Students' Handwriting

I just read an article from American Educator - Winter 2009-2010 for my Literature class, "Want to Improve Children's Writing? : Don't Neglect Their Handwriting," by Steve Graham, that talks about the relationship between a student's handwriting and writing. Graham states that if children cannot form letters quickly and legibily they cannot communicate their thoughts into written text. Graham also states that students who have a hard time with handwriting avoid writing and start to believe that they cannot write. When this happens they cannot keep up with their school work and fall behind. If a student cannot write fluently it is hard for them to keep up on note taking in class or on timed test, which will reflect in their grades. Graham stresses the importance of teaching handwriting to students and has developed a handwriting program which addresses the needs of children who are slow writers and children who have disabilties, and at the same time can be used for the entire class. He offers his programs free to teachers at www.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/casl.xml. I intend to look into this program to see what it entails and possibly add it to my tool box for my future students.

Technologially Impaired

I am having such a hard time understanding how to use wikispaces, taskstream and blogger. It is like learning a second language. Everything is foreign to me. My brain is unable to construct this new information. I am getting a true sense of what it must be like for ELL, ESL or ENL students. It is too much new information in a short period of time. I need a lot more one on one instruction and practice in this new area. I have been getting so frustrated. It is not that I do not try. I have fallen off the edge so much that it is getting hard to get back up again. What might take someone else five minutes to do takes me hours. This then puts me behind in all my work. However, what this is teaching me is how much time and patience I will need to teach students whose first language is not English. I will need to get to know these students very well. I will need to find out what their past experiences so that I can help them construct new knowledge. I will need to have many different and creative techniques in my repitore in order to accomplish this challenge. Right now I need someone who can help me. Are you out there?

SMARTboard Project

This week our group presented our SMARTboard project. The presentation went very well. La Joie and Iliana and I spent about six hours together outside of class creating this project. Our project was a math lesson for 2nd graders involving a trip to the candy store, using skills in  sorting, adding, substracting money. I learned many new ways of navigating through the SMARTboard. To me, the SMARTboard is a lot like using Print Artist. Once you know the tools you can create many things.  Even though the project was hard work we had a lot of fun creating it and presenting it.  I appreciated all the help I received from LaJoie and Iliana. I know I will not remember all they taught me, but I will keep on plugging along.
      One of the hardest parts in presenting is getting college students to pretend they are 2nd graders. As I looked out into the classroom that day I saw 20 blank stares. Trying to motivate the audience and get a facial reaction was like pulling teeth, and if you ever had a tooth pulled you know that is no fun at all. I think this is why so many students are reluctant or scared to present in front of their peers. When we need to be an audience for our peers, we need to remember how it is to be the one up front looking into a sea of blank stares. We need to practice being an enthusiastic and appreciative audience through our facial expressions and actions. Since this is not a theatrical performance, where appalause is the accepted norm of appreciation, we need to show our apprecition through our facial expressions. We need to be an active audience. A smile or a nod goes a long way in easing someone elses fears. A smile is also contagious. So as the rest of my peers get up to present, I intend to grin from ear to ear and invite everyone to join me.

Immigrants Flee Alabama

Did you read the story in today's Washington Post titled, "A tough new Alabama law target illegal immigrants and sends families fleeing," by Pamela Constable? According to the author, last week a new state law was upheld by a federal district judge, which requires schools along with police to verify the legal status of immigrants. Other states which have passed similar laws regarding illegal immigration are Georgia, Arizona and Colorado, but Alabama has the strictest laws to date.

This law has caused Hispanic immigrants to panic, pulling their children from schools all across Alabama, fleeing to other states where laws are not as strict, such as Texas and Florida. These families are in great despair; their whole world is tumbling down around them. One immigrant mother stated that immigrants do the kinds of jobs that no one else in the US will take. She stated that they do pay taxes and now they have no where to go. The do not want to return to Mexico.

Schools are seeing students exit their school in phenomenal numbers. How do you think this is going to affect school districts and classrooms,especially those in Alabama? Do you agree with this new law? What are your thoughts?

No Child Left Behind

On my way to school this week I heard that President Obama is going to do away with the "No Child Left Behind" program that is now in place and  stated that each state will have the option of opting out or staying in the program. I have read that teachers feel that this program has been a failure. I was wondering how this will affect what we are learning now to become  teachers and how it will affect us as future teachers. What will take its place? One of my professors told me that President Obama wants substitute his program, "Race to the Top." I have not heard what that program entails. Has anyone heard anything about this new program?
What are your thoughts on the situation?

