Lighting the Way

http://www.quotes-inspirational.com/mary-anne-radmacher.php

I'm making plans for my 2nd make-up day next week....I'm trying my best to keep on top of things and meet the challenges in a positive light. I found that being around team MAGEC helps!! Thank you for making the gloomy days a little brighter!!

Go with the Flow.

"Plodding wins the race."

Today was a day to simply plod. My student had a stomachache and so I gave him options, with the exceptions of fables. I want to be introducing at least one new lesson each session. He chose fables first and did well, we did two together, and he discovered the moral of the last two on his own. We then moved to reading an edition of Shortcuts about motorcycles, he read that easily and we then had a race to see who could find the words first. After that we read several entries out of the Book of World Records and he journaled about the record that was most surprising to him. At the end we worked on sight vocabulary and had a brief vocabulary quiz. So, even though he wasn't reading poetry or the book about having a career in racing, I was happy with the change of pace, and I think that he also enjoyed doing some new activities.

Quotation Credit

://aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?sel&TheHareandtheTortoise2&&haretort.ram

Image Credit : http://scottkoon.net/files/tortoise_Hare1.jpg

"One Step at a Time"

"Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step." - Samuel Smiles

On the way here to our lab session, K.T. and I were listening to some music in the car. The song "One Step at a time" by Jordin Sparks was playing. There was once a time when I believed that there were signs everywhere. Little coincidental things that I perceived as a message. After hearing that song, I decided to look up the lyrics. The title itself is a saying that we remind ourselves daily..."One step at a time." There is definitely no need to rush in life. Any progress is good progress. What counts in our sessions is the effort that these students make. Even if K.T. concentrated on one particular story today as compared to the other sessions, the focus was mainly on spelling and building her word wall. If she strengthens her spelling skills, her writing skills will improve, which will therefore increase her reading fluency. At the end of the day, we have to give our students credit for their strengths.

Image courtesy of: http://lent2009.wordpress.com/

Laugh, and the whole world laughs with you

Photo of my goddaughter

"Nobody says you must laugh, but a sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, and smile through the day." --Ann Landers (http://thinkexist.com/search/searchquotation.asp?search=unexpected)

I was quite surprised when I called my student to let him know that I was on my way to pick him up and found that he had been mistakenly dropped or taken up to Dededo for his weekly Friday church service.  It will work out because now Mar and I will have a date next week.  In lieu of tutoring, I scouted through the Literacy Lab’s library to find books to use with my student in the future.  Additionally, I worked on my Case Study Report Addendum.  


Though next week is sure to be busier, I’m glad that I had an opportunity to pause, assess, and begin what else needs to be done for this course.  And it was nice to have some time to talk with Mar and Dr. R.  The laughs we shared (and Geri's never-ending stories) helped take my mind off of having to do an extra session next week--but then again it's always a barrel of laughs with Team MAGEC.

"Engaging's" the MAGEC Word!

Dr. Rivera brought up the word, engaging in our session today, and it reminded me of how this word is mirrored in all the courses that I've taken thus far. Teachers cannot just assume that learning is taking place by merely imparting information to students. Teachers need to ask themselves if they are teaching in ways that motivate and peak their students' interests so that they participate in active as opposed to passive learning. By listening to everyone's strategies and techniques in working with our students, I feel that we are doing our part to promote active learning. The mere fact that progress is being achieved, however small or large, speaks volumes of the effort that we put into our work.

If at times, when we feel that we haven't accomplished as much as we want to with our students, or if we're feeling frustrated because nothing seems to be going our way, here's a quote that I find inspirational and motivating:

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."

Benjamin Franklin

image: http://www.bosqueschool.org/bemp.outreach.htm

quote: http://www.hubpages.com/hub/50_Inspirational_Quotes_for_Teachers

Whoo Poetry!

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary. ~Kahlil Gibran

Wow, so my student came in rarin' to read poetry! I let him read for forty five minutes, and he even read a two page poem today, I convinced him that time was no object and any pace was fine. He let me know that he had shared the poem he copied last week with his family and they enjoyed it as well. Anyway, we read and discussed, added words to the word bank, and had a few good laughs. He even copied my "voice" as we read a poem, and we had a discussion about taking the persona of a character in a poem. After poetry we read about becoming a race car driver and he had to journal about how much of his life he would be willing to give up to be a race card driver. We also finished some homophones and worked on sight vocabulary of new words read today. That was it. I'm happy he's taken to poetry, I can only pray he sticks to it.

Quote credit: http://www.quotegarden.com/poetry.html

Image credit: http://www.haggardandhalloo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/poetry2.jpg

Along with the Downs are the Ups!

Today's session was awesome! My student was at his best, today; we accomplished basically every activity that I had planned. Along with identifying words from the word wall, he succcessfully identified and spelled most of the words from his word bank. As a reward, he received a token for each one. We followed through with more activities such as Paired Reading, the 3-Sentence Summary based on the story, creating a new word bank and finally, having Nobert write his reflection in his writing journal. Yes, there truly is a God...and thank you Nobert for making my day!

Never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up.

(Leniqua)

image: www.cartoonstock.com
quote: www.yahoo.com/question/index?qid= 20100110182428AAMRCr5