School Dreams

Dreams have always fascinated me. I can remember sitting in a psych class in college and getting to that part of the textbook and being very disappointed that there really is no scientific explanation yet for dreams. I have a few that recur often-mostly, I can't find something: my car in a parking lot, a street if I'm driving, my classroom. The lost tooth dream used to plague me, but I haven't had that one for a long time. I do like to sometimes look up what they mean, but certainly don't believe it's an explanation for anything the way Freud did. I just think it's fun to think about.

Well, my back-to-school dreams have officially started. Have you had any yet?

I had one last week where my principal decided he was going to rename the school and asked the students to come up with the new names. It sounded like I was going to work for either McDonald's or Justin Beiber Elementary! :)

Last night (in my dream) the administration called and said they were going to hold one of our pre-service days at our house!!! I think that was probably my subconscious telling me it's time to clean. :)

The worst one I've ever had was when I was asked to administer a standardized test to Pre-K kids in a big auditorium. That was a nightmare-the parents wouldn't leave, the kids kept saying they couldn't read yet--not  fun.

I know most of us still have at least a few weeks of summer vacation yet, but any back-to-school anxieties creeping in?

Empowering Read-Alouds

I think, unfortunately, there are a lot of kids out there who don't feel very empowered. For whatever reason, they aren't happy with who they are, even when they are young. I know there are a lot of stories out there where the character comes to a realization that they are special-like Tacky or the Ugly Duckling-but I wanted to make a list of ones with kids as the main characters.

I think this is such a cute book (although you may have to endure some questions about the tooth fairy that there aren't really answers to :). The children of the tooth fairy family go out on their first mission to gather up a tooth. And do it all by themselves-well, with a little text help from Mom (these are tech-savvy fairies). I think it's a good story about kids being able to do whatever they set their minds to.

I know this is a book you have probably already heard of, but just in case, I adore this story! Molly is not the most attractive child, she is fumble-fingered and sings like a frog, but still stands tall and is rewarded for her confidence. A real feel-good story about liking who you are no matter what others think.

The actress Julianne Moore wrote this book about growing up as the small percentage of people with red hair and freckles. Others (like especially her brother) may make fun, but she learns unique can be a good thing and it has a happy ending.

OK, so now that I think about it, this book doesn't really have kids in it, but I do think it's unique. Written by Maya Angelou and illustrated with Basquiat paintings (if I remember correctly there is one page that I usually skip over because I think it could be a little inappropriate for the little ones). But the text is just phenomenal-about how life can deal you some obstacles-but she's not scared, she knows it will all be ok.

The character is told she can't play Peter Pan in the school play and boy, she shows them that is certainly not the case!

This one is a little long for the little ones, but I think a great example of how not being able to read right away doesn't mean you aren't going to be a success. Polacco herself struggled in school and luckily had a teacher just like Mr. Falker; and because of that became the famous author she is today. An example to kids that everyone doesn't learn the same way. It breaks my heart when I test kids on their sight words or fluency and just can't do it-they just seem so defeated. You can overcome that-the skills will be learned, it just may take time.

Just a cute, funny, perfectly empowering story about liking who you are, even if that's different from others.

Higher Level Questions for Back to School Reads

I know the first week of school you're just trying to get through the day and not lose anybody. My dad is into the stock market and I tell him he should stock up on whoever makes aspirin and hair color in August/September-lots of headaches and extra gray hairs! :)

I do try to start laying the foundation though, for what I am going to expect from them throughout the year and that is higher-level thinking. Will they get it the first week? In many cases no, often they haven't been asked to think like that before. But I want to start getting into that routine anyway. These are a few stories that I use the first week of school and some higher level questions that might help them start thinking more deeply.

I love this book! It's about a little boy telling the farm animals he's going to Kindergarten and they hypothesize about what that is because they haven't heard of it before.

1) What other things that the boy does daily do you think confuse the animals?

2) How was the boy's 1st day of Kinder like yours? Different?

3) If you were the boy, how would you explain what Kindergarten was?

4) Do you think he did a good job of explaining to the animals?

5) When the boy goes to 1st Grade, will the animals be confused again?

6) How would the story have been different if the boy was just going to the store?

Classic, I know.

1) Why do you think Victoria made fun of Chrysanthemum's name?

2) How did the parents make her feel better? What do your parents do for you when you are sad?

3) How would you handle it if someone was making fun of your name?

4) How do you think parents decide what to name their child?

5) Was Chrysanthemum right in the way she responded to Victoria?

6) What would you do if you heard someone making fun of another kid's name?

7) Create a new ending for the story.

