So it’s over….

Today I realized that class is really over. No carpool this morning. No free writing time in a freezing classroom. No bugging Elaine about what she is doing for lunch. No technology time in the lab. Class is truly over…..

My brain received so much new information over the course of four weeks that I fear it will need a week to truly recover and process everything. It was an amazing month!!! I feel refreshed and renewed in the area of writing instruction. I can’t wait for the school year to start (well since it starts next week for me, I can wait…lol) so I can begin to implement things that I learned.

Thank you to everyone in the institute, I learned something from each and everyone of you. Stay tuned to this blog….

New People

I find all these visitors very distracting.  (Not in a bad way though)  I have found that I can’t focus on the task of writing this morning.  I find myself wondering about all these new people.  Who are they?  What is their story?  They are currently much more fascinating than what I was going to write about this morning.  

I wonder if this is how my students feel when new people are in the classroom, simply observing.  I wonder if they act different because “new” is distracting and they too are wondering about the person they know nothing about.

Everyone else seems to be going about, business as usual.  Maybe I need to just snap out of it…..

Just because I’m black….

This is in response to Ellen’s presentation.

As a high school student I was often the only black student in my class.  If it wasn’t just me, it was me and my friend Kristin or me and my friend Cala.  Some combo of the three of us.  It really did often make for uncomfortable situations at times.  Even now as an adult, I still find myself in situations where I’m the only black person in a large group or one of a couple in the group.  Sometimes, in those situations, particularly in high school, I was looked on to be the “expert” on black history, culture and essentially all things black.  I’m not an expert on these things.  I was not given a “Black Handbook” when I was born that told me all I should know about being black!!  I went to the same school as my classmates, studied from the same textbooks and teachers they did, learned the same black history facts they learned in February.  I am not an expert.  Yes, there are probably some areas that I know more than them, either because my mom taught me or I read about it on my own.  In fact, the only thing I am an “expert” on is myself and my experiences.  So a lot of times, I would keep my mouth shut as a student.  Even if it was a topic in black history or culture that I could speak at length I wouldn’t do it.

Now I will climb off my soap box.  As teachers, we must be very careful to make sure that we treat all cultures in our classroom with respect.  But most importantly not to single out students in front of the class asking them if such and such information is true.  Now I’m not saying that any of us in the writing project do that, but I’m sure that we all know somebody that does or has seen it happen when they were a student.  Or even worse had it happen to them.  Our students are not experts on their cultures and should only have to share when they want to.

By Friday I will definitely….at least I hope

So today we were asked to write about what we would like to accomplish by the end of this week.  There are many things I’d like to have accomplished by the end of this week.  Clean my apartment.  Go to the grocery store.  Call my grandma.  But then I realize they don’t mean in the grand scheme of life.  They mean with regards to this class.  That is much harder to scale down.  I think that by the end of this week, I’d like to have my demonstration fully sketched out, actually essentially done.  Even though I’m not presenting until the second to last day, getting this ready would be not only a load off my shoulders but free up some creative space in my brain.  (Then perhaps I could then focus on my video.)  So yes, finishing my demonstration this week is my goal.  Fingers crossed.

on surviving the first week….

So the first week has come to an end.  I don’t feel as overwhelmed as I did a couple of days ago.  I don’t feel that good either.  But I feel better.  I now know I can physically do the things that are being asked of me in this class. Now I just need to find a way to creatively do all the things that are being asked of me in this class.  It is a balance. 

This weekend I will attempt to shoot footage of a variety of things I come across.  In hope that inspiration will strike and magic will happen!!

I Will Run – Freddy Rodriguez

This video has nothing to do with writing or technology.  It is just currently my absolute favorite worship song.  So I thought that I’d share….

 

Ramblings About Today

I currently feel like my brain is on overload.  So many ideas and thoughts are running through my head.  Prior to today, I had ideas about what I wanted to possibly do for my demonstration and my writing process video.  Now I have ideas about my interview video.  Now I also have ideas about writing instruction and technology for my classroom swirling about.   All of that just has to do with my “professional” life.  In my “personal” life, I have ideas about things I want to write about, books I want to read, pictures I want to take and art I want to create.  So many ideas and as usual so little time.  I think my brain is fried!!

Wanted: Classroom Digital Makeover

We currently live in a digital society.  Technology is EVERYWHERE!!!  Kids these days, our students right now, are completely immersed in it.  They are practically born with a computer in their hands.  When I was a kid, Atari had just finished wowing us with their system.  And then when I was about four, Nintendo and more importantly the Mario Bros., made their triumphant debut to the world.  For me, this was as high tech as it got.  But not today.  Today, these kids live in a world of lightning high speed internet, computers the size of paperback books, ipods and phones that play feature length movies and more.  And really, do you even know a kid that DOESN’T have a Nintendo DS? I don’t.  So how do we reach these kids?  These technologically savvy students of ours?  

I want to bring this digital boom into my classroom.  So far in this class, I have heard lots of amazing ideas.  Classroom blogs, making videos, digital digs, etc.  And these ideas are fabulous.  But they are being used with high students and middle school students.  I need to learn about ways that I can implement all of this into my second grade classroom.  My students need this, and they need it now.  They need it, because in five to seven years, they will be in those middle school and high school classroom that are blogging or twittering or whatever the “latest” thing is.  And I don’t want them to be behind on the times because I didn’t bother to introduce them to something long ago.

Part of the problem though is my classroom.  My classroom has one computer and it sits on my desk.  Can’t do much there.  So of course, you ask, does your school have a computer lab?  Yes it does.  But it is far from current.  There isn’t a working computer for each student.  And they are slow…. And they don’t have a lot of updated programs that would be beneficial.  In order to teach these students, I need the tools, which I don’t have….yet.  I also need to figure out how to get these tools to use in my classroom.  My school. So you see, I have a lot of work to do this summer.  Hmmmmm….Where to begin?

Taylor Mali – What Teachers Make

Taylor Mali – Totally Like Whatever, You Know?