Week One: Introduction to course: Hi and welcome to our course! Please remember that one of the benefits of a blogging course is to have communication between participants. Be remember to respond to other participants' comments each week.
Assignment #1: Introductory paragraph. Please post your introduction to the course blog in the blog archive under the posting: Week One: Introduction - Please tell us a little about yourself. Where do you teach? What grade and how long have you been teaching? How many students are in your class and do you have instructional support? What does your current literacy program look like? (If you aren’t currently teaching let us know what your educational background and experiences are.) What is your knowledge/training in the area of literacy? Does your district provide literacy training? If so, what exactly have they offered? Also, let us know a little about you outside the classroom: Interests/ Hobbies/ Family Life.
Also please read: Classroom Instruction that Works - Chapter 1 – Applying the Research on Instruction: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Sign in to the blog (follow directions below)
o Click on the comment link below. If you do not have a Google account you will need to create a free one. Underneath the “leave your comment” box – click where it says “no Google account? Sign up here.” Then follow the direction to create an account.
o After you create your account you can just type in your user name and password from when you created the account and then click the button “publish your comment” and it will be posted. You should post Assignment # 1 explained below as your first comment.
(Please Note: In addition to posting your first assignment (Introduction) to the blog, please email it to us. This is to enable us to contact you individually should the need occur. Please also make sure that you label your assignment with your name when posting to the blog to ensure that you receive proper credit for your work.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
Hello. I’m Kim and I live on Oregon’s north coast in the city of Manzanita. I am a substitute teacher, K through 12, for Neah-Kah-Nie School District; a small district consisting of two elementary schools, one middle and one high school. I moved here the summer of ’07 after completing WSU-Vancouver’s Bachelor in Elementary Education program and an ELL Endorsement. The hope was to secure a teaching position with the district, but that hasn’t happened as of yet, and as it turns out subbing works well for me because I’ve also found employment opportunities in my first profession. I trained as a chef years ago and currently bake for two establishments here in Manzanita. Last school year I had the fortune to sub for the high school Foods program from January through June. We cooked up a storm! It was awesomely fun! Due to budget issues, the program was cut from this school year’s curriculum. This past fall, I was instructor for an after-school cooking class at the middle school. I would most likely still be involved with that job (and subbing and baking), but in early November I had a very convoluted fall and broke my neck. My life has been put on hold for awhile… so I thought, “What a great time to satisfy credit requirements to keep my license current!” I have a desire to develop some courses that could be offered in after-school programs and/or summer programming. I gave away or sold many of my education theory books, so I'm eager to refresh instruction strategies that may help in my process of this course development adventure, and of course, strategies that I can apply in my subbing experiences.
My name is Christy and I teach third grade for David Douglas School District. This is my fourth year of teaching. I have 25 students this year, which is thankfully low. Because of my low numbers, I do not have an instructional assistant.
Our district's reading program is Houghton-Mifflin, and we are just coming out of our Reading First grant. Because of the grant, I've had extensive training in phonics, and the Big Five. I've also had Houghton-Mifflin training at my first district in California. Because of the trainings I felt as prepared as anyone can to teach reading. Of course, I'm learning all the time, and trying to become better at it.
We are a Title 1 school, so we have a Title 1 teacher and assistants, all of whom are wonderful. We work closely with them, as they teach small groups in our walk to read model. I teach the benchmark reading group.
Since moving to Oregon a few years ago due to my husband's job relocation, I feel like I'm still getting to know Oregon. I enjoy being outside, reading, cooking, and I've started gardening lately. I think gardening is way more difficult than everyone makes it look!
Hello my name is Ashley Thomas and I am teacher at Indian Hills Elementary School in Hillsboro, Oregon. This is my sixth year of teaching and all six years I have taught sixth grade.
This year I have only 24 students in my classroom which is the fewest since I began teaching with the help of one instructional assistant for one hour a day.
Currently my literacy program has many different components, for reading our grade level has chosen to walk to read. Every day we spend 90 minutes in a reading block where I have the intensive and strategic readers. This past summer I received training in the enhancements program that accompanies our Houghton Mifflin reading adoption and so we use a good portion of class time focusing on that.
This coming summer I plan to attend training through our district on Language!, which is a program adopted by our district to address the intensive reading students in our building. As far as writing literacy we do not have a adopted program through the district but are to use the writing accompanied with our Houghton Mifflin reading adoption. In sixth grade, we provide an hour a day to writing. This could vary daily on the strategies or skills we are focusing on. The students are expected to complete one major paper, 5 paragraphs or more, every month. Additionally, they write about paragraph and edit it every day on a given topic, as well as write cross curriculum on a variety of subjects.
I feel that I have strong background knowledge on literacy; however, I realize that literacy and the needs of my students are ever changing and therefore I need to change and develop with them. I am always interested in keeping up with the best methods for helping students be successful in literacy.
Outside of the classroom, I keep very busy! I am a mother of a lovely but active 16 month old and I am expecting another baby this May. This will also be my third year coaching softball for one of our local high schools, Hillsboro High School. This keeps me extremely busy from the end of February through the end of May. I have a wonderful husband that when time allows, I enjoying just relaxing with. We are both very active individuals who love to be involved in and watching any sort of sporting event. My family lives in Seattle, Washington so when time allows when enjoy visiting there as well. Overall, although extremely busy, I feel very blessed to have such a great career, wonderful husband and beautiful daughter, and I look forward to what this year is going to bring.
My name is Nancy and I live in West Linn, Oregon. I teach at Holcomb Elementary in Oregon City. My husband and I moved to Oregon in the summer of 2001 because of a job opportunity. We moved from New Mexico where I taught 4th and 5th grade for 3 years. When we moved to Oregon, I could not find a classroom job, but took a job teaching General Music for Oregon City. I did that for 2 years until a classroom position opened up at Holcomb. I have been teaching 5th Grade there ever since. This is my 12th year of teaching.
I have 29 students this year and I teach 1/2 time because I am also the Association President for my district. (Vote YES on 66 and 67!) This is my third year of doing this. In Oregon City, most classroom teachers don't have regular Instructional support. I do have an ELL Assistant who comes in to help ELL students in Writing. My teaching partner is begging for an Assistant for her reading group, because she teaches the Title I group. (We ability group for Reading and Spelling.) Other than that, we are on our own.
Because I teach 1/2 time, I don't teach Reading and Spelling, but I do teach Writing. I do a combination of Writers' Workshop and Writing Instruction in my Writing class. As a class, we work on a writing piece together from Graphic Organizers to Final Drafts. Then, after I score each piece for strengths and weaknesses, I pull small groups back for specified lessons and instruction while the rest of the kids are working on their own writing. We also do a 5th Grade Published Authors' Chair three times a year. The kids love hearing their peers' writing.
I have taken a couple classes on teaching writing. I have tried several different teaching methods. I really like the way I am doing it this year, with the combination of two different methods.
I have heard about Marzano, but have never studied his work. I am excited to read and learn!
Thanks and welcome to our course –Kim, Christine, Nancy, and Ashley! Wow Kim – a broken neck – that’s very scary, I’m glad that you seem to be on your way to mending. I hope that the right teaching position is just waiting around the corner for you! Christy, it seems you’ve had some great training as part of your Reading First Grant…was any of it for writing – or just reading? …I agree with your comment about gardening! Ashley – I think it’s great that you seem to be able to designate time for both reading and writing. Often the writing gets limited, or squeezed out when there is just a “language arts” block. I love that you have time set aside just for writing. Nancy – that’s great that you can work ½ time as president….ours does not have that luxury. I’m curious as to what “66 and 67” are…what’s the vote?
We look forward to working with you all this semester!
Hi! I’m Marisa and I am currently teaching in the Oregon Trail School District at Kelso Elementary. Oregon Trail is a smaller district located in Sandy, Oregon. I have been teaching for four years and began in the district as a substitute teacher. I am still on a temporary contract, as the district hasn’t hired permanently in a few years. I enjoy the staff at my school and feel very at home there. I am hoping that someday soon I will be a permanent employee!
This year I am teaching a half-day session of Kindergarten and I only work part-time in the mornings. I LOVE it! We also have a full-day Kindergarten pilot program at our school. I have always enjoyed teaching K-3, and especially like the “kinders”. I have 24 Kindergartners this year and have very little EA assistance in the classroom. Also, I have very few parent volunteers this year, so it has been a challenge to get everything done in such a short amount of time! My school is not a Title I school, so we do not have a lot of EA classroom support.
As for my literacy program, I am teaching using the Daily 5 (Moser/Boshey) model and I really enjoy it. I love the freedom this literacy model allows me to have teaching mini-lessons in the classroom, meeting with small groups, and meeting with students individually. I also like that my students are becoming independent readers. Daily 5 is big at my school, and in my school district as well. We have been implementing the Daily 5 at Kelso for the past three years. I highly recommend looking into the Daily 5 literacy structure!!!
