week 11

New Literacy Notes
*I am assigning a biome and having students search for pictures on the internet and create a comic strip using comic life*
1. What am I learning about my new literacy?
a. Visual Literacy includes diagrams, maps, tables, time lines and story boards. In my case, visual literacy will also include a comic strip.
b. In regards to traditional literacy, visual literacy is closely related. If one is not able to comprehend it would be difficult to understand what a time line would mean. Also, most time lines, tables, maps etc are labeled and not knowing how to read text would make understanding visual literacy merely impossible.
c. Visual literacy, like the traditional literacy is very diverse. Visual literacy expands beyond pictures and diagrams. I would not think of a time line to be part of visual literacy but I have learned this is actually very common. Also, there are the broad names (diagram, map, story board) but then there are TONS of different types of diagrams or maps expanding the use of visual literacy even more.
d. Visual literacy can be used across all subjects, but it is necessary to be clear and concise. Also, label whenever appropriate. For example, a map is pointless without a legend and a graph is irrelevant without the labeling of the x and y axis.
e. I am surprised how broad visual literacy is. Like traditional literacy, there are many different definitions and beliefs of what visual literacy entails.
f. In my placement, my students mostly have visual literacy. Although many of them cannot read, they make graphs with pictures, color in charts for the weather which are both uses of visual literacy. I think in the kindergarten level, visual literacy is crucial.
2. What am I learning about my new technology?
a. I find myself reading the tutorials a lot to familiarize myself with comic life. It is a complex program, but very useful once I become fluent.
b. It is hard to remember what all the buttons mean and how to format pictures. This will become easier as I practice more.
c. Comic Life is not like a lot of other technologies I have worked with. I do not know how to crop pictures and reformat. However, much like using a website, Comic Life requires navigation. I have found myself “lost” and not knowing how to get back to the area I was working in.
d. One thing I have noticed is that Comic Life is pretty common sense developed. Whenever I wonder where something is or how to do something, I usually only have to try a few times. I do not know if this is because I have some sort of technological fluency or if it is due to the simplicity of how the program was developed.
e. Students in my placement would not use Comic Life. I could do my initial idea with the use of magazines and have the students make a collage that is relevant to their specific topic.

Week 10

Vocabulary can be taught in book club in many different ways. Tompkins talked about how vocabulary during book club is more meaningful than simply learning words on their own. This is because when you learn new words, but can associate them with meaning and text, the words are more likely to become part of your vocabulary rather than a memorized word for a quiz or test. This is a great idea. I hated learning new vocab words because I looked at it as "busy work". However, learning new words with relation to a book I am reading, or a subject I am interested in makes a lot more sense. Using this technique, for a vocab lesson on ROTHMC I would have each student in the book club choose a word from the book they are unfamiliar with. From here, the students would have to define their word, find a synanom for their word and come up with a picture or symbol that relates to their word. This would help other students to not only hear the new vocabulary, but make sense of the words through the text as well as see an object or picture that is relevant. All three of these methods will help students to build vocabulary but also make meaningful connections. 

Week 9

This weeks readings were very interesting to me. I am curious about assessments as I still suffer from test anxiety. I am constantly looking for and thinking about other ways to assess students so as not to make them feel anxious. Tompkins had a lot of great ideas. 

Tompkins also talked about the word wall and high frequency words. I see this in my placement everyday. At the kindergarten level, they are constantly working on literacy. They have literacy centers for an hour and a half every day. This is a great way to build fluency. There are different stations that all work on different things. THis idea of centers can be taken into book club as well. The different centers could just be different activities of the week. For example, there is a center that works on ending sound matching. THere are pictures and the students have to draw a line to match the pictures up that end with the same sound. This could be done to work on fluency at the kindergarten level in book club. 

I work with a small group of students on tuesdays on high frequency words. These words are words that are in everyday language a lot but are hard to sound out phonetically. It is great to see these students learn these words because it is increasing their fluency and reading abilities. 

For my mini lesson, in regards to Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, I would have the students design a cereal box. THis would be more of an ending assessment. THey would have to create their own vision of the story on the front of the box. On the back of the box I want a self written synopsis and what the reader ranked this book as far as stars and why. On one side panel, will be a self written description of the main characters. On the other side panel would be a word search with definitions. 

Week 11: Teaching Reading Skills & Strategies with the basal

I thought that the readings on the basal reading program this week were very interesting and I can see them becoming very useful to me as a beginning teacher within the next couple years. The basal reading program is effective because it gives teachers a strict outline for what needs to be covered in classroom instruction in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing development. On the other hand, it doesn't leave very much room for creativity on the part of a teacher because it does stress so many specific things to be done in one school year. In my opinion I think it is going to be very useful to be just to use as a guideline to follow especially throughout my first few years of teaching, but as I gain more hands-on experience I will try to become more creative and open to risk-taking in my teaching.
Balanced literacy instruction is another topic that is very important in the classroom. For my New Literacies Project I have chosen to focus on cultural literacy because I think that is something that many students need to understand. The United States is becoming more and more diverse and so are its schools, so I think that it would be very beneficial if not a requirement to make sure that students are aware of other cultures and other people's traditions because they are going to come in contact with students that are very different than them. Here is my write-up for my progress in the New Literacies Project thus far:
I have learned many things so far while doing my New Literacy Project. For my project, I have chosen to teach about cultural literacy through a website and also while incorporating a digital story. The reason I chose to do this topic is because I have been very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to many countries around the world over the past five years and each time I travel my eyes are opened to the vast differences among cultures that are present. In each experience I have had to learn about all aspects of each culture and work diligently to try to form my style of living to that culture as well. Even though I feel that each person should not alter his or her own culture toward someone else’s and rather sustains their own unique culture, I do think that it Is crucial to be knowledgeable about the differences that exist and appreciate them. This is something that I have realized through research is not typically a focus in elementary classrooms.
One of the main things that I have learned about thus far in my research and website creation is about E.D. Hirsch, who is the main creator and supporter of cultural literacy teaching in classrooms. I have researched his findings a great deal and realize that he has many valid points about students’ learning. I have decided to include some of his research on my website. Something else that I have learned is that everyone has a very different opinion of what cultural literacy is. Some people think that it is just understanding what another cultural says and does in certain instances, while others believe that it is much deeper than that and includes actually practicing those differences to truly appreciate.
Over the past few weeks I have been researching this concept and also working with various website creation sites to try to determine which would be the best for me to use in order to best represent my learning about this new literacy. The website creator I think I am going to use is Weebly because I have already once started creating a website using Google Sites and I think that Weebly has a much sharper appearance. Through my learning of the navigation of Weebly, though, I have had many difficulties because it is much more difficult to do simple tasks on than Google Sites. I am hoping that I will be able to continue learning how to effectively use Weebly so that my project looks how I want it to. In addition to this, I will continue to research cultural literacy and different activities that can be used to reinforce its importance and exploration in the classroom.

