Literacy Program Approved in KC

SFA ~ Success for All

I have an entire class this semester focused on teaching students the tools to become readers. We will be spending many hours this year in the classroom working one-on-one with students on reading. Our school assignment changed today since the literacy program was approved for the Kansas City school district. We are now going to a school that has quickly woven in the new curriculum.

For 60-90 minutes every day students from preschool to eighth grade will be participating. Grade level does not matter for this new curriculum; it is based on reading level. Every teacher: Math, Art, Science, History, etc…. will now be required to be a reading teacher as well. This new program is called Success for All

http://www.successforall.net

T his program went into full force this Monday August 28, 2006.

Technorati : Kansas City School District, Literacy, SFA
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Positive Reading Experience - 4th Grade

There are two books that I can recall perfectly from my childhood that really opened me up to enjoying stories. The first book is Dorothea Warren Fox, Miss Twiggley’s Tree. This is such a wonderful book from the 60’s; I believe it was republished in 2002. It is about a women and her dog, puss, who live up in a weeping willow tree. She sends the dog out to do all the shopping because all the people in the neighborhood believe she is odd. When people would come to visit puss, the dog, would entertain them while Miss Twiggley hid. One day a hurricane came and the entire town was under water, all except Miss Twiggley’s house in the tree. Puss invited all of them up to the house, and in summary everyone realized what a great person Miss Twiggley was and just because she chose to live in a tree she was a normal as you or me, and maybe even a bit smarter.

The second book that moved me into enjoying reading when I was young is Arlene Mosel, Tikki Tikki Tembo. This is a fantasy book for me when I was young it was the book I remember that opened me up to other cultures besides ours, and the feeling that the world was larger than just where I lived. In this book the first and grandest son had an extremely long name that you just had to sing every time they came to it in the story, “Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo.” Catchy little name isn’t it!

Can you remember some of your first children’s stories that you fell in love with?

Learning to Read

We were asked to recall our first reading experience from childhood in one of my classes. My memory is foggy when it comes to reflecting on my early experiences of reading. This is due to the fact that I have been out of school for so long, or due to the fact that from the small amount of memories that I do have they are not all positive experiences.

Growing up in my house with my mother, father, and brother I do not recall many books being in our home. I did have a few children’s books. When I was in my early grades I can remember how exciting the times were when my mom would read to me. This was a rarity, and when I say that I mean maybe twice a week. My family never went to the library, that I can recall, and I never even experienced a library, that I remember, until 4^th grade and that was just the school library.

Do you remember learning to read?

Male Teachers

Yesterday was my PS1 Seminar before classes start this Monday. There are four sections for preservice teacher field experience (PS1, PS2, etc…) this is completed over four semesters. I ran into an old friend at the seminar who is also in PS1 with me. There were about 200 or more students in this group and only about six of them were male, my friend being one of them. This bugged me, not only because I would rather have male peers over female peers but also because this field is primarily women. This did not surprise me I expected way more females, but not to this extreme!

Out of the whole six men in our group only one was a black male! ONE…

This is my call out to any and all males who would make great educators! I know the pay is horrible, but we need you! Inner-city students would greatly benefit from a strong black male leading the classroom.

Another point from this seminar… My friend was the only male who was preparing to each at the elementary level; the other five were all studying to teach at the high school level.

Voices to Listen to

Take some time and listen to the voices in this book.

JUST LIKE ME

Black describes me.
My moods, my personality.
Black is a color that everyone likes.
Black is subtle,
Not too flashy, not too boring.
Black is power, authority.
Black moves like air.
Close your eyes, it's everywhere.
Black is nonchalant.
Black's carefree.
Nothing phases this color.
Black's hard as steel.

Black is my best friend.
Because we're just alike,
Plain, basic, understated,
Unlike a red or orange or yellow.
We don't brighten up a room.
We bring a coolness
That can't be produced by another.

Stone-faced is our expression.
Relaxed is our mood,
Our state of mind.
We stand alone,
But we can mix
With all people, all colors.

