This was a good evening for me.

This evening was great. I think Charlene and I did a good job in our Article 4 Presentation. And also, everyone did a great job in their individual Writing Process presentation. I learned so much in all these presentations. Now my folder got thicker! Hehehe . . . But the best part that I really enjoyed was the activities that Dr. Rivera presented to us. I'm definately going to use these fun activities with my students to get away from DI. I'm sure they'll love these activities. Out of all the activities we had this evening, I really liked the flower part. I think with the type of questions asked in this activity, it really brings out our inner selves and our sensitive side. Fun, fun, fun is what I would call this class. I'm really getting the hang of this. I'm really starting to like this class and I'm really enjoying. Have a nice evening!

Lalainne

Writing is Exciting!

Everyone did such a wonderful job presenting today! I liked the way Charlene and Lalaine were able to contribute their experiences about Direct Instruction. It was interesting seeing a Progress Report from the Division of Special Education for the very first time.

I liked the way Mary took the time to define and then mentioned all of the strategies in prewriting. She was really right about being patient and encouraging students to do their best in writing.

Charlene, I enjoyed hearing about the vast amount of learning that your students experience and how journals activate their cognitive abilities.

Barbara, I enjoyed listening to the creative suggestions and strategies that you used to encourage your students to build their writing skills. You are right! Teaching is definitely a learning process in itself.

Activity 4 presentations

Writing is a long process that must be practiced. It is a process that requires students to think, reflect, and edit. It helps students improve their spelling, sentence structure, and create ideas/questions. Students must work and practice the writing process. I noticed that everyone was interested in their students writing process. There were so many ways to introduce writing. Keep it up everyone, never loose your enthusiasm for teaching.
I thought that every one's presentation was wonderful. Barbara's idea of an e-essay was pretty interesting. This is really new to me. I could really use the e-essay as another alternative assessment at the end of the semester for my students. Its also a good way to present to parents on how their students are doing. I really want to learn how to do it. I wish we could finish the DVD. I wanted to see how it looked.

Strategies for the Writing Process

Learning logs was presented by Gerri. She presented many ways this can be done. I like the part she suggested using a daily theme. I tried using a literature log in my class which I did not think was very successful. One of the faculty who teaches in my department uses a quote a day. She uses the quote as a theme for the day.

Mary's presentation gave us strategies on pre-writing which I thought was good and something that I'd like to try. She puts the writing process in an organized fashion that makes sense. I am impressed that her students, at 1st grade, did pretty well in webbing.

Lalaine's presentation had very stylistic illustrations. She used a butterfly theme throughout the different slides. I like that she brought student samples to show the class.

Charlene mentioned that she provided food at her sharing. I find that works really well even in my department. She brought colorful samples that she posted on the wall. Like Mary, she stressed on the pre-writing. She told us about her use of graffiti board in reflecting about the book, Faithful Elephants. She modified the circle writing strategy by introducing editing.

This sharing process is very helpful in generating ideas for my program.

Thanks -- Barbara

Presentation

"How you teach is just as important as what you teach." Good job, Barbara. Loved your concept that we teachers need to "buy in" our students and lead from behind. My students need the opportunity to read different things other than books. I brought in today's newspaper. Some browsed through it. I guess there was nothing interesting in it. (I don't blame them. I did not find anything interesting in it either.) I do not have any children's magazine. Anyone, if you have an extra copy, please pass me one. Thank you.

Lesson Plans!

I think that I speak for everyone when I say that I went over board on my lesson plan. I should have learned that I tend to stress out when the work is as simple as ABC. Everyone's ideas for the poetry lesson plan was educational and worthwhile. If its ok with everyone I would like to take ideas from each one of you to use in my classroom. The different presentation and ideas sparked my interest for a new activity for my students.

Good job, Barbara!

Barbara's presentation was quick but elaborate. I hope my presentation turns out the same way, quick but elaborate. Besides the good presentation, I really liked the sharing of our poetry lesson plan. It gives us more ideas on activities and creativity. Mary also shared a good website where we can get poems and even here the real authors read their own poems. We heard Robert Frost's voice and that really gave me a different interpretation of his poem, "The Road Not Taken". Thanks for sharing, Mary.

