Native American Education

My mother, Terry Evans Lindsay, and I do a yearly presentation to educate elementary school students about Native American Culture. This year our focus was on Pow Wow regalia, music, and symbolism. We share pictures, music, and a video/slide show presentation. We also involve children in a hands-on demonstration and provide them a way to share in our culture and express their identity through arts and crafts. Over the years, we have made headbands, shields, feather hair ties, vests, and rainsticks.

2nd Grade Presentation at Penn Christian Academy

POW WOW Presentation (Link below)

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://tinyurl.com/qv4aosj&sa=D&source=hangouts&ust=1581382579419000&usg=AFQjCNFGVfPPCHZhPCq1gjikNinyrDl-dQ

Setting up Your Students’ Writer’s Notebook

Nancie Atwell recommends using a 100-page spiral notebook for the students’ writer’s notebook. I was initially excited by the idea of a fresh, clean spiral notebook, ready for students’ ideas to transform it. Upon further reflection, a thin binder may serve a better purpose for this job. While I like creative messes, many of my students have difficulties with executive functioning/organization to the point that their creativity will become lost and meaningless amidst the disorganization. Another reason, I prefer a binder is that it lends more flexibility and utility to the writer’s notebook. Students can add ideas, samples of mentor texts, and use as many pages as they would like for sections of their binder. Also, students can add works in progress or samples of their favorite pieces.

There is the concern about portability of a binder. It is not as small and easy to take wherever inspiration may lead a student. A solution would be a small idea book that can be kept in a pocket or purse that students can use to jot down ideas to later be added or could be included in a pocket folder of their Writer’s Notebook .

I am still in the process of exploring the final format for the writer’s notebooks that my students will use next school year. Below are a few resources and options for Writer’s Notebooks. Check back on this page as we get closer to the end of this school year and the start of the next, as I plan on adding options during my exploration of the techniques and best practices of the Writer’s Workshop model.

Student Writer’s Notebook Options:

• Reader’s and Writer’s Notebook, Three Teachers Talk Blog, excellent resource for developing a Writer’s Notebook
• 100-Page Spiral Notebook, with a table of contents and a territory section for ideas, (Writing Masters: Lessons That Change Writers with Nancie Atwell)
• Writer’s Workshop Notebook Templates (The Writer’s Workshop Format at Minds in Bloom by Rachel Lynette)
• The Binder Approach ( Organize Writing with a Writer’s Notebook by Becky Spence The Notebooking Fairy )

Nancie Atwell on Writer’s Workshop

Lesson’s I’ve learned from the Heinamin Blog, “Writing Masters: Lessons That Change Writers with Nancie Atwell”

I Captured this Piece of Atwell’s Rainbow in My Cup:

We can agree that one of the toughest parts of writing is getting started.  Atwell has lead me to realize that my students struggle, because they have not actually thought about the topics.  They have no ideas to write about.  Once started, students embark on an excruciating serious of steps to extract information from memory and Wikipedia.  Devoid of a personal connection students parrot the ideas of others in attempted regurgitation.  No wonder students are well spoken, but poorly written. * 

Atwell provides a solution through the Territory of Writer’s Notebooks.   Introduce students to the world of ideas.  Train them in how to capture these ideas.  Stimulate their neurons into making connections, expanding meaning, and developing original thoughts.   By sampling various genres and recording events, lists, and motes of inspiration, information becomes relevant.  Understanding and facts provide content, personal connection creates connotation, and the synthesis of individual experience with knowledge results in creativity and original thoughts.  Thoughts are born for expression.  A student who has sampled the world of ideas and captured them in the Territory of a Writer’s Notebook has a ready source of thoughts and opinions to share through written expression.

Read on for a summary of Attwell’s blog on the topic of fostering writing ideas.

“Writing Masters: Lessons That Change Writers with Nancie Atwell”

“I hope kids will leave the first day’s workshop with too many places to begin, overwhelmed by a wealth of personal material.”

