Treasure Chest of Thoughts

Thanks to one of Dana Huff’s blog posts via my Google Reader and her comments via Twitter and Facebook, I learned about Mr. Carl’s (at Stainless Steel Droppings) fourth annual R.I.P. Challenge (aka R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Challenge), which consists of various levels of competition, depending upon the amount of time one can commit to this read-along.

Below are two bloggers committing to the challenge; also listed within these posts are their chosen R.I.P literature.

1. Much Madness is Divine ~ one of English teacher Dana Huff’s blogs
2. Stephanie’s Written Word

Interestingly, the creative source for this challenge was Charlie Brown.  Yes, the Charlie Brown from Peanuts.  Remember…(it’s okay if you don’t remember…I didn’t!)  Charlie Brown began his stories with “It was a dark and stormy night…”

I like a good challenge.  Here are the four novels I am contemplating reading for this challenge, which runs from September 1-October 31:

1. The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl 
2. The Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Is this a stretch to include this novel in this challenge?)
3. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
4. Hunted by P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast

My whole Pre-AP English 10 class could enter this challenge as they will be reading H.G. Well’s The Time Machine or The Invisible Man…interesting!

I may change this list once I peruse my book shelves for more titles, but, as for now, let the cool nights arrive with opened windows that let in the sounds that provide the backdrop for such eerie, suspenseful works of scary literary art!

Until Thursday afternoon, I had spent very little time in our teacher copy room.  At that point, I wasted a lot of paper.  Just couldn’t be helped.  Because my daughter had a heart check-up,  I had to miss on Friday; therefore, my students did not have access to their mini laptop computers, which, by the way, have been a HUGE success. 

Never let it be thought that students cannot learn a new task very quickly.  They are quick to enter the classroom, remove their very own mini from the cart, log-on, have it ready at “half-mast,” and are waiting for their first instruction. 

The only complaint I have heard so far is that the keyboards are too small.  At which point, I ask them to hold both hands out from their chest area, palms facing toward each other, and then request that they move their thumbs, symbolizing their use of their cell phones.  They cannot repress the grins, for all know that the mini laptop keyboard is much larger than the true mini keyboard they have already mastered!

The only deviants so far have been two boys sitting right beside each other chatting within their Google emails.  Quickly got a “sorry” when I quietly reminded them that the use of a mini remains a privilege and that to loose the privilege of the mini would certainly result in this class being both less fun and more work when they had to complete the day’s work the “old” way.

In the eight days we have been in school, I have utilized our class blogs more than ever…daily, as a matter of fact.  This, I am modeling, partially, after seeing Siegmund’s English Weblog , where each post begins with state standards; this I really like!  Also really wonderful examples of detailed posts.

Another change has been my increased use of Google Documents, where I have created several forms for my students to complete; am finalizing the “Digital Fingerprint” form this weekend, a form where the students will share their logins/passwords to accounts created for our class.  I request this information for two reasons:

1. to help protect them from Internet stalkers (and others) who might leave inappropriate comments.  Should I find it I want to be able to log-in and delete.  (Some call this efficacy.)
2. to provide log-ins/passwords to those who forget, which by the way has already happened once.
3. Last year, I kept that information in one of my many three-ring binders.  This year, this data goes in a Google form, which I can access immediately from any computer that I am using.  Very cool!

So far, the tools we are creating accounts for include…

1. Google/Blogger
2. Penzu
3. GoodReads
4. Delicious

In addition, each student will have “writer” rights to his/her class’s wikispace page.

What other accounts do you think are a necessity in a (nearly) paperless classroom? 

Now, as I discussed with one of my peers who is also a part of our Classroom Redesign, if we only had a week off from school to plan for these paperless lessons!  Just another reason for promoting the concept of a year-round school…more breaks between sessions to allow for teacher-planning on a need-to-create basis!

Just created my first form in Google Docs.  Just think…that is one stack of papers I will not have to bring home and grade!

Yes!  I am hooked.

Now…back to creating lesson plans online!

Both of the above post headings fit this commentary…we are three days into school, and we (my students and myself) are both noting how fast the class periods go.  Why?  School is just cooler this year in room 16!

REASONS School is COOLER:

1. First, the rooms are literally cooler and quieter thanks to the new air conditioning units installed this summer.  They are so quiet…very awesome.  All of a sudden, we notice the room is getting almost cold (yes, need to ask them to reset the defaults by a few degrees, for the system itself is also digital…nice of them to select a system that, of course, blends in with our new classroom redesign!) 
2. Blue. Mini. Laptops.  YES!  Got them in my room on Tuesday afternoon and managed to get enough of them imaged to use with my newspaper class on the first day of school…and then with all my English classes on Thursday and Friday. Way cool!  Of course, the students love having a computer…literally…in their hands.  I love being able to send them to Mrs. G’s Info Page…and going to work…or is it play?!  Fewer papers to hand out…with just a click of a button (or two), the students and I were already at work…again! (I really am missing my LCD projector…my presentations would be much more effective with it.)
3. Comfy chairs.  New colors.  Yes, we call it classroom redesign.  I found it a little humorous that the students looked at the “comfy” chairs but would not sit in them until I said, “Of course, you may…that’s what they are for!”  What surprised me, though, was that many of them still chose the desks.  Not sure about that reason for that choice yet…will observe (ah, action research) and write more about that later.  If they like these desks now, just wait until our new ones finally get here in a week or so…yes, way cool!
4. Lighting.  The new lights have a softer hue, which those of us who wear contacts really appreciate!  I also have several lamps in my room (bought bulbs of too low a wattage yesterday…going back to Wal-Mart to invest in more so that we can switch to that type of lighting when viewing movies, videos, podcasts, and such.

In every class, either a student(s) or I would comment, after glancing at the clock (usually the one on the wall…not the one in the lower right corner ~ isn’t that interesting?) that “this class went by so fast.”  I like it like that!

I. Love. My. Room.  And so do my former students, many of whom commented as they stopped by to visit and check out the new design, “Why couldn’t this have happened last year?”    That’s right, those of you reading this, already know the answer to that one:  that’s just the nature of  change.

ROOM 16 TO GET COOLER STILL!  My room is about 70% completed.  Hopefully, my built-in unit for the journalism computers will arrive on Monday (would look really cool for Open House on Monday night!).  Bookcases, shelves, desks, more artwork…and more tech tools!…still all on the to-do list for Room 16.

Pictures to be posted soon…or within a few days, I will have our photo-a-day blog (CAFE:  In Pictures) for our Classroom Redesign ready for your viewing pleasure…or just stop by and visit us!

My daughter Holly loves to draw, paint…she’s definitely right-brain dominant!

Over the weekend, we spent some time being artsy.  She just loved painting with me…we had some great girl time.  At one point, she stated, “Mom, I just love painting.  I can imaginate.  Create anything I want.”

I suppose with one is creating original works of art that one has the right to create the words to express that moment.

Imaginate.  Works for me!

I just completed reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch who dreamed of becoming (and did scale that brick wall, as he referred to challenges in his life) an Imagineer at Disney.  This is how I see my Holly when she is being creative…she is an Imagineer of sorts.

The painting here is a one-of-a-kind original…and my very first attempt at such a project.  Well…to be honest…there are about three attempts layered below the final outcome.  Had a few false starts!

Probably could have purchased a much cheaper portrait:  canvas, paints, hours of time…but I wanted this painting to take into my newly redesigned classroom this fall to use as an example of “it’s okay to step outside your box and try something new.”  The box, in this case, being their current writing style.

See the duck?  The duck is for a new project I am creating.  Please check here if interested in learning more about this project and meeting Olivia Noel (yes, that’s the duck’s name!).

What have you done lately to step outside your box?  Please share…I really want to hear about it!

I have read some really good reads this summer!  Please visit my book review blog if interested in what I have to say about the following literary works (listed in order that I read them):

• Breaking Dawn
• The Good Earth
• The Lovely Bones
• Escape
• Marked
• The Hunger Games
• The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Soon-to-be-posted…four  more reviews (it seems that I read more than I write!):

• Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom
• The Last Lecture
• A Whole New Mind
• Shelf Life:  Stories by the Book

What have you read good lately?

Katherine Howe, author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, has changed the way I will forevermore begin a discussion with my students about the purpose of writing.

Haven’t read this novel?  Please check our my review of this latest release here…and plan some time into your busy schedule to read this book! 

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF WRITING?

In this novel, Connie Goodwin begins the research process to discover more information about Deliverance Dane, a thus -far unknown witch during the time of the Salem Witch Trials.  Throughout her journey, Connie meets other family members of Deliverance, one in particular being Prudence who keeps a journal…barely, but a journal.

Connie paged deeper into the journal, finding several entries of an almost identical content.  She sifted through the stultifying repetition, trying to read between the lines to uncover details that Prudence would not have thought to state explicitly….Connie could feel frustrated that this distant daughter of taciturn Puritans would not have had the cultural knowledge necessary to reflect in print on her inner life.

Yes, Prudence’s lack of elaboration proves most frustrating for main character Connie, for her job is much harder because, basically, Prudence is just too closed-mouthed!

Here she held in her hands a daily log of the entire second half of another woman’s life, and Connie felt like she knew her even less.  Prudence’s cold practicality, her obstinate refusal to reveal her feelings, no matter how culturally proscribed, created in Connie a whistling void of incomprehension.  She wanted to throw the journal across the room, to bunch its fragile pages up in her hands and rip them into shreds, to shake Prudence out of her reserve.  But Prudence sat removed from her [Connie's] frustration, insulated by a two-hundred-year-wall.

Did you catch that hidden agenda for every writer?  Do you sense Connie’s great wish for Prudence to write more…and more?  Yes…write!  Details and lots of them.

Details is what makes the difference between an interesting and a boring blog, story, letter…whatever the genre of choice might be.  You see, I have felt Connie’s frustration after reading a set of students’ paper , especially those who skimmed on the details, those who did not paint that picture with vivid words.

Yes, I will book talk this novel to all my classes, for it truly is a very interesting read, especially eleventh graders upon having read The Crucible.  Yes, I will introduce Connie and her frustration with Prudence, in hopes that one more light bulb might go off as a student finally begins to understand the importance of descriptive details.   Yes, I will use these same excerpts to point out how Katherine Howe fulfils this purpose of writing by including so many details…vivid details that appeal to the reader’s senses.

Yes, I have discovered writing’s physick purpose.

See this image?  It speaks to me.  This process I can see occuring within my classroom.  For the past couple of years, I have wrestled mentally with how to create student portfolios that reflect the various genres they are now using within classrooms as we transform into 21 Century learning environments.

Unfortunately, the old school in me wants to print this graphic organizer so I can annotate with myown thoughts and ideas.  Sorry!

This diagram not “speaking” to you?  Then, please check here for more e-portfolio models.

Please check out Dr. Helen Barrett’s blog devoted to the topic of e-portfolios.  Awesome site!  Very.

How do you appproch this endeavor?

Joanne Jacobs’ post on the same headline is interesting. 

Some of us lean to the “foxhole” theory…others towards “we truly care about these kids”…and me?  Maybe a mix of the two…if I were truly honest!

Please take a moment to read this!

Thanks, Ms. Joanne!

I think my daughter might have pulled a “sneaky” on me this evening; yes, I do believe I have been hoodwinked (I like that word…it’s even fun to look at…hoodwinked!)

BUT…shhhh, please do not tell her; I don’t mind.  Really.

Here’s the tale:

“Mom, I haven’t started on my book that I have to have read for Monday’s test.” (For reading and testing over five books this summer, her class receives a fun day that involves slides and water.  Now how cheap is that idea…okay, maybe Holly’s teacher actually hoodwinked  her…there’s that word again!). 

We discussed books that she could read and finally decide that between now and Monday (four days) that she and I will read the first Harry Potter book together…she’ll read a paragraph and then I’ll read a paragraph.  (She has since decided not to wait on me and is reading part of it to herself. I told her that was okay since I had already read this book.  Right?)

Okay…here comes the sneaky part:

“Mom, did you know that Chaney’s mom told her if she would read all the books in the Harry Potter series that her mom would buy her the movies?”

“That sounds like a good deal to me,”  I innocently commented.

“Can we do that?”

I look at her.

“Will you buy me the movies if I read all the books?”

“Sounds good to me,”  I innocently commented. 

“Okay!  I am going to read all of them.  I can even read them in school.”

I am hoping she meant during Silent Sustained Reading…and not during math.  I might need to have that chat with her!

By the way,  have I mentioned that I just loved the Harry Potter series, and now it looks like I…ooops, Holly will soon have all the movies also!