Widgets Revisited!

I finally found some widgets worth sharing....

They say cats always land on their feet....

I can only hope that this is true. I am feeling the work really pile up as I try to balance life, home, and work. We did have one break through; our contract was ratified by the union tonight. Of course now there are all kinds of rumors about the teachers costing the district too much money and that being the cause of all of our district's cuts. It is a complete farce, but I can only do my part to correct it with the people I know. Sadly the papers keep printing the misinformation, which only feeds the beast. We didn't get a raise. We have in fact frozen our salaries for three years. "Step" numbers are being manipulated to sound like a raise. Also, the amount is $68,000, not $80,000, which is actually less than other years because of retirments etc. The whole thing is ridiculous. The citizens need a scapegoat, and here are the teachers to take the blame. It is hard to keep putting in the extra hours and volunteering my life away with thanks like these. Someone even had the nerve to suggest the teachers donate an extra $1500 to the budget. This is not something that would EVER be suggested of any other profession. People like that make it hard to keep going.

Widget SUCCESS!

So, what the heck is a WIDGET anyway? 











































Yippy! I figured out what a widget is AND how to embed it! Thank you RobinGood! It isn't always easy to admit that you don't know something; I am so darn proud of myself! I know I am about a decade behind the times, but it feels good to learn something new. Now I just need to find a need for such things. I am not one to add things for the sake of adding them. Therefore, this will probably not be a function I utilize frequently (at first). I am, however, delighted that I can do it if need be. So far, I can add a virtual cat:

But what use does this have?

Well, from watching the videos above, I have learned that I might be able to give readers a bit more interaction. So I went searching for widgets that I could go back and embed in previous posts...

For my post on spelling:


For my post on the Emerald Cockroach Wasp:


OR


Whatever the topic, I am seeing that there is a great deal more out there than just my static discussion points!

Genius of another kind...

We don't all grow up to be lawyers or doctors, but we all have the potential to be something great. Josh Waitzkins and others like him, are geniuses of a different kind. I am struck by how often we forget how much is out there in the way of intelligence.

Multiple Intelligences Quiz » Create Quizzes

Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences

View more presentations from Marie L.

So they want to get rid of music and art to save money....

Why do they always want to rip the creativity out of education?!?! I can't think of courses more important to whole mindedness than music and art! As we head into dire financial times, the first to go is art. We already have a pull-out only music program, and now the district is considering cutting the elementary art teacher. I just want to cry. What is left?

I know that I am an English teacher, but I still have a deep, emotional connection to the world of art. For me, it is an escape from the pressures of the world around me and instead a way to appreciate that world. Art allows me to connect with myself. It allows me the chance to see true beauty in nature and my everyday life. I can spend hours at a time photographing a single object, reaching for its essence. Painting, drawing, creating....it comes from the soul. It comes naturally and pleasantly. Those courses I took were the places I could really grow on a personal level. I improved my writing and math skills, but I grew as an artist through those programs. It is painful to know that students will be losing these opportunities. And for what? A few dollars extra here and there? How many kids will check out altogether? It is a sad time to be a student.

Articles to check out:
http://www.edutopia.org/make-sketch
http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/arts/front_arts.htm
http://www.aplaceofourown.net/question_detail.php?id=236
http://www.whitman.edu/president/cronin/articles/importance_arts.cfm 

Should social networking be a new course offering?

In searching for a useful widget, of which I have found NONE, I came across this very interesting article about the many ways that journalists are utilizing social networking sites to aid in their work. Funny that there is so much to be attained from these sites and yet we ban them from use in our classroom and schools. I often wonder if we adults are just too dang worried about what negative things could or might happen to realize the positives that could or might come of these experiences. Are we limiting their potential in the world? I can't think of a day that I did not jump on my computer and check my Facebook or Google something. Often, I am doing it from my HTC Touch Pro II. Life is not what it used to be...




Do I think that kids need to abandon traditional studies and skills? No. Do I think that kids no longer need to learn how to read, write, speak, listen, think? No. Do I think we need to reexamine the means by which those skills are taught? YES! I know that I want my niece, Sophia, to be as prepared for this world as she can be. Protecting her from potential dangers is important, but I don't lock her inside the house because there might be a child molester somewhere. I teach her how to avoid strangers and how to deal with potential predators. We have to do the same thing with the internet. Social media can be a very helpful tool. It offers more in the way of positive connections with people around the world than it does negatives. We just need to teach them how to handle it.

jewel wasps

There is so much for me to learn...

I am still not sure what a widget is, but I am certainly trying to learn. Today I finally learned how to embed a video in my posts! I am actually going to have to go back and edit older posts now that I have have figured out this RIDICULOUSLY easy function. In fact, I feel like an idiot for not having figured this out sooner. But at least I learned something today! :-)

David Mitchell rants about the Standards of Spelling

"Teaching reading IS rocket science." — Louisa Moats ...and so is teaching WRITING!

I am hitting my head against a wall again this year. Kids can't spell! I am trying not to get discouraged and to continue to think of new and inventive ways to help them, but the sad truth is, this is an area of weakness for me and the rest of my district. We are not graduating strong spellers. Now I am starting to question why. I have only taught for a short time (5 years in my own classroom), yet I have seen the trend. I work with intelligent people. They must have noticed this issue as well. Is the real problem that no one knows how to correct it?

Last year I (officially) made it my goal to find a program to help me deal with this horrid trend and maybe even reverse it. I have had my eyes peeled for a research based program that has yielded results, but I haven't really had a great deal of time to look or any great leads. I haven't even heard of a successful one. When I ask other teachers, they all give me the same old line about it being an age old problem. Some mention that they work on roots and affixes, but that is a bunch of bull. We all try to do that, but if it is not a true, consistent, and researched program, I can't waste my or the students' time. So I continue to search.

My colleague in the special education department suggested a program that she learned of at a conference a few years back. When I tried to read through it, it became more than apparent that I would need to spend whole class periods all year long giving intensive support in a one-on-one format. So although it was probably effective, it was not feasible.

Having been frustrated for far too long, I sought out the help of my friend, the literacy coach. She has passed on an actual program (The Continuum of Literacy Learning by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas) that it is designed for middle school kids in the regular education classroom. It involves lessons that must be done everyday for ten minutes. Although this doesn't seem like much, we all know that it will require a lot of pre-planning and even some sacrifices in other areas, but I think it will be worth it.

I don't think that this will be the end of bad spellers or the answer to all of my problems, but it is a start.  It is a place to begin with some real guidance and research to back it up. I have decided to really stick with this for at least a couple of years.  To monitor progress, I will be using the NECAPs and NWEAs as well as in-class observations. If it isn't successful, I will seek out another program and another until I get it right. If it is successful, I will personally approach the rest of the teachers that are struggling with this issue, but there is a long way to go before then.

Around the world with Cinderella!

I have been working on a fairy tale unit that includes the analysis of Cinderella stories from around the world (Domatila, The Golden Sandal, Jouanah, Yeh-Shen, etc.). My objective is for kids to see patterns in writing. They will start to recognize common motifs in Cinderella stories and then begin applying this to other stories and works that we read. They will hopefully come to see that we have certain expectations of certain types of characters such as step-mothers and supernatural beings such as a "fairy godmother." At first I was sure that this was too "girly," but I have come to see that the boys enjoy it just as much, if not more, than the girls. The final assessment of this Cinderella unit is to have to kids write a Maine Cinderella story. They have to use the 7 motifs that we identified and apply it to our Maine culture. The other day a tough young man in 6th grade overheard me discussing the lesson plan with a fellow teacher and came up to ask if I would want to read his "Cinderblock" story from last year. My first question was, "You still have it?" and he replied that he keeps it on his dresser. He said it was one of his favorite things we did. I was shocked. This boy who loves shooting things, big trucks, and logging was actually excited by a Cinderella unit! He remembered so much of the objectives too. We had a great discussion and I felt so much more confident about doing it again in the future. It is amazing how we can have such an impact without even knowing it.

Balance...Where does my life begin and my school life end?