Atwell never wants to hear a student say again, “I don’t have anything to write about.”:

“So I read aloud to them and we read together poetry, memoirs, short stories, essays, parodies, profiles, and book reviews relevant to students’ experience. I demonstrate my own ideas and intentions.”

• Start with a rich environment – Fill your room and time with topics for discussion and inspiration for writing.  This includes news articles, readings from mentor texts, poetry, etc. centered around student interests.
• Begin by preparing fertile minds with poetry and class discussions regarding possible writing topics, then incorporate other genres throughout the year.

Now that students’ minds are primed with ideas…

• Build in structured time for conferencing and encourage sharing.  Atwell “stages readings” of her homemade student magazines.
• Offer opportunities and suggest various methods for publishing, “places to submit book and music reviews, gifts of writing for people they love, and options for guest editorial columns in local papers”, while repeating the mantra “You could do this!”

Atwell’s strategy for using Writer’s Workshop to foster ideas and end writer’s block:

• Provide student with new 100 page spiral notebooks
• First 3 pages – Table of Contents
• Next 15 pages – Territory
  • Collection of interesting ideas, responses to minilessons, projects, and possible writing topics)
  • Format – notes, plans, lists, events, or single words
  • Atwell’s students often cite the Territory as instrumental in their writing

As my student Tyler put it, “My territories section of my writing handbook is like my security blanket. I never panic about ideas because I have all these plans. It makes me feel confident. But mostly it reminds me of how much I have to say.”

• Throughout the year, utilize minilessons to aid students in adding to their territories in each genre study
• Encourage students to utilize their territory as a resource when writing

 

*Please refrain from judging me for the grammatical errors in this sentence.  I am ignoring grammatical conventions in an effort to be poetic.

I am in the process of writing an action plan for meeting the written expression needs in my high school learning support class.  The research topic is:

During the research process, I decided to see what the National Council for Teachers of English had to say on the subject.  I found their position statement “Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing”, which affirmed many of the strategies that I use in the classroom, as well as food for thought.   Their position mirrors what I always thought about myself.  One of the reasons why I fell in love with writing in college is that I realized writing is a way in which I understand concepts and develop new ideas.  Writing is a form of thought which enables me to figure out what I want to say and communicate my beliefs in a clear, concise, and polished manner.  When speaking, I think aloud with out the ability to craft my words and ideas.  Often spoken words fail to communicate clearly my ideas.

I’d like for you to read this excerpt and let me know your thoughts on the subject.

Writing is a tool for thinking.

When writers actually write, they think of things that they did not have in mind before they began writing. The act of writing generates ideas; writing can be an act of discovery. This is different from the way we often think of writers–as the solitary author who works diligently to get ideas fixed in his or her head before writing them down. The notion that writing is a medium for thought is important in several ways and suggests a number of important uses for writing: to solve problems, to identify issues, to construct questions, to reconsider something one had already figured out, to try out a half-baked idea. This insight that writing is a tool for thinking helps us to understand the process of drafting and revision as one of exploration, and is nothing like the idea of writing as transcribing from prerecorded tape. Nor is the writing process simply fixing the mistakes in an early draft; rather, it involves finding more and more wrinkles and implications in what one is talking about.

What does this mean for teaching?

In any writing classroom, some of the writing is for the writer and some for other audiences as well. Regardless of the age, ability, or experience of the writer, the use of writing to generate thought is still valuable; therefore, forms of writing such as personal narrative, journals, written reflections, observations, and writing-to-learn strategies should be included in the curriculum.

In order to provide high-quality writing opportunities for all students, teachers need to understand:

• How to employ varied tools for thinking through writing, such as journals, writers’ notebooks, blogs, sketchbooks, digital portfolios, listservs or online discussion groups, dialogue journals, double-entry or dialectical journals, and others;

• The kinds of new thinking—such as questioning, discovery, and invention—that occur when writers revise;

• The varieties of thinking people do when they compose, and what those types of thinking look like when they appear in writing;

• Strategies for getting started with an idea, or finding an idea when one does not occur immediately;

• Exploring various technologies such as drawing tools and voice-to-text translators for brainstorming and developing one’s initial thinking;
• Ways to accommodate differences among students, such as those who find writing physically challenging, by using oral rehearsal of ideas, gesture, diagramming, or other options that would still allow exploration and development of thought.