Week 8

Book Club is a way for students to talk about a book and gain deeper understanding. We are using book club in TE 402 to talk about the plot in depth along with share ideas about characters and their feelings and characteristics. Book club can be done in a variety of ways, but I think the main part needs to be that the students read PRIOR to coming to class. Comprehension can be taught through book clubs using a variety of ways. In our class we had three pages of ideas to choose from. Some of the ideas that I think can teach comprehension very well is doing a character analysis, relating the story to something that reminds you of your own life and predicting what will happen next. These three activities encourage students to not only think about what happened in the story but also think about the "WHYS" which always encourages comprehension. 

Knowing how the text is structurised is important. It helps to know how to read the text. People read a text book differently than they read a graphic novel and knowing what type of text you are reading before beginning to read is helpful in comprehension. 

Helping English Language Learners develop reading comprehension can be difficult. One thing the Gibbons article really pointed out was breaking down the story at various points in the reading. I think this is where the graphic organizer can be beneficial. Organizing the story on paper and in your own words can help the student to understand what is happening. Also making a sketch of the characters and their personality traits would be helpful while reading. An ELL could have this sheet out as a reference and if there is any confusion they could look at the sheet and keep them on track with the characters. 

Call of Thunder

After doing some research online, I found a list of words from Call of Thunder that children might not know. I thought it would be fun for the children to create crossword puzzles. I would like to divide the words up into groups that relate to the chapters they are found in, and then give each group to a group of students. I would have each group work togethor to create a crossword puzzle. I would then make copies of the crossword puzzle for the whole class, and have the class complete them. I would have the children complete the puzzle that corresponds to the chapter as we read each chapter. In this way, children would get practice with one group of words at they created the puzzle, and then another as they completed the puzzles generated by their classmates. Also, children would first be exposted to the words when they made the puzzles, so they would be familiar when the encountered them in the text. We could point out the words as we encounter them in the text, and then discuss how the definition applies to how the therm is used in the text. Finally, the children would get practice with the words again when they complete the puzzle. This way the children are working with the words, and then identifying them in the text, and then working with them again. They will feel important and valued when other students complete the puzzles that they made.

See response for word list.

Week 10 (March 23)

I really liked how this chapter outlined the goals for vocabulary instruction. In always viewed vocabulary lessons as looking up words, and then writing them in sentences. However this chapter pointed hot how children really learn vocabulary in a meaningful way. I was excited to read about how connecting words to background knowledge. It made snese to me that learning words in isolation is not effective, but I feel that that is alot of how I was taught. It makes sense from what I am learning in my other classes that connecting words to what children already know will help them learn and remember more words. I couldn't beleive that children need to read, write, or say a word 8 to 10 tiems before they recognize it. This really impacted me. I now realize that vocabulary must really be incorporated into my classroom and what we are working on. Simply showing them a list or haveing them define a word once will not help. It is just a waste of time for everyone. I also liked that the book emphasized higher level word knowledge. Again, it means that students must work with words and own them, instead of simply memorizing them. I never thought about how learning bocabulary would also help the children learn stratagies that would help them learn words on their own later in life. This is really valuable because it helps them to become competent members of society. Finally, by involving the students in word activities, it again enforces that children really need to work with words and not just memorize them. I loved that this chapter enforced in many ways the importance of working with words, an offered suggestions as to how a teacher can successfully teach vocabulary.

Expanding Students' Knowledge of Words

This chapter in Tompkins was very interesting because it showed many different ways to teach vocabulary students. I thought that it was very interesting how it said that each year students learn 3,000 new words through reading, etc. At first hearing that made me think that many teachers may read this and then think that teaching vocabulary is not that important because it comes so naturally and it is not something that needs formal instruction. Unfortunately this is definitely not the case. Instruction on vocabulary is very important and is critical to students' reading development. Here is a vocabulary lesson I found online on Scholastic.com for teaching vocabulary about Roll of Thunder:

Vocabulary Builder for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Taken from Scholastic.com
After presenting these vocabulary words to students, have them make a chart like the one shown below. Ask them to list each word in the first column. Then students should think about their familiarity with each word and make a check in the appropriate column. If they can define the word, they should write the definition in the next column. Once the charts are completed, invite those who can define a word to do so for the rest of the class. Challenge these volunteers to use the words in sentences. Then direct students who did not previously check the second column to write the word's meaning in that column. After reviewing all the words, encourage students to go back and circle in red any words that they are still not sure of.

meticulously penchant verandah morosely
dubious obnoxious raucous fallow
careened exasperation despondently chignon
acrid ashen malevolently knell
amenities subdued emaciated shroud
proprietor disposition temerity snidely
concession monotonous reprimand plantation
noncommittal maverick crescendo boycott
languidly flaunting chiffonier insolently
reverberated adamantly resiliency feigned
lethargically imperiously moronic impaled
admonished interjected flaccid compassion

Week 9 post: Fluency and Critical Standards with Book Club

This week’s reading about assessing students and then also chapter 5’s topic of developing fluent readers were very useful readings for us as future teachers. I enjoyed reading all of the assessment techniques that Tompkins laid out in chapter 9 because there are many authentic assessments in there that I never would have thought of. Chapter 5 was most applicable to my field experience because many of those concepts, such as concepts of print, phonological awareness, letter recognition are ones that we focus on in my kindergarten classroom. Each day is filled with literacy in our classroom and we ALWAYS do lesson on concepts of print and letter identification multiple times a day. Many of the students in my class don’t yet understand letter-sound relationships and that skill determines whether or not the student is ready to move on to first grade next year. These skills are very basic and lay the foundation for the rest of the student’s education.
Many of the assessments that I saw in Chapter 9 were many that my CT uses with our students, or some that my professors in the College of Education have had us practice and become familiar with. I was very interested to see all the different notes about how to nurture English learners in their struggling during assessment. First, Tompkins talked about using an attitude and motivation survey to find out what makes them want to learn and also not using tests to assess these students, but rather portfolios that display their own samples of work or audio tapes that can record their words.
For my mini lesson I have chose to focus on the part in chapter 5 of the text when the children go to Strawberry with Big Ma. The mini lesson is designed for sixth grade students. First, we would discuss what “discrimination” is and why it is important. Next, I would put the students in groups of 3-4 and then give them a small piece of paper with a prompt on it that describes a situation. They will have 10 minutes to prepare a skit of their situation and present it to the front of the class. They will also be told that prior to presenting, they must decide if what their situation demonstrates is or is not a form of discrimination and why. Hopefully, this will allow me to further promote discussion among the class after each skit about what was happening. After each skit, we will talk more in depth about the situation in chapter 5 and how negatively it impacted Cassie and her siblings. The prompts I would give would be:
1. Blue eyes vs. Brown Eyes
2. Boys vs. Girls
3. Getting blamed for something your sibling did wrong
4. Cassie and Lillian Jean in Strawberry
5. Getting a poor score on a spelling test

Week 8: Genres and Comprehension Activities for ELLs

I thought that this week's readings were very interesting because they furthered by understanding about different genres of literature. I enjoyed being able to read about each one and as I did, I began to reflect on books that I read when I was younger that came to mind. For example, when Tompkins talked about Fantasy books I thought of how I loved reading Harry Potter when I was in Middle and High School. I also thought it was interesting how Tompkins also talked about poetry in the text. I remember when I was in sixth grade and we had a unit on poetry. I remember enjoying it very much, but the topic was never revisited after that. I think that all children need to be continuously surrounded by these types of texts in order to best understand them. In my kindergarten classroom, my CT has a very large classroom library for her students that are abundant with many books from all the genres that Tompkins talked about. Even though the students are so young that they have no idea what type of book they are looking at usually when they select one out to read, I have started to try to ask them questions, such as, "What is happening in the book you are reading?" or "Is that like real life, or do you think it's more pretend?" Even though this is very basic it gets them thinking about the text a little more than they normally do.
Also, the Gibbons article gave some great teaching suggestions for gaining comprehension with ESL students. I thought it was interesting how it suggested activities broken down into before, during, and after reading so that it is very easier for a teacher to keep organized so that they can be implemented. I have actually used many of these activities when I have tutored Korean ESL students the past 3 years. For example, I always have them predict what is going to happen based on the pictures and other parts of the book. Also, I always have them reiterate to me the plot, the setting, the characters, etc. just so that they become very familiar with these terms.
I found it very beneficial to create a graphic organizer for all of these chapters because even though each of the chapters addressed a different issue or topic, I was able to make important connections between the content, which made it much more meaningful for me as a learner.

Week 8 (March 2)

Creating Graphic organizers really helped me learn about the reading. First of all, it made me evaluate what was really important to write down. This caused me to look over all the information and evaluate its importance. To determine this, I had to see how each part connected with the others, and how significant it was in regards to the topic. I feel that I learned alot from doing several chapters at once, specifically Chapters 7 and 8 in Tompkins. They each delt with teaching comprehension, but one chapter delt with the reader, and the other detailed the text and how it impacts comprehension. Creating graphic orgainizers for these chapters at the same time really helped me compare and contrast these chapters in my head. I was able to make connections in how I organized the chapters, making it obvious how they are connected, and how one impacts the other.

As far as the reading go, I was very intrested in them. I felt like none of them were totally new information, but they presented information I knew in a way that I had never thought about before. For example, I had never realized how helpful it was to understanding headings or bolded text. I realized that I use both of these to help me understand and comprehend what I am reading, but I never thought about it before. This reading made it apparent to me what I do to understand what I read. This will make me a more effective teacher, because I will be aware of what I do, and be able to relate this information to my students.

I was amazed at what I learned from the Gibbons chapter. The different stratigies that people use to understand what they read are all based on personal knowledge or cultral knowledge. I feel like I knew this, but had never thought of it. This puts an English Language Learner at a great disadvantage. Not only do they have to struggle with the language, but they have not had the experiences they are reading about, and cannot relate to what they are reading. It is difficult to understand not because they are unable to comprehend, but because it is not relevant to them at all. This made me realize how important it is to challenge ELL students, and provide them with many MANY activities to supplement reading. I found the different activities in the book to be very helpful and useful.

Week 7

My lesson plans can improve by considering transitions and time. I have it in my head that lesson plans need to be chalk full when really they need to be organized and attainable. One feedback I always get from my CT is transitioning the students from the floor to their seats. I cannot simply tell the kindergardeners to move, I have to dismiss them in an organized manner to prevent chaos. This can be done by dismissing them individually, groups of two or who is sitting the "kindergarten way". 

The readings were very helpful in regards to working with students with learning disabilities. It is not unlikely that I could teach in a school where reading specialists jobs have been cut and I will have to work with these children. One thing the Carlisle article made very clear is to do lots of different activities. Reading and writing can be done way outside of the box which can help all types of learners including those who have a learning disability. One suggestion  was to do dramatic re-enactments of the story. I think this is a great idea because it allows for the students to be creative while still showing comprehension. Also, this allows for students to ask any questions they may have regarding the plot, setting, sequence of events etc. Re-enacting the story forces students to think what came next and how the characters reacted. 

I loved reading the Applegate article on all the types of profiles in comprehension. I had a hard time classifying myself in one specific category, but I'm a lot like a quiz contestant. I search for the correct answer but it may sometimes not be related to the story. I think organizing my thoughts onto paper helps to keep me on track. I enjoyed looking at the chart and reading about the different types of interventions that can be used. This will be important to think about as teachers so that we can try to assess students in the most beneficial way. 

Week 7 (February 23)

The readings today really made me evalute my own reading strateties. First, I was suprised not only how often I used the strategies the texts discussed, but how often I saw them used in the classroom. It was exciting for me. I was really able to understand the reading, because I could apply it to my experiences. For example, the Text described the reading process in five stages, Prereading, Reading, Responding, Exploring, and Applying. I have seen my teacher relate the readings to her life, and that of her students. I have seen her make predictions and apply stratigeies to help the children understand what they are reading. The children are always given time to respond to the text in both discussion and writing (or drawing). Then the children will work with the text to explore it, and then complete projects to apply what they have learned. It was exciting and rewarding to read the text and be able to connect it to what I have seen.

