Catching Up

Wow, I'm sorry.  I haven't written in awhile.  block is exhausting!  I have a lot of catching up to do!

We have had a lot of fun in the past couple of weeks!  On a side note, people tell me that I use too many exclamation marks!  See, I feel like if I end my sentences with periods, that I'm in a bad mood.  So, since this is supposed to be a HAPPY and EXCITING blog, I use a lot of exclamation. haha.  I'm also working on 4 hours of sleep today so this will be a fun blog to write.

Last week, we taught our guided reading lessons.  I love my group, we have a lot of fun in class.  All the lessons went really well.  We did a KWL chart in Becky's lesson, compared a book to a movie in Damians lesson, and predicted what will happen next in Jeb's lesson.  I learned a lot about the different activities I could do for a guided reading lesson.  My lesson went well.  I didn't have enough time to do the whole lesson, so I was upset about that.  20 minutes goes really fast when you are teaching.  But, it's better to plan too much than not enough!  I'm excited to teach a real guided reading lesson with students.  It's hard to tell how much time guided reading takes because we aren't that grade level.  There will probably be more instruction and more discussions.  But, as Dr. Rush would say, it's better to have too much than not enough.  Or, something like that.  I think I will also start looking at 2nd grade guided reading books since I will be student teaching in 2nd grade for my first placement.  I'm excited to finally know so I can start learning everything 2nd graders need to know :).  Barnes and Noble here I come!



I wrote my story on "Princerella"



Tuesday this week, we wrote our own story!  We wrote for 5 minutes, then passed it clockwise and that person added on to the story adding their character in it.  There were two goldilocks at my table, so it was hard adding to some stories.  My story was HILARIOUS!  I would write it in, but most people will see what our stories are like when we act them out!  My story was titled Princerella.


On Wednesday, yesterday, we played with this program called comic life.  We are supposed to put the story we wrote in Tuesday into a comic.  It was fun to play with!  I still have a lot of work to do on it because I don't like it looking stupid. haha.  It was a nice program though and I could see myself using it in a classroom!

"Teachers open the door you enter by yourself"

        

By the way, I don't like the new blog features.  It's very hard to change the pictures around just the way you like them.  For example, I can't make the comic life picture smaller because the link won't work and it's just annoying.  Maybe I'll write a letter :).  haha. Kidding. 

Project Wild was today!  I had a lot of fun actually.  I'm not a morning person but it was fun spending time with the block people and learning about different activities I can do with my students.  I also love the curriculum book we got :).  I think I'm going to use one of those for my science lesson!

Guided Reading

Today, we talked about Guided Reading. I had fun sorting through the different letters we had at our table. I looked through Q, which is about 4th grade and was surprised how hard the books seemed to be. I'm not going to argue though. I love the aspect of guided reading. Everything about it. We learn in every class how every child is different and how we have to differentiate our lessons. Guided Reading is a perfect example of how teachers go about doing that. Not only do students develop strategies for reading and get one-on-one attention; they develop confidence in themselves and develop peer relationships with many of their other classmates.

On a different note, I wanted to say something about the day when we were editing our basals. I think someone said something about it is hard editing someone elses writing because of their style. BUT, the people who will read our writing aren't going to know us personally. Of course, different authors have their own voice in their writing but that doesn't mean their paper is incorrect. Just because someone has a different style of writing than you do doesn't mean they can write incorrectly. I'm not sure if I'm making any sense, but it does to me :). haha.

Also, I LOVE correcting in red pen. So much, my mom gave me one of hers! haha. I don't know why. I think because I love color and red really POPS!

I'm in a good mood today for some reason! Even though I need to study for our Math test still! :).

India

In Language Arts class yesterday, Dr. Poehner did a demonstration on India. We did that because we will be doing a Around The World presentation in History class. We first went around and looked at all the artifacts Dr. Poehner had about India. It was nice to see all the different artifacts she had from a different culture. Of course, she is from India. We then, in our groups, made a picture or a graphic organizer about what we know about India. My group, the best group, drew India and then drew pictures that represented India. We drew the flag, spices, elephant, Taj Mahal, religions, cotton, dress, and the places we knew where they were located. The Taj Mahal is beautiful and I wish I could visit it some day. But, I'm deathly afraid of planes so the likely hood of that happening is very slim.