Professional Knowledge for the Teaching of Writing”.  Position Statements.  National Council of Teachers of English.  28 February 2016.  http://www2.ncte.org/statement/teaching-writing/.  Retrived 20 July 2018.

Teach Shift! 2018 Reflection

Before TeachShift!, I was a teacher.  After TeachShift!  I am a professional educator, inspired and empowered to elevate my students learning.  Meeno Rami’s book, Thrive, and Joy Kirr’s, Shift This!, opened my eyes to the possible and  provided a context for the world of authentic, student-centered learning.  Kirr’s Shift This! provided the philosophical underpinnings for my Action Plan.  My research question to determine if authentic writing activites can improve the written expression of students who have written expression disabilties.  Rami’s Thrive provided the tools that I will implement in my Action Plan.  Our Skype session with Dr. Mary Howard, inspired me and showed the value of becoming a professional, who is connected to the current leaders in education.  At the Big “C”, we’d call her a legendary teacher.  Mary Howard taught me to become a professional.  She has inspired me to further my aspirations.  Before TeachShift! I was content to be a High School Special Education teacher for my entire life (I love teaching students at my school!).  After TeachShift! I envision myself as Dr. Mary Howard 2.0.

Before TeachShift!, my laptop, Schoology, e-mail, and texting were all the technology that I needed.   After TeachShift! I see the value of social media as an educational tool and I am connected!   Twitter and Blogging were alien to me, due to my fear and distrust of the dangers of social media.  My Facebook friends are often neglected because I viewed social media as a drain of my resources – time, intellect, life in the real world.   Tricia Ebarvia and Brian Kelly showed me through research and pedagogy the power and necessity of using social media as an educator.  Twitter is now my life blood, fueling my life as a professional with practical ideas, a space for connecting with other educators, and a method for contributing to the field of education.  I am still getting the hang of blogging, is purpose and role in my professional life.  However, blogging is becoming my voice.  It is a digital space for thinking through new ideas and developing my philosophical approach to teaching and the development of written expression.  Before TeachShift!, I was a blackboard, old school pragmatic teacher.  After TeachShift!, I am online, in the bloggisphere, in the flow of ideas connected as a teacher/student/collaborator.

My TeachShift! is to continue evolve and develop new strategies and ways of connecting with students in an effort to lead them on the path of self-improvement and life-long learning.

 

Out of the Struggle Comes…

Have you ever experienced cognitive dissonance, when what you believed did not match with reality in an unsettling way?  What did you choose to do in that situation?  Did you embrace the new idea, the new normal excited to explore the new world of possibilities?  Or, did you feel your heart begin to crumble and your mind clenched tighter to the comfort of what you knew to be true?

It has always been my philosophy in life and as a teacher that mistakes and failures are opportunities for growth and future success.  So, it is with chagrin that I was faced with the knowledge that I may have completely misunderstood the design of the culminating project for my class.  As a struggled with doubt, fear, and frustration, my group members patiently asked me to explain my project.  They took the time to give me honest feedback and demonstrated to me the design of the project.  Through their guidance, I was able to see that I was on the right track.

What happened is typical of many students.  I focused on the end product and trying to reach my goal, instead of focusing on the process.  The activity was designed to cause the learner to question, dig deeper, revise their thinking and continue to explore the concept.  I was still in the inquiry stage of the project.   Because I was focused on the end product, I was unprepared to experience the cognitive dissonance that inquiry based research creates.  Today’s session of TeachShift! forced me to struggle and tackle issues that were more complex than I had assumed, so that I would question and research further to find a better solution to the problem that I was trying to solve with this project.

