Hmm

So, I took the GACE on Saturday. It actually went better than I thought, I'm still nervous about my results but, I think I'll be okay :) OH! I was telling my students about my taking the GACE on Saturday and they were all excited for me and they asked me if they could have a party if I passed it. :) I thought that was so sweet! Kids say the cutest things! :)


Moving on, I'm really trying to think about what I want my multigenre project to be about. I'm having a hard time thinking of something. I think I might have to go back through my writer's notebook and the multigenre article that we read for last week and see if I find anything that strikes my fancy or might lead me to something that strikes my fancy. We'll see, I need to get cracking on this!


So, Kristen and I decided to do our text set on a second grade standard that is based around understanding different elements of fictional texts, such as fairy tales, fables, etc... I think we decided to go with fairy tales and we have a large group of texts (that we should probably narrow down) and we are going to read them and discuss the common themes that are relevant in each fairy tale. Kind of like "What are the elements that make up a fairy tale?" "What types of things make fairy tales different from other types of stories?" My idea actually derived from a project that I did in Block 1, though that project was different. But, I do think it is an interesting concept, to have students think about what types of elements make up fables, fairy tales, myths, legends, etc... I think it is definitely something worth knowing and something that I know I would have been extremely interested in when I was in the second or third grade. I'm excited to see how it turns out and what we can come up with. I might try to get my focus lessons to go along with our text set. I think that would be kind of a neat thing to do, and both assignments would kind of help each other out, so that's always good :)


On a side note, one of my best friend's is getting married this coming Saturday so my friend and I have to leave this Thursday so we can get home in time for the wedding. I'm sooo excited for her, but I'm not gonna lie, it kinda freaks me out that we are at that age where everyone is starting to get married. It'll be weird to see her walking down the aisle to her future, but I am so ecstatic for her ! :) I think this coming weekend will be fun, I definitely have not had the best of weekends at the moment, so I'm ready to get home, see my friends, and heal myself a little. Not that anything awful or terrible or anything like that has happened. But, I often find that when I have had a hard weekend or something that didn't go my way it kind of helps for me to go home and heal myself. It's theraputic and cathargic for me :) It reminds me of what it is really important in life and it makes me whole again, to be able to get back to my roots and remember who I am :) .


This is a Bible verse that also helps me get through the hard times, the good times, and just the normal times. I like sharing it because it has helped me in so many ways, I like to think of it as helping others too....


"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."-- Jeremiah 29:11




This is a picture of the mountains where I come from. This is home to me.



Lookout Mountain, Georgia



Spring Break and Stress!

So, it's Sunday, and that means Spring Break is almost, offically....O-V-E-R. :( :( :( :( I'm really upset about this because I feel like I need an extra week to get done the things that I should have got done over spring break, actually done. Not to mention, I'm taking the GACE this Saturday, so on top of the, neverending course work it seems, I somehow have to find the time to study for the GACE. I'm not tooooooo worried, ok, I lied, maybe I'm a little worried and nervous. But, everything will be okay :) I just know it will be :)

Spring Break readings

Here we go....

    So, while doing the readings for this week, I stumbled across 2 very important (or at least to me they are) facts. The first comes from the article we read about multigenre research and the second comes from Ray, chapter 12; when you really sit down and think about it, I like to believe that they go hand in hand :)

So, in the article, the main thing that popped out to me is the utmost importance of student choice.....guided student choice. I place emphasis on the word 'guided' because often times, when a teacher has given me student choice, i have been at a loss for WHAT to write about. I always end up thinking, "OK, great, i can write about whatever i want to write about.....so what do i write about? I have no idea. There are too many options and...uhhh...I kinda don't know where to begin, so I'll just pick something and go with it." Yep, that's usually what it looks like when my previous teachers (in my younger schooling days) gave me "student choice". I never asked them to help me think of something to write about cause they would either 1) look at you like you are crazy because you are this 10 year old kid, whose imagination is flying, therefore should have PLENTY to write about and 2) they would say "well just write about something that interests you. do you play sports? do you like barbies? write about one of those things?" (really, you REALLY want me to write about barbies...i mean i could...i did find them pretty awesome as a kid, but i HIGHLY doubt my teacher REALLY wanted me to write about barbies...i think it was all a ploy to just get me to write about SOMETHING). Anyways, back to the reason i placed emphasis on the word 'guided'. In the article, it discussed ways that students could choose things to write about. I feel like, as a former student (and currently one), when i am struggling with what to write about, i don't want a superficial "do you like sports? what about barbies? puppies? dolphins? fluffy pink bunnies?..well then write about that." I want someone to work with me and help guide my thinking to help me discover what to write about. They don't have to pick the topic for me, but if I am to write a deep, personally connected piece, then i would like to write about something that i find interesting and would like to learn more about (like the girl, who in the article, wrote about the Titanic)....not fluffy pink bunnies. I really enjoyed reading this article not only for the reason that it highlighted the fact that students, when writing multigenre research pieces (and any other kind of piece), should pick something that they are interested in and have HELP when choosing that topic (i.e., guidance from a mentor or a teacher). The topic does not have to be chosen for them but if I really like the though provoking questions and the FQI that the article posed as a way to help guide students and narrow down their selections, and also, figure out WHY they want to write about this piece (not just because they had no choice and couldn't think of anything).
    The other thing that the article talked about, and was mentioned in Ray chapter 12, was the importance of personally relating to a topic and focus lessons when having a whole-class unit of study. As a writer, it is important to me to feel connected, personally, to what i am writing about. Honestly, if I have no interest in the topic (or whatever the case may be) and do not feel personally connected to it, my writing ends up looking like terrible and I'm just not proud of it. I know we are all different as writers, but for me, connecting with what i am writing, whether it is topic, genre, or whatever, is of the utmost importance because if I don't connect with what I am writing, then my writing isn't going to go very far.  Another aspect that I found important was the concept of having focus lessons work together with the units of study, so the students work can build upon each other and include the information that is given to them in the focus lessons, instead of being "hit-and-miss" lessons. I don't know why this is such an enlightenment to me, but, nevertheless, it is. For some reason, and I don't know why this didn't come to me before, but it makes sense to have the focus lesson during writer's workshop be relevant to the students work. There has never been a time in our class where our focus lessons could not be incorporated into our writings. This was a revelation of common sense to me. :)