Spring Break

Ah, spring break. Today was my first day of break and my partner Luke and I took the day to shop and visit. We headed to Al's in Dinkytown and enjoyed the delicious food, though we left smelling like hashbrowns since we were sitting right next to where Al cooks:) From there, it was on to downtown Mpls. for some shopping. If there's one thing that gets pushed off, it's clothing shopping and students may have noticed my abysmal wardrobe of late. Of course, to be fair, my young students are not wildly obsessed with fashion so they may not have taken notice, but I am certainly aware of my paltry wardrobe. But, no longer! I am the new owner of several shirts and pants ideal for teaching:)

My goals for spring break:
Write Chapter 2 of my master's paper
Write class syllabi for fourth quarter
Finish composing the dinner theater script for next term's performance
Cook quality meals
Spend quality time with Quinn and push myself NOT to multitask when we're together
FInd a punch recipe for my sister-in-law to be and her wedding shower next weekend
Make a gift for my sister in law to be.
Order shoes for the wedding
Walk every day and start getting healthy.

End of term musing

So 3rd quarter has come to a close and it was a positive end to the term. In Oral Communications, we ended with Significant Forces speeches and papers and they were really provocative and rich. All of my students come from such varied backgrounds and stories and in my heart of hearts, I believe that knowing one another's tales of woe and happiness help you to better understand one another. I do hope that all of my students heard at least one speech that impacted how they thought about another person and that they will take that insight into new friendships or sympathies. In Poetry, we also closed with a cool series of poems. We all wrote odes to and about one another and each student got their moment in the spotlight to hear what others had to say. It made many of them feel special and noticed and I was glad for this. We ended the term with a slam and I was glad for everyone to have one last hurrah:) In African American Lit we closed with an activity that the kids invented. Each student did some research on the history of Soul Food in the African American culture and then had to tell a tale of Soul Food in their own life. To culminate it all, students had to prepare a dish from their life or from the AA culture and present it to class. We had some delicious food the last couple of days and I know the kids loved eating, relaxing and telling stories with one another. Last, but not least, we're been hard at work on the script for the dinner theater. We made more progress than I expected and once I assemble it all in our class wiki, I think we'll have at least one act complete. Very cool! I can't wait to begin rehearsals in 4th quarter!

Techno Buzz

There must be some term that exists to describe the sensation of really using the Internet to its full extent, or at least a level new to the user. I've spent the last hour searching for intriguing RSS feeds to add to my Google account and to this blog. How fascinating to realize how much is out there. Normal hyperbole usually accounts for how much is available on the web, but it doesn't do it justice. Whatsmore, my mind feels stretched and taut as I try to grapple with all the quality information I have locate this morning, tidbits of knowledge and stories on a menagerie of topics. Wild. Now I'm going to look for gradebooks online or how to connect with parents-- as is the intent of this blog:)

Back in the Saddle

Well, the past five weeks have been quite an adventure. I've been taking two grad classes at Hamline and they're both online and both time consuming. I've been juggling school work with grad work with life at home and it has been a challenge. And yet, it's a good reminder of what my students and their families daily juggle. Even as I strive to set high expectations for students, I can't lose sight of the realities of people's day to day obligations. At the very least, I need to model and teach students how to get it all done in the time they are allotted. What must be sacrificed? Time with my son? Sleep? How can I maintain my sanity and healthy and still contribute vibrantly to my school and professional learning experiences. For one thing, the house gets messier and I'd wager that many students live in some semblance of clutter:) Maybe this is a sign of a student's stress level? Usually, my house gets clean when I have a paper to write, but sometimes there's not even time for procrastination:)

The end of the term is fast approaching and my least favorite time is near: grades. I dislike the end of the term assigning of grades because it means providing a "measure" of kids I care about and know, need to get to know better and more. I also struggle to manage the numbers of it all. I have to type out progress reports, assign numbers, fill in the sheets and then add it all up. Why? Because we don't have an online grading system. Bummer. If there are any excel experts out there, or recommendations for a great online site for grading, let me know!

Karma

Today must be the week where I experience things as a student that are really important for me to remember as a teacher. As I referenced earlier, a group work experience in one of my grad classes has soured me on that process of learning and just today, I flubbed up an assignment because I not once, but twice, failed to read the whole assignment which meant that I didn't complete it. Whatsmore, there was a rich resource that my professor posted on our assignment board and I missed it. Instead, I wandered around finding the same resources. Granted, there's learning in the journey, but perhaps if I just slowed down, I might catch some of these things and save myself the self-admonition. Lame. I'll have to share these anecdotes with students. Check out my blog roll in the week to come. I want to check out the new sites I've now visited more thoroughly before I post them for you.

