New Literature Unit: Diary of Anne Frank

We will be starting a new literature book this week. We are going to be reading The Diary of a Young Girl about Anne Frank. During this unit we will be studying some background information about the Holocaust as well.

Here are some good online resources for finding out more about the Holocaust and Anne Frank:

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Anne Frank Educational Trust

Holocausthistory.net

List of other resources from Anne Frank Educational Trust

There are lots of other online resources out there, but these are a few good ones from trustworthy sources.

Rebekah's Books for Break

One of the things I look forward to most on vacations is staying up late reading. I love that I don't have to worry about getting up in the morning, so I can stay up really late reading a good book that has grabbed my attention. A couple of the books I plan to read this break are:

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

Other than that, I'll just see what books catch my eye at the Book Bin or the library and I'll read what I feel like at the moment.

Think About Books for Break

Okay, we are coming up on a 2 week vacation and I don't think any of you want to lose the progress you have made in class so far. I know it's busy and it's easy to forget about reading and school, but I would like to help you make a plan for the break.

In your blog today:

1. Read other student's blogs about books they have read and make at least one comment.

2. Write down which books you think you might like to try reading over break. It can be one that you are currently reading, one that you borrow from me, or anything else you have at home or can borrow.

3. Also, tell me when you plan to do your reading. You should try to read 15 minutes to 1 hour per day.

Fix My Paragraph

The following paragraph has 10 mistakes. Copy the paragraph, paste it into your blog, and fix all 10 mistakes.

Indian reservations are areas of land given to Native American tribes by the united states government. In the 1850-60s the government decided to move indians to land that were unwanted by settlers many of the tribes did not want to move to new lands and refused. Soon the government sent in the U.s. Army force them to move to the new reservation lands. this caused many bloody wars between the Indians and the U.S. Army. Eventually, most Indians did move to the reservations. Today, reservations are run by their own tribal council, and less than half of Indians live on the reservations. Many of the Indians who live off the reservations live in large western cities. Like Phoenix and Los angeles.

Welcome to Our Open House!

Thanks so much for coming and making education a priority. Please feel free to look around the site, have some pizza, and ask any questions you might have. If you want to know about your student's progress or have questions about the program, just ask any of the staff members here tonight.

New Book

We started a new book recently called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. It is a really fun book. The students love it and are asking to borrow it so they can take it home to read it.

This book is definitely for more mature young adults. I find that my late high-school age students from 16-20 are just the right age to be able to absorb it and also enjoy it.

Poetry

We've started our poetry unit for this term and it is going very well. We work off something I like to call "The Poetry Plan".

The Poetry Plan

Most people are scared of poetry, but you don’t need to be. Poetry can be hard to understand unless you know HOW to read it.

You will need to read the poem all the way through about 5 times. Yes, I said 5 times. The more you read it the easier it will be to understand.

The 1st time: Read for SOUND
Just read the poem to hear how it sounds the first time.
Listen to the rhythm
What's your first impression?

The 2nd time: Read for WORDS
Look for any words you don’t understand.
Try to figure out what the word means by looking at the words around it, breaking the word into pieces, or saying it different ways to see if it sounds familiar.

The 3rd time: Read LINE BY LINE
Stop at the end of every line and figure out what the line means.
Try to relate it to the lines before or after it.
Decide what you think the author is trying to say in each line.

The 4th time: Read for THEME (the author’s message)
Try to figure out what the author is trying to tell the reader through this poem.
Why did the author take the time to write this down?
What important thing did he/she want you to understand after reading it?

The 5th time: Put it all TOGETHER
How do you feel about the poem now compared to the first time you read it? Do you understand it better?
You should be so familiar with the poem now that it will be easy to answer questions about it.

1. Look over this chart.
2. Find at least 3 things you can learn from this chart.
3. Make a list of the three things you learned about obesity.

Back to School Speech

This Back-To-School speech by President Obama has been very controversial. What do you think about it?

