Bio Poems

Have you heard of Bio Poems? This is one of the writing strategies that I learned in my writing across content areas class (from the book Write More! Learn More! by Tama & McClain). It was suggested that having students write this kind of poem is an excellent way to have them introduce themselves at the beginning of the year to build a classroom community of kids who know each other on a deeper level. It can also be used for other content areas (with creativity of course). Following the format, I wrote some examples.

Here is the format:

Line 1: First Name

Line 2: Four traits that describe character or topic

Line 3: Relative of ("brother, sister" etc.)

Line 4: Lover of (list three items)

Line 5: Who feels (three items)

Line 6: Who needs (three items)

Line 7: Who fears: (three items)

Line 8: Who gives (three items)

Line 9: Who would like to see (three items)

Line 10: Resident of

Line 11: Last name

Here is my Bio Poem

Katie

loyal, patient, thoughtful, klutzy

relative of Dan, Shari, & Alyssa

lover of peanut butter, reading, and Johnny

who feels excited, tired, and content

who needs love, support, and snacks

who fears frogs, loneliness, and crowds

who gives love, support, and snacks

who would like to see family, friends, and someone nice to rent my house

resident of Portland/Gemany

Toppel

In class yesterday, a few elementary teachers and I made up this one about frogs. A teacher in this group also said she had first/second graders write Bio Poems for their moms for Mother's Day. Such a cute idea!

Frog

webbed feet, bulging eyes, smooth skin, long sticky tongue

relative of toads

lover of bugs, water, and cool mud

who feels cold when it's cold and hot when it's hot

who needs prey, water, and land

who fears owls, blue herons, and snakes

who would like to see lots of juicy bugs

resident of the pond

Frog

For some categories I did not list three, but I think that this poem is very applicable to younger students. Maybe I would have them help me write one in a whole group before letting them try one on their own, but I am excited to try it. Maybe this year with the third graders....

Try it out! Anyone brave enough to leave their Bio Poem as a comment to this post!

Papers...check!

Yay! I just finished my research paper for my "Teacher as Researcher" class which means I am done with papers and projects (for now). I have finished all of the major assignments for the courses that I actually have to show up for. I have three more class sessions to attend, but that is the part I like. It's fun to learn from other teachers and do the whole teacher talk thing.

I will still be taking two online courses, but not having to physically be present for 4-9 hours of class time daily leaves a lot more time to complete the work for those classes and a lot more time for other activities like working out or, I don't know, maybe packing up my house in order to move to another country in a few weeks!

Right now I am smiling and getting ready to watch The Bachelorette After the Final Rose. Anyone else a fan of the show? Not my favorite season, but I am happy Jillian chose Ed because I was about to feel really bad for him if she didn't. I do think that Jillian was very into herself and I could not believe what she said right before Ed came out after she had let Reid go! Yikes!!

I feel like the show is really a puppet show and all the participants are following orders based on what will get great ratings...yet I watch it anyway :0)

Bloggy Makeovers

Many thanks to Leslie from Lamberts Lately who was the mastermind behind my blog makeovers! Leslie is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama and is going to be a first grade teacher! (A girl after my own heart). She is very creative and I can tell she is going to be an amazing teacher. Check out how she turned her classroom into a jungle!

She also redesigned my Team Toppel blog which has been renamed "Travels of Team Toppel." Her pricing is reasonable and her designs are fantastic. Also, she uses the money she makes doing blog makeovers as supplemental income to help pay for additional classroom materials to help and inspire her young learners. Definitely a good reason to give your blog a makeover if you ask me!

Check out her blog design page. She offers several different packages ranging from "mini makeover" to "super makeover." She also has A la carte items to purchase as well.

Thanks Leslie! Your beautiful blog design makes me one happy blogger!

MckLinky Blog Hop

Welcome Blog Hoppers!

Today's theme is favorite kids pictures. I am so excited to have another opportunity to put my beautiful niece on display! (and her beautiful mama) I am even more excited that I get to see them both soon! They live in CT and I am traveling there this weekend to see my best friend and family before we move to Germany. This little girl is the joy of many lives! She looks just like my brother when he was a baby! Isn't she adorable???

(When you are the aunt you get to brag shamelessly!)

