Great News!

I have had some wonderful days with my students! I have finally bonded with some that I thought I would never bond with! It is spectacular! It's better than the feeling you get when you find out Santa has come...my heart starts fluttering, my eyes light up, my heart beats faster, and my mouth opens wide! My student read a book for me! As many times as I have tried to coerce him...he finally felt like he could trust me and read for me! I gave him so many treats and praise that I had nothing left to give...and kept giving! :) It is such a triumphant feeling to accomplish a feat that seemed impossible! This is what teaching is allllllll about!

Using Technology in the Writer's Workshop

I have voiced my concerns about safety and the Internet with my children but I am beginning to wrap my head around it...embrace it...a bit. I think I could really make this happen. Maybe not every week but to be sure I could get my kids up there once every two weeks just to publish their ideas. They don't have to be perfect but I think that would really motivate them to get the work done if they knew they were going to be submitting it so their classmates can see their work. The children are so interested in getting to use technology that I shouldn't withhold using it just because I can't dictate every second of what they are doing. I can't do that even if they are not using technology, why should I micromanage with technology. :)

Multimedia Project

My multimedia project was very fun to do and it was not very hard at all! It was nice to be "forced" into doing something of that nature! It wasn't even that hard! I wish I had known this all along. Next time I create one though, I will be sure that I am not in a hurry because I was stressed out when the sound wouldn't work. The children will really enjoy using this! I even talked with our AIG coordinator and she wants to use it with her children also! How flattering!

Ethics and Context

I thought this section was especially meaningful! Teachers have such a huge responsibility of keeping our children safe. Being safe means so many different things. Keeping them safe from inappropriate material on the Internet is one of those things that is very touchy. Children can access the Internet with permission from home but once they get up there and they enter one letter incorrectly or correctly and children can stumble across inappropriate pictures that could get us in a heap of trouble. Another aspect of safety is communicating with others over the Internet. We may want to create an email, edmoto, or wiki for students to communicate with each other but we are concerned about who else can access or get ahold of their information.
Another concern is treating information as property. Children must know about plagiarism at a younger age now than they used to. Another key to using information is determining if it is accurate information. Again, children are learning these ideas a lot sooner than we did growing up. I didn't know (or don't remember) anything about copyright until I was in middle school.

Using Photos to Compose

I learned a lot more about multimedia displays of information in Troy Hicks' (2009) The Digital Writing Workshop. The section that I was really interested in was entitled, "Composing Digital Pictures and Creating Photo-Essays with Online Photo Sharing." I found this really interesting and do-able! To begin with, digital cameras and flipvideos are available at my school. This would also be very helpful to my children who struggle with inspiration to write. I was thinking that if children could take a picture of something that moves them, represents a topic, or was just interesting to them. Once they have "motivation," they can compose a multimedia project or writing project to demonstrate their proficiency.

Using blogs and wikis

This is still kinda touchy for me. As I am reading this, I am contemplating how to get the technology resources to make this happen. Can I get an app on iPads to create a word document? I can have them bookmark our wiki and they can create writing there. Maybe I can make this work! :)

Toward a Theory

Well...if I were to put this article into a wordle the largest word would be "change." I noticed that the beginning of the article discussed defining literacy. I think this is extremely important because literacy is not what it was when I was in second grade. It will take a while for this to spread and be recognized throughout the education community. When I say that, I mean that there are the oppositional educators who just want to shut their door and teach the way they always have. Children ARE learning differently now. We must embrace their learning styles and culture and teach to their liking.

Art Exhibit

I really enjoyed this activity. I found a lot of different thoughts as I walked around. I don't think I was prepared for what we did. I didn't realize that I would encounter pottery, plates, commericals, and dirty floors. I say dirty floors because there was a piece of vinyl flooring covered with enamel and spray paint. It was my favorite because it represented how I am feeling in my life. Everything looks chatoic but ironically it's titled "clarity." :) I love it...because while looking into my life from the outside it may seem messy; it's organized chaos. : )

The Digital Writing Workshop by Troy Hicks

This was a very enlightening chapter. Hicks (2009) is explaining how to move the writing workshop into the digital age seamlessly. He mentioned that teachers were trying to figure out how to add on technology and Hicks says that is not going to work. He suggests using three tools to help children access information RSS, social networking, and blogs. I fully agree that this is a wonderful example to use but at the same time I feel like it may be a little of my kids heads...??? I feel like they could do the WebQuest. But if they can do that, then why can't they use RSS and social networking. I feel like I have said this before but this is a little scary to consider doing this. I really like the idea of using blogs as a writing journal. I think the children would be more interested and it would prevent me from dragging home 18 journals every Friday! :)

What do you do when what always worked, doesn't work?

