Red Light Reading Responses

The other day, we talked about how good readers respond to their reading by:

• making a claim
• citing the text
• explaining their thinking

As we continue to develop our own responses, take a look at the following sample responses on "What's So Funny, Mr. Sciescka?"  There is a low, medium and high response.  Can you point out the differences in each?

LOW:

MEDIUM:

HIGH:

A Minute Saved is a Minute Earned

As a teacher, there is really very little down time in my day. It seems that there is always something to do: planning, grading, writing lessons, and of course teaching! Throw in a few meetings and time to meet with kids, and that makes for a pretty full day. So it’s no wonder that I’m always looking for ways to work “smarter” and more efficiently. And the other day I discovered a great way to do that.

My RLA students just finished their personal narratives. Suddenly I’m faced with a pile of 40+ papers to read and grade. Not only that, but I want to provide feedback for each student so that they know how to develop their writing skills moving forward. Phew! Something had to give, or I’ll never get done. The thing that gave was my “old” tedious ways of writing out feedback to students. Instead I tried recording my commenting via an online voice recording service called Vocaroo.

I found the Vocaroo interface simple to use. In the end, I was able to record more feedback comments in less time than it used to take me to type up my thoughts. So, it was a true “win-win” situation. And with the time I saved, I was able to do something I truly love to spend time on: sleep.

Image from:

edweb.sdsu.edu

Posted!

So, this blogging thing is pretty simple, right? Share a bunch of opinions, crack a few jokes, slap on a photo and you’re done. And, no worries if you don’t like what you initially post. You can always just remove the post and try again. Not so! Or at least that’s what I’m learning as I go through our school’s laptop one to one “Bootcamp.” One message has been loud and clear: Think BEFORE you post.

Image from:
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/

One big reason to think before you post is that once something is posted, it becomes very difficult to remove completely from the Internet. Someone might have read your comment and linked it to other sites or blogs, so even if you “remove” a post from your end, it could still exist out there in webworld.

What’s the big deal, you say? Well, let’s imagine that you posted something you thought was “silly” that you did, and you included a photo of the action just for good measure. Then, sometime later, you realize that the thing you wrote (and the photo) makes you look foolish or even hurts someone else’s feelings. You start feeling that deep-down sinking feeling in your stomach, and you know that you want to take the post off your blog. So, you do. But then you learn that someone else had taken your blog post and shared it with others. Suddenly your “silly” little mistake is seemingly all over the Internet, and you can’t get it to go away. You start getting sarcastic comments from friends and classmates at school, and a teacher even talks to you about how disappointed she is that you would have written something such as this, and she questions your character. Suddenly you’ve got a credibility crises.

You’ve been posted!

Fortunately for us this little scenario can easily be avoided because our school has created a “filter” to use as we are drafting anything that we might post online. It’s a checklist that makes us as writers consider our purpose, the online features of our posts, the skill we’ve shown in the writing, and whether or not it meets the personal and school values we hold as well as protecting my own identity and copyright laws.

Source: SAS MS Checklist for a Meaningful Blog Posts

So, if there is one thing that came out of my “boot camp” experience this week, it’s a raised awareness that I really need to be careful as I get involved in sharing information on the Internet. I need to think before I post.

If I don’t, I run the risk of getting posted.

Informational Text/Informed Argument Book Club Video Links

We've learned how to "read" a variety of sources to help us consider some of the big issues in our lives. As a first source, watch a video that's related to your topic. Find yours below:


1. Cell Phones in School


Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/cellphone-use-in-schools-_n_2116723.html

2. Hydropower


Source:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXYJYNZpPmo

3. Facebook

Source: http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/local/facebook-may-allow-kids-under-age-13

4. Dodgeball




Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ_B6HB2dxg

5. Uniforms


Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O-QTKQ2gNI

6. Solar Power





Source: http://content.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,33575328001_1916895,00.html



7. Competitive Sports





Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=R8FnZBe_RLQ



 Cursive

(This video can't be embedded, so you'll need to use this link.)

• Click here for video

Source:  http://video.foxnews.com/v/1696722093001/cursive-writing-being-scribbled-out-of-classrooms/

All We Want for Christmas is Some Panadol

My family was more than a little excited for our recent holiday to Hong Kong. We needed it. Between work and school, it had been a whirlwind ride for the past five months. Everyone was exhausted. My wife, in particular, looked forward to a change of scenery as 2012 had been the worst year of health in her life. My daughter couldn’t wait to meet the princesses at Hong Kong Disneyland. My son, well, he’s one, so he’s pretty much happy to do anything, and since he just started walking, he was just raring to go. Me? I was just happy to hang out with my family and do whatever it was that my wife had planned.

What no one planned, but what ended up happening, was that we all learned how important your health is when you are traveling.

Everything started beautifully. The flight was smooth sailing. The hotel was heavenly. We got a great dinner recommendation and had a delicious first meal. Heck, I even broke out of my cheapskate mold and bought my wife some nice jewelry. Jewelry!

We woke early on our first day of trekking and hit one of our major tourist destinations: Ocean Park. We had an absolute blast! It far exceeded our expectations, and everyone walked away happy. I tell you this because, in hindsight, I should have realized what you probably already have. Things were going far too well. Something was about to change for the worse. It was inevitable.

That thing that changed for the worse was our health. It happened quickly. It happened completely. And it changed everything.

It hit my wife first.   As we sat down for dinner, she commented to me that she felt feverish and achy. To be honest with you, she didn’t look so hot.  (Don’t tell her I said that.) At first I didn’t want to believe it. I mean, we were on holiday, right? You’re not supposed to get sick on holiday!

We got her to bed early, but it was too late. She spent a miserable night running back and forth to the bathroom. And the next day she couldn’t even get out of bed. All travel plans ceased. The kids and I spent a lazy, aimless day wandering around the hotel, exploring what we could: a dirty playground with a bunch of shady characters hanging around, the 41st floor “Meditation Room” which gave amazing views of the city, the mall across the road. Not stuff that would have made anyone’s “Top 10 Hong Kong Family Attractions.” We were basically killing time.

And killing time is not something you want to do when you are in a foreign city that has lots to offer. If we only had our health we would have been eating Hong Kong’s famous dim sum and drinking milk tea. If we only had our health we would have been meeting up with our friend who lives there and who would undoubtedly have taken us on a unique adventure only a “local” can. If we only had our health we would have been hanging out with those Disney princesses!

But we didn’t have our health. So we hung around in the hotel.

Unfortunately my wife didn’t get any better the next day, so we took her to a hospital - all the clinics were closed since it was Christmas Eve - where she was given a full range of medicine to cure what appeared to be a stomach virus. That could have ended our problems right there.

But that would have been too easy.

No, as we were waiting for doctors to check out my wife, I noticed that my daughter was feeling quite warm. We had her checked. Sure enough, she, too, had a high fever. Oh, joy!

Just to prove to us all that she wasn’t well, she threw up in the trash bin of the Starbuck’s as we stood in line to grab a quick bite while waiting for doctors to see her.

So, after picking up her baggy of medicine, it was back to the hotel. More killing time.

We tried TV. We watched all kinds of shows throughout the day. Stuff we would never dream of watching when we’re in Singapore. And do you think it was on our agenda for a Hong Kong holiday? No. In an attempt to inject a little fun into a long, dull day, we rented an animated movie. That was fine, but far from the original travel plan for the day.

And we weren’t done. There was one more lump of coal in our “Christmas Travel Plan Stocking”. My son developed a high fever with lovely diarrhea and vomiting as added bonuses. I was starting to feel like Florence Nightengale.

In the end we wound up extending our stay in Hong Kong. If we hadn’t, the only sightseeing for most of us would have been the hotel toilet and the hospital! Everyone rebounded, and we did eventually see those princesses. And they were worth it, let me tell you.

My takeaway from this little travel tragedy of ours was that, when traveling, what’s most important is that you have your health. And coupled with that is that it pays to stay in a nice hotel, because if you don’t have your health, you’re going to spend a lot of time there.

Lots of people I’ve shared this story with have told me that they have, at some point in their travels, had a similar experience.

Do you feel my pain? Can you relate? Or was Santa just punishing us for being naughty this year?

Tis’ the Season for Tradition

Unless you have been locked up inside your room for the past few weeks you’ve undoubtedly noticed that the Christmas season is upon us. One trip down Orchard Road is all it takes. There are lights and ornaments and decorated trees everywhere. This yearly tradition of decorating for the holidays is one important way to celebrate the holidays.

This weekend I was reminded of the importance of celebrations and these decorating rituals in my own life. My family went to a Christmas Tree Trimming Party at some close friends’ house. We go every year - well most, anyway. Last year we missed it, and I remember feeling a sense of something missing from our holiday celebration. This party has become an important “road marker”  of the year.

What happens at this party is that we decorate the family’s tree together as we munch on delicious homemade holiday snacks and catch up with friends; some of whom we seem to only see at this party.

The cool thing is that when we arrive, the only things on the tree are the lights. We string together strands of popcorn to begin the decorating. I love this part! It’s really “old-fashioned”, and it feels homemade. And somehow that reminds me of times when I was a kid doing the same kind of thing with my family, except we tended to thread cranberries.

Once the popcorn strands are up, there are boxes of ornaments to add. Everyone takes part, from the youngest to the oldest. It’s a real family affair.

And that, to me, is really what the holidays are all about. Family and friends being together, doing the things we do once a year at a particular time. Celebrations like this become anticipated events on the calendar. And now that I have kids, I’m excited to see that they are eager to join in the fun!

How does your family “mark” the season?  What role to traditions like this play in your life?

Blogging Basics

Believe it or not, we're living during an amazing moment in history.  Sure, there have been inventions like the printing press and the telephone that have revolutionized the way we communicate, but in the last few years, the exchange of ideas has exploded at an alarming rate.  New genres are being formed as we speak, and they are already making an impact on how we learn and communicate.  What's causing this big explosion?  Technology.

Enter the blog.  When I was your age, the word "blog" wasn't even invented yet, let alone Facebook, Twitter, and the internet itself.  Like those other innovations of the 21st century, the blog empowers us as we express our opinions and communicate with each other.  Maybe you're like I was until recently though, and you don't really get how a blog works.  Check out this video:

With blogs, we can share ideas and grow our community beyond the walls of our classroom.  We can include images and videos to enhance our ideas in ways that words alone cannot.  We can connect with others in the world and hopefully make an impact on them.  And finally, we'll be able to track and link our own thinking as we do it.

Of course many of you already know this.  I was amazed at your responses to the blog survey you completed.  Over half of you (24 to be exact) have written for a blog already, so maybe I'm already preaching to the choir.

You're not the only students trying this genre out in hopes of seeing results.  Recently, a teacher from ISB told me all about his students' blogging experience.  One of his students, Brian Leong, wrote a post about his experience with Operation Smile, a charity organization that provides free surgeries for children with facial deformities.

Along with his post, he created a video to show what he experienced.  Well, his video went viral.  It even got back to the folks at Operation Smile.  They loved it, and not only did they contact Brian to tell him how much it meant to them, they also asked him to be a keynote speaker at their conference.

So you never know where the ideas on your blog may lead you.  One thing's for sure, they'll connect you with people and places like never before.  So what do you say?  How about we give it a try and see where it takes us?