My father had a heart attack on Easter. My first thought was to drop everything and run to New York to be with him. This is where it gets sticky. I am a teacher first. Always and forever, I have to judge every decision I make by how it will affect my students. So I had to sit down and write out days of sub plans for "just in case." I started to become resentful of my career choice. I started to wonder how many others have to put their families on hold because no one else can just come in and take over. I was struck by how often I feel I have to defend myself against parents or community members who think we should be on call 24/7. When my sister had her baby over Christmas break I had parents write and complain that I didn't enter grades over vacation. I responded with my happy news and they felt like that was "no excuse." I was angry and hurt. Then there are those who are in our profession spouting off about just being thankful for having a job. What the hell is wrong with these people? I guess I just wonder sometimes. I wonder why it is that we are suppose to be these perfect people always willing to sacrifice. Who else is held to such a standard? Sometimes I just want to let it all go and be the daughter, sister, partner, aunt, or friend that I am known and loved for. Is that really too much to ask?

The Emerald Cochroach Wasp....

I found a great science connection for the book "House of the Scorpion" at a literacy conference I attended last month. This book is a fabulous reflection on human nature and the ends to which we will go to have power and life. In the book the powerful El Patron captures immigrants and forces them to become eejits through computer chip brain implants. The people then surrender their personalities and wills and perform only their assigned tasks. This bug, the Emerald Cockroach Wasp, does a similar thing to her prey. She uses her venom to render the cockroach a zombie/eejit. She then does a variety of things such as chewing off the ends of it's antennae to guide it into a lair where the wasp lays her egg on the roach and blocks it from exiting. The roach, still alive,  eventually becomes the home and food for the larva. It is a disturbing reproductive cycle, but it mimics the events of the book quite well.  I was shocked by how quickly my students found the connections. They even noticed the connection to the way that El Patron tried to trick Matt into prolonging his life by making him comfortable and disguising his plan to use his insides etc. I just love when we are able to make connections from things we have read or studied to things in the real world!

Collaboration!!! (A PURRRFECTLY SPLENDID TEAM)

My goal of more interdisciplinary collaboration is becoming a reality! This past week I have worked very hard to teach APA formatting to the 8th graders who are writing research papers/genetic position papers in English and science. I also helped the 7th graders learn how to cite their sources for their human body projects in science. Next, I will be working with the social studies teacher on debates with 7th grade and then on civilizations and different government types with the 8th graders. I will also stand in as the Indian Trader for their colonization game. The special education teacher is helping me to better meet the needs of my 5th graders who span a great range of ability, and we are going to work together to create a spelling program to begin correcting the issues we see in all grades with spelling and vocabulary development. I am just so excited to have such a fabulous team of professionals to work with!

Purrr...reflecting on practice!

I have been working with our school's literacy coach this year, and she recently shared a great article ("Are You Scaffolding or Rescuing?") that truly made me think (purr). At first, I was sure that I was not a rescuer. I do not tend to be particularly easy and even pride myself in forcing kids to work, but the more I read, the more I questioned. I started to wonder about that idea that we as educators have that kids must find the right answer. When do we stop helping them to find their way and start creating ridiculous means of handing over the answers. The other day I was at a PET for a young man whose grade is actually pretty good (B range), yet struggles considerably. I told his parents that he is a very hard worker and that his grades were due to his considerable effort.  He redoes his work and stays in to get clarification. It was after that meeting that I started to question his grade. Was he really learning this material? Was he really working that hard or was I? Was I working with him until he finally guessed the right answers? I am hoping that I am not doing that. I don't think I have let it get to that point, but it is something for me to consider. It is okay for a kid to fail some things and then learn from that. I can't always be there to rephrase or give examples. I think I need to work harder at giving these kids strategies for survival than to work harder at making modifications. In doing the modifications I am not allowing them the chance to fail and subsequently learn. Scaffolding is about modeling and creating independent learners, not questioning and prompting until they get it right.

Camp Kieve... Purrr!

I visited camp Kieve with the 8th graders this week. It was AMAZING. The kids were certainly loving it when I had to leave them yesterday. In fact, I think this will not be the LAST time I visit. This place exudes a magic power of participation and excitement over the students. They didn't even complain about working on activities in the pouring rain. I think it had a lot to do with their staff. They demanded a great deal in the way of self reflection and personal responsibility. It not only challenged them personally, but also as a team. They learned how to better work in a group and to really lead. I think it was also a great experience for me and the other teachers. We saw new ways to interact with the kids through games and methods of communicating. It is often hard to get beyond our habits, but I have some things to try.

