Laurauiwp's Blog

The UIWP summer 2010 group was lucky enough to participate the a “writing marathon.”  The event is modeled after the National Writing Project’s writing marathon.  The idea is that you walk about in a small group, sit and write for a designated time period, share with your small group (with NO responses allowed except a “Thank-You”), and then walk on to the next designation to repeat the process again.    The following are two of my entries.

First Stop Follinger Auditorium University of Illinois campus

I have lots of memories from Follinger Auditorium.   My first experience I was a freshman taking Scanlan’s Ancient Greece history class.  He would dress up as different Gods and Goddesses and do an Illini cheer before every home football game.  He was a fabulous introduction to the University of Illinois.

My second experience was not so positive.  I had Biology 110/111 with a professor who was rumored to have been fired from writing MCAT questions because they were too ambiguous and difficult.  That did not sound right even then.  He was very difficult and ambiguous.  There were over two thousand students in the class at the same time.  Getting to know your professor was not really an option.

After graduating I returned to Follinger for a concert.  My husband and I were married and we came here with several friends to see BB King.  We had a wonderful time, although I was surprised at how many people were smoking marijuana in the auditorium.  The smoke was extremely heavy.  Maybe that enhanced the experience?

Second Stop Krannert Art Center

My first real experience at Krannert was graduation.  There were 5 of us who graduated in 1989 from LAS in the teaching of Biology program.  We were a small group.  I can only remember two of their names, Michelle and Tim.  Michelle was a sweet girl who was getting married soon after graduation.  She had spent her last year in college taking classes to convert to Catholicism so she could get married.  Tim had already given up on teaching.  He was going into the forestry program in the fall to become a forest ranger.  I have not talked to either of them since graduation.

Graduation was a fabulous experience.  My family and future husband were in the audience.  My last name was Arnold back then so naturally I had to go first in line.  Everything was always in alphabetical order.  I had terrible flashbacks of junior high graduation when I went the wrong way in front of everyone.  Everything went great that day and soon my name was not Arnold anymore.

My husband’s masters graduation was at Krannert also.   Wow, what a tough year.  I had not thought of his graduation for 14 years!!   We had two small children, I was pregnant with the third and I had cancer.  Cancer!!  The memories of that year are crashing on me.  Wow, we have come a long way.  His graduation was extremely important and emotional.  I also remember that on that day I dropped our camera.  I got two good pictures before I broke the camera.

http://animoto.com/play/anZACfcP4wbxGC8QhScxHg

Sorry, it has taken me almost a week to respond, but thanks for all of your comments and feedback.

Notable comments from classmates on my presentation:

- The primary sources Einstein’s documents were great to look at. (Tying in historical examples really gives this activity more meaning and significance.)
Inquiry based is wonderful.
Sharing and reflection are best practice.
Diverse grouping, compaction are wonderful uses.
The notebook helps them to make their thinking visible and it allows them to make discoveries on their own.
It also allows students to work through problems at their own pace and in ways that make sense to them.
It supports the philosophy that science is something you do rather than explain and that you go to class to think!
The idea of providing scaffolding and taking it away is great – it encourages independence and growth.
Research really supports using sentence frames so it is wonderful that you have included them.
Students can identify conventions for writing and speaking scientifically that distinguish scientific communication from other types of expression.
This activity involves writing, discussing, and experimenting.  The best part is students won’t realize that they might actually be learning.
Setting up the vocabulary at the beginning helped students use it in context and understand the vocabulary.
Higher functioning students will ask many questions, while lower functioning students are still getting a lot out of it (differentiation).

Questions to respond to.
Q- Aren’t there lots of notebooks to grade at one time?  How do you do it?
R- Being really present in the classroom will help all steps except the formal “making Meaning” conference.  The making meaning conference needs to be one on one to enhance and truly make meaning for the student.

Q- How do you make sure that students record as they go?  We wondered if they might get caught up in doing the experiment and forget to go back.
R- This question really applies to being present in the classroom.  Continually giving feedback and monitoring the process is essential.

Q- How would you get the “book learners” to jump into an activity like this?
R- My “book learners” are going to excel at the prior knowledge category.  If they need extra support, there are always computers and resource material available in my room.

Q- What about the kids that expect As in everything.  Are they really going to take a risk, especially with their hypothesis?
R- My hope is ABSOLUTELY! The grade is not wether their first hypothesis is correct, but that they get to the answer by their own discovery.

My writing process…

I am almost done with my video!!!  Yeah!!  I hope you will think  it was worth the wait!

I paralleled my writing process to cooking.

The following is a little teaser   By, Me

A few sprinkles of spunk,
A gallon of grit,

A smattering of scrolls,
A pinch of prose,

A spoonful of scribbling,
A teaspoon of talent,

A dash of expression,
A dollop of wit,

An ounce of observation,
A pound inspiration,

One cup of creativity,
Brings a lifetime of literacy!!

Yeah!!  Time not wasted!!   All of the complaints that I had when I read the book,  Making The Most Of The Web In Your Classroom: A Teacher’s Guide to Blogs, Podcast, Wikis, Pages, and Sites are answered and addressed in Herrington’s book, Teaching the New Writing.  Clear and useful examples of student work were given in a wide array of multimodal creative writing.  Podcasts, wikis, blogs, electronic poetry and even collaborative digital writing were examined, explained and demonstrated.  Reading this book will help teachers integrate technology with writing. This book even addressed our national trend for testing.  I was not surprised to see Illinois as an outlier with the value of our writing assessments.

This book was a pleasure to read.  I can easily get on board with anything that gives the student the power over his or her own education.  There were many overarching ideas that empowered the students as thinkers and problem solvers.

I think the contemporary student will enjoy the thought that writing is composing.  They are more familiar with garage band, iMovie, setting up Facebook pages and programming all sorts of apps on their phone.  Playing with the idea when you write you are composing will help many students address and overcome their fears of writing.  I think it is important to make sure whenever we incorporate technology into our lessons, the technology enhances the product.  We as educators need to focus on the product of education.  The technology should serve to benefit the purpose and not become the purpose.

As a science teacher I was completely taken in by the description of a good digital writing teacher.  A good writing teacher should model, encourage, set scaffolding, and guide the student.  To me this sounds like a good teacher, not just a good writing teacher.  A good teacher is not a great dispenser of information that just pours out of his mouth and every student is hence enlightened.  A good teacher lights the way and holds the hands of his students so each student can create their own path.

Thanks so much for all of the smiles, pats on the back, high-fives, and ”well dones” that everyone has given me.  Did I fret so much on the outside that everyone could see how I felt on the inside?    OOPS
I did feel great angst before the presentation.  I wanted it to be good for me.  I wanted an overhaul of my “classroom production.”  I needed my project to have meaning for my future students.  I went through a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde transformation. Here at UIWP I was hoping that everyone was only able to see Dr. Jekyll side.

(It makes me think of this old Chris Farley skit from SNL.)

At home though, it was a different story.  I have not cooked, cleaned, or enjoyed the outside.  (I actually love to pull weeds from my many hundreds of Hostas and other perennials.)  I have locked myself in my room and worked for several hours for several days on end.  My children have enjoyed the extra freedom, my husband, well, not so much.  My kids have learned to knock softly, wait, poke their head in the door, wait again for me to finish typing, and then ask for what they want.  I always say, “yes!” to anything that gets them out of the house, and “No!” to anything that brings anyone to our door.  I was not always good at keeping my husband in the loop, or maybe those intelligent recipients of our DNA learned to only ask mom if they wanted something.  Two nights ago, our middle blessing came home from work at 8pm, took a shower, and by 8:20 asked me if he could go to a friend’s house.  “Sure… go, mom’s working,” was my exact response.  He tried to say more, but I shushed him away.  He was out of there!!  I did not ask any other questions.  I was too busy.  I was wrapped up in achieving EDUTOPIA!!  Two hours later my husband tenderly knocks on the door, pokes his head in and asks where Thomas is.  I shared with him I said he could go out.  THAT LOOK, OH NO!?!   My head twirling, “What did I do?”   Ken sighed and shared that he had asked Thomas to help him repair the walls that he and his friends put their knees through when they were wrestling (in over 5 places).  OK, I screwed up.

Then, Ken asked… “Where did he go?” (I did not know because I did not take the time to ask.),
“What is he doing?” (I did not know.)
“What time will he be home?” umm (I did not talk about it with him… oops.)

“ok, Ok, OK,” I get it, my head screamed I need to be a mom again.  My hiatus is over.

So last night I cooked dinner, we sat down as a family to eat (most of us Thomas is away at yearbook camp).  I even did the dishes!!

Thomas by the way came home early that night on his own accord because he remembered that he was going to help Ken with the walls!!

Sigh, life is good!!

This morning as I walked past all of the student study tables by Expresso Royal, I noticed an Asian student pouring over his papers.  It appeared he was trying to rewrite what was in front of him.  He stood out because his pencil was tapping, and he was looking up and down a lot.  My perceptions were that he was uncomfortable and self-conscience about what he was doing.  I walked past to the restroom and peered at his papers.  There were red marks all over his papers with comments on the side and arrows all over.  My heart sank and my mind flooded with the interviews from the ELL video.  I cannot even say for sure that this student was ELL, but I can say he made me think.  It felt all too familiar to see him sweating over the sea of red.  This student and the video have made an impression on me.  These images have become a part of me.  I have now taken the messages from the ELL students in the video and will use them to help me become a better teacher.