In other news, today was a meaningful day of in-service work. Our school is working to prepare for the Accreditation Review by AdvancEd. It's a great deal of paperwork and scrutiny of how the school works (or struggles to). However, the way our day and discussion was focused, it simply motivated me to understand the strengths we draw from and the challenges we have before us. I don't feel bogged down or overwhelmed and I also feel somewhat cheered to learn how much good stuff happens in our building. Back to school tomorrow. Are you refreshed after three days young learners?

This is thrilling

I am really enjoying the process of putting together a blog that is 3 dimensional. In the past, my blogs have been of a more personal nature (waxing on and on about the glory of my son) or professionally one dimensional- assignments, samples of wrk, etc. Now, here I am, posting and posting without a single audience member, save my instructor, but I'm tickled to death with what I'm creating-- a marvelous foundation for dialogue between parents, students and teacher AND a resource of information about using technology in life and in education.

Here's the old model of how this might work: a professor gives me an assignment to gather information about a topic. I create a number of annotated bibliographies about that topic, three hole punch those typed sheets and stick it in a binder where it's a resource to no one in particular. Now, I am building something organic and accessible. And another wonderful thing that is on the web and among teachers exploring technology, there's an attitude of share and share alike. We all are new to this endeavor (or relatively) and we're giving and taking as we go. How exciting.

So, for today, I've borrowed from Bud, a teacher who started on his Wiki a list of safety rules for blogging. By putting it on his class Wiki I am sure this list has grown from this first edition. Help me to adapt it to suit our needs. Add, amend and give me feedback. What about Bud's list works? How can we positively contribute to what it begins? Anything that needs deleting? Let me know.

Bud's Blogging Experiment
Rules
This is the page for you guys to add and edit the rules that you think will be important for ourselves and for future student bloggers. Please be sure to give each rule a number and to post in a clear and concise fashion.

1. Please, no last names, school names or addresses.
2. Do not link to your personal blog/journal from your school blog; you might reveal information on there that you don't want to reveal on your school blog.

3. If you want to write your opinion on a topic, make sure you're not going to be offensive to anyone as you write it.

4. Always make sure you check over your post for spelling errors, grammar errors, and your use of words.

5. Never disrespect someone else in your blog, whether it's a person, an organization, or just a general idea. You don't want someone making a stab at what you are passionate about; don't do it to someone else.

6. Don't write about other people without permission; if you can't get their permission, use first names only. Never share someone elses last name.

7. Watch your language! We're not at home, we are at school, this has to be at least remotely professional looking.

8. Make sure things you write about are factual. Don't be posting about things that aren't true.
9. Keep it education-oriented. That means that you probably shouldn't discuss your plans for the weekend.

What a day!

I spent a large chunk of today working with a new group of colleagues on a group powerpoint presentation. I have to admit, it was an exhausting and stressful session. Everyone came to the table- literally- with different amounts of work completed and only one person had a laptop to work on. Since the assignment was a powerpoint, and I didn't have my own laptop to work with, I became painfully aware of how my students must feel when assignments pertaining to technology are given in class as homework. Even something as simple as word processing or internet research becomes a big deal for kids who must then go to the library, where their sessions are timed.

I was also reminded of the awkward dynamics to group work. I know that on a pedagogical level that group work can yield wonderful results. Unfortunately, it seems every group I've been a part of lacks equality in terms of workload. How can I tinker with the group project formula to improve student learning and diminish their frustration?

I've located some excellent websites about internet safety that I'll attach. Please feel free to peruse them and comment to me about which were the most informative and reader friendly.

Check out: Connectsafely.org, wiredsafety.org

Blog Rolling

This week, for one of my grad courses, I have been assigned the task of creating a blog roll. Essentially, this is a list of blogs I read on a regular basis. Except, of course, that the only blog I read with regularity is kind of mortifying. Let me explain first, because I will post it eventually in the spirit of honesty, why this is something I read.

I like crappy tv. More specifically, I enjoy crap reality tv. To be fair to myself, I gave up Real World and the Battle Real World shows a few years back, but I have been sucked into equally poor shows since then. Am I unoriginal in saying that it is freeing to watch a reality program that has no basis in my reality? Is it unethical of me to take viewing pleasure from viewing individuals with what I deem to be poor decision making skills? Perhaps...

Long ago, as a adolescent without cable at her house, I would travel to friend's homes that were happily equipped with stations like MTV and VH1 and relish the pop culture menagerie. I watched episodes for the original Real World, whose cast is now in their 30's or more. In college, I could easily get sucked into marathons of Real World instead of doing my homework-- or was I multi-tasking?:) Anywho, I also enjoyed the first season of Survivor, I love the Amazing Race and I weekly got together with a girlfriend to watch The Bachelor. In recent years, it's been all about Bravo and their shows: Top Chef and Project Runway. Unfortunately, motherhood and life as a busy teacher and adult has narrowed my tv viewing time to an hour or so a week. Nowadays, I am more likely to quote a Pixar movie than anything else.