Oh what a beautiful morning...

I had to give my post a happy title because I am overwhelmed with work! Currently I am taking FOUR grad courses at once. Yes, I signed up for it, but I didn’t really think about how much work it was going to be. This is the only week that I have all four at once. Two of them will be completed by the end of the week leaving only the two online courses, which I will finish once we are in Germany. I am looking forward to the reduction in workload (and of course to seeing my BFF Cristina on Friday and then the rest of my family including my adorable niece that I am seeing for the second time ever on Saturday! HOORAY!) I made this text pink just in case Cristina reads this because pink is her favorite color and I love her!

Summer courses are great, however when everything is crammed into a two-week period, the daily workload is a lot. I am loving my courses and learning a lot, but I am finding that I barely have time for anything else. I did not watch any TV yesterday and didn’t get in a workout either! I am staying on campus today until my afternoon class which goes from 4-9, so it looks like I won’t get in a workout today either (unless you count all the movement my fingers are doing typing paper after paper after blogpost after paper!) I am trying to be productive in the computer lab, but I decided it was time to take a break and do some bloggy time!

For any teachers that follow this blog, I have two great resources that I am using in my classes. Both books outline terrific strategies that can be used with students of all ages for reading and writing in content areas. The strategies are often geared towards older students, yet they are easy to adapt for the little guys!

I was about to cite in APA style…does that tell you how much work I have been doing lately?!

Reading and Learning Strategies: Middle Grades Through High School by Lenski, Wham, Johns, and Caskey. Purchase it here at amazon.com

Write More! Learn More!: Writing across the Curriculum by Tama (she is actually my teacher!) and McClain. Purchase it here at amazon.com

Both books are full of great tips and strategies and like I said, I have found them easy to apply to first grade (soon to be third grade).

Also, another book I ordered and will hopefully get in the mail today or tomorrow:

Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for racial and cultural justice by Wayne Au. Purchase it here at amazon.com

One of the great things about being a teacher is sharing resources with others, so if you like things I post please let me know and I will do that more often. Also please feel free to post about great books or teaching resources that you enjoy!

Have a great day!

People First Language-revisited

I have written about this topic before, yet in my recent classes it has come up again.

Among a group of teachers I frequently hear phrases like "the IEP kids" or "the SPED kids." I think that my distaste for such phrases stems from my training in special education because throughout my program we were always taught to use "people first" language. Basically people first language asserts that you should speak of the student/person first before labeling them with a disability or "problem." It speaks to the fact that a disability does not define a person.

www.disabilityisnatural.com offers some great articles on this topic if you are interesting in finding out more information.

People with disabilities are PEOPLE. They can be moms, dads, sons, daughters, employees, friends, neighbors, students, teachers, doctors, presidents and more. People with disabilities should be recognized as people first and not characterized simply by the disability they have. Snow indicates that the real problem is never a person's disability, but the attitudes of others. Whether intentional or unintentional, the words that people use can be hurtful.

My hope is that more people will learn to understand people first language and to acknowledge that people with disabilities are people, with feelings, hopes, beliefs, and talents. They are unique and offer gifts to the world. They may not be good at everything, but who is? If I were a student with a disability, I would want my teacher to see me as a dancer, or a girl who likes to draw, or a girl who smiles a lot rather than the "IEP kid." I think we owe it to all our students to think of them as individuals and to recognize what makes them unique and special without labeling them or boxing them into certain categories

Some of the students that I have had with disabilities have brought so much joy into my life. They achieved so much in my classroom and it was a joy to be their teacher. I hope that most people they encounter in their lives see them for all that they have and all that they are rather than just defining them with a label and a disability.

It frustrates me that people still use the term retarded (and often think it is a funny way to crack a joke) but I try to realize when I hear comments or statements such as that, most people have not been taught an alternative way to speak about individuals with disabilities. I do think, however, that educators should be able to model how to speak about individuals with special needs without assigning harmful labels or speaking in a way that makes assumptions about individuals based on a generalized label.

I am doing a project for one of my classes about the effects of labeling on students, particularly students with special needs and English Language Learners. I am trying to see if there exists a correlation between labels and teacher expectations of the students who are labeled. .