One Little Word

Ali Edwards at {A} encourages the readers of her blog to choose one WORD to focus on throughout the year.

I am loving this inspirational idea. This year I have spent a lot of time with words and just recently found your site through Ruth at twowritingteachers.wordpress.com. After some contemplation, my word for the year is STRETCH. (Not too thin, I hope!) I need to stretch physically. As a teacher, I am always stretched mentally. I need to encourage my students to stretch. I also need to stretch myself out of comfortable routines in order to get more out of life.


Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/swamibu/2911042795/

P.S. Hmmm... My word was not included on the l-o-n-g list of words at Ali's blog. So, I "searched" for it assuming that it had been lost in the blogosphere. Not true and I was not the only one with this word. Maybe it is some sort of sign that this is not my word. I guess I must think about this some more.

Celebrate the Author - Reading Challenge

Becky at Becky's Book Reviews has posted this challenge. Click here to read more.

I began by trying to find the birthdays of the Lipstick Chronicle authors. I have not read many of their books but enjoy their blog. It was not easy to find their birthdays, so Elaine Viets and Nancy Martin are in limbo at the bottom of my list. Maybe I will discover their birthdays before the challenge is over or perhaps they will need to be part of next year's list. Here is my list of possibilities.

January 28 - Harley Jane Kozak - I read Dating Dead Men.
February 1 - Meg Cabot - I read Size 12 is not Fat.
March 5 - Mem Fox (alternate Lois Lowry)
April 12 - Donna Andrews
May 6 - Kate Collins
June 26 - Charlotte Zolotow (alternate Robert Munsch)
July 29 - Kate Flora
August 18 - Paula Danziger
September 21 - Stephen King, On Writing
October 19 - Sarah Strohmeyer
November 25 - Charlaine Harris
December 19 - Eve Bunting

Elaine Viets
Nancy Martin

Remembering - Creating Memories

Stacey at Two Writing Teachers has made me think again. (That's the whole idea, right?)

At the end of each quarter we try to take some time to reflect on the accomplishments and set some goals for each student. I think this ties in perfectly with Stacey's thoughts.

I found a couple of sites that I think might help us to "remember" first quarter. Beth Lewis has an example of an "I Remember" poem at About.com: Elementary Education. I like how this guides the students to think about their first impressions, a field trip, a math activity, etc.... I also found another sample and an online version that will print the created poem.

Here is my poem.

Instant I Remember Poem

I remember popping into a new school year.
I remember meeting 28 students and their families.
I remember teaching about how to choose "just right" books
and how to build reading stamina.

I remember exploring a nature trail.
I remember shaking cream to make butter.
I remember making an accordion book about the planets
even reading word wall words by flashlight.

I remember writing a story about the Mysterious Squeak.
But my favorite memory’s yet to come!

I love the final line: But my favorite memory’s yet to come. Some memory-gathering at the end of the semester will set us up to write some goals when we return in January!

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

Purpose?

I believe that it may be time to decide on a purpose for this blog. It was originally started as a class assignment (in other words: something that I had to do, not necessarily something that I wanted to do). Through my grad classes and more assignments to write blogs and read blogs, I have discovered that I tend to read 3 types of blogs: book blogs, teacher blogs and tech blogs. I suppose that I have the most to say about teaching, but I have some reservations about having enough quality information to pass on to others. (Do I really need an audience for this? Would it be helpful?) I also have had difficulty finding the time to write this fall. A plethora of second graders and an ill family member have required a lot of time. I continue to believe the TWT mantra that a teacher of writing must write, but lately I have felt that teachers of writing are too busy to write!

Message for Me?

Today as I wrote "Don't give up" as the moral on 24 papers for students that certainly don't understand the moral of a fable, I began to wonder if the message was really meant for me.

Written in the style of One Sentence - True Stories Told in One Sentence.

Day in a Sentence

Falling from the sky and covering the ground, the orange stars confirm the upcoming appearance of winter.

Brrrr…. I’m not ready!

It's Fall!

Fall has always been my favorite season. Sometimes I feel cheated when we seem to skip fall going from running the air conditioner to turning on the heater. This year has had several comfortable days and the trees have been just beautiful. The picture is of a tree in my backyard. I have a similar one in the front yard and a burning bush that is a wonderful shade of red. So far the leaves are holding on and so I haven't had to start the raking process yet. I am NOT ready for snow!

