It's a Writer's Apartment!

Today was a great day and to clear the air, last week was not a bad week it was just really interesting. Today I was assigned the child I was going to watch, when I say assigned I mean I picked him. I bet you can only guess who I picked...yep, Bailey! I just adore that child so much. When I have my own classroom I am really going to have to quit this favoritism business. The best part of the day was when Bailey was struggling to write. The brilliant and beautiful Megan was trying to help him, but her and Bailey just do not have that kind of brotherly connection like Bailey and I do so I had to kick her to the curb ;) As soon as I started to help Bailey he calmed down. He told me he wanted to sit under his desk to write. I did not see a problem with this as long as he wrote. He sprawled out under his desk and he had specific demands for the chair to be pushed in all the way. (I guess this was a privacy thing) Of course he told me I could come in so I did my best to lay right beside him. After he wrote a couple of sentences I told him that he had a Writer's Palace going on. He looked at me and said I don't like in a palace I live in an apartment, this is my Writer's Apartment and then he asked me to leave. Hahah that apartment king really did not like me insulting his place so I did what I was told. Later I came back and he had about half a page written. I was very proud of him. I am so excited to work with him. After my time with Bailey was over it was time to get back to Linda's class. Today was the best class we've had yet. I loved sharing my journal with Lauren and it was really nice to get to know her. I am looking forward to future conferences. The activites really kept me awake, heck I even chuckled during class. :) Good day and I am excited to work on the project!

Three Blind Mice

There were three of us, Sami, Megan, and myself, and we were thrown in the second grade class to fend for ourselves. As soon as we got in there it was like a slap in the face. There was a boy named Bailey who was having "the worst Wednesday ever" and was definitely expressing it. He was throwing a tantrum, throwing things, tripping over a cord, and disrupting his peers. I immediately was drawn to this student. I was explaining to him that he was not stupid and that he could correct the sentences that were on the overhead. After five minutes of calming him down he was identifying errors and writing sentences of his own. We participated in reading and writing activities which really help me identify what we were learning in class. As far as today's class is concerned It was definitely rough. I do not know about anyone else, but I was exhausted.. I was ready for to lay my head on that table and snore the rest of day away. I was thankful that we were released early. I also was happy that I suggested to have our partners randomly selected. A lot more of you chose to do it that way and I am very surprised. It will allow us to really get out of comfort zones and get to make one extra friend. If you don't like your partner well then I guess you can blame me :) haha that's enough for now, Survivor is calling my name.

It Takes 2 to Tango

Today was our second meeting and it was honestly like the first day on steroids. We did much more than the last class and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We decorated our journals which really took me back to elementary school when I made my first collage. It really allows me to express myself and it allows me to socialize and get to know my classmates. After I huffed and puffed away all of Hayley's pictures....I mean we finished our masterpieces we moved onto talking about spelling. I know for sure that I never want to sound like the lady from the video. I also learned that memorizing spelling words is not the most effective way to teach students. I hope to have weekly spelling test of about 12 words each week. I want to have a daily homework activity for the students to practice their spelling words. One day will target each type of learner. The technical terms for each learning method is something I already forgot so hopefully I will be refreshed of those techiniques or I am in trouble! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

E339 week 1

   The first day of class was a bit rough. I don't know about anyone else, but 3 hours is such a long time to be sitting in one class. I really like what I see on the syllabus and after reading "A Writer's Notebook" I am really excited about my new journal. I went out and bought a gray leather book that says, journal down the side. I defintiely didn't want to write in a spiral notebook ;) I really like the idea of using it as a "writing-as-lifejacket." It will help me express my feelings and my emotions. I also really like the idea of keeping it next to my bed and writing my dreams in it. I probably won't use it as a list keeper because I don't want to tear pages out and I'm surely not taking my lifejacket everywhere with me. I also really like the idea of keeping artifacts in it. Those artifacts will help me remember the events that took place in my life. The best part of the book will be looking back at it in a few years to realize what I was thinking when I was a junior in college. Hopefully the writers notebook will help me grow as a writer and as person.