The text also helped me learn a great deal about comprehension and how to help readers who struggle with it. For example, I thought that comprehension was simply understand what one read. I never thought how background knolwedge or making inferences or motivation could influence comprehension. I have always wanted to do good in school, and have been very motivated in all areas, so I was suprised to see how this has helped me comprehend what I was learning. I took motivation for granite. It was intresting to see how teachers can influence students, espically in regards to motivation. The text pointed out how attitiude and community along with instruction are all ways that teachers can influence students positively, and encourage them to learn, makeing them successful at comprehending. The text really made it apparent that comprehending goes beyond relaying what the text says, but really understanding and working with the text to make it meaningful.

Finally, the Proflies in Comprehension text was very intresting. It made me aware of the differences in children and how they interperate the text. The article made me realize how children may appear to not understand what they are reading, but in reality they just do not know how to answer. I was excited to read the stratigies on how to help the different profiles acheive comprehenshion. These strategies seem helpful not only for the different proflies, but for all children in learning comprehension.

In all these ways, the texts have helped me understand more about comprehension and how to help children learn to the best of their ability.

Week 7: Reading, Comprehension, and Helping Students With Learning Disabilities

Today's articles were very interesting to me because they drew upon my experiences not only as a teacher in training, but also as a student and how I have come to learn and comprehend things as I have.
First, the Applegate article about Profiles in Comprehension really made me analyze my learning in the past. It was a little disappointing for me to learn that I think that I am a mix between a Fuzzy Thinker and an Author because even though I can always respond to questions in a fairly confident manner and can give short descriptions of the reasoning behind my answer, I am unable to explain my true meaning because I am too overly worried about seeing all the perspectives so that I have reached an "intelligent" and well-rounded conclusion. For each of the Comprehension profiles I was able to remember that description by lableing them with one of my friends or family members that has that profile and it was very interesting for me to see the differences. Seeing these differences was very important because we are going to have to deal with many differences in comprehension styles in our future classroom someday and it is crucial that we do our best to accommodate all of them.
The Carlisle article about helping children with learning disabilities was also very important because it is something that I face everyday when I go to placement in my kindergarten classroom where the students have not yet been tested for learning disabilities (LD). The author points out certain strategies that a teacher should use in order to best accommodate this type of students. First, it is crucial that there is collaboration between the student's mainroom teacher, the other teachers that work with him, and also the students' parents. When there is teamwork with all these 3 parts working together, there is more likely to be success. Second, regularly assess the students with learning disabilities, as well as the other students in the class and try very hard not to single out the students with LDs. Also, it is very important to use a variety of activities and tasks with these children where they are given the maximum amount of exposure to reading, writing, speaking, and other skills. The author also suggested to have the students pair up for work or become involved with group work so that they are able to collaborate with the minds of their peers. In addition to the strategies that Carlisle pointed out, the Tompkins text was also very informative on explaining different activites that a teacher should use to have a lot of variety in the classroom. Tompkins also mentioned group and pair work several times and how it is important to have purposeful discussions as a class to benefit all students. It is important to give students the best well-rounded view of all literature in order for them to fully comprehend it.
Finally, for our lesson plan, Michael Holter and I (who are in the same kindergarten room at Gier Park) are planning our lesson around the book The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. Our CT has helped us come up with multiple ideas to incorportate reading and writing into our lesson and will hopefuly gain suggestions from her to better our lesson plan for the final draft.

Week 2

After reading the first chapter if Gibbons as well as the assigned articles it is clear that no two children are the same. 5 students who are all ESL may each require a different teaching strategy and support system. We read in the Gibbons book about a girl who had been in America for 6 years and appeared fluent in English to her teachers and others who she was familiar with, but still struggled with unfamiliar faces and felt very timid speaking the language. I think this is very intriguing and we as future teachers need to recognize these students so if they ever struggle we know how to go about assisting them. 

Teaching to ELL learners in a mainstream classroom can be beneficial to everyone. It is important to be able to teach language and content at the same time which I think is a great challenge for teachers. As an Elementary teacher there will still be students in my classroom who have English as their primary language but still struggle speaking or writing correctly. Therefore, integrating language in with content or vice versa can only improve the speech and writing for everyone in the classroom. 

Week 6

Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCE's) are standards developed by the state governments that all schools need to abide by. The GLCE's are what ensures that all first graders across Michigan are learning the same concepts. These are helpful for teachers and parents. For teachers, we are able to look at the GLCE's for each subject and know what we need to be teaching about. These are helpful in planning our lessons and units. For parents, GLCE's are available to know what their child is learning in school. Also for the teacher/parent relationship, if a parent ever questions a teacher's doing, we can refer to the GLCE's for backup and reasonings behind our lessons. 

I enjoyed the articles we read this week especially because my placement is in a kindergarten classroom. The Marcus article was intriguing to me because I can completely see how as a teacher it would be easy to assume because one student is gifted in one area they are gifted in all and not learning to write was purely behavioral. However, as I was reading, I was thinking about in my classroom. At the kindergarten level the students all seem quite eager to learn. There is some frustration when a student cuts away from the line or can't make their picture look how they imagined in their head, but for the most part the students like to learn new things. This made me think that if I had a student that was unwilling to do something I would probably wonder if it was because the child was not able to. 

The Breitfleder article talked about how to accomidate early childhood. Entering school for the first time can be scary and having routines and daily things students can expect makes the adaptation easier. I see this everyday in my classroom. Although the centers the students do are different, they do them at the same time everyday and between each center the students "freeze" look at the chart, and know exactly where to go. I also see these visual supports in the morning time. Every morning the students go over the calendar and the weather. Also, before lunch they always line up in "abc" order. This helps the students adapt to school and feel comfortable because they know what to expect. 

