Pirates and Technology

As I was completing the physical map of North Carolina [for our history class], I noticed that the shoreline of North Carolina was very unique. I know that this might sound silly, but I have been all over the North Western part of North Carolina, but I have never been to the coast. My Husband told me that North Carolina is one of the few places in the world that has coastline like ours, and that is why so many pirates choose North Carolina as a hideaway from their captors.

In relation to the readings, I think that through North Carolinas colorful history of piratearing, students could understand more about history through this very engaging topic. In the article, “Internet Workshop and Blog Publishing”, the authors, Dr. Frye, and Dr. Trathen discuss a variety of methods to engage students in the social studies curriculum, with a focus on Piratearing and Technology. Because so many students will be at different levels in our classrooms, it is important that we find ways to engage all learners. Dr. Frye and Dr. Trathen found that through using a structured classroom blog, focusing in on one subject, and guiding students through the research process, that a great deal can be learned by students. For example, they have a great variety of mediums by which to uncover the information that they found. The students do not have to create a two page paper about something that bores them, but rather they build up a flurry of information about a particular person, in Pirate history, and then the students can present the information that they find in a variety of ways. Students can publish the information about a particular Pirate in a creative story, they can write a poem, or they can simply place a journal entry relating to the history of the pirate they are studying. Personally, I feel that this connects individuals and events in history that would otherwise go unnoticed.

In the article, “Pirates in Historical Fiction and Non-Fiction”, and the accompanying pullout, a variety of activities are listed, whereby the reader is processing the information that he or she reads, and then the text is analyzed by each student. Learners ask questions, and are stimulated through increasing their word knowledge, and creatively using technology to enhance the educational experience. Because learning is stimulated through the social environment, knowledge is imparted from the teacher, researched websites relating to pirates [or the content area], and activities centered on group work, and peer involvement in learning tasks. The activities listed could easily stimulate student learning, and connect what students already know to what they are learning.

I could easily see myself incorporating a mojority of this planned unit of study into a fourth grade study about what makes North Carolina unique. In addition, I think that it is very important to challange children to use their technological competancy to show that they truely understand a topic by using resources that are at their finger tips. The internet provides many opportunites for learning, and by using a guided tool [like websites that have been throughally examined] to research their topics, teachers do not have to worry about false information.

Integrating instructional-level social studies trade books for struggling readers in upper elementary grades

Throughout my time in the Appalachain cohort, I have been told time and again to integrate subject matter so that you can efficiently use the time in the classroom. For a variety of assignments, I was given the task of integrating subjects, and other themes so that the students can get the most out of a lesson. In Dr. E. Frye’s article, “Integrating instructional-level social studies trade books for struggling readers in upper elementary grades” the reader is given research that shows how a low-level reader will not benefit from grade level instruction, out of a text book or trade book.

Dr. Frye’s article gives a wide variety of high quality interesting books that are suited to both grade level content, and yet focus on the readability level for the student. This will prove to be essential, because my students will have the opportunity to read material that is in their readability level. This will allow the students to build their reading levels, which will increase their knowledge, and hopefully provide them a chance to enjoy reading.

If a child enjoys reading, then they will read more, and if they are a low-level reader then perhaps their reading skills will increase. This will allow them the skills to perform better in other subjects as well. The extensive research behind children’s development in reading will help me make a stand if a Principal is requireing that her teachers use trade books. Because good quality literature makes such a difference and students can learn much more from their use, then this is the method that I will use for instruction purposes.

The History of My Name

My mother chose the name Heather for me because she loved Ireland. The flower is a native of the mountains and mores of Ireland. The small lavender, bell shaped flowers are abundant through the months of July through October. I was born in July. I am not sure if that was a factor or not.

According to 

howmanyofme.com

• There are 519,742 people in the U.S. with the first name Heather.

• Statistically it is the 104th most popular first name…It is a very common first name (like we didn’t already know that – Heather C.)

• There are 3,323 people in the U.S. with the last name Yarber.

• Statistically the 10186th most popular last name…Not so common last name!

Heather is a Lavender flower or a very light purple. This also happens to be my favorite color. According to, behindthename.com, heather is a pink or white flower that grows in rocky areas, but I just told you that they are purple…so I will show pictures!

Heather Growing on the Fields in Scotland

Close-up of the beautiful little flowers

When I was hiking with my husband near Table Rock Mountain, and the Chimneys, I saw another flower called Heather. It is actually called Mountain Golden Heather, and it is an endangered species. The Mountains of North Carolina are one of the few places that it lives, and unfortunately, it grows in places where people are likely to step on it. Here is a picture of it.

