3321/ mw/ presentation #2

Today's presentations touched on some very significant issues, integrity and fascism. The first group spoke about Chinese fairytales and told the story of "The Empty Pot" I had read this story before but really liked how this group presented it to the class. It was very interactive and teaching the subject of integrity would help children to make good decisions for them. The second group spoke about another difficult subject, the civil war. They did a read aloud of the book "Pink and Say". It was a very poignant story that has a line "This is the hand that shook the hand of the man that shook the hand of the President". It is a hard subject and this story is a good way to expose children to the problems faced in the civil war.

3321/ mw/ presentations

I loved the 1^st groups presentation about "Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky". I really enjoyed their performance and wanted the skit to continue. The milk jug masks were amazing! You all did an amazing job with your presentation. You should really show other teachers how to make the milk jug masks. Group 2 had a very informative presentation about recycling. I liked the poster for separating the recyclables. This would be very easy to use in the classroom and very beneficial to our earth.

3344/ tr/ persuasive

For my persuasive piece of my multi-genre project I will be making a poster of which clothes you should wear for the different seasons. I want to make it a centers type project that children can interact with.

3344/ tr/ descriptive

I am writing a haiku about lightning. A haiku is a short descriptive poem usually about nature. It has five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line.

3344/ tr/ informative

For my informative piece I will be writing directions on how to make a first aid kit to use in weather emergencies. I will make a first aid kit that can be made in the kindergarten class room.

3344/ TR/ order questions

1. Remebering - The student will be able to able to name all fifty states on a map with 95% accuracy.
2. Understanding - The student will be able to summarize the story Charolette's Web by chapters with 90% accuracy.
3. Applying - The student will be able to illustrate the flow of blood in the 4 chambers of the heart with 90% accuracy.
4. Analyzing - The student will be able to compare the images of a healthy lung and a sick lung using a graph with 85% accuracy.
5. Evaluating - The student will be able to judge a debate and give their verdict of the outcome with 80% accuracy.
6. Creating - The student will be able to design a multigenre project with 75% accuracy.

3344 / TR/ Star Trek

Captian Dathon's sacrifice is very worth it. His death was sad but it helped open communications between their worlds. This is very beneficial for all parties involved.
Captian Picard gained insight into how important communication is. He realized that Captian Darthon was willing to do whatever was necessary to open the line of communication.
I know what it is like to go to a place that nobody understands you. When I was 14 my family and I moved to Okinawa Japan. Many times off post there were individuals that I needed to talk to but I was not able to communicate with them. It is a scary feeling to not be able to be understood.
I would make an effort to get to know a foreign exchange student. I would want them to feel comfortable and to enjoy their experience in a foreign country.

author profile/ mw/ 3321

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

This book really reminds you of how to believe in things that you cannot see. I had a read aloud by my Psychology professor in high school and he used a bell at the end of a story. He had read us the story with our eyes closed and he rang the bell at the end. I remember my eyes popping open to look.

This book is so funny. It really reminded me of my own grandmother. She knitted me several sweaters that I really didn't appreciate. I think that books like these are very important to teach children that it is okay to not to like everything but you still need to be thankful for gifts.

3321/ mw / nonfiction

Okay so I have to admit I am not a big fan of nonfiction books. My boys absolutely love them though. They love the books about animals, especially one such as lions and sharks. I have found a website http://www.childrensbookguild.org/ that has recognized a nonfiction author

Sy Montgomery as the 2010 Children's Book Guild Nonfiction Award winner.

She is a very interesting adventurer who has contributed significantly to children's literature. Her latest collaboration is Saving the Ghost of the Mountain: An Expedition Among Snow Leopards in Mongolia. She always uses children in her stories to show children that they can grow up and do this type of work with animals as well.

edrg 3321/ mw/ my favorites

My favorite books to read are romance novels. I know many people feel they are cheesy but many of them have wonderful plots. I love that in the end everyone lives happily ever after. I love to read them because it is my form of relaxation, my timeout from life and I am able to be somewhere else of the author's creation. The books that I am reading right now are contemporary romance. I have also read just about all historical romance out there. I really like the European time period in the 1800s. The book that I just finished reading was Trouble in High Heels by Christina Dodd. This is a contemporary romance with a lot of action thrown in. An attorney by the name of Brandi Michaels discovers her fiance' is has gotten married to a woman he has gotten pregnant. Brandi then decides to live for herself and be extremely bold and have a one night stand with a wonderfully handsome rich man. They are thrown together in a mob scandal and wind up falling in love.

