Wordless Wednesday Week 11

What type of monument is this?

Sunday update: an explanation for this monument can be found here.

Still wondering what fwinke and binser meant? My explanation can be found HERE.

The New Place That Is Actually the Old Place....

Shine your shoes and brush your hair. I want you to look your best as you go visiting my new friend over at A Very Old Place. Documents, photos, oral histories, films, websites…need I say more!

This is the kind of site you stumble upon and the content makes you want to write a comment on each and every post. This is the kind of site you glean idea after idea from….where you constantly say, “How can I use that? And that? And that? And that?”

I can’t wait to see what this 20 year veteran of gifted education has to share with us next. Go on over and introduce yourself, and say I sent you over to say, “WOW!”

Art Critics? We Don't Need No Stinking Art Critics!

This American icon has been reproduced, reconfigured, and the scene reinacted numerous times since it first appeared in its original form at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution. This painting, The Spirit of ’76, is one of the most recognized images of the American Revolution; however, most art critics have held it in disdain since it first appeared. Apparently people decided they wouldn’t listen since more images were sold and passed along than the number of people who actually filed past it at the Exposition.

Archibald MacNeal Willard first named his work of art Yankee Doodle. Word has it that he was asked to change the name once the painting went on display in Philadelphia because the name was already taken by a deranged citizen as a nickname. Willard complied and opted for The Spirit of ’76.

Willard began his art career early on as a graffiti artist in his hometown. Later he fought for the North in the Civil War where he met up with J.F. Ryder, a famous photographer and entrepreneur who sold some of Willard’s work and encouraged him to paint something for the Centennial.

Willard worked on the painting over three years and we know that at least four versions exist. Apparently Williard improved on each copy as time went on. The U.S. State Department owns one of them. The final copy that went on display in Philadelphia depicted Willard’s father as the middle character while the smaller drummer boy was the son of General John Devereux.

Once the painting was done Ryder displayed it in the window of his studio. He knew the image would resonate with visitors to the Centennial when huge crowds gathered in front of his studio to see Willard’s work.

The Spirit of ’76 was displayed at Memorial Hall during the Philadelphia Exposition. Ryder sold chromolithographs of the image to promote the exhibit. More copies of the image were sold for months as the painting went on a national tour and visited several U.S. cities.

It just goes to show you that when something speaks to the American people it speaks loud and clear…..even the passage of time does not serve as a barrier.

I'm a Fwinke, and I Use a Binser!

I spend approxiately 20 minutes each day reading aloud to students. In the past I’ve read many different books. One year I read all of the Lemony Snicket books through volume 9. Another year I read many different Beverly Cleary books such as Henry and Ribsey. I’ve read aloud Homer Price, The Landry News, and numerous Patricia Polacco books.

During October and November I read Frindle aloud to students. If you aren’t aware Frindle involves a fifth grader named Nick who through a series of events ends up inventing a new word for an already exisiting object. Nick invents the word frindle to replace the word “pen”. The rest of the book follows the journey of frindle as it eventually becomes a working member of the English language and ends up in the dictionary.

Read alouds in my class are not moments of free time. Students are given a purpose for each daily reading session. I have a question for them to ponder as I read, I ask them to be ready with predictions, or I ask them to create illustrations as I read. For example, currently I’m reading The BFG by Roald Dahl. Today my students drew a phizzwizard (good dream) or a trogglehumper (bad dream) while I read a chapter that described other dreams.

So, back to Frindle…..after we read the book I have always asked students to come up with an invented word. Since a frindle is a make-believe invented word (at least I don’t think it’s in the dictionary yet…) I like to give students several real examples of invented words that have eventually found their way into our vocabularies.

The word quiz was one word I shared with students. This is courtesy of word origins.com. The story goes that in 1791 a Dublin theater owner named James Daly made a bet that he could introduce a word into the language within twenty-four hours. He then went out and hired a bunch of street urchins to write the word quiz, which was a nonsense word, on walls around the city of Dublin. Within a day, the word was common currency and had acquired a meaning--since no one knew what it meant, everyone thought it was some sort of test--and Daly had some extra cash in his pocket.