I enjoy spending my free time with my 3 ½ year old son and my husband. I am also currently pregnant with TWINS (due in June), so we are getting ready for some busy times ahead of us. We actually found out yesterday that we will be having a boy and a girl. I love reading in my spare time and I enjoy watching college football (Go Ducks). I was recently able to travel to Pasadena to watch this year’s Rose Bowl game live! I also enjoy listening to music, and when I find the time I enjoy scrapbooking! Nice meeting you all!
Hi and welcome to the course Marissa! Wow – twins!!!!!! How much fun you will have! (I actually have a twin sister…and the horror stories haven’t been too bad )!!!! Anyway, it’s great with little ones that you can only work part-time! I also LOVE the Daily 5 structure…and especially love the CAFÉ menu and structure it gives to working with students one on one or in small groups. I’ve had the luxury of attending several conferences with “The Sisters” here on the east coast.
Hey Mary!
This is Julie Camp from Middleton! Is it too late to start the course? I have had some medical issues since the first of the month and things are just beginning to settle down. I hope that it is not too late to get going on this as I have the book and all of the course materials. Let me know!
My name is Julie Camp and I teach 5th grade at Middleton Elementary in Sherwood. I have been teaching for 14 years either in 1st grade or mostly in 4th and 5th grade. I love my job but wish that I could find a balance between my personal and professional life. But honestly I cannot imagine doing anything other than working with children!
The reason that I went into teaching is because of the joy I experience each day interacting with my students and parents. Two years ago I was asked to apply to be the Literacy Coach. I got the job and thought that it was going to be my dream job. I love anything to do with reading and writing and so I thought I would be able to use my expertise to coach teachers, parents and students in building their skills as readers and writers. Needless to say, that is not what the job turned out to be. It turned into an administrative type, number crunching, meeting attending nightmare job and now I am back in the classroom satisfying that longing to make a difference in the lives of the children I come in contact with! I am a fairly creative, organized, and innovative person constantly on the lookout for new ways to better myself as a teacher which will in turn enrich the lives of my students.
I am a runner, walker, gardener, bike rider, beach lover, cabin in Rockaway Oregon, and lover of my 85 year old home in Portland Oregon. I have been married to my husband Chuck for 32 years and we have two grown daughters and new sons in law!
I look forward to reading Marzano's book and applying his strategies to my classroom.
Hi Julie & welcome! I’m glad that you are feeling better! It’s so wonderful to hear from someone that has such a passion for teaching. I’m so sorry that your experience as a literacy coach was so awful; it’s usually a wonderful position. I’ve had the position in two different schools and although the two jobs have been very different…I have been very fortunate in that I’ve loved them both!
My name is a bit misleading. Although my first name is Christopher, people have always called me Scott. I grew up in a family of educators and swore that I would do something else. Then I was accepted to join Teach For America in Detroit. This was a far cry from my little hometown of Kennewick, Washington, but I was excited for the adventure. Three years in the Detroit public school system was exhausting, exhilarating and eye-opening. I decided I wanted a new kind of adventure and found a job as a Spanish teacher at the American School of Mexico City. Three years later, my wife and I embarked on a new adventure to Romania, where I currently teach fourth grade. I love being back in the self-contained classroom and I am quickly learning how to juggle all of the different subject areas. With any luck, Making a Difference: Classroom Instruction that Works will give me new instructional strategies for my classroom.
I have wanted to take this class since the fall, but I couldn’t get my hands on the book! I managed to find a copy from a friend of a friend here in Romania just in time to sign up for the class. Sorry I’m so late! I look forward to reading your comments and quickly catching up.
I must also say that it was fun to read everyone's intros; there are a lot of Oregon transplants out there! With any luck Props 66 and 67 will help me get a permanent job next year. One question: Kim, where do you bake in Manzanita? I could go for a homemade cinnamon roll and a latte right now!
Hi, I'm Kellie and I'm getting into this course very late in the game, but I'll do my best to catch up. I am a 4/5 teacher in Burlington,VT. I teach at a newly created magnet school for sustainability. We are a title I school and our student population is very diverse. I currently have 17 students. One of my students requires a para-professional for one-on-one assistance. She works both in and out of the classroom with him and spends her time in my fifth grade math class.
Our literacy program is mixed. I've been to Columbia Teacher's College for their reading and writing summer institutes so I use a lot of their work. We do have the Houghton Mifflin series, but primarily use Fountas and Pinnell levels for independent and guided reading groups.
It is an exciting and frustrating time at our school as we make the switch from a regular public school to a magnet school. We're all still learning how to integrate sustainability and other content areas.
Outside of school I am an avid reader. I love to garden, walk, and kayak. I spend my time with my husband and our amazing dog, Bodhi.
Kellie
Post a Comment