And so it begins. . .

This semester has flown by.  It is hard to believe that undergraduate classes are coming to an end and entering the “real world” is upon us.  It is a bittersweet feeling.  This semester I have learned many great things about how to teach students how to read but also how to keep them engaged.  I loved doing the pirate unit.  Now I see how to tie a unit together and make it work.  I have enjoyed reading Peter and the Starcatchers and Pirate Diary- Story of Jake Carpenter along with the other books.  I know that I will take what I have learned in this course and apply it to a classroom of my own.  The reading assessment was very helpful.  The student that I observed showed me that not every student gets it.  Everyone reads on their own level and this assignment has showed me how I can help struggling students become better readers.  Reading the articles about reading in the classroom was also helpful.  Now that we are going full time in our internship, I know that I can practice all that I have learned and take it with me to the many classrooms that I will take into my classroom. I am excited to see what the next few years bring!

Just some Food for Thought:

So I have been stressing out lately about everything that is due in the next few weeks.  I have called my mom in tears and you know Mom’s are just the best.  She calmed me down and told me that everything was going to be okay, but she also sent me this verse in an e-mail -Joshua 1:8 Do not  be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord you God is with you wherever you go.  This really helped me especially with my interview for student teaching.  I was really stressing out about not getting the county that I wanted and that things were not going to work out.  Well, everything is going to work out and all the work is going to get done.  It always does.  It is just hard to see when it is thrown at us all at once.  I just have to say I was really disappointed with my student teaching interview because they did not ask me any questions except was grade I wanted to teach and I researched schools and did all this stuff and none of it was needed.  I was very disappointed.  I read about the purpose of all the elementary schools and read about the technology that they have to offer such as a smart board, and none of that stuff came up in my interview.  Oh well, at least I was prepared if it was asked.

Running Head: Instructional Level Social Studies Trade Book

I really enjoyed reading this article because it is something that I am implementing in my unit for this semester.  I am doing my unit integrating social studies and language arts focusing on biiographies.  The social studies trade books that we are reading are about Helen Keller.  I have different level books about Helen Keller that way the kids on different reading levels are still reading a book about Helen Keller but it is on their level.  The most frustrating thing for a child is to read a book that is not on their reading level.

I think that this article is so important for teachers to read.  Students feel disconnected if they can not read the material that is presented to them.   Fortunately, I never had that problem in school because I loved to read as a child and I was always above my grade reading level.  I do remember how frustrating the struggling readers were when they could not read our text books or the books we were reading for a subject.  It is hard for the students to focus and concentrate on what they are doing.   There is one teacher to 20 students or more.  The teacher can not sit down with each struggling students for a certain amount of time everyday to help them.  It is impossible.  It makes more sense to have each student reading on their reading level.

Shared Reading: Modeling Comprehension, Vocabulary, Text Structures, and Text Features for Older Readers

Modeled reading also known as shared reading is a topic that was discussed during my Block 1 reading course.  I actually used some of these techniques in my practicum classroom during that time.  I learned how shared reading has many benefits not only for the student but it also provides benefits for the teacher.  During my practicum at Eastfield Elementary my teacher had reading buddies and I really enjoyed witnessing how the teacher did that in her classroom.  Students were paired up with other students on different reading levels and they read together.  This allowed the teacher to float around from group to group instead of sticking to a group of students for a lengthy amount of time.  This allowed the students to help each other.  The advanced reader can help the lower reader.  It is less embarrassing for those lower readers so they do not have to read in front of the entire classroom.

The four components of shared reading are modeling comprehension, vocabulary, text structures, and text features.  These components will help the students learn to the best of their ability how to read.  Comprehension and vocabulary is something that I remember teachers doing when I learned how to read but I do not remember text structures and text features as much.  I have heard these terms in my reading class during block but not as much as I would have liked to have learned.  I think that those terms are something that should be addressed but not stressed.   Structure and features is something that could confuse the child and discourage them from reading.  Comprehension and vocabulary is much easier to learn and pick up on.

Judy Brown Article

Reading this article helped to calm my fears with teaching my students how to read.  As the time gets closer to when I will have a classroom of my own, I become more afraid that I will not teach my students how to read in a way that they will understand.  To be completely honest, I feel that up to this point I am not prepared enough to where I could stand in front of the classroom and know what I am doing.

My internship with the 3rd graders at Hardin Park Elementary made my realize how unprepared I am.  My first Friday there I was thinking to myself, “how do I know which words to use for the spelling test each week and how do I teach my students how to learn to spell them?”  My teacher in block 1 said a lot about tapping out words and I had no clue as to how to begin tapping out words.  This is one of my biggest fears when it comes to teaching.  Reading is one of the most important things and it is something that my students will use for the rest of their life.  So much pressure to teach it the right way.  Then I started thinking to myself, does anyone know the “right way” to teach students how to read?  It made me feel better that the article brought up the word inventory that we have been talking about in class.

After learning that the spelling words are all listed in a book for each grade level my fears became less and less.  Then, I looked through a spelling book in class and I became even more scared.  This past Friday Emily, Jessica, and I performed our WRI with one of my 3rd grade students.  I was nervous because I have never done a WRI with a student before in the classroom.  Once we got started and I got the hang of it I started to enjoy giving the assessment and learned a lot about the student and how she read.  I look forward to reading more and learning more about teaching children how to read.

