Yikes

To add to my recap, I'm still freaking out because even my department chair won't return my emails for an interview!

Recap of class Wednesday, July 29, 2009

We started class as usual with writing in our journals and reading. The reading ranged from funny to heartfelt, and as always, the self-proclaimed reading whore had to share.

Today we realized why and how Maggie rocks. She even shared how she’ll rock wicked hard next year when it comes to teaching voice. I may try to sit next to her again, in hopes that the rocking is contagious.

Susan discovered how portfolios can help all kids and wooed us with singing and gifts.

Julie followed Sue’s presents with a spelling quiz. Boooo! Seriously, she discovered several ways to implement spelling instruction into a writing workshop. Even the high school people were impressed.

Everyone, don’t forget your homework for Ann!

Okay...checked email, checked facebook, watched a clip of a film in preparation for my presentation, checked the blog...I guess there's no more avoiding it. Time to dig into all of my notes, papers, research and get this paper done. Boy, some things never change. My mom chuckled at the fact that here we are X years later and I still follow the same patterns I did in high school. Just don't let my students know. See you in the morning.

Recap

I believe that this is my penance for sharing my journal entry today, but I will graciously accept the challenge.

Recap for Tuesday, July 28th
Journal sharing was a melting pot of emotions today. We hope that Julie's friend will be o.k. We certainly hope that Tim works through his midlife crisis and that Caroline is in a much healthier place a year from now!!!

Our guest speaker Keith Sanzen put a nice twist on Critical Literacy. I loved the integration of Youtube into the literacy block. I especially liked how he introduced the levels of literacy in the beginning and was then able to reflect with students on all 3 levels throughout the year. On an elementary level however, we need to introduce just inferencing for example, separately and spend at least a month modeling and reviewing the strategy. I especially like how critical literacy does allow students to make connections to the world around them and work through solutions for problems they encounter.

Our handout discussions were truly engaging. Sue's article on "Willing to be Disturbed" taught us that it is ok to tell a student that you don't know the answer to a question rather than bs your way through it. It made me also realize that confusion and "different" is good. I truly believe that out of confusion comes clarity. More importantly, if we make the effort to understand why people are different it will help us to empathize. Empathy can only lead to open mindedness!

I like Caroline's artice on "When Kids Make Books" mainly because it was geared towards elementary teachers and 1/2 of us teach in an elementary school setting. It made me continue to believe that writing must be meaningful and engaging for our students. By allowing students to think of themselves as writers and publish their own books for example, the desire to write increases along with many other literacy skills.
Good luck to all presenters. I can't wait to hear all the presentations

Hi everyone!

Good luck to everyone who is wrapping up their paper tonight and tommorrow!

Pam and Tim... thank you for your continued help and support.

Re-cap of my re-cap

Okay, I don't think the post that I posted was posted. Since I have a little window of opportunity now, I will recap what I wrote the other day. At 8 a.m. I can't promise it will be anywhere near as witty as the other day's, though.

Day Four/ 23 July 2009

A certain someone who shall remain nameless showed up late again. Only by ten minutes, though, a definite improvement.

Great journal sharing. I believe if we had time, everyone would have shared. It is always amazing how key the sharing is to building such camaraderie in a very short amount of time.

And now for our feature presentation -- Jeff Lawton, English teacher at Warwick Vets HS. Jeff presented us with valuable and useful information on multi-genre research projects. I think many, if not all of us, are thinking about how we can implement these into our classrooms come the fall. I am hoping to get some version of one completed by our renewal meeting in November so I can give some feedback.

Then it was time for a bit of research, not as much as other days, but I think most of us would agree it was worth it to give some extra time to Jeff.

Discussion of the articles was insightful once again. The key comment, in my opinion, Maggie's quote from her professor -- "good teaching is good teaching".

Hope you have an enjoyable weekend. See you all in the morning. And now that the certain someone is feeling better, perhaps she will be there for 8:30 (no promises, though).

Has anyone seen my post?

Okay...I sat down Thurs. afternoon and wrote what I thought to be a complete (and witty) recap of the day, but I can't seem to find it anywhere now. Did anyone else see it? I will re-do it later on today, if I must, but I don't want to repeat myself if I don't need to. Just when I thought I had the hang of this blog thing...