A Couple “Techy” Rubrics

Earlier this week, I posted about the process of determining how to attach grades to chats and discussion forums.  Before break, my students divided into two groups and determined the areas which should be evaluated when assessing the success of a chat or discussion thread.
I took their ideas and created two rubrics.  The chat rubric is [...]

Sundays are for chart-making.

Prompts for Writing About Reading

Originally uploaded by teachergal

I’ve been cranking-out charts for the past hour or so: News & Announcements Charts, as well as strategy charts. Just thought I’d post a few of the strategy charts, for reading and writing, in this forum.
Make sure you click through to the Flickr Pages (just [...]

It’s going to be a busy week!

Week of December 1st, 2008

Originally uploaded by teachergal

I just finished planning out the upcoming week and wow… there’s a lot going on! However, when I realized my kids were publishing and starting a new unit of study this week, I realized I had to create some additional sheets to get them to reflect on [...]

POETRY FRIDAY: The Aspiring Poet’s Journal – Day 1

Ruth picked up an extra copy of
The Aspiring Poet’s Journal by Bernard Friot, in the NCTE Exhibit Hall, before I arrived in San Antonio last Friday. I rifled through it quickly last week and liked what I saw. However, I didn’t really have a close look at it until now… and I really [...]

JFK said:

I receive quotes from Real Simple nearly every day. The one I received today resonated with me. It’s from President Kennedy.
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
— John Fitzgerald Kennedy

I am thankful for…

My Thanksgiving Dessert Creation from 2006.

Originally uploaded by teachergal

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
I woke up early this morning and started reflecting on what I am thankful for. The list is long and hasn’t changed much from last year.
One thing I’m incredibly thankful for is for the right to express my opinions, in writing, freely. Ruth and [...]

Reading Notes?

Using Discussion Forums and Chats I am able to gain insight into my students’ reading lives at an amazing rate.  I know which are lovers of books and which would rather stare at a page than read something they’re not interested in.  I’ve also learned these things about the group.

ALL of them have said they [...]

Discussion Forums and Chats.

Yesterday I invited my students to enter a Discussion Forum.  During class it was a simple thread asking that they post a bit about themselves and then respond to other posts.  Last night for homework, they posted and responded to another thread called Myself as a Reader, in which they described their reading life.
Also during class [...]

Swarming Thoughts

Since I returned from San Antonio late Monday night, I’ve had two days with my students as I embrace my shifted paradigm of using technology.  I really didn’t realize that I needed to shift my thinking in regards to using technology in the classroom, but I did.  And I wish I could pinpoint the one session [...]

Day in a Sentence

Kevin just posted a second call for this week’s Day in a Sentence. I see he’s experiencing the same thing with his weekly challenge that we are with ours… less participation than usual. I guess that’s to be expected since everyone, myself included, is very busy at this time of the year. That’s understandable!
Here’s my [...]

Ruth’s Day in a Sentence.

I’m thankful that my very favorite holiday season is upon us.

Sign-Up to Confer With Me!

My kids were getting ready to publish their personal essays yesterday. However, I knew they were all in different places. Therefore, I allowed them to sign-up for strategy lessons today based on their needs. Here’s what the sign-up “sheet” looked like:

Stacey’s Slice of Life Story (SOLS)

E.R. Visit – A Slice of My Day

Originally uploaded by teachergal

I wrote this SOLS when I was in the E.R. this afternoon (it’s a little after 9 p.m. right now). It’s not great, but since I want to practice what I preach (i.e., write daily unless you’re on a respirator or having surgery), I [...]

PLEASE LINK YOUR Slice of Life Story Challenge POST HERE!

I’ve grown frustrated with Mr. Linky, which I’ve found out is not showing up in many people’s browsers. Hence, it looks like the days of using Mr. Linky are about over.

Therefore, please leave a comment attached to THIS post with a link to your Slice of Life Story Post. Then, we’ll [...]

Writing in Second Person… A Mentor Text by Hopkinson

I was delighted to happen upon Deborah Hopkinson, who was signing books in the NCTE Exhibit Hall, on Saturday afternoon. I’ve used books of hers, such as Saving Strawberry Farm and Shutting Out the Sky in Interactive Read Aloud with my students. So, when I saw was signing her 2006 book, Sky Boys: [...]

Status of the Class

I don’t recall whose workshop I heard it in, but someone mentioned the idea of maintaining a “status of the class” chart so that you always are aware of where you’re students are in the reading process. If you Google “status of the class” a lot comes up… The following, though, is the [...]

Stacey’s Memoir Monday Post: Thankful

We’ve never been the kind of family that’s gone around the table telling each other what we’re thankful for, though I always wished we could have been. However, I think it was assumed why we were thankful for the things we were thankful for… though those things were unspoken on Thanksgiving.
However, as I’ve [...]

C’mon… Join Us for Memoir Mondays!

Link your Memoir Monday Post to this one by clicking on the Image Linky below.

Need inspiration? Just click here for a strategy to help you get started.

I Can…

As promised, I’m going to be blogging about a variety of sessions I attended at NCTE this past weekend. Some sessions dealt with the teaching of writing, while others dealt with 21st Century Literacy, Reading Workshop, and parent engagement.
Yesterday morning I woke up early to attend “Assessment in the Reading Workshop,” which [...]

Unpacking Picture Books

In the past few months, I’ve analyzed a couple of picture books, Those Shoes and Sweet Smell of Roses , to determine the craft moves I can teach my students. As a result of analyzing these books, I’ve developed teaching points off of the craft moves.
Ruth and I picked up a bunch of [...]

Reflecting on Digi-Storytelling

Last night, Stacey & I put together our first digital story.  Although it is quite rough, a bit cheesy, and borderline ridiculous — the benefits far outweigh the potential embarrassing consequences of posting it.  Between then and now, I’ve thought about the process that we engaged in while creating our digital story, as well as [...]

Moments of Clarity

Snowden Campbell presented at NCTE on Saturday afternoon. She shared a strategy called “Moments of Clarity” with us. Moments of Clarity are essentially epiphanies we have as humans… it’s when we realize something big that happened to us in life and when it happened. (I drew a t-chart where one side had [...]

Online Brainstorming Tool

The newest Web 2.0 Tool I learned about yesterday at NCTE is called bubbl.us. It’s a brainstorming tool, which I briefly demonstrated, while Ruth taped me using a digital camera, in the video we recorded yesterday (below). In the video, you’ll see me creating a personal word web, which was mentioned in a [...]

Our 2008 NCTE Presentation

s promised, here’s the presentation, ‘”I HATE WRITING!!!’: A Discussion About Inspiring Reluctant Writers By Writing Alongside Them,” we gave today.
Ayres & Shubitz 2008 NCTE Convention Presentation

Digital Storytelling

This afternoon Ruth and I attended a presentation by Shannon Baumann entitled “Digital Storytelling in the K-5 Classrooms.” Baumann gave us a plethora of suggestions for creating digital stories with our students. In our typical fashion, we decided to practice what we preach and gave ourselves a little “self-assignment.”

So, without further adieu, [...]