Voki

If you ever want to scare your students out of their seats, or if you simply want to grab their attention, try implementing this little contraption.

http://www.voki.com/php/viewmessage/?chsm=50ce70a83a52b455f4a639be7efa4f40&mId=660322

With this website, all you have to do is plug in the words you want the voki to say, and it will say it!  You get to pick from a limited amount of heads, accents, and backgrounds.  It's a lot of fun.

LetterJames

One of my amazing professors gave us a few great tools for the classroom during our meeting tonight at WSU.  She always gives us the most creative resources and ideas to use.  One of the tools she shared today is the website:  www.letterjames.com.  At this website you can plug in words, and the website creates an amazing photograph with your word(s) in the picture.  You get to choose from a huge selection of templates.  I think it's awesome.  The picture here is the date of my upcoming wedding!  My professor suggested using these pictures in a review game in a PowerPoint presentation.  One slide would ask the question, and then the next slide would have the Letterjames photo with the answer.  I suggest trying it out.  It can be very addicting!

Holes

I am creating a series of book trailers for my students. They will be able to choose from a list of five books to read in literature circles in a couple weeks.
Here is the book trailer for Holes by Louis Sachar.


Holes

If I Were the President...

Right now we are in the middle of a poetry unit.  In honor of March Madness, we are having a tournament of our own in the classroom.  The participants in the tournament are famous poems.  Each day we read two different poems to the students and discuss both.  Then we have each table of students vote for their favorite of the two and explain why.  At the end of the day, we tally up all the votes and move the winner forward in the bracket we have displayed on the bulletin board.  The students are really enjoying it!  They come into class and right away look to see which poem won, along with the score.

Two days ago when I subbed, I taught a poetry lesson I learned from one of my professors.  To begin the lesson I read the poem, “If I Were the Principal” by Kenn Nesbitt.  Then I explained that they would be writing a poem about someone being the principal of their school.  They were allowed to write about anyone, including celebrities, cartoons, historical figures, and friends.  I passed out brainstorming sheets and a formatting sheet to help students complete the poem.  They wrote some really creative poems and had a great time writing them.  Here is one I wrote:

 If Kenny Chesney Were the Principal

If Kenny Chesney were the Principal, things would definitely change.

School would be surrounded by swaying palm trees in the sand,

The building would be like a tropical island resort, and

All the desks would be replaced with old blue chairs.

If Kenny Chesney were the Principal,

Teachers would chug along to school in their John Deere tractors,

Teachers would sport farmer's tans, flip flops and sunglasses, and

Teachers would teach students about the "good stuff" in life.

If Kenny Chesney were the Principal,

Students would be told, "Don't blink," because life passes by too fast,

Students would stroll to class in cut-off jeans and cowboy hats, and

Students would live by the saying, "No shoes, no shirts, no problems."

If Kenny Chesney were the Principal,

The staff would consist of friendly island natives,

The janitor would play security guard at Kenny's school assemblies, and

The lunch ladies would serve leftover pizza from the night before.

If Kenny Chesney were the Principal, that's what we'd do.

Every day would be a musical adventure and a relaxing vacation too!

By:  Stephani Bennett

Who I Am

This was a Christmas gift to my parents.

Who I Am

I'm from Mike and Tammi Bennett.

From an artistic father and an athletic mother.

From a one-story, white-brick home with a boundary of pine trees in front.

I'm from an exciting hour of The Price is Right before preschool,

with my dad sitting next to me at my white plastic table.

I'm from a pink life-sized Minnie Mouse tent,

hiding from my mom while aching to see a carnation grasped in her hand.

I'm from quiet nights of watching Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella with my mom,

while munching on a bowl of freshly popped popcorn sprinkled with cheese.

I'm from ventures to the library in search of another Mr. Roger's book,

begging my dad to park in the upper lot for the chance to navigate the stairs.

I'm from a burgundy red station wagon,

constantly pleading to sit in the "way back" where seat belts did not exist.

I'm from an awning-covered back porch with a plastic blue and red sandbox,

furnished with magical castles and solidly constructed tunnels.

I'm from a fenced-in backyard filled with intense games of soccer and badminton,

where a tether ball game and a blue playground provided amusement.