Week 6 Post (February 17)

I really enjoyed these readings. From working in the child development lab, I have seen many of the visual supports described in the "Quick and Easy Adaptions and Accommodations for Early Childhood Students." I know not only what they look like, but I have seen how they work. Several of these visual supports, like the daily schedule and weather chart were used beginning on the first day of school. Other supports, like an individual chart with specific choices for free choice, and PECS books were implemented after school began. I was able to see how these tools affected the independence of one of the autistic boys in the classroom. Before these supports were used, he might wander around the room during free choice, or cry uncontrollably when he could not do what he wanted to. The chart helped him know what to expect for the day, and the individual choices helped him see what was available in the classroom and decide what he wanted to do. The PECS book helped him communicate how he was feeling and what he needed, allowing the teachers to cater to his needs and be more effective in calming him down because the teachers now knew what he was feeling. Both of these options GREATLY increased his independence in the classroom. I was also excited to read about these supports, because I feel like we have not had much guidance as to how to best include children with special needs in our classroom. This chapter provided many useful ideas that I have seen work. Because the chapter detailed how to make each visual aid, I feel confident not only in how to use them, but how to create them and make them fit my classroom perfectly.

I was intrigued by the reading on Marcus. What still haunts me from this reading is the passage, "However, because of the gifted characteristics of Marcus demonstrated, his slowly developing fine-motor control was interpreted as stubbornness and poor attitude. The expectations in the gifted class placed heavy pressures on him to perform in writing, which he was not physically able to do." (Emphasis added) This reminded me of something very important. Just because children excelled in one area does not mean they will excel in all areas. Because Marcus was so gifted in some areas, teachers assumed that he could do everything, he just didn't want to. In reality he did not want to because he did not want to fail. Having this misconception caused many negative feelings between Marcus and his teacher, to the point that his parents moved him to a different school. If that teacher would have challenged herself to believe that Marcus wanted to write, and that the problem was not his attitude but another factor, perhaps he would have had a more pleasant school experience. If his teacher was able to explore how he could write, or how he felt about writing verse telling stories, or differentiated instruction in anyway, she could have learned that Marcus physically could not do what she was asking him to do. This would cause anyone frustration. This points out how important it is to meet the needs of all students and become really in tune to what they can and cannot do, and what they enjoy. This will make us all better more effective teachers.

Week 6 Post: Differentiated Instruction

Learning about the Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCE's) are a necessity for teachers. The GLCE's are guidelines that are compsed by the state government for teachers to use as assistance for planning lessons. These guidelines were very well thought-out and carefully implemented. These guidelines are organized by grade level so that a teacher is able to look at the grade level that they are teaching, as well as the GLCE's for the year prior and following to know what also needs to be touched on in the classroom. The combination of the benchmarks and standards are what the lesson plans of a teacher should revolve around. As a future teacher, we have had a great deal of experience with this document, especiallly when planning lessons.
The articles for today, Marcus' story and the Breitfleder article, both are written about adaptations and accommodations for special students in the classroom. The Marcus article was very intriguing to me because of this child's story of going from a student who appeared to be gifted to one that actually needed special assistance. In addition, the Breitfleder article about how to accommodate early childhood had some great ideas for my future classroom. Many of the ideas in this article are things that my CT already does in our classroom, which is very interesting because the students are so young (kindergarten). I asked my CT why she uses these strategies in her classroom and she told me that it is for a couple different reasons. First, she does many of the things from the article, such as a daily calendar, schedule, and special helper, because the students are in kindergarten and they need some type of predictability and organization in their lives because it is their first year. Second, she also told me that she uses these strategies in particular because due to the students' young age they have not been tested for learning disabilities yet, so it is possible that some of her students possess a L.D. My CT told me that by using these strategies she is able to assist in the future L.D. students' learning by trying to accommodate them the best that she can. The strategies written by Breitfleder are very important for me as a future teacher to read and understand how to implement because it is very probable that many of the students' in my future classroom will be in serious need of these techniques and strategies. It is our job as teachers to do what we can for our students and these techniques are simple strategies that can be implemented to make a huge difference.
Finally, I read chapter 1 of Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry for this week. So far the main characters are Cassie, Little Man, their siblings, their teacher, and Mama. The children are at their first day of school and the first and fourth grade rooms are put together with the same teacher, so Cassie and Little Man are in the same room. Little Man, who is typically very well-behaved and respectful, throws a tantrum when he opens up his textbook to find negative notes about his race inside. He refuses the book, as well as Cassie, and both students get in big trouble, while their teacher sees no problem with this unjustice.

Week 5 Post: Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants

This week's articles and topics were very interesting to me because they address the issue of changes over time in education. First, the concept of digital natives versus digital immigrants was one that made me reflect very deeply on my own schooling as a young child. I can vividly remember the very first time I used the internet and it was in the fourth grade. Prior to that year, we had a computer class once a week to get us familiar with this "new" form of technology. After fourth grade, we starting having computer class twice a week to learn all the things that could be found on the web and how it would be useful to our education. Since elementary, I have always tried to keep up with the latest technology, but there are now too many things out there to learn to know everything there is to know. One great thing I have done is enrolled in the CEP 416 course here at the university to try to improve my computer and internet skills. Even though I have always tried my best, I was shocked to find that I only knew 2 of the terms on the Digital Natives quiz. Even though I was very limited in my knowledge on that quiz, I do consider myself more of a native than an immigrant with technology because I have constantly been around it since a very young age. Becoming "literate" in digital technology is a process that has many similarities with the process of becoming literate described in Tompkins book.
I found Tompkins information to be very interesting because it made me remember back to when I was learning how to read and write. Even though there are some components of my learning that I don't remember learning vividly, such as phonetics, I was able to relate to Tompkins' work by reflecting on my learning of the Spanish language still to this day. The strength of Tompkins piece is that it covered all the parts of becoming literate, not just speaking, writing, reading, and listening seperately. I really enjoyed the illustrations and found this chapter to be very useful for my future students' learning. In addition to Tompkins, Gibbons book on Scaffolding Language and Learning was also very interesting because it made me realize that there are a variety of ways to teach language arts to children. I can remember that each year in language arts my teacher would have us complete a certain number of book reports, a certain number of papers, and always work on spelling and grammar. Those assignments always turned me away from language arts because they seemed so boring to me. Gibbons' ideas for how to let students be creative and how to vary the assignments were very interesting to me. With the No Child Left Behind Act and such strict time constraints, teachers have been more reluctant to allow their students to be creative in order to prepare their students to pass the state tests. In the long run, as Gibbons points out, allowing students to have a more well-rounded creative experience with language arts will actually make them become more literate and perform just as well on state tests. By utilizing the information found in the readings from this week, I look forward to experimenting with a variety of teaching strategies and lessons to create strong levels of literacy in my future students.

