August 27, 2011

Oh my gosh!  I just saw the most wonderful movie. Have you seen the  "The Help" yet?  I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more, and I cried some more. What a roller coaster of emotions.  I have the e-book on reserve from the library--which I can't wait to read! If you get the chance I would urge you to see it.

Why Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?

The Answer to the Question:

"Why Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?"

Let's figure it out -- mathematically!

Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week;

Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!

Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.

Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 mins./week

Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes

Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.

Student A reads 400 minutes a month.

Student B reads 80 minutes a month.

Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year

Student A reads 3600 min. in a school year.

Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.

Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.

Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

By the end of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits,

Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days

Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days.

One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly,

will school performance.

How do you think Student B will feel about him-herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:

Which student would you expect to read better?

Which student would you expect to know more?

Which student would you expect to write better?

Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?

Which student would you expect to be more successful in school....and in life?

Why Read 30 Minutes a Day?

If daily reading begins in infancy, by the time the child is five years old, he or she has been fed

roughly 900 hours of brain food!

Reduce that experience to just 30 minutes a week and the child's hungry mind loses 770 hours of

nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and stories.

A kindergarten student who has not been read aloud to could enter school with less than 60 hours of

literacy nutrition. No teacher, no matter how talented, can make up for those lost hours of mental

nourishment.

Therefore...

30 minutes daily: 900 hours

30 minutes weekly: 130 hours

Less than 30 minutes weekly: 60 hours

[Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, America Reads Challenge. (1999) "Start

Early, Finish Strong: How to Help Every Child Become a Reader." Washington, D.C.]

August 9, 2011 "Gotta Keep Reading" video

One of my favorite videos!

August 9, 2011 Nemo's First Day of School video

Just had to include this one. Don't we all wish kids came to school each day with the enthusiasm of Nemo, and parents weren't as nervous and worried as Nemo's dad, Marlin. :0)

August 9, 2011 "The Heart of a Teacher" video

Wow--this video about made me cry. We play such an important role in the life of a child.  Hope you enjoy this one.

August 9, 2011 "The Teacher Song" video

Here is another YouTube video that kind of shows what teaching CAN be like at times.  While we all love teaching, there are those moments/days/weeks.......it made me laugh. :0)

August 9, 2011 "You Have Made a Difference" video

I came across this YouTube video of a song called "You Have Made a Difference". It is why we all went into teaching. :0)

August 9, 2011

Can you believe we are almost ready to start back to school?   School begins this Thursday with students starting next Tuesday. It has been a couple of busy weeks! I have been working both at school, trying to get my classroom ready and have been bringing things home to work on too.  And, of course, the summer was filled with looking for new and improved ideas found online, through educator websites or blogs--I think I am now addicted to the darn things! LOL  What a wonderful way to share information with parents and fellow teachers!

We have a new library checkout program that allows books to be scanned.  I think this will be a terrific way to modernize everything, but we will be having to train teachers.  Those of us who are building techs had some training Monday, August 8th.  Hopefully, it won't be too difficult for the classroom teachers to learn when we train them this Thursday afternoon.