Books I Want to Read This Summer

• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
• The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
• The Lovely Bones By Alice Sebold?
• Cold Rock River By J. L. Miles
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Twenty Years in the Future

It's almost time for my dinner party. Why don't you come on in and see my home. It's a small place, but I like it. I have a nice dining room where my friends always like to gather and eat. I have a great patio with a barbecue and places to sit and eat and chat with friends. I am also really proud of my yard and garden area. I spend a lot of time taking care of my garden and I love to use the produce from it when I cook for my friends and family. I also have a lovely kitchen area with a big countertop for cooking and chopping and making foods. My friends love to hang out in my kitchen as well, eating and drinking the delicious foods I cook up. My bedrooms and bathroom are at the back of the house and are cozy as well. I like to spend time at home reading, hanging out with family and friends, cooking, and working in the yard. I have lots of time in the summers when I'm not teaching to do all the things I love. Oh, here come my friends now. Why don't you come on in and eat dinner with us?

Blog Night Info

Dear Families and Students:

Thank you for coming to Spring Blog Night 2009!

There are lots of other things you could be doing tonight. You are making education a priority in your life by coming here tonight. That is a great statement to make to your family, yourself, and your community!

We invite you to do three things tonight:

1. Eat! Help yourself to pizza and drinks.

2. Check out your student's blog on the laptops around the room. (Make sure they show you what they did at the beginning of their blog and what they are doing now. You'll be impressed!)

3. Ask Beka any questions you have about your student's progress.

Bienvenidos a todas las familias y los padres. Los invitamos a cenar esta noche. Por favor hablen Uds. con las maestras y miren los "Blogs" de sus hijos/as. Esperamos que les disfruten este momento que pasamos hoy aqui. Gracias por su atencion.

I Believe Brainstorming

Today we are brainstorming things we believe in so that we can choose one for our This I Believe essay.

1. I believe that reading is the key to knowledge.
2. I believe being nice is more important than being smart, rich, or successful.
3. I believe love is more of an action than a feeling.
4. I believe people need each other.
5. I believe in singing loudly to myself in the car.
6. I believe in using only what I absolutely need.
7. I believe in making up your own mind about what you believe.
8. I believe in ghosts.
9. I believe that every situation in life is a chance to learn something we need to learn.
10. I believe coming home is a gift.
11. I believe happiness is a choice.

Root Word Poem

We used poetry, rap, or creative stories to study root words this week. Here is my attempt at a poem using as many of our root vocabulary words as possible. Check out the student's work on this on the Blogamundo Homepage. They did very well!


I see pedestrians in cars,
psychologists going psycho,
cardiologists losing heart.

I see corporations running wild,
manufacterers running the world,
CEO's making a spectacle.

I see a suicidal population,
homicidal corporations,
pharmaceuticals deforming the nation.

I see the populace conform
to the patron saint Consume,
rupturing morals and home.

A prescription for disaster.
I predict a nation of conformity,
deformity, cardiac arrest.

Unless...unless
The spectator becomes captain,
the populace becomes the patriarch,
the videographer becomes the actor,
the audience becomes the speaker.

With complete transformation,
Hope.

Progress Report

Things are going along really well on the Blogamundo Project. I have been amazed at the gains I've seen in student writing. I think the main thing I have noticed is that the organization of their writing has increased amazingly. Just getting them to write something is often difficult at first, but as time goes on they start to write quite a bit. Then the work is in making sentences flow and organization of ideas. Amazingly, the organization of the ideas seems to come quite naturally with practice of writing in general. I have focused mainly on editing sentence structure (as well as the age-old capitalization, spelling, and punctuation) and after time, the organization of the rest of the writing seems to come quite easily.

Instructions for Adding a Header to Your Blog

1. Go to Blogamundo and click on the link to Blogamundo Project Blog (this page)
2. Choose a header from the post below this
3. Click on the header you choose to see a full size version
4. Right click on the full sized picture and choose Save Picture As
5. Save the pic to My Pictures
6. Go back to your own blog
7. Go to Customize (in the upper right hand corner when viewing your blog) or Layout (from the dashboard)
8. Make sure you are in the tab called Page Elements (it should go directly there)
9. Click on Edit in the box that says Header (it is across the top)
10. Click on Browse and look for the pic on your computer
11. Double click on the picture header to add it in
12. Choose the option that says "Behind title and description"
13. Click SAVE in the pop up box. Click SAVE again in the Page Elements page.
14. Tada! You should have a new header.

If you have problems with your old header showing up behind the new header, let me know. That is a more complicated process.

Headers

These free headers were found on this site: http://www.themeheaders.com/gallery/search.php

Technology Lesson

I've finally learned how to fancy up my blog a little bit. I added a header with an apple on it and I think it looks pretty good. What I haven't figured out how to do is replace the other header with the new one. All I can do right now is add the new header on top. Fortunately my new header matches the one under it, so it actually adds to the picture. I will probably have to change the html in order to fix it.

