Thinking & Writing Wrinkles

Whole lot of thinking going on!

When I walked into Mrs. Mateling's class Thursday morning it was obvious that there was a whole lot of thinking going on! I was greeting with these protests "You should have seen the report on CNN Student News about blogging. They got it all wrong. And they didn't even ask any kids!" They updated me on the clip which you can read here. I suggested they write about it so I gathered up the group and we scurried down to the instructional lab. The kids opened up their laptops. They were eager to write. They had things to say!

In this group we have three students who were in last year's group who have a good grasp of what weblogs are all about., The others are just beginning to learn about weblogs.  Also, we have varied ability in stages of writing.  All are good thinkers!  The ESL students are at varied levels of being able to write their thoughts.  Remember that we are posting "as is" and for now, we are concerned with content.  I am so thrilled with the thinking that is going on!

Derrick missed the clip and gets an update from Emily......

Today we heard from Emily about CNN talking about blogs and how people use them in their lives. She said that 50% is used by teens and the rest of the people use them for diaries. I would use it for the news and for" surfing the web "and more. Do you have a favorite place in the internet to visit? My favorite web site is Kungfu0.org/stickmen.

Going back to Cnn they said that almost everybody uses them. We use them for education ,thinking and learning.They didn't even say how kids use them because if they did they might think we might use them for a better reason. If you had your own weblog then what would you have on it?

Keith questions CNN.....

A web log is a place to write on the internet. That is not what CNN said. They said that it is an online diary. 50% of the people that use web logs are teens. That is what CNN said. Kids use it too. CNN didn't think about asking kids about web logs! Kids all around the nation use web logs! We don't use it as diary we use it to learn. They are used for other things too. People use it for buisiness and reports.

Jerry asks.....

Do you know what a weblog is? I'm still trying to learn about them but I know a little. When I get to write weblogs I just write from the heart and try my best. Mrs.Davis is helping us learn more about weblogs and more about the computers. Writing weblogs are really fun. And when you write weblogs you think alot sometimes. One day on CNN they were talking about weblogs and how many people use them. 50% of the teen population uses the weblogs on the internet. And one other thing was that they were using them as diaries and there was that marcial arts person that talks to the people when there on the weblogs on the internet.

Jennifer titled her piece "They could have said a little more!"

On Cnn yesterday they was a topic about weblogs. The topic was about how 50% of teens use them as diaries. I think that weblogs are used to explore thinking, writing, and things that matter. There are all kinds of weblogs like newsblogs, edublogs, and all other kinds.

Yoceline expresses her thoughts......

I think a weblog is a web to express yourself. A weblog is where you write how you feel about life and what had happen so far. Many people benefit from weblogs in many diferent ways. For example, they can just put photos they take and they think are important . People also used weblogs like diaries. In our weblog we use it like a web that we are exploring, thinking, and writing. So far we had write about how we feel about life, and what is our favorite thing to do. In the topic I made in the weblog for homework it was about How Do You feel About Our Busy Life? Well no more words!!!!!!!!!!!

Juana puzzles over the concept of weblogs and works at expressing her English....

What is a weblog? It is like a place when go see and you like too much. Weblog is write and you feel a little happy.

Luz thinks all this is "very cool".....

A weblog to me is like a place were you can ride about different things you want to. And putting express and thinking about what you are doing I think is beri cool .

Emily exclaims that there is missing information.......

You've probibly saw CNN before. But have you ever thought they need more information on some topics? Well I sure do, after I saw one of the stories on CNN about weblogs. All the reporter said was that 50% of all weblogs are used by teens and that most are teens using them as online diaries. Can you believe that?! My teacher said that anyone in the classroom could have given a better explanation! They didn't even say anything about education based weblogs which many people are starting! Last year our group made a blog about current events and interesting topics. This year we are creating a more advanced weblog with news and interesting topics. Why aren't they talking about different kinds of weblogs! Ok let me calm down now. Lets hope sometime there will be a news report about education blogs.

Cristian, who is just learning English, dictates these thoughts.....

I talk with other people.I like coming to this group because I use the internet and like to type.I also like to be with the other people in here . I am leaning more English with Mrs. Davis..I am talking to other people about things I like.

Jacqueline says at first she had no clue, but is learning about weblogs......

On CNN I heard a short story about weblogs. Weblogs are sites where you communicate wth others, and write stuff that happens to you .It helps us with writing and exploring new things. At first I had no clue, but then when I started coming to this group, I learned what weblogs are.

Mrs. Davis marvels....

Wow, whole lot of thinking going on!

Learning about Comments

We're learning how to make comments today and the students are going to use this space to comment on something happening in the news! 

