Am I really?

I think that I am homesick.  I usually enjoy my time up in Boone and usually I don’t go home a lot during the semesters.  However this year, I would much rather be in Cary than in Boone.  I miss my parents, I miss my sister, I miss my Noah.  5ish years in Boone is tooo long.  I used to dream about being in Boone when I was at home.  Now all I can think about is December – when I am no longer in Boone.   I’ve missed SO many important moments in my nephews life.  I’m surprised that he remembers his Aunt Tatey when I do get the chance to go home.  I cannot believe that in November he will be 2 YEARS OLD!

Don’t get offended Boone, you have been fun these past couple years despite me getting into trouble on a few occasions.. I’ve made a lot of good friends and lost a lot of flaky friends (which is good).  I love my friends I’ve made through other mutual friends.. the ones I’ve made through classes.. including both Blocks.  I love you all.  Please do not be offended.  But I am ready to leave.  I am ready to graduate.  I am ready to be back home.

Judy Brown

I found this article to be quite useful in a classroom because it is often rare that every student is on the same instructional level in reading and spelling.  If they are all on diverse levels, the teacher is only hurting them when they give out spelling words that go over their heads.  To have several reading groups and spelling groups is a great way to help these students along.  The progress in Mrs. Brown’s class from the first of the year Shlagal assessment to the end of the year assessment was phenomenal.  The fact that the lowest spellers rose up to the average spellers in her class was just amazing!

The activities/games are great resources for any teacher who has several levels of spellers in his/her classroom.  Words their Way also has many activities that would be helpful in building upon a weeks worth of spelling.

Having separate spelling, reading groups would be a tedious task to plan, the first time.  But once you have done it once and found your “groove”, you can reuse the activities, lists, etc for years to come.

I guess what I am stressing about is that where will I find the time in my 6 hour day to do everything?  Reading, spelling, math, social studies, science, etc and make sure that everyone is on their specific level… no one is being over/under challenged… they are comprehending it…. how to tie it all into one unit?  I am beyond nervous for having my own classroom and seriously doubting myself as to whether I can handle it. :/

“What’s in a name?

That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” [Romeo & Juliet - Shakespeare]

Kaitlin Rebekah Fairchild

I have never been too fond of my first name.  To be honest, I have always been jealous of my sister Holland’s name.  Why did she get the unique one?  Yes, she does get snail mail that says Mr. Holland Fairchild (now Cheney) but I would rather be mistaken for a man than have a bland name such as mine.  I asked my mother why she named me Kaitlin and she simply said that it was a popular name during the year I was born.  Boo, what a lame reason.  I “changed” my name within the past year to Kate.  It’s not officially changed,  I just ask my professors to call me that instead of Kate and when I introduce myself to new friends, I try to say Kate but I forget that I changed my name and will still say Kaitlin.  It gets confusing at times.  Why not Katie? Yuck!  I despise the way that Katie Fairchild sounds.  Also, when I think about being called Katie Fairchild, a horrible memory from Fourth Grade, Mrs. Ellis’ class (she looked exactly like a witch… and acted like one too).  Why Kate and not the proper short spelling of Kaitlin?  I don’t like the way that Kait Fairchild looks when it is written.  It looks odd and out of place to me, and that leaves me frattered.  Plus a lot of my favorite movies have “Kate” as the cute, chic character.  With this newfound spelling of my name, many people will spell my name wrong (i.e. Katelyn) but I am not offended… people always spelled my name wrong when I called myself Kaitlin.  If/when they do spell it wrong, I shrug my shoulders and say. “That looks good enough to me.”

Kaitlin Rebekah Fairchild

I like my middle name.  I think it is a unique spelling of the usual Rebecca.  At least one part of my name is unique.  I would be upset if I had two “regular” names. Kaitlin Rebecca. Yuck.  No offense to any other Kaitlins and Rebeccas.  Anyways, Holland and I both have biblical middle names.  Hers is Marie.  Holland Marie Fairchild – it certainly fits her.  A little tidbit about Rebekah – She married Isaac, son of Abraham and had twin boys after being married for several years.