I am experiencing this in my classroom now. It is a confusing feeling. Naturally, we teach procedures and routines at the beginning of the year. Usually after 10 days of said instruction, the children are well versed on the ways of the classroom. But what do you do when they're not? Of course, you reteach! What happens after you have retaught and things are still the same. Using an idea of Dr. Long's, it's like losing your identity. You follow Harry Wong and Beginning Teacher Survival Guides all those years and it works like a charm. Now six years in, you are doing the same and nothing... We all know not much instruction can occur when a classroom is not well managed. I feel so defeated! Can someone please give me some suggestions?!

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

To be honest, before reading this article, I thought I was a digital native. Hey...I had computers in third grade. I remember my librarian introducing us to the world wide web in sixth grade. But oh was I wrong. As I read further into the article, I could see my 'accent' coming out all over the the printed copy I used to make notes on (instead of creating digital highlights).

What Prensky (2001) says makes sense. Children are not thinking like we did. They are a very 'instant gratification' type of generation. Teachers up there lecturing all day don't have a chance! Children are in and out in an instant. We have to get hip to what they're into. Though it's scary, the benefits outweigh our fear.

He seemed informative about the ways that we need to start approaching our teaching but in the end...boy, did he just let us have it. "It's high time for them to stop their grousing, and as the Nike motto of the Digital Native generation says, 'Just do it!'" So I guess I'll stop making excuses and 'Just do it!'

Common Core critique by Jeffrey N. Golub

Well, after reading that post we all know where he stands on the matter. I am always glad when I hear or see people defending the competency of teachers. We are professionals in our field. We know our children and what is best for them. We understand them and know what works but it seems like no one else believes that. I am appreciative that in our county we are making our way back around to that. I like that Golub also encourages teachers to be a part of creating curriculum development and assessment. Even after doing state mandated testing, I administer my own assessment for different purposes. Golub discusses mostly reading in this post but in my experience with the math standards, I am very pleased. I like that we will be doing more depth than breadth of material. The children will benefit also!

Thursday's Class

After Dr. Long sent us the thank you email, I began reflecting upon that class session. How intuitive Dr. Long was to know that we would need something like the play doh activity. It was so refreshing and unusual. It completely changed my (and I think some others) attitude for the evening. It was a wonderful and creative outlet for us to express ourselves. If not for the play doh, would Susan have said, "wade through the bull?" Probably not! It was a comic relief as well as an appropriate activity. It made me think of when I was in elementary school! I was so excited to go and do all the wonderful things my teachers had planned for me. And now I feel kinda like a let down. I don't think they feel like I felt.

Data Walls

One of the ideas I wrote in my inspiration journal was ... data walls. They have really started to interest me ever since I read the research on 90/90/90 schools. One of the components to creating a successful school is data walls. I am learning more about them as I go. Some articles say to post them in the classroom; some say they should be private. I just don't know what to think. I see both sides to the stories. On one hand, children see where they are and where they want to be. On the other hand, if a child is low, they don't see how far behind they are in comparison to where they need to be or the other classmates are. Also, I read that they should be updated weekly. How is that possible when the same skills aren't taught each week? This is something I will continue to research but what do you think?

Task Three: Infographics

Obviously, these creative representations of information would be so much more interesting to our children that the boring notes that I ask them to either paste in their tablets or copy from the board. It also helps to see the relationships between things. I checked out the Starbucks/McDonald's link...wow, I learned lots of stuff very quickly. It was amazing how quick the processing time was compared to reading all of the numbers. Looking at the FarmVille vs. Farmers link also made a huge relationship connection between how many women and men or users and real farmers were there.