One thing that I REALLY need to work on is offering more time to play. They offered some interesting ideas like "Find the Pig." It was kind of like "Steal the Bacon"but it requires them to work together to get the pig across an area while I try to figure out who has it. I was thinking that it would be cool to help them learn better communication skills. They would especially have to work on things other than speaking and also pre-planning.

I also want to work on giving time to write freely. I loved their "solo" time. It was structured and quiet, but they used it to reflect on themselves. They seemed to get a lot out of it. I think this would work nicely into the writer's journal that I want to do with them. I was thinking it would be more like a box of things that would invite them to write- quotes, fortunes, comics, bits of nature, etc. I see some great possibilities.

Working Woes...Twitch-Twitch

Our district is coming to the realization that the money is not there anymore to run business as usual. We are looking at drastic changes which will impact everyone in our schools and communities. It is hard for some to deal with change, which is leading to denial and avoidance. Sadly, neither will work in these tough times. We are going to see building (systems) restructured to house different students, or lose a building altogether. We may have to tuition kids and we will CERTAINLY lose teachers and other personnel. It is just such a sad prospect. But I think what frustrates me the most is the lack of understanding that is out there about how kids learn and how the system works because it will lead to decisions made on false or uninformed assumptions. (twitch)

The Daily Bulldog posted an article on the subject, but the responses are the same as usual. There are teacher bashers such as "Captain Planet" who don't understand that teachers aren't eliminated on performance, but rather by seniority and others who read a suggestion like Joe Haines' and think it is doable, when Mt.Abram can't house the number of kids they are talking about. I might also note that it will cost MILLIONS of dollars to get MTA up to code when the other buildings are relatively new and in good condition. There is so much to be considered and yet the favored response is to shut down a school (never their own towns') and combine the elementary grades. I don't pretend to know what is best, but I do know that this is going to be a huge shift for kids and their families. Some kids are going to be bussed farther and someone are going to be unhappy, but once they get there, we will do our best to educate them and help prepare them for life.

I can see so many benefits to combining schools. Teachers will have more support per content area. They can have more informal meetings with their colleagues. As it is now, we only meet once or twice a year, and even then there is usually some other agenda to follow. When we were able to meet this year, we were able to come up with a new unit for "Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins to be taught across the district. We were even able to purchase shared books! It is just amazing what the opportunity for collaboration yields.

I can also see it being a great opportunity for middle school kids. They will have more opportunities socially. They won't be competing against their future classmates and might even develop relationships where there once was animosity. Personality conflicts with teachers and other students will be more easily dealt with because they will finally have CHOICE about whose class they are in. It is hard for kids to be stuck with the same teacher for four years. As great as we all think we are as educators, we have weaknesses and the kids are stuck with them for four years.

I can see so many more opportunities for shared resources too. Every time a guest speaker is made available to one school, all kids would benefit. This is a huge difference. So far this month, PES has had Ralph Fletcher, but the other schools didn't get to engage in his workshop and KES had Barry Dana, but none of the other schools were able to benefit. This is a real problem. It costs money to have these people come and yet we are never truly able to get the bang for the buck because we are separated by so many miles. What if the miles weren't an issue any more?

I see the issues too. Kids would have to be bussed long distances, parents might have kids in many different schools at once, and communities might feel a loss of connection to their schools. But there are many issues with our systems now, and we have learned to adapt. Kids are bussed great distances to get to Mt. Abram and Mt. Blue for Foster Tech. I don't see kids from Stratton NOT going to Foster Tech. because of the ride. I also don't see parents having fits about having kids in both an elementary school in their town and a high school somewhere else. Also, communities will still have kids attending some sort of school, so hopefully they will not let the child's residence make that much of a difference in their willingness to support them. So would it be an adjustment? Yes. Would it take time to work out the kinks? Yes. Is it necessary? Yes. The time has come for real shifts, but we are resourceful people and we will make it happen.

Reflecting on Ralphie...

So I was anxious to have Ralph Fletcher visit our school and thought his workshop might lend some new suggestions for engaging kids (particularly boys), but apparently he sticks pretty tightly to his books and even in those there is little research of value twitch. "Boy Writers" did offer some interesting things to ponder about our tendencies as educators, but it wasn't especially eye opening. In fact, I was unimpressed by his whole visit twitch twitch.

