Dance of the Day

The bright orange and red sky descended high from the sky down to the tops of the hills. The hills appeared dark gray, almost black, fading into the ocean waters. The water’s edge was barely defined from the hills’ horizon by soft bluish gray waves. As the waves came closer, they were more defined by layers of softer blues, darker blues, and then closer to shore, a greenish gray with the orange sky reflecting, making it look like a wave of fire in the water as it approached the shoreline. To the northwest of the horizon in the far background, a very bright yellow orange ball was about to drop behind the hills. As more waves gently rushed to the sand, the bright yellow orange ball dropped further behind the hills, growing smaller as it dropped further. Rippling white water waves flowed up to the shoreline. The vast body of water was marked with surfers’ silhouettes paddling out to catch the next big wave. In the distance the yellow orange ball stayed in the same place, but gradually became smaller and smaller as each wave sprayed the shore. Then, at one moment, the yellow orange ball was gone, it had dropped behind the hills completely out of sight. Above, the bright orange and red sky had softened to hues of pink, fading into soft gray and blues at the hills‘ horizon. The glorious sunset had faithfully delivered its daily dance and announced that the day had ended and that the evening was beginning.

Catch a wave...

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Blackberry Ice Cream and Ladybugs

Saturday found us driving on the country roads of Monument in the Cabrio, top down.  The Colorado sky was pure blue, painted with brilliant white clouds, and the bright sunshine felt warm and welcomed in the higher elevations.  We came across a little main drag cafe' of sorts, featuring homemade ice cream.  I got a single blackberry cone, yep blackberry....it took me back to when I was about 5 or 6 living in Glen Burnie, MD.  My folks would always stop at an ice cream parlor when we were out and about.  I always got blackberry.  The summer fruit and blend of cream is the perfect combination.  Enjoying the Colorado day was only enriched when a ladybug landed on the lens of my sunglasses. Life was just perfect at that moment, and again a reminder of how much I love Colorado, this place I call home. 

New Look at Books

I cannot ever walk directly through the door at Barnes and Noble, I must stop and look at all the sale books in the entry foyer first.  Two books immediately caught my attention today,  one about "Daddy" and another about "Granddad".  I don't have grandchildren (yet) and neither my dad or father in law are with us anymore.  I wished so badly to have a reason to buy these colorful, whimsical books.  Next, I found myself browsing the bargain stacks and once again drawn to children's books.  My heart dropped to the depths of my stomach, and literally, I felt a tear slide down my face.  I felt very sad realizing I will no longer be buying books for the children of my school library.  My personal finances will allow me to buy limited quantities for my classroom, but never again like the quantities afforded me as the teacher-librarian for 11 years at Ames, even on a tight budget, a budget that allowed for new titles to lure the kids to read. I am going to miss this so much.  It took great willpower to avoid going to the back of the store where the children's section is....that would have caused me even more sadness and pain.  I wonder if I will ever be able to walk into the Tattered Cover again, or even The Bookies?  I am going to need some serious therapy to get through this void that is facing me as I transition to my new teaching job. 

Social Bookmarks

I can't say how many times I have gone to colleagues' Delicious Bookmarks for links for web sites. I have had creating my own Delicious account on my "to do list" for at least a year now. Given that setting up a social bookmarking network is a requirement for my Learning2oh class and the fact that our building is closing, and there is a need for others to access the links on the pages I maintain on our website for our students and staff, I have finally developed a Delicious account.
Unlike with my many "Favorites" list on various computers, this makes all the academic, personal, and professional links a breeze to access. Keeping up with the folders under Favorites was quite tedious, Delicious is quick and easy. I especially like that I can have my academic (for students and staff), professional, and personal links all on one interface. The ability to "share" or "not share" is especially a feature I like and will use, and all will be organized and easily assessible at the click of a key!
Tagging in Delicious would be an ideal activity to instruct and engage students when we are doing research and trying to get a grip on moving from broad topics to more specific.

Writing by Students Via Wikis

Now that several weeks have past and I have incorporated more writing opportunities for students to post writing on the ILC wiki, it is becoming a more routine tool to use. Along with a teammate, I have posted sentences which the students are to rewrite correctly applying correct puncuation, capitalization, spelling, etc. (much like the DOL of the past). Although appearing a simple task, using the wiki to post incorporates a couple of more skills, specifically we have noticed, reading carefully--especially the directions. Keyboarding, which only improves by writing, is also integrated. Many kids don't like grammar and mechanics, but being able to post and immediately see their work definitely engages them. However, I learned quickly that how I set up monitoring the posts is important...or they can just look at everyone else's edits and copy. Also, engaging or not, the need for grammar and mechanics or not, these activities are not necessarily the best use of this tool. A more exciting and more purposeful use of the wiki was when I downloaded an image from an old Sears Catalog advertisement for a bicycle (using digital primary sources from LOC's American Memory Collection) directing the students to review it carefully, reflect and use their inferencing skills to write about it. This activity allowed for them to reflect on each other's comments and respond again. We will keep experimenting and "write on"!

Blogging….and Authentic Writing

I have participated in live blogging with my colleague’s students. Live blogging is moderated by the administrator (my colleague) and the students know my wiki and blogger name so they are aware there are more than just the students themselves blogging. The administrator screens the comments and questions prior to allowing the post to go online. To some, this may seem squelching freedoms, however, this is a relatively new tool and learning how to do this appropriately, academically, and ethically is a learning process. The students want to see their responses posted, by participating in a live blog, it encourages them to think and organize prior to writing and posting….just the same as when they are in the writing process on paper.

I first set up a blog for personal use quite some time ago…last summer I am thinking. I set it up and then realized I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it! So, that was abandoned. In recent months, after reading more blogs, both personal and educational, I started to envision the purpose of my blog. We are very focused on literacy in my building and have established a goal that 100% of our staff will be involved in writing, along with our students. I often feel my writing is personal and I don’t want to post it for the entire world to see. I have done my part working towards our school’s writing goal; however several times on paper to only be set aside in a hiding place. This has all jolted me to realize my procrastination (fear) had to come to an end. Finally, last month I took the plunge and started to be brave enough to post some writing. Also, having to meet the 2.0 class requirements, more pushing, I have to do this!

Deb’s Dabbles at least for now, will be both personal and educational posts.

As for incorporating blogs into my educational environment, I see students from kindergarten through the fifth grade and for very short periods of time. I am able to connect beyond the time constraints with the 4th and 5th graders as they are using wikis in the classrooms. Given where we are right now (CSAP and eventually more MAP assessments coming quickly) I would like to develop a blog for interested students to participate in over the summer. I am thinking we can discuss a couple of books to read and respond to, and also do some blogging on current topics. This would encourage reading, writing, and thinking; and equally as important, let us keep connected over the summer (as we are all going in different directions at the close of this school year).

I know I need to further think out the management of this and welcome ideas and thoughts which will help me achieve this.