Reading

       In 6th grade I had an awesome reading teacher, Mr. Smith. At the time I never gave it much thought to a statement that he made to the class one day, but now, I really get it. Completely. He said, "Ya know, I taught Math for 12 years before this. I always felt so strongly that Math was the most important subject-that no one could be successful without it. Then I had a chance to work with a group of 6th grade students who were lower level and they could not even read the numbers and expressions, or even the directions in the text book. I had to take the first semester of that year and teach my students how to read. It was the most rewarding experience of my career and that next year I became a reading teacher because I realized that no child should ever be without the ability to read and write."
        I mean, pump the brakes! Can you believe that? I can still see him standing in front of our class and telling us that. That is just inspiring- like unbelievably amazing. What frustrates me is that I just sloughed if off like the little punk I was. Ugh. Okay, I wasn't a punk in middle school, but I mean- I don't think any of my peers or I grasped the magnitude of what he had told us.
       The importance of reading spans every content. It is so important that as educators that we teach our students to read and comprehend what they have read. To write, and do so with deeper thinking. Maybe it is the life experience, maybe it is the education I have received; I would like to think that it is a combination of both but I know,without a doubt that I will be reading teacher, in which ever content I end up teaching. OR whichever teaching position that I get hired into, to get my foot in the door ;-)
     

Wowsers, this last week has gotten away with me. As I began to prepare my week's assignments this evening, I realized that I had never published my BioPoem. YIKES. I thought I would be able to really bust it out but it actually took me some time and thought, mostly because so much of my life has changed. I have met so many of my goals, have created new ones and had to prioritize others. This was a fun and insightful assignment.

Katie

Willful, animated, witty, warmhearted

Mother of Ivette and Maxon

Lover of horses, fresh morning air, and my loving husband

Who feels brownies should be considered a health food, sometimes lost within motherhood, and on occasion- utterly exhausted

Who fears humid weather, not living everyday to it’s potential and not seeing my children grow

Accomplished earning my Associate’s degree, taking a shower today (that is kind of a big deal when you have a three year old and one year old), earning straight A’s for the last 4 semesters at Columbia College

Who would like to see and travel the world (cliche I know, but I really do want to), enjoy just one Saturday and sleep in past 7:30am (again, little people in the house), and travel through time to see my husband and myself when we are old.

Resident of Vichy, MO

DuClos

Thanksgiving week and Observations

Our family's Thanksgiving was nice and relaxing- I hope everyone's was as well. Last week I also wrapped up my observation hours. The week prior I taught my observation lesson to the 5th grade class I have been in and I felt really confident on how it went. I taught them some new"wish" concepts: Conjunctions, Interjections, and Prepositions. They were truly responsive and a great group of students to work with. The teacher I am observing is an awesome educator and you can just tell by watching her interact with her students that she truly LOVES HER JOB. She relates to her students and goes above and beyond to teach self efficacy in her class and most importantly- a love for reading. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside her.
    I will be honest- I have yet to wrap up the activity from the lesson last week. That is on my list for tomorrow. The last four days have been filled with family, food, family photos, a wedding, and caring for our 3 year old with Croup. I know I mentioned it in my last post but I as SO READY for winter break. 

Where did November go?????

Wow, I didn't realize that I had yet to blog about last week's assignments and class. As I looked over my notes, then my planner I realized- tomorrow is the last day of November! How did that happen? Where have I been the last 11 months? I enjoyed lasts weeks class when we discussed about strategies and concepts as reading teachers. I was able to reflect upon strategies that I may have been taught (as a student) years ago and had the opportunity to learn a great deal of strategies that will be amazing tools for my teaching career. I suppose when you are student you don't get to sit and think "wonder what new reading strategy will be use today to teach me how to better comprehend what I read"- although this new text we are diving into (although a great deal harder to comprehend- ironic, right?!?!), has some awesome strategies listed. Observations are going great- actually I am already done. I think I put in around 60 hours of observation this semester. I am ready for December I suppose, well- I am ready for winter break actually. I intend on taking NAPS every chance I get, well at least overtime I can convince my two babes to takes theirs ;-) 

Week three in Education 338

     Well, I had several power outages at my house on Wednesday. It was rather windy and lots of lightening but no real down pour of rain. I got kicked off the classroom twice but managed to get back in. I think these new text we are reading out of is much more technical. I think I actually heard someone in class mention that and I really agree. For me, it is not as inviting as the previous text book we were reading. It is jammed full of information though, so I suppose that is the only thing that matters. I enjoyed working with Kaci and Amanda in our initial group activity. It was nice to brainstorm and pull ideas together. The emailed "house" activity was a blast. I had the role of a client looking at purchasing the home and I went as far as drawing a diagram of all the levels. I finally came to the conclusion that having so many windows in your home is kind of mute when all you have are 8' shrubs to look at. Also, all the bathrooms were on the third level- no thank you. Haha. It was a fun experiment and activity once we all got back in the main room to discuss our thoughts. The third activity, with the differing comic strips just furthered the concept of interpretation. It also went right along with the text, exposing the importance of common knowledge and comprehension. 
      I started observing with my cooperating teacher and it was an awesome experience thus far. I go back in a few more time next week then I will be leading a lesson on formulating and writing up paragraphs for a research paper along with opportunity to research over the web. Should be pretty fun. My cooperating teacher has her students researching an inventor/discoverer/artist who invented/discovered/created something that has been of great importance and impacted our society. I am looking forward to working with these 5th grade students more next week.  

Lesson Plan Brainstorming

I actually have thought about my lesson plans but have not decided on a specific direction that I would like to go. I figured I could do some sort of integrated lesson plan for a specific unit. I am observing in a 5th grade ELA class, for this course, next week and I hope to get some inspiration in a specific direction. I suppose you all will be the first to know if that in fact happens. I am curious to see if anyone is my blog group has an idea on what they will be doing!

Metacognitive Conversations Week 2

          One of the take-aways that stuck with me from the reading this week was the importance of regular scheduled debriefing sessions with our students. "Without a debriefing session, the students will leave the classroom still   unduly dependent on a well-organized lesson to guide their learning"(pg 50, Buehl). External conversations whether as a class, small group, or partnering is key to allowing our students to fully comprehend and pull from the lesson with their own abilities for deeper thinking. 
         I am really looking forward to reading more into this text. It has already opened my eyes and creating a deeper sense of thinking for myself in regards to learning strategies and classroom development.