Between Shades of Grey

During my Student Teaching, the inevitable happened, I ran out of time to write in my blog.  I took time to write to my students in their blogs, but for me, myself, I stopped writing.  Well, now that I have way to much time on my hands, I guess I need to refocus my efforts on my reading and writing.  So with that said, I returned to reading.  This time, I am not reading off the Truman Nominee list, which I will return to in the near future, but to a book I found at the school book fair.

My latest read - Between Shades of Grey.  For my adult readers, yes I did say Shades of Grey, but it is not what you are thinking.  For my students, especially those who love history, I think I have found a book for you.

Between Shades of Grey is a fictionalized book about a young girl from Lithuania circa the year 1941.  What makes this girl and her family different from any other is that during that time Russians were taking citizens from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia and imprisoning them in Russian work camps in Siberia for "crimes" against the Russian government.  Our heroine, Lina, is a 15-year old inspiring artist, whose family is arrested and transported with many other families by train to a work camp deep in the reaches of Siberia.  When her mother refuses to help the Russia troops holding them prisoner, their family is denied any assistance other than the most meager of rations of bread.

Lina teaches us what it takes to survive in the worst of situations and what it means to believe in hope.  For many of my students, I could see how this story could teach us to see beyond our own current situation.  For me, it taught me about another cold reality of World War II.  I had learned of the millions who had died in German concentration camps, but I had never heard about the camps that Stalin had built to house those who were considered "anti-Soviet."

To learn more about this book and the author, please visit the official website at: http://www.betweenshadesofgray.com/


"Between Shades of Gray." Official Book Website for by Ruta Sepetys. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2013. <http://www.betweenshadesofgray.com/>.
Septetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Grey. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print.

Introduction to Independent Reading

On Friday I had the chance to teach my students how to choose a book for Independent Reading.  As a group we created the following list:

§  Front Cover/Inside Jacket

§  Back Cover Information

§  Characters we’ve read about in other books

§  Another book in the series

§  Interesting Title

§  Great Illustrations

§  Authors we know and like

§  Book recommendations from teachers, friends, and critics

§  Books that are movies

§  Genres we like to read

§  Try the beginning

§  Read some of the middle

§  “Must-read” rack in our room

§  New/popular books

§  Sequel to a book we’ve read

§  Heard it read aloud

§  Read it Before and enjoyed it

The students also had a chance to choose their first book for Independent Reading. I'm excited to report that many of them chose books off the Truman Nominee list  and I haven't even had my book talk on those books yet.  That comes this Thursday.

Project Completion, maybe...

So I have spent the last week putting together my mini unit plan.  Adding details here and there.  Writing detailed lesson plans and creating a screen cast.  Even planning to hijack Allison Kauffman's how to create a podcast youtube video. :)  I hear as a teacher I'm allowed to do that because we borrow from those around us.  Anyway, I spent this morning writing my reflection.  It actually took me longer than most, maybe because I kept stopping to do other things like enroll my daughter in her new school. Yes, that may have been a priority.  But stopping to clean a wall because I saw a handprint - now that was just procrastination.  So here they are, and yes I call the unit plan a draft, because no matter what form something is (even a polished piece) it is still a draft that can be changed.

Digital Journaling Unit Plan and Reflection

Unit Plan Draft

So even the teacher has homework...Mine is that I am working on a mini unit plan to prepare for teaching my students how to setup their own blog.  Both written and spoken.  The calendar draft is done at this point, it still needs to be flushed out and have standards added to it, and oh, there is that pesky digital piece that I need to create.  Anyway, this is what I have so far...

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9wLwSt3mHgqSUw0bG9OYWFNdmM

I've got more work to do on it tonight and tomorrow and hopefully I can get it ready in time for the school year.

OWP Day 5

I can't believe it is Friday already.  We have done so much in my class this week and later today we are going to learn about Screen Casting.  This should be interesting - it takes us in the direction of the flipped classroom.  Which really at this point is just a dream.  Will I be able to do it with my students?  It really depends on what kinds of technology I have access to.  Maybe we can do something simple in my student teaching.  Who wants to be my guine pig?  :)  What stories can we create?  Oooh, there is an idea.  What if we created a story in a screen cast that other students could read?  Then again, I need to remember that we only have so much time to work on things in class.  50 minutes really isn't enough time.  I know that you my students have a different opinion on that at this point.  Hopefully I can change your mind.

I've managed to upload all my assignments so far to every possible place that I think Dr. Franklin is going to check.  I'm sure there are more places.  Now that I think about it, I'm sure I should probably upload to Google Plus as well. Sigh!  So many spots on the web, so little time.