Master of Arts

I finally finished my Master of Arts degree in Educational Technology through the Independent Option at the University of Illinois at Springfield. I received my diploma and promptly put it in the frame that I had received from my class a couple of years ago. It is hanging in the downstairs bedroom which doesn't seem quite like the place of respect that it deserves. But... there is a nail there and it fits nicely. I will probably move it up to my "office" after I paint someday. Even though it seemed like forever, I actually finished right on my planned schedule. (3 years with 1 class each fall and spring, extras in the summers) I am thrilled that it is done, but why am I still so busy???

24 Hour Read-A-thon

Can you read for 24 hours? How many books are in your "to be read" pile? This is the perfect chance to concentrate on reading and sharing your reading with others by updating your blog. Mark your calendar for October 18, 5 a.m. Pacific. Check out The Hidden Side of a Leaf for more information.

Day in a Sentence

Day in a Sentence is back at Kevin's Meandering Mind this week. The challenge this week is to write about your day/week in the form of a question. From the dates on my blog, there has obviously been no writing time lately. :-( Here is my entry after a difficult week/month.

How much pressure is too much?

Day in a Sentence

This week Anne is hosting Day in a Sentence with an Olympic theme at her blog, Think, Wonder and Learn with the Web.




Hiking bluff and river trails, admiring the scenery and enjoying the beautiful weather was capped each night watching the Olympics back at the lodge.

Summer Sunset

I took this picture from the back deck a couple of days ago. I think the green of the branch on the left is interesting and I liked the funny little puffy clouds in the middle. I also think that it is amazing that there is a Walgreens just over the berm to the right and a Fitness center sign almost straight ahead. It looks pretty peaceful and for the most part it really is.

15 Words or Less Poem Challenge

Swooping up
Through the air
Ghosts fly swiftly
Into the sky-top towers
For a nightly rendezvous


Laura provides a picture as inspiration for the poem. Check out this challenge at http://laurasalas.livejournal.com/85501.html

Day in a Sentence

This week Jo Hawke is hosting the Day in a Sentence challenge at her blog, MrsHawke.com. Stop by and add your own or check out all the sentences on Sunday.









After about 4 hours, my classroom begins to look ready for students.

Setting up my Classroom

I am going into school to work on setting up my classroom. Why is it assumed that teachers will do this? Technically, we don't go back until Aug. 21 but then we will have professional development activities and there will not be much time to get the room ready. Okay...enough avoidance. At least it is not 100 degrees today, which leads to another debate/thread discussing air conditioning in public schools.

Things to Think About...

I was directed to Katie's list of things to think about for back-to-school (and throughout the school year!) by Mary Lee at A Year of Reading.

It reminds me to keep the students and their needs as my focus. It is not about how cute my room is (or isn't) or the new clothes and supplies or even the what we teach. It is all about WHO we teach and how we can make learning meaningful for THEM.

As my previous district superintendent used to say, "Happy New Year"!

Summer Homework?

What are your thoughts on summer homework? After reading this article in the Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080402231.html?nav=rss_print/asection I will have to contemplate what I "assign" in the future.

This summer my second graders had math "vitamins" to do each weekday. They had 3 calendars (June, July, August) with one review math problem to complete each day. It is not required and they do not return it to me. We encourage parents to check over their child's work so they will not practice incorrectly. I hope that by practicing each day the students will maintain skills over the summer. We compare them to vitamins because we do not want the students to do all the problems in one day defeating the purpose of maintaining their skills.

I also encourage them to read, but there is no required reading list. I guess I hope to instill the love of reading during the year so they will want to read without being required to read. Is this wishful thinking?

I suggest that they continue to write in their writing notebooks and/or find someone to email/snail mail during the summer. This is also not required.

Many of my students are quite busy with a ton of activities during the summer, but I also know that some of them spend the summer at the babysitter. As always, balancing their needs and motivating them to "practice" without a requirement is an interesting challenge.

15 Words or Less Poem Challenge

Cooperation
Around and around
Intertwined
Yet separate
Working together
Creating
A team
Work of art

Check out this challenge at http://laurasalas.livejournal.com/84255.html

Almost There!

My grad committee approved my project. Yeah!! I just have to make some minor adjustments to the paper so it can be stored for posterity in the records department. I plan to print it off, have it bound thinly without using metal, and submit 2 copies on Thursday.

Image from http://www.morguefile.com

Beetles!