I would like to use this in my classroom focusing on how many hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones were formed in which area of the world. The children could see where most hurricanes form and how fast their winds become. When we study animals, we can use the map again and determine where the majority of animals are found.

Task One: Hurricane and 9/11 Resources

I shared the 9/11 video with my children. There were fascinated by it. They still ask to watch it again. When I asked them why, they replied that it didn't seem real. The man that was covered in the ash walking and seeing the burning buildings. They also enjoyed hearing from the children/adults that actually experienced the events that happened that day. I found myself learning new information also.
I haven't shared with the children yet but I plan to share with them the animated hurricane site. It was a lot easier to show them the animation rather than trying to explain it without pictures. While I was there, I perused the other animated presentations (volcano, tsunami, and tornado). There are really spectacular.

Goals

The student in me always wants to do well and make good grades. Although, we have learned it is not always the grade that matters but the mastery and understanding of concepts that were learned. Nevertheless, one of my goals for completing my Master's degree is walking across the stage with a 4.0 GPA. I will work hard and redo as many papers as necessary to be able to accomplish this goal!

As a teacher, I want to be National Board ready. Hopefully, I will find myself to be worthy of such an incredible title by December. If I have not mastered this process, I will continue in pursuit once more. With all the work I have been completing with my studies, I feel that I will be even more prepared.

As a teacher, I want to gain the knowledge and confidence to create independent thinkers. Thinkers that can create products that will capture their love of learning and understanding of mastered concepts and skills. I don't want to be that person who spoon feeds them! I want them to take ownership and control of their learning and I will facilitate their curiosities and foster a love of learning within themselves.

Reading Reflection

   Harste (2003) has made a stand about he feels reading and language have an effect on children and our future. I agree when he says, "you do very little to help students understand how language works." I agree! Guilty as charged! When using other reading basals, the emphasis is on the skills perspective of reading. And I agree a bit. But what I am understanding Harste to say is that we need to move into a language experience approach to teaching literacy. I agree but I am a creature of habit. I think phonics are extremely important and its hard not to teach in isolation of other reading skills. I will learn to roll and adjust for the better of my students' learning.
   As I am reading Riddle (2009), I am questioning my ability to "raise" children that are that competent, inspiring, and well-knowledgeable enough to complete these multi-task, multi-modal deep thinking, technology driven projects. I certainly want to!! All children...100%...engaged! They are deep thinkers! They are creators! They are authors! It's become more about visual literacy to express their understanding rather than the boring written products we previously asked for.

What I Have Learned... Continued

The last thing I want to talk about the reflective assessment. Daniels and Bizar discussed this in chapter seven. This seems to be something that everyone is talking ...or frustrated about. As teachers, we feel that putting an extreme amount of pressure on on single test and letting that be the determining factor in promotion or retention is unfair. It's unfair to the children and the teachers. I loved that in this book, they actually said, give them the "coaching they need to show their best on the tests-and then return to the real business of education, which is nuturing the growth of individual students' thinking, over the years, across disciplines, and among collaborators" (p. 224). I love this statement! :) I want to implement more reflective assessment into my practice. It shows that they can do more than just memorize information. We want children to be able to manipulate and apply knowledge so they can build upon that information as they proceed through their young lives to become productive citizens! I have enjoyed this semester most because we were learning more about how to improve our implementation and delivery of lessons.

What I Have Learned

I have learned so much about integrated teaching! It makes so much more sense to teach this way and it's a way that we can also combine our time to teach more information. I have really enjoyed the Harvey and Daniels book. I plan to read more into certain chapters so that I fully understand and retain the information. For instance, chapter four about small group activites. After reading Chapter Six, I felt kinda bad because I reflected on my own teaching practices and I do not include as many authentic learning experiences as I should. Then I was inspired! I have already begun planning to implement lessons that I have read about. For instance, Schell and Fisher (2007) discuss "Real World Teaching and Learning" in chapter 8 of their book titled "Teaching Social Studies: A Literature Based Approach." This goes hand in hand with authentic learning experiences. I realize why children aren't getting some concepts I taugt...because I did not let them be involoved in problem solving in a real world situation. I did appreciate the reminder that we are only one person and under budget constraints but we must still provide "students with activies that have relevance and meaning built right in, whether they occur inside or outside of the classroom" (Daniels and Bizar, 2005, p. 146).  More to come! :)