edrg 3344/ tr/ mgp informative

For my informative piece for my MGP I am going to give directions to kindergarten children on things that they need in an emergency kit in case of a natural disaster, such as a flood. I want to provide them information on things that they need in an emergency. I will need to give them an accurate definition of a emergency kit and what is necessary and what is not. I am going to have to explain what they need such as water, medicine, medical information, first aid kit, flash light, food and phone numbers. I will need to give steps and provide pictures of what should go in it.

edrg 3321/ mw/ ch 7 & childrens picture books

okay guys I found a new website that has 100 picture books that are a must read! http://kids.nypl.org/reading/recommended2.cfm?ListID=61 it is actually a website for New York public library but it does have a lovely list. San Antonio public library website is http://www.mysapl.org/kids.aspx this is the kids link. The author that the library is featuring this week is Naomi Shihab Nye. "Ms. Nye is a resident of San Antonio although her roots are in Palestine and the Middle East. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri but has called both Jerusalem and Ramallah home. She continues to travel widely bringing poems and inspiration to young writers around the globe."

Chapter 7 is about Picture Books it states that Picture books are the marriage of literature and fine arts into a unique literary form." One thing that I found very interesting in this chapter is the color choices really have meaning. I had never really thought about the colors that every shade and aspect of the color of the illustrations is chosen for a very specific reason. Bight Colors are intended to make one feel warm, and paler colors are to make one calm. "Emotion and tone in a story can be manipulated by how light or dark the colors are."

EDRG 3344/ TR/ Narrative Mgp

    Fluffy snowflakes silently falling. Twirrling whirling. Brrrr. Cole the bear sleeps away as the winter wonderland happens outside his cave.

Yawn and stretch Cole pokes his head outside of his cave. It is warming up. The snow is gone. Flowers peaking through. Big fat rain drops splat!

Spring days grow longer into summer we go. Cole paws by Jake the snake. "Sure is hot", says Cole the bear. "Sizziling," replies Jake. Dry as can be the ground is hot. "I think I will take a dip in the lake," says Cole.

    "Oh, it is getting nippy, a little chill in the air. Cole looks at all the colors of the leaves. Orange, red, yellow, and brown. I better look for a nice warm cave thinks Cole. "Goodbye Jake, see you next spring," yawns Cole.

    As Cole lays down for his long winters nap, he sees the snowflakes begin to fall. He shuts his sleepy eyes. Fluffy snowflakes fall quietly outside his nice warm cave.

EDRG 3321/ MW/ Favorite Children's Literature

http://www.judyblume.com/books.php
Judy Blume was my favorite author when I was going up. I loved her books the Fudge series is my absolute favorite. The Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing, Otherwise Known as Shelia the Great, Superfudge, Fudgeamania, and Double Fudge. They are great stories about about a boy, Peter and his family life and his very trying little brother, who is named called Fudge. Are You There God It's Me Margret, about a girl named Margret who was dealing with the trials of here teen years. I know that she has written many stories that have been an inspiration for so many.

EDRG 3344/ TR/ Talking in the Classroom

Talking is very beneficial in the classroom. It can be a tool that children and teachers can both use. I know in one instance children can help each other, if one child does not understand something or is not getting it as quick as another, the teacher can put them in groups so they can talk amongst themselves and get the answers. Peer education and tutoring is a non threating way that children can learn. Children are very social why not embrace it and let them help each other. Discussions in the classroom help kids get out their ideas and listen to others ideas give them perspective that they might not have considered on their own. So let your children talk and get their ideas out there.

edrg 3321/ mw/ poetry authors

http://www.poetry4kids.com/images/books/MyHippoSmall.jpg
Kenn Nesbit is a wonderful children's author for poetry.I love his poem Don't Bite Your Sister. This is a great poem about how you may feel about your sister. What you could do to her but shouldn't. http://www.poetry4kids.com/ is a great interactive website for kids about poetry.
http://www.poetry4kids.com/images/books/RevengeThumb.jpg
Revenge of the Lunch Ladies is a hilarious collection of poetry by Kenn Nesbit that involve many things that can happen at school.
http://www.poetry4kids.com/images/books/AliensThumb.jpg
The Alien's have landed at our school exposes kids to the science fiction genre and continues with the school themed poetry by Kenn Nesbit

