This Bing Crosby Song is the song that inspired Penny's name (or so she has been told). It is useful for teaching the students about the style of music during the 1950's. This would be great for both music integration and to help the students get a better picture of what the book is talking about.
Pennies from Heaven
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Teacher as Reader: Post 2
More Peas, Please (in which I will focus on one chapter and my process as a reader)
Chapter 11 is called More Peas, Please. I wonder why the author decided to call it that? Penny's mother is cooking in the kitchen. It lists some of the ingredients she is using. How is this different than the food Penny's Italian family would cook? Mr. Mulligan (the milk man who is dating Penny's mother) is coming over for dinner. Penny doesn't like him very much. It must be really hard for her to see her mom interested in a new man. She doesn't want him to replace her dad. He doesn't have to replace her dad though, and he is funny, even Penny used to think so before he started dating her mom.
Penny leaves to go play baseball with Frankie. She's better than a lot of the other boys, but her mom doesn't want her to play. What would it be like to live in a time where girls weren't supposed to play sports? Penny gets into a fight with Veronica who starts making fun of her family. She must have been really angry. What should she do in a situation like that? What would I do?
After baseball, Mr. Mulligan is over for supper. Penny keeps making him take more of Me-Me's peas which are terrible. He tries to be polite and eat them, but it is obvious he doesn't like them. Penny lies to Mr. Mulligan later, too. She tells him the black eye she got from Veronica is from her mother. Why did she lie to him? Does she feel better now that she has scared him off? Is he gone for good or will he be back later?
Now that I have finished this chapter, what was the main point of the chapter? Did I meet any new characters? Can I figure out what the title means? What is going to happen next?
Chapter 11 is called More Peas, Please. I wonder why the author decided to call it that? Penny's mother is cooking in the kitchen. It lists some of the ingredients she is using. How is this different than the food Penny's Italian family would cook? Mr. Mulligan (the milk man who is dating Penny's mother) is coming over for dinner. Penny doesn't like him very much. It must be really hard for her to see her mom interested in a new man. She doesn't want him to replace her dad. He doesn't have to replace her dad though, and he is funny, even Penny used to think so before he started dating her mom.
Penny leaves to go play baseball with Frankie. She's better than a lot of the other boys, but her mom doesn't want her to play. What would it be like to live in a time where girls weren't supposed to play sports? Penny gets into a fight with Veronica who starts making fun of her family. She must have been really angry. What should she do in a situation like that? What would I do?
After baseball, Mr. Mulligan is over for supper. Penny keeps making him take more of Me-Me's peas which are terrible. He tries to be polite and eat them, but it is obvious he doesn't like them. Penny lies to Mr. Mulligan later, too. She tells him the black eye she got from Veronica is from her mother. Why did she lie to him? Does she feel better now that she has scared him off? Is he gone for good or will he be back later?
Now that I have finished this chapter, what was the main point of the chapter? Did I meet any new characters? Can I figure out what the title means? What is going to happen next?
Teacher as Reader: Post 1
The front cover
I am reading Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L Holm. When I look at the front cover of this book, I notice that there is a boy and a girl. They are leaning up against an old car. They must be from a long time ago. They are out in the country because there is a lot of grass, and they have a baseball and baseball glove. They look like they are about ten or eleven years old.
Ch.1
The first page talks about how someone got their name. They say "me" and "my" and "I" a lot, so it must be from their point of view. They talk about people named Me-me and Frankie. Maybe Frankie is the boy on the front of the book. Then, the person tells us their name is Penny. Penny could be the girl on the front of the book.
Ch. 2
There are lots of characters introduced in this chapter. It is hard to keep up with all of them. I will make a list to help me remember who is who. They keep talking about a baseball team. Who are the Dodgers? The names in this book are unusual, and I have trouble pronouncing them. They must be names from another country. It talks about war a lot. I don't know much about this war. Why did we fight Korea and Japan? Penny has a lot of nicknames. Her uncle calls her princess, her mom calls her bunny, but her real name is Barbara Ann. Scarlett O'Hara is her dog's name. Who is Scarlett O'Hara?
