Talking and Eloquence

The more we get into our book, the more excited I become to start working with my student.  It's becoming more and more real as the chapters get more concrete!  The chapters today had a lot of good information about fluency and spelling and the need for students to delve deeper into language--and how we can help them.  It was almost as if the chapter was written for me and my students these past few weeks as we've been looking at vocabulary words and focusing on understanding them.  I know I have a ways to go to help my many levels of ELLs, but I'm thankful that according to the authors I'm on the right track.  Like Erik, I'm thinking of incorporating a Word Wall (which Annette added to with her great ideas of word bingo, etc).  The words my students and I are working with are not easy ones and it's an achievement for my students to know the spelling and at least be a little more familiar with them.  With repeated exposure and revisits as facilitated by the Word Wall, I think the more students will be encouraged to use them in their everyday speech.  Let's all embrace the Word Wall...

(taken from http://touchofthemasterministries.org/images/5696_105460397006_93874507006_2675602_5503512_n.jpg)

The topic of fluency and the idea that words are meant for more than sound calls to mind the following quote by Heinrich Heine:
"Talking and eloquence are not the same; to speak and to speak well are two things.  A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks." (taken from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/heinrichhe118764.html)
It's not enough to know that letters equal certain sounds.  We speak to convey meaning, to communicate, and entertain.  I'm very glad to be in the company of such excellent eloquence, Team MAGEC!

*Don't mind the overuse of "more."  Let's just chalk it up to my impatience to see us all succeed!  Miss you all.

Read and Read some more!!

"The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."

Dr. Seuss, "I can Read with My Eyes Shut!"

www.readfaster.com/famousquotes.asp

googleimage.com

Did alot of reading this week, catching up with school and homework, and although I tried to present my chapters my mind was with my new baby nephew "Blake". Thank you all for always being supportive and thoughtful. Looking forward to seeing you all next meeting! Have a GREAT payday weekend, be safe and enjoy!

"Magecal" Instruction Rocks!

image: http: www.graphicshunt.com/

"Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future"

(John Fitzgerald Kennedy)

quote: http://thinkexist.com/quotations/children/

Great job on your presentation, Mar! I was really enlightened by the various strategies to teach students based on their assessments and needs. What struck me as awesome was the part that mentioned that you should give instruction based on the needs of the student, and not what the teacher wants. Unfortunately, all too often, during my years of teaching, I had encountered situations where this was the case, not realizing that I was doing more harm than good. Obviously, as the years went by, I quickly became the student, myself, and learned from my mistakes. We as educators need to be in tune with our students, and learn all that we can about them so that we could help them become the students that they should be.

Mar conquers the day!

"The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." -Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"


Despite her day off from not feeling well, Mar conquered the day by doing a great job on her presentation. Hope you feel better! Many interesting topics from the chapters. As we have gone through several months of the school year already, I know that many of us have applied some of these techniques in our teaching strategies. Some of the techniques mentioned are a glimpse of what we have learned in ED645. These approaches include the shared reading and echo reading. When teaching struggling readers how to read we often start with decoding. However, what if the student does not make progress? It is important to use what Timothy Rasinski calls "MAP." Modeling, Assisted Reading, and Practice. When students do repeated readings and continue to practice it helps to develop fluency. When students are fluent in reading, they gain comprehension which will result in self-confidence. Our students need to perceive reading not simply as a task, but for enjoyment and great interest!

Image courtesy of: http://www.fisdk12.net/jpg/children_reading.jpg

How to spell Marife

Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well. - Thomas Jefferson to his daughter

Today's lecture was quite educational. Not only did I learn how to say Marife, I learned that it is a derivation of the traditional Mary Faye. I really enjoyed the idea of a word wall, I feel like I should do that in my classroom, particularly because anytime I put up something on the wall that is for my geography class, my history students ask about it, and anytime I put anything on the wall for my history class, my geography students ask about, and we all end up learning something! Hooray! Bam! I just received another idea, I think I will make a word wall of election terms since all of my classes are doing assignments once a week on the elections. There's the power of writing *write* there. I am already doing mini lessons on the spelling of the words as we go through the issues and candidates, in fact, today, our class learned that "buildup" is all one word. Go figure. I also just realized that the word wall of commonly misspelled words would save a lot of time, because, like the book notes, I really prefer to make students use the dictionary to find out for themselves how to spell. Any, thanks to Mar for bring these strategies to our attention, and inspiring us to use them, and thanks to Geri for the cream soda. All in all, today was Mageclly Delicious.

Quote Citation: http://spelling.wordpress.com/2007/05/18/spelling-quotes/

http://uglypoloparty.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/spelling_bee_Caveman.jpg

Missed Out!

All week I was looking forward to getting together as a group, Christine's presentation, Dr. Rivera's insights, and picture taking with "Team MAGEC", unfortunately the flu virus found and derailed me!! It literally felt like a train hit me. But I'm back and feeling better. Thanks for your kind thoughts. Enjoy your weekend!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo7qm5i3IlOAkM-r9geFaKaOMrs_743S8y3fvDxhbg97a5qNWgBJpBIrhr_YVUWCC3NWhmQYyq7Ks88ad7_evXwGNTAHcoqBZ_O4UeeeIzWWmOaXNCZwscd45E_SYn7eHQ6HxwJWIwo7w/s1600/th002.jpg

Giving Thanks

Hi everyone,

Just blogging to let you all know how much I appreciate your help and patience with me. Thank God for friends like you!

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

(John Lennon)

Let's Exercise Together!

Thanks, all, for a good session!  I missed you all and was really thankful that I had a live audience to speak "at" during my presentation.  It's good to hear from and see everyone after the few weeks we've been on Elluminate.  For the feelings of return and reunion, I want to share the following quote from Leo Buscaglia (from http://www.joyofquotes.com/smile_quotes.html):


"The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another's, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises."

Taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccieb/4568579328/

As great as it is that the University is moving forward with technology and incorporating online courses into the curriculum, there is still something to be said for face-to-face interaction.  How else can I exercise with you all?  Also I think our students truly benefit from the human touch and seeing our sincere dedication to their success.  I feel that good teachers bring their whole selves into the classroom and in sharing this with others, we also gain a lot back.


I had fun putting the presentation together and condensing the information into two fifteen-minute presentations.  Also getting to try out the assessments in pairs was a good experience and a dry-run is always helpful to preview potential problems or highlight where more preparation is needed.  Geri was an ideal student who loved to be read to and looked forward to gaining more skills as a reader and writer.  I hope all our students turn out the same.  Motivation is half the battle!  

"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself"-Chinese Proverb

Kudos to Christine. A job well done on her presentation. Chapter 9 emphasized on types of miscues and a specific set of questions in regards to the RMI procedures. These questions are in relevance to the language cueing systems. Teachers should ensure that all of the language cueing systems are used in order to increase reading fluency and comprehension. With today's session, I was glad that I am now more familiar with the procedures to follow when I begin my first assessment session. It is easier to follow through with the process when you have the opportunity to practice it beforehand. Erik was a good participant in the practice session and kudos to him as well for doing an overview of the strategies for assessment and providing us with the "food for thought."



Image courtesy of: http://100musicalfootsteps.files.wordpress.com/

Christine's Day

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSjLSg0X6Q61QLkohhjyrJNKbxmS5r6AV9ZH1bOjdfyAzy9Fdo&t=1&usg=__oJXek_THh_k0DvNqPk2cPF5-_n0=

I really enjoyed Christine's powerpoint presentation on the chapters on Formal Assessments and Interactive Decision Making. As teachers and future reading specialists, we are all too aware that inorder to provide the most appropriate literacy instruction, we must administer as many possible assessments as deemed necessary to properly diagnose the student's weaknesses and strengths. From there, the teacher can perform interactive decision-making in teaching to the student. If done accurately, we should be able to see progress in the development of our student's literacy skills.

Education is not received. It is achieved.”
(http://thinkexist.com/quotation/education_is_not_received-it_is_achieved/259705.html)

Rising above standardized assessment

To rise from error to truth is rare and beautiful.
Victor Hugo

I love this quote from Victor Hugo, I think the policy makers are committing an error with high stakes standardized testing, and we, as educators, need to rise above it.

I very much appreciated Christine's presentation, especially the section on standardized assessments and their uses. I think we have to be incredibly aware of cultural bias in standardized assessments. I see this all the time in Social Studies. Standardized tests will ask questions about seasons, and obviously, our students only have two seasons, so the likelihood of a student having the schema to answer a question about the four seasons is low, and voila, we have low test scores. I also appreciated her saying that standardized tests are TRYING to elicit a bell curve. It is important to note this and make sure that your students are prepared, and hopefully we can produce a lopsided (toward the high range) curve from our class. However, this is nearly impossible because the questions that are used to separate the high from average students are often such minutia that just a few students will have access to that particular content. Anyway, my point is, I think it's important that we don't take standardized testing too seriously, teach to the test, and leave out the fun learning that students enjoy. We need to use our multiple assessments to triangulate a student's true performance level.

Quote citation:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/rise_2.html

Image citation:http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z264/chathamboy06/11984881451press827200730432am.jpg

Let's Dream Together!

Image taken from http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs18/f/2007/168/1/c/dream_by_SuzyTheButcher.jpg   (DEVIANTART!)

The first few chapters of this book were a bit dry for me, I have to admit, but this last set was really engaging. I could really see how it translated into what I am already doing in the classroom and where I want to go.  Too, it brought back happy memories of our previous classes.  I appreciate how the authors don't just tell us that we have to use a variety of assessment tools, but provide us with some great examples and explanations of how and what to use!

Great job today, Annette!  And great job last week, Erik!  It's tough presenting to a computer screen, but thankfully you were able to recruit a live audience (and share yummy goodies).  I'm glad we get to see each other again next week--just in time for my presentation, how fortuitous! :D

While I wasn't able to find the author of this quote (mayhaps Erik can claim it), I felt it was too good to keep to myself--which I guess is kind of where I'm going with this blog.  "When you dream alone, with your eyes shut, asleep, that dream is an illusion.  But when we dream together, sharing the same dream, awake and with our eyes wide open, then that dream becomes reality!"

I think what makes this group a good one is that 1) we share the same goals for ourselves and for our students, and 2) we approach our lives and the issues therein with our eyes open.  We may be realists, but we're optimists nonetheless.  Our experiences help us realize that we are each other's best resources.    The things we learn in this class (and in any of the other great classes!) don't and shouldn't end with us.  We bring them to our students and our colleagues, and it gets paid forward, ad nauseum.  Or at least, that should be our dearest hope.  I sincerely appreciate that we all bring our positive and negative observations and that we learn from them and help shore each other up.  As great as this team of 5 (7 if you count our esteemed leaders), I hope that wherever life takes us, we can continue to help make this world a great team of roughly 6.7 billion.

Annette Elluminates

http://www.automarque.biz/images/screen-shot_15.jpg

Classroom-Based Assessments Rock! This was a great chapter with lots of resources to look back to! We easily related to the chapter because it was something we’ve used in our classrooms. Another great review with Dr. Rivera

The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.Solomon Ibn Gabriol
http://www.inspirational-quotes.info/words-wisdom.html

Simply put, this is us!! Team MAGEC working together for an Awesome Elluminating experience! Annette truly shined.

Balance!

“There’s no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves”

Today's chapters reminded me of the balance that is needed in both instructional resources and in strategies for establishing the foundations of literacy. Basal readers, anthologies, textbooks, and other literacy resources play an important role in the development of student performance, and they need to be presented with balance, and used with (my favorite oxymoron) extreme moderation. We know that our students get sick of doing the same thing over and over each class period, so it is imperative that we keep our instructional material fresh and engaging during the year. I think it is also imperative that our strategies for establishing the foundations of literacy are used with balance. We need to teach children how to read using phonological, orthographical, word conceptual, and contextual strategies. I'm sure there are more that I forgot to list, but they all have their place, and it is important to teach all of these strategies. I've seen a "strategy wheel" that students use while reading that lists multiple strategies for the students to use, and they have it next to them while they read. The wheel helps them try multiple strategies in a balanced approach to both decode and comprehend. Eventually, the student will memorize the strategies on the wheel and read fluently. In conclusion, I'm happy the chapters presented many strategies so that we can balance them and create well-rounded, fluent readers.

Quote Citation

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/there-s_no_secret_to_balance-you_just_have_to/339690.html

Image Citation

http://taijionmaui.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/balance.jpg

"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."--Helen Keller

First of all, I would like to thank Geri for offering a place in her home today. You definitely have the southern hospitality. I chose the quote above from Helen Keller because the best part of life is knowing that when trials come your way, friends and family are there for support. I am thankful to have classmates such as all of you who offer great advice when needed. As far as today's presentation, there was so much information from the text that will indeed be great resources to pull from to use as assessments for reading. I'm really glad that our elluminate session also had the feature of uploading a PowerPoint. Technology sure makes things easier in life. After we have completed these courses, we will all be addicted bloggers!

Image courtesy of http://soujournersong.blogspot.com

Go Annette! Go Team MAGEC!

(image: http://bryanking.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/special_education1.jpg

You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. (Clay P. Bedford)

First off, I would like to congratulate Annette on a job well-done with an excellent powerpoint presentation. Chapters 6 and 7 had a wealth of information on instructional approaches and tasks and foundations of literacy. Some of this knowledge were already in our schemata, and others are now. This is great since we're going to have to equip ourselves with all the "ammo" we need in attempting to help our student progress in reading, through the Reading Clinic. As Dr. Stoicovy and Dr. Rivera, I'm sure, would point out, strategies to scaffold the development of the child's literacy are very important in promoting success.

High Five for Erik!

image: courtesy of http://mrscjacksonsclass.com/inspirations.jpg

Erik,

After reading how you impacted a student to become a geography teacher, it just makes me so proud of you and our profession. Congratulations; here's to you!

Distance Learning on a 32-mile long Island

At first using Elluminate was awkward for me because of the lack of facial or bodily cues to react to as you speak.  I think it'll be easier to use and more natural once I get the hang of it.  I'm just very glad that I don't have to be out in the dark in this weather, especially with the current traffic situation.  Hope everyone gets home safely!

Even though we expect ourselves to understand the concepts right away (after all, we're Graduate students), I'm grateful for the discussions we have because we're able to learn more from others' perspectives.  Things get highlighted that I might have missed or overlooked, or someone shares a different spin on something I thought I already knew.  Tonight's Elluminate session was no different.  We shared our impressions, guided by Dr. Rivera, and, I hope, are feeling better about what's in store for us--as classroom teachers and as Reading Specialists.

I'm also glad to hear that most of us have made some headway into finding our Students.  I'm so relieved to have found, through a co-worker, a potential Student who lives nearby.  His uncle-in-law is a counselor at my school and the first to respond to an email I sent to a few colleagues that I thought might know a good candidate.  The boy attends GWHS, but has just moved here from Chuuk.  I like that I can easily go over to his high school after my school lets out because they're still in session.  Having done my student teaching at GWHS, I have contacts there who are still friendly.  I just hope it all works out.  I hope everyone is also having similar success.

taken from http://uechi.typepad.com/konayogacom/images/2007/04/16/happyfeet10toes.jpg (This blogger used the same quote with this picture!)

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise man grows it under his feet."

For tonight I chose a quote by James Oppenheim to commemorate our venture into Distance Learning and to remind us that Happiness is often right in front of us--or growing under our feet.  I think we need to remember that we have the tools to help our students succeed by virtue of our enthusiasm and dedication to learning.

A MAGECal Ellumination!!

images.search.yahoo.com

I felt the Elluminate session was a success, although there were minor glitches with the microphone and connection, all in all the discussion was informative and Dr. Rivera brought everything in full circle with the review of each chapter.

“We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.” -Ben Sweetland
http://www.inspirational-quotes.info/teacher-quotes.html

"Free the child's potential, and you will transform him into the world" (Maria Montessori)

Awesome insights on Chap. 3,4, and 5! I was really impressed by how we all basically pinpointed the highlights of the chapters as well as how they related to our lives as teachers in the classroom. Comments were also brought up about certain issues that are presently affecting our educational system. Hopefully, the issue about the lack of an ESL teacher at my school will be resolved soon because our students are really hurting for lack of proper educational assistance. It just saddens me to realize that a situation like this is truly happening in this day and age. It's as if we're still in the "Dark Ages." Thanks to Dr. Rivera for setting up the Eluminate Session; it was worth all the Cheetos that Erik ate! (<:

"Choose your service provider wisely"

During the first hour of the session, I was glad that everything went smooth sailing online. It made me appreciate how convenient it can be to hold classes through these sessions. However, after that hour had passed, I suddenly lost connection. I kept trying for about twenty to thirty minutes of reconnecting but the service here wasn't getting me through. I like to thank Geri and Christine for entertaining my phone call during the session to notify Dr. Rivera on the problems I was experiencing with the connection. I even went as far as calling my service provider, looking in the phone book for Dr. Rivera's number, trying to get service with my cell phone, and the list goes on! Word of advice, don't believe those local commercials you see on television on how their service is the best. Overall, I was happy to start it off with the group and end it with the group as well. Maybe it was MAGEC after all! As I read the text from Chapters 3, 4, and 5, I found many good resources and information that will help us to begin the assessment process. I think what makes us understand the text better is being able to relate to it through our own personal experiences in the classroom with our students. These books that we have bought will definitely be a good addition to our own library of resources. After the brief anxiety I felt today, I'd like to end with a quote...
"I'm just suggesting that when you're faced with anxiety, don't medicate. Meditate instead."
-Russell Simmons

Image courtesy of http://www.trendsupdate.com/

I claim this Ellumination for Magec! (9-9-2010)

Today's class was an informative, and a careful reminder of how much we, the teachers have the opportunity to inspire students. We have them for an hour a day, which some people would say is not very much, but to me, it is quite a bit, and we owe it to them to change our practices to help them succeed. In particular, I think it is essential that teachers modify, experiment with, and review their classroom teaching styles, beliefs, and procedures and methods. Many times I have seen students perform in other classes but not in mine, and vice versa, student perform well in my class but not in others. The book mentioned the large amount of research that supports the notion that teaching style and methods heavily influence student performance, and anecdotally, I concur. It is our job to promote reading and writing activities that will inspire students read and write on their own.

"Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant, the mind is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with spark"k

John Gottfried Von Herder

http://www.iwise.com/scTbZ

I chose this quote because I have been reminded recently of how we inspire our students, and rarely know it. I found out from a parent the other day that I inspired a high school student to become a Geography teacher instead of a Marine Biologist. The student observed me for forty minutes, but also observed several other teachers that day. I was flabbergasted and flattered that forty minutes could make such an impression. The key is, try always to be your best, because our students are watching all the time, and hopefully we will be igniting the best powers of our students' minds.

