Wordle!

Recipes!

I am the type of person which needs recipes to cook. Without a recipe, I am at a utter loss of what to do. This could possibly be due to the fact that I just like lists and directions because then I can know exactly what I need to do or to the fact that I just have a really bad memory. Recently, I found this amazing website of recipes that are easy to follow as well as beautiful to look at: http://www.theydrawandcook.com/

So far I have already found a few recipes which I cannot wait to try out:
1. http://www.theydrawandcook.com/recipes/stuffed-portobellos-by-esther-loopstra
2. http://www.theydrawandcook.com/recipes/figs-cheese-crostini-by-anna-rodighiero
3. http://www.theydrawandcook.com/recipes/miso-ramen-by-kristen-uroda

I just wanted to share this site just in case there are others out there who need a recipe to cook just like me. This could also be used as a type of mentor text for teaching students about creative recipes. Happy browsing!

Bucket List Before Graduation

Athens Bucket List:

1. Walk through Founders Memorial Garden
2. Visit the State Botanical Garden of Georgia
3. Eat at Five and Ten
4. Eat at The Grit
5. Eat at Blind Pig Tavern
6. Eat at Clocked
7. Eat at Farm255
8. Eat at Speakeasy
9. Eat breakfast at Mama's Boy
10. Eat at Porterhouse Grill
11. Buy 5 items from one to five independently owned stores located downtown
12. Eat at a UGA dining hall one last time
13. Buy a plant from the UGA Horticulture Club's plant sale

I will add more to this list as I think of more ideas!

Swirling Thoughts

As the semester gradually comes to a close, I cannot help but come to the following realizations:

1. While there may have been times at which I have wondered whether or not being a teacher is what I really want to do with the rest of my life being that I love predictability and teaching is all about putting yourself in unpredictable situations, as I spend more and more time in the classroom, I realize that there is no other occupation that I would rather have. In the classroom and working with kids is where I want to be and is where my heart truly lies. I do not think I could attempt to do anything else and really feel as fulfilled as I know I will feel when I am a teacher. I know that the road will be difficult, painful, and sometimes heartbreaking. But, I also know that, ultimately, if I were to choose to NOT be a teacher, that choice would bring the type of regret which lasts a lifetime.

2. Though I am constantly looking forward to graduation and I cannot wait until I can have my very own classroom, as the days pass, I become more and more apprehensive about the thought of being the lead teacher in a classroom in which I am the one that plans everything, sets up everything, and am in control for the whole day. On one hand, I feel as if I am more than ready to have my own classroom. I know how to differentiate, I know how to write lesson plans and reflect on my lesson plans, I know how to build a classroom library, and I know how to encourage family involvement. However, on the other hand, I feel as if I do not know enough. As I think about it more, though, I become aware of the fact that maybe, just maybe, you can never really know enough. Teaching is a constant learning process and as such, you need to know that you do not know everything and you will make mistakes because there is so much to know that no one could ever know it all! With that epiphany, I can feel a little less anxious about the future and being the lead teacher in a classroom, although I feel that my anxiety can never totally be erased or assuaged by anything.

Next week will be my last week in the field before I enter the classroom once again as a student teacher in August and I just wanted to record the thoughts that have been swirling in my mind as of late. Maybe one day when I'm feeling particularly anxious or have had a bad day in the classroom, I can re-read this post and be uplifted and encouraged.

“Teachers who inspire know that teaching is like cultivating a garden, and those who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers." - Unknown

Comments for Young Authors

Using the comments4kids search results on twitter, I found a good number of blogs which captured my interest. These three particularly stood out to me:

http://kidblog.org/MrsDurays1stGradeClass/gabeb4/my-spring-break/#comment-954

http://mentalweight.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-do-basic-animations.html?showComment=1302140879038#c4296773525128375013

http://kidblog.org/MrReutersClass/daniel135/symphony-4/#comment-19331

Never A Dull Day In The Elementary Classroom

One important lesson which I have learned from being in my field experience classroom every Thursday and Friday of this semester is that as a teacher, one should always be prepared to think on one's feet. This particular lesson was made clear to me this past Thursday when I was at J.J. Harris Elementary School with my first grade students.

