Done and Done!

I just submitted by final project for the last of my summer courses! I should have turned it in earlier, but we have been a little busy with moving to Germany and all. Even though the course technically ended last week, the final assignment is not due until Sept. 11th. I did not want to have it hanging over me for that long, so it is DONE! hoo-rah!

We had to do a case study based on an elementary student who was going into 4th grade, but had only lived in the U.S. for two years and did not attend school at all in her native country. She read at a first grade level and was classified as an Intermediate 2 English speaker.

We had to create a 30 day intervention plan with a full rationale for each intervention along with a description of how this student would be best served based on NCLB. Also, it included sections outlining her strengths, challenges, how I would obtain appropriate reading materials for her, and a "wrap-up" discussing how the interventions I designed related to phonics, morphology, syntax, semantics, and language use in society and the classroom.

Whew! No wonder if took me so long to complete! Actually, it took me the longest time to get up the desire to actually start working on it, but the actual project did not take that long.

I am so glad it's done and now I can focus on getting my plan of action in order for fall term.

I heart my job!

So far my experience working at the international school has been pretty terrific. Since the students are now settled and have learned their routines and schedules, I am spending more time in the classroom helping small groups of students. I still do some copying and laminating, but those things are taken care of during prep periods. When the students learn German, their teachers get a prep time, so I do as well. During that time, I help with whatever is needed in the office area.

I am mostly working with kids who are struggling and that is exactly what I love to do. There is a young girl who is Chinese who barely speaks. I think she understands English well enough, but she is extremely quiet and does not say much at all. I can only imagine how overwhelming it is to be learning both English and German at the same time in addition to her native language. Some teachers would look at her and think "she can't..." or "she doesn't know..." but I approach her with the attitude that she knows a lot and can express that best in Chinese. I can't speak Chinese so I have to figure out the best way to make sure she understands what I am explaining in English. I truly have no idea what she knows and what she doesn't because she doesn't tell me, but it sure is fun to try and figure it out! It can be tough, especially because she doesn't give me verbal feedback, but I look forward to seeing her open up a bit and talk more when she feels comfortable to do so. I have been helping her with math in a group with a few other boys who are also not as proficient in English as the rest of the students. It is nice to have the opportunity to work with these students and not have to worry about the rest of the class. Although they are not as independent as the other students in the class, with help they are able to do a good job and complete their work. They are really sweet and try hard.

Being a TA is definitely different than being the classroom teacher, but I have to say this position has its perks. Working part time has been very nice. I am sure that when payday comes, I will wish I had more hours, but I have to say that it sure is nice to be home by 1:00. I get the opportunity to observe some great teaching and take note of aspects of their classrooms and their instruction styles that I like. I feel like I can observe the students more thoroughly because I get more time to do so when the teachers are explaining or teaching. It's also nice to know that the teachers I am working with respect my opinions and give me the freedom to carry out activities as I like rather than giving me the blow by blow of how to conduct an activity or help struggling students.

Of course I would love to get the full time maternity leave position in first grade, but for now, I am really enjoying the chance to experience a different part of education.

Help?

Anyone familiar with the American Girl books? I am working on a project for one of my classes and I am just wondering what reading level those books are appropriate for? I read online that their Lexile level is somewhere in the neighborhood of between 500 and 700, but I am not really familiar with Lexile scores. On another site they were listed as being appropriate for ages 7 and up, but they seem like they would be too hard for most first graders.

If you are familiar with these books and can tell me a little more about what age level, grade level, or reading level they are appropriate for, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!

Celebrity Stories

I have noticed that quite few celebrities have written children's books in the past several years. Maybe it has been going on for longer than that, but I feel like it has become more of a trend lately.

For a list of books written by celebrities click here.

I wonder whether these books get published because they are truly good books with strong messages/information for children, or if they get published simply based on the fame and connections of the celebrity authors. I have to admit, I have not read a lot of them. I guess I get somewhat annoyed when I see that yet another celebrity has written a children's book because I kind of feel like celebrities can do whatever they want simply because they are famous. They do not have to jump through the same hoops that a typical "regular" person would have to. Also, for some of the celebrity authors, it seems that writing a children's book is just another project they want to do in order to gain more fame from larger audiences or something that their name gets attached to, yet that was not truly created from their own personal hard work and inspiration.

I do think however, just from browsing on the list linked in above, that some of these books seem pretty terrific. Many of these stories emerged from celebrities as they embarked on the world of parenting and contain solid content about experiences and lessons to be learned in life. One example is Mr. Peabody's Apples which was written by Madonna.

About the book:

Description: Mr. Peabody is the beloved elementary school teacher and baseball coach, who one day finds himself ostracized when rumors spread through the small town. Mr. Peabody silences the gossip with an unforgettable and poignant lesson about how we must choose our words carefully to avoid causing harm to others.

Despite my initial eye roll when I come across yet another book written by a celebrity, I think that all books deserve a chance. Celebrities certainly have interesting lives and can offer perspectives that are quite different from my own, or those that my students/children would have. They too, are people with histories, talents, ideas, stories, and experiences. Surely, there are big differences between books written by various celebrities, so I would not want to base my decision to purchase or not to purchase only based on the fact that a book's author is famous. Surely, some of these stories are examples of rich literature and I hope to find some of those. I do think that a celebrity's credibility would affect my decision to purchase/read their book as I might not want to purchase a children's book written by Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears, however, I am sure I would be taken by surprise (in a good way) by some of the celebrity authored books out there.

What do you think? Are children's book written by celebrities credible or just another way for celebs to get more attention??

Teacher Swap

This is the last installment of Jen's Back to School Teacher Swap.

I usually like to share this book with my first graders during story time at the end of the first day of school. It's called The Night Before First Grade and has the same rhyming structure of 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. The story itself is not the greatest story ever written, but the kids always enjoy that it's about getting ready for first grade, which is exactly what they just did the previous night! I like that it has a familiar pattern that they recognize and it's a quick, light read to enjoy after a long first day!

I also found this similar story, again with the same rhyming structure as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, only this one is read on the last day of school. This one is called The Night Before Summer Vacation. I kind of like that the first story of the year and the last story of the year are similar. It makes me feel like things have come full circle.

It would be fun to experiment with this familiar story structure and have students try to create their own stories at some point during the year (or write a shared story) with a similar format.

Some ideas:

The Night Before Field Day

The Night Before Picture Day

The Night Before Parent Conferences

The Night Before Halloween

The Night Before Valentine's Day

I would probably start with a paragraph frame and have the students come up with some creative rhyming words to make the story complete and then let them write their own once they better understood the process and had better independent writing skills (for first graders that would be more towards the end of the year!)

Reptile Show

Right before leaving for Germany, I went to a reptile show sponsored by the local library's summer reading program with a few of my students. I invited all the students who were in my class this past school year, but only a few came. I tried not to take it personally--I know the summer is a busy time for many families. My favorite "Little Miss" (I will call her Hannah b/c she loves Hannah Montana) was one of the kiddos that came, so I was a happy camper to hang out with her and see all the reptiles.

There was a "petting zoo" portion of the show where kids could touch a huge snake and an alligator, but she wanted none of it. She did, however, want me to touch them all. Fortunately my terrible fear is of amphibians and I am okay with most reptiles.

At the end of the event, Hannah and her mom walked me to my car. I got good hugs from both of them, and just as I was about to shut the door, Hannah called out, "I love you!"

Another moment with Miss Hannah that I will never forget.

Sometimes certain students that we teach touch our hearts and our lives in a way that we will cherish forever. Miss Hannah is one of those students.