Pirate Text

I really enjoyed reading these articles.  They had a lot of great and exciting ideas for teachers to use if they want to do a pirate unit in their classrooms.  It is an added bonus that you can integrate this unit with social studies and language arts.  I must say that in my experiences thus far in my internship that my 3rd grade class has not had a social studies lesson since I have been there.  I know that social studies is not a tested subject anymore but I feel that this is a great way to still incorporate social studies in the school day while teaching a language arts lesson.  I really like the idea of when the unit begins the students can listen to pirate music as they walk into the classroom that day.  This can definitely get this unit off right.  I also really like the different kinds of literature that the students are exposed to. I think that the range of literature is great.  From the picture books, to the pirate dictionaries is a fun way to engage the students in this unit.  It is also fun and exciting.   Dividing the students into groups and talking about what they noticed in the literature and things that they already know and what they would like to know is a great idea.  They can feed off of each other and also learn a lot in the process.  This pullout is going to be beneficial to me as a new teacher and I hope to use this unit in my classroom no matter what grade I teach.  It is usuable in any grade!

Love That Dog

I really enjoyed this book.  It was nothing that I expected it to be.  It was better than what I expected.  When I first started reading the book, I could easily put myself in Jacks shoes as a student.  I remember in elementary school i did not enjoy writing poetry.  I was afraid that it sounded bad and I did not want my fellow classmates to read what I wrote.  I was embarrassed because I felt that everyones poems were something out of a Shel Silverstein book and mine were just words on paper that made no sense.  Once I got to high school my perspective on poetry changed.  I became more confident with my poetry writing and I saw throughout the book how Jack became more confident with his writing.

I enjoyed his letter that he wrote to Mr. Walter Dean Myers.  I think that it is wonderful that he wants him to visit his school.  His writing has changed his life and he says that he likes to write poems and use some of the big words that he uses.  He has found a reason for himself to write poetry.  I was so excited when I read that Mr. Walter Dean Myers would becoming to Jack’s school.  Especially after sky being hit by a car.  It really just made me happy.

I think that as a teacher I could incorporate this book into my poetry unit.  It could give my non-writing poets in my classroom to look at poetry in a completely different way.  It could show them that they are not alone.  Jack did not want other people to read his poetry and then he let them read some it.  It would encourage them to be more confident in writing.

I loved this book!

What’s in a name. . .

My name “Margaret Lea Danner” is a family name.   My nickname “Maggie” is also a family name.  My mother’s mother (my grandmother) is named Margaret Lea.  My mothers middle name is also Lea.  I am the third generation of “Lea”.  ”Maggie” was my grandmothers name on my moms Dad side.  I think that makes sense.  I consider my name to be very special.   Every time  my grandmother and I are together and she sees anyone, I mean anyone, she tells them I am her name sake.  It is definitely special because she is very special to me.

Now to the real history of “Margaret”.  ”Margaret” is an English name.  It is derived from the Latin Margarita and the Greek meaning “pearl”.  I always tell my mom that fits me very well because I love pearls!  I wear almost every single day.  They are just so classic and they are simple yet very elegant at the same time.  There was also a saint Margaret.  She was the patron of expectant mothers.  ”Margaret” is widely used in the Christian world.

I found it to be really interested that there are 1, 180, 048 people in the world named Margaret.  Growing up I did not like Margaret because it sounded so old and very proper.  Maggie fits my personality much better.  It is also the 28th most popular first name.  That is really neat to me.  I really thought it would have been in the hundreds.    The nick names are really quite humorous.  My grandmother pointed out to me when I was very young that “Peggy” was short for Margaret and my sister has called me Peggy for as long as I can remember.  I never liked it but she would get a kick out of it.  Some of the nicknames really surprise me like “Daisy” and “Meg”.  I would never put those two together.  There are 48 people in the U.S. named Margaret Danner.  I really want to meet them.  I have met a few other people with the last name of “Danner” and we were not related that we knew of but it is possible way on the line.  I must say that I really enjoyed this assignment.  I learned a lot about my name and that were other people in the country with my name.  That is just so crazy to me!

Hot Blogging

My Sunday afternoon was spent reading the article “Hot Blogging”.  I never had a blog until I took this course.  I have to be honest I was not to thrilled about creating a blog because I thought that it was just another internet outlet for people to share with the whole world their feelings.  After reading this article my whole perspective about blogging changed and I am beginning to see how useful they are for students, teachers, parents, and other bloggers.

I learned in this article how teachers can use blogs in their classrooms.  I really like the idea of putting your students work on the blog for everyone to see.  Not only parents can see it but also other family members who have the internet.  I feel that blogs are more effective than newsletters.  I know that a blog is not tangible but they can see pictures and read what the students write and they get more of an idea of what is going on both inside and outside the classroom.  It also saves paper which is good in recession.  Parents have easy access to the blog anytime of the day or night.  They do not have to worry about their child losing it between school and home.  It does not have to go in their folder or anything like that.

I also like how students can write about anything that they want to on their blog.  The sky is the limit.  It is very personal for each student and it does not give many limitations.

Oh Writer’s Notebooks. . . .

Notebook Know-How was an interesting read I must say myself.  To be honest I normally dread reading books like these because usually they are really boring and just talk about facts.  I enjoyed how this book was experiences of real teachers.  One part that I particularly enjoyed reading was Fletcher’s quote, “Don’t be afraid to live like a writer”.  I feel that as a student I was afraid.  I do not remember too many times that I could write about something that I wanted to write about.  The few times I do remember I remember being scared that it would not be right and the teacher would not like it.   Students should not feel that way.  Writing can be as personal as you want it and I believe that no writing is considered wrong.  Yes, there could be some errors in grammer or spelling but the actual writing itself could never be wrong.  Everyone thinks differently and everyone has experienced different things.   I do not think that anyone’s writing could be alike.   Some of the best writing in my opinion is fantasy and fairytales.  These kinds of stories are written in another world.  It is out of the ordinary.  As a teacher I hope that I can limit the amount of prompts I give to my students and just let them write.  I feel like this course is going to prepare for teaching in that way.