April Already?

Well, Spring has officially come. A long with that has come the end of the hardest term in Graduate school! Yes! It was long, hard, and yes even sometimes painful, but I learned so much. To my teacher tool box I have now added reading curriculum and instruction, a foundation of children's literature, and a great deal of preparation and resources for teaching to the diverse student body that will one day become our future leaders. We talked about teaching studetns with special needs such as Autism, ADHD, ELL students, Emotional/Behavioral disabilities, learning disabilities and cultural barriers.

If you are interested in creating a classroom environment that encourages support for diversity and joy in multi-cultural expression, then check out the Multicultural Pavilion

With as much as we learned, I feel i am just touching the surface of what I will need to know and will discover upon the real teaching experience. Any reccomendations for student teaching locations?

Highlights:

Among my favorite topics of the last 3 months were our children author reports in which we each researched and presented well know children's authors. I chose Scott O'dell who wrote Island of the Blue Dolphins. He's interesting, but writes late elementary level novels, and some probably even for teens. Some other books and authors I fell in love with however are:

#1: Sing Down The Moon By Sharon Creech. I listened to this book on audio tape. Great dynamic characters. It does deal with a mother's death, but also healing and the awkwardness of being a teenager. Its beautiful, one of the best books I have read all year.











This is a super cute book about being yourself, and what happens when we try to please everyone else.




Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful. Once you get used to the english dialect. You will find yourself wanting to run across the moore with the wind in your face. You'll want to go outside, and dig yourself your own 'bit of land" I highly reccommend this book, but it is advanced. So if you recommend it to young people or students, be sure you are aware of their reading level.

This is a great book for boys and girls. It touches on divorce, gently but honeslty. It really shows the progression of a young boy finding his writing voice. The entire book is in letters he writes to his favorite other, and later, to his journal. Loved it.

Picture Books:
Written by Jamie Lee Curtis, this book teaches kids big words like patience, cooperate, privacy, considerate, and consequence. Great Illustrations! She has several books out now.

A classic, I actually bought this one for my own collection




ANY book by David Weisner has phenomenal illustrations, like no other really. Most of his books have little to no words, but they don't need them. Here's a link to his books.




If you have a little girl, or know one, get her this book. I love it. I want to be Nancy. And so do you. Its FABULOUS, that's a fancy word for really good.


A really fun and interactive book for kids.

Okay, So I really can't list every picture for all the children's books I read this year. But some other good ones were:

The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DeCamillo
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
These are probably all about 5th grade level. Maybe 4th. . .

Other Pressing Information, you decide:

READ TO YOUR KIDS EVERY DAY! EVERY DAY!

This is how they learn what fluent reading sounds like. I encourage you to share your own favorite children's authors or books, that would be so fun, then I will do another post with all of your favorites.

Upcoming Events:

I was recently referred to an experience teacher in Lake Oswego who has a combined 3rd/4th grade classroom. We are working out the details of when I will go to her class. So far I know I will be assisting the 3rd graders with their first research project. They will be gathering and synthesizing information and recording facts to share in a presentation about the animal they have chosen. How Fun! Hopefully I will have more fun information to share on that soon.