Image Citation:

http://www.visualparadox.com/images/no-linking-allowed-main/spark800.jpg

Erik's Day

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful
--John Constable

Today's session was great! I really liked Erik's presentation on the different approaches, especially the one on the interactive approach. The dynamics of reading and writing combined with all the other variables in creating meaning pretty much sums up my style of teaching. I do have a concern that's been on my mind since I read chap.1. That is, what can we do if after many observations, documentations, assessments and interventions, we have determined that a student needs to be referred for Special Education, but the parent refuses to sign the permission form for testing? Is there any legal recourse that we can take to override the parent's refusal?

image source: http://tutoring-stream.com/

Let's go, future Rocket Scientists--er, Reading Specialists!

While Erik's chapters were hefty introductions to the study of Reading, they were thankfully REintroductions to some concepts we've already encountered.  It was good to revisit the topics and to relive some of the memories with everyone.  I have to admit that a lot of the theories about Reading were quite complicated, calling to mind Louisa Moats' quote that "Teaching reading IS rocket science," and sometimes I was a bit lost.  Erik's presentation and our little tangential discussions helped me get a better handle on the topics.  It's Team MAGEC at its best!
I see how having face-to-face sessions and tapping into our prior knowledge this way can really help us on our way to being great Reading Specialists.  Again, as hesitant as I am to get into the nitty-gritty of assessing, I'm also excited to dive in.  Let's go, Reading Rocket Scientists!


Image taken from http://www.courierpress.com/photos/2009/jan/22/34419/

Erik's time to shine!

"Education is a social process, Education is growth, Education is, not preparation for life; education is life itself." -John Dewey

http://www.brainyquotes.com/

Education-wise this group had grown with similar schemata from the classes we've taken together, and like Dewey says Education is a social process of growth and life. I think that's why we think alike and the lightbulbs go on while we share and discuss. Erik did a great job sharing Chapters 1 & 2, it was an an indept review of what we've learned and the lightbulbs surely went on, and the schemata kicked in.

Erik mentioned baseball and he told me who his favorite baseball player was, so since I don't have a picture of Erik, I'll post his favorite baseball player.

Craig Counsell is a Major League Baseball infielder for the Milwaukee Brewers.

I learned something new today, and in the field of sports! Thanks Erik!!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Counsell

"What man's mind can create, man's character can control." -Thomas Edison

Erik's presentation today pretty much set the bar for the rest of us. I give him credit to have the ability to speak throughout a presentation without showing even the slightest bit of nervousness. Chapters 1 and 2 of the book were very informative for they brought back information that we have acquired from our beginning education courses here at the University of Guam. It was a good refresher with the important terms on Special Education. In regards to his question at the beginning of the presentation, I would agree that I fall under the "Interactive Perspective." Although the concept of reading has derived from ages ago, there are so many different aspects of what motivates a child to read. I was also glad to see some samples of previous activities that former students have incorporated into their assessment portfolio. I think it's all a matter of being creative and innovative. Good luck to team MAGEC!

Image courtesy of http://blogs.msdn.com/

Erik Talks Forever

Today's class was fun. I'm glad that I finished my presentation, and that it went by fast, at least for me. :) I felt quite confident as a result of my preparation several days ago, and I only forgot a little bit in the three days since I last looked at my presentation. I hope that each student learned and reviewed the perspectives presented in the first chapter, and can work it into their philosophy of teaching. I think that a firm understanding of the style we teach in makes us better teachers; we then know exactly how and why our students are learning the way they are. I also hope that the review of the performance skills was helpful and that we utilize multiple strategies to boost their performance. I also hope that we continue to choose RTIs that allow students to demonstrate their abilities.

Heb. 10:35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

(English Standard Version Bible)

http://live.e-sword.net/app/

In the spirit of the above quote, I think that my confidence was a great boon to my presentation today. The reward was the comments I received from my classmates. Thanks ladies! I wasn't particularly nervous today, but seeing your approval and understanding in your facial expressions was quite rewarding. I think the above quote must also apply to our student search, and then once we have found our student, to our abilities and the resources we use during the semester. This confidence will be invaluable.

Image Citationhttp://www.artandwork.us/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/work_promotes_confidence.jpg