Video guide project

Tina and I met on Tuesday night to complete our video guide. We got finished with the whole thing within about 4 hours. I went to her house which is not far from mine, thank goodness, and we just worked until we got it all done! I'm glad we didn't wait till last minute to work on it. I had mentioned to her about working on it tonight since we both have presented our stuff for Dr. Cat, but I could she wanted to get it done early, which I'm glad about now. It is too pretty of a day to be stressing over school work! I'm getting spring and summer and no school fever really bad! I'm ready for a break. I think I'm going to enjoy taking classes in the summer and not having to worry about work. I will have plenty of things around the house to take care of like gardening! We just planted a bunch of stuff this afternoon. It's hard work, but it sure does taste good! Next Tuesday will probably be my last reflection. This class has really been enjoyable. I wish I was taking Dr. Nita again this summer. Hopefully I'll have her in the fall again!

Last few assignments

Well right now I'm working on finishing up my last literature circles for Chapter 12. My group did a non fiction science jungle book from the Eyewitness collection books. Then for chapter 12 we are doing What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? I'm going to read it tomorrow and start a chat for it. I fee like I have to chat first because if someone does it first then I may not know what to say or I feel like I may copy what someone else is saying.

I'm meeting Tina tomorrow to work on our video guide. Hopefully it won't take that long and we can knock it out this weekend.

I have class online Thursday for Dr. Cat b/c we didn't get everything presented before Spring break. I've done all of my stuff, so I will probably work on my video guide! Why not multi-task!

One project that we were suppose to do in Dr. Nita's class is our literature circles with the Australian kids. I think it really upset and frustrated Dr. Nita because we all took the time to read our books and the students and teachers had technology problems. I feel sortive relieved to not have to do another assignment, but it would have been interesting to connect with these young students in another country!

I'll probably make one final blog next week after class is finished. I can't believe we're at the end!! It is so near I can just taste it!! :)

Reflections on learning theories

I'm trying to remember all the info on the behavior theories. Looking back in my notes I think that my unit plan is closely related to behaviorism. I remember that someone in my group said that behaviorism is used in the classroom and with the 7 point lesson plan format. I also think it's about constructivism approach as well. The person that was in my group for this one said it is about action learning. The unit program that I did with the public library contains many crafts that relate to whatever the students are learning about for that week. The craft part is more on the constructivism side. The lesson part/ behaviorist part is the lesson it self and discussing and reading about what the topic is for that week. I had to research cognitivism and that is basically how information is processed. I'm sure the students are using this approach as well because each student processes the information that they are learning a little different. Some learn better with the listening and reading approach and some learn better with hands on crafts approach.

Online class

Last Tuesday we had to have class online because it snowed in Boone. Dr. Nita said she got 2 or 3 inches and it's the beginning of April! During the class we presented our books for chapter 8, poetry. Mine was Read-Aloud rhymes for the very young. It was basically a book that is filled with short rhymes to read to age 6 and below. All of the rhymes are about silly little things toddlers are familiar with such as kittens, puppies, bath time, bedtime, mommy and daddy.

We also presented our children's units. Everyone had some great ideas on this project. We want to collaborate them to have a children's unit book that contains everyones lessons. This project was kind of fun. I enjoyed working with the public librarian at Valdese Public library. My project was about the fall season for toddlers - 12 year olds. I had to find books and crafts for each of the age groups.

Our last project is making a teacher's guide for a video. Tina and I are going to do the Snowman by Raymond Briggs. I'll post more about this later!

Last class

Last class we shared our book choices from chapter 10. I enjoyed hearing everyones books on hsitorical fiction. I enjoyed this section. Others didn't enjoy it as much, but I like things that are from real life and that actually did happen.

After we shared our books we talked about the video project. I am pairing up with Tina on this one again! I think we're going to do the movie "The Snowman". I'll talk more on it later.

After that we had a case study to work on. We had to find a certain amount books for all the different genres that would be considered multi-cultural and would help break down barriers such as racism and opression. I believe my group finished with this in class. Thank goodness.

For homework we have to finish our Children's Units and get a book from the poetry chapter 8. I went by the library yesterday and found "Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very YOung" by Jim Trelease. I looks really cute. I'm not much on poetry though. So we'll see....

We're getting closer..

We're getting closer towards the end of the semester and I'm so in need of a break! I have really enjoyed this class though. I really love getting a chance to read fun and enjoyable fiction books! I usually take my time when I'm reading, but not I'm having to do speed reading. I finished my individual book the other day, Under the Blood-Red Sun. I came home early from school sick, so I just layed on the couch and read my book. It was very relaxing. I really enjoyed this book. I didn't realize how the Japanese that were already living in Pearl Harbor were accused of being spies for Japan. This book is told from a young Japanese-American boy's point of view.

On Thursday I met with the public librarian at Valdese Library. She gave me an insight on how to do a children's program. I am going to do my program on the season of Fall. For four weeks students will learn about different things that deal with the season of Fall, such as, Leaves, pumpkins, apples, and scarecrows. I am going to do my write-up lesson on leaves for 3-5 year olds. I could really get in depth with this and I am a little unsure of how broad I should get. I have most of it finished. I am glad I went with the public library on this project so I could see how they do their story time programs.

P.S. My mother-in-law found my dog Cocoa this past Thursday too!! Now if I could get over this stinkin cold and start to feel better. Also I found out today that a dear lady from my home church died last night. This funeral is going to be a hard one...

catching up

Well since we had our last class it's been really hectic. I lost my dog last Wednesday. I think someone stole her right out of my yard. So I've been a little down and out. I'm not ready to get a new one yet, but I know I want one. Her name is Cocoa.

Anyways, back to school things. I read my group book this weekend, Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry. It was a really good book about the Nazi German Soldiers. I've actually talked to a couple of people on some of the things that I learned from reading the book.

I've also started my individual book. It's called Under the Blood Red Sun. It's set in Hawaii, 1941, during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I'm about half way through it. Pretty good so far.

I'm still unsure of what to do for the Australian literature circle. I've noticed the teacher on the zone, but I don't know what to do. Oh well.

I'm so in need of a break..

Tuesday's class

Last class we shared our books on either chapter 7 or chapter 9. I did the book Shiloh from Realistic Fiction, chapter 9. The class was about half and half for each chapter.

Then we broke up into our groups for the learning theories and discussed what we learned from our own research. After that we got into groups where we had one person that represented each learning theory. Then we had to share and teach each other what we know about that learning theory. The learning theories are behaviorism, constructivism, and cognitivism. I had to research cognitivism. A lot of the things that we talked about I had learning in my behavior managment classes and psychology classes in my undergraduate classes.

Our next project is to meet with a teacher or public librarian to make a thematic unit/ or children's program. The thematic unit has to be something that the teacher may or may not have to time to teach, so the media coordinator could use their library time to do the lessons. For a children's program we have to do a program that relates to children...plan any speakers that will be a part of the program, advertisement and so on. I'm not sure which one I want to do. Public library kind of interests me b/c I haven't done anything from it yet and I'm doing the dual track for my degree.

One last note....I'm sad today, b/c I can't find my dog. Her name is Cocoa and she's a chocolate lab. :( :( :(

Chapter 9 Readings and Cognitivism

My group read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. That book was hilarious! I was actually laughing out loud through it. I posted on the DB to my group how it reminded me of a family of 7 rowdy boys that my husband and I went to school with. I would love to actually do this story as a Christmas play at my church. Sometimes we take for granted how important the Christmas story is, and we forget that some people and children have never heard of Jesus.

My individual book that I am reading Shiloh. It's about a boy that tries to save an abused Beagle from an old man. I'm about half-way through it. These types of books are made to make children interested in reading. This book is for children mostly in the 4th or 5th grade level.

I read up on some Cognitivism today. I remember learning about this stuff in college in my psychology classes. One of the psychologists that played a large role in Cognitivism was Piaget. He studied and researched the 4 stages of development.

We have class on Tuesday, March 17th. I will post more after class!

Still Reading Great Books

Okay, so I've done a lot of fun reading so far. I kind of start forgetting about everything else that I need to stay on top of too. I finished "The Root Cellar". Jerri and I are going to share it tonight without Noel, b/c she just lost her dad last Friday. We can fill her through the discussion boards. That's the least we could do for her. I've also read my individual book call "Dust". It was kind of weird, but I still read it in a day. It kept me wanting to read more. Another book that I've finished reading is "Boy". We are reading this book to do our discussions with the Australian all boy school.

I'm going to do my wiki for my individual book tonight too. This has been a busy week. We've had revival all week.

I have also printed a few things about Cognitivism, but I haven't read a lot about it yet. I'm not sure if I'm going to be too interested in that reading. We'll see.... At least it's a group effort on all of it!

What a night

Well tonight I was suppose to have class online with everyone and we were meeting with Dr. Veltze. I got held up in Hickory and I made it as everything ended. Dr. Nita is suppose to post the video link, but I feel horrible for missing the class.

I have been doing a lot of reading for my groups choice on Chapter 7. Modern Fantasy. The book is actually pretty good, and it's been hard to put it down. It's about a girl that is able to go back in time during the Civil War through an old root cellar. I haven't checked on my individual choice yet, hopeuflly it will be at the library.

Our last class was really fun. We all presented our International presentations and had our supper with the different types of food. We presented our book sharings...I actually typed mine up, b/c I figured I would forget ot say something..And of course I did forget to say some stuff. Story of my life... Anyways, back to more reading. Stress, stress, stress.... And this is only the second semester into this!

Ready for class!

Well I'm ready for class tonight. We get to finally do our International Fair. My group is doing ours on Bolivia and ASU's Sister Library Project. I will blog about that later! Sunday night my literature circle met to talk about our last book, called "Light". Noel was the only one that had her book, so we met in a chat room and she read the book to us. I actually received my book in the mail today, the day it's all due! She talked about how beautiful the illustrations were in this book and she was right. The book is about the first few days when God made the earth. The story is told from the illustrator's daughter, because he wanted it be more of a child's perspective and easier to understand for children. The illustrations are made from acrylic paint on watercolor paper. It looks like the paint was applied very heavily.
I also was able to get my individual books read and reviewed and posted to the wiki space. I think that was a neat way of reviewing books. Now we can just look under our chapter and read the review that someone else has put on that book. I am really starting to enjoy this class. I love all of the fictional children's book reading that we are having to do! Now tonight I have to present one of the book that I chose for my individual readings. My choices are Noah's Ark, by Jerry Pinkney(great book), The case of the Fidgety Fox, by Cynthia Rylant (silly book), and Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, by Eleanor Coerr (emotional book). I chose to present the Paper crane book. I actually cried in this book. It was very touching. More to come later....

Chapters 4-6

Tonight I met with my group to discuss our books that we chose for chapters 4-6 in the textbook. We were only able to discuss two of our chosen books. We all had order one of them. We chose Cat in the Hat, By Dr. Seuss, A River Ran Wild, by Lynn Cherry and Light..I'm not sure of the author. I was chosen to get the ball running with our discussion on cat in the hat. I began with mentioning the rhythm of the book and how it gets stuck in your head. I said that it's a great tool for kids to learn how to read. We talked about the rhyming words and the minimal color and pictures on the pages help students to focus. Veronica brought up some neat things about the characters..like who did the fish represent. The fish didn't have a big role, but was an important authority figure in the book. We talked about kids imagination and how they lose that as they get older.
The next book was A River Ran Wild. We talked about how important and amazing it was that one person went to such great efforts to help clean up the Nashua River. We talked about how many people abuse the land we live on and do not take care of it.
We did get a little side tracked, and started talking about our own lives, like how my family and I can food. And I learned where Veronica is from and Noel's granny has cows. But we ended the session by saying the book made us think and reflect on our lives. We thought it would be neat to time travel. We had a good session.

Trying to stay on top of things!

It seems like my head is starting to spin with everything is due! Last night we had class in the AET zone b/c of the wonderful snow!! I was looking forward to the International Fair, but it was nice to sit at home in my PJ's while we had class on the Internet. We are planning to the Fair on te 17th. Last night we talked about Literature Circles. It reminded of what would go on in a book club. Basically we're picking books to read in different sections that we signed up for and discuss the books in the discussion board with our groups for that week. We also have to chose some books independently to read and give a 5 min. presentation to the class on the 17th. We did a practice round of the Lit. Circle. I got kind of confused at first and didn't understand the instructions...go figure. I didn't like having a time limit to type our thoughts and questions in the DB about the book we read. But of course we won't have time limits when we're doing this for real! Sometimes we'll meet F2F, or in chit chats, or on the discussion board. I'm excited about reading all of the differnt genres of books!!

Class has started full force!

That's right, full force! This weekend I have been working on my chapter readings and a power point presentation for the international fair. I didn't have power point, but I found a new program that allows me to make power points. My group for the international fair is PJ, Tina, and Crystal. Crystal is making the rubric and making a dessert, PJ is finding some info on Bolivian culture, Tina found the recipes and is making our main course, and I am doing the visual which is the power point. We chose ASU sister libray project. I have about 8 slides made so far with information about how it started and why it started. We were all a little confused about the project at first, but it's coming together now. The frustrating part of it all is, that the group has not met to chat on the zone and some don't check their emails enough to get updated on questions that others have!! It has been interesting to read about this project and to see how ASU has helped a worthy cause.