teacher struggle.  "One of the most powerful ways for students to grow as writers is to watch you write--to observe you plan, think, compose, revise, and edit right in front of them, pretty much off the cuff" (Routman, 45).

Another concept that Routman discusses that resonated with me was to keep your audience in mind.  When kids write, they often forget about the reader.  When I ask a child to tell me about something they did over the weekend, I get a lot of detail and emotion.  If that same child writes about the event, often they write a very dry recount of what they did and don't keep the reader in mind.  

I look forward to reading more of Routman and learning ways to help each student become a confident writer. 

Literacy Key: Vocabulary Chapters 1-3

Practical Application

This week's readings from Word Identification Strategies were helpful to me in a practical sense.  The knowledge that I gained will be useful in the kindergarten class we are visiting during class time, the ELL students in my main placement who are struggling with reading, and with my own daughter, who is in kindergarten this year.

As I was reading these chapters, I was also helping my kindergartener with her homework and a song she was trying to write on paper.  She just learned the song "Five Little Pumpkins" today.  On the top of the paper she wrote her name, which is the first word she learned to spell.  Underneath was a drawing of five different pumpkins which were labeled with their number.  Following that was a line of oooooooooo.  When I asked her what this represented, she said it was the sound of the wind in the song saying "ooh ooh."  Finally was her drawing of a hand to signify that they clap when they sing "out goes the light." 

After reading these chapters, I have a better appreciation of her as a writer and reader.  From what I read thus far, I would say that she is prealphabetic with some traits of partial alphabetic. 
For the most part when she writes she either uses scribbles to simulate cursive or she randomly strings letters together, which is part of the prealphabetic stage.  She does show a few dimensions of the partial alphabetic stage such as finding letters in words and using one consonant to represent a word. 

I also read a story with her called When Tiny Was Tiny, and I explained to her that the way I knew what to read was that the words tell me what to say.  She was able to read some small words with two phoenemes, such as /is/ and /he/.  We also stretched out words together so she could read them.  Currently we play a lot of games with letter sounds and letter recognition, and I'm excited to use the examples from chapter two in the future. 

In activity 2.4 it has rhyming and beginning sound sorts.  On the last week I was in my main placement (3rd grade), we did word work aka, spelling.  The beginner group is made up mainly of ELL students, and they were using this activity to sort their spelling words.  I found that it was essential to do step 3, which is "have children name each picture."  Each child can interpret a picture differently, and if they don't know what the picture is supposed to represent, they are unable to sort the word correctly.

Finally, I just want to say that how we learn to read is amazing to me!  The English language is a hard one to be proficient in, especially when many words don't follow the rules for how each phoneme should sound.  This book has illustrated for me how to teach kindergarteners and 1st graders step by step to help them build a reading foundation, where in the past it seemed daunting and overwhelming.

Emergent Literacy

I really enjoyed Teale & Sulzby's article Emergent Literacy: New Perspectives.  Their findings that learning to read and write start when children are very young is something that I have seen in my own life.  I have two daughters and I'm watching them learn and progress through the different stages of reading and writing.  One of my daughters is nine, so she is at a point in her learning career where she is reading and comprehending long chapter books and writing her own stories. 

My other daughter is five and just started Kindergarten this year.  She is currently learning all of her letters, sounds, and how to correctly write them.  She also likes to create her own books, and since she has been a viewer of books since she was born, she knows the general layout of a book.  When creating her books she staples pages together on the left side, like the binding of a traditional book.  As she is not a fluent writer of conventional words, most of her stories are pages of illustrations accompanied by squiggly lines to represent writing.  Although they may just look like scribbles, in her mind they are representing the words of the story.  Her favorite choice time activity at school is the Writing Center.  The Writing Center is not a place where she has to practice forming letters and being corrected, but is instead a place where she can explore the world of writing on her own terms and enjoy herself. 

In my classroom I want to create a space where reading and writing is enjoyable for each student.  I plan to do this by giving the kids choices for what they want to read and write about.  I want them to read genres that they are interested in and try out others that they  find that they like.  When writing, I want them to use their own experiences to provide a basis for a story or that will give them a jumping off point to create a fictional story.  

What if Facebook were real life?

        Amazing how the internet has connected with people that we wouldn't usually have contact with!

Responding to Jane's links

"Why Blog": When I think of blogs I think of an electronic journal that you are creating to share with others.  Blogs are a way to share information informally without saying you are an expert.  It is open to others to view and comment on and to share ideas.  I especially like the idea of professional blogs because you can read and discuss lessons that worked and did not work. 


Currently I am not a fan of Twitter.  Since you cannot go in depth, it is harder to share lessons and deep reflections.  I was surprised that Twitter was linked to blogging--I see it having more in common with Facebook.  I think of it more as short bursts of information that notify others of what you are doing, and seems to be more superficial.  Maybe my opinion will change of it in the future, but at this point in time I don't plan to ever have my own Twitter tweets. 


I was also surprised by the comment by user "Single Maria" about being lazy on your blog and presenting your opinion as fact.  I never assume that a blog has the correct information.  I see blogs as more personal and opinion based.  Even wikis can't always be trusted.  I see a blog in the same way as a journal which is reflection on your own experiences.


"Web 2.0": This video had me awestruck on how far technology has come and how it has changed.  I cannot even comprehend on how people constructed the World Wide Web, and other web technology; it is mind-blowing.  I am grateful that I don't need to understand it fully in order to use it.  Technology has become so user-friendly that it has been integrated into everyday life.  Where does it go from here???  It will be amazing to see what the future holds. 


Although I love the technology, I am overwhelmed by the amount of information that is out there.  I am looking forward to the time when I am done with school and I can spend more time reading professional development blogs for great ideas. 


It is also interesting to me about copyrights and ownership.  Where is the line?  The kids that we are teaching now will have a whole different experience that I did as a child.  When I was younger, research was done out of actual books with handwritten notes and there was no question who wrote the material.  I wonder now when some kids turn in papers how much is their own ideas vs. info that they have found on the web.  I think they also may have a tough time distinguishing from fact and opinion, for example wikipedia which has user generated and edited content.