Chapter Seven in Daniels and Bizar's Teaching the Best Practice Way

ASSESSMENT! Here we go! Yes, assessment is an important part of what we do. Assessment assists teachers in determining whether or not a child has 'got it!' Assessment of skills is absolutely necessary in education. But there is a concern when we spend more time testing than we do teaching. I see why shareholders want assessments...data. I agree that data is important also but to what extent? To the extent that teachers don't have time to pull small groups to intervene before the next assessment? I appreciate that the book addresses standardized testing (and I bet that I am not the only one who will be writing about this topic this week :) ) and how teachers should address it in the classroom. Don't be run by standardized tests but give your students "the coaching they need to show their best on the tests - and then return to the real business of education, which is nurturing the growth of individual students' thinking, over years, across disciplines, and among collaborators" (p. 224). While that is great coaching for the teachers...how many of us could really react that way?

Social Studies and Classroom Management

This week as I read Chapter 8 in Schell and Fisher's "Teaching Social Studies: A Literacy-Based Approach, I found two great ideas that I would like to implement in my classroom. I need to think them through but I am going to try them next year. The first one is the rules of the class. I discovered some different ways of wording expectations that I feel will evokea more postive response in my children. I have always facilitated making classroom expectations but I had never made the connection to social studies with my children. I also liked that it stated rewards before consequences on a poster next to the classroom expectations. Having a visual reminder of rewards may encourage more good behavior. The other idea I loved was the 'banking behavior' section. This will require me to think alot about the management of this idea but it would cover so many objectives that we cover: money, adding, subtracting, occupations, earning, spending, saving, supply, demand, etc. The list can go on. This behavior management system is integrated with math, social studies, and comprehension skills! :) These two ideas are a wonderful way of integrating social studies into the classroom. I did not realize how social studies is everywhere until we began this class. It always seemed like social studies was the subject that got left out because we couldn't figure out how to fit it in but now it seems like every lesson has social studies in it. If I use these strategies, I will be addressing social studies everyday.

Integrated Unit Based Upon the Artwork from Mali, Bamana

Artwork from Mali, Bamana: Pair of Antelope Headdresses

I would use this piece for my second grade class. I would be able to tie in many skills. When I first looked at the piece, I was baffled as to how in the world I was going to make any of these pieces work with my class but then I read the lesson plans and resources and I saw how easy it was to make it happen. I would like to target language arts, social studies and art into this lesson.
Arts: Ask children if they were going to a party or celebration, "how would you dress?" Children may recognize that they wear special attire for speical occasions. Introduce that the antelope headdresses are worn during special celebrations for farming. Using music from Africa, allow children to dance to the rhythm and explore ways people from Mali might express themselves. Children can create their own headdress or special covering for their dances.
Social Studies: Using directional and mapping skills, children could find Mali, Bamana on the map. We can discuss the type of crops they raise and compare them to the crops we raise. We can discuss why we grow different crops. Factors in the environment can effect the crops they are able to grow.
Language Arts: Children could interview local farmers then they could write about the information they gathered. If interviewing farmers is not an option, children could always use literature or other resources to learn more.

Using this website, my gears began turning on different ideas. I am going to continue to use this website to help. I never even thought about using artwork to introduce a new unit. I will use this from now on!

Integrated Unit Based Upon the Artwork from Mali, Bamana

Pair of Antelope Headdresses from Mali, Bamana
http://ncmoa.org/artnc/artifact.php?artifactid=2

Melber and Hunter's "25 Strategies for K-8 Inquiry Based Learning"

There were many wonderful strategies to discover in Unit Two but I found "Strategy 7: Developing Map Skills" very helpful. This is a skill that we teach in second grade. I admit that I struggle teaching this skill but if I use this strategy I think I will be more confident in my lesson delivery and the children will be more involved and engaged in their learning. I like this strategy so much because it incorporates their home-life (mapping their homes) and community. Parents would be assisting children in creating their home map. This would increase their retention of information since children would be seeing the skill used in more than one location. As I was reading this, I also thought that families could take this time to plan their emergency meeting locations and fire escapes from the house as well. This would also help children see one relevancy of mapping. For their school/community walks, we could also tie in emergency locations and occupations that reside there. I am glad I have this useful resource to revert back to when this unit comes around next year. I am starting to see how I can make social studies more interesting for myself and my children. :)

