Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Final BlOg!!
This week has already been and will continue to be a crazy week. This is the week for the UGA rodeo!! WHOOP WHOOP!! We work all year for this 3day event. Thursday morning we have special events for 1,200 students and their teachers, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights we have the PRCA Rodeo! It is a lot of work, but so worth it! We are the ONLY college to ever put on a PRCA rodeo! Go us!! However, when I am not in school I am at the arena getting things ready. A lot of work, but fun work! I would rather be on the farm any day then at school.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Blog Post for 3-28
Question: I did not know if it was okay to use the blog post that I wrote on the last chapters in our Writer's Workshop book?
If not, then...
I still love my field placement. My 5 day unit plan went amazing and I learned a lot about what I need to work on as a teacher. Dr. Tolley was great help with giving ideas and ways to manage the classroom during a partner lesson. I am super excited about my 1st grade class taking a field trip to the UGA rodeo in April! I am part of the committee who put this 3 day rodeo together. I will not be able to sit with them during the rodeo because I will have to rope and barrel race for them during the rodeo. I am also pumped about bringing my bottle fed goat, Tinkerbell, and my Minuature Horse, Petey, to the classroom for a goodbye and thank you suprise. Plus I am bringing food and drinks!! This semester is going by fast and it is going well. The GACE is tough and I hope I passed the first section and I take the 2nd section on May 7th. Yes, right after finals! Oh JOY!!
If not, then...
I still love my field placement. My 5 day unit plan went amazing and I learned a lot about what I need to work on as a teacher. Dr. Tolley was great help with giving ideas and ways to manage the classroom during a partner lesson. I am super excited about my 1st grade class taking a field trip to the UGA rodeo in April! I am part of the committee who put this 3 day rodeo together. I will not be able to sit with them during the rodeo because I will have to rope and barrel race for them during the rodeo. I am also pumped about bringing my bottle fed goat, Tinkerbell, and my Minuature Horse, Petey, to the classroom for a goodbye and thank you suprise. Plus I am bringing food and drinks!! This semester is going by fast and it is going well. The GACE is tough and I hope I passed the first section and I take the 2nd section on May 7th. Yes, right after finals! Oh JOY!!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Chapter 16 & 18
Lauren Tedder
Blog Post
3-1-11
As teachers we all have a vision that we what our students to follow and what we want for our students to learn. One of the first layers that we must do is to decide on some kind of vision for our teaching that will guide all of our decision making. This part of the planning is always there. We use our vision plan for an outline for how most every day will go in the writer's workshop. The day will have components such as a focus lesson, writing time, and sharing time. Then we will state how long this time should be, what materials are going to be needed, and so on. Once we have our vision planning and our set routine we can start to decide on the units of study we will have during the year. We need to remember that in a unit of study, we take what we know about writing, we take what we know about our students, and we plan a series of lessons that get students thinking about this area of writing in important ways. The chapter gives good examples about how to keep units organized and what helpful resources you should use/gather. Ongoing planning during a unit of study is a combination between planning ahead and planning in progress. I like this! We can only plan so far ahead before we need to stop and see how things are going in the classroom. Once we check to see how things are going, we may need to start planning in progress. I like how this chapter gives you an example of a genre study and an author study, how to set it up, and an overall lesson plan of the writing workshop for that day or week. The chapter has gives helpful hints on how to write, organize, and make focus lessons. I like how you can plan for sharing time, but you can also change sharing time depending on the "mood" in the classroom. So, basically planning a writer's workshop is a complex web of different layers of planning. It is very important to understand each layer of planning.
I love the idea about the "keeping track" chart of logs. I think that this is a great way for students to see what they have done and what needs to be done for the next day. Also, the teacher can keep track of what each student is doing during their writer's workshop time. Writing short and quick notes from time to time lets the students know that their teachers are watching closely their day-to-day work as writers. Teachers can also use these notes to make suggestions to the students. I also like the idea of having the student jot down important notes from the conference into their writer's notebooks. I also like the basket with the different "try its" for the students to use. These "try its" are there for the students to use during the independent part of the writers workshop. They help the students manage their independent writing in the workshop. I found this chatper very helpful with all of the examples and the different worksheets that the students can use to aid their writings. These worksheets help students to organize, keep theirselves on track, manage, brainstorm ideas, and more. These are such great tips!
Blog Post
3-1-11
As teachers we all have a vision that we what our students to follow and what we want for our students to learn. One of the first layers that we must do is to decide on some kind of vision for our teaching that will guide all of our decision making. This part of the planning is always there. We use our vision plan for an outline for how most every day will go in the writer's workshop. The day will have components such as a focus lesson, writing time, and sharing time. Then we will state how long this time should be, what materials are going to be needed, and so on. Once we have our vision planning and our set routine we can start to decide on the units of study we will have during the year. We need to remember that in a unit of study, we take what we know about writing, we take what we know about our students, and we plan a series of lessons that get students thinking about this area of writing in important ways. The chapter gives good examples about how to keep units organized and what helpful resources you should use/gather. Ongoing planning during a unit of study is a combination between planning ahead and planning in progress. I like this! We can only plan so far ahead before we need to stop and see how things are going in the classroom. Once we check to see how things are going, we may need to start planning in progress. I like how this chapter gives you an example of a genre study and an author study, how to set it up, and an overall lesson plan of the writing workshop for that day or week. The chapter has gives helpful hints on how to write, organize, and make focus lessons. I like how you can plan for sharing time, but you can also change sharing time depending on the "mood" in the classroom. So, basically planning a writer's workshop is a complex web of different layers of planning. It is very important to understand each layer of planning.
I love the idea about the "keeping track" chart of logs. I think that this is a great way for students to see what they have done and what needs to be done for the next day. Also, the teacher can keep track of what each student is doing during their writer's workshop time. Writing short and quick notes from time to time lets the students know that their teachers are watching closely their day-to-day work as writers. Teachers can also use these notes to make suggestions to the students. I also like the idea of having the student jot down important notes from the conference into their writer's notebooks. I also like the basket with the different "try its" for the students to use. These "try its" are there for the students to use during the independent part of the writers workshop. They help the students manage their independent writing in the workshop. I found this chatper very helpful with all of the examples and the different worksheets that the students can use to aid their writings. These worksheets help students to organize, keep theirselves on track, manage, brainstorm ideas, and more. These are such great tips!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Chapter 12
As we already know, at the first of the school year we need to "lay out the line" for the writer's workshop. If the students have a good idea and understanding about how the workshop is supposed to go then there will be less time for confussion. We also need to plan units of study for the whole class instruction. The unit of study in the writer's workshop is a period of time. A unit of study in a writing workshop simply supports students' learning around their self-selected pursuits as writers. For selecting units of study a teacher must ask theirself: What are my strengths?, What have my students studied before in writing?, What are my students interested in? What resources do I have?, and more. These questions will help shape and form your units of study. I like the layouts of the units of study that are shown in chapter 12. I do realize that it is OKAY to study things for a longer period of time. The layout of the unit of study is easy to follow, its clean and clear, and well developed. I think that studying an author or genre is important and I can see why. However, I did an author study last semester and I thought it was soooo boring. I mean, I did learn from it. But, it was just okay to me. Nothing about is really interested me or "wow-ed" me.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Lauren Tedder
LLED
Chapter 7-8, 19
2-7-11
Managing our writer’s workshop is very important. When we have the students writing independently, the teacher needs to walk around the classroom and among the students. The students should not have to come to the teacher. I know as a future teacher that I do struggle with, “What do I do if a student will not write?” or “What if a student will not do anything that I ask?” I know that these things will happen; however, I hope that I can turn this student around and make them want to learn and to be excited about school. However, we need to understand that just because students are talking to each other or working in the same area does not mean they are off task. We want our students to understand that we are working along beside them and we except them to take their work seriously. I agree that the writer’s workshop needs space or you can push tables together to get the kind of space that you want to have your students work in. We have to remember that our students will use many materials to use in their writings. They may have several drafts, folders, notebooks, and dictionaries out in their space. Therefore, space is much needed in the workshop. Getting from place to place in your writer’s workshop is another important managing part. The students will be moving around many times during the workshop. They will have to meet somewhere for the focus lesson, independent writing time, clean up time, and sharing time. We need to come up with a way to “tell” our students what to do next without standing up in the middle of the room saying it out loud. The goal is for the workshop to be well structured so that it could almost manage itself. This would be a huge goal for me! I would love to be able to have my writer’s workshop function like this. I also agree with having the correct supplies and materials for the students to use. The more materials the better the workshop will be. You need to have writing tools such as: highlighters, pencils, pen, and markers. Also, lots and lots of paper! Students need lots of paper to brainstorm, draft their paper, and publish their paper. The chapter furthers the materials needed for the writer’s workshop and how it plays an important role. Working aside the students and using the same supplies will send a message to the students. The message would be to take care of the supplies and honor them. Before assuming a student is misusing the supplies, always make sure there is not a good and valid reason they are doing so first. I love the idea about bringing in the students to help in the decision making process. This also the students to have responsibility and to have some say in the classroom/writer’s workshop management.
I never knew that there were writer’s workshop kits. I feel that the kits would take away the “feel” of the writer’s workshop. The workshop is supposed to be anything and everything. Students should be able to pick whatever they want to write about. Picking things from out of a box is not allowing the students their freedom to write about what they want. Some teachers may fee like they are losing control of their classroom. The may feel like the students are more in control. This is true, because it is the students writing and their work. The kits make you believe that everything is smooth sailing and everything is simple. We have to remember that when we tell students to do what writer’s do, we are opening up a can of worms. There will be a million different combinations of things that the students can do; which is want we want for the writer’s workshop to be. We have to remember that students will make little decisions along the way during their writing. I like how Ray does not “sugar code” anything. She says how the workshop will not be easy and how teachers will have to make peace with this.
Getting students PUMPED about the writer’s workshop and allowing them to publish their work is important. We need to get students excited about what they will be doing from the very start. The publishing part may be the most rewarding and excited part of the writer’s workshop. The publishing part means that the student id finished, they are done, and now their work is available to the public. How exciting?! Ray goes into further discussion about the publishing steps and what it means to be finished with writing. I like how the word “publish” comes from the same root as the word “public,” and being finished with a piece of writing means that it is ready for the public. Students need to know who their audience is and their audience needs to be someone outside of the writer’s workshop. Students need to write to parents, grandparents, friends, aunts, cousins, and pen pals. Their published piece could be a letter, a song, an article, or a play. Students need to publish their writings more than once or twice a year. Plus, every time a student gets finished with a piece of writing does not mean you have to have a party for them. Also, showing and telling is another form of publishing a finished piece of writing. The chapter goes on and explains what students will struggle with and how curriculum will help aid them. Rays states, “Remember that it is better for the students to publish a lot, knowing that not every piece will be brilliant or that every journey to being finished with a piece will be the best on the student ever makes.” I love this quote!
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