Treasure Chest of Thoughts

Colleen Cameron at Getting Better All the Time is the inspiration behind this post…thanks!

She, too, blogs with her students.  Interestingly, she chose to set up one blog for all her classes, whereas, I chose to create a seperate blog for each class.  Which would actually work better for me? 

I also noticed some items there that would greatly enhance my student blog sites.  In her blog roll, she has listed several helpful sites for her students, including ACT Online Prep and Grammar 101.  Also in her widget list is Dictionary Word of the Day and a calendar.  I really like that!

Now I am curious if I can add all those links and widgets, too.  Her blog is an edublog; mine are set up in Blogger. 

Why did I choose Blogger and individual blogs per class?  The answer:  Blogger.  This site allows one to create multiple blogs in one dashboard.  Edublog probably allows that also…I just found this attribute quicker in Blogger.

So easy access was a definite plus.  I also teach yearbook, newspaper, and an eighth grade literacy lab class; thus, it just seemed easier for my students to access a particular class blog than for me to create tags/categories.  But maybe I made it harder on myself and denied my students the important lesson in categories?

For the first two weeks of school, I posted and shared the entries with my students in class.  Now, though, that they are creating their students blogs, I will hold them more accountable for reading the posts in their Reader…and for also learning to comment, for that is the next step.  Then writing posts of their own…and then…yes, always another “and then”!

Please visit our class blogs:

• English 11:  Pioneers Write
• Pre-AP English 10:  Writing Right
• Yearbook:  A New Creation
• Newspaper:  That Pioneer Spirit
• 8th Grade Lit Lab:  Journeys

Thanks, Ms. Cameron (who’s starting her second year of teaching), for a glance at your blog and for inspiring more in me (now starting my eighteenth year)!

For those of you who are appalled at the lack of technology-use within the institutions of education, please let me give you a realistic view of the “real” world.

This week, after completing many discussions about creating digital finger-prints, about presenting one’s-self professionally, about selecting tools that best represent the needs of our class, we went to the student lab to further launch our digital careers.

Then…

1. Gmail:  After about six-to-eight successful accounts were created, Gmail locked the other students out.  Why?  Google thought our sight was spamming them and refused our business…at least for a while.  Good news, though, I was able, two days later, to walk some students through a successful set-up.
2. Edublogs:  Not sure what was happening here…except that once a student clicked to create an account, nothing happened.  No one was home.  Students had the same problem when trying to set up an account at home also.  Peer Lisa Huff brainstorms that maybe the site is too full?  I do know that feeds seldom work with Edublogs anymore, which is frustrating to those of us with such an account. (Now contemplating using Blogger with my students.)
3. Delicous:  This one worked!  Students were able to set up an account!  But, due to no fault of theirs, but thanks to the “locks”…okay, security measures of our district…we could not place the shortcut links on the toolbar to post to Delicious.  I hope to obtain permission to do so, for this will save time and ensure that students use this then more friendly tool.
4. goodreads?  I have not tried this one yet.  I will!  Just later.

Because I am determined to use such tools, I keep on keeping on.  Because I have a peer and mentor who cares, I try again.  Because I have department that is ever-embracing such technological tools, I persevere.

But what about those teachers who are already frustrated with technology?  Those teachers who have no “techie-nerds”  working closely beside them?  Those teachers who need a pacifier called a technology specialist?   What happens to their attempts at a techie baby-step?

They quit.  They do not even attempt to take that digital detour.  They simply quit.  I would have…probably…except for that support I receive.

So, yes, I may detour, but we will utilize some of these Web 2.0 tools this year in Gillmore Land.

The added bonus?  My students enter the door, as was the case today, asking, “Mrs. Gillmore, are we going to the lab to set up our blogs?”

What more could a teacher ask?

We will reach our destination…no matter how many detours we have to take.

Yes, I have entered the zone…again!

My starting this Twilight series again is thanks to several people:

1. My new bunch of 8th graders! During our first class together, I was purely amazed at your excitement for reading! Way to go! (I am sure this is, in part, thanks to Mrs. Roepke’s inspiring room and her energy for this topic…thanks, Mrs. Roepke!).
2. My high school students who have just finished the fourth book. Thanks, Adelle, for your commentary about the novels!
3. Mrs. Huff…what can I say? She is a self-proclaimed vampire addict! Be careful around her…in her excitement she revealed a “spoiler,” but that was okay…just made me want to read more to see how that spoiler comes to pass!
4. Mrs. Hubbell – I was excited to hear that she is into this series!

We are all excited about the upcoming release of the first Twilight movie release on November 21. Mark your calendars! I’ll see you at the theater. In the mean time, though….

Shhhh…I’m entering the zone…the Twilight Zone!

(Previously posted at Journeys.)

This past week has been a whirlwind of activity…what with school starting and my staying up late to plan and prepare and my staying late after school in an attempt to find my desk and keep some semblance of order…both visually and mentally!

So what will next week be?  A metaphorical hurricane?  For with next week comes a masters level course that I will be taking and a college-level course that I will be teaching for Lyon College.  Oh, yes, and preparation for an additional class for the junior high that I obtained three days into the first week of school. 

Have we mentioned the roller coaster called extracurricular?  I would love to work full-time in the extracurricular department, but, unfortunately, those “other duties” do not bring enough income for me!  But, I do so enjoy working with Beta Club, Student Council, and assisting with the National English Honor Society.

Enough of that, though…now to discuss metaphor number four.

This week I asked each student to consider to what they might compare their writing styles.  Several used a sports metaphor; some were more unique.  For example, one student plans to compare her writing style to rain.   Interesting.

This assignment began with our reading Richard Wilbur’s poem “The Writer” and my sharing my rendition of this assignment through which I compare my writing style to the story The Ugly Duckling.  (This poem with a TPCASTT worksheet and the PowerPoint version of my writing style are available on my class wiki.  Components of this lesson were borrowed from ReadWriteThink/Writing Metaphor Assignment.)

Why this assignment?

1. Students need to reflect on the how, not the why, but the steps, the process they take in completing an assignment.
2. Then they visit with Mr. Bloom (figuratively, of course!) as they analyze and synthesize and evaluate these findings.  Then, they present.
3. Creativity is encouraged at this point…but not penalized.

From here, we prepare to enter the digital world as the students begin considering a theme for their student blogs.  Maybe they will use their writing-style metaphor…or maybe not.  I didn’t.  When I created this blog last year, I considered using a duck as part of my theme but then decided to use my last year’s decorating theme.  That’s right…pirates!  I had just gone to the movie with my family and watched the latest Pirates of the Carribean movie and was inspired! 

Ducks, sports, starlings, pirates…the theme itself is not important.  The goal will still have been accomplished.

My students are thinking.

Now if only I can keep this going in weeks two, three, and four and for the rest of the year!

As this man planned his funeral last week, he requested that I play the piano for him.  And did I ever!  With more add-ins than probably needed (not sure of the proper piano jargon, for I have never had a formal piano lesson), but because Mr. Gene requested this of me, I did my best and enjoyed doing it…very much.

As I was driving home from the graveside service, I began to think about this honor and the energy I put into this day.  My thoughts transitioned from this day to Monday…the first day of school.

Our students’ parents are the Gene Floyd’s within our school systems.  They simply request that we do our best, and, thankfully, for most of us, teaching is very similar to what playing the piano is for me.  It’s a joy, a rewarding experience, and simply an honor, as in such requests by friends like my friend Mr. Gene.

My hope, my prayer is that on Monday, that we all return to play the pianos of education with the same joy, the same rewards, the same enjoyment that I was blessed with today…and hopefully?  Well, I like to think that I “played” just a small part in the huge smile that I can just see on Mr. Gene’s face as as he looked down upon us today, for he’s now such a happy and not-sick man.

So back to my hope, my prayer…may we make all our students and parents smile as we play this grand piano called teaching.

Thirteen reasons why everyone should read this novel:

1. This novel is written by Jay Asher at DiscoMermaids.
2. I purchased this novel because one of our school board members recommended it on his new blog…that within itself is very exciting!  Here are his words:  “This book should be a ‘must read’ for everyone in high school. It is a blending of Newton’s Third Law of Motion with Six Degrees of Separation. Only 288 pages, it is a quick read.”
3. This novel is told from two points of view, one of which is very unique and so memorable.
4. This novel is about bullying.
5. Probably written for young adults, this novel should be required of all high school counselors or student advisors.
6. All administrators should read this novel, especially those who care about the popular kids.
7. All teachers should read this novel.
8. Then all students should read this novel…but only after their teachers have read it.  Why?  You just have to read it to discover why.
9. This novel will make you a better, no, a more observant parent.
10. This novel will open your ears, your eyes, your mind.
11. As you read, you will replace the main characters with persons within your own life, situations through which you have lived.  Or maybe not…if you are lucky.
12. You will see through a different lens, maybe closer to 20-20.  Real life.
13. Read this novel for a life-altering perspective.  Just read it…please.

There…thirteen reasons why you…no, everyone…should read Th1irteen R3asons Why.

A unique day.  

The Summer Olympics began.

I worked on lesson plans for a new school year.

I had a “day-date” with my husband.

Yes, this was a good day.

Today, I decorated a bulletin board to use this fall as we elect a new President.  At that point, I was not sure what to put on the board, where to begin, or exactly what our focus would be.

Tonight, I read Ted Nullen’s post about Google Docs and the National Writing Project’s latest endeavor to assist in motivating our students to write even more.

For high school teachers and mentors who would like to capitalize on young people’s interest in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, Google and the National Writing Project have teamed up to create Letters to the Next President: Writing Our Future.

Now I am focused (also a very applicable way to teach letter-writing…check here for a Daily Writing Tip on “How to Format a US Business Letter“).

Interested in this project?  Please go here to register.

This is the question. 

A question that I have been debating since I read a post on this very topic.  (I would love to give credit where credit is due for this thought, but since I have subscribed to 70+ blogs and since that thought seemed to echo later on, I “lost” who commented on this.  Sorry!)

To read or to write what?  The answer?  Blogs.

I want to incorporate blogs more within my classes this fall, and until reading this blog, I had thought the focus should be posting to a blog. 

The above referenced blogger commented that bloggers spend more time reading blogs than posting to them.  I agree.  I do.

I spend much more time reading those 70+ blogs than I do posting to this one.  Not because I do not enjoy writing nor because I do not appreciate the reflective nature of such posts, but because 1) I do not always have something to say to such a venue and 2) I really like reading what others have to say!

Thus, my focus has changed.  Now to help my students find the blogs of merit that they will want to read because those bloggers have “good things” to say. 

Then they can write as inspiration strikes (okay, or as I prompt them to write on topics of class-merit!).