Bedside Manners

What a week! I go to practice my bedside manners at the hospital.

I missed class this week due to the fact that one of my sons was hospitalized after hydroplaning, tail spinning, and flipping his car. He is alive! No one else was involved in the accident. No broken bones. Fractured sternum (healed), severed right ear (reattached and healing, hopeful for no hearing loss), very sore and bruised, totaled car, interrupted his military plans (Navy) of leaving for basics this Tuesday...but did I say ALIVE! Yes. Thankful. We will manage to walk through the healing process and interruptions. Dr. Steffes, thank you so much for your understanding, and encouraging me to be the good parent, and stay beside him this week.

Speaking of parenting, I read over the article "Effects of Parenting Styles on Children's Behavior," and was really wishing I had read that article 20 years ago! I think that my wife and I are fairly great parents, but unfortunately I fear some of the early years were partially Authoritarian Parenting. I would like to re-parent my eldest because of that. I followed a pattern set in front of me, that I didn't recognize needed to change until a few years into parenting. I am a much different parent today, than I was then. Very thankful. So, I think my two eldest got a little authoritarian, with a final DASH of authoritative. My lovely daughter, whom the boys probably think is "spoiled" is getting mostly a large serving of authoritative parenting (I hope!). My boys have been gracious, as we have discussed the changes made during their lives. I am so blessed that we get to talk about it, and they too acknowledge to changes we/I have worked toward.

The Ruddell chapter readings (3-4) were "full" and sometimes hard for me to grasp everything they were attempting to toss my way, but in general I found the "How to..." parts very helpful in determining how to use each of the recommended activities. I think I would lean mostly toward utilizing ReQuest and DR-TA. I do like interaction with others and having open-ended discussion. I may lean a little too far to the open-ended side, with a slight possibility of forgetting where I was going, or what point we were really trying to arrive at with the discussion. I believe the class activity would have been helpful for me to solidify some of the processes to walk through to keep it clean and on target. If anyone has a portion of their activity to share with me from this week, that would be appreciated.

I look forward to a very boring, non-eventful weekend/week...

"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can." - The Little Engine that Could

Kansas Winds Kontinue (Yes I did that!) / Week 3

The "K" was on purpose...

So last week I was actually in Kansas for the class session, and this week, even though I was back in Missouri for class, it certainly seemed as though we were going to be swept away - the Oz Returns.

I thoroughly enjoyed each of the activities tonight, and loved how the engagement grew with each activity.

First, being grouped separately to review the reading pages 16-18 from Teaching Content Reading & Writing, Ruddell.

Second, the emailed reading to note what was important about the description of the house. This was a definite set-up job for me the robber, while the other two groups were reading from the perspective of a home buyer, and a real estate agent. Of course we would note different things, depending on our perspective or stance. Awesome point!

Third, we chose a cartoon and broke it down to address the question, "What do I need to know to understand the cartoon?" Stacy was awesome at directing Dale and I to the frontloading portion of our previous text. (Thanks so much!) We chose our perspective, did a little vocabulary recognition, checked out the questions or discoveries from the picture, and then discussed potential meanings of the illustration.

WHOOOOOOOOO....Screeeeeech.....(winds blow, lights blink, we are dismissed a weeeee bit early!)
HOLD ON! Don't get blown away....see you in Kansas next week!

Next week...
     Work on 2 lesson plans (presentations week 5 & 6 or week 7 & 8)
     Discussion Blog
     Reading / Ruddell Chapters 3 & 4

Teaching Terrill (My First Lesson Plan)

My First Lesson Plan...

Thoughts...hmmm.

I am in a unique classroom situation where I attempt to tutor many subjects, and often try to juggle helping one student with Algebra, one with Geometry, one attempting History, and another with English, simultaneously. This class has actually opened my eyes to the common thread between all of the classes...being able to read and comprehend what you are reading in order to follow through with the lesson.

My first thoughts are a lesson in math using word problems. We currently use IXL in a few of our math classes which has actually helped me learn or re-learn a lot of math skills from my past. One of the areas that seems weak for several of the students are Word Problems. I may look into teaching a lesson on that section, and attempt to utilize some of the concepts to help them look for the right information while reading.

This may change, but those are my thoughts for tonight....(winds blowing across the Kansas plains...)

Toto by Terrill (A Day in Kansas)

My take aways for today...

     I hear the drums echoing tonight

     But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation...

     It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you

     There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do

     I bless the rains down in Africa

     Gonna take some time to do the things we never had...

OH WAIT! I am in Kansas not Africa. Wrong TOTO. Focus Terrill. Okay.

Well, today has been a whirlwind of events. I was scheduled to leave St. James for a retreat in Colorado, but my sub got cancelled, so I landed for half the day covering my classroom instead of traveling. After working half the day, and traveling for 7.5 hours I joined the class an hour late at my motel in Hays, Kansas...so I really felt out of sync. But I am so thankful and amazed at technology and how I can still be a part of the group so many miles away, with so many life things happening simultaneously. You are a great group and I feel the support of others as they are so willing to share the information and hep me stay connected. You rock! Well maybe you are "SAVAGE!" A new term I learned from my students yesterday. They would be so proud to know I used that term today. Hopefully there isn't an inappropriate hidden meaning behind this reference.

SAVAGE...leads me into some of the things we previously talked about regarding frontloading. Understanding the vocabulary and the language or style of an author is so important. There are so many words that change meaning from one context to the next, or one era to the next.

Joining in on the session around 8 p.m. tonight I was able to jump in on the discussion around Metacognitive Conversations. 

     What were you thinking?

     What led you to those thoughts?

     The HOW, WHY, and the WHAT.

     This is a public discussion of thinking.

     What did you not understand about the reading?

     It's important to model this thinking out loud for students to hear it in use.

     Schedule regular debriefing sessions after reading to solidify what was read.

     Learning logs or journals are an important part of this process.

     

From the video I was able to see and hear some ideas of how this was practiced. I need to review that a couple of more times to solidify what I need to practice.

Madline Hunter's Lesson Plan Format

- use this for our lesson plans

- pick and choose / you don't have to include all areas (if you don't choose an area please note why)

- I need to download and review this format

Fact Pyramid (p. 26)

- use this for our lesson plans

- this is a tool to spotlight what is important and worthy of being remembered...p. 27

See you next week for more learning!