Do as I say and as I do!

The idea that kids do as they see is completely true. They may not even know what it is they are doing, but they do understand that they saw a parent or adult doing it; therefore, they should do it too. My 4-year old niece, Kaylee, is the perfect example of this. A little while back she broke down into tears because she realized she didn’t know how to read and really wanted too. The few days a month I see her, my husband and I take the time to incorporate even more literacy into her daily activities. We will write our grocery list with her then go shopping. While being at home or out and a bout we will point to letters and objects and ask her to tell what it is. Most importantly, we read tons of books to her. Our weekend always starts with a trip to the library to return books and pick out new ones. I do, however, have to give her a limit on the amount of books we can check out at one; if I didn’t we would need a cart.

When reading to Kaylee, I had started incorporating ideas I later read about in Fox. For example, I always point to the title and follow the words with my fingers. Following the words with my finger has led me to automatically do reverse sweep to get to the next sentence. In the video below I ask Kaylee to read to me. Take a look at her reading skills!

I was completely surprised when Kaylee started to attempt to follow the words with her finger.  Of course she wasn't reading, merely singing and telling a story, but she has a clear concept of how to navigate around a page; including the title. Automatically my mind went back to working with my k-buddy and creating a ELP.
Kaylee
Book handling........CHECK
Title.......................CHECK
Reverse Sweep......CHECK
Letter knowledge...CHECK
Word knowledge...CHECK
I think we are off to a good start!!!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I can’t believe how much I resonate with Lamott. Two pages into this week’s readings and I found myself thinking “seriously, so true” and “I do that too!” For example, lets talk index cards. After reading the first page of the chapter on index cards I stopped and looked around my house. Yep, index cards and little scraps of paper everywhere; bed, computer, fridge, purse, counter. I even have paper and pencils in the car, but not because I think I am a writer and might randomly come up with some great fact or thought, but mostly because I am very forgetful. Yes I use the index cards and papers to make notes, but usually for the grocery list, something I want to look up on the web when I get home, or a homework assignment I really need to start working on. I loved her lines “If your mind is perhaps the merest bit disorganized, it probably just means you’ve lost a little ground…..when a child comes out of your body, it arrives with about a fifth of your brain clutched in its little hands…” I don’t have kids, so what’s my excuse? Lol. I think it’s safe to say my mind is a bit disorganized because of how much I have going on…that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

On to writing groups. I used to absolutely dislike writing groups. I don't remember having writing groups in elementary school or even middle school, but definitely in high school. The thought of having my peers read my writing and then give me feedback drove me up the wall. Thoughts like "what if they don't like what I wrote" or "they will see all my grammatical errors" or even "what if they don't think what I wrote is intellectual" would race through my mind. It wasn't until college I found writing groups to be beneficial. Maybe if I would have had the experience of writing groups in my primary grades it wouldn't have affected me so much in high school. I know Lamott is mostly referring to adult writing groups, but I like the idea of having them in classroom at all levels. I am currently doing my main placement in 3rd grade classroom and hope my master teacher will let me form writing groups for the students to get peer feedback and or suggestions for topics. I am sure some students will be hesitant to want to participate in such groups, but the encouragement from fellow classmates might be just what they need to move forward with their writing.

How many cupcakes are there...really?

Last weekend Kaylee and I decided to make cupcakes for a birthday party.  This activity was perfect for the "I do", "we do" "you do" teaching process.  First I showed Kaylee how to scoop out the batter and pour it into the cupcake pan.  Then we did it together; meaning, I held my hand over hers and we poured the batter in together.  Finally, and this was a very hard step for me to take part in, I let her do it all by herself.  While half of the batter ended up on the counter, as I suspected would, she gained confidence in doing something all by herself.  It also helped her take ownership of the activity.  Since she poured the batter in the pan, the cupcakes were now hers and she decided it would be best if she sat in front of the oven and watched them bake...this lead an interesting conversation.

Hmmm...a 5 to 3 ratio.  I'm not sure if that is fair, but according to Kaylee it is.  It was great to see her trying to figure out how many cupcakes we made total.  I noticed that she can confidently count to 12, but after 12 she starts acting all crazy and just throwing random numbers out.

I know she is not close to adding and subtracting, but the moment presented itself so I ran with it.  When I asked her how many more cupcakes she would have than me, she knew she would have more but was unable to figure out exact amount.  Because she said I would get 2 cupcakes she thought the difference was two and even after we figured out she would have 3 more than me this same logic followed as she then said "oh I forgot, I'm going to surprise you with 3 cupcakes."  I loved asking her these questions and seeing her mind in action!

Princesses and Zombies, oh my!

As promised, Halloween excitement!