It's a fun story. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no evidence to support it and the term was in use prior to the alleged bet in 1791.

The first appearance of the word is from 1782 and means an odd person. This sense survives today in the word quizzical. It later aquired a meaning of to make fun of, or to mock. How it acquired its current meaning of a test is unknown, but that sense did not appear until 1867 and then it was in the United States.

The OED2 has a cite from 1847 where the word appears: "She com back and quiesed us," which could be a clue to its origin. Quiz as a test could be a corruption of the Latin Qui es, meaning "Who are you?" American Heritage says it may be from the English dialect verb quiset, meaning to question. In any case it is probably from the same root as question and inquisitive.

Students enjoyed the story behind the word quiz and were ready to try their hand at inventing a new word. We brainstormed a list of 10 words that are very common to a school campus such as teacher, paper, folder, pencil, textbook, etc. Students had to check dictionary.com to see if their word existed, and had to create a poster to tell others about their word. The poster had to have the new word, the word it replaced, an illustration of the new word, and the new word used in a sentence. Like this one:











Once we had all of the posters done students evaluated each one. They were looking for the invented word that was easy to say, that had eye appeal, and the word that they themselves could support by using it in their own vocabulary. In one classgroup students whittled their choice down to the word “binser” while my homeroom liked the word “fwinke” (it rhymes with twinkie).

Through a huge brainstorming session where students worked in small groups they determined strategies they would follow to get their words recognized by the public and encourage people to use them. The first thing students did was to make posters with the word only. Then they made smaller mini-posters and placed one in each staff member’s mail box. Everyone is wondering what is going on.

This week students have been making teaser announcements on homeroom television and next week small teams of students will go into different homerooms and present information about the words to every class. Articles will make an appearance in the school newspaper as well. We also plan to hook up with other fourth grade classrooms across the country and email them about our words. We want kids of all ages across the country to help us use these words.











It’s amazing what students will come up with when you allow them an open-ended activity. Eventually we will have a website for students to nominate their favorite fwinke….maybe even a “I love my fwinke” t-shirt.

So, what does fwinke and binser mean?

Well, a fwinke is a teacher, and a binser is a computer. What else could they mean?

Two Great Carnivals to Visit

The Georgia Carnival is finally up at Georgia On My Mind and the 47th History Carnival is ongoing at Progressive Historians.

Denied!!!! (in more ways than one...)

First of all Blogger denied me yesterday from posting to this site as well as Georgia On My Mind. I’m not sure what was going on….if you had problems let me know. I was really anxious because the Georgia Carnival was to be up today. I never could get posted. Everytime I attempted to click in the box to enter my log on information I received a “this page is unavailable” message. I tried to log on the new blogger as well as the old.

The snow and ice gods denied me as well yesterday.

It was a sad, sad day around my school campus as students and teachers arrived. Some Georgia counties were closed for ice and more than likely they will be closed again tomorrow. My county, however, had rain. Wet, wet, liquidy, non-ice forming RAIN!

How depressing. How utterly, utterly depressing. I really wish the weather guys would stop toying with us like that.

Well, ice season still has several more weeks. My hopes remain high.

Thursday Thirteen: Version 12

13 Reasons Why I Hope I Wake Up to ICE

1. A snow or ice day to a teacher is like winning the lottery---I’m desperate to feel like a winner.

2. It would be nice to get caught up with laundry.

3. Dear Hubby needs help with paperwork for the business he owns.

4. I would be able to get my grades online.

5. A room or two might get cleaned ( or not).

6. I could watch two episodes of Frasier back-to-back between 10 and 11 on the Lifetime channel.

7. A day without squabblers, whiners, and lollygaggers…….

8. The trees and ground looks absolutely “loverly” crusted over with ice.

9. Watching the Atlanta news crews making any sign of ice (even a crystal or two) into the most major story of the year.

10. Why wouldn’t I want a cozy day stuck inside when it’s so pretty and sparkly and white outside?

11.Extra time to work on writing projects…

12. Extra time to read something….anything other than student writing.

13. Time….just the simple gift of time.

Carnival Updates

The 104rd Education Carnival can be found here.

The Georgia Carnival will be up for reading pleasure this Friday over at Georgia On My Mind. Submissions are due Thursday by 6 p.m. They can be sent to gamind@mail.com.

Wordless Wednesday: Week 10

Hmmmmmm…….I wonder what these words mean? These posters have been showing up all over our campus.

Care to take a wild guess?

Last week’s Wordless Wednesday is here.

The explanation for last week is here.

The explanation for this Wordless Wednesday is here

Let Them Read a Book!

Recently I posted about Dr. King and a lesson involving a video from my classroom prior to his special day.

Elizabeth from More From Elizabeth was one of the commenters to my post. She stated she “learned about Dr. King by reading a book” and wanted to know “what happened to books.” She also commented that she “would have been insulted” if she had been shown an animated video past the first grade.

That was the main point of my post……Students had seen the same animated video year after year. I elected not to do that and showed students two video clips that consisted of reinactments as well as real footage from Dr. King’s life.

It’s taken me a few days to respond, but I wanted to let Elizabeth know that books are alive and well in my classroom. Georgia fourth graders are required to read at least one million words or twenty-five grade level appropriate books in one year. We require every fourth grader to have a media center book with them at all times. During their reading class students read in small groups with a teacher, they read independently, they listen to books, they read Accelerated Reader books and take computerized assessments that give students feedback on how well they are comprehending what they read. Students reread familiar books to each other to build fluency as well.

Yes, Elizabeth, reading is alive and well in my classroom. Before the holidays my homeroom was retested to check comprehension through Dibels and two other assessments our system requires. The results indicated that all but two students had moved up one entire level from their ranking at the beginning of the year. The other two had also made gains, but had not increased an entire level. I have students currently reading at the upper third grade level all the way though an eighth grade level.

I’m not surprised about our results with the amount of reading students complete during each school day. Besides the types of reading I mentioned above students are also reading their Social Studies and Science textbooks (though school administrators would rather choke to death than to let anyone know we really use them). My students read supplemental items I add to my Social Studies program to bring in extra content, read through power points I’ve made for each Social Studies lesson, the vocabulary presented through Social Studies and Science are very advanced, and I haven’t even touched on the reading of literature students complete in Language Arts.

We read. We read all day. Please understand that many of the students I teach have never left their small town. We have a major mall fifteen minutes away, but many of my students have never been inside it. Their families purchase everything they need from the local Walmart. Atlanta is twenty-five minutes away, but it could be a million miles away for some. Many of my students have never been to any of the Atlanta museums, have never been to Turner field to see a live Braves game, never been on a plane, and think the only shows that come on television are Jerry Springer and American Idol. Most of my students ask to take my books bought with my own money home because they don’t have books of their own. The only magazines many see are People or TV Guide. Many have never been on a vacation and those that have often don’t venture beyond choices like Dollywood, Gatlinburg, or Georgia’s idea of Mecca….Panama City Beach. Not that those places are bad….I’ve been to all three, but they are somewhat limited in broadening one’s idea of culture.

With the advent of testing heavy in the inferencing department many students need images. They aren’t required to simply recall or locate information. Students are now required to evaluate data and then make generalizations in order to arrive at an answer. In order to do this they need reference points to build prior knowledge. Sources like United Streaming are a God-send. Today’s youngster finds it difficult to imagine a classroom where their African American friends weren’t welcome. In classrooms where today’s students know their rights it seems very foreign to them that certain people were excluded from various aspects of society simply because of skin color. Short film clips that show footage of the riots, firehoses, sit-ins, and marches build images in the minds of students. These images serve as anchors that students grab onto as they manipulate new unfamilar material.