During the day that he spent with the kids, he engaged them in summaries of his books rather than real writing activities. The one group he did write with (6-8 all in one room) loved it purrr, but it involved a five minute poem exercise. I felt frustrated as the promises of real interaction that I had made were falling by the wayside. The kids spent months reading all of his books, but I don't think it made much of a difference. If we had read a particular one, he summarized one we hadn't read. It was less about the things he preached in his book on writing and more about getting books sold.

Before the community night opened up to the public, my Girls Talk and Teen Voices group invited him to have dinner with them and discuss his book that we read. Well, I made the mistake of also inviting the B.E.L.C.H (Boys Engaging in Literary Conversation Heartily- yes, I made it up) group that is a much smaller group for reading "boy stuff". When he saw the table of boys he practically ran to it twitch, which left the girls that have been reading ALL YEAR feeling a bit neglected. All in all, I was just DISAPPOINTED! So purrr for the boys who felt more than honored and twitch for the girls who felt slighted. But he really did connect with the boys and got them excited about writing and sharing their writing that night. His one writing activity of the night was a name reflection. The boys took to it and felt proud to share- they even got their "leader" to share. So it wasn't all a loss.

The best thing out of his visit, for me, was the workshop presentation he gave on his new book "Pyrotechnics on the Page: Playful Craft That Sparks Writing". It went along with many of the educational philosophies that promote the element of play in the classroom. He suggested a number of fabulous opportunities for word play and playful instruction. I will definitely pick up a copy when it comes out. My final thought on this matter is that I am Ralph Fletchered out. My hopes were just too high, but it was great for the kids to get the opportunity to meet an author. In fact, they are now bugging me to get Brandon Mull- their favorite "Fablehaven" author to come and speak with them. I love how they think it is so easy....purrr.

Purrrrusing Ralph Fletcher

In an effort to promote conversations around literacy in our district, our literacy coach was able to arrange for the visit of Ralph Fletcher at our district workshop and for a day long writer's workshop with the kids in our school. Along with many fictional works, Ralph Fletcher has written many books for teachers on writing conferences and one focused particularly on bridging the gender gap for males entitled, "Boy Writers".

At first I did just as he noted I would, I denied that there was such a problem and took offense at the suggestion that I would have to take away from the girls to give to the boys. Of course this is not the case at all. He offers great suggestions to improve our curriculum, teaching styles, and environments in order to make them a bit more boy friendly. He also brought up some issues that I did not realize I had.

I found myself slightly embarrassed when he mentioned our bias against poor handwriting. I was mumbling to myself about how ridiculous this was until he wove in two paragraphs of handwriting within the rest of the typed text. I didn't mind the neatly scripted letters complete with perfectly curved loops, but the chicken scratch that followed it literally twisted my face into a scowl. I thought, "God, why can't they just type it so I don't have to try to figure it out." I fear that I discriminate against answers based on this repulsion of the handwriting. This is certainly an issue when it comes to the gender gap. According to his research, males are proven to have less control over their fine motor skills. So I marched into school the very next day and started investigating. I asked the father of one of the worst offenders whether he had noticed decent penmanship at home or what circumstances affected it, and low and behold, he mentioned that unlike his daughters, his son's handwriting had always been atrocious. So we started chatting about the brain research and we agreed to start making some allowances for the poor writing and that we would start helping him to find alternative ways of scribing his assignments. We might have to rely a bit more on the computer, but he obviously wasn't doing it on purpose, and it was obviously going to remain a problem for him. I never knowingly scored him harder or wrongly, but his handwriting was having an affect on the way I even approached his assignments. I was saving them for last or viewing them with irritation. I had not even realized it.

Ralph Fletcher brings up several other points that should be taken into consideration, including the use of violence and styles of boy writing. Often, female teachers are put off by the very topics that excite the male writers. It was mentioned that teachers might want to work in graphic novels to engage them as well as allowing more freedom in the writing topic selection. I was most impressed with his comparison to more classic writers such as Shakespeare and Hemingway. Truly, they wrote for the masses with violent descriptions of war and often crass humor.

So I took a great deal from the book. It really made me consider my own biases, however unintentional. I look forward to meeting him in person and getting some time to practice his techniques. I will post more after his visit.