On Thursday, the day seemed to be proceeding rather normally until recess came around the corner. Because the school had been on a soft lock down since the beginning of the week, Thursday was the first day of the week that the students were actually allowed to have recess outside on the playground. While my mentor teacher went to retrieve her keys from the classroom which would allow us to re-enter the building from the playground area, my student teacher and I led the students out to recess. As my student teacher and I sat down on the bench and watched the children disperse in excitement at being able to play outside, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Oh, how we had no idea of what was about to occur. Five minutes into recess, we saw about half of our students begin to make their way towards us in a type of huddle. While we initially could not see anything, as the students came closer and began to open up their huddle to form a line, we saw that the student which was in the middle of the line was leaning on two of his peers, blood dripping from his head. The student, whom I will refer to as Otto, had a deep gash on the side of his forehead and was bleeding rather consistently. Shocked, my student teacher and I immediately looked at each other in panic and quickly decided that she would take Otto to the clinic while I would supervise the rest of the class for the remainder of their recess. While I looked after the rest of the class, my student teacher escorted Otto to the clinic located in the front office as fast as she could before she ran to get a hold of my mentor teacher. I was informed later on that the bleeding had increased so much that the front office had to call the paramedics to come to the school. After I had taken the rest of the class to specials, I met my mentor teacher and student teacher in the front office right as the paramedics arrived at the school. After a quick look at Otto's head, the paramedics decided that he needed to be taken to the hospital for stitches. Due to the fact that the front office could not get a hold of Otto's parents, my mentor teacher and the principal decided to follow the ambulance to the hospital. Because of this sudden change in events, my student teacher, the paraprofessional, and I were left in charge of the remaining students. Once we picked up the students from specials and returned to our classroom, my student teacher decided that we would have the students write cards to Otto. I felt that this was an amazing decision being that it was obvious that Otto's incident was on the student's minds, as well as the minds of all the adults in the classroom, and attempting to continue previously planned lessons and ignore the fact that such a turn of events had occurred would have been futile and fruitless. Once the school bell had rung and the students had left to go home, my mentor teacher returned with news that Otto had gotten 11 stitches and had to undergo a CAT scan but had been laughing and smiling after everything had finished. As you can tell, to say that it was a day of surprises and chaos would be an understatement.

To conclude, the morale of the story which I learned from the situation which passed on Thursday is this: be flexible, be ready to adapt to new situations, and be prepared to think on your feet at all times. The fact is that there really never is a dull day in the elementary classroom.

Preparing for Writing Workshop and Having a Year-Long Plan

"Writing workshops need to be predictable places so that wonderful, unpredictable things can happen in them. Setting up the management structures and routines buys us quality teaching time for later" (Ray, 2001, p. 130).

I love the fact that the authors included this quote at the very beginning of this chapter because I feel that the word "classrooms" could be substituted in for the phrase "writing workshops" and the quote would still hold true. In order for amazing revelations and learning to occur, teachers need to invest time at the beginning of the year making the classroom and each period of the day (including the period for writing workshop) a predictable place through setting up routines. If teachers set up the management structures and routines early on in the year, before any type of academic instruction, less time will have to be spent on re-explaining directions and expectations later on when academic instruction should be taking precedence. In our EDEC 4030 class, we have also discussed that the teacher should expect to dedicate at least a week to teaching students rules, routines, and expectations so that they are aware of what they are expected to do during each period of the day with the materials provided them. While I feel that this is a great idea and could result in an enormous pay off, I have a hard time imagining having at least a whole week's worth of material relating to management structures and routines. However, I feel that maybe, when my first week as a teacher actually comes, I will find that I have more material in regards to rules and procedures than that which I am able to teach in just a week's worth of time.

I found it particularly interesting that some teachers are beginning to include a two-week genre study of testing in the upper grades to their year-long plans for writing workshop. I personally think that this is an ingenious idea because it allows students to understand how they are to deal with issues that result from having to take a writing test which may not regularly arise during the writing workshop. By spending some time conducting a genre study of testing, teachers will be able to adequately prepare their students for the test without having to teach to the test. However, my question is this: would younger grades benefit from such a genre study of testing as well or should such a genre study be saved for those grades in which standardized writing tests are usually administered?

Ray, K.W. with Laminack, L.L. (2001). The writing workshop: Working through the hard parts (and they’re all hard parts). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.   

Quotes

In my future classroom, I really want to post quotes throughout my room to inspire my students, as well as myself, and to allow the room to become a creative, comfortable space.

Quotes I Plan to Post:
1. “Smart is being willing to think you can do it and being willing to work hard.” -Anonymous
2. “Punctuation is a contract between the author and the reader.” - Katie Wood Ray 
3. "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." -Eleanor Roosevelt
4. "Do one thing every day that scares you." -Eleanor Roosevelt
5. “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” –Anonymous
6. "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." -Jackie Robinson
7. "The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." -Sylvia Plath
8. "If there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." -Toni Morrison
9. "Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." -John Wooden
10. "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." - Maya Angelou

I will add to this list as I find more quotes which draw my attention!

The Alarm

Time to get up...
But no motivation.
The bed is just too warm and inviting.
The pillow is just too soft.
My head does not want to leave its warm embrace.
But the alarm keeps ringing...
It just won't leave me alone!
I'll just sleep for five more minutes...
On second thought, maybe ten.

An extra post inspired by a schedule map!

Avoiding Distractions, Anxiety, and Predictable Problems

To begin with, I absolutely loved the chapter concerning managing predictable distractions that are sure to arise in the writing workshop. This is due to the fact that, while I have gradually taken more and more of a fancy to the idea of writing workshop as I have learned about it each week, one reoccurring concern which I have had is this: How do I still manage the classroom during writing workshop so as to prevent off task behaviors? This chapter dealt with exactly that and as such, I was grateful for the chance to be able to read about some suggestions which I can use in the future. I found the section concerning space to be particularly useful. Within this section, I was specifically drawn by the authors' suggestion to use a rotating system which dictates who can utilize the coveted spots of the sofa, chairs, or bean bags. This is because, within my field experience classroom, I have seen my students constantly fight over who can use the pillow, sit on the bean bag, etc. and as a result, to avoid this conflict, my mentor teacher simply does not allow anyone to take such items from the reading corner and bring them to the carpet. I find this such a shame since the entire point of having these items is so that the students can use them and feel more comfortable during instruction.  Though I thoroughly enjoyed this chapter, while I was reading, I began to wonder about a number of things:

1. While I agree that a strong teaching presence is a key component to writing workshop management, I wonder if there is any other way to establish a strong teaching presence besides just circulating around the room and conferring with individual writers at their seats.

2. So as to accommodate the students who will want more quiet than others during their independent writing time, how many quiet zones should you designate within the classroom?

Whereas I found the chapter concerning managing predictable distractions to be very informative and helpful, I found the chapter concerning understanding the slightly out-of-hand feeling in the workshop to be overwhelming. Even though the chapter helped me to understand why I might feel anxious and intimidated during the workshop, I feel that the authors made this "slightly out-of-hand feeling" seem very extreme and almost unmanageable through their choice of description-more extreme then I think it will actually be in the classroom on most days.

Suggestions from this week's readings which I plan to use in my future classroom:
1. Have a system for where students sit.
2. Have some designated quiet zones through out the room.
3. Put some quiet music on or dim the lights to signal to students that the independent writing time is coming to a close.
4. Make a number of different writing tools, paper, and writing support available and easily accessible to the students.
5. Provide students with a school-year calender with publication dates marked on it on the first day which you introduce writing workshop.

Ray, K.W. with Laminack, L.L. (2001). The writing workshop: Working through the hard parts (and they’re all hard parts). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.   

Conferences, Share Time, and Assessments Galore!

While I must admit that I am one of those individuals who is somewhat scared of conferring for the sheer reason that you cannot plan for the conversation in any way, I loved the authors' point that very often, even if we feel as if we did not teach very much or very well, by the simple act of just sitting and listening to our students talk about their pieces of writing, we teach. Too often, I think I forget that teachers can teach even when they may not be intentionally performing or saying anything and I think Ray and Laminack's point about teachers teaching by simply having thoughtful and respectful conversations with their students about their writing gets at that exact point.

In addition to Ray and Laminack's statement about how teachers can teach during conferences without even being aware of the fact that they are teaching by just listening, I was extremely grateful for the authors’ chapter on share time. Throughout my own experiences as both an elementary school student and as a student teacher/observer in elementary school classrooms, I have only ever been able to experience and see share time performed in a whole-class sharing format and so it was really enlightening and encouraging for me to discover that there a number of other ways in which share time can be conducted. While I think I favor the simple response share format the most because it allows each student to receive some type of feedback from their peers in a low-stakes and comfortable environment, I would also like to use the focused, survey, and student-as-teacher share formats occasionally in my future writing workshop as well. I like the idea of share time in general because I myself am a writer who needs to receive a sufficient amount of verbal affirmation as encouragement and I believe that all students could always benefit from some type of feedback whether or not they may read actual excerpts from their journals or just share a general outline regarding their piece.  

One aspect of this week's reading which particularly caught my attention was the topic of student evaluations. I am drawn to the notion of using student evaluations for student writing because I believe that students are often the most qualified individuals to judge their own work and as such, I want to try to use student evaluations as much as possible. However, how might one use student evaluations for those in kindergarten who may not be able to read or write very much?

