Marymcb’s Weblog

Coming soon! New stuff!

GIGGLE POETRY
This site has some fun and kid humored poems

JAN BRETT This is a neat website with Jan Brett, her art and some fun and kid-friendly activities

Scavenger Hunts
Excellent site for content and learning to use web skills

index.cfm
Great website on butterflies, thought about Sonia’s multi-genre project

http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?lesson=EM457
Helps us to learn more about producers and consumers, has some neat activities

REVISION is key!!! In my other life, I worked for the Charlotte Observer and a small town newspaper. I could write a story relatively quickly, but to make it right, I had to revise. At first I was a little taken aback. After all, I had been an English teacher. I quickly discovered that writing for the newspaper was the best writing training I could ever have had. It has helped me to get to the heart of the matter without trying to be impressively verbose. Word processing has definitely helped. I used to write out everything by hand and then put it on the wordprocessor. Later I would write one draft, print it and then revise. I still do this occassionally depending. More often, I write in word and just go back and easily edit. I’m not sure this would be the best approach with developing writers because I think it would be more difficult for them to see the revision process. Even the best writing is a continual developmental process. One of the things I used to do was to have kids self and peer edit with specific editing sheets so that they would be forced to look at what they were doing, not only sentence and paragraph analysis, but word choice as well. I do think this helps, especially when they have specifics to guide their editing and revisions. Modeling is also key and the teacher needs to be the model revisor. I like the films we’ve seen (W/Dr. Schlagal?) with the teachers writing while the students write. What better message could the teacher send to aspiring writers?!

This is a really great idea for reluctant readers and writers. It would definitely benefit some of the students in my school. As good as it is for lower students, it may be even better for upper level students because it will force them to use their higher order thinking skills and leave their comfort zones!

This was a great evening! I learned so much! People are so creative. Everyone had such incredible projects. Tony’s interpretive dance was amazing. I could never put myself out there like she did. And to never have danced before. And what subject matter. She is my hero! I love Jennifer! Her box was perfect. I love how she thought out what to include. How much more interesting would it be for students to see the box and read about Abraham Lincoln than to just read it in a book. I wish I had known about Ada Byron when I was in elementary school. All I ever heard was that I would never be good at math because girls just were not good at math. What brilliance combined with such tragedy. Heather did a great job with sea turtles. I really enjoyed the time I went to the Turtle Hospital on Topsail Beach. I would love to help some time with turtle rescue! Matt the racer. I could be a racing fan! How much fun for students! There are so many possibilities for math and how interesting for boys and girls. Kari’s project was amazing. Those Cure Cottages! I never know. We’ve spent a lot of time on Squam Lake in New Hampshire and those cottages remind me of the cottages in Kari’s project. It is amazing how far we have come with medicine. My favorite thing about Kari’s project was how it is such a meaningful tribute to her father and her entire family. While I have read just about everything Poe has written, studied Poe in college, read Poe to my children, taught Poe to my students, memorized The Raven, there is so much I never knew. We never know the challenges people face. I wonder if they would have realized their genius without out the struggle?  Sonia’s butterflies were so fascinating. All of her presentations were so creative. I especially liked the caterpillar. Her choice of patterns and colors were so beautiful and suited to the topic.  Elvis is in the house! What a fun presentation! The chocolate was the best!

What was amazing about this experience is that other than the race car driver, I thought I had a relative handle on what they were about. Amazingly enough, I didn’t really know as much as I thought I did. I hope I am always a student!

I struggled with the multi-genre project. It took me awhile to commit to the topic. It was a lot more work than I have done for a class in a long time. While it has been extremely worthwhile, it has been very challenging. I still struggle with balancing all my commitments. Most of the time, I can keep it together. I have not pulled close to an all-nighter in years. I haven’t needed to. Let’s just say I only slept an hour or so Tuesday night. It was my own fault because I didn’t realize effort my project would take. My youngest daughter is six and is very insistent I put her to bed. The other night I was working on the computer and she kept asking for me to put her to bed. I kept telling her in a few minutes. After a few minutes turned into a half an hour, she handed me this little note written on scrap paper that read, “Put me to bed now please.” It is difficult for me to work on anything at home. I wish I had committed earlier because I could have better managed my time and done a more thorough project. I keep thinking of ways that I could have improved my project. Kari showed us her photo-story. I would like to get to that point.

I showed some of the teachers the multi-genre project today. They seemed to find it interesting. I’m going to present it to the faculty at the next faculty meeting and just suggest they consider doing a version of the multi-genre project to the faculty- no pressure.

I decided to go back to the Ellis Island idea after I figured out someone else in class is working on Sea Turtles. I have read a lot and am working on the different project ideas. So far I have the chalk marks they wrote on immigrants clothes to indicate if they had any health issues. Currently, I am finishing up the ABC immigrant quilt. This will take a while, but I think it will be a good way to get ideas about immigration and Ellis Island across in a meaningful manner. Hope everyone else is doing well.

I love wordless pictures books. They are perfect for developing reading interests and cultivating creativity. We have several wordless picture books at home that I have read with my own children several times. As a teacher, sometimes I would give students a picture and they would need to create a story from the picture. The wordless picture book would be the best place to start because there is already a picture. I really like the comic book look of some of the writing efforts. One of the teachers that I used to work with used to have her kids fold a paper into 8 sections and then have her students sequence the events. This would be a great technique to use to develop written stories for written books. One of my favorite methods was having the student tell the story and then record it into the tape recorder and then write it back. How wonderful for students who have difficulty with print! There are so many possibilities for this in other content areas as well. Sometimes when we assess we assess only reading or writing, not necessarily content. Wordless picture books could help us to make more accurate assessments for challenged learners.

I attached a copy of my Mississippi poem to my weekly newsletter and shared the I poem books with teachers. This poem from a 5th grader showed up in the student newspaper along with other poems including Haikus and shape poems.

Catawba River

Once I was a flowing river with bunches of wildlife

But then men with many machines came to dam me up

So that they could make me into a lake so that they could swim, fish, and sail in

It all started fine but then slowly I got polluted

And the trees along my banks were cut down for houses and stores

I still hang on looking for help

I stand here waiting for what I need

Attention I won’t get

I want to be clean so help me

Here are the others:

BLACK

DARK

EVIL, NOT LIGHT

CAT, PANTHER, BATS

NIGHT SKY

Onion Feet

Stinky feet

They sweat under heat

They smell like an old cleat

You sweat

You run

You come undone

And everyone smells your feet

Kite

Four sided, colorful

Flying, spinning, hiding

Straight, bright, wiggly, dark

Laying, sitting, seeking

Three sided, dull

Balloon

I have finally decided on the theme! After spending spring break on Cape Hatteras, I have decided on Sea Turtles. I’ve did a lot of reading while I was there and had an a-ha moment. Now, I just have to get busy!

One of my teachers has a display of I/Persona poems in the hallway. The theme is Lewis and Clark and they are taking a boat down the river of Persona poems. It’s really cool. The kids seem excited about it too. I have not yet brought up the subject of multi genre projects. I want to finish mine and figure out the process before I go promoting it in the school. I have mentioned a little here and there. Another of my teachers is going to write a digital story starting next week. This class is having repercussions across my school.