I sit here with my group and wonder what next week will bring.  Ashley is off to a Softball tournament.    Rob is getting ready to go talk to the newest English Grad students.  Safia is having a terrible time with her projects as they keep disappearing and I know everyone is trying to figure out how to fix this.  And Audra has uploaded this really cool video on who she is.

This afternoon's question:
What kind of feedback do I want on my digital story?


Oh where to start?  Do I really truly like feedback?  I do and I don't.  So what do I want? I guess ideas. What questions do they have?  This leads up to what I may have missed when I was writing it.  It isn't long so there are a lot of details that I have taken out.  Which as a teacher I guess isn't the best thing, because I will expect details.

OWP Day 4

It's day four of class and I am unbelievably tired.  I know I fell asleep before 11 last night and didn't wake up until 6:15 this morning.  So that is what, 7 hours of sleep.  A miracle in my book.  But I think yesterday's early morning adventures with the dog have caught up.  Plus the constant requests for my signature on documents.  Documents that I am now starting to suspect I am the only reading prior to signing.  Yesterday I caught a hugh number of mistakes on the declaration of things that are being either taken from the new house or left.  You see I want a new refrigerator for our new house, not that bad, I could live with the current one for at least a year or two (or probably forever - but lets not tell my husband that), and on the declaration its says that it is staying.  Which by the way, is not what the purchasing report or anyone else has said.  Then they said the oven is going - huh?  Ok, now that thing seriously needs to be replaced at some point, but no one takes an oven with them when they move.  Especially one that has seen better days.  Then there is a the question of the window air conditioning unit in the Florida room.  Really?  How did everyone miss all these things that I caught on a quick glance.  My husband is so much better at catching things than I am.  His response - "Oh, I was looking for that page, where is it?"  Page 5 dear, in plan black and white.  Please call the realtor and have her get us the actual information before she submits this.

Joy!  Then we are having some guy walk through our house this morning assessing it.  Oh double joy!!  I'm going to walk through your house and tell you what it is worth.  Me and only me.  Guess what buddy - I left that overly friendly dog in the house to keep you company (oh and to keep her from over heating).  Ok, so I am being a little cruel this morning - blame it on being tired.  It has been a rough two weeks.  I honestly can't wait to be back in the class room in about three weeks with my Middle schoolers.  Yes, I can truly say they are mine now.  They may drive me crazy, I may get little sleep, they may not want to see me, but like my own kids, they are mine.  Oh, and my CT's too.

Oh, I guess I am supposed to be writing about something specific this morning too.  The process of creating a digital story.  Ok, so here it goes.  It is a jumbled mess, that is what it is.  You start with this really big picture, many ideas, pictures, music, and you keep whittling away at it until suddenly something starts to come into focus.  That is how the process has been so far.  I started with this big idea of working for Sportservice for 7 years and as I started to go in one direction, I did a complete 180 and went in a completely different direction.  Now I am just working on the first year and really the idea of running away from home to only return home and find what I was looking for.  You know the typical growing up story.  Sometimes you have to look far and wide to really appreciate what you have waiting for you.  That is my digital story.  And it took working on this project to really understand what that year was about, because up until yesterday I really hadn't thought of it that way.  I thought about it as work and getting away, but not really the implications and results of or even what the whole year ended up being about overall.  So anyway, this morning I need to step away and record the audio for my digital story.  I think I am going to record it in pieces instead of one big piece.  It will be easier to set the pictures and words together.  Or maybe I will record it all in one line.  Hmmm....decisions, decisions.

Wow, where did this first hour go...I guess I will go back to reading my classmates blogs.  It is always good to see what other people are experiencing.  Pieces of puzzles to store in my brain for a later date.

Questions created by group 1:
Find their own voice
Writing is relevant to them
Writing enhancing their knowledge of learning of English as a second language
Use technology to learn and generate their ideas in understanding English - writing to learn; feel confident that they can do this themselves - student centered instead of teacher center (collaboration is good)
The act of talking and how important it is to learning
Writing is a dynamic process - it is not just static pen and paper
Writing should become fun - the students are used to using the tools for things outside of class, lets bring those tools into class and use them


From Writing Next (http://www.all4ed.org/files/WritingNext.pdf):

The Recommendations

Eleven Elements of Effective Adolescent Writing Instruction

This report identifies 11 elements of current writing instruction found to be effective for helping 

adolescent students learn to write well and to use writing as a tool for learning. It is important to note

that all of the elements are supported by rigorous research, but that even when used together, they do

not constitute a full writing curriculum.

