4NWP

I have been teaching 10 years.  As I reflect on how my teaching has changed over the years, and how I myself have changed over the years, I must say that the most positive influences have come from participating in professional organizations.  The International Reading Association has been an incredible resource for learning how to teach, but tonight I want to write about The National Writing Project.  This is an organization that empowers teachers to step beyond teaching our students and to become leaders in the educational world.  Since participating in the twentieth Writing Project at Western Kentucky University, I have become a professional.  The Writing Project taught me to develop relationships among colleagues in order to collaborate and share ideas, spreading good lessons to more students.  I have met some of the most incredible teachers through the Project and feel blessed to have them not only as colleagues to learn from, but also as life-long friends.  I have stepped up in my school building to take on leadership roles because of the encouragement from the Writing Project.  I have learned from my students through action based research and inquiry-style teaching ~ This was a complete paradigm shift for me, and I owe it all to the Writing Project.  My students have surely benefitted from my participation ~ my instruction has improved greatly!  I could go on for hours about the benefits the Writing Project has to offer, but I must get to the point of this rant.  I learned this week that the federal government has cut all funding to the National Writing Project.  I understand that in this economy, we must be particularly careful how we spend our money and that there must be cuts.  I also understand that no one wants the money they are using to be cut.  I must say that it worries me greatly that the people we are cutting money from, when we cut things like writing project, are our future. We are cutting from the education budget!  The right to free public education is the one thing that sets this nation apart from the others.  Education is a path to a better life for so many in our nation.  My hope is that the money will be restored before too many students miss out.  Let's make some choices for the future!  

Read for the Record!

This is Yvette, a Camp Carnival Counselor, reading The Snowy Day to 62 young cruisers!

SKYPE!

Today my class skyped with our classroom aid, who is vacationing in Hawaii!  What a great experience for the kids.  They were so tickled with the whole operation, from the webcam to the conversation.  It was an exciting event and I can't wait to do it again.  If anybody has any ideas for classroom skype uses, I'd love to hear about them.  We are planning to find an author to skype with, but I'd love to skype with another classroom somewhere far away.  We felt very professional with our video conference call today!

New Teachers Promotion

The IRA is currently promoting new teacher membership with a discount ~ new teachers can become members for $29!  This is $29 well spent.  You will have access to a members only section of the website, and they are creating a new teacher zone where new teachers can get tips and ideas.  Wish this had been around when I was just starting out!

Don't forget to attend the Western Kentucky Council of KRA meeting on Thursday, Sept. 30th!

Reading Today Daily

I was just browsing the IRA website, and enjoying the Reading Today Daily feature.  Reading Today takes top news articles about literacy from other sources and writes up an abstract and provides the link to the article.  Tonight I read an abstract linked to an article from the Washington Post about a research study dealing with children's daily computer use as it relates to their standardized test scores.  I was able to follow the link and read the article, which seemed to show a positive outlook on computer usage, even gaming, increasing test scores.  I also read about a traveling exhibit from the Library of Congress called The Gateway to Knowledge, which would bring replicated famous objects around the country so that people can see them.  You can get the dates and cities on http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2010/10-195.html   There were several other short articles posted, and as I read them I thought, it is amazing how much information is readily available and easily accessible.  Filtering all of the information that is out there is so time consuming, so it's great that organizations like IRA are searching for the valuable, "good stuff" and putting it through on their website in quick doses.  I love being able to scan articles quickly for updates on research and news for literacy topics.  If you get a chance, visit IRA's website http://www.reading.org/ to see more of what I'm writing about!

I am a member of the International Reading Association's Teacher Advisory Panel.  As a member of TAP, I enjoy receiving first-hand information from IRA. Currently IRA is having a book sale, and many premium educational resources are being sold for $7!  I always find current information in the resources I get from IRA.  Just look for the marketplace on http://www.reading.org/ . 
I am a member of the Kentucky Reading Association as well, and am looking forward to a great conference on Halloween weekend.  I will be presenting about RTI strategies, so if you are attending and need some reading intervention strategies come to my session! 
On September 30th, at 6:00pm, the Western Kentucky Reading Council of KRA will hold a meeting at WKU in room 366 of Tate Page Hall.  We will have the opportunity to hear Dr. Pam Petty of WKU speak about helping your students shift from passive to active reading. 
I also have to share a great happening in my classroom today! Last weekend I attended a technology conference with the Kentucky Writing Project where I received a free IPod Touch and webcam for attending.  Today, I told my second grade students I was giving it to the class to use this year.  I showed them how to make a voice memo and put it in a reading station with the Arnold Lobel book, Days With Frog and Toad.  Those kids were so excited!  They couldn't wait to use it!  They did a pretty good job too!  I am so glad that there are ways we can get expensive technology into student hands who would normally not have access to it.