Our 10 Year Snow

Ah..living in the South. Snow once every ten years. Just enough that it isn't completely wiped out in our memories. Since being a teenager, I remember the snows of 1973,1979,1989, just a dusting in 2000, and then this past Friday night. That excitement never leaves us. I got up at 2 a.m. and opened the blinds so that I could watch it fall. My husband and I were up at 6 a.m., having our coffee and watching the snow fall. There were phone calls all morning to relatives and friends, "It's snowing! It's snowing!" By 3 p.m., it was all gone. Oh well, I'm good for a few more years.

What Came First?

What came first, the chicken or the egg? What came first, children actually being allowed to learn or Pacing Guides and Benchmarks? Education never ceases to amaze me. What happened to teaching a skill to mastery? Was it taking children too long to process information? I see it on a daily basis, especially in math. Introduce a new concept day one the last ten minutes of class, assign homework for that skill just introduced, spend maybe an hour on it the next day and test on day three. Especially for our children with learning problems, their little heads are spinning. When the test is given, it is a published test that covers the range of the skill, easy to most difficult, and maybe three kids pass the test. Yet, what do we do on day four? Go on to the next skill. It seems so ludicrous to me. It happens day in and day out. We aren't teaching. We are introducing skills and exposing our students to grade level standards. There is no time for processing the information and practice. Good Lord, forget about any review or spiraling to keep that skill in their minute memories. I have tactfully suggested this to a few teachers in the past. My answer has unanimously been, "We have to go with the Pacing Guide. Benchmark is next week." Benchmark often assesses skills that have not yet been taught. Everyone who works with the curriculum knows this. Yet, we continue to follow the Pacing Guide. I don't get it. This is how we will ensure every child will master grade level curriculum?

Recurring Thoughts on Sara Kajder

My initial attraction to Sara Kajder's book was the title, Bringing The Outside In. My career has been working with the reluctant reader in some capacity, be it diagnosis, teaching, or coordinating programs and services. I am not actually sure what digital storytelling is. i do not fully comprehend how visual read-alouds, images and logographic cues can lead us through a text. Being a well-educated, fluent reader, I keep asking myself, "If I were given a camera, and asked to take pictures of what reading looked like to me, what would the pictures be? Thin I look at my eleven and twelve year old struggling readers and wonder what their pictures would be.

The students Sara describes are a bit older and more technology savvy than my students. Yes, they have command of Power Point and know all the cool bells and whistles to make a presentation look good, but they lack the basic knowledge of the purpose of research, the process of research and the end result and benefits.

I recall as a child reading Mary Poppins. On a spring Sunday afternoon, I was in a rocking chair on the outside porch, reading the scene of the colored chalk drawings on the sidewalk. In the story, it began to rain and the pictures melted away. I suddenly realized that I must have been dreaming. I was at home. I was not on that sidewalk. Even with Dick, Jane, and Sally, I recall reading the words and being able to picture the story in my mind. My students do not seem to have that ability. They give me blank stares when I ask them questions about what they see in their mind's eye. When I write, I hear my inner voice speaking. They do not seem to have that inner voice. I wish that I could somehow share that with my kids.