Yes, I could have read a cute read aloud to students about Dr. King and showed students the pictures. I could have gone out and bought a class set of a chapter book concerning the life and times of Dr. King and spent several days reading it and analyzing the events with students, but let’s think outside the box for a moment....

What if by showing the video clips I gave students a scaffold….knowledge they could stand on to get them to the next place? What if the next place was the media center where they were motivated to look for a book independently concerning Dr. King? What if Dr. King’s image was clearer in their mind as they read because they had seen the video images of Dr. King preaching, being interviewed on television, and making his “I Have a Dream” speech?

What if in the days following my video presentation every biography of Dr. King had been checked out of our media center by a fourth grader?

I don’t need to wonder…..that’s what happened.

Those Ironic Presidents!

When I’m not teaching history I have the distinct honor of teaching my young charges the joys of the English language. Irony is one of those literary elements that can give students a difficult time, so I try to give students as much practice as possible. I generally use certain tradebooks with small groups and ask students to look for examples of irony as they read through the text. I like to use factoid type books where students will remain interested in the text and the ironic examples are not explicitly written for students. They have to be inferred. In this way we are practicing with inference and irony. One book I like to use is Don't Know Much About The Presidents

Follow me over to American Presidents Blog where I clue you into to a few presidential ironies that can be inferred through the text of the Kenneth C. Davis wonderul book.

The Causes of the American Revolution

Last Thursday I recounted a pre-write strategy I used with students for an essay regarding the causes of the American Revolution. I asked, “Can you tell which of these brainstorm items are actual causes of the American Revolution and which items are reactions?”

If you guessed the causes were
*the French and Indian War and its effects
*taxes passed without representation and
*many of the colonies were ready for independence you were right.

Here are my thoughts:

1. Taxes…Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshend Acts, and the Intolerable Acts…They were one of the main causes of the Revolution. Colonists were upset that the taxes were being imposed by Parliament even though the colonist had no representation in the British lawmaking body.

2. Boston Massacre-reaction mainly due to an increased number of Redcoats in Boston. The Redcoats were there because of unrest caused by taxes.

3. George Washington-neither a reaction nor a cause. Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia requested Washington to visit a French fort in the Ohio River Valley and basically ask them to leave the area. They refused with gunfire and the French and Indian War was the result.

4. “No taxation without representation” ---this goes along number 1 above and translates to don’t pass tax laws unless colonists have some input.

5. French and Indian War-Yes, a war can cause a war. The colonies had had a rapid rise in population between 1730 and 1750. Many people were eyeing the Ohio River Valley as a place to settle, however, the French claimed it and began building forts in the area. The French never really settled the area in the same way the British colonies were settled, but had a profitably trade network with Native Americans.

6. Proclamation of 1763-After the French and Indian War the Native Americans weren’t too happy with the idea of having new British neighbors. They resisted any settlement. Pontiac’s Rebellion was one such uprising. King George III did not want to keep dealing with the Native American problem so he drew an imaginary line down the Appalachian Mountains. Colonist could settle on the eastern side of the mountains while the western side would be set aside for Native Americans. British colonists were livid. Why fight for something if they couldn’t live there?

7. Colonist ties to Britain were not that strong anymore. This was a cause. Colonies such as Massachusetts and Virginia had been around since the 1600s while the youngest colony, Georgia, was barely over forty years old in 1775. Colonists in the older colonies were a few generations away from their ancestor’s arrival. Generally, they had no ties to Britain. They were Americans. They argued they should make their own laws since each colony already had its own lawmaking body. This feeling gradually caught on in other colonies.

8. Parliament had a huge debt after the French and Indian War. This is a reaction or effect of the French and Indian War and is the reason why taxes were levied against the colonist. The debt was not only for the war in the colonies, but Britain also fought France in Europe during the same time period.

9. Colonist did not want war-----they wanted a peaceful solution. After Lexington and Concord and Bunker (Breed’s) Hill the Second Continental Congress sent King George a petition where they asked for a peaceful solution. It was called the Olive Branch petition. King George answered the petition by sending more Redcoats to the colonies.