Work, work, and more work... We'll all be so busy this week especially for me and Charlene because we both are expected to do two powerpoint presentations. Good luck to us, Charlene! And to all, have a busy and literacy day!

I really enjoyed Barbara's presentation on The Authoring Cycle as a Curricular Framework for Reading. Barbara's presentation reinforced the fact that students need many opportunities to do more exploring by reading many different things.

Additionally, I really enjoyed hearing the various poetry lesson plan ideas from our colleagues. Listening to Robert Frost read "The Road Not Taken" was such a treat. He had all the right emotions for all his verses and stanzas. Plus his voice was so powerful.

Finally, the counting rapidly out loud in English and Chamoru was quite an experience. At first, I felt confident counting quickly from 1 to 10 in English. However, when we switched to a combination of quick responses in English and Chamoru, my brain was not processing the information fast enough and everything I wanted to utter was not coming out right. Now I realize why we have to be more patient and understanding when teaching students to speak the English.

Authoring cycle as a curricular framework

I am totally sold on the authoring cycle. I would like to see if we can do a training on how to do this on Guam.

Lesson plan sharing is such a good resource of ideas for me. What other teachers are doing in class and what is successful for them is information I gain that makes the course productive for me. Such as Charlene's special vocabulary binder, and Geri's poem strategy about "I Am From" encouraging students to write about themselves.

Thanks so much -- Barbara

Presentation

Yaay! Lets clap for Barbara for doing a great job. I thought that Barbara did a good job at explaining what the Authoring cycle is. I could really picture the process of Authoring Cycle and its benefits. One idea that she quoted was learners expect entertainment and engagements. I say bring it on. As long as I am still young I can learn to entertain and engage my students to read. The key is the techniques and strategies that create meanings that you would use. Lets all be creative and spontaneous but with meaning. These are just some of the ideas that really caught my eye. I as well as the rest of us can relate to all these topics. Because these have an impact on all of us.
*How you teach is just as important as what you teach
*You move back and forth between authoring and learning to expand meaning
*create an environment filled with books- provide opportunity
*have a variety of reading activities with different strategies--keep interest
*Millennial student is a non-lineal in learning
*Learners expects entertainment and engagements

About Saturday Morning

Hey guys,
I was at the Nikko Hotel this Saturday and I had fun. But unfortunately, I didn't see you guys there except Gerri, who was so awake that morning! Where were you guys huh? Hard to wake up that early in the morning huh? Well, let me just share with you guys what happened at that IRA meeting. That morning was very musical. Students from Mt. Carmel were there to perform all throughout the morning. And the instruments they played were xylophones and drums. They were terrific. I wish I knew how to play an instrument well. And of course they had three presentations and the one that I was able to see was "Panel Theatre with Fire Works". That was awesome. The presentors for this were from Japan and they brought with them products from their country that they have been using in the classrooms for thirty years now and are still very effective. These products were called Panel Theatre. It's just basically using felt like material from Japan and creating different visuals with it. It was a really good, entertaining, and funny presentation. Although it was difficult for us to understand them because they were talking and singing in Japanese, they were still able to get their messege across because of their wonderful product that's very educational. I wish you guys were there to see it. I'm glad I ended up at that section of the ballroom. That morning was a success for me. I look forward to attend upcoming IRA meetings because of that experience, even though I didn't win a single prize from the raffle! But hopefully, I'll win next time.

Yesterday's Class

Hello Everyone
I already miss you guys. I have not laughed this much in a long while. The activity was wonderful especially after a long hard day at work. The stories where funny and Dr. Rivera, what a concept! I look forward to using all the ideas generated by everyone to use the write round activity in future endeavours. I also liked the idea that Dr. Rivera went over the chapter. It refreshes my mind and made me look for things I missed in the textbook. Dr. Rivera, when you mentioned "Don't fear writing" well, that was like you were talking to me directly. I loath writing. But, I am learning just like my students to keep working at it. Also, you mentioned about giving students choices, such as, learning centers. Subtly, I have began planning on how to intergrate all this ideas into DI instruction without rising eyebrows. As I mentioned in class,I have squeezed journal writing into my DI instruction time as of Monday. The students do this after they finish all DI work and while waiting for me to start a new lesson, or during recess and lunch. The students love this new concept. Today, my students were so impatient waiting for me to give them a new topic for journal writing. By the end of the day one student came up to me and said she wanted another topic so that she can keep writing. Wow! If only we had more time and NO DI. I have not read any of my student's entries yet. I want them to keep writing and hope to bring home their stories this weekend. See you all on Saturday 8:30 a.m. Nikko Hotel.