Ch. 3
Penny's family is Italian! That is why they have such tricky names. They talk to each other in Italian and in English. They use words like patanella mia which means "my little potato." These Italian words are unfamiliar to me. I should keep a list of all of the ones I have learned. They use a lot of words I don't know when they are talking about baseball. What do they mean when they say, "The mound's looking real good for Dem Bums"? Penny's mom doesn't like it when she plays baseball. Are girls allowed to play baseball during this time? Penny and Frankie run errands for their uncles. The go to Mrs. Wiederhorn's house. She has bruises on her face and her husband yells at her. What happened to her? Pazza is Italian for crazy. I like that word! Italians eat food that is very different. One side of Penny's family eats certain kinds of food and the Italian side eats different kinds. I will pay attention to how this is different.
Ch. 4
Penny has a dream about her father. He died when she was little, but she doesn't know how. I wonder how he died, too. I bet we will find out before the book is over. I can make predictions about what happened to him. These might change the more we read.
What I have noticed reading this so far, is that it the most difficult part of getting into this book is imagining the time period. It talks about the 1950's and even earlier. The students would need to know a lot about what this time is like for it to make a lot of sense to them. I kept reading without looking up more information (granted, I already had a pretty good sense of what it was like) and the information in the chapters helped me to understand what it was like. The front picture also helped me to know what Uncle Dominic's car looked like and what the kids were wearing. I would want to offer more of this kind of evidence to the kids, so they could really understand the time period. I think that it would be fun to give them photos, music, other items to look through from the time period beforehand to let them explore and make inferences about what life was like. Later, we could revisit this at different points in the book to see how they play into the story. Also, Penny from Heaven is the song that Penny is named after, so it would be good to let the students listen to this song and other Bing Crosby songs, so they are familiar with his music.
As a reader, I noticed that I struggled most with words that I wasn't familiar with. The vocabulary I didn't know were the Italian words. The kids will not know these and will likely not know other words in the book as well. The Italian words give definitions with them, so they are easy to understand, but they would not be able to pronounce them. It would be good for them to look them up on an interactive Italian dictionary so they could hear how they are pronounced in Italian. To help them with English words they don't know, we would look at how to use context clues, and how to look up words in the English dictionary to help them.
What I have learned as reader, is that I should write down important things that can help me later. If I write down a list of all the family members of Penny or even make a family tree, I can look back at it later when I get confused about a character. I can also keep a list of the words I don't know so that I can look at it again if that word reappears. I could even keep a graph of things about the cultures of her two different families. This way I could understand how they are different and how this impacts her life.
I am reading Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L Holm. When I look at the front cover of this book, I notice that there is a boy and a girl. They are leaning up against an old car. They must be from a long time ago. They are out in the country because there is a lot of grass, and they have a baseball and baseball glove. They look like they are about ten or eleven years old.
Ch.1
The first page talks about how someone got their name. They say "me" and "my" and "I" a lot, so it must be from their point of view. They talk about people named Me-me and Frankie. Maybe Frankie is the boy on the front of the book. Then, the person tells us their name is Penny. Penny could be the girl on the front of the book.
Ch. 2
There are lots of characters introduced in this chapter. It is hard to keep up with all of them. I will make a list to help me remember who is who. They keep talking about a baseball team. Who are the Dodgers? The names in this book are unusual, and I have trouble pronouncing them. They must be names from another country. It talks about war a lot. I don't know much about this war. Why did we fight Korea and Japan? Penny has a lot of nicknames. Her uncle calls her princess, her mom calls her bunny, but her real name is Barbara Ann. Scarlett O'Hara is her dog's name. Who is Scarlett O'Hara?
Ch. 3
Penny's family is Italian! That is why they have such tricky names. They talk to each other in Italian and in English. They use words like patanella mia which means "my little potato." These Italian words are unfamiliar to me. I should keep a list of all of the ones I have learned. They use a lot of words I don't know when they are talking about baseball. What do they mean when they say, "The mound's looking real good for Dem Bums"? Penny's mom doesn't like it when she plays baseball. Are girls allowed to play baseball during this time? Penny and Frankie run errands for their uncles. The go to Mrs. Wiederhorn's house. She has bruises on her face and her husband yells at her. What happened to her? Pazza is Italian for crazy. I like that word! Italians eat food that is very different. One side of Penny's family eats certain kinds of food and the Italian side eats different kinds. I will pay attention to how this is different.