10. Sons and Daughters of Liberty-The members of these groups formed in reaction to the tax laws in order to devise strategies to fight the tax laws. Over time there were groups in many of the colonies.

11. Boycotts, violence, and smuggling-These are all reactions to the tax laws

12. Boston Tea Party-a reaction to a tax on tea

13. Committees of Correspondence-groups that helped spread the word about what was going on in each colony

We worked through our brainstorm list on Friday and identified the three causes. We used a three column chart and went through the brainstorm list classifying each item under one of the causes. Students will use the three column chart to begin their body paragraphs soon. We also worked on an interesting way to hook our reader in the introduction. The assignment calls for students to use a question to introduce their papers.

Students will use most of our 90 minute Language Arts time to craft their body paragraphs tomorrow.

When Previous Students Come to Visit

I have several students each year that show up at my door sometimes after school and sometimes during school to say hello. I’m always pleased they take time from their busy middle and high school lives to walk to the end of the long hallway where my classroom sits to say hello. It always amazes me how much they have grown and how articulate many sound as they tell me about their classes, their current teachers, and their future plans.

This past week I received a nice email from the education teacher at the technical highschool. She was informing me that one of her education students had requested me for her internship and they would be arriving to discuss the program with me that very afternoon. I’ve had high school students before and have enjoyed the program very much. I think it’s fantastic that young people who plan to go into education receive opportunities to work in classrooms prior to college. The experience can give them the information they need about continuing with their education plans, or it can prompt them to look for another field of study.

My former student, Miss Hensley, arrived with her teacher and we had a quick meet and greet. It will be hard to refer to sweet Laura as Miss Hensley to the kids because she will always be sweet Laura to me. Miss Hensley will be in my classroom during the last two hours of the day when I have my homeroom for Language Arts. I could use an extra set of hands with the group, and by her second day she had picked up on that fact. She will be with me for the remainder of the year.

We’ve already had a nice time remembering many of the interesting things that happened the year she was in my class. She asked if I was still doing Shakespeare with students and I told her she could help me teach Hamlet and A Midsummer’s Night Dream this time instead of simply taking a part. She remembered we watched Hamlet with Mel Gibson after we had read a more simpler version of the play (no, students did not watch the scene where the relationship between Hamlet and his mother, Glenn Close, takes a strange turn). Miss Hensley also remembered she took on the role of Puck in Midsummer.

My students enjoyed locating Laura’s picture in the back of the classroom where I have each and every class group I’ve taught displayed on the wall. Miss Hensley enjoyed looking at the pictures as well. She informed me about some of the kids….who had dropped out, who played ball, etc. Miss Hensley told me she still had my letter. She was referring to the letter I give every student at the end of the year. I was pleased to know she had held onto my letter for the last seven years. I posted earlier about my end-of-the-letter here.

Miss Hensley’s arrival has created an interesting dynamic in my classroom…..the former student is now a teacher-in-training. I told her I would really love for her to journal her experience. Every student leaves a classroom with certain impressions of his or her teacher. Miss Hensley is returning to my room with those same impressions made when she was ten and eleven. Through the course of our time together as mentor and teacher-in-training she is going to discover that many of her impressions of me were wrong….some to the good and some to the bad. She seems hesitant about an extra assignment, but I think it would be a very interesting study.

Making Connections

One of the things I enjoy most about a study of history is how things connect. Can you believe the artist of this painting can be connected to a president, a cabinet member, and the dollar bill you might have in your pocket?

This week’s Wordless Wednesday, found here, is a painting by Nicholas Roerich, a Russian artist and mystic. You can see various Roerich paintings here.

Roerich was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929 and again in 1935 due to his efforts to create the Pax Cultura or “Red Cross” of art and culture. He was also involved with efforts to obtain signatures to the Roerich Pact in 1935 by members of the Pan-American Union. The Pax Cultura and the Roerich Pact were based on the idea that various institutions including museums, historic monuments, and scientific institutions should be protected during times of peace and war. They would be identified the Banner of Peace which bears the emblem of the Pax Cultura.

Roerich had spent years traveling through Tibet and Nepal searching for the lost city of Shambhala the home of the Ascended Masters. If you aren’t familiar with the Masters then it’s possible you know them by their other name…..Secret Chiefs. What about the Great White Brotherhood? Have you heard of them? Supposedly the Ascended Masters are behind the formation of groups such as the Freemasons, Rosicrucians, and the Theosophical Society. Later Roerich delivered the “Chintamani Stone” to Europe during the formation of the League of Nations stating he was acting on behalf of the Masters. The “Chintamani Stone” was thought to be part of a meterorite with magical properties. Apparently the stone is sent to locations where important events that could alter humanity will take place and then returned when the events are over. Sources state that the Chintamani Stone was returned to Tibet one the League failed.

To understand Roerich’s connection to American History we need to turn to Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace who became President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Vice-President from 1940-1944. Wallace and Roerich met up through the Theosophical Society, and for a time Wallace became very attached to Roerich. He even took to penning letters to Roerich that began, “Dear Guru”.

At this point the story becomes the darling of every Freemason conspiracy theory supporter across the United States. You see it was in 1934 while still serving as Agriculture Secretary that Wallace proposed a new coin that would include the obverse and reverse of the Great Seal of the United States. FDR liked the proposal but decided to place both sides of the Great Seal on the one dollar bill instead. They remain there today. Many conspiracy theorists believe it was due to Roerich’s influence that Wallace, a Freemason, approached FDR, who also happened to be a Freemason.

Today we are amazed at how dirty politics has become. It seems that every election turns into a slug fest titled “how can we get this guy?” It seems that this type of politics is nothing new….

During the 1940 election Republicans threatened to make Wallace’s letters to Roerich public. They relented, however, when the Democrats countered with threats of making Wendell Wilkie’s extra-marital affair public.

Wallace went on to be Vice President and ran for president in his own right during the election of 1948 as the nominee for the Progressive Party. By this time Wallace was no longer writing his guru, however, I wonder if Wallace had been elected would the “Chintamani Stone” been delivered to the White House?

Thursday 13: Version 11 Brainstorming the American Revolution

I’ve been attempting to integrate our social studies content into language arts over the last few days by asking students to write an essay regarding the causes of the American Revolution. I’m attempting to move my nine year olds into writing what you might remember as the five paragraph theme. They are very excited because most have never ventured beyond one or two paragraphs. We have gone over the A, B, C’s of essay writing which are:

(A) Analyze your topic----what is it you are supposed to write about and how? Decide if the writing should explain, discuss, state an opinion, or compare and contrast.

(B) Brainstorm----think and talk about the topic and accept all ideas (even the crazy ones)

(C) Choose the items that fit your topic and highlight them.

We analyzed our topic: Write a five paragraph essay regarding the causes of the American Revolution. Begin your essay with a question. Students looked back at the Georgia Standards for our unit and decided since the standard said they were to "discuss" and "explain" that would be the appropriate style of writing for this particular essay.

We brainstormed our topic. I was so proud of them. Every student contributed and they simply amazed me with the items they had retained. As someone suggested an item many were already analyzing the list decided that some of the things we were listing probably wouldn’t fit while others were reactions or effects. I reminded them we would organize our list later.

Here are 13 items from our brainstorm list concerning the causes of the American Revolution.

Can you determine which items are actual causes and which items are reactions or effects?

1. taxes, Acts, Stamp Act, Sugar Act, Townshend Act, Coercive/Intolerable Acts

2. Boston Massacre----snowballs, yelling, John Adams represented the British in court. Was it really a “massacre”?

3. George Washington----British soldier, asked the French to leave, Ft. Necessity, nearly died

4. “No taxation without representation”

5. French and Indian War----British colonists wanted to settle the Ohio River Valley

6. Proclamation of 1763---King George III set aside Ohio River Valley for Native Americans----colonists mad

7. Massachusetts/Virginia had had colonists for a long time….Georgia still a “baby” colony People who had had family here the longest didn’t feel tied to Britain anymore.

8. Parliament/Great Britain had huge debts after French and Indian War plus war in Europe

9. Colonists did not want war----letters asking to repeal taxes, Olive Branch Petition

10. Sons and Daughters of Liberty

11. boycott, violence, smuggling

12. Boston Tea Party

13. Committees of Correspondence

It was pure bliss to let students give this back to me on their own. I’m so proud of them.

Now….Can you tell me which items are the causes and which items are effects or reactions?

The Education Carnival: Go Join the Conversation

Go visit The Education Wonks for the latest education news and views across the known blogging world.

The upcoming presidential race, merit pay, and a never-ending stream of paperwork are just some of the topics.

Head on over and find out the answers to such questions as “Should student teachers be required to serve as substitute teachers before taking control of their own classroom?” and “What exactly goes on in one of those Special Education I.E.P. meetings?”

Go on over and join the conversation.

Wordless Week: Week 9

Yes, there is a history connection here......

There was no explanation for last week’s wordless, but here is the explanation for the wordless of the Queen Victoria painting here in case you missed it.

Interruptions: Do They Matter?

Lately I’ve been concerned about classroom interruptions and their impact on learning. I’m wondering if these interruptions are having any real bearing on the scores of “those” tests that are looming right around the corner. I try to stay as postive as I possibly can around here, but it seems that in my corner of the education world the interruptions are becoming more frequent in number and it’s becoming extremely frustrating….mainly because I have no control over many of these situations.

Here are just some of the interruptions regarding the teaching and learning time in my classroom over the last two days…..

*One chair flew across the room yesterday as I had the audacity to ask a young man to read. I know…..we all know the statistics that many of our behavior problems stem from children classified as special education. This young man is not under that umbrella. In fact, he is one of the brightest students I have and has so much potential. However, he is my biggest baby and usually gets his way by pouting, crying, and pulling his coat up over his head. Sometimes he takes to sitting in the middle of the room during a lesson thinking I’ll give in and let him go to the media center or any other assortment of places he wants to visit to avoid what is going on in the classroom. Luckily I’ve trained the students to ignore pouty boy and eventually he gives up and joins in, but it can still be distracting.

*Last Friday within one hour I had six students check out. I was teaching a crucial lesson regarding five paragraph essays. I had already put the lesson off two days because of other afternoon interruptions or a high number of folks missing-in-action due to absent students, in-school suspension, or any other assorted reasons. For a few minutes during class I was interrupted by the intercom every other sentence. Students were being called to check out, students were being called to the office for medication, to visit the counselor, or for other reasons.

*Then there are the small annoying interruptions. Assorted students knocking on my door dragging coats, hats, and mittens asking, “Does this belong to any of your kids?” I don’t send my students on these types of forays. If a coat if left in my room I have a student hang it on one the coat hooks. Believe me, the owner will track it down. They always do.

And there’s more…

*A student withdraws….I stop to fill out papers….chaos erupts

*A new student arrives….I stop to introduce myself to the parent….chaos erupts.

*A student on our team has had a behavior issue in another classroom and is being sent to in-school suspension. I have to stop to gather assignments for the student. Chaos erupts.

*Today, during group time in Language Arts things are going great….too great if you know what I mean. Students are on task and I’m able to meet with several to discuss their last test result and to set some goals with them. Suddenly my accelerated group bursts through the door announcing they have been sent back to the room (they meet with the gifted teacher on Tuesdays) early. Early? Forty-five minutes is not early. It is a disaster. Suddenly I had to plug them into different activities and everyone’s rythm was off.