8) If the main character's name was "Jane", how would the details of the story have changed?

9) Were there any patterns in the story?

10) How did Chrysanthemum change over the course of the story? Will she still like her name as she grows up? What do you think she'll name her child?

A story about a little mouse with a speech impediment who was unfortunately was named Rodney Rat.

1) Why do you think Camilla Copybara was so mean?

2) How is Rodney like Chrysanthemum?

3) What other things could Rodney have done because Camilla was a bully?

4) How would you treat a friend like Rodney?

5) How would the story have been different if Rodney didn't have a speech impediment? What details would have changed?

1) What would Miss Nelson have done if she didn't have a sister to help her?

2) How would you react if your teacher was Viola Swamp?

3) Was it right that Miss Nelson tricked her students? Why?

4) What details would have changed if Viola Swamp had been nice?

5) Why do you think the students wouldn't listen to Miss Nelson in the first place?

6) How would you feel if you were Viola Swamp?

7) How would the story have been different if Miss Nelson was a mean teacher?

Since we introduce so many rules the 1st week, a way to explain why they are important, and a great book about teamwork as well.

1) How did Officer's Buckle's rules compare to the rules in our class? Are any the same?

2) Would the story have been different if Gloria was a cat?

3) What would the world be like if we didn't have any rules?

4) When have you worked with someone else and made a good team? What helped make it a good team?

5) Was it right for Gloria to act out the parts without Officer Buckle knowing about it?

6) How did the speeches change over time, how will his new speeches look?

Inspiration Struck Sunday

It feels like it's been much longer than a week! The summer school I'm teaching is only 4 days Mon-Thurs but it's 8 1/2 hours straight through-no break, not even for lunch. So they turn into massively loooonnngggg days! Luckily this week is only 2 days.

I saw this comic-it's so GT. I can't tell you how many kids I've seen who can spell chlorophyll at 6 years old and can't tie their shoelaces!

Great argument against standardizing education.

Some ideas from Pinterest to add to my list for planning next year:

E-mail a character from the story-the kids would just love that! They could text them as well-many of my parents say they can tell when their child is actually starting to learn how to read because they start reading the parents' texts! :)

from:    http://eisforexplore.blogspot.com/2012/02/worm-hotel.html

I'm always hesitant to "cage" living things-but these "hotels" look like a great place for a worm to live.

Terrarium made from the case cd's come in. I don't know about parents, but I know I have a few of these empty containers lying around my office right now! :)

from :  http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/index.php great list of easy experiments to do. Need to do more interactive activities for science this year! 

Speaking Of Multiple Intelligences.....

I can't wait to use this new discovery with my kiddos:

It profiles famous people and the learning style they fall under. I think it will be a great way to introduce the concept and learn a little bit about historical figures as well.

I'm still working on the survey I'm going to give them in the beginning of the year to see what category/categories they will fit into-but that's definitely something I'm going to pay more attention to this year both for planning and grouping purposes.

Reading Web Resources for Students

I'm teaching summer school this month and using some of these even whole group with my kiddos. I like that they are reading the story and showing the text along with it-great for that sound/word connection. These are also links I add to the class website for kids to use for practice at home. Are you familiar with these?

1) Tumblebooks is a good one. They have a paid membership, but many libraries are nice enough to have it on their websites for free. I use Atlantic City Public Library-but if you Google it various libraries come up.

Tumblebooks-Atlantic City Public Library

My kids love Big Chicken, 50 Below and Princess Justina Albertina.


2) Story Place

This one has fairy tale stories told with a twist. My kids love Dinosaurs Rock. I encourage them to even watch the ones for "Preschool" because they are just like their decodable texts in the repitition of words.

3) http://pbskids.org/electriccompany/

Not the Electric Company when we were young :) but they do still say "Hey, you guys!". Lots of cute animations for reading strategies. *warning* Silent "e" is a Ninja will stay in your head forever!!! :)

TED Talks

Not the Marky Mark's talking bear movie :). I know that most teachers have seen the videos here on TED I love to play them and just listen while I work on the computer.

It's a little long, Sir Kenneth Robinson's on creativity is one of my favorites-because it's funny and thoughtful at the same time:



And this one on what adults can learn from children:



An incredible tutoring project:



An African teen who built a windmill from spare parts:



But I also use them sometimes with my kids. Einstein the Parrot is one of their favorites-I can't imagine how long it took to train her to do that:




A great talk on following your interests and how amazing discoveries are still being made in the ocean, who knew an octopus has a sense of humor:



Who knew there were bats with long tongues-amazing ways technology has changed film making: