Great class

I am just enjoying the process of thinking even though at times my brain seems so full I feel as though it will burst. I think teachers should do more of this type of summer learning.

writing groups

I can't believe how much help it was to have so many other people read my essay. I gained so many ideas from those who read it and I can't wait to see what Lois has to say. Thanks again!! It was extremely helpful to have the criterion based revision sheet available when we were revising yesterday. It gave me somewhere to start when reading the other essays. I'm definitely not a fluent writer, and probably never will be, so I hated to be critical of someone else's work. Since I followed the sheet, I didn't feel out of place with my comments.

The peer revision activity yesterday was very helpful. The examples being read along with the feedback allowed me to go back to the drawing board and really revise and not surface revise. Up until now I believe I clumped editing and revision together.

Reading Activity 7/2/08

I found the reading activity this morning quite helpful. Combining discussion of the text (in a small group) and having a specific task to complete (which helped me focus on the main ideas of the text) made me dig for meaning more deeply than I do alone. This is an interesting way to glean meaning from an unfamiliar or "unfriendly" text (no offense Peter). It is also time consuming. These kinds of activities make me realize how much time scholars must devote to understading their field.

Revision versus Editing

I think this is a hill to die on! I want to be much more intentional in "teaching" revision skills, and in building peer reviewers who can give great feedback. I am challenged to demonstrate and model the kind of feedback that students will find helpful while withholding my need to change there to their! The hardest thing is when the editing issues get in the way of understanding! 

 

Mindy's lesson

Nice job, Mindy. I'm going to add more "writing" to my unit on biography/time line. Your activity demonstrated for me how I could make the connection between the text, the time line, and a reaction piece to the text.

Harriet Tubman

This activity amazed me! The depth of the topic for 1st grade is astounding. I can use this stuff in my classroom with 7th graders and give them time to work cooperatively, summarize, synthesize, write, and draw. I'm always grateful for ideas to incorporate Multiple Intelligence in my class. This is what I love about the teaching demo's. Ideas, ideas, ideas...

rich discussion

Today's discussion (AM and PM) was the most engaging we have had. I really enjoyed getting into some "deep" conversation, not necessarily agreeing with everyone, but considering multiple perspectives nonetheless. Am I binary? Sherrie's facilitation of the Elbow chapter was great and the discussion provoked thought.

Again, my favorite part of the day is the teaching demo and then the discussion. No matter for what level the teaching demo is geared, I seem to think of a slew of ways to use it in my classroom. Thanks, Mindy. I am feeling a little overwhelmed with the readings, discussions, and the revisions of my paper. I know I have never been taught to revise and now that I am doing it, I can't seem to stop. Maybe I just need to sleep!!

Harriet's classroom activities

The pamphlet that you gave us was packed full of ideas to incorporate into the classroom. There are many more online I'm sure. Check this out: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/j1a.html It's an interactive reading activity about Harriet Tubman and slavery.

Reading Elbow

The reading process we used this morning was very helpful. After groaning when Don said we were going to talk about Elbow and binary thinking, I was not looking forward to the activity. I think that mainly came from my lack of confidence in my ability to understand the reading. Breaking it down in the activities plus sharing and hearing others take on the reading helped shed a light on the reading. When I can get to the point of trying to figure out how I can use this in my class or how to help others then I feel like I understand. I reached that point today!!

demo and Elbow and Reading group

I enjoyed Mindy's demo. Again, I can see how to apply this in 3rd grade.

The discussions on Elbow were interesting. I think it is difficult to "be all you can be" in Elbowology. But if you could you would be able to say you are an "Elbowologist!"

I loved the reading last night in Writing Through Childhood. I didn't know how to teach poetry but now I do. We (Hocking Hills teachers) have many ideas about how to publish students best work. We discussed having students poems read over the announcements, included in the school newsletter and displayed in the showcase. We also discussed blogging. Hmmmmm! Maybe even a school wide anthology of Poetry.

Fun time with Mindy

I had a fun time today Mindy! Thanks! I enjoyed being in the first grade world and gained insights into how these strategies could be used in a variety of ways. I think these same comcepts for reading books could be used to glean information on various topics. I enjoyed the reading of Harriet Tubman -I will never outgrow that. I remember almost climbing over the heads of other kids so I could be as close as possible to the pictures as the teacher would read to us. (That must have been so annoying to the other kids!) I need to ponder ways I might be able to still utilize reading to kids with my 8th graders. I know I have kids who coud still benefit from this. I think I could make adjustments in the writing - it is essentially a microtheme activity, isn't it. Thanks for the demo Mindy. I had fun!

Topics from Today

Blog on your heart's desire (with or without your eyes closed).

Here are some ideas if your heart is ambivalent about what to write on:

The Reading Process we used this morning.
Academic Language
Your own ideas about binaries
Mindy's Teaching Demo
Questions About the Annotated Bib
Concerns about Audience
Writing and Student Safety
The Peer Revision Process
What you learned in Reading group
How this Institute will change your classroom practices

For the Record

Today, we gave people options to either blog or keep on working on revision in writing group; things that we did today included an opening Haiku exercise, Kathy's teaching demo on center activities, a discussion of productive peer revision activities and we listened to a couple of essays read aloud. Although we talked a little bit this morning about binary thinking, we did not get around to really chewing through the Elbow reading for today. C'est la vie. It will have to wait for another day. The days are too full... not that that's a bad thing.

Anxiety

At the moment I am feeling overwhelmed and not sure how I want to revise my essay. I have a few ways I could go with it, but really don't have a good sense of what exactly I want to focus on. I think I've been too broad, and perhaps I need to pare down and focus on a few other students whom I have sent on their own reading journey. I just don't know. When I get into situations of "do this now", I feel like I go brain dead. I'm also stressed because with all the reading and exhaustion, I haven't even started looking at the research info to see if it is really what I need. How will I ever get it all done? I know everyone else is probably right there with me on this, but the anxiety is still there. Where's the Xanax?

Webquest Galour!!!

What a neat thing to reseach....oh, the possibilities are endless.

Distracted

I hope everyone will all forgive me today - I am distracted and unprepared. I HATE not being prepared and can count the total number of times I have come to any class not prepared on both hands of fingers (ok, maybe I might need my toes as well). The point is, I have not quite recuperated from the emotional tornado I experienced this weekend in essentially losing two sons, one to another woman (yes, I really do believe getting married to a wonderful girl is a great thing) and the second to West Point. As we speak this son is experiencing hell (which a course he chose) and there are pictures gradually being posted on the West Point website of the day as they are experiencing it. All I want to do is sit and scour over them in the fleeting hope that I might see his face. Please forgive me for being so self involved. I had to take time from this assignment to look at a few before I could force myself to get back on task. I am a wreck.

On top of this, I have these stupid fake nails on that I wore to my sons wedding. I can't type worth a darn with these contraptions on my fingers. I liked how they looked Saturday but have been trying to figure out a way to rip them off ever since. Nuts.

Kris, you did a great job today. I liked being exposed to alternative ways to facillitate learning for students. I also enjoyed the strategy of cutting up our writing to have others evaluate and reorganize it. I was embarassed that I didn't have one to utilize but that goes right back to my original apology of being unprepared. Rats. I will strive to do better tomorrow. Maybe with some sleep I will be more equipped for learning and my emotions will be under control. I appreciate any generous understanding you can extend my way.

Kris,
Great math activity. Have you ever considered this as a cross curricular activity with art? I tried doing tessellations with my 5th graders and it failed miserably. I think it is one of those activities that you need more abstract thought processes to understand. Of course I am not a math person so maybe it was my inability to teach. I wish I had more access to computers so students could at least have the chance to explore the web sites you told us about today. I have a very large Escher print that you may borrow anytime. It is like the one with the waterfall but I think it is a better example of the optical illusion. It could really make a bold statement to get your kids involved.

Scissors!

Cutting up my paper was very personal. I really had a hard time using those scissors. I am surprised that I felt that way! Once is was completed and put back together it was a relief to me that my partner put it back the right way! Compliance that's me!

believing/doubting

I don't think I can apply this in my classroom but I can see how it can help me with writing assignments. I will be starting my masters program soon and this will be a process I use. I found it very hard to write positives or argue for a viewpoint I did not agree with. It is a valuable tool and I think the more I use it the easier it will become to argue both sides of an issue.

write to learn

I was disappointed in the write to learn activity ONLY because we didn't get to the second part. I wanted to know why people thought that you couldn't become a good teacher even though you had never tried. This activity made me question my criteria for the excellent teacher.

Today went very fast! I loved the activity Kris did for her teaching demo! I can't wait to plan it out and use it with my math class. Also, our reading group does the elementary book which I am really appreciating. Someone made the comment that we used to do some of these things like writing notebooks and it will be nice to do them again. The only thing bothering me so far is not having enough time to find my research sources. I found several on Friday and cannot gain access to them, or I find so much stuff I get distracted. During the school year I often think how nice it would be to go on line for the topics I need help with and find activities or research. It's nice to be able to do that now.

WebQuesting

I loved webquesting! So often we just turn students loose on the internet to find material. I like the control that "questing" offers. Kris made the suggestion of having my college level students design their own webquest as well which is great for a few of my research-oriented writing classes.

BTW Kris, although I have absolutely NO idea the mathematical application of the tessellations, the designs were really awesome to play with - I will make this a bookmark for future diversions!

believing/doubting

The believing game/doubting game was a good way to get into a different frame of mind. I think it will be beneficial to my students in teaching them to make good arguments and a persuasive thinking activity. It could lead up to doing debates, which is something new I want to try this year with my students. I can also utilize it myself in writing the inquiry paper to see both sides of the issue and be able to refute possible arguments that others may see as problematic.

Webquest & Cutting

I really enjoyed the lesson that Kris did this morning on webquests. Wow!! As a "math" person I liked seeing and working with the tessellations. I found several useful webquests for 1st grade once we were given "permission" to just play before lunch. This afternoon I was a bit nervous when cutting apart my personal essay. I was having trouble seeing it any different than my completed copy. However, I agree with some of the changes that Jayne did. Thanks, Jayne! I plan to incorporate them into my final draft.

webquest

I really enjoyed the demo lesson. It was very helpful to have the time to explore. I was able to find areas that I could use with first grade in multiple subject areas. I believe since it involves the computer my class would be eager participants.

Demo

I really enjoyed the webquest activity. This is the kind of stuff I'm looking for.

Kris' demo

This demo was very exciting. I found webquests that I can use in grade 3. I can't wait to start. Thank you for introducing me webquests!

Webquests

Thank you Kris! Just in the little time we had to explore I really found a lot of information I can use with my students! Your presentation was also great! I bet the students can not wait for that unit!

Kris did a great job.

I have always struggled with ways to use the computer effectively with my 6th graders. Kris!!!!Thanks!!!The webquests will really help me. I can now see the application for a variety of topics. I have heard student teachers discuss webquests, but I wasn't really familiar with them. Now I'm excited to start exploring. I had a great time creating quilt patterns on the tessellation exercise. I'm visual and need to manipulate things to see what a finished product will look like. Great job. I got some useful information.

Blogging Monday

Hey Folks,

Ideas for todays' blog:

The Awesome Teaching Demo on Webquests
The "Believing Game" and the "Doubting Game."
Cutting up the Drafts
Reading Group Debriefing
Teachers and Excellence.
Thoughts on the papers/assignments.

Of Course Feel Free to come up with your own topic.