1. Writing Strategies, which involves teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and

editing their compositions

2. Summarization, which involves explicitly and systematically teaching students how to 

summarize texts

3. Collaborative Writing, which uses instructional arrangements in which adolescents work

together to plan, draft, revise, and edit their compositions

4. Specific Product Goals, which assigns students specific, reachable goals for the writing they

are to complete

5. Word Processing, which uses computers and word processors as instructional supports for

writing assignments

6. Sentence Combining, which involves teaching students to construct more complex,

sophisticated sentences

7. Prewriting, which engages students in activities designed to help them generate or organize

ideas for their composition

8. Inquiry Activities, which engages students in analyzing immediate, concrete data to help

them develop ideas and content for a particular writing task

9. Process Writing Approach, which interweaves a number of writing instructional activities in

a workshop environment that stresses extended writing opportunities, writing for authentic

audiences, personalized instruction, and cycles of writing

10. Study of Models, which provides students with opportunities to read, analyze, and emulate

models of good writing

11. Writing for Content Learning, which uses writing as a tool for learning content material

What does this mean for our group:
I like how this shows ideas on lower achieving students improving their writing because of technology
Things beyond grammar - they need to be confident in their writing
How we weight grading, what they write should be weighted higher than the grammar itself


Thoughts on video - we are watching a video in class today that prior student created on being Cherokee in the 19th century.  The video moves between voices.  Which means that we get to hear different people's perspective during this time.  Sometimes I get lost in the story and other times it makes sense.

Well here is my video - rough draft as it is.  Audio probably needs to be re-recorded.  I wish I could be as good at recording as Ashley is, but I guess with more practice it will come.

Writing Territories

What subjects do I want to write about this year...

• My kids
• Vacation
• Student Teaching (I know I am going to do a lot of that)
• Technology
• Digital Journaling
• Students
• Podcasting
• Websites
• Effects of technology in the classroom (studying teaching in a classroom with a ready supply of technology versus a classroom without a ready supply of technology)
• Using facebook, twitter, and smartphones in the classroom

What is my story...

I grew up in small town Dayton, Oh.  On occasion we traveled outside of the state and country, but mostly I was in Dayton.  After going to college for a few years I found a job working for a food service company in the Sports Industry.  This took me all over the U.S. and Canada.  Eventually in my travels I met my husband and after a few years we decided to get married and have kids.  Now our jobs didn't really make room for kids so one of us would have to sacrifice our job for the family.  Naturally, he made more money so I jumped ship to be a stay at home mom for 6 years.  During that time I volunteered and joined social groups to keep active, but then a couple of years ago I decided that my kids wouldn't be little forever and it was time for a career change.  At that point, I went back to school and started on my Teaching Degree.  This fall I will be starting the new challenge of Student Teaching, while my husband and kids live in St. Louis.  

I could actually write a lot about my time working for Sportservice.  I had a lot of interesting adventures that I know are unique to my situation.  How many people get to work at Football, Baseball, and Hockey Facilities?  Go to Rodeos and work with tv crews.  How about almost run over Mayor Rudy Giulani with a golf cart?  Here I was a young woman in a man's world, trying to break through the so called "glass ceiling" of being more than just a human resources or paper person, but actually being on the floor and making decisions.

One of the things to focus on was being a woman in a world that is predominately men.  I don't know if I was a trail blazer, but I think there was a lot of changes that did take place after I put my foot down and showed them that I was more than just what they thought.

As I was listening, I heard about how difficult 1st year of teaching was, but not because of the teaching aspect, but everything else.  You can't help but sympthese with the situation.  How would I react?

Changing topics - Ira Glass and Digital Storytelling

• Building Block One: The anticdote - series of events, no matter how boring it is, it creates momentum.  Want to start with the action
• Raise questions from the beginning (implied that any question that you raise is going to be answered)
• Building Block Two: Moment of reflection (why am I doing this)

Do you have a series of events?  Why does it matter?  Every piece should have a so what - what makes it meaningful for the audience?

• Meaningful - why we don't give up even when we have been placed in a specific spot or is it that we can go away and meet so many people and its what happens at home that effects us the most
• Series of Events
• Hired on as a Manager Trainee
• Moved to Cleveland - worked with favorite football team, worked with Warner Brothers, trained in Human Resources and Financials
• Smarter than they think?
• Don't dress like a young woman
• San Antonio - pigeoned holed into Financials - youthful mistake of saying this isn't what I want to be (lesson of keeping mouth shut)
• Canada - teaching what I know to a new culture, losing VISA after three months
• Buffalo - short two weeks before being told I was going back to Dayton to work at a facility
• Dayton - returned home and met hubby

Memory - 

What I see:

1. Memory - a deportee daughter's memory
2. brick road or sidewalk that seems to go on and on
3. Train track with the sound of a train, but no train
4. a lake or a river at edge
5. an old village as the photo pans across
6. a chapel in the village with tomb stones
7. a cross, wooden
8. handwritten note: to my father...