My Aunt Marie (RIP, you are truly loved and missed) had two daughters before she passed away.  Jacquelyn and Rebecca.  I have always thought it was awesome that Rebecca and I have the same name and Holland and my Aunt have the same name.  I’m sure that it was just a coincidence, but it’s still nice think about.

Kaitlin Rebekah Fairchild

I do not know much about my last name other than that I have some part of Scottish in me.  It has been rumored throughout my family that we are related to Robert the Bruce (the bad guy in Braveheart.. never seen it!)  The only things people say about my last name are dumb.  They are not insults at all, just not creative.  When those new people learn of my last name, they always say, “Oh!  You must be a fair child!”  I assume they mean that I have fair skin.  And they infer that I am unbiased, impartial, just or equitable.  See?  Totally not creative.

Out of the Dust

Out of the Dust takes place in the thirties in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl.  Billie Jo and her parents are desperately trying to survive while the rest of their town flees to California.  During class, we talked about names.  Billie Jo was named by her father because he always wanted a boy, he hoped that with a boyish name she would act more like one and he would get what he always wanted.  Marissa and I got the sense that Billie Jo did not like her name because it makes her feel not good enough for her dad and such an internal struggle for a little girl must be heart wrenching.

Out of the Dust is a free verse book by Karen Hesse and is an easy read for upper elementary students.  However, if the excerpt of how Billie Jo’s name came about is used, it can also be used with lower elementary students.   This book can be incorporated into lessons about different types of names as well as a history lesson of the Dust Bowl.

When using the book as a name lesson, the teacher can introduce other books with characters that may have unusual names and lead a discussion with the class about their names as well as the character’s names in the book.  This discussion can lead to an entry in the student’s writing journal about the history of their own name and/or the feelings they have after learning about different types of names.  Below is a list of books (from Dr. Frye’s mini lesson) that can be used and discussed for this lesson.

Primary

• • Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
  • Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry (Ch. 2 pp. 11-21)
  • My Name is Yoon by Helen Recorvits
  • The First Thing My Mama Told Me by Susan Marie Swanson

Elementary and Middle Grades

• • Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (pp. 13 & 14)
  • Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (pp. 41-44)
  • Becoming Naomi León by Pam Muñoz Ryan (pp. 1-6)
  • Sahara Special by Esme Raji Codell (pp. 150-164)
  • 42 Miles by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer (pp. 2 & 3)
  • The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (p. 25)
  • Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (pp. 3-5)
  • From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun (pp. 2 & 3) and Locomotion (p. 21) by Jacqueline Woodson

High School

• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (pp. 10 & 11)
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (pp. 59-61)

——————————————————————-

As a History lesson…

1. As a class – read about the Dust Bowl period. Was the book an accurate depiction of the time period? In small groups, examine the Song Text, Audio Titles, Photographs, and Performers/Interviewees sections at the Voices from the Dust Bowl site. Pick examples that remind you of a particular story in the book.  (Taken from http://eduscapes.com/newbery/98a.html)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html

2. Have students use an encyclopedia and maps to find answers to the following questions about the Dust Bowl: Which states were affected? How far did the dust storms travel? In which years did the worst storms occur? Have there been other, more recent dust storms? You may wish to have students use what they discover to create a fact sheet on the Dust Bowl that can be given to other students before they read Out of the Dust.

From the Scholastic website (http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collateral.jsp?id=1398_type=Book_typeId=4122)

3.  Read more books that also talk about the Dust Bowl.  Listen to music that comes from that era of time.  Research newspapers, books, memoirs from the library about the DB.  Invite a guest speaker that was alive during the Depression to talk about their life and how it relates to Billie Jo’s.

i HIT somebody at Hardin Park…

…accidentally of course.  I am an expressionistic talker.  I don’t think that is a real word.  But when I talk, I talk with my hands.  So at the end of the day on Friday while Mrs. Blackburn, Jessica Knight and I were waving to our students,  I was retelling a funny story about how one of the girls in the class did a complete faceplant onto the floor on the way out the door.  I don’t know why I had to show both Jessica and Mrs. Blackburn what a faceplant was, but I did.  As I was showing my arms flailing outwards, I feel my arm hit somebody’s face.  Low and behold, I had HIT the Assistant Principal right square in the face.  I practically back handed him.  My face turned immediately red and of course everyone around me was laughing.  He took the hit quite well… better than I did.  Needless to say, I was quite embarassed.

What a GREAT way to start off an internship huh?!

UPDATE (September 7, 2009):

We went back to the schools this past Friday, it was an early release for the holiday weekend… MMM that was nice.  Anyways, as we were waving the class off to the buses and parents.. one of the teachers brought up my violent act from last week.  Immediately I was flustered and my face turned bright fride.  I think every teacher in the school has either seen it or heard about it.  Great!  I’m pretty sure I am blacklisted from all the Watauga county schools.  Beware of that tall girl that back hands people.

Hot hot hot…

“The Internet is this generation’s defining technology for literacy.  Schools need to prepare students for these new literacies by integrating them into the curriculum, and blogs are an easy way to begin.”

I definitely agree with the statements above from the HOT blogging article.  How else are students going to be aware of the new technologies if we do not introduce them to them.  Besides just introducing blogging, students need to be actively engaged too.  Students will be easily distracted if all their posts are prediction answers.  What fun is that?  In order to elicit response, the questions need to be of higher order thinking… have the students state their opinion and then WHY they think that way.

I think the best method to blogging is using the blog in several different aspects.  One blog can be a classroom news, mirror, showcase and literature response blog.  The main site can be the classroom news so that family, parents can view the website as a source for information about upcoming events, homework, or any help that may be needed.  The mirror, showcase, and literature response blogs can be separate pages within the main blog.  Students can showcase their work on the showcase page and parents can view it to see their students’ progress, achievements throughout the year.  That way, all students are actively involved throughout the entire blog.  Each student does not have to post on each section, just ones that they are fully comfortable on.  Students can even create their own pages to add to their classroom’s blog!

21st century learners

It amazes me that so many of our students are not getting the technology learning they need to succeed.  As much as the universities are pushing technology in our future classrooms, what should be examined first is the technology in the current classrooms.  Obviously these kids are not being engaged and society as a whole needs to do something about it.  I understand that not all schools are going to be wealthy enough for computers in their classroom but there should at least be a lab in every school.  With a computer lab, teachers can still engage their students in blogs, podcasts, online manipulatives but it will not be as often as they may have liked.  Why are we spending millions of dollars on paying professional sports players when we could be using that money elsewhere… like in the place where the future leaders are supposed to be learning valuable life skills!  I know that this will never change, but it doesn’t mean I can’t rant about it for a bit.  I think the other reason why our children are not getting the education they deserve in technology is the abundance of teachers that don’t know how to do the new technological advances.  They might not understand what it is and not feel comfortable teaching it.  The answer to that is the schools should prepare them with workshops!  Once the teachers are comfortable with technology.. they will then teach their class and the problem of engaging our learners will be solved!

notebook know how

I have always loved reading and writing.  In the 2nd grade, our class wrote, illustrated and binded a chapter book.  I believe that is where it all started.  Through the years I wrote more chapter books and plays on my own.  I wouldn’t consider these works as things that would be broadway worthy – but they were still a way that I could express myself.  I like the idea of writing in notebooks.  I loved reading those pages because when the author talked about the kids in the classroom and what went on, I felt like I was truly in the classroom with her.  I also agree with her that you cannot just give the children prompts once a month.. that will not prepare them for the writing test nor the rest of their schooling careers.  You cannot also keep on giving them topics to write about, they will never develop their creativity if you are always thinking for them.  When you say, “write anything” the kids should write anything.  When you say, “write about your name” that should be enough of a broad topic for them to write.  However, if they are truly stuck, then I like what the author did with Rex.

I am excited about this notebook for the semester but I hope that I can write in it everyday.. assignment or not.

dr. suess is a wise man

“You’ve learned the things you need
To pass the test and many more –
I’m certain you’ll succeed.
We’ve taught you that the earth is round,
That red and white make pink,
And something else that matters more –
We’ve taught you how to think.”

Dr. Suess

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