Mountain Golden Heather

Poetry

Love That Dog

This book was very cute. I liked how when it started that you didn’t really know if it was a collection of poems, or if it was really story. When he told his teacher that he did not want the poems published is when I made the connection that the book was indeed a story. After I got past the “poems that looked like shapes” I was hooked, and I quickly finished the book. My favorite part was when Walter Dean Myers came to the school and read poetry to the kids.

When I was growing up, my father placed a large importance on, me and my sister, reading poetry and memorizing poetry. I can hear the rythmic lines of Sir Thomas Hood, and his poem “The Bridge of Sighs”. My father cried every time that he read that poem. I can also remember the first poem that I ever memorized, “Oh the tangled webs we weave, when we practice to decieve.” – Part of a much longer poem by Sir Walter Scott.

The longer poem is called Marmion, and here is a link to it through Project Gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/marmn10ah.htm

You can find the part I memorized in stanza XVII, 330.

Brown Angel’s

This book has wonderful images, and pictures of young children that give the book a warm and happy overtone. My favorite poem is:
“Summer”

I like hot days, hot days
Sweat is what you got days
Bugs buzzin from cousin to cousin
Juices dripping
Running and ripping
Catch you the one you love days

Birds peeping
Old men sleeping
Lazy days, daisies lay
Beaming and Dreaming
Of hot days, hot days,
Sweat is what you got days

This poem reminds me when I was a kid and when I went to a family picinic it would be very hot. I still liked being there with my family. The poem itself feels like it is a juicy watermelon that has been sitting out on the hot sun.

All the Small Poems and Fourteen More

I thought that the poems in this book were short and fairly random, but genius all the same. The poems that I read included, cow, sun, coins, pig, lions, fireworks, hose, door, turtle, rags, cat bath, snow, potatoes, and book.

The poems that I can relate the most to was fireworks, and book.

The poem, fireworks relates to my life because my children’s first time to see fireworks was on July the 4th of the year before last. We went to the Red, White, and Bluegrass festival and after the performaces, the fireworks show began. Many of the words that were in the poem were used by my children to explain what they were seeing.

fireworks

First
A far thud,
Then the rocket
Climbs the air,
A dull red flare,
To hang, a moment,
Invisible, before
Its shut black shell cracks
And claps against the ears,
Breaks and billows into bloom,
Spilling down clear green sparks, gold spears,
Silent sliding silver waterfalls and stars.

Poems that evoke a plethora of imagry have always been some of my favorites to read.

Book was also a pleasure to read. I have to agree that every book that I have read is filled with a bountiful box of tricks. You find out so much from reading. In addition, my senses are always working overtime when I am reading an authors description of a particular scene.

Love That Poetry

Freeverse seems like an excellent way to get kids interesteed in poetry. Using the book, Love that Dog, I think that students could easily see how free verse can be used as a way to write poems, and even a story. This would be an excellent was to get kids interested in writting, rather than talking about cinqanes and end rhymes.  

The other ideas that were shared also seem like children would enjoy them. If working with young kids a concrete poem would be effective because they can think of all the reasons they like it or why it is unique and then, as a class you can work together to make the poem.

HOT Blogging

 

Zawilinski, Lisa. (2009). HOT Blogging: A framework for blogging to practice higher order thinking. Accessed January 13, 2009 from: http://re4030.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/hotblogging.pdf 

I thought that when Lisa Zawilinski mentioned that, “online communication has become an essential aspect of online reading comprehension” (652), and that these skills can be integrated into skills that students already need to be efficient in school, I was stunned. Ever since I was a student in elementary school, I could see how the internet, and the use of the computer could be used to increase students communication skills. In fact, as the article mentions, via Thomas Friedman, in his book “The world is Flat” that collaborative posting is a skill that will be necessary to our future global economy (654). I can see how not only blogging, but also putting up personal webpage’s for the class, can be a useful tool to increase student understanding, and build their skill base. This is important because when students go into the world they will have an understanding of how to use the tools that their peers are able to manipulate with ease. Looking at other blogs is also a useful way to increase the content on your page and a way to stimulate ideas for ones own classroom. I searched for Kindergarten blogs and found a variety of interesting things that you can do with young children. For instance, reading a book about snow and then making snowmen out of paper plates, and everyday items around the home like pasta and buttons. Blogging will be a tool that future teachers will utilize to push their classrooms into the 21st century.