I'm from a mother who transported me to an abundance of magical worlds,

including the Berenstain Bears and Dr. Suess before bedtime,

and from a father who taught me how to move my crayon and pencil

to create the magical worlds I read about.

I'm from a barrage of perfect Barbie dolls and pink Barbie accessories,

and a sparkle eyes Barbie for Christmas.

I'm from mountains of laundry that became my hiding places,

as I trekked across the house, trying to stay unnoticed.

I'm from hours of soaking in Disney Princess VCR tapes,

where the beautiful girl always captured the charming boy's heart.

I'm from competitive games of Chutes & Ladders, Candy Land & Uno,

where sharp squeals and bursts of laughter filled the room.

I'm from a house where prayers are said before every meal,

and where Sunday mornings are filled with church.

I'm from Mike and Tammi Bennett.

They have made me

WHO I AM.

~Stephani Bennett, 2010 

Emily Dickinson

A version of part of this quote,  "We never know how good we are until we are called to rise," was on a silver dove ornament my CT gave me for Christmas. I think this pretty much explains my entire student teaching.

We never know how high we are
Till we are asked to rise
And then if we are true to plan
Our statures touch the skies -- 

The Heroism we recite
Would be a normal thing
Did not ourselves the Cubits warp
For fear to be a King --

~Emily Dickinson 

Symbolism Lesson

My supervisor came and observed me during a reading lesson I taught a few days ago.  I was a little nervous because she was observing my rowdy class, but the lesson went great.  It focused on symbolism in The Giver.  Whenever I create my own lessons,  there is always some kind of anticipatory activity, related to the lesson, implemented at the very beginning of class to capture students' attention.  Well, at the beginning of class, I showed the hilarious clip located above.  The students loved this clip!  Some asked me to play it again—which I didn’t, but I definitely had their attention :).  After this I gave a quick overview of symbols and asked students to tell me what money, the American flag, and the color yellow symbolize.  Then I explained they would be working in groups to identify and determine the meaning of a symbol from a passage in The Giver.  Each student in the group was given a specific task.  One student had to read aloud their passage.  One student had to write down what their symbol was and what it represented.  One student had to go over to a pile of photos I had printed out and find a picture of their symbol.  Another student taped the picture of the symbol to the board and wrote what the symbol was and what it represented.  The last student came up and presented his or her group’s findings to the class.  Overall, it went well, and the intervention specialist asked for the clip I used at the beginning of class!

Timeline of Life

For one of my education classes at Wright state, I had to plan a lesson and film myself teaching it in my placement.  Our 7th graders are about to write memoirs right now so I decided to plan a lesson to help them brainstorm ideas for their papers.

I began class by drawing two columns on the board:  positive events & negative events.  Then I asked students to raise their hands and volunteer some answers.  After this I explained that they were going to track at least 10 events in the lives, positive and/or negative.  In their notebooks, I had students draw five columns with the following headings:  event, time/age, positive/negative, image, description.  After modeling how to fill out these columns, students began to fill out these columns for ten events.  Once they were done, I showed them how to take their information and create a timeline of the events.  I had created one over our multiple snow days to share :)

The students really seemed to enjoy reminiscing.  While grading these, I really learned more about each of my students.  My cooperating teacher and I decorated the room with all of their creations.  The picture above is part of an actual timeline one of my students created.

Utopian Society

Right now we are having our students read The Giver by Lois Lowry.  This book takes place in a dystopian future/society where the main character Jonas lives in a world that is completely structured and controlled by the Elders, AKA the ones in charge.  The way everyone dresses, what everyone talks about, and what everyone does for a living is determined by these elders.  Before we had our students begin reading the book, we assigned a project where they had to form their own perfect societies in groups.  Each day of the week we introduced different elements they had to include in their society:  name, seal, itinerary, government, business letter, advertisement, map, and laws/rules.  The students really enjoyed this project.  Each group came up with what they valued the most and what they would do to make the world literally perfect.  At the end of about two weeks, each group presented their society to the class.  I realize that seventh graders need a lot of lessons on time management.  They still expect the teacher to tell them when to do everything instead of taking responsibility and managing their own time.  Overall, this project really allowed students to begin thinking about the theme of control and how much is a good thing.  For those of you who have not read The Giver, go read it.  Every time I read it I gain something new and enjoy it every time.