Ch. 4
Penny has a dream about her father. He died when she was little, but she doesn't know how. I wonder how he died, too. I bet we will find out before the book is over. I can make predictions about what happened to him. These might change the more we read.
What I have noticed reading this so far, is that it the most difficult part of getting into this book is imagining the time period. It talks about the 1950's and even earlier. The students would need to know a lot about what this time is like for it to make a lot of sense to them. I kept reading without looking up more information (granted, I already had a pretty good sense of what it was like) and the information in the chapters helped me to understand what it was like. The front picture also helped me to know what Uncle Dominic's car looked like and what the kids were wearing. I would want to offer more of this kind of evidence to the kids, so they could really understand the time period. I think that it would be fun to give them photos, music, other items to look through from the time period beforehand to let them explore and make inferences about what life was like. Later, we could revisit this at different points in the book to see how they play into the story. Also, Penny from Heaven is the song that Penny is named after, so it would be good to let the students listen to this song and other Bing Crosby songs, so they are familiar with his music.
As a reader, I noticed that I struggled most with words that I wasn't familiar with. The vocabulary I didn't know were the Italian words. The kids will not know these and will likely not know other words in the book as well. The Italian words give definitions with them, so they are easy to understand, but they would not be able to pronounce them. It would be good for them to look them up on an interactive Italian dictionary so they could hear how they are pronounced in Italian. To help them with English words they don't know, we would look at how to use context clues, and how to look up words in the English dictionary to help them.
What I have learned as reader, is that I should write down important things that can help me later. If I write down a list of all the family members of Penny or even make a family tree, I can look back at it later when I get confused about a character. I can also keep a list of the words I don't know so that I can look at it again if that word reappears. I could even keep a graph of things about the cultures of her two different families. This way I could understand how they are different and how this impacts her life.
Literacy #3
Chapter 2 and Article on codeswitching
One of my favorite quotes from the Codeswitching article says, "when you lambast the home language that kids bring to school, you ain just dissin dem, you talking bout they momas." Besides the obvious satire in this quote, I really enjoy it because it brings to light a very important societal issue that we encounter in schools on a daily basis. Students come to school with so many different experiences and opportunities. It is unfair for us to expect them to know the same things, to have acquired the same vocabulary, or to use the same form of grammar. Recently, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine outside of the SOE. I mentioned pre-k, and he asked what the teachers could possibly teach to students at that age. I realized that it may seem that pre-k and even kindergarten teachers don't get a lot of credit for the subject material they teach. So they are teaching students shapes and colors instead of finding derivatives and doing logarithms, they may have the most difficult job of anyone. They are the first teachers to take students from all different backgrounds and try to catch them up to the same level of learning.
Both of the readings for today focus specifically on the language that is obtained outside of school and how we can help our students use what they have learned despite its seemingly obvious flaws in our "standard" English based schools. Codeswitching refers to how we switch the language we are using in different situations. We speak to each other differently outside of class than we do when addressing a professor or interviewing for a job. I grew up in a family that uses very thick southern accents when we speak. I have know lunch to be dinner and dinner to be supper. I know that a purse is a pocketbook and goin down yonder means that I am traveling a nondescript distance from wherever I am. However, since high school, I have been able to transform the way I speak to sound like a "normal" college student. To this day, I am afraid I will slip up and "talk country" which means I will not be taken as seriously in the academic community.
Because of this, I am really interested in this idea of contrastive teaching about languages. I like that both languages can be valued. I do not feel like the language I used growing up has been appreciated by a lot of people I have met at UNC. I even don't take people as seriously who use a country accent in the academic setting. This makes this a fun challenge for me to incorporate it into my classroom. I just hope, that I will have time to teach my students using this method. I have never observed a teacher do this successfully, and I would like to have a better understanding of how to make it work on a day to day basis.
One of my favorite quotes from the Codeswitching article says, "when you lambast the home language that kids bring to school, you ain just dissin dem, you talking bout they momas." Besides the obvious satire in this quote, I really enjoy it because it brings to light a very important societal issue that we encounter in schools on a daily basis. Students come to school with so many different experiences and opportunities. It is unfair for us to expect them to know the same things, to have acquired the same vocabulary, or to use the same form of grammar. Recently, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine outside of the SOE. I mentioned pre-k, and he asked what the teachers could possibly teach to students at that age. I realized that it may seem that pre-k and even kindergarten teachers don't get a lot of credit for the subject material they teach. So they are teaching students shapes and colors instead of finding derivatives and doing logarithms, they may have the most difficult job of anyone. They are the first teachers to take students from all different backgrounds and try to catch them up to the same level of learning.
