I'm looking for ways to make this blog interesting to more people. If you have an inkling, please take a minute to minute to answer these questions. If you have more than an inkling, share it with someone new, have them become a follower. I like followers. It supports my need to be adored.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
[Friday Free Day] What if...
A boss I really liked posed a question similar to this to me one day...
What if... we stopped teaching specific content for one week, one quarter, one year, and instead focused on the kids where they are at each moment. Zero in on their learning edge and provide space, time, and resources for them to grow, learn, fill up their space?
What would happen?
What if... we stopped teaching specific content for one week, one quarter, one year, and instead focused on the kids where they are at each moment. Zero in on their learning edge and provide space, time, and resources for them to grow, learn, fill up their space?
What would happen?
Friday, March 9, 2012
[Friday Free Day] Reminders
At 5:30 my clock gives a buzz* to warn me that the loud alarms will be starting soon. This is a gentle warning that the real warnings will be jarring. At 6:00 my alarm rings* for the first time as a strong suggestion that I should walk the dog. At the same time, my calendar dings* to let me know that 100 days are passing (long story, will share later). At 6:15 comes the stronger alarm bell* with the more overt reminder that it is time to get up and walk the dog. Between 6:15 and 7:00 the snooze alarms ring,* and at 7:00 the big alarm goes off* that lets me know I am now borderline late and a bad dog-owner for not walking the dog. When I start the dryer to finish dryer my clothes from last nights laundry, the dryer beeps* to let me know it started to dry. At 7:05 the buttons on the microwave beep* to let me know I am pressing buttons to heat up my dog's food (a new trick to pretend it's fancy food). At 7:06 the refrigerator beeps* to let me know I've left the door open. At 7:06 the microwave gives a long beep* to let me know the food is heated. When I don't get it out right away (as I am making coffee) it beeps again* a minute later, and another beep* a minute after that. At 7:10 the dryer ding-dongs* to let me know the dryer will stop soon. At 7:15 the coffee maker gives a long tone* to tell me the coffee is brewed.
When I come back downstairs to pack my lunch and head out the door (late--my calendar has buzzed twice** to let me know I have a meeting at 8:00), the coffee maker rings* to say it will turn off soon. The dryer dings* to remind me I didn't take my clothes out. The refrigerator beeps* because the door didn't shut all the way again.
In my car the warning bell* goes off until I put my seat belt on. The cross walk light beep-bops* to let the visually impaired street crosses know to cross. My car bell* rings again as I forget to turn my headlights off when I arrive at the Rite Aid. The entryway at Rite-Aid ding-dongs* to let the employees know there is an early-morning customer. The sign directs me to "Ring the Bell"* at the pharmacy counter for service, so I do.
And that, my friends, is before 8:00 each day. What does it say about our lives that this many machines need to ring at us, and that, in my case, I need to add rings and bells from my own phone and clocks in order to get my day started? I think it says something deep and important about the world. I just don't know what it is yet... Oh. And I just got a text message*. No joke. I really did. Ring-ring.
Monday, March 5, 2012
[Teaching Writing] Found Faces
Many surprising things happened today. I woke up early, but not too early (!!!). I actually GOT up (!!!). I took Stella the Dog for a walk after I got up (!!!). And, I saw and took photos of fun things on my walk, AND I've already turned them into a writing prompt for today (!!!). Oh, and I haven't had any coffee yet. Yes, I think I've finished enough work for one day, I may just go back to bed. Kidding (sort of).
When my dad was little, he had the "back room" at my Nana's house. The closet was made of wood and you could see the wood grain. He used a black permanent marker and drew the outline of a lady that showed up in the wood grain. I'm fairly certain he got in trouble for this. Happily for me, Nana didn't cover it up, and, a generation later, I was assigned the same "back room" and spent many hours contemplating that lady. I was sent to my room on occasion (what's the opposite of hyperbole?), and had plenty of time to imagine other people in that wood grain. Sorta like this:
On my walk this morning, I saw myriad faces. I thought I'd share them, and come up with a writing prompt from them. Here they are. I did not move a single leaf, rock, or shadow to highlight these friendly found faces.
Try our video maker at Animoto.
When my dad was little, he had the "back room" at my Nana's house. The closet was made of wood and you could see the wood grain. He used a black permanent marker and drew the outline of a lady that showed up in the wood grain. I'm fairly certain he got in trouble for this. Happily for me, Nana didn't cover it up, and, a generation later, I was assigned the same "back room" and spent many hours contemplating that lady. I was sent to my room on occasion (what's the opposite of hyperbole?), and had plenty of time to imagine other people in that wood grain. Sorta like this:
On my walk this morning, I saw myriad faces. I thought I'd share them, and come up with a writing prompt from them. Here they are. I did not move a single leaf, rock, or shadow to highlight these friendly found faces.
Friday, March 2, 2012
[Friday Free Day] Stacks
I just loves me some stacks of books. It's one of the surest signs that I am, indeed, an English teacher at heart. I got to work at the butt-crack of dawn this morning, and was greeted with these lovely stacks.
Clockwise...
The books I'm using as mentor texts at my presentation tomorrow morning.