Week 1 blog entry

My personal experiences in Language Arts have a direct influence on my teaching ideas. I have had really positive experiences in Language Arts throughout my schooling and I think that has built my confidence a lot. Also I have been in LA classes that are very organized, structured as well as free writing classes so have seen that LA can be taught in various ways. 

I found that I do better in classes where I can integrate personal thoughts and experiences into my writing. For example when reading a book in high school we had to compare an event in the story to an even in our own lives. We then had to write about how the events were similar, how we handled the event compared to the character. I remember loving this project because it was personalized. As an educator, this is a great way to see what the student took away from the book, test their comprehension skills, as well as make the student think deeper and relate the story to an outside source. I want to be able to do this in my classroom and I think it can be done at all levels of teaching. Students love to tell stories and allowing them to personalize work I think will make them put more effort and time into their final project. 

I really did not like multiple choice questions about a book. I always found when I knew i was going to have a quiz over a book or a multiple choice test I read differently because I was scared to miss details. I often ended up missing major points because I was too worried about what color hair the main character had. I also prefer deadlines. I hated being handed a book and having to have the entire thing done by a certain date. I'm a slow reader as well as a procrastinator so the combination always landed me in trouble. When I need students to have a book read, I will give them mini deadlines to keep them on track.

As far as our learning community, I think we have very diverse learners. We have students in our classroom who are all striving to be teachers, but at different levels and are specializing in different subject areas. Also, we have students who came from large school in GR and Detroit area and students who came from small local schools. We saw from the first day drawings that we have learners who love to travel, read, play sports, listen to music etc. Interests affect how we will run our classrooms and it is great to be able to have a community of diverse learners and share ideas!

Week 5

I thought the Digital Natives in the Classroom article was interesting. I took the quiz and was only able to define two of the terms, but I think I am more of a Native than an Immigrant. A digital native is one who has been brought up using technology and is fluent and confident in the various uses of the internet, video games, mtv etc. A digital immigrant, however, is generally someone older than 30 who was not brought up in an age where technology was prevalant. 

I remember in early elementary school using computers. We had a computer lab that we went to once a week and played math munchies and oregon trail. Although I did no have a computer at my house at the time, nor did I really need one to complete school work, I was being introduced to technology. Although I was only able to define two of the terms, I feel that I have had enough experience with technology that I am able to navigate my way and figure out how to work websites or new technologies based on my experiences. This would make me a digital native. 

In the classroom, I think it is important to recognize that technology is very appealing to students. Although video games and looked heavily down upon, when students are brought up with technology it is important for us as educators to figure out ways to integrate in the classroom. In regards to technology in the classroom the article quotes "In 2001 the second highest ranked course among Executive MBA students at Harvard Business School was a simulation used to teach global logistics". This proves that video games in sense, and other technologies can influence learning in a positive way.

My only worry as a future teacher is that students will stray away from reading books. I see it now with my brother who is in third grade. It is like pulling teeth to get him to read for pleasure rather than playing his video games. My goal as a teacher is to get my students to read for fun and enjoy it as well. Although technology is fun and exciting we can't forget about the simple pleasures of a book :)

Week 5 (February 9)

After reading for this week, I became very interested in "The Curriculum Cycle." I always believed that children would be more involved in their writing if they had open assignments. It was my belief that they would be able to turn the assignment to their interest, allowing them to become extremely involved. However, "The Curriculum Cycle" changed this belief.
It first got me thinking when it said, "It would be foolish to suggest that good writers are unaware of traditional narrative writings; indeed, it is precisely this awareness that allows them to exploit and manipulate their writing in new ways, and to make conscious choices about how they write." This really opened my eyes. I love reading novels, and I love exploring different writers. Although they are all novels, each author provides me with a different experience because they write in different ways. It is interesting and intriguing to me. How will my students be able to change the 'typical' writing styles to make them their own and to make them interesting, just like the authors I love to read, if they never learn the 'typical' writing styles. I also loved how this approach was so inclusive. It wasn't just a small lesson, but a whole unit. I saw how this approach could easily be used to support a social studies or science unit. We could research different colonies, or write and complete science experiments using "The Curriculum Cycle." Finally, I loved how it is helpful to all students. Not only students learning English, but other students who have not been exposed to different genres of literature benefit from "The Curriculum Cycle." Instead of just assuming that they know how to write, teachers can guide their exploration, making the learning meaningful and interesting. When the children gain a mastery of the cycle, they will gain confidence and appreciation for writing. If the children were just told to write like they always do, they will take no value in their writing, because they will have no learning to compare it to.

I also enjoyed reading the mini lessons in the Tompkins book. The mini lessons took what the book was teaching me, and applied them in a real life situation. This made the learning meaningful, as I was able to see how to apply the lessons, and see why they work. I remember learning about phonemic awareness. I hated every minute of it, feeling it was dull and boring. The mini lessons showed how to make segmenting, blending and rhyming words interesting and meaningful to children. Finally, I like how the book criticized spelling tests. I did terrible on spelling tests my entire elementary career. I like that the book gave suggestions on how to make spelling meaningful to the students. Instead of a random list of words, the text suggested choosing a large list of words that the children are exposed to in the literature they are working with, and then allowing the children to pick which words they would like to use. This way the students feel personally responsible for their spelling list, because they see the words in other areas, and they were involved in making their specific list.

Week 4 Blog Post (Febuary 1st)

The articles made it apparent how teachers need to learn about each child and where they are in terms of literacy development. Because children start learning literacy when they are born, their first literacy lessons come from thir parents. This means that each child enters school with a different level of literacy. It is necessary for teacher to understand this and adapt their classrooms to meet the needs of all children from varying backgrounds and varying levels.
I was both intregued and excited to see how teachers structure their classrooms to support literacy development. After reading how exposing children to the same text several times can increase their understanding of the text and their confidence reading, I was suprised. I never thought about this point. I thought that reading the same text several times would be boring and pointless, but as the article continued to discuss how beneficial it is for children, espically those learning english as a second language. I was most impressed with the different learning groups. By putting children in specific groups, the teacher was able to give a level of insturction most approptiate for the children. All the children would be working with the same text, but discussing it and working with it in different ways. It instantly became evident to me how beneficial this is. I also liked that all the children were working with the same text. This could prevent stigatism of different leveled groups.
The article that discussed learning centers was also very intresting to me. I loved how the children could choose what activity to do. By setting up the classroom this way, the children were able to do what they felt comfortable doing and what they enjoyed. This puts them incharge of their own learning. They will be more engaged and take more from the activity when it is meaningful for them. Also, the centers gave children the chance to explore something new. The children could move at their own pace and try and fail alone, without being compared to the rest of the class (if they were all doing the same activity at the same time.) If it took a child longer to complete the activity at the center than other, it could appear that the child is simply very engaged or doing more work with a single activity. I feel that this learning environment would be very comfortable for all learners, espically those with learning disibilities or those learning language as a second language.

