Last Day

All of the teachers preparing for the last class in the library.













Students preparing for the presentations to the parents.












The final books that the students created.











The final group picture. Such a bitter sweet feeling...

The Last Stretch in ELD Club

The past two days, we have officially entered the last stretch of finishing our final product for this Friday's ELD finale open house. As a final product, each student will put together a book that will encompass all of the drawings, photos and writing they have created during the past eight weeks of the club. This book will then be showed off to the parents and teachers who come to celebrate our students' success during the open house.

As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that what I'm about to say next might be somewhat of a disappoinment when considering the goals and hopes I mentioned in a previous post, Process Vs. Product. During the process of the eight weeks, we have all been very busy birds, both the teachers and the students. In order to use photography as an inspiration vehicle to drive authentic writing and language production, we had to do a lot of setting up in terms of teaching students how to take photos with a digital camera and disposable camera, the concept that photographs and images tell stories, the targeted language forms and functions for describing, making a connection with and asking critical questions about a photograph, and also begin to develop a critical lens for the students when viewing an image.

Thinking back, this is really a lot of work that we had planned for our students. Although, at the end of the eight weeks now, I do think we have accomplished many of these goals through the process of learning, exploring, doing and re-doing, I cannot say that the process was always a smooth one. This may be why, we are feeling a bit scrambled and rushed during the current production process. In an ideal world, the process for learning and product creation should be one, yet I feel that the transition between the two is a bit forced for us. It almost feels as if we were just getting on the right track with a meaningful and productive process, and then it was time for us to have products to show for it.

Timing and finding balance, crucial ingrediences for productive teaching!

My Fear

I can't believe this Friday will be the last day of my ELD club. I have this secret fear that all of the fun and exciting posts generated from my work with the students will start slowing down as I stop working with them directly come this Friday. Although, I still plan to share my own reflections and wonderings about teaching, learning and master thesis writing here, I am extremely concerned about the student work and feedback portion of this blog.

Part of me feel disappointed at myself for not having setup a more robust access system to the blog for the students who don't have computers at home. As much as I found resources and support that are available at their elementary school, thanks to our generous librarian, Luz, and her six WORKING computers in the library, the chances my students will walk themselves to the library during recess to read and respond to my blog are extremely slim. So, what do I do? How can I continue to reach out to and be reached by my students out in this vast and seemingly far-reaching on-line world once I'm no longer there to guide them?

Process Vs Product

In my graduate class on integrating the arts and the nature of language and literacy, we had an extensive discussion about a teacher's internal pressure (some driven by external expectations) to produce products in order to show in a concrete way what we have done in the classroom with our students. Meanwhile, we also have a strong desire to give students the learning experience through the process of doing and making things. In an ideal world, we would love to deliver both product and process to our students, but unfortunately, in the reality of time, something's gotta give.

This is really not an exclusive challenge faced by teachers, this kind of balancing in life is really a constant struggle that can be found everywhere and in everyone's everyday life. Rather than becoming increasingly stressed and overwhelmed trying to come up with a perfect solution in this on-going search, I actually felt inspired by the discussion from class and began to recognize that I find comfort in the upkeep of this very blog. As a student teacher, I must admit this is a place where I have gained tremendous satisfaction and insights about my teaching and learning through the PROCESS of writing these reflective postings. At the end of each posting, this process has given me an extremely self-fulfilling PRODUCT that is both alive and ever-evolving, and can be appreciated by both others and myself.

With that said, I guess there must be a way for us, teachers, to help our students gain knowledge through a meaningful process while making progress on the development of a product. The next step will be to figure out how, with the help of time and experience.

A TIME WHEN I FELT PROUD

A time when I felt proud was when I got 100%. On a spelling test. I went running fast as I can to my house to tell my mom on the phone and I told her ''I got 100%. On the test, '' good bye.'' I felt so happy and excited because my dad was going to bring a present and a toy. The present my dad gave me was a Playstation 2 game station.