These pretty, but nasty little bugs are everywhere. My parents' apple tree is completely brown! When you look at the leaves, you can see 12 - 15 beetles on each leaf. This picture is from the ivy in the front of my house. There are two different kinds and they like one particularly well. I have been picking them off of the day lilies and spraying the burning bush. Hopefully, they will move on soon, but with no real predators I'm not sure what the future holds.

Cookies & Committee Meeting

I have distributed the paper and dvd to each committee member.
I have baked the required treat to distribute at the meeting.
I am wondering what else I need to be doing before my (hopefully) final grad school committee meeting.

At least the cookies are yummy! ...and I feel like it was a highly productive master's project for a degree in Educational Technology. I spent a lot of time evaluating software, developing screencasts and incorporating them into videos to offer short tutorials on topics of interest to beginning teachers. It touched on all my classes in my degree plan. Wish me luck tomorrow!

Reading Poetry

I found these 3 poetry books at Tuesday Morning proving you just never know where you can find a great book!



The Ocean Is... compares the ocean to other places familiar to children. For instance, a closeup picture of a shark compares the ocean to a dentist's office. This book has gorgeous photographs by Norbert Wu.






Hot Potato: mealtime rhymes was written by Neil Philip. This one has some tricky words such as placidly, persist and tureen, but they work into the known subjects visited in this book with poems about cake, jelly sandwiches, picnics and the cafeteria.




Swing around the Sun by Barbara Juster Esbensen contains poems that take you through the seasons of the year. These poems are accompanied by the artwork of Cheng-Khee Chee, Janice Lee Porter, Mary GrandPre and Stephen Gammel. The artists create a visual playground that is just as fun as reading the poetry.

Day in a Sentence

Check out Kevin's Meandering Mind to learn more about this challenge.

My entry this week:
The sun breaks though the clouds as my master's project nears completion.

15 Words or Less Poem Challenge

I found this weekly challenge at Laura Salas' blog: Writing the World for Kids. http://laurasalas.livejournal.com She provides the picture as inspiration for a quick poem. http://laurasalas.livejournal.com/83010.html



Radiance
Morning arrives
Slowly drifting in
As my eyes open
to the glory of the day.

Spell with Flickr

This is a fun tool! It takes the word or words given and finds letter pictures from Flickr creating your word in pictures. If you don't like a particular letter, click on it and it will change to another selection.

link to Spell with Flickr

Ideas are Poppin' in Second Grade

After a trip to the teacher store to look for thematic back-to-school stuff, the theme idea has changed. Now we are looking at a popcorn theme.

I bookmarked some webpages.

• del.icio.us popcorn bookmarks

Here are some stickers.

• Popcorn stickers

More ideas...
• Look Who Popped in to Second Grade!

Ideas from Melissa:

Estimation
Popcorn in a jar

Graphing
What kind of popcorn do you like best?
plain, butter, caramel, cheese

Glyph
stripes on bag a certain color, number of kernels, draw a picture in middle circle of bucket of hobby, sentence along the top lip of the popcorn bucket (see pdf)?

Read poem/song in hallway
www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems94.html

I think it's the 4th one I like--didn't know if happy little fellow could be changed to second grade someway

Different character for math, reading, etc
www.popcorn.org/kids/books/coloring.cfm


Popcorn boxes for homework
www.popcornpopper.com/16605.html

Possible Bulletin Board Titles

newsletter: What's Popping Up in Second Grade?

hallway: Ideas are Popping in Second Grade or
Let's Make Second Grade Pop!

possibilities:

Munch a Bunch of Math

Take a Bite out of _____________

Chew on Some __________ Strategies

Mouth Watering Work!
This Work Really POPS!
An Explosion of Poppin' Good Work!

Pop Open a Good Book! (from Upstart They have some bookmarks,stickers, etc...)

Image from webweaver.nu

More Lillies

Lillies

I love when the lillies bloom. They require a minimum of care for some brilliant flowers.

Websites with a Writing Correlation

This summer I am working on an independent study regarding how technology can be used to enhance writing in the classroom. I have found several websites. Check out the list here at http://writingsites.googlepages.com.

Image from Discovery Education's Clipart Gallery

2008 Olympics

Kathi Mitchell's Olympic Site has some great links for kids!

Writing & Technology

My de.icio.us bookmark tags have been changing in direct correlation to my INO 599: Independent Study - Writing and Technology. Interesting how writing has become a LARGE part of my thinking lately. Compared to the links on my school web page where writing workshop only has ONE link!

