Hello, for all of you who are taking the Praxis test PLT 0522 I found Don’s old education psychology blog. On his blog are powerpoints, which I believe will serve as a good review!!!! Here is the link:  http://edu223.wordpress.com/

I recently completed one month of taking over the classroom! I cannot believe how fast time went by! In the beginning I thought this month would feel like forever, since I was having to do all of the preparation, delivery, et cetera; however, it was ended up being the complete opposite! I learned so much about classroom management, and especially about behavior! Taking over the classroom was such a great experience, especially when you have a strong lead teacher who was always there for support!!!!

Gary Hogg is a children’s author and storyteller, who recently visited our school this past week. While he was at the school, we had an assembly, and he visited individual classes in an attempt to get students excited about writing! I was able to sit in on one of his classes, and here are a few of his suggestions, ENJOY!!!!:

Easy Writing Tips:

1. Writing is a process, not an event. It’s not how much time I write, but how many times I write. Even kindergartners and first graders should get in the habit of working on the same story or picture more than one time.

2. Smaller writing blocks done frequently will produce better detail driven stories. Students who always write until they’re bored think writing is boring.

3. Simple ideas are best. The more you know about something the easier it is to write about it. Students often choose to write about things they want to know about instead of things they already know about.

4. Erasers are not needed for rough drafts. Students often want to make the rough draft look like a final draft. Remember, criticizing a rough draft for mechanical errors is like telling someone they can play in the mud and then getting upset when they get dirty.

5. Revising should be a done while writing the rough draft. A student who waits until the rough draft is complete before revising will often feel that it’s unnecessary and too much work.  Remember, revising is making the story sound better. Editing is making it look better.

6. Sizes, colors, names and places are my four favorite details. Color words add flavor to a story. The youngest writer can be an expert at putting colors in a story. Size words add pizzazz to a story. Every student has a huge list of size words they know. Don’t let them get stuck on “big” and “small.” Names make stories seem real. Even though a story is make believe it should still seem like it really happened. Putting places in a story establishes a setting. Students should continually ask, “Where is my character?”

7. Write with your students. Nothing will motivate your students to write more than seeing that you write.

8. My rules for student authors. Authors are thinkers. If I can think it I can write it. When I write it I put in lots of details. I don’t have enough details until I revise. I edit so people can read it.

Processing the Writing Traits: 

PREWRITING
Authors are thinkers.
I can only think about things I know about.
Trait focus — Idea, Voice

ROUGH DRAFT
If I can think it I can write it.
When I write it I put in lots of details.
Trait focus — Organization, Word Choice

REVISE
I don’t have enough details until I go back and revise.
How does my story sound?
Trait focus — Fluency, Word Choice, Idea, Voice and Organization

EDIT
I edit so people will read it.
How does my story look?
Trait focus — Conventions

PUBLISH
I make my bright ideas brighter by sharing.
Time to celebrate!
Trait focus — Presentation

National Association of Single Sex Public Education(NASSPE) held a conference in Atlanta on October 9th, 10th, and 11th. During this particular conference, Deb and I, were able to present our research on single-sex classrooms and how we evaluated single-sex classrooms. While the presentation was an absolutely incredible experience, the experience that I received during other presentations was amazing! I have so many ideas, strategies that not only apply to single-sex classrooms, but also just good teaching and instruction! I am still trying to sort out and reflect on the knowledge gained! I also went to this conference with six other teachers from Middleton Heights, and thus we are going to be presenting what we learned to the rest of the staff during our November collaboration! I think that I am even more excited and passionate about single-sex classroom strategies than I was before!

Well, my body has finally given in to the germs! This flu season is carrying destruction…and I am done! I didn’t go to class on Wednesday, and I am so lucky that this week was only three day week! My moving around has consisted of moving from the bed and to the couch.  However, I am lucky that my body broke down this week instead of next week! Next Friday, I am going to Atlanta for a conference, and I am determined to be back to normal! No more “manly” voice, dark circles, fever, anything! All I can say is WASH YOUR HANDS!!!! REST!!!!

Today, we had collaboration with the entire district of Middleton. So all the first grade teachers collaborated at Mill Creek together, and the topic was math. Middleton adopted a new math curriculum this year called EnVision! So far, the reports are good and encouraging (as we have all recognized that there is a definitely a learning curve ). EnVision is very interactive; however the interactive portions of the lesson require technology! Luckily my classroom is set up with great technology, other colleagues within the district are not so lucky! Flexibility and patience is key to teaching!

Ever since I read chapter five in Ways that Work: Putting Social Studies Standards into Practice, written by Tarry Linquist, I cannot stop thinking about how to implement a cooperative biography into one of my units! The idea of teaching students an in depth holistic picture of history and producing a product that the students can take pride and ownership sounds like a perfect way to teach social studies while also spending valuable time reading and writing! I will be brainstorming!

I have always dreaded the grading aspect of teaching, and I think that I always will! This past Thursday was an assessment day in our Open Court curriculum. The first part of assessment was a three-page multiple choice test, which made it easy to grade because they either filled in the correct bubble or they didn’t! But the second part of the assessment my student were instructed to draw a picture of their family, and then write the names of each family member.

The rubric stated that in order to have a perfect score they had to use capital letters appropriately, and they had to add creativity to their drawing so that it was realistic! First off, most of my boys don’t like to add a lot of detail and color to their drawings, and biologically this is true! Secondly, many of my boys were so caught up in not knowing how to spell the names correctly that they started to give up or they were trying so hard to sound out the letters they didn’t pay attention to the formation of the letters. When I finally received the papers to grade many of my students began with a capital letter, but then they also included a capital letter in the middle or end of the name, and each time I had to mark them off.  While I understand and do believe that it is very important for students to learn the correct formation of letters in names and other words, I had a hard time marking them off when we just finished learning the letters….

The following is a link to my RTI article, please click here!

The following is an attachment to my Educational Leadership project:
Leadership Style and Philosophy