Written and mostly-typed by Sergio

I must say though, I don't know if this is the most representative picture for "proud". Nonetheless, the effort should be encouraged! :) Ms Niki

A TIME I WAS ANGRY

A time when I felt Angry was when I wanted to go to a party , and I had to finish my punishment before I can go. I had to finish my punishment in one hour, or else I would miss the party. We got there in time and I was happy to see Santa Claus. He gave presents to every kid, and there were presents of all kinds for all ages.

Written and typed by JUAN CARLOS

I do think his acting in this picture looks a little more disappointed than angry. Don't you think?

Teachers' Show & Tell

Teachers also do Show & Tell. Today in my own graduate class for education, we had a Show & Tell gallery walk and learned about different innovative ideas on different strategies our colleagues used to teach English learners. Here's one new idea.

Repetition and Innovation through Song Writing and Music
by Martin & Zareen

Used the song "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" as a language frame for each student to write their own stanza of the song. Students learned about rhyming, came up with their own animals for the lyric, ordering animals from smallest to largest, co-created a new version of "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a..."

JUAN CARLOS AS A LAND DEVELOPER

I WOULD CHANGE THIS LOT TO A SOCCER FILD SO WE COULD HAVE FUN . IT WOULD BE LIKE A REAL SOCCER FILD. SO WE COULD HAVE FUN. IT LOOKS LIKE WITH WHITE LINES AND NETS. IT SMELS LIKE GRASS AND PAINT. IT SOUNDS LIKE FUN AND EXATING. WE DO KICKING AND RUNNING.

Dreams & Hopes

Last Friday, we took our kids on a community walk field trip. We walked from school to a near by park. On the way, students used our digital cameras to capture meaningful and important spots in their neighborhood. Half way in the trip, we came upon an empty and seemingly abandoned lot. We asked the students, what would they like to put in this space if they can put anything in there.

And here are some of their answers,
















Jonathan: "We should move our school here."
Me: "But you already have a school."
Jonathan: "But we can have a bigger school. We can put the science building here (pointing to the left of the lot where some abandoned looking cargo containers were), and have more classrooms here (pointing to the empty space to the left near the trees), and a playground here, (pointing to the middle section)."

Juan Carlos: "We should put a park here with play grounds and a soccer field."

Alexa: "We should put a school here for the poor."
Me: "How is a school for the poor different than our school?"
Alexa: "Because we go to our school, and we are not poor people. But this school is for the poor people that live on the street."

Aaron: "We should put a hospital here."
Me: "Why? Don't you have a hospital around here already?"
Aaron & Alexa: "No!"
Me: "Where do people go when they get sick then?"
Aaron: "We have to go all the way down there (pointing with Alexa to a far away place)."

Vanessa: "I want to put a school here."
Me: "Yes?!"
Vanessa: "It's because there are a lot of people in the district waiting to go to school."

"Vintage Dolls"

So many exciting things happened today and yesterday. I can probably post 5 consecutive entries. Let's start with this one.

Today I subbed for my 5th grade class from last semester. I spend the entire semester with these kids and even taught them myself, solo, for 10 days as part of my training experience, so as you can imagine, seeing them again after 3 months was very much a highlight of my week. Aside from getting reconnected with my students, I also discovered a new treasure for my idea box, "Vintage Dolls". Doesn't the name itself already sound so appealing?

Anyway, as a part of their 5th grade Open Court language arts reading, my old kids just finished a unit on Heritage. During this unit, one of their projects was to create a "Vintage Doll" that represents their heritage and ancestors. The common basic material for these dolls were simple human shaped papers. Each student thoughtfully and creatively brought these plain paper dolls to life with color, recycled fabric, and other knick knacks they found from home. In order to truly represent the ancestry of their heritage, many students had sought out information about their heritage from their parents that they had never realized before.

Aside from the social science and language arts perspectives, this was also a brilliant activity for showcasing some of these students' hidden artistic talents. I was truly amazed at the quality, creativity and meaningfulness of these remarkable "Vintage Dolls".