Today we visited Charlotte Bradshaw's class to meet the children and begin to work on our family story writing projects.  I had a wonderful group of two students (one boy and one girl) who were excellent readers that I was very impressed with.  We took turns reading a book dealing with family titled Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown and with pictures by Scott Nash.  We were able to get through three chapters and discuss some things along the way.  For example, we discussed what the word parcel meant in context of the story (another word for a package in the mail).  Then, I worked with the children to begin a web so that they could brainstorm ideas for their family story.  That ended up being all of the time that was available.  I look forward to working with these children again next week. 

 

Put in Work Son

 

Ben 

 

The whole class period was spent with the students in Charlotte Bradshaw's classroom.  First, a few UNM students read their I Am From poems and Charlotte finished by reading her poem.  Next, we went over the six traits of writing and the rubric that the student's family stories will be graded on.  I have some great ideas for family stories that I had brainstormed at home.  Hopefully, I can come up with a few more ideas so that the writing process becomes much easier. 

 

Ben

Do work 

 

First, we visited Charlotte's classroom and began to discuss some of the family stories with our students.  The students I have been paired with (Valerie and Dyami) were hesitant at first and they both started by saying that they couldn't come up with any stories.  So after some prodding, I was able to pick their brains for a number of family stories from both of them.  We talked about similar family stories for the whole 40-50 minutes and I even added a number of my own stories (believe it or not).  I am excited to begin brainstorming for family story ideas and begin the writing process.  After that, the UNM students went back to the UNM classroom to discuss a number of things including the term reconceptualist.  I will be thinking about the term and my response towards the questions at hand.

 

Ben

Do work son

 

Today we met at Charlotte's class once again and begin to brainstorm about story ideas and start a rough draft of their stories (and ours).  We recieved a folder reserved for the students that will be used to hold the stories and brainstorm information for this writing process that all of us will be participating in.  My two students did an excellent job of brainstorming and beginning to write their stories.  I was very proud that they did so well (even though it had nothing to do with me).  After that, the class went over to Andrea Christina's to form our literature circles, read the book and discuss.  I am excited to continue the writing process with my students next week.

 

Ben 

 

Today, we continued the writing process with the students.  My two children were able to get quite a bit of writing on paper.  I was too, in fact I was able to finish a rough, rough draft of my story as did one of my students (the other is at least half way).  But, I did notice that my story and the students stories could use a great deal of improvement, especially when discussing the aspect of entertainment.  My students and myself need to "beef" our stories up quite a bit.  I will be working with the students dilligently to improve the stories and make them much more entertaining next class period.  After our work on the stories, the children left and we were given handouts on the six traits plus one writing format.  Then, we talked about four square and a number of ways to get a story base built up that will make the writing of the story much easier and the story better.  Plus, we were also given a number of other handouts that will be helpful in the writing process and improving our stories.  I am excited to continue the process and work with the students as a team to create awesome stories that we can be proud of and enjoy reading to our classmates. 

 

Ben

Put in Work Son

 

Today, Sandra and I worked with our students on stars and wishes for eachother's stories.  I was very impressed and proud of my students for the excellent job that they had done on their rough drafts with only a few hours of work on their stories.  I now know a better procedure for conducting a response group.  It would have been better for Sandra and myself to have read our stories first and given the students an example of how to do their stars and wishes based on the story read.  This would have helped our students to provide valuable stars and wishes for their classmates.  But, I have found that when I make a mistake I tend to learn a lot more and remember what to do far better than if I had done the procedure perfect to begin with. 

 

The student have just begun the writing process.  A lot of work still needs to be done in order to make the story entertaining and grammatically better.  But, because of the effort allready put in, the rest of the writing process will be that much easier for the students and myself.  I am excited to see what the stories will become by the end of this project. 

 

After the work in the classroom, our class headed over to IHOP to discuss chapters in the book and have a debriefing about what happened in the classroom.  We discussed the fact that there is more than one way to do an assignment correctly and that there shouldn't be any concern as to whether the assignment was done right as long as the student completed it to the best of their knowledge and worked hard.  If there is something wrong the teacher (boss, etc.) will let you know and life will continue. 

 

Ben,

Go Koogler Tigers!!!!!!!!!!!! Basin Champs 7-0 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

This is the first entry in a while because I haven't been to class in a while.  Today, we continued the writing process with our students.  My two are doing very well and they are both finished with their stories.  Now they have to draw a picture about their story and finish coloring it.  I am very proud of the work that they have produced.  I hope they are happy with their achievements as well.  We decided that the final draft of their stories (typed) will be turned in to Mrs. Bradshaw on Monday so that they can finish their pictures and color them.  Our stories have to be done by next thursday with a picture if you so choose.  The reading day for the stories will be November 26th at 6:00p.m. 

 

Other than that, we all discussed the Ricky Lee Allen presentation.  I came to the conclusion that Dr. Allen was challenging everyone to look at themselves (because that is the only person we have control over) and see if we need to change anything.  Racism is another form of hate and hate is never right in any situation (though it still does occur today).  Everyone should be treated equal.  Furthermore, the right way to solve the problem isn't to put others over someone else regardless of what has happened in the past.  The true way to solve the problem is to treat everyone fairly (every gets what everyone needs).  Then, and only then, can we truely create a society were everyone is treated as equals. 

 

Today, we finished the story including pictures with the kids.  I even had time to have both of the kids read their stories aloud for practice because they were so far along.  I am very proud of the effort that they put forth.  They did an excellent job and their stories turned out awesome.  We are down to the "nitty gritty" and we decided that the finals would be turned into today.  I will be turning mine in Monday so that I have a title page, the anthology page and the pictures in order for each paragraph and maybe even glued on. 

 

I combined my class reflection page and ethnographic page because I realized that I have been combining the reflections on class and the ethnographic reflections together.  I can't wait for the students to read their stories and be proud of the excellent job that they did. 

 

Today in class we discussed how the whole process has been for us.  I was happy for the process and I found out after spending time with the two students that we had a lot in common (now, not in school, I was the talkitive one then).  We discussed some of the process for the final story and we mentioned that everyone needs to bring four dollars on the 29th for Charlotte's surprise gifts.  Finally, we discussed two articles, Diversity Vs. White Privilege and What We Know Can't Hurt Them: White Teachers, Indian Children.  We will be including Critical Race Theory next week.  I was given the book The Color of Water as it is finally my turn to read for our last literature circle.  I am anxious to find out what I need to do as editor of the stories so that I can do my best to make an excellent finished product for the students (UNM students included). 

 

Ben,

Stuff Happens 

 

Today, as usual, class begin at Apache Elementary School.  For some reason I was under the impression that we wouldn't be meeting there and istead we would be holding the entire class period at Red Lobster, but I was wrong.  So, I finally made it over to Apache and discovered that the kids were reading their stories aloud in front of a group to get practice for their presentations in a few weeks.  I was proud of my student.  She did a great job but I need to remind her to read with a little more expression.  I didn't get to listen to my other student because he was participating in the other group.  Most of the problems came from students reading too quite, putting the book in front of their face or not reading with enough expression to convey the meaning and mood of the story.  Two of those problems can be fixed when they give their final presentations.  A microphone would project their voices and allow them to speak normal but still be heard.  Also, if their books are placed on a pedastal in front of them and the children are standing the book won't block their face.  This will allow for them to be heard easier as well because their faces won't be blocked and their voices will project.  Anyway, I am very proud of the excellent job that my students have done and I am completely ready for the semester to be over (I am burned out).

 

After the reading practice at Apache, we met at Red Lobster.  We began in our literature circles with our groups.  It was my turn to read.  I had trouble remembering what had happened so far because it had been a while since we had read the book.  Plus, this book was hard to follow because two different characters do the talking (the mom and the son).  But, as far as I can tell, the son is still writing when his mom is talking in her point of view.  So, it still sounds similar and thus makes it hard to distinguish.  The two characters parts are written in different fonts but I don't know which is which although we discussed which font we thought was which.  I noticed that our literature circles seemed to have deviated from the set model that we have but they still seem to be effective in generating meaningful conversation about the book.  The roles are set in stone when we discuss the book and almost everyone in the group seems to have a small part as discussion director as the conversation moves on.  As adults, conversation moves and flows naturally and a lot gets accomplished.  The roles are established so that everyone has an equal part when the groups are created consisting of grade school children.  This way the conversation flows and everyone has an equal share of something meaningful to add to the group and make the group more dynamic because of the different parts.  After the literature circles, we discussed some of the final details about the next few weeks left in the class.  I remembered the e-mail about the last few weeks (thanks Jean) and now I know exactly what is happening and the few things left that I have to do.  Furthermore, I was able to have a quick editors meeting with Frances to discuss what all needed to be done.  It didn't seem like to large of an undertaking and should flow rather quickly and smoothly. 

 

Ben

Whatever it takes!