So April and I decided to hold a book club. She chose a book and I chose one. The two books that we read were: Slaughterhouse 5 and Dark Life. There was unfortunately some confusion (because of me). April had to read 3 books due to me giving her the wrong book title.
So Dark Life is about the world having little land left and some people decide to "homestead" under the ocean. The kids who live down below develop dark gifts and have abilities that vary. It was pretty cool because the adults who find out about these gifts (the kids parents) embrace their children and their uniqueness. We both decided that this would be a cool book that could be used both in English and science or biology. With global warming that happens today it would be interesting to see how students would react to this book. This could also be used in a middle school setting as an example of a utopian/dystopian society, depending upon how you look at it.
Slaughterhouse 5 was difficult for both of us to read. However April made some very great points. I had a hard time getting over how the story really has no conclusion. April pointed out that when it comes to war there really is not a satisfying conclusion ever. She also pointed out, because again I was struggling with the book, that war affects everybody very differently. Billy (the main character) time travels and is taken from Earth by aliens. This is how he copes with what happened to him during the war. Again this book can be used as an example of a censorship, utopian/dystopian society. Censorship is something that affects us in one way or another. This book could be used with something like Divergent and the effects of what censorship can do to a society.
These books were so different from one another but surprisingly good reads. Well I still am having a hard time wrapping my head around Slaughterhouse 5. The aliens really threw me off balance. Neither April nor I have been in a book club and we have had fun doing this. It is something that (April's idea) we would like to incorporate into our classrooms.

A few things that I have learned from this class is that I need to start buying reading material that I want to have in my classroom. This material will vary in style, genre, and levels. I know that students come to us in various learning levels and I need to make sure I can accommodate everyone who I will be fortunate enough to teach. Some things that I want to incorporate into my class is vocabulary. I found a few awesome graphic organizers that can be used for any content area and I plan on using them. Vocabulary words are so important for students. I was fortunate enough to go to a state training and they said that students should be learning about 400 new words a school year (that was a minimum!). I was pretty shocked at the information. One way I plan on teaching vocabulary is to have a "word wall". This is where students can put down a word that they heard but don't know what it means. We can as a class figure out the meaning and that student who wrote down the word can then write the definition next to the word.
I am an English major so incorporating literacy into my content area will not be hard, but it will be challenging to get students to read. I hope to have a library in my classroom that is full of all kinds of reading material. I hope this will encourage students to read more. I hope having a diverse reading section that I will be able to have all my students interested in reading. It is hard to accommodate all types of learners, but no so much that it can't be done. In my library I will have books in other languages too. I don't want to hinder anyone from learning.
Integrating technology is going to be a little bit harder for me. I want to make sure students are able to adjust between technology and "old school" writing and reading easily. There are a few ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. Presentations are a great way to do that. I just learned about a new website called Prezi. Um wow! That is definitely something that I will be using in my classroom.
Teaching English and History is going to be a fun and challenging experience and I look forward to it. I hope that with the help of other teachers I can teach vocabulary across content areas so that students know the meanings that apply to the correct area. That will probably be the most challenging thing that I will face (I hope!!).

One of my most favorite moments from observing this semester is when the students started asking questions about the book they were reading  (My Brother's Voice). The book is more of a memoir about the holocaust. The students either really enjoyed it or they hated it. Yet every class meeting the students were asking the teacher questions and engaging in a tuff topic. After reading VanDe Weghe's article I noticed that the teacher asked questions that were engaging and authentic. She asked questions that were challenging as well. I was surprised at the level of maturity for the 9th grade class. The students were open with their feelings, telling what they liked and didn't like and why. Most of the time the teacher didn't have to start asking questions, the students just jumped in, so to speak, and started the discussion. This was an awesome class to observe and the students were amazing in their level of understanding. I'm hoping I can achieve this level of communication in my classes in the future.

Critical literacy is like a close reading. You are taking a close look at the text and learning to apply the ideas to the final product. Some ideas that I have been thinking about for a while are simple yet easy to implement into the classroom. Today it is so easy for students to get their hands on some sort of technological device. I know as an English teacher I will most likely at one point in time teach Romeo and Juliet, it's just a given. I idea that I had for this is having the students pair up and text each other a passage from Romeo and Juliet, but put it in their speech. I think this will help them learn to understand the language of Romeo and Juliet plus it will be something that students can relate to :-). Another subject that students struggle with is poetry. I would like students to write their own poem and somehow make a video out of it. I think it would be fun for students to make a video and hopefully it will teach them that poetry is not all that boring. There are so many ideas out there that we can use to incorporate multimedia into old literacy and make it both fun and informational.

For the digital text and reflection I tried the Glogster. What I really like about the app is that it is multi-functional. I can use it for both History and English. Students can make a poster or a short video for the book that they are reading and add pictures, text, audios from a movie version, or voice recordings. This could be used as their final report on a book. For History students can create posters for the time frame I'm teaching them or even a timeline. I think there are many applications that I can use with Glogster. The one thing that I had a hard time doing was adding text. I still haven't figured it out, but it may just be a bug in the app or me. I am going to have my kids (yep) play around with it and see if they can figure it out. A big thing that I learned from the readings is that students will progress with or with out us in the technological age, we can either help them or get out of the way. I really am not that old yet when I see the things my kids do with the technology I feel ancient. My kids have so many games on their iPods and when I try to play them they get frustrated with me and take the device away. I want to know how the game are played and to make sure they are suitable for their ages. I really had a hard time with the fact that kids spend 7.5 hours a day on some sort of device on the web. I know that my kids, while at home, are not on the web. I have very strict rules about the time spent on their Ipods. I don't believe it is healthy for kids to be sitting on their rear ends for hours at a time. BUT while they're at school I don't have a say. I think as long as the teachers are making the most of the technology while at school my kids are better off. My oldest is in Jr. High and his English teacher has the students going on a website called Utah Compose. I took a look at it and really liked the idea behind it. The students can write an essay and it will automatically correct their paper. It will tell them where they can improve their writing skills and where they need to fix grammatical mistakes. I really like this website and it does get students ready for the Sage test as well. I hope that I can keep technology in my class so that students don't leave ME behind, I want to help them advance in life not keep them behind.

After listening to this week's PowerPoint I have learned that I do not need to grade every piece of writing that my students will submit. I already had this in mind because I don't believe in overworking students to the point that they will hate writing. It was nice to have my thoughts verified. As an English and History (soon to be) teacher, it is so important for students to learn to write their thoughts down. I really don't believe in grading everything. I did have a teacher who did that to me and I hated it. I almost got to the point where I hated to write at all. I want students to feel comfortable with their writing, learn what style fits them best and expand on it; become the best they can be in that form.
Another point that I really enjoyed was that I need to model my work, not my finished work but my first draft to show my students that I'm not perfect. I want them to know that everybody makes mistakes and it takes time to get the "perfect" essay (I have never had one though!). A lot of the things discussed in the PP are things that I have heard about and had already decided to try in my own classroom. I know how important it is to have a rubric as a guideline, that my students will know what I am looking for. I never want them to guess what I'm thinking. One point that I never would have even considered was having a formal audience. I really like the thought of having parents come in a watch their students perform something like Poetry Outloud. How wonderful would that be to have someone come and watch you.
My last thought is a big one to me. Have focused and interesting writing prompts for my students. Wow. I kinda wished I had interesting things to write about when I was in high school. Um if memory serves correctly I wrote about themes and ideas in Shakespeare (to a 15 year old, boring), and themes or overall ideas in poetry (again boring!). I really don't remember any interesting writing prompts and the ones that I do were not good. I don't want to be that teacher that is intolerable and students dread coming to my class. So for me I need to remember to model my own work, praise the work of my students, provide a rubric, and have an additional audience for the students. 

Today I was lucky enough to watch a teacher go over vocabulary with her students. She decided that her students need to have more experience with text of different types. Today she gave her students a text about things not to do on a date. These are 9th graders and it was hilarious to listen to them read about this subject. They were trying to not laugh or groan about the text. One thing she did though was interesting as I had just been reading about it in Harmon, Wood, and Hedrick reading. The teacher is planning on handing out miscellaneous reading with new words for the students to learn. Today one of the words was slovenly and it described what it meant afterwards in a subtle way. The teacher stopped the class and asked them what slovenly meant. Every student reread the text and told her the meaning in their own words. I'm sure most of them already knew what the word was, but there is always an opportunity to teach students new things. It was great to be there and witness exactly what I had been reading. This teacher is always looking for new ways to point out words that she thinks her students should know and it is so much fun to be in her class and watch all the different ways she is doing it.

My love of reading came from watching my mom. She always (in her spare time) would have a book in hand. I feel that today we can connect more because we recommend each other different books to try. My mom didn't really teach me anything about reading and understanding the text, she just set the example that books were important. During my middle and high school years I don't remember a teacher making or breaking my love of reading anymore that what it was. I did learn on my own how to interpret a text by writing out questions or more times than I care to count, rereading the whole book. My high school teachers focused more on the proper way to speak and write English then understanding a literary text.
I do remember one teacher taught us about The Scarlet Letter. I fell in love with that book. I remember (vaguely) that he would ask us questions about what we thought of the book, and why did we think that. What parts did we like and didn't like. He let us lead the discussion and only stepped in when we got off track. This was  the only time I can remember a teacher actually teaching us about something different. I know that is why I love The Scarlet Letter.
I hope that I can learn from this teachers example and lead my class in a way where they are the ones to take charge (once in a while) and help each other. Guiding students when they get off track and letting them come up with their own ideas and thoughts about literature will help teach them more then giving students the answers.
One thing that I struggled with (when I was working as an aid) was a new English teacher who constantly gave the answers to her students. She always asked them yes or no questions, so they did not have to think. When she worked on the study guides with them she would give the answers whether they had read the assigned chapters or not. The students learned that they didn't have to read the book, they just had to wait for her to go over the study guide to get the answers. It was so frustrating because these students were being taught to rely upon the teacher instead of thinking and looking for the answers themselves.  

Introduction

My name is Kristy Bradshaw. Next week I celebrate my 15th wedding anniversary with my wonderful husband (Yes I'm that old!). We have four wonderful kids. Well as wonderful as far as kids go. My oldest is 13 and the only boy, he is completely out numbered. Next is 11 1/2, 10, and last is almost 9. If your good at math then you have realized that we had four kids in 4 1/2 years. No this was not on purpose but it was meant to be. My kids definitely keep me on my toes.
I love to play any kind of sport except for basketball! I really don't see a reason for the game but I'm biased. I was an assistant coach for the high school girls soccer team here in Beaver for 2 years but sadly my schooling and coaching did not fit together for very long. I am an amateur photographer (I basically do it so I can take lots of photos of my kids). I hate the cold weather but will happily go sledding with my kids.

My family

 

 

When I am all finished with school I plan on teaching both English and History. I really don't care what grade as long as it is 9th grade or higher. I am not a fan of middle school age kids. I remember my middle school years and I know Karma is ... well you know the saying! I had some awesome English teachers and they set a great example for me. I love the teenage years (thank goodness because I'm in for a lot with my 3 girls), I enjoy the challenge of working with moody students.

 

Literacy to me is the act of speaking and writing the English language. I am always correcting my kids on their speech (yep, they do roll their eyes at me and tell me "whatever"). I grew up in a school where speech was very important and that has made a huge impact on my life. I would definitely say literacy is a big part of my content area; English. I hope to teach future lawyers, doctors, businessmen and women, stay at home moms and dads and anybody else who wants to learn the importance of literacy.

                                                  repelling over Christmas break