Ray, K.W. with Laminack, L.L. (2001). The writing workshop: Working through the hard parts (and they’re all hard parts). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.   

The Workshop

"If it is a workshop, then all kinds of things need to be in that "shop" that students can work with as they go about their writing" (Ray, 2001, p. 98).

What I particularly love about the idea of a writing workshop is that it redefines what it means to teach. Too often, individuals often believe that if a teacher is not standing at the front of the class delivering a message or lecture to students, then teaching is not occurring. However, this is not the case and the writing workshop is a prime example of this fact. In writing workshop, direct instruction for the whole class only occurs for about five to ten minutes and yet, teaching still continues to occur once this direct instruction has ended as students gain experience from writing every single day. Many might interpret this to mean that during writing workshop, the teacher can just sit in the corner and disregard what his or her students are doing. Once again, however, this is not teaching. As Ray and Laminack state, the teacher's role during this time should be to help create and enforce daily routines and to constantly sustain a classroom community which is supportive and accepting in which students would feel willing and comfortable to share their pieces. I think I am drawn to the concept of writing workshop because I believe that the student-teacher dynamic which characterizes the workshop should be one that characterizes the teaching and learning which should occur in the classroom the entire day everyday. Just as in writing workshop, I feel that students should be in charge and be active in their own learning and investigations for all eight hours of the day, no matter what subject, and teachers should teach through guiding students through these investigations and through setting up activities which will let students learn through engagement. The classroom should be a workshop in which students should be the ones in charge of the products which they work on and produce.

One issue in which I have an interest in is in relation to conferences. Ray and Laminack contend that the teacher should be conferring with students as students move on to their independent writing work for the day. But, I do not know whether or not I would want to hold conferences during this time of independent writing in fear of such conferences distracting or disturbing other writers. Because I would want to hold conferences at some point with my students, would there be any other possible time which I could use to hold such conferences during the day or during writing workshop?

Ray, K.W. with Laminack, L.L. (2001). The writing workshop: Working through the hard parts (and they’re all hard parts). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.    

Just Writing

As Ray and Laminack state in the text, I believe that daily including writing workshop into the classroom is essential in that it gives students space in their day to just write. Being given such an opportunity will allow students to fall in love with writing and to see that writing is not just a means to accomplish tasks or assignments but also a means for both enriching and maintaining their lives. I feel that, similar to reading, students must constantly be given opportunities to explore and experience writing on a personal level so that they may be fostered into lifelong writers. Through a writing workshop, students will be able to see that writing can be a very individual, very valuable practice. When I was an elementary school student, from kindergarten to third grade, I loved writing and I loved the idea of being a writer. This was due in large part to the fact that my elementary school teachers implemented writing instruction in the form of writing workshops where the focus was on the students as writers as opposed to just the writing process.  But, once I entered the fourth grade, all my teachers began placing the focus on the process and pieces of writing as opposed to the students as writers. As such, I began to see writing as just a series of tedious steps and I eventually began to feel apathetic towards writing and the writing process. I do not want any of my future students to ever feel indifference or hatred towards writing because I did not help to foster or encourage their identities as writers.  

Though I am not entirely sure how I may want to execute the writing workshop in my future classroom, I am particularly intrigued by the idea of utilizing genre studies and having students write pieces in these genres. Not only might such an activity allow students to better understand what characteristics typify each genre through actually writing pieces for each genre, but presenting such tasks would also give students a chance to explore their own specific interests through writing and through the workshop. While I am quite sure that I want to use genre studies as part of my writing workshop in my future classroom and I know that I will allow students to decide what they personally want to write about for each genre, I am curious as to how I would exactly conduct such genre studies.

The following statement really caught my eye while I was reading:

Writers need to mind their spelling, and their subject-verb agreement, and all those other conventions because certain audiences in the world expect them to, and for their writing to have power with those audiences, it should be conventional. (Ray, 2001, p. 38)

I would definitely use this quote in my future classroom and would possibly post this quote on a wall in my future classroom. Too often students are told that they need to learn to spell correctly and that they must use correct grammar and syntax but they are never told why it is essential that they attain and apply such knowledge in their writing. As such, students frequently do not want or do not care about learning about such items because they do not see any point. For this very reason, I am drawn to this quote. It beautifully articulates why writers need to mind such items and conventions in a way that would make sense to students and motivate students.

Ray, K.W. with Laminack, L.L. (2001). The writing workshop: Working through the hard parts (and they’re all hard parts). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.