May 4 blogging assignment

(Example)

“It’s opener there in the wide open air.”

Page 5, Dr. Seuss’ Oh the Places You’ll Go. 

In my mind I see a large open field where you can literally see bubbly molecules of air floating around. I feel like there may also be big tall grasses but they don’t itch your legs like regular grass. “It’s opener” makes me think that this is the largest open space known to the world; larger than any unexplored territories before. I imagine that we would dance there and breathe deeply, feeling refreshed to our deepest core. It is a place of perpetual beauty and rest. 

Professor Minerva McGonagall is a tremendous figure. She is the Head of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She is also a teacher of Transfiguration known famously for her tabby cat animagus. She is a no-nonsense teacher with a heart of gold. She is well respected by all of her colleagues and beloved by her pupils. She is a fierce defender of all the is good and a voice of reason in the midst of chaos. She is not afraid to roll up the sleeves of her green velvet robe and flick her wand in the protection of her children, most notably, Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger. She teaches with a combination of tradition and finesse and has the highest of expectations for all of her students.

In short, Professor McGonagall is all I would hope to be as a teacher. A combination of love and expectation,  providing the highest level of instruction for each of my students. Knowing each of my students and caring for them as individuals. Respecting the growing minds and hearts of the children and serving as their compass. Allowing the students to make mistakes in order to help them grow. These are all of the things I hope to be as an facilitator of learning. I may not have a wand or a fancy black hat and I certainly cannot turn myself into a silver cat, but I hope that when my students come to the room from time to time they have a bit of magical feeling in their hearts and minds. I may be strict, I may have high expectations but I hold my young humans in high esteem and wish for them all of the world’s best even when it may seem as our times become ever more turbulent.

Who do you relate to from your reading? Is there a character who stands out at you and provides you inspiration, comfort, or guidance? Tell me about it.

I love reading and I love the movies, so I get very excited when books are turned into movies. It is always interesting to me to see how the books and movies differ from one another. I often wonder what the original author must think of movie interpretations of their works. Currently, I am reading a book called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.  I chose to read this book because I have seen the trailers for the film and they look intriguing. I am a stickler for reading the book first.  Other book-movie combos that I have read-seen include The Help, The Harry Potter series of films, The Reader, Glory (non-fiction), Pride and Prejudice, The Babysitter’s Club, The Birds, The Firm, The Client, The DaVinci Code, and Angels and Demons. I am particularly excited about the upcoming film interpretation of The Hunger Games as I became engrossed in reading the trilogy this past fall.

The trick when reading then watching is to allow oneself to become immersed in the medium at hand and try not to analyze during the process. When one watches the film after the book, I find it really important to focus on the movie’s telling of the tale without comparison. Comparison can come later. This becomes particularly challenging when films are produced in a series such as Harry Potter. I had read the first four books of HP before the first film came out. I found myself making glorious images of the characters in my head and pronouncing the names in my own fashion (HERM-ee-Oh-Ne instead of Her-MY-oh-Nee). However, once the films were introduced the character images of my own design ceased to exist and as I read the final three books, I saw the images of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Gary Oldman, Ralph Fiennes, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, etc. instead. This is not entirely a bad thing, my desire to read the remaining books did not diminish but it made me curious as to the effect on young readers as they experience images before reading the books. When we see classical literature portrayed on-screen such as in Pride and Prejudice or The Scarlet Letter before we read the book have we robbed ourselves of the experience of making our own visualizations and allowing our own imaginations to take flight?

My suggestion for this predicament…read the book first! As educators and parents, we can take an active role in guiding our students and children to read widely and actively before watching the films. To respond to their writing through blogging, journaling, drawing, or conversation. The more you read, the more you know.

Putting a picture into a blog can add a visual image to help represent our ideas. Knowing how to find a good quality picture on the internet is really important! You might find inappropriate content by just doing a google search. When we look for a picture we should use sites like:

Source: http://www.zen67507.zen.co.uk/Page4/SthAmerica3.html

http://kidsclick.org/

http://quinturakids.com/

http://www.askkids.com/

http://www.tekmom.com/search/

http://www.pics4learning.com/

http://www.picsearch.com/

http://images.google.com/hosted/life

http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html

Source: healthypetnet.com

Here are the steps to inserting a picture into our blog.

1. Choose your picture from your search. Remember or write down the source.
2. Save it in Mrs. Talib’s Reading folder within the All4thGrade folder
3. Go to your blog post
4. click the “Image button” at the top.
5. click “from computer”, browse for the file you want
6. choose left/center/right for your picture
7. site the source in the “caption section
8. click “insert into post”

As teachers, we always want the very best from our students. We want them to learn and grow as readers and writers (as well as artists, math wizards, athletes, musicians, historians, and citizens) but we also need to create boundaries for them to make their own mistakes and realize them. When we have students blog it is very important for us as teachers to step back from the process at some point. We allow them to form their posts, edit them collaboratively, encourage the use of spell check, promote diverse word choice, and emphasize excellent grammar. However, there are times when our instruction may not be heeded and it is very important in that moment to allow the child to make the choice to publish or save as draft. If they publish a minor mistake or we don’t love every aspect of their content, we must refrain from editing their work. Their blogs are their own. They must take ownership of their work and we, confidently knowing we have done all we can to help shape their work, must allow them to take this ownership. This is not always the easiest task, to let our birds fly from the nest and occasionally make mistakes, but we will be better teachers, and they, better students for allowing them to do so.