I've been trying to do a technology lesson every once in awhile. Mostly they just learn as they fool around with stuff, but I like to do a formal lesson once in awhile to add to their knowledge base. I think it just makes them more comfortable with this stuff and that can never hurt as they go out to start college or jobs.

I might have to work through this a little more before I actually make this a lesson though. I want to know what the problem spots are going to be before we hit them.

What I know so far is:

1. Get a header from a website with free header pictures
2. Right click on the full sized picture and choose Save Picture As
3. Save the pic to My Pics
4. Go to Customize (from viewing the blog) or Layout (from the dashboard)
5. Choose Change Layout
6. Edit the Header
7. Browse for the pic from your computer and add it in
8. Save it
9. Tada!

Book Reports

The students are writing their book reports on Touching Spirit Bear. I have allowed them to write them in either essay format or business document format (meaning block paragraphs with headings).

They have mostly turned out quite well. The interesting thing is that in this assignment, I noticed a marked difference in the writing quality of those students who have been blogging every day and those that just entered the class. It is absolutely wonderful to see how far those who have been in my class have come since they started. I know, too, that those who are just starting out are going to see great improvement in their writing skills, and that is going to make school, GED tests, and workplace writing so much easier for them in the future.

Sometimes it just strikes me how important this work is and how much good it is doing, even if the students don't really realize it yet.

Yes! It Worked.

The anger skits went really well. The students did a really good job on coming up with skits and acting them out. Some of them were definitely not excited about be filmed, but even so they did a pretty good job!

The one problem that we came up with was the fact that the laptops we use for blogging do not accept new programs and the Flip Camcorders need to upload a little program that comes in the camera in order to upload the video. It worked fine on my computer, but that meant that the students weren't really able to learn that part of the technology. It worked out okay in the end, but it's definitely something I need to work out before I use them again.

You can go to the Blogamundo link on the sidebar of this page and from there you can click on the different students blogs to see their videos. They are pretty fun. :)

Anger Skit by Ron

Awesome! I figured out how to upload video directly from the Flip camcorders and it is super-de-duper easy. I'm really excited about this. I hope the students have fun with their anger skit. At least they won't be totally frustrated by uploading them when they are done. I hope. :S

Correct The Teacher

Below is a paragraph I wrote that I left mistakes in. Copy it and paste it into a new post on your blog and then edit it. Make sure you correct ALL my mistakes!

if there were one thing that i would keep if i had to give away everthing i own it would be my books i would keep my books because they help me disaper into another world. Ilove to read and forget about all my roblems for awile and i like to curl up wit a blanket and i like to turn on some music and i like to read for hours but if i cant have all the other stuff as least i would liek to have some books to read.

Things to check for:
capitalization
spelling
run-on sentences
spacing issues

Journaling

It seems like journaling on blogs is coming easier to students. It's not easier for all of them, but it seems like for the most part they are having less trouble thinking up what to write about and also they are doing a great job on their self editing. I'm still checking their work before they publish, but I am catching less mistakes and when I do see something, they usually see it as soon as I mention it. I guess it just comes from having gone through it so many times. They are really starting to catch on to writing and that is exciting!

Oregon Essay Writing

We are working on essay writing and I thought it would be fun to go out and take pictures of what represents Oregon to each individual and then have them write about it. We walked around downtown and ended up at the capitol. The students came up with some really good pictures and ideas for how that represented Oregon to them. It was nice to get out and do something a little different, and I was really happy to see how well the essays turned out.

We did short essays of 1-2 paragraphs and I had them write a rough draft in their notebook first. It really seemed to help some of them get their ideas flowing, but for others, it seemed to be difficult. I think next time, I might give them the option of typing or writing the rough draft since everyone does the writing process a little differently.

AM class at the capitol building trying not to shiver too much in the frosty morning. With the sun at the morning angle it was difficult to get the gold man to show up. He's really there, but he's just hiding.

Mid class hanging out in the gazebo in Wilson Park beside the capitol. They were good sports about posing for me while I tried to get a good picture with the capitol in the background.

PM class at the capitol. The sun finally came out and we were actually able to get good pictures of the gold man because of the lighting.