This year my beautiful little niece couldn’t make up her mind about what she wanted to dress up as for Halloween. Her girly side was telling her to be a pretty princess, while her tomboy side was telling her to be a gruesome zombie. Being the creative genius she is, she decided to be a…..you guessed it; a zombie princess. She wanted to wear a pretty princess gown and makeup except she wanted her makeup to make her look dead. Zombie makeup! I don’t know about any of you, but I couldn’t resist such a cute girl with an idea like this one. Oh and did I mention how excited I was to paint her face!

So by now you may or may not be wondering how I created such a look, but don’t worry, I have created steps so you can one day create your own zombie princess.

Materials required:
A cute little girl
A Princess dress
White face paint
Black face paint
Red face paint
Fake blood
White setting powder
Black coloring hair spray
Q-tips
Comb

Step one: I recommend this be the step you put the dress on as it may be harder once all the makeup has been done. Buy a cute dress or if you are talented enough, make one!

Step two: Apply white face paint over entire face followed by the white setting powder.
     •The white setting powder will keep all makeup from smearing or rubbing off.

Step three: Mix some black and white face paint together and strategically apply around eyes to give the dead look. Then add a small layer of red paint just under the eyes.
     •Again, apply setting powder

Step Four: Place q-tip in black paint and use to create a cut or sore on child’s face.


Step Five: Fake blood time! Apply fake blood coming out of eyes and nose. Apply fake blood around sore or cut created in step four.
     •Apply more setting powder

Step Six: Take comb and tease hair….back comb hair until it is out of control! Use the black hair spray to create a dirty look.

Optional: you can rip up the dress to create an overall zombie look…I chose not to do this as my niece wanted to keep her dress for dress up parties.

And the final product......

I must warn you, the clean up is scarier than the little zombie herself!

Yes!  This is what my bathtub looked like after my little zombie princess took a hot bubble bath.

Unfortunate Misunderstandings- "Anyone smell gasoline?"

I have realized lately that some of the most random "misunderstandings" seem to happen to me, so I am going to share them with you!

Anyone smell gasoline?

I have to say that some of the most unusual and/or ridiculous things happen to me. Take yesterday for example; I have decided I am never again pumping gas at any gas station. While getting gas I decided to lift the tiny little metal latch and let the gas pump while I throw out my garbage bag. Something I have always done and others do all the time. Yet, this one particular day the lever decides to NOT unlatch once my tank is full….yes, you guessed it! Gas spilled everywhere; at least 2 gallons! To top it off (and I’m not talking about my gas tank right now) I had to pay for the extra gas that spilled all over the ground, my car and my shoes.

Dear Gas station worker, I would appreciate it if you would not look at me like it was my fault your gas pump has a faulty metal lever and no visible sign, or a sign for that matter, warning me of your faulty device.

Thank You,
Misunderstood girl!

SuperSonics Love!

Brief history:

In 1967 Sam Schulman and Eugene V. Klein introduced us to Walt Hazzard, Bob Rule, Al Tucker, and many more as the Seattle Super Sonics; the first NBA franchise for the city of Seattle.  12 short, yet so long, years later the Sonics won the 1979 NBA Championship under the lead of Lenny Wilkens.  Dennis Johnson, Jack Sikma, John Johnson, Lonnie Shelton, and Gus Williams were the starting five that helped lead the team to victory.  With Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton “The Glove” already on the team (arriving in 1989 and 1990), George Karl’s arrival in 1992 gave the team the competitive boast needed to help the Sonics get close to another championship.  While the team always got close, they were never able to obtain another NBA Championship.  In 2001 along came Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks and the head of the Basketball Club of Seattle.  He became the new owner of the Sonics, only to sell the team 5 years later (2006) to an Oklahoma City business man, Clay Bennett.  The SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City before the 2008-09 season and became the Oklahoma City Thunder.                                                 

It has only been two years since the Sonics were sold to Oklahoma.  It feels like a life time ago since I   have watched a game, yet the grief still hangs around for most Washington residents; including the three who created the video below.  There has been a massive amount of mixed results regarding Shultz’s decision to sell the Sonics and the three individuals who created the video used their literacy skills to express how they feel about the decision.

Routman and others say children learn literacy skills when they are enjoying what they are working on.  I think the same goes for adults too.  The three individual who put this video together used the literacy skills they gained as a student and the emotions they feel as adults to create a very thought out and accurate representation of the events leading to the sale of the SuperSonics.  I don’t know these individuals, but I can imagine the time and effort, the learning process, that took place to create this video.  Routman also mentions that the conventions of writing need to be perfect before being published and this video represents just.

This video came at the right time as I have spent the last week thinking about what I am going to write for my vignette and how I am going to write it. 

…now if I can only create a photostory to go with my vignette!

Yuk! That is not my nose!!

Wednesday I taped the first lesson I taught at my dyad placement.  It was a math lesson comparing linear and nonlinear relationships.  I didn’t want to jump to the obvious, but I am afraid I’m going to if I were brave enough to show you my video you would see how the camera added like 3 inches to my nose.  I clearly had a fake nose glued on ;)  I mean there is no way that the nose I saw in the video is the same nose I look at every day!  Come to think of it, my voice didn’t sound like my voice either; well, at least not the voice I hear in the shower or car when I am singing.  The voice on the video sounded an awful lot like my mother’s voice.  I’m starting to think that maybe my mother was teaching the lesson or some evil Halloween spirit took over my body.

All the laughs aside, this is my reflection after watching my video the first time and I now understand why my professor said not to write a reflection until after watching the video multiple times.  I took my professors advice to wait to write a true reflection of my video. 

Stay tuned for a Halloween treat!

Why won’t my words magically appear? Need words Now, Please!

Lamott has been a great read so far.  There is so much I can connect with on a personal level.  Although I have never been a writer nor have I wanted to write for a living, all her struggles in writing I have seemed to experience while trying to write college papers.  As I was reading, I found myself shaking my head consistently in agreement with Lamott.  Everything from tapping fingers on the computer for words to magically appear and then still waiting for something magical to happen, yet nothing does…well for me anyways!  I can’t count the number of times I started “listing of things that must be done right at this moment: foods that must come out of the freezer, appointments that must be canceled or made, hairs that must be tweezed” (pg. 7)  I found every possible thing I could do that didn’t involve starting my papers. 

The need to be a perfectionist right from the beginning also really resonated with me.  I have always been stuck with my writing because I have always tried to a perfectionist.  I have always felt that it would be a waste of time if I had to review and edit my paper multiple times, but in the end I am sure I spent more time trying to get it right the first time around.  After reading Lamott, I definitely appreciate the writing process a bit more than before.  I especially found it interesting that a writing prompt of Lamotts, school lunches, could bring back so many school memories.  I think it is a great idea to get kids exciting about writing and while Routman thinks teachers should not focus to much on prompts, I do think a fun and creative prompt will help get the kids get the creative thought flowing.  Routman mentions that children need to enjoy writing and I think creative writing prompts will help with that.  That doesn't mean I support writing prompts fully; some are tedious and unnecessary.

ps. Unfortunately my words did not magically appear while staring at the screen...maybe next time!

Literacy Blog 2- sizes, shapes and so much more!

Last Tuesday was great!   I absolutely love my Kindergarten buddy.  For the sake of confidentiality I am going to refer to my K-buddy as G-man. 

When I was working with G-man I got a sense that, according to Fox’s five word learning stages, he is past the pre-alphabetic stage and somewhere in the partial alphabetic stage.  I am hoping that after tomorrow I will have a better sense of exactly where G-man is.  Before my partner and I started working with G-man, his teacher informed us that the students in her class are currently “stretching” out words to better hear the letter sounds.  That was the first time I had heard of such a technique; so when I came upon the technique in Fox I was rather happy.  It was nice to see actual techniques from text material being used in the classroom.  For the last few quarters I feel as though I have been reading a lot of material, mostly theory, but not getting to see it actually happen in a classroom.  Putting the text to practice allows for better comprehension as to what works and what may not work.  I look forward to seeing more of Fox’s techniques each time I work with G-man.

I have always known that learning how to read is a big process, but I never realized exactly how many steps children go through.  I especially had no idea children see words as shapes.  It is amazing how children see words differently based on shape and length.  I found Fox to be rather informative with the details of each aspect of learning how to read.  I also found it extremely useful that chapter 2 has so many useful activities; I plan on using them in my classroom and with my 4-year-old niece who is currently at the pre-alphabetic stage and is eager to learn how to read.

Literacy Blog 1- to read aloud or not to read aloud

I found the Sulzby and Teale article to be interesting.  It had really good ideas about how to incorporate literacy into the classroom in ways which may not initially standout as ideal methods in teaching literacy.  I particularly enjoyed reading the section on morning messages.  I first read of the idea of creating morning messages in Faber and Mazlish (1995) and have already spoke with my MT and incorporating it into our morning routine. I originally thought it would be good for children who already knew how to read, but after reading about it from the Sulzby and Teale article I see that it is still a great idea for those who do not know how to read as well.  It is amazing how so many daily activities can help children with literacy…shopping list, etc.

Before reading the Albright article I didn’t see how it would be possible and/or effective to do a read aloud to students in middle school or high school.  I do now agree that read alouds are beneficial at every grade level, but I am still not sold on every subject.  Albright references a study of a social studies unit.  Within the social studies unit a read aloud fits perfectly.  I do not however, think a read aloud would be beneficial for an upper level math class.  I am open for someone to convince me other wise!