Faculty Art Exhibit

     The faculty art exhibit in Green Hall was not what I expected.  There were several types of art I did not expect  to see.  The graphic art was a surprise and I was also surprised by the number of pottery pieces included in the exhibit.  The piece of art I focused on was a large painting with a bunny in the center.  It caught my attention because it appears as if it was painted by more than one artist.  The bunny's style is soften, rounder, and more realistic than the hands coming out of the sides of the painting.  The hands are modern, almost coloring book like.  The background full of clovers made me think of good luck symbols (4 leaf clover, rabbit's foot).  The whole painting felt like something from Alice in Wonderland. I don't think it is something I would enjoy having in my home, it's a bit too busy for my taste, but it definitely caught my eye and made me think.

Common Core Leaves Teachers Out of the Equation

     While I see some things about the Common Core Curriculum that I think are positive, I fear that the author is correct about the movement "sinking" over time.  Common Core State Standards will become another example of an educational experiment that just didn't work the way the experts predicted it would work.  This is because the people who push these "one size fits all" programs at teachers and require them to teach according to a prescribed plan, don't take into account the fact that children aren't all alike.  In a perfect classroom, all twelve of my students would arrive each morning, well-rested and with full tummies, ready and eager to learn the information I have to deliver.  They would participate in class and remain on their best behavior at all times, get along with everyone in their cooperative group, and beg for work to take home so their learning could continue once they leave the school building. In the real world, in the majority of our very full classrooms, teachers are struggling with different achievement levels, students bringing problems from home to school, conflicts between students, and unmotivated children.  The Common Core does not address the difficulty of this task.  Until the real problems in education are taken into account, I do not believe that any program stands a chance of proving successful.

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

     I had to laugh aloud several times as I read this article.  My life experiences prove the author's words are true each and every day.  My fifth graders are much more attentive when I use technology in a lesson.  And using a game to teach or reinforce a concept is their favorite activity! Whenever I get stumped by something my computer or Eno board is doing, I know I can find a student who can probably figure out what went wrong and help me fix it. Even at home, I am constantly reminded that my own three children are digital natives while I am the slower, digital immigrant.  I watch my kids text, interact on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, talk on Skype, and create projects using the computer.  Computers at home aren't optional by the way.  Every evening, at least two of the three have homework that requires internet access.  Packing the flash drive in the bookbag is as natural as packing a notebook.  Wow! 
     I'd never thought of myself having a digital immigrant accent, but the paragraph on pg. 2 of this article described me perfectly.  I am guilty of calling to see if someone received an email, yelling down the hall to come look at a site I found on the computer, and I print out my papers to edit them. It's no wonder my students sometimes look at me as if I was speaking "Greek".  I guess I do sometimes confuse them just because we are talking from two different places. Even though I'll always keep my accent, hopefully I'll become more fluent at Techno-talk.

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers...Technology

I was so glad to have a journal article that I could read and understand the first time! (Even if the quality of the article I printed out - words running into each other- was poor.)  I believe it is vitally important that English language arts teachers be prepared to teach and use technology during their time in teacher ed programs.  Technology isn't just a nice "extra" anymore that you use in your lesson when you want to impress someone during an observation.  Technology is now required by many schools, and teachers will find that students expect to see and use technology as part of their school experience.  Technology is the new "normal."  Teachers must also be prepared to let their students be their partners and even sometimes their guides as technology changes.  Our students catch on to new technological advances much quicker than we do.  It is important that we be confident enough in ourselves to step back and either let the students lead a lesson in using new technology or allow them to teach us. Technology isn't going anywhere.  It is here to stay and we must adapt our attitudes and teaching styles if we are to provide our students with an English language arts education that includes being  literate in all forms of text.

Semiotic Representations: Building complex literacy practices through the arts (Cowan, K., & Albers, P., 2006)

     There is no doubt in my mind that many students enjoy the arts.  Drawing and music are popular ways students choose to express themselves.  Drama is always a favorite genre in my classroom. But reading about the importance of linking these art forms to literacy in new ways made me consider the arts in a new light.  I've always tried to find ways to incorporate some type of art into many of my activities in order to motivate those students who prefer thnking and working with the arts.  I am quickly realiziing, however, just how inadequate my attempts have been.  The statement on pg. 125 that referred to teachers' attempts to include art in the curriculum as "formulaic, craft-like activities" (Eisner, p. 29)," iconic images, and symbols that accompany holidays and are created to decorate classrooms and hallways(Collins, 1995) unfortunately describes most of my attempts at integrating the arts.  Ouch!  I have come to the realization that I must do a better job of thinking purposely about what I want the art to do with the literacy.  I shouldn't do things just because they are "cutesy". The literacy and arts must work together.  I am concerned about the amount of time doing this the correct way may take, both the planning and carrying out the lesson.  Finding the time to just teach the literacy lessons isn't easy.  Adding to the lessons will stretch my already limited time even thinner.  I will make the effort, however, since I'd like to see if I could get the same positive results in my classroom that these authors saw in their class.