Welcome to my Friday! Share your stacks of books with me on my Wear the Cape Facebook page! Maybe I'll pick a winner and send out a prize or something!
Clockwise...
The books I'm using as mentor texts at my presentation tomorrow morning.
A partial class set of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card for my 7th and 8th grade schmoopies.
A mis-matched class set of Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli for my 6th grade turkey-butts.
The book I grabbed from the library as I checked out the class sets, thinking I might read it and use it as a mentor texts for some of my more romantic turtle-heads.
Welcome to my Friday! Share your stacks of books with me on my Wear the Cape Facebook page! Maybe I'll pick a winner and send out a prize or something!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
[Mentor Texts] Leading up to Memoirs
Today we started to write memoirs. While I'm glad to share the steps leading up to these very-first-inkling drafts, I'd rather just show y'all what they came up with.
Here is the mentor text we used. It's from Knots in My Yo-yo String by Jerry Spinelli. We are using his memoirs as our mentor text throughout. We read a few excerpts, and then started in with this paragraph:
And here is our marked up version:
We've talked about a lot of these writer's tricks before have made symbols for some of them. Here you see that we talked about (sort of in order as you read):
--How the author gives a location and then goes into detail using the sense of smell and sound
--The use of the hyphenated modifer high-pitched (H-M)
--The juxtaposition of the two things we normally think of has high-pitched and hi mom's voice. We also noticed that this puts a small piece of humor in.
--Figurative Language that extends in the next sentence (FL)
--Repetition for Effect (^^)
--An ellipse
Using this information, they started their own first paragraphs. These are unedited paragraphs written in about 10 minutes at the end of our discussion.
So... what we have here is a wide range of ability, reliance on the mentor author's words, and a HUGE range in skills. It is true, if you hold it up to what 7th and 8th graders have to do on command for assessments, it isn't going to cut it. You can take red pens to it, you can talk about how they should know how to capitalize, or how their handwriting is illegible. Technically, all of that is true.
I, however, am celebrating the fact that they are playing with words. That they set right to work, were eager, were helping each other, and identified writer's craft with a high level of success. that two of my kiddos with autism used figurative language successfully. That my kiddos that read at the 3rd and 4th grade level are successfully mimicking a higher-level text. That students with oppositional defiant disorder COMPLETED the assignment as given. That my students who failed all of 6th and 7th grade for not turning in a single page of work, did this AND turned it in.
For my kiddos at this point in the year, I call this a win. My poodle-heads are writers. The rest will come.
Here is the mentor text we used. It's from Knots in My Yo-yo String by Jerry Spinelli. We are using his memoirs as our mentor text throughout. We read a few excerpts, and then started in with this paragraph:
And here is our marked up version:
We've talked about a lot of these writer's tricks before have made symbols for some of them. Here you see that we talked about (sort of in order as you read):
--How the author gives a location and then goes into detail using the sense of smell and sound
--The use of the hyphenated modifer high-pitched (H-M)
--The juxtaposition of the two things we normally think of has high-pitched and hi mom's voice. We also noticed that this puts a small piece of humor in.
--Figurative Language that extends in the next sentence (FL)
--Repetition for Effect (^^)
--An ellipse
Using this information, they started their own first paragraphs. These are unedited paragraphs written in about 10 minutes at the end of our discussion.
So... what we have here is a wide range of ability, reliance on the mentor author's words, and a HUGE range in skills. It is true, if you hold it up to what 7th and 8th graders have to do on command for assessments, it isn't going to cut it. You can take red pens to it, you can talk about how they should know how to capitalize, or how their handwriting is illegible. Technically, all of that is true.
I, however, am celebrating the fact that they are playing with words. That they set right to work, were eager, were helping each other, and identified writer's craft with a high level of success. that two of my kiddos with autism used figurative language successfully. That my kiddos that read at the 3rd and 4th grade level are successfully mimicking a higher-level text. That students with oppositional defiant disorder COMPLETED the assignment as given. That my students who failed all of 6th and 7th grade for not turning in a single page of work, did this AND turned it in.
For my kiddos at this point in the year, I call this a win. My poodle-heads are writers. The rest will come.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
[SDAWP] Be Like Sweden
Rather than launch into a discussion about how this irritated me when it came out, how it's a tag phrase I remember now, and how it is possible they were making a joke (I hope), I will instead encourage you to..
Be Like Sweden!
Sweden launched a Twitter campaign (recently? I don't know when...). Each week a new Swedish citizen takes over the Sweden Twitter account and tweets for a week. It is a week-in-the-life view of Sweden, and it's super cool! It's here.
My SDAWP cronies decided to be like Sweden. And... drum roll please... I will be the second SDAWP Weekly Fellow. So, get your Twitter accounts revved up! I'm learning Twitter and, in my usual fashion, am diving right in head first! I'll try my best to be interesting. Failing that, I'll at least be prolific.
If you are already using Twitter, follow me at @SDAWPBarb. If you aren't and are willing to, sign up here. If you aren't, aren't willing to, but are morbily curious, well... I'm not sure what I'll do for you folks. May the cape be with you!
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