What We ( ADULTS) Can Learn From Kids

I came across these two stories (weblinks) this past week and they have really been on my heart.

The first one is about a young girl, Alyssia, whose dream was to play on her middle school basketball team however she has been battling leg defects. The doctors told her that they can shorten both of her limbs or amputate one leg. She chose to amputate her leg. However before she did, she got to play basketball on her middle school's team. Not only is that part of the story touching, her attitude towards this whole process is just beautiful. In the end of the interview She said she would like to tell her children and those around her that "God made you and you're beautiful in every way." This just touched my heart. While most 12-year olds are worried about their hair, makeup, and zits here she is LOSING A LEG and seeing the absolute positivity that comes from it! She has such great perseverance and a strong spirit. I hope we can all learn a little from her.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Middle-schooler-postpones-amputation-to-fulfill-?urn=highschool-wp345

I cannot stop thinking about this next story I found. Nine year old, Anaiah saw her little sister crossing the street to the bus stop when a truck was driving across the road. Quickly, she pushed her sister out of the way and got hit by the truck. She lost her leg and kidney but is so happy that she is alive today. Her self-less act AT 9 YEARS OLD is just truly inspiring.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110323/ts_yblog_thelookout/nine-year-old-loses-leg-while-saving-little-sisters-life

What if we all took the time and thought about the positive things in life. What if we all could just think about people than ourselves? What if we all could have a little Anaiah and Alyssia inside of us? The world would be a better place. I am sure.

Units of Study-Chapter 12*

In my Kindergarten classroom, I asked my teacher how she plans out the units of study of writing in her classroom. Since her students are just learning how to form letters make words and create sentences, the units of study are broken into this for the whole year:
Quarter 1: Narrative Writing
Quarter 2: Comparison/Contrast Writing (very simple)
Quarter 3: Informational Writing
Quarter 4: Persuasive Writing
Each quarter is 9 weeks long and for 20-40 minutes every day they work on their writing. Since I have only been in this classroom for this semester, I have only gotten to see the informational writing unit of study. Usually, Ms. Young picks a couple of informational books that the students are interested in. They vote on one book and then Ms. Young reads it. Afterwards they talk about some of the facts in the book and then head to their seats to write. This may take two or three class periods depending on how much time is allotted. Some of the topics the students have written on were spiders, the presidents, t turtles, the solar system, how crayons are made, and volcanoes. I like how Ms. Young listens to her students and asks them what they would like to learn more about. This is also a great way to incorporate other subject areas. Since science and social studies usually fall to the wayside in schools due to the importance of other subjects such as reading and math, Ms. Young is able to teach some of the science and social studies curriculum through writing.
When we come back from spring break, Ms. Young is going to start the unit on persuasive writing. I really hope that she will let me do a lesson with the kids because I have some great ideas on teaching persuasive writing; some of which are using the texts I Wanna Iguana and Dear Mrs. La Rue Letters from Obedience School. It is REALLY hard to get teaching time in her classroom. So hopefully I will be able to get at least 30 minutes because I think the kids would enjoy these books.

Mid-Week Update

Blog, Blog, who has time to blog? Being in the school this week has been a great learning experience however it is so exhausting! My kindergartners have so much energy and I can only try to keep up! This week I have been teaching “Where am I in the World?” as part of the social studies curriculum. I have had some ups and downs but overall it is going okay. My biggest problem (teaching wise) is timing. My teacher gives me 40 minutes to do the lesson however sometimes she takes time away and tells me I can only teach for 20. Frustrating but I have learned to roll with it. During the lessons we don’t get to everything that is planned but it’s better to over plan than to under plan. At the end of one of the lessons a student told me “ Ms. Hockenberry, you are going to be a great teacher when you grow up”. That meant the world to me. My mentor teacher may not think so due to some “issues” but coming from the mouth of a 5 year old, it just melted my heart. I really do hope to be a good teacher and make a difference in the lives of my students. I definitely think that I have found my niche in Kindergarten. I would like to try 1st or 2nd grade too because I just really love the little ones. I know this post is supposed to be about Ch.12 but I will have to get to that later. I need to revamp a couple of things on my lesson for tomorrow. Only 2 more days and then SPRING BREAK!!!