Whatever It Takes

Whatever It Takes is the motto of Marcia Mateling, the teacher of several of the students I work with in the 'Wrinkles' group.  Yesterday was a red-letter day for all of us at J. H. House Elementary as we watched with surging joy as a group of administators, reporters, photographers, teachers and others entered Marcia's room to recognize her as Rockdale County's teacher of the year!  I can't think of anyone more deserving.  In Marcia's words, "Part of learning is understanding how to understand.  Whatever it takes, is my motto, and truly my responsibility.  Every teacher must accept the responsibility to do everything in their power to teach, to help, to do whatever it takes to get the job done with every child!  When is our joy done?  When the light comes on, the joy is seen, and the excitment is obvious."

Marcia had to submit an essay as part of the county's evaluation process.  The essay details her influences, experiences and expectations.  It is my honor to publish her paper at the end of this post .  You will certainly enjoy reading it.  See the local paper's article about her.  In the above picture, Marcia is on the left.  Joyce Hooper is on the right.  Joyce is the outstanding principal of this terrific school.  Hats off to Marcia and the entire team at J. H. House Elementary School.  It's a privilege to be working with you!

               Whatever It Takes by Marcia Mateling

Pinning down exactly which factors influenced my decision to become a teacher, I find difficult. As a student, I was bored and unimpressed with dull, lifeless teachers.

     As a child in Savannah, on summer mornings, my mother took me to American Red Cross swimming classes. For 1 hour I took lessons, and for 2 hours I helped her "catch" frightened children who couldn't swim or even touch bottom. When I graduated from high school, having completed all of the swimming courses the Red Cross offered there, I was awarded a scholarship to attend the National Aquatic School in Leesburg, Florida, for my many volunteer hours. There I completed my last course, Water Safety Instructor, the PhD of swimming! (I taught swimming until I was 34 at several Georgia Girl Scout camps.)

     During my high school years, I tutored a child weekly from an impoverished family, determined that she would find freedom from the filth and stench of her predicament in the books that she grew to cherish. I also volunteered weekly at the Chatham Nursing Home and the Savannah Public Library. I enjoyed both activities immensely. My responsibilities with the elderly were diverse, from reading to them, feeding them, to just listening to them. The library work fed my passion for books and authors, but still, I had no desire to be a teacher!

     In college, I chose many majors, ending up in Education. In the summer of 1972, I completed my course work at the University of Georgia, totally bored with the education courses. I chose the Atlanta City School system for my student teaching. As I settled into my new class, I became aware of some strange stirrings. I loved the children! I realized that each day was exciting and fun, not dull! You see, what I amazingly realized was that teaching wasn't a book or a paper or a theory. It was (is) a special bond between two people as they share a piece of themselves with each other, resulting in both of them learning. Scary...yes! Challenging...truly! Never, ever boring...and I was wonderfully, whole-heartedly, passionately hooked!

     Passion would have to be a word that would describe my teaching. There is nothing that a child needs that I won't find, somehow. From finding ways to get shoes to fit or book bags or clothes, to finding retired teachers to be pals for my students. I am passionate about the material, as well as my students! When a child has a need, it must be filled! Only then can a child relax enough to open up and allow me to come into his life. Once I had a child who had been in 9 foster homes, and was known for running away from schools. However, he found a safe, challenging environment, free from haranguing, where he could blossom! Each child has daily opportunities to build their self-esteem from hard work. They find out that they are important, that they can learn more, and that they matter to me, to our class, to their community, and to this world. I encourage their natural passion, their fire for learning, getting excited with them and for them. During every day, I make it a point to converse with each child. I sit with my class at lunch, choosing 5 different children to sit with me daily. Few children have "dinner-time conversations" with adults at home. Our lunches are valuable talking times, for both the English and Spanish speakers. Each day, students have opportunities to explain what they have learned. As they learn a skill, a peer who is having difficulty may ask for help. When a student can explain a skill, they understand that skill at a much deeper, more permanent level. Part of learning is understanding how to understand. Some children "just don't get it." I expect every child to eventually "get it." Whatever it takes, is my motto, and truly my responsibility. Hearing professionals speak about who's to blame for a child not learning is such a waste of time and energy! Think what could be accomplished!! Every teacher must accept the responsibility to do everything in their power to teach, to help, to do whatever it takes to get the job done with every child! When is our job done? When the light comes on, the joy is seen, and the excitement is obvious. Until then, it will take more of me, the teacher, the thinker, the visionary, the believer to find and stir up the passion and quest for more!

     As new teachers enter my profession, it's exciting to see their enthusiasm and their fresh ideas! Several years ago, I became a mentor for new teachers. Certainly, I have always believed in helping anyone, in any way I can. It was a natural transition for me to become a mentor. Having a mentor and being a mentor helps both teachers. It helps the new teacher face the expected, as well as the unexpected challenges! It reminds the seasoned veteran of a time long ago, when he/she was locked away in isolation without a mentor and 35 wide-eyed children, trying to figure out the new manuals, the reports, the IEPs, the DLPs, the BLTs, the SSTs, and so much more. Encouraging new teachers to stay in this difficult, exhausting profession is a must. Veteran teachers need to open their doors and files and share ideas. Every student needs a stimulating assignment, not just the students in one class. All teachers need a successful assignment to a workable classroom management plan, not just the veteran teachers. Supporting fellow teachers will strengthen our profession.