Lawan Mitchell, age 16

Cheerleading is a Sport

In high school we cheerleaders were treated as second class citizens. Cheerleading was not considered a sport too many of the faculty, parents, and other sports teams! We were up and in the gymnasium at 6:00 am working our butts off, we attended all football and basketball games for all grades, both girls and boys! We were beyond busy! Pep rallies, half times, pre-game run, summer camps, competitions, etc. We worked just as hard as any other sports team, but still we were not treated the same. For example, when we needed new uniforms we had to buy them ourselves! While the girls’ basketball team got nice new uniforms with warm-ups we still had the cheerleading uniforms from the 70's! So we had to raise money, more time spent on this sport that no one backed! We supported all of the teams and yet and still we receive no support in return! I hope my high school has come around and embraces cheerleading as the true sport that it is.

Cheer on Cheerleaders!

Uniforms in School

Yes, I am 110% for uniforms. I even think that large corporations should have uniforms, wow how much money and time I would have saved if we had uniforms at my corporate job. I suggested going to uniforms many times in the office and surprisingly enough most people were all for it.

As for school, I support uniforms. The argument against it is, of course, that the students do not get to express themselves as individuals, yada yada yada.... This takes so much pressure off the students as well as the teachers and even parents. How nice as a parent to know what your child is wearing, not to mention how much money you would save not having to buy new school clothes. Teachers would not have to deal with inappropriate clothing or distractions that some clothing may cause.

I had to wear a uniform to school from 1st grade until 3rd grade (private catholic school) and when I was that young I could have cared less about what I was wearing, looking back on high school I remember the days when I had to wear my cheerleading uniform to school and I loved those day! It was easy and quick I knew exactly what I was wearing. Now on the days when I was not required to wear a sports uniform to school (yes cheerleading is a sport) my room was trashed every morning with 110 outfits that I tried on before I could find something that I wanted to wear! I still do that before work each day ~ UGG ~ How about teachers go to uniforms as well as the students! We would all look so cute, and "uniform."

If it is up to me - - all of us - - corporations and schools would go to uniforms!

Don't Take My Art Class Away

Photo provided by CNN (article link below)

In school I looked forward to art class, drafting class, and drama. These electives along with sports, I believe, is what got me to "want" to go to school. If I did not have these classes I would have had no desire to be there. Learning to love to learn begins in the classes you enjoy and are able to succeed in, then once you obtain this love for learning you can tackle the less enjoyable "core classes."

This article that I read from CNN angers me that they are taking out the electives in KS and MO along with a few other states just to add more core classes in order to pass standardized testing - FIRES me UP! I came to the conclusion that we need to have more challenging lessons, more prepared teachers, less dang testing, etc.... I can just see the drop out rates about to rise!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/08/04/double.doseeducation.ap/index.html

Classes In My Major

Junior - Yes I am finally a Junior in college… It was a long haul to get here but I made it. Only two years left of school and I have my Bachelor’s degree! My friends who completed school many moons ago tell me that the first two years are the hardest. You know, taking classes you really do not want to take (core crap) ~ and you have subjects all over the board that you are studying for all at the same time.. Not this year baby ~

Classes start in only a few weeks and all my classes, except one, are education classes! Here is the layout:

Educational Psychology (3)

Foundations of Education (3)

Educational Reading (4)

Field Experience (1)

Probability and Statistics (3)

Yes I had to fit a math class in somewhere, and the field experience is going to be mad cool. The field experience I will be in an inner-city classroom for three hours each week and I am really amped up about that journey! I am sure I will have some good blogs to share from this.

Normal people, guess I am not normal since I go to school and have a child and try to fit work in (LOL) take around 12 hours per semester, but screw that I want to get done! I am going for 14 this semester! Oh, but I must tell you how sweetly I arranged my schedule: I am only in class on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then observe on Wednesday mornings - - - Beautiful…

Went to price books - - HOLY MOLY - - HOLY FREAKIN MOLY - - The Foundations of Education class requires five, yes five, books. I am looking at some major cash on books this time around. I must blog about textbooks in a later blog that is a long rant.

For all those going back to school this Fall 2006 – GOOD LUCK!

Working B4 U Work

My last blog brings me to ~ Why I do not think you should go straight from high school, into college, and then become a teacher. Personally I believe that teachers should have worked in a career field besides teaching before they begin to teach. The majority of these students are not going to become teachers and for you to be able to better prepare them for the non-academic world you need to have been personally active and hopefully successful in it. More on this topic to come…