Week 4 Blog Post

The topic of emergent literacy was one that I was quite unfamiliar with because I had always seen the topic as one that applies more to Child Development majors. I realize now, though, that the topic is very important for me as an Elementary teacher as well. By definition, emergent literacy is the process by which young children begin the process of learning how to read and write. This usually occurs within the child's home environment within the family and continues through pre-school and a little bit beyond. It is very interesting to think about how children develop as readers and writers. When they are young, children often babble and try to imitate what the people around them are saying. We see this often when parents try to get their babies to call them by name saying "momma" or "daddy". As children grow, these learning patterns are extended to different facets of reading and writing. For example, many children may ask, "what is this?" because they want to learn new vocabulary for speaking. In addition, they may try to write or draw pictures to imitate people they see writing. It is very interesting to see the writing development of a child because it often follows a sequence of scribbling, simple letters, and then words, and often including simple words they know how to spell, such as "cat" or "dog". In order to provide an environment for emergent literacy, parents and teachers should talk to the children and inform them of certain words and vocabulary, as well as daily routines. Always challenge the child's limits and try to introduce them to as many new things as possible. In addition, encourage them to read books and talk a lot, and to also draw pictures and attempt writing. Challenge them to draw a picture about a story that they know and then force them to explain it to you to build reading comprehension skills. For teachers especially to build literacy within their learners they should try to find a variety of activities for their students to do to become literate. Make sure that they have a variety of experiences with reading, writing, listening, and speaking in order to get a balanced level of literacy.
Cultural capital is also another subject touched on in the reading. Due to the great amount of diversity in the world now, we are all exposed to different cultures each day. Cultural capital refers to the experiences that each child brings with them to a situation that allows them to succeed more than someone from a different background. For example, Americans are typically more familiar with everyday life in the USA than non-US residents, so when there are ESL learners in the classroom, they may have trouble understanding slang words that Americans understand fine. Another example that is more personal for me happened when I studied abroad in Spain last summer. When I went to school in Spain, I was very inexperienced with the schooling and way of life there, so it was much more difficult for me than the other Spanish students. With more cultural capital, I would have been able to participate in those classes closer to the high level of participation I have in our class today.

Week #3 Blog Post

This week's reading were interesting because they addressed the differences between recitations and discussions. I had honestly never thought about the two being different from each other until reading the articles, and then quickly realized that even though they are both different, I find them both beneficial. Even though recitations are more teacher-directed situations, I think these are, in some ways, more beneficial to the shy learners who experience high anxiety during discussion. For these individuals, class discussion may cause so much stress that they are unable to focus on the actual topics of discussion and what is relevant for comprehension. On the other hand, Almasi points out benefits of discussion within the classroom by stating that, "discussions of literature may be viewed as a social environment in which students can witness how group members work together to collaboratively construct meaning while also participating in the process" (p.43). The author also goes on to say how readers comprehend material much better if they are able to talk and discuss it aloud. If the teacher presents an idea to the class, the discussion will form around the topic, but then branch off to other areas to demonstrate other viewpoints. I see a healthy mix of recitation and discussion in my kindergarten class each week. My CT will sometimes ask students questions and they will answer as a whole and that will be the end of it as soon as the question is answered. Other times (and I feel this has a lot to do with the age group of my students) the CT will ask about a topic and the children will go off on tangents to start a discussion. For example, this past week my CT asked the students to describe the weather outside to her. When one student did this accurately, our CT began to move on, but other students starting chiming in about what snow is and what temperature is, which led my CT to give a science talk. When students do not participate in the conversations, my CT often scaffolds the discussion for certain shy learners. For example, she will call on them and ask them simple questions, or prompt these students by telling them what she is going to ask next, etc.
My field experience connect well with Goldenberg's article about instructional conversation. The author states that an instructional conversation is one that is engaging to the students in order to maximize comprehension and understanding. By gaining children's interest in conversation, they are typically more willing to be a part of the discussion and learn more in the long run. In my classroom I have seen this many times when my CT really "gets into" what she is teaching. For example, she incorporates her own personal experiences with the topic that they are talking about or tells stories to make the issue more personable. This article interested me because when I reflect on the teachers that most impacted me throughout my schooling career, it was the ones who had the strongest and most powerful instructional conversations.

Week 2 Blog Post

This week’s readings were very interesting to me because my minor in Elementary Education is TESOL and so they were especially applicable to me as a future teacher of ESL students. The first article written about how to assess English Language Learners (ELLs) in a mainstream classroom was very interesting because I had never read anything like this before. The article stated that, as a teacher, it is very important to understand where each student is coming from and what their background in literacy is because each student is different. I thought that one of the most interesting points that Lenski made was that even though ELLs are most time categorized into one homogeneous group, there are actually many sub-categories within these students, which makes them much more heterogeneous. I also enjoyed how the article gave suggestions for how teachers can effectively assess ESL students in a more authentic way. By using journals, portfolios, and self-assessments, a teacher is able accurately assess a student in a way that is much more well-rounded and shows true levels of ability. This will also be a more personable approach because it will help the teacher get to know her students better individually by these assignments.
The article by Maples was also very intriguing to me because I had never heard of a teacher assigning homework to the parents. This article made me think a lot about the situation with parents in my field placement classroom because many of the students have no support from their guardians and do not have role models. I was very shocked by the large amount of response that the teacher received! I could never imagine that much response happening in my classroom. I do think, though, that this technique is definitely something that I am going to use for my future classrooms because it really gives you as a teacher a good look into where these students are coming from.
In regards to codeswitching it is very intriguing to see what a teacher can do to promote this. In my TE 494 class we are also learning about this topic and it is very interesting to me to see how powerful a teacher's feedback can be to their students. On the other hand, we also learned from the reading how hurtful the teacher can be to the learner when he or she does NOT give any feedback to the learner. For example, if a teacher returns a paper to an ESL student with only a grade at the top without any comments, the learner is not going to learn from his or her mistakes. On the other hand, it the teacher provides multiple comments, the learner may use those constructively to better their papers in the future. When I become a teacher, I will try my best to give a lot of feedback to each of my students. In addition, if it is possible I will encourage my students to meet with me after each assessment so that we can discuss the mistakes that were made and make constructive improvements for the future.
After reading the syllabus for this course, my goals are 1.) to learn how to teach Language Arts in new, innovative ways to students and 2.) to learn how to accommodate all learning styles with Language Arts, especially those who tend to dislike the subject.