Science is still obviously a big part of my teaching. but I was surprised that math is such a major part. Although, it is relatively easy to find sites that drill math skills. I also use several of these sites for review and practice with my students.

Happy Fourth of July!

Day in a Sentence

Here is my entry for this week.

Graduate school projects consume my time!

Now you know why I haven't been blogging. :-)

This challenge comes from Kevin's Meandering Mind .

Day/Week in a Sentence

This week brings randomness due to no established summer schedule.

Remember: This challenge comes from Kevin's Meandering Mind .

Summer Goals

It's Summer Break time here in the midwest!

I have some goals in mind but find that I do better if I actually make lists. So here it goes...

1. Finish graduate school! (1 project left and 2 committee meetings)

2. Read professionally: Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor (Check out a recommendation here. )and the daily 5 by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser.

3. Start walking again (at least 4 days a week). I ran into a definite time crunch at the end of school and now I am having a terrible time starting again!

4. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Think healthy. :-)

5. Sand whiteboards for classroom. Dad and I cut the huge shower board from Menard's last fall. My old boards are showing a lot of wear.

Hopefully, actually writing them will help me stick to them.

Theme Thoughts

I needed a place to gather my thoughts & sites for next year's theme. Yes, it does seem early to be thinking about this, but I generally need to let the thoughts simmer for a while before they grow into real "do-able" ideas. So here is my spot to collect ideas...



Melissa thought about a sunglasses type theme last year with
• Our Future Looks So Bright, That We Have To Wear Shades
Here are some pictures and some other word thoughts.

•"Sun"sational Second Graders
• Our future is bright!
• So smart - we shine!
• School is for the Cool!
• Brilliant
• reflection

I've Got a Hunch
This is a Bright Bunch!
See Bulletin Board



More web sites with beginning of school stuff:
• Back to School
• Bulletin Boards
• Shades of Summer - Art Lesson
• Fall Bulletin Boards (Look 3 from bottom of page for sunglasses theme)
• Theme Ideas (Look at #5: Cool Cats)

Possible cubby hangers?
• sun w/ sunglasses

Words: Wonderful Words

I used my recipe poem to create a Wordle cloud. Fun! 
It might be an interesting way to practice spelling, word wall or vocabulary words.


(Click on the picture for a larger view.)

I try to read Donovan's Word Jar to get kids excited about words, but it has been difficult lately to squeeze in this chapter book even though it is short.  In the process of purging some educational magazines I found Max's Words as a suggested book.  A picture book may be exactly what I need.  I previewed Max's Words by Kate Bank at Amazon and that led to  The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter.  I have ordered them from the library for a better look before actual purchase.  

Day in a Sentence

This week's day in a sentence challenge is to try creating a comic. Kevin suggested using Make Beliefs Comix. It was quite easy to use. I'm not sure that I am a very good at writing for cartoons, though. Here is my attempt.

6 Words - Day/Week in a Sentence

Here is my 6 word week in a sentence:

A whirlwind of activities encompasses me!

It's been an extremely busy and non-routine week for me (...and it's only Wednesday). I hope it becomes calmer soon, but I don't really expect it. ;-)




If you want to learn more about Day/Week in a Sentence see Kevin's Meandering Mind blog for more details!

Color Poem - #8

It's hard to believe that this is my 8th poem. I am surprisingly happy to have written a poem every day. Thanks for allowing me to participate in this poetry challenge, as I am sure that it has helped me to grow as a writing teacher! (It has also required me to practice blogging again.)

Pink

Pink is the color of a newborn's soft, snuggly blanket.
Pink is a piece of juicy watermelon dripping on toes in the heat of summer.
Pink is the sugary sweet growing bubble blown until it pops covering a nose.
Pink is the color that rises across cheeks in a moment of embarrassment.
Pink are the aromatic roses in a wedding bouquet.
Pink is the brightly colored sweater that earns the wearer compliments.
Pink is the polish covering the long smooth fingernails.
Pink is the color of the warm flannel nightgown.
Pink is the color of memories.

5 Senses - 7th Poem

This 5 Sense Poem has a different format than the one that I have used with my students.

Here is my draft.





Excitement is orange!
It sounds like lightning striking.
It feels like school starting.
It tastes like circus popcorn
Eaten under a 3 ring circus tent!






Here is a shared 5 Sense Poem that my students and I wrote earlier this year.

First Day of School
Old friends from first grade
Teachers greeting new students
Cooks making the first meal to share
Tasting hot dogs at lunch
Glad to be learning again
First Day of School