Week Four Post

Today was our first conference with our partner for our Writer's Notebooks, and I think the meetings are going to be very useful. Sometimes it helps to hear other people comment on your work because they notice things you don't, and I actually surprised myself by saying somethings out loud that I didn't even realize were floating through my head.
I randomly decided to write about reading the other day in my notebook, I started to wonder when the love and passion most children have for reading fades into the hatred of lack of time most college students have. I didn't have much to write about, instead I just jotted down a few reasons/ideas I had for why college-aged people aren't as passionate about the idea of curling up with a good book as elementary aged students seemed to be. Then, today in my field placement I noticed so many things on this subject! It's like once you write about something in your notebook, then you begin to notice that same idea all around you way more than usual. I guess my ears were just more open to the idea and my eyes were noticing things I would have otherwise looked over. Very cool!
Class today went well. I am already in love with the Craft Lesson textbook and know that I will be using that in my future classroom. My mother (who is a teacher) is already "stealing" ideas from it! It was very interesting to hear how quickly our classmates altered their lessons since they chose the same one to quickly make them into two completely different tasks. I am sure them when we are actually in a classroom full-time we will have to become very accustomed with quickly changing plans when they don't run as smoothly as we'd like.
I love all the things we are doing with children's books. I am keeping a running list of all the book titles we discuss, or Linda reads to us, just so later I can remember them. I try and write down what each story relates to as well, so with just a quick glance I am remember the story and how we tied it into class. Hope everyone has a great weekend! Go Hoosiers!!!

Week Three

I really enjoyed class today.... and not only because we got out early! Haha!! I thought it was interesting to learn about the concept on "noticing" how some authors write and how we can take those tricks and apply them in our own writing. It's all about reading like a writer, paying attention to the way writers arrange words, the words they choose, and what can happen when you take time to word your thoughts/feelings/emotions in a specific way.
It was very interesting to hear how many things we noticed just from the short passages we read. I really liked the whole "show don't tell" idea. I think this is something we could teach our students to add to their writing and it would make a big difference in their level of writing! Using mini lessons will be a great way to quickly pick into students' brains and teach big ideas in a short period of time. I enjoy mini lessons because I think students tend to learn more because they don't have to be paying attention for long periods of time. Mini lessons can be completed anywhere around the room, on the carpet, at desks, or even outside; using short lessons is a great way to get students up and out of the typical classroom environment but still be teaching them important information.
In my field placement today, I noticed that the students had a reader's notebook. I thought this was interesting because we've been talking so much about writer's notebooks, but I think having a reader's notebook is a great idea too. They use this notebook to write down techniques that can help them while reading, or while taking notes. They seemed to refer to them quite often, so obviously they are a tool that not just the teacher, but the students find useful too!

Week Two Post

I really enjoyed today's class. I am actually getting excited about going to classes now that we are learning such useful information that I KNOW I will use in my own classroom someday.
I really enjoyed reading through the sample passages and trying to critique the spelling; it was interesting to see that we all clung to the negative and what was wrong but we struggled to find what the student had done right. I think that is something I am going to try really hard to remember: Always start with the positive and see what the student already knows. Even as a student I remember having teachers who always pointed out the negative and pointed out my mistakes to the point where my paper was covered in red ink... not a good feeling for the student, and definitely a little disappointing and depressing as a teacher. Concentrating on the strength of the student will help us as teachers realize what we've taught correctly and what we need to spend more time teaching.
I am excited to start our field placement and begin to apply what we're learning to an actual classroom setting, and I'm also ready to find situations that I do not know how to handle and then bring them into our class and discuss the solutions so that I know for the next time. Teaching is definitely a career that take some trial and error; we will never actually know how to handle certain situations or what will come up in the classroom until we start our time in the classroom.

Week One Post

I have never blogged before, but I am very excited about starting one. I've always kept a journal and I really enjoy writing, but I think learning how to blog and gaining some experience in doing so will be very helpful with my future students. The students I will be teaching will be used to technology and most of them will probably be more accustomed to blogging than to journaling. I really enjoyed the activity we did today in class with the name article; after reading the article I was able to think more clearly about my own name and really enjoyed writing down some of my thoughts. I think it's important to start reading like a writer and writing like a reader. I wrote my name article in a way that would be interesting to readers, I think this is definitely a skill students need to learn at a young age. I am really looking forward to this semester and all the things we will be learning in this class, but most of all I am glad we are being "required" to write weekly!  A little bit of "me time" is always nice!! =)