The View from Saturday

Final Reflection

As I think back on the journey of Weblogs and this Newbery presentation, I am very impressed with the members of my group and their commitment to making this whole project a success. I have enjoyed reading this book- it is wonderful! I gained a lot from looking at each aspect of the book (travel tracker, connector, critical thinker, etc.), even though it seemed artificial sometimes. I do think that posting in each of the roles was essential to our understanding as teacher because we may be able to truly understand what each of our students feel when they are posting in a role. I also enjoyed reading my group member's thoughts and reflections on each aspect of the book, this gave me additional insight that I might not have thought of otherwise.

One thing that I did miss out on during this whole experience is the social aspect of literature circles. Although the social aspect was compromised with a wonderful use of technology, I now do not personally know the benefits that literature circles bring to the social development of students- which is just as important. In the future, my classroom of students will definitely have some exposure to Weblogs as literature circles, but it will be on a summative basis. I think that my students would most benefit from traditional literature circles with an extension. As an extension to this activity, the students would sum up the conversations on a Weblog. This along with teacher observations would be my method of assessing literature circles. I think that this would provide students with the best of both worlds.

Overall, this experience has been very positive. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with all three of my group members. I have never worked in a group where collaboration and initiative to get the job done has run so smoothly. Thank you guys for all of your hard work- everything looked wonderful!   

"My thoughts" P.A.-T.

This is my posting on the thoughts I had about this project. Well, I liked it. I enjoyed posting about certain parts in the book that I found interesting. Yes, it was a little difficult to have to post on every role; however, it made me think about every aspect of the book I was reading. I had to think about the travel of the characters, the real world connections, and even the idioms used within the story. Because of the departments, I had to really analyze the story. This inturn helped so much with my comprehension of what was going on. At first, I really did not like having to wait to read the next chapter, but that gave me discipline and a chance to really absorb what I had previously read. Sometimes I tend to rush through a chapter just to quickly finish a book and get to the end. This was not possible this time. I had to be patient and take it one day at a time. I think this would be great for students in the classroom. My goal would be to have each student participate in posting. This could be accomplished outside of the regular reading schedule. You could group students throughout the year to read one short chapter book and post. If there was a class of twenty-four, you could have a group of six per month post. This would help with management of the site and monitoring the students' reading. After the four months were up, you could have a grand conversation about the book everyone had read and posted on. This would be an ideal plan for schools that have limited technology resources. Every child would get a chance to participate. If it works, then you could start with a new book, and this time have everyone post at appointed times. Because the children will have already had experience with posting, they should need little management. I would just need to make sure that I keep up with the postings. As far as the group presentations went, I loved it. I cannot believe how these children's books touched all of our lives so much. It seemed as if every group really got something special from reading them. I plan to purchase the other seven books for my daughter for Christmas. I am also planning to read the ones I have not yet read. This was a wonderful project, and I really enjoyed it. I was especially proud of my group and our presentation. I am going to miss these types of things.

"The Journey" - C.S.

Overall, the whole experience of using Edublogs has been an enriching experience for myself. I have learned to analyze material in a number of different ways by devoting time to writing from different perspectives (i.e. - discussion directior, travel tracker, passage master, critical thinker, etc...). As one member of a team, I am counted on by my peers to perform a certain task on a ritual bases. We depend on each other and are each others support them. I found this to be much more rewarding knowing that I was working in a group to accomplish this goal.

Aside from these gains, I would like to point out that I found writing from two different departments a week to be tedious and time consuming. This distracted my attention away from the story line in the book, which made it difficult for me to follow along at a steady pace. In addition, sometimes I was troubled about topics to write about since I had not read enough pages to know what was going on. 

This book could have been read in two weeks (three tops), which would have been more conducive and meaningful. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if I had not been analyzing every aspect of it in order to fulfill my edgublog requierments.

~Charlie Shimandle~ 12/8/03

The First Invitations-Ch.11-ENW

When Mrs. Olinski and Mr. Singh are talking about Julian's initial invitation, I began to think back to how this impacted the story. Why did Julian choose to hide the books in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland? What significance does this have in the story? And what I really want to know is this: Did any of you know that Humpty Dumpty really came from Through the Looking Glass? 

Win Some, Lose Some- Ch.11- ENW

Pg. 155: "Mrs. Olinski felt a strange sense of loss. She did not feel like a loser, but she did feel a sense of loss. She drove for miles worrying about it. Finally, almost involuntarily, she said out loud, 'Win some. Lose some.' She glanced at Mr. Singh and laughed. 'Why did I say that?' Mr. Singh replied, 'Because it is how you feel at this moment, Mrs. Olinski.'"

What in the world does this mean? The start to this complex conversation is what is makes it so confusing. I don't know if she's trying to work through the feelings about the accident, or what? I would love someone's explanation or interpretation of this passage.

Let's Integrate Some TECH!!!! TLH

This experience with the Web logs has been great.  I really enjoyed posting and making comments to others postings.  Commenting and posting forced me to think critically  about the book.  I would most certainly do this in my classroom if it is available, but I would not have the students post as often as we had to post.  I would also have them actually talk about their comments within our class and they post with another class.  I often found myself rereading certain portions of the book because I wanted to make sure I could make my posting and be apart of the group.

Do you remember - TLH

Do you all remember when you found out how the Souls were intertwined?  In chapter three we found out that Mrs. Olinski was at one time Mrs. Margaret Draper employee.  She (Mrs. Draper) was Mrs. Olinskiâs principal when she taught school before moving to Epiphany.  We also found out the Ethan was Mrs. Draperâs grandson. Margaret is also married to Nadiaâs grandfather which now makes Ethan and Nadia cousins.  Is this funny?  This part is so very funny to me because people often say that all people are somehow related.  I felt that sense we have completed the book, we should look back through the book to see how the author intertwined her characters.

On the road to the Academic Bowl -T.L.H

Chapters 9 & 10

Pg. 146. Academic Bowl New York

Pg. 147 Channel 3 Eyewitness News Station  the Souls, Mrs. Olinski, and the principal all go to the news station to let the community know that Epiphany has a chance to win the bowl.  Mr. Roy Clayton Rohmer called a press conference for publicity.

Pg. 149 Mrs. Olinski drove to taking Julian and Mr. Singh with her to the Academic Bowl.

Pg. 150 Academic Bowl in New York.  The Souls answer every other question in their quest to win the bowl.

Pg. 150  Drive to Albany - Julian, Mr. Singh, and Mrs. Olinski take a trip to Albany to the Academic Bowl (The story is going back and forth)

Pg. 151  Academic Bowl the Souls take the victory with pride.

 

"Miles Hummed Past" - Ch. 11/pg. 155 C.S.

Page 155

"Miles hummed past"

Miles hummed past before his voice floated back to her.

Driving at a top speed of 80 mph, the miles hummed past faster than I realized getting me to my destination quicker than anticipated.

Charlie Shimandle 11/17/03

 

Who Chose Who? Ch. 12/pg. 160 C.S.

Page 160

Mrs. Olinski sits across from the Souls and asks, "Did I choose you or did you choose me?" And The Souls answered, "Yes!"

Is this a reasonable answer for this question? I don't think so! I know that the author is leaving this open-ending up to the read to figure it out, but being vauge like this is disappointing. I would have liked it if the author gave us a sound answer. Because, now, I have to believe that The Souls and Mrs. Olinski chose each other. Should the author have left this ending the way she did?

Charlie Shimandle 11/17/03