     Teacher accountability is a natural progression in our society. Every company has accountability. Basing accountability on one test result, though, may not be the only criteria needed. When children are already behind in school, they progress slower than bright, well-nourished, stimulated children. Children from horribly impoverished homes do not progress as rapidly as those with three meals a day, a bed, and heat and water in the home. Keep the accountability and the observations, but revisit the criteria to insure that teachers are assessed on their competence, their knowledge, their persistence, as well as the test data.

     There isn't enough time for everyone to master every skill! To balance this, continually recycle or spiral skills. Each week on a Math Test, my students will find any new skill covered that week. plus problems covering skills since the beginning of the year. Students should be expected to know and use previously learned skills! Recitations, debates with classmates, and role-playing difficult concepts are several activities that show a student's skill! These result in an on-fire class!

     As Georgia Teacher of the Year, my message would be that teaching is the hardest, most challenging profession that you will dedicate your life to willingly. Where else can someone make a difference daily in the lives of many, many people? Just where does our influence stop? Teachers are people-pushers! We must always search for ways to touch, to reach, to teach, and then to challenge the children in Georgia.

     Secondly, teachers need to be a part of the solution, NOT part of the problem. Where there are problems that cannot be solved easily, such as budget shortfall, we need to think creatively, coming up with ways to present skills that are still unique, intriguing, and challenging, without losing energy to negativity. Our Golden Rule still applies as it did for us as children. No one has the right to steal our joy, our happiness! Negativity can be catching, but so can joy! As I come to my room early in the morning singing, I ward off those negative comments, giving no room for gossip. Your fellow teachers readily know if you are of the negative camp or if you are of the Positive Thinkers Club. In stressful times, positive thinkers are called upon for help, for ideas. If you know that a co-worker is always growling and complaining, watch out! They will further zap your strength. Can you imagine being a child in a negative teacher's class? At 13, I had a Math teacher who made me write 2 different essays, (he didn't like the first one) about the completeness of my Girl Scout uniform, just because I hadn't worn the wool cap with my uniform in October in Savannah. What was his point? Was it Math? My self-esteem? Ridicule? My troop still wore our uniforms to school on meeting day, and we looked sharp! Negativity affects every area of a life, poisoning all that it touches. Georgia Teachers have much to do! We must wake up, leave our chairs and lecture stands, and indeed, become passionate about teaching children! If not us, then who??

Thinking about Our Thinking

So far, at the beginning of each session, I have been going over what I have written on this weblog with the whole group. I want to include them in my thinking process so I can see what they think.

Students turned in their final interviews today.  They took home their Inspiration diagrams last week and used those to help organize their thoughts and ideas prior to writing about their interviews with their classmates.

As I look at the papers, I see improvement in their thinking from the first round of interviews. The visual aspect of Inspiration really helps. I also see a lot of punctuation and spelling errors.  Since we only have two hours per week, for now, I will be concentrating on content with them.  I think the stories lend themselves to editing, which we will get back to later.  We can put revised, corrected stories right below the original.  I'm still working through the parameters of this.  I wonder about the ESL students and when is the best time to work on the grammatical parts.  As a whole they are a reticent group. I am encouraging conversation and working at making them feel very comfortable and getting them to realize that they are a most important part of our group. They have much to contribute.  We want everyone free to share ideas.  I think this is happening. 

My native English students are careless about proofing their work.  We'll edit their papers in the same way as with the ESL students.  Aaaah, it is always a hard call between the mechanics and the content.  I want our "flow" and "thinking" to continue but still need to pay attention to the details.

A most interesting conversation occurred shortly after class began.  I was talking about the frantic pace of life today and how we all have so much to do that you really have to work at  it "to stop and smell the roses".  (Lots of lively discussion around the meaning of that idiom!)  Kids feel the same pressure!  Isn't that depressing?  They feel it at home and at school.  I asked them what was the one thing they missed the most that they never seemed to be able to get to at school and it was reading for pleasure.  Emily has a book that she is just dying to get to the end of and she is having difficulty carving that small time out of her busy schedule.  We brainstormed ways we could maybe solve this problem.  Talking about things like this with adults is a new thing for some of the students.  My hope is to get them thinking about various items we could discuss, research, think about and then write about.  They thought about titles they could give to this topic.  Here are a few:

The Boundaries of Life

Stop! In the Name of Business

Rambling Rambler

The Frustrations of Life

How Do You Feel about Life?