The place I would want to do my Around the World project on Italy! I'm Italian and I always try to speak Italian but I'm very poor at speaking the language. I also have always wanted to ride a Gondola! I'm not sure if that is how you spell it, I'll look it up after class :). Ciao is goodbye I believe. non importa is "I don't know."

BASAL TIME

This is how my head feels after writing the BASAL critique.

Ouch. Today, however, was fun. So far, we traded papers with our fellow classmates and critiqued our basal critique. :). It was nice editing and revising someone's paper. I felt like a real teacher! The color tape was very useful and made the paper colorful. I'm a very visual person and having something to use that is colorful, other than pen or a pencil, is awesome.

Activating prior knowledge is important in any subject. Teachers do this during a literacy lesson when introducing a text. After the introduction, have students read and respond to the text. "Think about it, talk about it, write about it, or do something creative with it involving art, drama, or music." Then, extend the text with more samples, modeling, summaries and activities.

Following up for a mini-lesson includes:

1. Independent Practice

2. Application

-Key to successful learning in students.

3. Reflecting About Use

- Did it make sense?

Read alouds are great! I plan on using read alouds to model how I want my students to think while reading a book. It helps teachers introduce a genre most students would never pick up and read. A great teacher can take a genre that is boring to most, and make it exciting and relate it to the students.

Type of Texts:

>Wordless Books

-Building vocabulary and writing prompts

>Predictable Texts

-Repitition. Used for beginning readers.

>Created Texts

-Students create and work on together.

>Authentic Literature

*note to self... look at the terms in the book*

Happy Monday

Today in Language Arts we talked about our Basal assignment that is due this Thursday. AH! I went to the library today and started to take notes on my basal. I must say, it is different than I expected and confuses me. So, I had to stop. :). I did finish most of my paper and will edit tomorrow. I'm excited we get to work with materials that will be in classrooms. We also discovered that most of us don't take a lot of time in editing our interviews. I feel that I need refreshed on appropriate grammar! This weekend I plan on reading my posts, editing, and revising. Waahooo!

On a completely different note, Penn State lost (as expected) but Steelers won :). Yay!

Oh...

I should get an award for doing this at 10:00 on a Friday night. My boyfriend, on the other hand, who never has any work to do, is playing xbox. Must be nice, right? :)

I really enjoyed making my person in Language Arts. Those Wicky Sticks, however you spell them, are amazing!

We only had one class this week. I can't express how amazing it is having no classes on Friday! I know I know it isn't going to last long. But, STILL!! I'm tired just thinking about what I have to complete this semester. I would be in a coma if I even think about student teaching right now. Gezz oh man! haha. Maybe I shouldn't do this so late. It is pathetic I think 10pm is late.

Again, I enjoyed the Quick Right activity. I like being able to write about anything I want to write about! I wrote about my childhood and the games my neighbors and I used to play. We had a blast, I had many stories to tell! I'm not sure how I feel about this presentation we have to do. One more added to the list :). Don't worry, I put everything I can in presentations. After them, I'm thankful for having to do them. I don't like talking in front of my peers but it is something I need to get over!

GO PENN STATE
GO STEELERS

What a way to start.

Well, I forgot to write last week after class. Obviously.

The first week of Block was tiring. If I don't know how to write an amazing lesson plan after this, then there is something wrong with me and I probably shouldn't be a teacher. I do, however, like our professors and how much effort and time they take to help each of us succeed. This semester will be a rewarding and challenging adventure. I'm ready.

During language arts class, we did a Quick Write activity which was nice! If a teacher asks me to write about ANYTHING, I'm excited. That doesn't mean my life is exciting, because it's not, it means that there are no limits to my ideas. I think Quick Writes would be a great activity for Elementary aged students. A topic, however, would be needed for younger grades. I also liked how each color note card was a specific topic.

I feel like I should take a picture of myself to express how I feel. haha. Good idea?


Coffee...