How to Upload a Picture from the Kodak Easyshare Cameras to Your Blog

• Make sure your camera is on.
• Plug the camera cord into the camera and into the USB port on the back of the computer.
• Go to the Start menu (on the left hand bottom corner of the screen)
• Go to My Computer
• Go to Zoom Digital Camera

Go into your Blogger account.

• Go to new post
• Click on the little picture image in the upper right hand corner of the toolbar.
• Click Browse (if you want to add more than one picture click on Add Another Image first)
• Make sure you are in the Camera Folder (you should see thumbnails pics)
• Look for your picture and double click your picture to upload.
• After you've chosen the pictures you want, make sure you have checked the Terms of Service box and click Upload.
• Click the Done button when it pops up.
• Your picture should be on your blog.

Thanksgiving List of Thankfulness

I am thankful for:

• My family who always encourages me and thinks I'm a neat person


• Pumpkin pie because it is vegetable, milk, crust, and sugar so I can pretend it's a full meal


• Trees


• Having a good job with fun students


• Books that keep me company when I'm lonely and bored


• Airplanes so I can travel quickly to see my family and friends around the world.

Thoughts on How the Project is Going

We have been up and running with the Blogamundo Project for about a month and a half.

Wow!

It seems like I've been doing this forever and it seems like we've come so far. This is quite a revelation for me. I was feeling like I wasn't getting very far, and that I really wanted to be more organized. Now that I've realized I've really only been doing this for less than two months, I don't feel so bad. I think we've actually made some good progress.

Things to feel good about:

• The students come in and log into Blogger without me telling them.
• We have a routine set up for getting people onto the blog system which works well (as long as Blogger is cooperating).
• I have a weekly schedule set up that helps me with planning M:Technology, T:Writing/Grammar Lesson, W:Journal, Th:Writ/Gram Lesson, F:Editing/Free Journal.
• We have streamlined the blog time so that we rarely run into our reading time.
• We have hosted an Open Blog Night to introduce parents to the project and show off our blogs.
• Students are getting excited about different types of writing. Some students enjoy one aspect and some students enjoy another, but almost everyone has gotten excited about at least one writing assignment.
• With the focus on editing, student's writing has improved a lot. They know what I'm talking about if I say, "Capitalize your title."
• I see less and less use of text messaging slang, such as "u" instead of "you."
• The students are able to self edit and even ask each other for help sometimes instead of me.

Things to work on:

• Getting students to edit as they go instead of going back and fixing their mistakes.
• Practice reading their work aloud so that they can hear what is wrong with it.
• Better incorporate other types of media into their blogs.
• Figure out how to catch up new students with certain blog assignments that they really need to do.
• Make a checklist of assignments that are critical to the project for each student to have.

The Village of Degerby

(We did a blog on a favorite place and it was a little hard for some to get started, so I did it with them. This is my example.)

Halfway around the world, and almost as far north as Santa's home in the north pole, there lies a tiny little village called Degerby in the land of Finland. I lived there for almost a year.

The village had about 15 houses, one school, a bank, a Lutheran church, and a recycling center. And that was about it. Other than a small hill and a lot of trees. Oh, and of course, people. Children ran around the town from house to house, playing with their friends, walking back and forth to school, and generally having free reign. Everyone knew each other and spoke to each other regularly.

The hill was in the middle of the town and all the houses were situated either around the bottom, or nestled on the hillside. We walked over the hill to visit friends, or around the hill to reach the school.

The village was quiet, especially at the house I lived in because it was the last house on the road into the village, so if a car came by, we knew it was coming to our house. On one side of the house was a garden, with a chicken house, and then miles and miles of fields. On the other side was the wooded hill with a line of birch trees marching up the road. It was a peaceful place.

Practice Formatting

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Salem Keizer School District http://www.salkeiz.k12.or.us/

My name is Rebekah. My name is Rebekah. My name is Rebekah.

1. This is a list.
2. I like lists.
3. Lists are fun.

Now I'm going to do bullets:

• Here is my first bullet
• Here is my second bullet
• Here is my third bullet

Practice Formatting

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Blogamundo Homepage http://sites.google.com/site/blogamundoproject/Home

My name is Rebekah.
My name is Rebekah. My name is Rebekah. My name is Rebekah.

1. One
2. Two
3. Three
4. Four

I love lists.

• I love lists.
• Lists are fun.
• I make lots of list.

Practice Formatting

The quick brown fox jumped over the
lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumped
over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox
jumped over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
dog.