Using Schell and Fisher's "Teaching Social Studies: A Literacy Based Approach" to Drive Our Integrated Unit

This chapter was very interesting to me. I had to read it a few times to understand the different meanings of the key terms: topics, themes, concepts, and big ideas. As I was reading this, I was relating it more to my personal experiences with teaching and wondering how I can make this work in my classroom. As for our integrated unit, I found some very helpful information. The book stated on page73, that we should identify what we want our children to know and be at the end of the unit. I think this helps our focus of the lesson. I will also use the topic section as we plan. Since we plan to use a building (John Wheeler House) as our focus, the section on topics will be more useful to us. Although, the themes can be useful too when we tie in our social studies themes from the National Standards.

Summer Vacation

It's that time of year and summer is upon us. Days of sleeping in, playing outside, working in the garden, catching up on the numerous things that have fallen to the wayside for our passion, teaching. So the question has been asked... Does the summer make us better teachers? I would say, "Yes!!" in a heartbeat! By this time of year, teachers and students are restless to be out in the sunshine and feeling stress from testing. We have exhausted ourselves trying to be superhuman and rejuvenation is needed. Teachers need that time away from teaching to discover how much they really love what they do. By the time the end of July rolls around, teachers are already back in their classrooms...voluntarily... to prepare for our next group of babies. Teachers need that release of accountablility and stress and then they come back renewed.

What do you guys think?

Addressing the Arts in the General Education Classroom

This is a huge concern for me! I am not that artistic which makes this a very uncomfortable area in my teaching expertise. It is essential for children to have exposure to and master the arts curriculum. Since we do not have an Arts teacher at our school, it is especially important for me to integrate the Arts into my classroom lesson plans. I love to use art to activate prior knowledge. For instance, in Language Arts I sometimes allow children to express their prior knowledge about a topic by drawing an image of it and inviting the children to share their thoughts and ideas. This helps when introducing an abstract topic. I used this when we taught the story, Akiak, A Tale from the Iditarod. Knowing my children were probably not familiar with the Iditarod, I asked the children to draw a picture of the longest trip they have ever taken. While drawing, be sure to include the weather, things you saw, etc. After children shared, I asked them think of how their trip would be if it were extremely cold, on foot etc. Children were able to visualize better what the Iditarod would be like now they were in the mindset of traveling. It was wonderful because I could see several, "Ahah!" moments. :)  Other times, I give children choice activities to encourage them to use their talents to share their mastery of a subject. For instance, children can choose to write a poem, create a song, draw an image with a caption, or write a story displaying their gained knowledge. Children love the choice and the opportunity to express themselves in different ways. This strategy is also very effective in differentiating my instruction for the different levels of students in my class. Also, children tend to stay more focused during the presentation of products since there is a variety of things to see and hear. My goal is to use the Arts even more effectively in my classroom after completing this course.

I love when I am reading and I am compelled to have a conversation with the text. The reading this week was a refreshing reminder of what my purpose is! I felt a strong connection with the KNOW/DO/BE framework. The thinking is completely natural but the way of organizing the information was so logical.
Planning can be so hectic when I have so many thoughts floating around in my head but using the KNOW/DO/BE framework it's not.

Hello to All!

Well...since you already know my assignment I guess I should tell you a little about myself!
I am a ...wait for it....second grade teacher! I teach in the beautiful Tar Heel state! Teaching in a rural North Carolina town with no stoplights. I am working towards my Master's in Elementary Education. I have already gained so much knowledge about research, diversity, technology, and curriculum! In my summer courses, I will be learning more about integration of subjects! Follow me to see what I have learned! :)

May 15, 2011

Welcome to my blog! This is a new experience for me! As an assignment for my graduate course, Integrating Language Arts and Social Studies, I must record my thoughts about my weekly readings. Maybe we can all learn together! Join me on this adventure of becoming a better teacher!