Both of the readings for today focus specifically on the language that is obtained outside of school and how we can help our students use what they have learned despite its seemingly obvious flaws in our "standard" English based schools. Codeswitching refers to how we switch the language we are using in different situations. We speak to each other differently outside of class than we do when addressing a professor or interviewing for a job. I grew up in a family that uses very thick southern accents when we speak. I have know lunch to be dinner and dinner to be supper. I know that a purse is a pocketbook and goin down yonder means that I am traveling a nondescript distance from wherever I am. However, since high school, I have been able to transform the way I speak to sound like a "normal" college student. To this day, I am afraid I will slip up and "talk country" which means I will not be taken as seriously in the academic community.
Because of this, I am really interested in this idea of contrastive teaching about languages. I like that both languages can be valued. I do not feel like the language I used growing up has been appreciated by a lot of people I have met at UNC. I even don't take people as seriously who use a country accent in the academic setting. This makes this a fun challenge for me to incorporate it into my classroom. I just hope, that I will have time to teach my students using this method. I have never observed a teacher do this successfully, and I would like to have a better understanding of how to make it work on a day to day basis.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Science Post #3
I was very disappointed with the Bubble experiment yesterday at Haw River. I had had some reservations about the experiment from when we did it in class last week. I was having trouble justifying the use of this experiment in a classroom and specifically in second grade. I struggled to find a connection between this experiment and other things they are learning in second grade. It seemed like teaching them about surface tension was a superfluous task since the NCSCOS for second grade focuses on animals, weather, states of matter, and sound. I guess this could technically fall into states of matter, but I felt like it didn't connect to other things they might be learning. This may also come from me having no idea what they are studying in their particular classroom, but one lesson on surface tension interspersed with whatever else that might be learning seems random and disjointed.
I do, however, know that second graders love bubbles and that we are trying to engage the students and help instill a sense of excitement for learning science. I appreciated the way the bubble experiment took advantage of something they enjoy and attempted to teach them a scientific idea. After we tried this lesson last week, I asked around to see how my classmates were going to attempt to make this lesson meaningful to the students and what they expected them to take away. Many of them explained that they wanted to focus more on inquiry and prediction making than the actual scientific reasoning behind the experiment. I decided that I would try this method as well, since I couldn't be sure that the students would be able to connect to the "surface tension" idea. This is where I was most disappointed. I did not see the curiosity that I was hoping to see, and it was difficult to get them to make predictions. This could have been more related to behavior management than the actual experiment, but they were so ready to do the experiment that they didn't really care to slow down and listen to directions or think about what was going to happen. I'm afraid that once the experiment was over, they just left a huge mess for us to clean up and then forgot about it entirely.
I think what I learned most from this experiment, regardless of whether I found it to be an appropriate lesson or not, is that helping the students to take away something from science may be more difficult than I thought. Giving them a chance to inquire and explore and experiment does not mean that they get to do it all the way they want to. It has to be within the parameters that the teacher outlines for them. It is really a tricky way for them to do exactly what you want them to while making them believe they are learning for themselves. It is going to take a lot more practice for me to know how to set up those boundaries for them, and I am glad that I got to experience this Bubble experiment debacle. I think that I will be much more prepared for the next time around.
I do, however, know that second graders love bubbles and that we are trying to engage the students and help instill a sense of excitement for learning science. I appreciated the way the bubble experiment took advantage of something they enjoy and attempted to teach them a scientific idea. After we tried this lesson last week, I asked around to see how my classmates were going to attempt to make this lesson meaningful to the students and what they expected them to take away. Many of them explained that they wanted to focus more on inquiry and prediction making than the actual scientific reasoning behind the experiment. I decided that I would try this method as well, since I couldn't be sure that the students would be able to connect to the "surface tension" idea. This is where I was most disappointed. I did not see the curiosity that I was hoping to see, and it was difficult to get them to make predictions. This could have been more related to behavior management than the actual experiment, but they were so ready to do the experiment that they didn't really care to slow down and listen to directions or think about what was going to happen. I'm afraid that once the experiment was over, they just left a huge mess for us to clean up and then forgot about it entirely.
I think what I learned most from this experiment, regardless of whether I found it to be an appropriate lesson or not, is that helping the students to take away something from science may be more difficult than I thought. Giving them a chance to inquire and explore and experiment does not mean that they get to do it all the way they want to. It has to be within the parameters that the teacher outlines for them. It is really a tricky way for them to do exactly what you want them to while making them believe they are learning for themselves. It is going to take a lot more practice for me to know how to set up those boundaries for them, and I am glad that I got to experience this Bubble experiment debacle. I think that I will be much more prepared for the next time around.
Peter Documentary
I have mixed thoughts about full inclusion in the classroom, and I think that the video on Peter may have made it even more difficult for me to decide one way or the other. He is a perfect example of how a teacher takes a difficult situation and uses it to benefit all of the kids in their classroom. I think that in this case, full inclusion was the right thing for Peter and the other students. However, the teacher had a big job on her hands and I think there is a certain point where including Peter in the classroom could have been more detrimental than helpful. Fortunately, he had an excellent teacher who was willing to put in the extra energy to make it a positive environment for him. I doubt that all of the students with special needs who are fully included in classrooms are this lucky. It can be a very frustrating and exhausting thing for teachers to accommodate such drastically different learning and behavioral needs. Also, there was only one Peter in this classroom. How would it have been different if there was Peter and then another student that needs as much attention as Peter? The teacher most likely could not have catered to the needs of these two children while also challenging the rest of the class to be their best. I think that because each situation is unique and so individual, that it is impossible to say whether inclusion is the right answer in all cases. I think that it would be better to offer inclusion to all students first and then to give them opportunities for differentiated instruction outside of the classroom as needed. We pull out our AIG kids so that they can have time in a different learning environment, we pull out our ELL kids, so I think it is only fair to pull out our EC kids as needed to give them a chance to learn in a way that is most suited for the individual child.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Literacy #2
I’ve noticed that literacy in my classroom is very subtle. My CT does a wonderful job finding ways to throw in reading and writing throughout the day without the students realizing that they are learning about reading and writing. She has a bookshelf full of short picture books that she can pull out at a moments notice to fill extra time. I think that this is a wonderful idea because the kids are never without something to do, and they are being exposed to many fun texts. The problem with this, however, is that the books aren’t being used to their full potential. Since she is reading them on the spot, she doesn’t have a lesson to go with them, so she asks some questions but doesn’t always focus on some of the great literary devices the story has to offer. An example of this would be a story she read the other day called Chickens and Salsa which is full of examples of alliteration and consonance. I think she could have used this as a mini lesson on the use of repetition of sounds. I think what I might do in my own classroom would be to have all of these books, but as I use them, I would jot down all the things I could use it to teach so that when I pulled it out on the spot, I would already know what I should use it to teach.
My CT doesn't emphasize writing as much as reading I have noticed also. She doesn't expect the kids to write for the other subjects, and if there is writing involved in another assignment, it is not the focal point. I haven't been able to observe much of the writing time because they have just started it within the last week, so I am curious to see how this develops and how it stretches to encompass more of the other core subjects.
My CT doesn't emphasize writing as much as reading I have noticed also. She doesn't expect the kids to write for the other subjects, and if there is writing involved in another assignment, it is not the focal point. I haven't been able to observe much of the writing time because they have just started it within the last week, so I am curious to see how this develops and how it stretches to encompass more of the other core subjects.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Literacy Reading Reflection #1
In a lot of our education courses, I have noticed that we spend a significant amount of time talking about ways to teach to each individual child, and I think that these articles reiterate this idea in a way that also puts the individual in the context of the greater picture of the whole group. When focusing on literacy, as much as with any other subject, it is important to understand what our students already know. What have they been exposed to in terms of literacy? Specifically in our generation, we must think about the technology they are exposed to, the advertisements they see,and the kinds of training they receive outside of school that help them develop as readers and communicators. Each student will be different in what kinds of exposure to these that they have had. This must be considered when we plan lessons to help expand their reading skills. We must choose text that will be relevant to their lives and that will be useful in helping them acquire the skills the need to be a proficient reader. Since this will be different for each individual, we must differentiate our style of teaching, but at the same time, we must show them the greater context of their reading community. We most build a sense of community in the classroom that foster everyone's learning. We most acknowledge the things that would inhibit students from learning and help them to understand as well.
One of the articles talks about teacher expectations and how the way the class is set up sets the tone for how students learn. We must have high expectations for the students that they can all learn and that they must learn. We must expect them to improve and to keep trying. we must show respect for their differences and strive to make reading fun for everyone.
One of the articles talks about teacher expectations and how the way the class is set up sets the tone for how students learn. We must have high expectations for the students that they can all learn and that they must learn. We must expect them to improve and to keep trying. we must show respect for their differences and strive to make reading fun for everyone.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Reading Reflection #1
I noticed in my own Science autobiography and in some of the others that many science teachers rely on copying definitions and answering textbook questions as a way of teaching science. In “The Trouble with Textbooks” article, it describes how behind our nation is despite our “flashy” textbooks. I think that this is an absolute travesty. How is it that we can expect our students to understand complex scientific processes by reading about it in a wordy textbook? We shouldn’t, but too often we do. We don’t expect them to read out of a math textbook and then teach themselves long division. We don’t expect them to pick up a how to book on learning to read (yes, it would be impossible, but that is my point). We can’t expect to hand a kid a book and to instill in them a sense of passion for science or learning for that matter.
Chapter 2 in Ready, Set, Science explains the four strands of science learning that are necessary in our classrooms. Very basically, it can be outlined as 1. Helping kids to “understand scientific explanations” 2. Give them a chance to dig around for evidence so they can really connect to those explanations 3. Let them reflect on what they have found, and to be able to draw parallels between what they have found and what they have been taught, and 4. Give them a chance to interact in a miniature scientific community where they can explain in front of their peers the understanding they have gained. Textbooks alone can’t give students these opportunities.
The unfortunate thing, though, is that there isn’t enough time in the classroom to teach science and to make everything hands on, so we have to carefully decide when it is appropriate to use the textbook to help bolster the learning happening in the classroom and when to put the book back on the shelf. I am a huge proponent for giving them mini experiments to do at home, so they can find science everywhere they go. But most of all, they just need to find science fun, and it is our jobs to make that happen!
Chapter 2 in Ready, Set, Science explains the four strands of science learning that are necessary in our classrooms. Very basically, it can be outlined as 1. Helping kids to “understand scientific explanations” 2. Give them a chance to dig around for evidence so they can really connect to those explanations 3. Let them reflect on what they have found, and to be able to draw parallels between what they have found and what they have been taught, and 4. Give them a chance to interact in a miniature scientific community where they can explain in front of their peers the understanding they have gained. Textbooks alone can’t give students these opportunities.
The unfortunate thing, though, is that there isn’t enough time in the classroom to teach science and to make everything hands on, so we have to carefully decide when it is appropriate to use the textbook to help bolster the learning happening in the classroom and when to put the book back on the shelf. I am a huge proponent for giving them mini experiments to do at home, so they can find science everywhere they go. But most of all, they just need to find science fun, and it is our jobs to make that happen!
Monday, September 7, 2009
Science Autobiography
Born the daughter of a nurse and a self-made electrician, the product of science or the antithesis of all things scientific?
What counts as science anyway?
Mixing ingredients to put in my easy bake oven… conduction and convection from a really hot light bulb
Playing in my fort in the rhododendron trees… a study into how trees and insects live and interact
Swinging on the tire swing in the front yard… how motion works and how high I have to pull the swing back to be able to pull leaves off of the tree when I propel forward
As for science in school?
Definitions
Notes
Definitions
Blah, blah, blah, blah blah
And more definitions
Can we see some cool experiments, please?
My 8th grade teacher lights the table on fire. I don’t remember why, but it was awesome!
Dissecting pigs. Did my lab partner really just get sick and leave. He’s such a wimp.
11th and 12th grade chemistry. Science finally makes a connection. Too bad it’s in time for me to graduate and realize that science in college is way too difficult for the average student.
As for the things I will never forget…
The thrill of catching something on fire and then figuring out the components that make it happen
The smell of formaldehyde
My high school chemistry teacher
Figuring out that science means more than definitions out of a dictionary. It’s all around us.