The Arts, New Literacies, and Multimodality (Albers, A. & Harste, J., 2007)

     As I read this article, I thought back - way back- to my days as a kindergarten and first grade teacher.  One of the activities  my students and I enjoyed was "reading" picture books together.  My students loved to find new picture books in the classroom library.  They'd grab a book, take a few moments to look at the pictures, and then start telling the story based on what they saw. (This is during their pre-reading phase).  The students were using the art to make sense of the text. Not only is it incredibly cute to see our smallest students trying to make sense of pictures and share what they imagine the story is saying, but it is also educational to the teacher.  Have you ever noticed that kids pick up on details in pictures that we often overlook?  They see so much more than we do and can usually come up with some pretty creative stories to explain what they see.  I believe the trend towards using the arts to build literacy is a positive one.  Younger students enjoy and respond to art.  The use of music, dance, and the visual arts can only add to, not take away from, the student's experience with a work.  Some of our newer "art" forms, the technology stuff, can be a little scary for some of us older teachers who may not use the technology ourselves.  We owe it to our students to overcome our fears, to take some chances, to even allow them to teach us, so that we can use the technology they enjoy and understand to motivate our students to make connections and understand more deeply the literary world that is evolving around them. Combining the arts, technology, and literary instruction will be motivating and will lead to better understanding of literary topics.

Infographics

     Unfortunately, I missed seeing the infographic video , but I looked at the resources on Schrock's website.  I think infographics are what we call "graphic sources" in my classroom.  My students enjoy lessons that include these and seem to have few, if any, problems understanding how to read infographics.
     I think having students search through magazines and newspapers for examples of infographics would be a fun activity.  Many magazines that are aimed at students such as Scholastic Action and Time for Kids include infographics with their stories.  Students could work together to find infographics and then describe the information presented in the graphic.  It would also be interesting to discuss other possible infographics that could be used to show the same information.
     Students may also enjoy creating their own infographics.  I can think of several social studies topics that could be used to create an infographic.  Students could decide the best way to show information such as Native American tribes in the USA, explorers in the New World, major North American rivers, etc.  Having students create their own infographic and then exchanging the creations with someone else to see if the information can be correctly interpreted would be an  interesting lesson.

Resources for Teaching about Tragedy

Resources for Teaching about Tragedy

Looking over the various resources listed that addressed hurricanes and what happened on 9/11 was an entertaining assignment. The assignment took longer than I planned because I kept getting sidetracked by links to related sights or I had to watch videos or view slideshows.
The hurricane resources were a little disappointing. I have found that finding resources that are appropriate for middle school aged children is difficult. Many resources are too young for them - primary aged material - or the resources are geared towards high school audiences. My poor babies in the middle get left out! I did see some sites that I thought were interesting or that I could adapt to meet the needs of my students. The "Why do different states have different weather?" link will be useful not only for information on hurricanes, but also as I teach lessons on the regions of the United States and how they are alike and different. I also plan to use the ideas discusssed in "Exploring cause and effect using expository texts about natural disasters." The Hurricanes site (#1) was much more useful than the Whole Child site.
I spent the majority of my time viewing resources on 9/11. Again, finding material appropriate for middle grades students is difficult. A lot of the suggestions also required resources that are difficult to access such as special commemorative magazines and newspapers. My favorite 9/11 resource was the Nick News video. I plan to use this video in my classroom Monday and have my students respond to what they view. We will also use the Fact vs. Fiction idea to review facts and opinions. Many of my students know very little about what happened on 9/11 and some of the information they know is flawed. The video will give them the facts in a kid-friendly way and open the door to discussions on a variety of topics.

21st Century Literacies - Goal Setting

As I read this week's chapter in Riddle, my attitude about the reading topic led me to add a goal to my list for this year of grad school. During my reading, I found that I was scornful of types of literacy other than "print". As a LA teacher, I focus on print since this is what my students are assessed on at the end of the year by the state. I was disgusted to find that I have been brainwashed into teaching only what is tested. I have to wake up and realize that my students need to be taught to read other things. Literacy isn't only about words. So... my goal is to use other literacy types in my classroom. I need to take a deep breath, trust that I am doing the right thing, and go against popular opinion that print is the only literacy that we should be teaching and assessing. I know I have to work on my own attitude first in order to make this work in my classroom.