My name is Rebekah. My name is
Rebekah

http://sites.google.com/site/blogamundoproject/Home

1. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
2. But the dog jumped up and chased him.
3. Hello

So that's my list.

• Here is another list
• I like to make lists
• Lists are fun

Poetry Blogs

We have been studying poetry in class lately. Mostly we've been working on how to analyze poetry, but I've noticed that there was some interest in writing their own poetry as well. So today I thought I'd give them a chance to do that on their blogs.

It takes a little longer than I thought it would.

But here is some of the incredible stuff that they turned out:

Misty's Poem
Troy's Poem There's quite a bit more poetry on his site if you look around.
Fabian's Poem
Kenzie's Poem

There a lot of others too, but these are just some I picked out. Some of the student's used newspaper articles to make "found" poetry. We were particularly working on the rhythm and sound of poetry.

A Weird Week

We have a weird schedule this week because of Veteran's Day on Tuesday. So we came to school on Monday and I decided to do some testing instead of blogging. Then we had Tuesday off and now we're back for three days. I'm having trouble deciding what to do with these three days.

Since I want the students to have a chance to experience authentic writing, I am really trying to give them a lot of say in what we are working on in the project. This morning, one class really wanted to take pictures to put on their blogs, and so we went out and did that. Then another class really wanted to stay in, so I had them finish old blogs and then asked for a subject matter. Someone facetiously said, "Falling asleep in class" so I told them they could write about techniques for that, and then gave them a couple of other ideas to write about sleep. Most students chose the topic of researching teenagers and sleep.

So far, I like the results of having the students a little more involved in their own choices on the blogs. I think they are at a place where they know a little more about blogs now, so they feel better doing this. It is easier for them to think of things to write, now that they sort of have a feel for it.

Working on Editing

I am pretty much setting aside Fridays for editing our blogs. That way students can edit everything from the week and practice using the writing process. They usually have 3-4 blogs posted per week, so they almost always have something that they can edit.If they have fixed all their mistakes I usually have them read it again to see if there is anything they can do to make it sound or look better.

Those students who have finished their editing, or have edited as they wrote throughout the week, get a free day to post whatever they want to on their blog. Friday is a good day for that because often they want to write about their weekend plans.

My new worry is how to use the blogs to be the best writing tool. So far it is really helpful in getting the writing process going because editing and publishing is sort of built into the blog. The pre-writing process is a little trickier. I think I might try using Scribblar.com to see if I can get them going on the pre-writing.

Election Coverage

I gave a blog assignment today about the election.

Assignment:
Today on your blog write about your opinion and views of the election
OR
Write a letter to President Elect Obama telling him what you think he needs to work on or change now that he is going to be president.

It was interesting to see the reactions of the students. It is really difficult for a lot of them to express opinions about major national events. They know what happened, but it is hard for them to make any meaning out of it. There were some insightful comments and some strong opinions, but for the most part it seems that politics is a very distant idea to them. They don't really see how it relates to their lives at all. I wish that these students could have been out at one of the big rallies just to get a feeling for what is really going on here.

It's incredible how distant we can become from our own democracy. We live in a country that has one of the most open democratic voting processes and we don't even realize it most of the time. I watched a little show on some Chinese journalism students who were following the American election and they were astounded at how the people, just normal citizens, had access to information about the government and had a say in how things would go. I was reminded of how much we take for granted. They have no voice in their government and now choice as to how it is run or what happens.

Even though sometimes it doesn't really feel like I have a lot of say in government, it's good to remember that I have a lot more than most of the world and for that I am thankful.

Open Blog Night

We are getting ready for Open Blog Night, which is like an open house where we get to show off our blogs. The last couple of days have been spent editing, adding the Blogamundo (our class website) link, and making sure everything on our blogs looks presentable.

I expect to have about 50-75 people show up. We'll order pizza for a few more than that, just to be sure. That is quite a crowd for this location.

The editing is going extremely well and I am so proud of all the progress the students have made. It's amazing to see how their writing has changed since their first posts. It is especially noticeable with the students who have been here and have been blogging for a few weeks now. I am so impressed. They are having to do less and less editing after the fact because they just aren't making the mistakes anymore. They are making good writing a habit and that is what I like to see!

UPDATE: The Open Blog Night was a great success! About 50 people came (including staff) and I was able to connect with a lot of parents and show off some great blogs the students have done.