What counts as science anyway?
Mixing ingredients to put in my easy bake oven… conduction and convection from a really hot light bulb
Playing in my fort in the rhododendron trees… a study into how trees and insects live and interact
Swinging on the tire swing in the front yard… how motion works and how high I have to pull the swing back to be able to pull leaves off of the tree when I propel forward
As for science in school?
Definitions
Notes
Definitions
Blah, blah, blah, blah blah
And more definitions
Can we see some cool experiments, please?
My 8th grade teacher lights the table on fire. I don’t remember why, but it was awesome!
Dissecting pigs. Did my lab partner really just get sick and leave. He’s such a wimp.
11th and 12th grade chemistry. Science finally makes a connection. Too bad it’s in time for me to graduate and realize that science in college is way too difficult for the average student.
As for the things I will never forget…
The thrill of catching something on fire and then figuring out the components that make it happen
The smell of formaldehyde
My high school chemistry teacher
Figuring out that science means more than definitions out of a dictionary. It’s all around us.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
My Literacy Autobiography
To write an autobiography (literary or otherwise) requires much reflection on one’s own life and finding a way to articulate a lifetime’s worth of details in just a page of words. I must look, therefore, at the key moments in my life, those turning points that create the framework for my literacy acquisition.
I picture myself, age three, sitting on my grandpa’s lap listening to an old familiar story… “Are you my mother?” I can remember hearing this one many times before, and he has skipped some lines. How dare he?! Even at this age, I am unafraid to correct him, especially when he is being lazy and wants to trick me into thinking he is reading it word for word.
Age four, I have memorized every book on my shelf. I play Cinderella as she watches the evil step sisters strut around in their fancy dresses. I can read my sister a book about using the toilet as she is being potty trained.
My love of reading grows from here as I begin school and quickly absorb stories of all kinds. My sister struggles to learn how to read, so my mom invests in Hooked on Phonics. Her disinterest in the program is overshadowed by my fascination for it. Although I already know how to read, I find the phonics tapes mesmerizing.
Books later… The Boxcar Children… The Babysitters Club… American Girl… The Giver… Bridge to Terabithia… Nancy Drew… I am scolded for staying up too late reading on a school night, and after several warnings, I finally agree to go to sleep.
High school turns my love for reading and writing into a hassle. Who wants to read for school over the summer anyway? Instead I spend hours on AIM with other whining high-schoolers who have no interest in The Catcher in the Rye or The House of Seven Gables. Text messaging about soccer practice and the newest high school drama take the place of late night reading.
Senior year and a great English teacher rekindle my love for literature and helped me to find a new passion in writing. This really helps me later as I began my college career. Trading in my texting talents for a more professional manner of writing. And then… falling in love with the Spanish language, and I must start over with the whole literacy process in a new language. Listening to the language, reading children’s stories, writing… and stumbling the whole way.
Each of these milestones has created my understanding of literacy, and I know that I have a long way left to go.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Welcome!
Hi, and Welcome to my new blog: The Magical World of Teaching According to Ms. Gus!
It is an exciting new semester with all of my new education courses and a new teaching placement in the school system. Last week was the first week of school, which I have found to be both a hectic time and a time of much anticipation and excitement, for both students and teachers... and well, student teachers, too! I was able to spend the full week in my new classroom getting to know all the little details about each students' life. I had a chance to completely dominate a class of fourth graders on the four square court and also a chance to be completely dominated by them... who knew that wearing heels to school would prove to be so disadvantageous when playing recess sports?! I am looking forward to a great semester, and working my way towards full-time student teaching in the spring!
Thanks for stopping by!
It is an exciting new semester with all of my new education courses and a new teaching placement in the school system. Last week was the first week of school, which I have found to be both a hectic time and a time of much anticipation and excitement, for both students and teachers... and well, student teachers, too! I was able to spend the full week in my new classroom getting to know all the little details about each students' life. I had a chance to completely dominate a class of fourth graders on the four square court and also a chance to be completely dominated by them... who knew that wearing heels to school would prove to be so disadvantageous when playing recess sports?! I am looking forward to a great semester, and working my way towards full-time student teaching in the spring!
Thanks for stopping by!
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