*Beginning tomorrow my second period social studies class won’t be meeting for the remainder of the week. Students will be attending a three-day seminar in the media center…..yes, you read that right….three class periods. The topic is Good Touch-Bad Touch, and before you think it let me state right here I’m all for the topic. It is a valid counseling session for the kids, but three class periods in crunch time leading up to high-stakes testing? Couldn’t this be scheduled for August or even May? No offense to the staff members who are given the task to schedule these things....sometimes they are at the mercy of others, however, we are mid-point in our look at the American Revolution. The other history teacher and I must become very flexible in order to add in our history content into an already packed language arts time. Two classess are disrupted instead of one.

And finally, this one takes the cake……

*In the middle of a discussion about the Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill for us in the know) a student who is on the other team waltzed into my room with several bags of stuff without knocking. With no acknowledgement to me she made the rounds to several girls and giggled and carried on as she presented each little friend with a going-away gift. No…my students weren’t going away. The girl who interrupted my lesson had supposedly already gone away. She had withdrawn from our school three days before. She made the same rounds to each fourth grade room and interrupted each lesson in the same way. When I inquired with the office about her “visit” I was told she did have permission to come down to our hallway, but the person who allowed her to come did not realize she was bringing gifts to students. They thought she was just going to her homeroom teacher. Gee…….weren’t the twelve gift bags in her arms a clue?! Of course, my lesson was over. All the kids could think about was what was in the bags.

So, what kinds of interruptions are you experiencing? Do you think they have a negative effect on learning? Do you think they can have an impact on those all important test scores?

Out of Sight...Out of Mind

The new Blogger moved many of us out of our comfort zones and forced us to do some blogging things differently. I hate change. I love my comfort zone. I haven’t switched History Is Elementary over to the new blogger, yet. I did, however, set up Georgia On My Mind in the new Blogger and I have found it very easy to use. Hopefully the process for this site will begin in February. Take this as a heads up that some changes are underway…..I just hope I don’t loose things in the process.

As I’ve branched out a bit and taken a gander at homeschool blogs, mommie blogs, political blogs, and religious blogs I noticed many people had the collapsible blog rolls. I thought they were really “neat-o” (excuse me, while I reveal my 1970s mentality). I decided to take the time to cut and paste code and move each blogroll into a collapsible program. It took one entire afternoon. Previously I had spent another afternoon organizing my links into various groups.

Well, no offense to the particular folks who wrote the code which enables a blogroll to collapse…it’s a wonderful thing I’m sure for most people, but as my post title states-----out of sight…out of mind. Blog names that stare out at me as I check to see if something posted correctly prompt me to go and and visit.

It took a few weeks but slowly it dawned on me that I hadn’t visited several people in several days…not necessarily because I was too busy, but because I had lost my prompt. My long, long list of links served as a prompt. If I haven't visited you in awhile, I'm sorry. I'll be by sometime this week. Look for my long, long list of links to reappear shortly.

A Brand New Place to Go

History lovers, educators, and folks who like to travel should run right on over to The Educational Tour Marm, a brand new spot on the ‘net.

The Tour Marm has entertained readers for several weeks here at History Is Elementary by knowing scads and scads of information about each and every Wordless Wednesday I’ve posted. I’ve really had to work hard to figure out ways to challenge her. Now she will entertain us with her vast knowledge at her own site.

Currently she has an interesting post titled Figure It Out Friday. Can you relate the two pictures? She also links to my Internet Challenge regarding the lost Wyeth painting. Thanks Tour Marm for doing your part.

Hey, have YOU sent your email to five people yet asking them to forward it to five more?

Finally, she relates her humorous adventure in choosing a name for her site. It can be difficult these days with so many good names already chosen or highjacked. Recently I wanted to set up a spot just for me and my own private musings….you know….undercover. I had a few names in mind and began to check on them. They were all taken. When I checked further the majority of them had been chosen way back in 2004 or 2005, one entry had been made and then the writer had stopped. Come on Blogger…..if someone hasn’t posted in two years shut it down and put the blogname back into play.

But I digress…I’ll save my rantings for another day. Right now you have somewhere else to go, and I'm keeping you.

Now, comb your hair, wash your hands, and go on over and introduce yourself to the new marm in town!