Final Blog

I think that my attitude towards language arts has changed over this semester. It has never been my favorite subject, but I have seen how much you can do with it over this semester. It really interests me how many interactive and exciting activities you can do with a language arts lesson. I will definitely use readers and writers workshops in my classroom because I feel that they really engage the students.
I also have learned how important it is to use a variety of teaching methods in a classroom. Some of the things we learned this semester did not necessarily interest me, but I recognize that the same thing may happen among my students. I will catch certain students attention with different lessons. I really enjoyed the time I spent in the classroom this semester because it gave me a chance to see the application of the things we were learning in class in a real life setting.

Poetry

One of my favorite poems is Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. Although I really enjoy this particular Shel Silverstein poem i think that many children would enjoy his poems. I think that i would use his works as a whole in my classroom. An activity that I could use is to allow the children to pick one of his poems that they like. Then they could choose a way to represent the poem in a creative way. I think this would be a fun way to get students excited about poetry.

Freedom Writers

This is one of my favorite movies. It is truly inspirational. When we think about teaching we hope for the perfect little class, but this shows that is not always the reality. Also, that not so perfect classes can be just as rewarding. I love that Hilary Swanks character is not afraid to have an open discussion with these children. I am taking ed. psych right now and this clip definitely relates to the guidelines for teaching a multicultural classroom. These guidelines say that a teacher needs to get to know her students, their families, and their communities in order to be able to teach them. Also, because I have seen this movie I know that her character spends time with her students outside of the classroom which is yet another guideline for teaching multicultural classrooms. It is great to be able to see things that we are learning in our classroom in action.

Conferencing

After completing two conferencing sessions I thought they were very helpful. A fresh pair of eyes is always good because they can catch things that you didn't even notice. We know what we meant to write, and sometimes read that instead of what is actually written on the page. I usually allow other people to see my writing before I turn it in, although it's usually a parent or my brother. I think having a peer review your writing is very helpful because they have an idea of what is suppose to be in it. The cons of this type of conferencing is that students may not actually use peer conferencing to their advantage. With assignments like this students may not stay on task, and instead just socialize.

Literature Circles

I have only had direct experience with literature circles in my EDU 255 class. I really enjoyed the experience in that class. The different roles that were assigned really helped us to understand the story because it broke it down in many different forms. I also think that the group aspect of the literature circles helps the students to understand because they are getting multiple points of view. Although I really like this technique it is not something that can be used in the younger grades. Some of the other techniques such as readers workshop, writers workshop, and thematic units may be more useful for teachers of younger grades. I am hoping that in my placement this semester I will be able to see some of these other techniques used in the classroom.

Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot

I would really like to use Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot in my classroom. This book is about the Berlin Airlift. It highlights the true story of one young girl during the time, and a pilot that dropped candy down to the children in West Berlin. I have always loved the story this books tells, and would love to share it with my future students.
This story highlights all of the elements of a story.
Plot: The story begins with Merecedes and her mother reading about the "chocolate pilot." Then Merecedes sees the candy that the "chocolate pilot" drops from his plane and hopes to get some one day. She writes the "chocolate pilot" asking him to drop chocolate into her garden. The story ends with Mercedes receiving a letter and chocolate in the mail from the pilot.
Characters: Mercedes and Lt. Gail Halvorsen are the main characters of this story.
Setting: 1948 West Berlin, Germany- The setting of this story is very important because the story takes place during a specific event, The Berlin Airlift.
Point of View: Omniscient- The story is written in the third person, but the person telling the story is god-like. The feelings and emotions of the characters are known.
Theme: The Berlin Airlift, a story of a young girl and the relationships that were formed during that time.

One idea of an activity that students could do related to this book is to write their own letter to Lt. Gail Halvorsen as if they were a child during the Berlin Airlift. Another idea would be to write a letter or Mercedes, who is actually still alive, and tell her what they felt while reading the story or ask questions about her life.

A purely fun activity for students to do after reading the book is to make their own parachutes with chocolate attached to them.

I think this book tells a great story, and allows students to relate to the people during the time of the Berlin Airlift. It does a great job of showing the connections that people make during hard times, and how a small amount of kindness can really help people.

To blog or not to blog.....

I think that blogging is a great way to express your feelings about any topic. I find them very interesting, but also somewhat hard to identify how formal you must be. The type of blogs we are writing for this class are professional, but not extremely formal. Other blogs such as blogs about a certain event in someones life are very informal. I think I may enjoy that type of blog more than a formal blog.
That being said, I enjoyed this type of writing more than another type of reflection that could have been assigned. I feel that the blogs may make people feel more relaxed, and as if they can truly express their opinion without worrying about being judged, or their grade being reduced because of it. I feel like I am getting increasingly more comfortable with the blogs.