EDRG3344/TR/Memories

One memory that encompasses all of my feelings of memories is my son Cole. He is my first child from my second marriage. I had a son with my first husband but then had a lot of difficulty getting pregnant during my second marriage. We tried for a long while and then went through a miscarriage before we found out that we were pregnant with Cole. He was born after a difficult pregnancy and had difficulty breathing and was diagnosed with ABO incompatibility. Basically my body had produced antibodies against my own child and my blood was trying to attack his blood. After a difficult start we were finally allowed to go home much to our relief and my husband and I thought our problems were behind us. Well, of course we were mistaken. Cole had repeated ear infections that did not heal and was found to be completely deaf at seven months. Our ENT then performed surgery and put tubes in his ears. While he was on the operating table he had larango spasms and stopped breathing. He was resuscitated and did not have any permanent damage. For following ear test told us that while he probably had some permanent damage, he could hear enough to learn to speak. As Cole grew we noticed that he did not talk and did not say his first sentence until he was almost four years old. My husband and I felt it was just because he was speech delayed due to his hearing problems and enrolled him into a preschool so he could receive additional therapy. This additional interaction only made us more aware of the differences in our child. He did not interact well with others, he would not look you in the eye and had major meltdowns in almost every situation. Cole was diagnosed with Aspergers when he was three years old. While doing research about this I found an author that echoed my feelings about my child and I wanted to share it with you. Cole has made me have many memories that make me feel warm, laugh, cry, were long ago, and as good as gold.

"When you're going to have a baby it's like planning a vacation trip--to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide-books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo, David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland!"

"HOLLAND!?!" you say, "What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy. I'm supposed to be in Italy! All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy." But there's been a change in flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible disgusting place full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you will learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you never would have met. It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you have been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned". And the loss of that will never, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a significant loss.

BUT IF YOU SPEND YOUR LIFE MOURNING THE FACT THAT YOU DIDN'T GET TO ITALY, YOU MAY NEVER BE FREE TO ENJOY THE VERY SPECIAL, THE VERY LOVELY THINGS ABOUT HOLLAND."

By Emily Pearl Kingsley

While pulling my hair out today from my own special child I came across this and I know that no matter how bald I may become I am glad that my Holland is here

EDRG 3321/ MW/ Children's Authors

Two stories that I have loved to read to all of my children are
Good Night Moon by Margret Wise Brown and

Love You Forever by Robert N Munsch and Shelia McGraw
I know that my children and many others love these books, love that someone is reading these stories to them and hopefully even starting the love of reading. I know that both of these authors have been many parents first choice to read to their children. Hopefully they will have many more books that will be published to help continue the early reading.

EDRG 3344/ tr/ RAFT

R Felix the Flea

A Fred the Dog

F Letter

T Thank you

Dear Fred the dog,

Thank you so much for all the tasty snacks you have provided during the past winter. It has been absolutely fabulous. It has definitely been a very filling and very fortifying. Had loads of fun. We will have to do it again next year.

Toodles~

Felix the Flea

EDRG 3321/ MW / Children's Author's

I found this wonderful website for Eric Carle. I love his stories. I think my favorite one is The Mixed-Up Chameleon, 1975. This is a great story that teaches kids that it is okay to be yourself. That you do not need to be like anyone else and being yourself is ok. http://www.ericcarle.com/
http://www.eric-carle.com/image52.gif
Brown Bear Brown Bear What do You See? is one of my favorites because it is the first story that my son Gage learned to read my himself http://www.eric-carle.com/image32.gif

EDRG 3344/ tr/ Dream vacation

My dream vacation would consist of a European tour with my mom. I used to live in England as a child and would love the opportunity to go back and explore it as an adult. We would see all the sights we could see. We would start our vacation in Edinburgh Scotland, go on to London England, and finish in Paris France.

My mom and I would begin our vacation with a very long overnight plane ride from San Antonio to Glasgow Scotland. Our family had never gotten a chance to visit Scotland so this would be a first for both my mom and I. We would be able to start our vacation making wonderful new memories of a place we had never been before. We would go from Glasgow to Edinburgh to see the Scottish sights. Hopefully stopping to see the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is best know as the home of Mary, Queen of Scots.

After Edinburgh, we would move onto London England. While we were there we would get a chance to visit Big Ben, Parliment, Piccadilly Circus, Saint Paul's Cathedral, and Windsor Castle. One thing that stand out in my childhood is seeing the crown jewels. I would really like to be able to see them again to see if they are just as beautiful as I remember.

From London we would travel onto Paris. While in Paris France we would get to explore the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, and the Eiffel tower. We would also get a chance to see Versailles and Notre Dame Cathedral. While there we would also get a chance to tour the Seine River.

The best part of the vacation would be the quality time that I would be able to spend with my mom. Through shared experiences we would be able to have lots of adult conversation. The end of our vacation would be filled with a very long flight home and lots of very special memories. I would love to go on this dream European vacation and hope to make it a reality.

EDRG 3344/ tr/ Writing is a process

Writing is a PROCESS!

It consist of 5 steps. The first of these is prewriting. Prewriting can be done in several different ways but is also considered brainstorming. You can do this by using graphic organizers, semantic maps, or linearly. Basically anything that gets your thoughts in some kind of order on paper and out of your head. Second is drafting. This is a rough draft or an outline. The third step is revising. During the revising process you do any additions or deletions of the existing sentence structure. Add you adjectives and elaborate on the point you have already made. The fourth step is interchangeable with revising it is you editing. Editing is when you take care of all of your conventional errors. These, for example, are spelling errors, grammatical errors like fragment revision etc. The fifth and final step is publishing. Publishing is when you get your finished product out there. Copy it, give it to students, newspaper, journals, or magazines. Anything to get others to read it. Prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing are the five steps of the writing process.

EDRG 3321/MW/chapter 1

    In chapter 1, Living Literature was a very informative section on whether or not all children could learn. I was appalled to find that some teachers do not believe that all children can learn. I definitely feel that all children are capable of learning. They just need people to believe in them. Children will do what you expect of them. If you believe they will fail, most likely they will. I you believe in them they will succeed, they will. Children will do their best to live up to or down to your expectations. As a teacher you will be spending a lot of time with these children. Almost all of their waking hours will be with you in your classroom.
You can make a difference in a child if you believe in them. You also need to believe in the power of literacy. If you teach a child the joy of reading they can use it always. These children can use the information to grow and expand their knowledge of different things available to them. They can learn about different cultures, people, and jobs, which they might not have been exposed to without literature. If you can create the joy of reading in a child then you will be able to open that child's eyes to new experiences. In my class room I plan on using books by Shel Silverstein. There is a wonderful website for children to explore his works at http://www.shelsilverstein.com/play.asp . In this site you can find Silverstein's books that are animated. My favorite story by Shel Silverstein is The Giving Tree. It is a wonderful story about a boy and a tree who love him.

pre during post / tr / 3344

There are several different things that you can do to engage a student in a story. First you can do Pre activities. You can go on a book walk. Look through the book and ask the students what they think is going to happen. You can describe the cover or the pictures. Asking questions can help students to learn how a story develops. During the story you can use a book box, bring out items that are in the story. A glass of milk, a cookie, a napkin, etc. anything that is in the story that you can make tangible for students. You can also do this in the preactivities and have students to make sure to look for the items. In the post activities you can ask questions, have them tell you what happened 1st, 2nd, 3rd. You can use a graphic organizer to have students make sense of vocabulary words that are in the story. You can make all these items cross curricular and use them throughout the day to make sure that students continue to think about it.

EDRG 3321 / MW Scholastic Warehouse

This is a great way for new teachers to get new books at really good discounts. You can volunteer at the scholastic warehouse here in San Antonio. Sign up at the website http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/events/warehouse/states.asp?st_abbrev=TX and they will send you an email telling you when they are having a sale and when they need volunteers to help separate for school book fairs. They will also give you a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase. They will also give you directions. Well happy shopping as your library grows. :)

3344/ t&r / blog #1

How do I learn?OK so some of this project was more expected than others, some I knew but hadn't realized , and other that I just did not know. I know that I learn by doing. I have to put my hand on it and, kind of like the Nike slogan, just do it. Someone can try to walk my through it with either auditory or written direction, but I do not grasp it until I participate and do it, regardless of what it is.

One aspect of learning that I knew but hadn't actually realized was learned in the Multiple Intelligence quiz and that was the Intrapersonal learning style. I didn't realize that I performed and learned best on my own. I have started to realize that I do really well with Internet courses. Just point in the general direction and I will figure it out normally. I do not like a lot of external noises, if it becomes to loud I get very distracted and loose my train of thought.

I did not understand my intrinsic and extrinsic motivators until I really thought about them. Intrinsically I have always motivated myself I know that I am intelligent and can do well if I try. So intrinsically I have pretty good motivation to do well. Extrinsically I am motivated by my family. I want to succeed so I can support them. I want my family to be proud of me and see to be a good role model for them. If they see that I can do it they can too!

3321/ M&W blog start up

Okay so I am using blogger for several of my classes and I am just going to use the same blog address :) just to simplify my life! Hope everyone has a great weekend. I am really liking this 4 day school week!

Toodles ~ Shannon

1st day of class

Today was my first day of class at A&M - San Antonio. I liked it. I was really excited about actually being there. I feel as if I am finally getting somewhere with my education degree. I am very frustrated with blackboard. I can't find my classes and can't make a help ticket because it will not accept my phone numbers. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to take care of all that.