Hi and welcome to our course! Please remember that one of the benefits of a blogging course is to have communication between participants. Remember to read and respond to other participants' comments each week. We look forward to working and learning with you. Please try to keep your responses within one allotted "comment" space to ensure that the blog remains manageable for all participants.
Also, you may want to type your comments in a Word Document and either copy from Word and paste onto the blog or save it in a folder on your computer and then post it to the blog. I have written a couple of lengthy comments that I lost before I was able to post it to the blog. This extra step may save you some frustration later on this term.
Last of all, we will write our comments to your posts on the blog, so you will need to check back to the corresponding week for feedback (and to make additional comments if you wish.)
Let us know if you have any questions. You can email us, but please put the words "Question for Classroom Instruction" in the subject line so that we can respond in a timely fashion.
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.)
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4 comments:
My name is Liliana Jimenez. I am originally from Colombia where I graduated as a languages’ teacher. I came to this country in an exchange teaching program and I have worked primarily as a bilingual teacher. I have been a teacher for nearly 20 years, and I have had the opportunity of teaching students of all ages and grades. I was also a Spanish reading coach for our school for three years.
I work for the Forest Grove School District, which is a small town located in the state of Oregon. I teach in the first grade bilingual classroom where I currently have 29 students enrolled in the program. My class is composed by 17% Anglo students and 83% Hispanic children. The goal of our program is for the students to become bilingual and biliterate by the end of high school. I teach the students literacy in both languages besides teaching them the curriculum in all content areas. This year our district has adopted a new reading program, “Calle de la lectura” by Pearson in both languages; although they have provided some training on how to implement the program, I feel very fortunate that we were a Reading First School since we received extensive training while we were covered by the grant. I currently have a block of 90 minutes for Spanish reading which is divided in three segments of 30 minutes, one for small group, one for whole group and the last one for writing. I have 2 instructional assistants that manage the small groups.
In my spare time I love dancing and singing as well as traveling and spending time with my family in Colombia.
Hello Liliana! Welcome to class! How wonderful for your students to have a teacher with such a diverse background! I've also been a teacher in Title One and Reading First schools and felt so fortunate to have had the training and extra support that I received. We look forward to working with you this term.
My name is Karissa Brown. I am originally from Central Washington and moved to Oregon to go to school at George Fox University. After college I subbed for 6 months and then began teaching 3rd grade at Gaarde Christian School in Tigard, Oregon. This is my third year of teaching. This year I have 13 students. Since we are a private school we do not have many instructional support staff but because of the small class sizes I am able to personalize a lot of my teaching to a student’s needs. Currently I have a 45 minute reading block where we break up into smaller groups and rotate every 15 minutes. Usually one group is reading a story together, another is meeting with me to discuss a story and the last rotation depends on what story we are studying at the time. We have another 45 writing block where students are writing their own stories, working on a specific type of writing and practicing different grammar skills. As for literacy training, George Fox had many courses on how to teach literacy to its fullest making sure that each student’s needs are met. Courses ranged from reading and writing methods courses to childrens literature courses.
When I’m not teaching I enjoy photography, reading, traveling and spending time with family and friends!
Hi Karissa,
Welcome to class! Third grade is my favorite grade to teach. (Mary) I'm very interested in learning more about photography, in fact I signed up for a class this spring, but it was cancelled because I was the only one enrolled. (Just as well, I guess, as my husband dropped the camera he gave me and broke it.) We look forward to hearing your thoughts this term.
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