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!