As Dr. Frye showed us through her Teacher-Tube video, students are reaching out to teachers for a new way to learn. We have to learn how to teach them by using technological methods. Basically ~ !Make it Engaging!~

In Note…I wanted to mention that I watched a news report on WBTV which was talking about how students spend as much time watching TV, and getting on the computer, as they do sleeping each week. As parents and educators we might not approve of this behavior, but if this is what students find stimulating, How can we modify what we are doing to stimulate thier learning through the television or the computer? or other technologically stimulating activities…

Example: Who can text me the answer to this question (insert a question from any content area) first?

Notebook Know-How

Buckner, Aimee. (2005). Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writers Notebook. New York. Penguin Group. 

In “Notebook Know-How” by Aimee Buckner, I was interested it the way that she presented the various strategies that student’s can use to begin the writing process. Most of the time, it is very difficult for writers to begin the process of getting something down on the page. I liked how the author presented a variety of different strategies to use when you get stuck. I think that of all the methods that Buckner mentioned, my favorite would be thinking about a question. An example of this would be…In how I began writing this post. I asked myself, “Why did I like This Book?” and the response came as soon as I posed myself the inquiry. Another idea that I thought was interesting was, “Lifting a Line”, when I write I often jump from one idea to another. In formal writing, I have to outline, pre-write, and rewrite so that my final copy will come out clean and understandable. I think that after writing, and becoming more used to getting my ideas down on the page that my fluency as a writer will increase.

• What are your overall impressions of the book?
• I think that the book is easy to read and interesting, I think it will be a good resourse in my future as a teacher.
• What is the purpose of a Writer’s Notebook?
• To get kids – or anyone- writing about anything that interests them
• What might be your goals as a teacher of writing?
• To get the kids in my class to enjoy sitting down and writing for a few minutes a day.
• Launching the Notebook?
• I think that this can be done in a variety of ways. Students in Elementary grades should be introduced to the topic slowly so that it does not feel overwealming.
• Organization of the Notebook?
• This is up to the students. I thik that I would be ok with any way that they chosse to do it as long as they were writing in it everyday I wouldn’t be too picky about how they decided to organize it.

Internship Responce Week 5

What have you seen in language arts/reading instruction?

This week the teacher reviewed various aspects of letterland and read books about Thanksgiving to the students.

What have you taught in your internship?

I was able to review an emotions lesson with the kids, and I read a Dr. Seuss book to the kids.

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

One interesting aspect that I noticed about lunch time is that they have it arranged so that students came and left on a rather leisurely schedule.

Internship Responce Week 4

What have you seen in language arts/reading instruction?

This week the teacher read a story and then had students illustrate a picture to display what they thought would come next in the story.

What have you taught in your internship?

I have been reading to the children and I was able to do my text talk lesson with Stellaluna.

Comment on any interesting things that you have noticed about your school, the teachers, the students, or the curriculum.

I thought it was interesting that various groups would bring the teachers in breakfast.

The Little House

Author(s): Virginia Lee Burton

Illustrator: N/A

Publication Date: 1942

Title: The Little House

ISBN # 0395181569

The level: Read Aloud

Topic (what it is about): A city expands until it surrounds a little house. The house is moved to another rural area and finds happiness.

The storyline: Alittle house is built in the country and is very happy with its family. The house is passed down generation to generation until the city surrounds the little house. The owner moves the little house into the country and the little house is happy again.

Why you liked it: This story has been a favorite of mine since I was a little girl. It is one of the first books to have won the Caldecot award, the pictures represent the era that the book was printed in and the pictures have a cheery disposition which makes me smile every time that I read it.

What you might be able to do with it in a class: Show students how small towns often become large cities. Have historical photographs of their town/city and show them pictures of how it has grown/changed over the years.

King Puck: Inspired by an Irish Festival

Author(s): Michael Garland

Illustrator: N/A

Publication Date: 2007

Title: King Puck: Inspired by an Irish Festival

ISBN # 006084809X

The level: Read Aloud

Topic (what it is about): A goat and a farmer get a gift from faries who think that they both deserve a reward.

The storyline: A farmer is lonely and lives on a farm with a goat. The farmer reads the same stories time and again, he wishes that he had something else to read. The faries give the goat the ability to talk, and the goat wins the town festival, recieving the title of “King Puck”. The story ends with the goat wishing for books.

Why you liked it: The tale is a bit silly, but it brings the importance of books and knowledge to the attention of the reader.

What you might be able to do with it in a class: Have students write thier own story/tale about a place that they think is interesting.