Practicum Begins

I finally started my practicum this past Friday. I am observing a 5/6 grade Math and Language Art Class. These student just moved from the elementary school building to the high school building in September. They have a separate hallway from the high school students for all their classes. They have a homeroom, but they move from class to class just like high school students.  My host teacher teachers 2 classes of fifth grade math, and 2 classes of sixth grade math, and one sixth grade class of Language Arts. The students have a different teacher for each of their other subjects and their special is at the end of the day. Lunch and recess are at the same time. Even though the students all have lockers, they are not allowed to go to them between classes, so they carry all their books from class to class. My host teacher put me to work immediately. I was able to assist students with their math and with their language arts. In language arts the sixth graders are reading, Home of the Brave, by Katherrine Applegate. They are also writing poems, and will make a classroom book of poems from all their works. In math the students are using a technological tool called "Qwizdom," which is a hand held device in which the students record their answers from a hand written test that they are taking. The students get immediate feedback stating if their answers are correct or incorrect. All the grades are recorded on a home device where the teacher can access at a later time and get different reports on how the students are doing.  She is going to show me how this system works at my next scheduled observation. I have never seen this system used before. The students seemed very engaged while using these devices. My host teacher also has a SMARTboard in her class room. She uses only very basic tools on it because it is attached to a new system that she is not very familiar with yet. She stated that she still needs to figure things out on it. I was surprised that this school had this latest technology, as they are a very small school. The most recent exciting addition to their classroom was eight new Mac computers; the teacher would like to get two more. The students are still trying to log on and work out the kinks. My host teacher has been teaching for eighteen and is very enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. I consider myself very lucky to be in her class; I know I am going to learn many valuable lesson from her and her students.

It's Not The Age It's The Attitude

It's Not The Age, It's The Attitude!

I adopted this motto from Dolly Mama when I started college two years ago. I started college as a non-traditional student who had never been to college before. My lifetime career was as a dance teacher and business owner for 38 years. This motto has carried me through my first two years of college and will carry me through the next two. It is not easy when you walk into the classroom and the other students think you are the teacher. Even other teachers mistake me for one of their colleagues. Since I have worked with young children, teenagers, and adults of all ages throughout my life, I am able to get along with other students very well. I make sure I am not communicating with them as if I were their mother. I try to step back and not take the leadership roles because I have had a lot of experience in this area throughout my life. I let the students step up and take charge.  They have helped me learn the ropes of college, and have been very supportive with my technological deficiences. I was very scared walking into college that very first day, but everyone has been very welcoming and supportive. Dolly Mama's positive attitude has rubbed off on me.  To be successful throughout life, attitude makes all the difference. That is why I keep reminding myself, "It's Not The Age, It's The Attitude!

Raquette Lake

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Raquette Lake

Hi Everyone,
       When I found out at the end of the summer that I was required to go on a 3 day camping trip with my college science class, my first reaction was, "I did not sign up for a trip, I cannot believe that I will have to go camping for this course." Then my science teacher told us that there are black bears there too. So now I thought, "First I am being requried to go on a 3 day camping trip (not a favorite of mine), and now I could even get eaten by a black bear!" My anxiety level shot through the roof. This should have been an red flag of what was to come next...my trip did not start off on the right foot. I was up the entire night before the trip because I was finishing a children's story about a rock for science class. The book took me 30 hours to complete becasue I had to research and relearn the rock cycle. High school science was decades ago, amost four decades to be exact. Then came the bus trip. We were sandwich into a school bus like a bunch of sardines. There was luggage and sleeping bags everwhere. The enitre back wall of the bus was baracaded. My luggage had to be loaded into the teachers van, as there was no room for it on the bus. I figured I was on a roll now headed down a path of no return, without a cell phone to call home for help. This was it, I would never see my family again...but to my surprise the trip was supercaliafragilisticexpialidocious!
       I am so glad I went. I was able to get to know all my classmates, teachers and students from another section. We worked in many different groups, learning how to build community and trust in our futrue classrooms, while all along building community and trust among ourselves. I went on my first canoe trip and helped to rescue some classmates whose canoe was hung up on rocks, conversed with students and teachers from Thialand, taught a few dance steps to other classmates and one of my teachers, learned the hard way not to touch a stinging nettle plant, hugged a tree, learned how to use a GPS, slept in bunk beds, hosed down dishes, carefully removed several daddy longleg spiders by hand from an entrance for a classmate who was petrified of spiders, went on hikes, performed in a skit about the history of the camp, ate smores at a campfire, and most importantly was able to relax and be myself in front of people I did not know. Being a non-traditional student, this meant the most to me. I felt accepted and warmly welcomed into the group. This experience will make this semester, as well as those to come much more enjoyable and less stressful. I want to build this kind of community in my future classes, when I become an elementary school teacher. This experience has added many more tools to my toolbox. Oh, and those black bears, they never showed up.