Their homework assignment is to write about this topic.  I'm not sure they are entirely clear about just what to write but we'll see.  The goal is to get them to see how much untapped potential they really do have!!  Get them to really start thinking and taking risks with their writng.....

Our class was interrupted (for a very good reason) to celebrate Marcia Mateling being announced as the Rockdale County Teacher of the Year.  That story follows this post.

Then we headed to the technology lab, opened up Inspiration and began to list topics of interest that we might write about this year.  I asked them to put their thoughts in the form of a question that we could answer when writing.  Some of their questions follow:

• Why do people kill animals?
  
• How do you feel about school?
  
• Why do kids watch so much TV?
  
• Why do kids eat too much candy?
  
• What would you do if you could have some free time at school?
  
• Do you like science?
  
• Who is your favorite leader?
  
• How would you change Iraq if you were the President of Iraq?
  
• How would you feel if the power of the President was too much?
  
• How do you keep yourself stress free?
  
• Do you think that war is a terrible or a good thing?
  
• How can a teacher help me understand problems?
  
• What cool planets are out there?
  
• Why do people get mad?
  
• What things are in space that we don't know about?
  
• Are wars necessary?
  
• What medicines are in the world?
  
• What embarrassing things have happened to you?
  
• What is something great that has happened?
  
• How do people stop world hunger?
  
• Why do many children like to eat junk food?
  
• What is happening in the world?
  
• Should I go to college or not?
  
• Could we have more privacy, please?
  
• Should MP3's be illegal?
  
• Are cellphones good on the road?
  
• How many hours are too many on the TV?
  
• Who would you like to win the presidential election in 2004?
  
• What makes a good friend?
  
• Are games fun to you?

Wow!  These students are amazing.  Can't you see the good thinking that is emerging?  Good work, students.  I am proud of you, and as always, I can't wait until next week!

 

Emily's Final Interview with Yoceline

Yocline is a 5th grader that goes to our group. This 10 year old's black hair, brown eyes, and smile never fail to cheer us up even though she has only been in the U.S For 2 years. Yocline Loves school, especially P.E. & Music. She Loves to play basket ball and play with her dog, which happens to be her favorite animal. In her spare time, she Likes to read. Her favorite book isDear. Mr. Henshaw. One of mine too! She also Likes to watch T.V., especially cartoons of many kinds. Yociline's readyness and couraperation enspies me & hopefully it will inspire you too.

Jacqueline's Final Interview with Derrick

     Today Derrick was my partner. He is a nice Freind to have, and also a smart boy. He likes BMX (tricks for bicycling). At first I didn't know what BMX was. He must be really good at Bicycling. I know I'm not. His Favorite color is green. When he goes to P.E. (phsichal Education) he likes to play volleyball. In volleyball you divide 2 groups and throw the ball without letting it Fall (Well thats all what I know about him so bye!)

                                                                     Jacqueline

Yoceline's Final Interview with Emily

Hi!  Emily was my partner. Emily has blue eyes, brown hair and a very light color. She is very funny, entelegent, and friendly. She also is a wounderful friend to have.

     Emily likes to swim. She likes to go to Art, P.E, Music. Her favorite color is yellow. I asked her why she liked yellow she said she didn't know. I think she likes it because is a very bright, colorfull color.

     Emily likes to play cumputer. Her favorite game is Yatcee. I think is very hard to pronaunse. She also likes to watch t.v. That doen't means she watches t.v all afternoon because she also likes to read. Her favorite books are Harry Potter series she has read four of them. (She is in her fifth one)

Yoceline's Final Interview with Emily

     Emily has been all her life in the U.S.A. She has been living in the U.S.A 10 years. Emily has a sister her sister's name is Sarah I think she is in 2nd grade.

     Emily has two dogs. They are about 1 and a half feet long.

                                                              Well I think I see You later!!

                                                              Yoceline

Jennifer's Final Interview with Luz

Last week we changed partners and this week I have Luz. She has two sisters and one brother. She was born on June 14 in Mexico, and is eleven years old. She learned English in one year. We have many similarities, like cats are our favorite animal. Our favorite type of cat is a tabby which we both have. Lux and I play defense in soccer. Even though we may worship differently, we still go to church. I think that Luz is a spectacular person who likes to write stories and loves current events. Luz enjoys going to J. H. House Elementary and likes to be in the Thinking and Writing Wrinkles Group too.

Derrick's Final Interview with Jacqueline

On Thursday 16th, Mrs. Davis assigned us partners to interview each other and found out abut each other and my partner was Jacqueline.

I found out that she likes gold jewelry best. She likes necklaces, watches and bracelets to collect and ware.

Jacqueline likes to burn cd's such as music and other types. She likes to work on computers and laptops. I found a lot about her and I think she found out a lot about me.