In the future, when I experience the gut wrenching moment when I realize my strongly held beliefs are wrong, I will take a deep breath, seek the guidance of my colleagues and dig deeper into research related to the issue at hand.

Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do. – Pele

The Twenty Book Challenge — Lonsdale ELA

In Shift This!, Joy Kirr explains some of the shifts teachers can make when it comes to independent reading. Kirr states, “It’s time to let the self-reflections and assessments be just that. Do not attach a grade to this reading or sharing. Do real readers give themselves grades? Instead of a grade, challenge your students […]

via The Twenty Book Challenge — Lonsdale ELA

To the Moon … (My Teaching Philosophy)

Learning is standing upon the shoulders of giants in order to reach the moon.  It is the recycling of ideas.  We generalize and analyze, until we can upcycle concepts then generate new ideas.  Teachers provide scaffolds and mentor texts, accommodating student needs, helping students to climb further up the chain of human knowledge, until our students synthesize concepts, combining theories into works of human art, designing a lunar space elevator.  Teachers inspire, mentor, and encourage their students, during their climb towards self-actualization in the hopes that they will recycle, upcycle, create works of art, and innovate – build wings and fly beyond the moon of our existence and into the stars of original thought.

Literacy serves as the entry point to history, science, art, math and religion, the pantheon of human knowledge.  Reading enables students to access knowledge.  Teachers help students to make meaning of and understand information.  Mentor texts are key in helping students to understand the how and why of the structure and organization of ideas, through modeling and analysis.  Written expression and speech (discussions and presentations) enable students to organize their ideas and develop their arguments, with the goal of greater understanding and the development of a global connection.

My role as a teacher is ever evolving.  I model and provided guided learning experiences.  I provide graphic organizers for student understanding and help students to outline their thoughts.  Each lesson incorporates class discussions to enable students to think out-loud, make connections to others ideas (students and experts) and develop civic discourse and social responsibility.  With more experience as a teacher, I am developing Socratic teaching methods and attempting to flip the classroom, reverting back to a child’s natural state of learning – students explore, make meaning of the world they see, and the teacher is a guide to showing students what lies below what they can observe with their eyes and limited spheres of knowledge and understanding.  As a teacher, I provide the tools, scaffolding, accommodations, and training necessary for intellectual and personal growth, with the aim of student self-actualization.

Photo Credit: The Space Academy.  Retrieved July 18, 2018.   http://www.thespaceacademy.org/2018/05/japanese-company-plans-to-build-space.html

 

“I Awoke”

“I Awoke”

Today, I awoke in a poetic mood from

dreams full of past goals unmet

dreams burned on the pyre of failure

to a morning full of anticipated possibilities

By Malia Gordon

This is my second day of my second week of the Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project (PAWLP).  I’m currently immersed in the Teach Shift! course.  I sit under the rainbow with an outstretched cup!

This is my Reflection from Day 1:  Describe five moments in your teaching life that are “indelible” moments, that make you who you are as a teacher,

Questioning the Value of Questioning as a Teacher

Two guiding principles had always guided by professional development – “Asking why is the way to wisdom.” – Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen (Shift This!  Pg. 15) and “No question is a bad question.”  Early in my career, I received the impression that the practice of questioning prohibited professionalism.  Rather I strove to embody professional independence and develop self-reliant, self-directed and self-determined professionalism.  Yet, this did not sit right with my understanding of the importance of inquiry and clarification in providing a foundation for application of and generalization of concepts.   In practice, I encouraged my students’ questions and embodied the philosophy that “No question is a stupid question”.  I modeled for students  that every moment, every question is an opportunity to learn.  As I made mistakes and asked them to help me to understand the their world, they developed the courage to be vulnerable as a I challenged them with the difficult work of self-improvement.  Over the years, I have held to the belief that questions are the seeds for understanding.  Asking for clarification solidifies knowledge.  Inquisitive habits develop students into life long learners.  In my professional life, I have learned to use questions with the precision of a doctor’s scalpel.

 

https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/questions.  Retrieved July 17, 2018.

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton