New Value

SI 2012- as our sessions come to an end, I am grateful for SI- my mind, personal, and career goals has been renewed and refreshed.  I have a new outlook on me as a teacher, writer, and reader.  I hope to continue this fire and fighting the odds of the new principal, new teachers, different setting, and so much more.  I am the expert and I have the power in my room to set the standard for student learning.   I will continue using daybooks (year 2) and I will challenge myself to use 3-5 digital media sites to introduce skills/strategies to my students.  In addition, I want to put up a list of sites for them to self explore and use.

Impromptus( I WANT TO USE ALL) with my classes, go through the wobble process and let students feed off on another to learn and help each other.  FLEXIBLE!  when my students are writing, I will write; read when my students are reading.  Continue with mentor text and show students the process-using real world text and experiences that will help them for LIFE.

INQUIRY-I want my each of my students to pick something that they are interested in learning about or studying.  Maybe pick something that they want to get better at in school.  Then, I want to give them time to look up information, literature, websites, books, and etc.  Hopefully throughout the school year they would have found so much information on their topic and present a final project.

I have so many ideas in my head (thank God for my daybook), I will write all my ideas down and knock them out one by one. I'm so excited that I wish school starts tomorrow (I prefer school to be year around and I get two week breaks here and there).  I thank everyone in this class, your feedback and words of encouragment have impacted me in many ways. This is a rewarding experience to be connected to other professionals.  We had our zip,zap,zop, rifting and rafting, and sharing a wealth of information that I will never forget.

I thank and appreciate each and everyone of you!  Side note- Steve you inspired me to think of this title "new value"

Discrimination

  In some form or fashion most of us have experienced this word "discrimination"
whether we were the cause or initiated it.
  Events like the Holocaust, Slavery, Christopher Columbus invading Native Americans' land, 911, Mexican, and more.
   It's sad when people are judged and are taken advantage of- Trayvon Martin, Rodney King, The young Jewish boy who was killed by a older man in Brooklyn, New York.  The list can go on and on and on.

As an educator we are responsible to teach our students historical facts, academic skills and strategies, also we need to focus on ways we can guide them to be successful citizens in our global world.

Should our judgments be neutral?  should we have a voice?  things like religion, race, and sexual orientation-These are gray issues educators can be 'fired' if we share our personal views.  Silence can be agreement and it is imperative that we allow our students to explore those views and share their points and reasons why on their own.


just my thoughts as we shared during our colleagues demo lesson.

My self-selected piece has evolved from the beginning of SI to know. http://prezi.com/bxneyok9nnpn/self-selected-piece/  here I focus on me and as mom and me as a teacher.  I would like to add to this- interview some former students and some of my colleagues.

Getting caught up!

 These days of SI have been really going by fast and trying to get it all; i'm was falling behind.  Readings, reading, reading- many of my readings either I read half, read the beginning, or didn't start at all.  I keep saying yes this evening, but then time is up.  Tonight, but I'm then I'm too sleepy. Well, I can finish it in the morning, but I want to sleep in.  Even after SI, I will commit to reading the things that I missed.  Some things I may have to read over and over again for the idea or skills to use.  Time is not on our side-I find myself writing a to do list. If I completed 75% of my task for the day, then that is great.

Self-Selected Piece

My self-selected piece has evolved from the beginning of SI to now.
http://prezi.com/bxneyok9nnpn/self-selected-piece/
Here I focus on me and as mom and as a teacher.  I would like to add to this; interview some of my former students and some of my colleagues.  My focus is really learning about myself as a teacher and a mother and how this relates or ties into my world and the people I work with.

Trusting Without Seeing

 We did an activity where the Explorers were blindfolded and the Explorer's Assistant had to guide the Explorer on a journey.  This was an uncomfortable forum for my partner and I.  However, with encouragement and guidance I led her through a nature journey.  "What do you smell?", "what do you hear?" are some of the questions that I asked her as she really wanted to explore sitting on the bench.  I held onto her arms tightly and reassured her that she was in good hands.  

    After leading her to and fro, when she uncovered her eyes, she was amazed to see how far we had walked.  I explained the things that she heard and couldn't see and then by choice, we decided to switch roles.
    Now, from being a leader to being dependent was a true challenge for me.  My  partner took me through a totally different journey.  I was on a cleansing journey; all of a sudden my sense of sound, smell, and textures were enhanced.  I felt the wind and heard the trees blow. I heard people foot steps patting by and the birds chirping.  She didn't hold onto me so firm as I did, so I assumed we were in an open fielded area.  I know we went from the concrete to grass, because I felt the moisture of the grass on my feet. As I tried to move closer to her, she explained the things that was happening around us. 
    Once she led me back to our original spot, I was amazed to how our first journey was totally different. 
As educators, we connected this experience to our teaching setting.  Some students are better learners when you guide them with those critical questions so that they make meaning on their own.  Some students can go through a variety of tasks and ask those critical questions to gain understand. As educators we are facilitators and we are learning along with our students. However, there are somethings that makes us experts and our students need to see our own thought process.  They need to know when we have our confusing moments and see what we do to get out of that state of mind.
I plan to do this activity with my students in the fall.

Revision strategy #6 -using dialogue

For my self-selected piece I will explore how me being an educator has impacted my daughters learning I think.. Storytelling is the idea that I’m thinking about.  We shall see, I will be working on this. Hopefully complete by Sunday.  Revision is re-seeing my writing. Page by page.  Paragraph by paragraph. Sentence by sentence. Word by word, with my audience in mind.


REVISION STRATEGY # 6
 Ok writing partners Jessie & Meredith, for my self-selected piece I am thinking about exploring how my career/education has an impact on my daughters’ schooling.  This is important to me because I want to really look into how my choices and what I think is important is pushed/portrayed through their decision making.  As a single parent and raising my daughters and knowing that  education is important- I want to look into the ways how this has an impact on them.  For my self-inquiring, I am learning a lot of ways through SI and my readings that I can strenghthen this skill of revision in my classroom.

Self Selected Piece

 As I explore revision and how do I get my 8th Graders doing more of it; my self-directed piece may tell a story of how an educator can have an impact on his/her real-children.  

Wobbling Thoughts

As I continue in S.I. the more my brain is all over the place on things I can inquire about.  My inquiry revolved around revision to reading comprehension to using relevant text to captivate readers interest. I am getting ready to start Writing Without Teachers by Peter Elbow and I have Writing Workshops by Ralph Fletcher to finish.  I am reading Before I Fall just for entertainment.


Still balancing time as being a mom, teaching, to now being a Senior Mary Kay Consultant, and now to making plans to pursue my PhD. I am excited and motivated for all the changes and different paths I am going to take. As I continue to read to perfect my pedagogy, I'm learning about wobble and how my mind is all over the place.  I look at myself as a doctor who is trying different methods to perfect her skills; also to get my students thinking outside the four walls of school.--real life.

My Guest for the 2012 Summer Institute

Who Is She?

 In third grade, she had to write a biography about a famous person. She plagiarized everything from the encyclopedia about Abraham Lincoln. When her peers was presenting, she discovered that she did her assignment incorrectly and did not bother to present her piece.

              
                  What Happened Next?

She was determined and continued to write; making sure she understood her writing assignments' directions. She enjoyed writing poetry, song lyrics, stories, and in eighth grade and up, she was writing research papers.



                                      What Stayed The Same?

To this day she continues to write and carries that on to the students she comes in contact with and with her own children.
                
                                        
                                       And This Guest Is ME!

Technology Feedback Vs. Face to Face Feedback

In a world where technology is it, there is an ongoing discussion as to what is effective feedback.  Face to face or technology related.  As an educator, it is imperative that we learn how give feedback in both ways.  Face time feedback still requires you to make positive statements about what your peer has done well.  In addition,  to adding what ideas he/she can add to further support their writing; synonymous to feedback via technology Using technology may perhaps help you to add more effects, images, copy & paste, and add things quicker (for some).  Both skills are important for us to be familiar with and making sure our commentsn are uplifting no matter what.

Self Inquiry

I want to focus on how to explicitly teach my students on how to revise their work. So far my thoughts are to continue to model the process in front of them. Students should know every detail of our thoughts and how we come up with ideas of things to write about.  Creating a safe environment for my students to write and share their writing is number one.  Based on Writing Workshop by Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi, teachers should share their writings with students.  Or even read a short story to get students thinking about ideas they can write about that spins off that piece of literature. 

When we share our personal stories with them that gives them that safe place/forum where they are not going to be judged. Also, with my writing, students can answer the following questions: What worked or made sense in my writing?  What other choices of words or ideas I can add?  With their positive feedback, I can then add these suggestions to my writing as I enter into the revision phase.

SI 2 Questions??

My question that I would like to explore is how to get my students revising their work ?? So often students and adults are happy with that first initial writing.  However, everytime one reads his or her piece over again things can always be changed to make things sound better and clarify meaning.