And then, there was a lone evening when my son and his father were at Dad's Class (Early Childhood Family Education-- check out the website if you know of someone with little ones http://ecfe.spps.org/) and I was eating dinner and flipped on the tv to VH1 and there he was: Bret Michaels. Back in the day, I was a typical teen who liked her "hard rock" on the Top 40 radio station. Poison was known to me, as were his blond locks. And here he was, back for another season (the third, I would learn) to find love. How deliciously trashy and fun. The next hour sped by for me as shallow remark followed nearly indecent exposure and cliche interview after another. It was freeing and my mind was emptied of all thoughts of schoolwork, house cleaning or stress.

So the thing is, the only blog I read weekly is Rock of Love Bus because I am not compromised enough to sit down to watch it every week. I do have other pressing things to do:)

When I started to search for blogs I might like to read, I went immediately to NPR.org. I'm a public radio junkie, having given up on Clearchannel years ago. I found their pop culture gal and decided that as a people.com addict, this would be a good one for me, but alas, once I started reading it, I found my interest lagging. And then I glanced to the right of the screen and saw that blog's blog roll and I went through that and there were more hits and misses. Feeling a bit vexed by my own pickiness and the inability of other bloggers to satisfy my appetite for pop culture with every post, I went to VH1.com to relax and catch up on one blog I know I can count on: The Rock of Love Bus.

So, with apologies, one entry on my blogroll will feature a slightly tasteless, but to my mind harmless (and also biting) accounting of Rock of Love Bus.

On a slightly related note, my students learned that I watched this "gem" of a show and were in hysterics. Once the laughter died down, one student began an animated discussion with me about the show. In no way do I deliberately watch shows like this to "connect" with kids, but there is value in knowing or being familiar with some of their world. Well parents, colleagues and students, what blogs do you follow? How do you stay connected with young people's influences and interests?

Post-Conference Reflection

What a week! The flurry of a paper due in one of my grad classes, accompanied by preparation for conferences and then conferences themselves-- oh my! It was a wonderful night of rich conversations with parents, family members and students. I relish the opportunity to talk with families one-on-one. I make it a practice to solicit private time with students when I believe they're in crisis or heading that way, but the hallway of the school isn't always a great place to talk. With the room to myself and time set aside to catch up, reflect and analyze student and student work, my teaching and more, it's a ripe opportunity for excellent discussion. For me, the grade is really a small part of the conference. I am most interested in the dimensions of a student's life outside of the classroom that are influencing his or her experience in the classroom.

I have a confession to make. When I started college, I was considering a degree in psychology. I loved the notion of learning more about our mind's inner workings and helping others to unearth things about themselves that were dormant, in conflict or otherwise impacting their actions and behaviors. All students are fascinating to me because their choice to turn in work, participate in discussion or not do those things all have a root cause or more. Their attitude towards school, their disposition with peers or me all have some core motivation or cause. If I can understand where kids come from- culturally, personally, geographically et al- then I can better teach to who they are and what they need.

Suffice it to say, I have long conferences. SO, thank you to everyone who attended conferences and thank you for patiently waiting to speak with me. Despite the line, I hope you found our meeting to be productive and illuminating-- I know I did. To that end, I think it would fantastic to see parents more often than conferences in an out of school setting. Discussion could include school and student progress, but it need not. It could be about community building, ways to involve parents, book groups and more. Does anyone have any idea where a gathering like this could occur? How frequently would families want to meet? It wouldn't be required, of course, and students could surely attend. I'd love your feedback. Tell me what you think.

Becky's Video #1

Sequel

Do you ever feel incomplete, like something is missing from your life and you know there's a way to stopper that lost feeling, but there's just no time to attend to your needs?

I feel that way about selfish reading. Over the past month, I've read novels for school, textbooks for grad school and student work. All of this reading can be rich and informative, but it's simply not the same as starting a book and galloping through it in 3 hours because there are zero notes to take, nothing specific to learn and it's all for fun! Hurrah! My reading fast is over!

I've just completed the novel "Ender in Exile" by Orson Scott Card. Two years ago, a student lent me "Ender's Game" and I enjoyed it so much that I taught a Science Fiction class last term, something I never imagined myself doing. A month or so ago, another student gave me a new sequel to EG and I've just now finished reading. It was terrific!

This seems to be the year where I read recommendations from students. So far I've read 4-5 novels given to me by young people and I've decided to make it a commitment. Not only do I love having spontaneous book talks with kids, but I love what I glean about their interests and generation.

So, what are you reading? What have you read recently that's unbelievable? What are your top 5 books of all time and why?

I'm also going to provide a link (once I figure that techno trick out) to a survey that the BBC recently put out with the list of 100 books. Apparently, the premise was that they didn't believe most citizens would have read more than 6 of the 100. See how you score!