Learned a lot today!!!

I enjoyed sharing my experiences today with my colleagues in class. We just had so many things to discuss. I also enjoyed listening to my classmates' experiences and views on the topic. But the most enjoyable thing today was the "Write Around Activity". And the best part of it was when we shared the stories we wrote for this activity. We came up with crazy and funny stories. Because this activity is such a fun activity, I plan to use this activity in my own classroom. Besides the activity, I've learned how to get the livetext started (somewhat). But I really need to get started on my livetext. It's my first time to do all these. I'm very much new to these things, so I hope I get some support from my class. Thanks in advance!

Lalainne

Totally Tuesday!

Doc, thanks for taking the time to tutor us on the LiveText portfolio once again. You are so patient, understanding and knowledgeable about - just about everything (I guess).

I thought the various perspectives shared on Chapter 2 was very interesting and thought provoking. The review of the syllabus and course description was definitely necessary, because our brains are still in shock after looking at your assignment requirements. But I guess it helps to talk about it.

In any event, I especially enjoyed our "Write Around Activity" today, especially the part about Tun Jose building a gazebo by the beach and inviting the entire neighborhood to celebrate. Have a nice day everyone!

Write around activity!

Good job everybody! Wasn't it interesting! I loved all the different ideas that everyone came up with. Surprisingly the stories came out witty and expressive. However, I have to apologize for my misspelled words in some of the stories. My mind went blank! I don't know what happened. I had so much ideas running through my head that at times. It was fun. Lets do it again sometime.

The Authoring Cycle

I love the idea that the Authoring Cycle presents. Its an idea that allows our students to think for themselves and expand their thinking. I found as I read Chapter 2 that the ideas presented are a combination of many ideas that we as teachers do use in our classroom. The wonderful idea about this cycle is that your able to know your kids minds and thinking. Your able to see their world through their eyes through their stories. They are able to express themselves confidently for what I could see. I visualize also that it engages the students because of the different sections or corners that they travel to. But the most important part about the Authoring Cycle is like what Mrs. Rivera says "The cycle is ongoing, it never ends" and this is what I think our kids need. A never ending proof that what they are doing in class is worth something after all.
As we had on our discussion in class I did find some points to my classmates questions. They asked questions like "How does the teacher have so much time to do this cycle?" or "What was the studies time line?" These are questions we have to ask when an idea is introduced. The question that I ask also is "What happens to the students who go through the cycle when they move on to the next class level?"

Chapter 3 assignment

I'm glad to do the Chapter 3 assignment - authoring cycle for reading - because I can use it in my own teaching. I hope I can bring out some other ideas for strategies in using this type of curriculum.

Barbara

Did I get it right this time?

I'm hoping that I get this right this time. I've been trying to blog but I never seem to get it right. Well, let me talk about my day today. I'm stressed out (as usual). My students and the work I do stresses me out. But they also make me happy. I'm even happier now that I finally perfected this blog (I hope).

Lalainne

Made It

As with the ED 646 blog, going through Yahoo also worked for this blog. Thank you.
However, I am still showing as Reading Workshop.
Barbara

It's Wednesday

Geri, I have not found you annoying yet! We have been drilled by Dr. Dungca about daily learning logs for many semesters. It is coming all back to me. I have TRIED to keep it up even in my daily teaching live. It is helpful, especially when parents start complaining.
Charlene, it is true about "teaching is like war." It is same in the 1st grade. Absoultely no suport from fellow teachers, adminstration, and parents. No wonder new teachers are dropping like flies after a few years of teaching. Hope to see you at the IRA meeting on February 10th.
Dr. Rivera, what do you think of my poetry/poem idea? Can I start on it?
Mary