Week 1 Blog Entry

I think that our own experiences with learning language arts have a big effect on our ideas on teaching and learning. Typically people enjoy things more that they are good at and don't enjoy things as much that they aren't as good at. Therefore, it is likely that someone who really enjoyed language arts in school would put more of a focus on it when teaching it because they may think that others will enjoy it that much as well. I think this is a really important thing to think about, though, because not all students enjoy the same things, so it is important that the teacher does not let his or her beliefs interfere too much with their teaching. For example, I have had teachers before that push what they like or what they specialize in onto the rest of the class and EVERYTHING we did in the class related in some way to the topic that the professor was an expert in. In my opinion, that is not giving students the well-rounded knowledge that is crucial to their development. For me personally, even though I really enjoy language arts because it comes easier to me than other subjects, I will try very hard not to push that on my students because not all people share the same feelings that I do about the subject. For the question regarding our learning community, I am a little unsure of what the question is asking, but I am going to assume that it means the learning community that we have in our TE 402 classroom. Our learning community is composed of all people that have a desire to teach younger children and even though we are very different in age, each of us has something valuable to contribute to our colleagues. In our learning community of TE 402 we are very diverse even though it may not seem like it at a glance. Even though we are all in the Elementary Ed. program at MSU, we have all had different experiences that brought us to where we are today. For example, for some of our colleagues, this is their second degree. For others, they are starting a family or have their own family already. Others are married. Others come from another country. Even more general, we are diverse in what we want to teach and how we learn ourselves.

Blog Entry For Week 3

Comparing and contrasting discussions and recitations was useful in understanding how teachers can structure their lessons to make learning most meaningful to students. It was most evident how both discussions and recitations have benefits and drawbacks. After completing the reading, I believe that it is necessary to include both types of instruction in the classroom. However, it is also necessary to know how both types of instruction differ. For example, discussion is useful for students to share ideas and learn different view points. If I want my students to share ideas and learn what other are thinking, it is important that I am creating a discussion, and not asking them questions with single answers that I respond to. If I do not know what a discussion is, then I might think I am creating one when in reality I am not. To ensure that I am giving children an appropriate mix of discussions and recitations, then it is essential that I know what each type of instruction includes.
In my classroom, I am seeing a mix of both discussion and recitation. There are times where the children recall facts, and other times where they are asked to share their ideas, or any connections they may have between real life experiences, and the text. Often the head teacher shares her personal experiences, creating discussion and modeling how children can internalize the text.
It is obvious that the children have had practice with both types of instruction. The teacher uses cues as to the questions she asks, to help the children know what type of response is expected of them. She also will physically change how the children are sitting (by having them move to groups). When this happens, it is a cue to the children that they will be discussing their ideas in these small groups, and not recalling facts. Fact recall is more common during social studies, when all the children are in their assigned seats.
In order to ensure that all children talk and share their ideas, my head teacher often has the children share in small groups, or do quick writes. This way those children who are not comfortable sharing with the entire class can share in a more comfortable, private way. My teacher may also "beg" and ask different students to share their thinking. When doing this, she often re-assures the children that she wants to know what they are thinking or what they are doing, so that she can understand if they are getting the right ideas, or where they need help. After she states how she just wants to know, and that she will not judge them based on how correct or incorrect the answers are, then the students are more willing to share.

Blog Entry for Week 2 (January 19-23)

After completing the readings, it is apparent that each child and each learning situation is unique. There are many ways to support diverse learners in a learning community. First of all, it is important to ensure that the assessment a teacher is giving is right for what the teacher wants to learn. If a teacher wants to check a language learners knowledge of a new language, then the teacher should use a different assessment than if they want to learn what a language learner knows about the content of the material being taught in class. In order to fully understand what the child knows about CONTENT, then the teacher may have to assess the language learn differently than those who speak the native language. This is supported when the first article states, "An overwhelming majority of assessment tools are in English only, presenting a potential threat to the usefulness of assessments when ELL's lack of English prevents them from understanding test items." (Assessing English-Language Learners in mainstream classrooms, Susan Lenski)
Another reading (Opening Quality Lines of Communication: Seeing my students through the eyes of their parents) pointed out how one can learn a great deal about children and their learning styles from their parents. Parents know their children better than any teacher, because they see their children all the time, and have been with them since they were little. When one teacher had the parents write about their children, she learned information about them that would have taken a year to learn, if she had ever learned it at all. Instantly she was able to cater her lessons to what the children liked and were interested in. She also knew which children were experts in what. Finally, she knew more about their personalities, so she was able to structure her lessons to meet their diverse learning styles. It was exciting how parent can be an excellent source when learning what support diverse learners need.
Yet another article (Code switching: Tools of Language and Culture Transform the dialectally Diverse Classroom) points out how teaching English is not only beneficial to English language learners, but to all the children in the class as well. The children in the class will better understand their language, and how languages are similar and different. By making children competent in their own language, they feel competent and confident. They are able to determine what is appropriate at what time, just like they learn what dress is appropriate for different occasions.
All of the articles point out how there is no one way to teach language to children. It is important to learn about students and their thought process when teaching. This may come from checking assessments to ensure that they are checking exactly what a teacher is looking for, asking the parents for help and information, or from observing how all children can benefit from comparing and contrasting two different languages. The last text we read, from the book Scaffolding Language and Learning, points out how teachers can learn about children and their language from talking with them. Specifically, when teachers understand how language is structured, they will be able to identify strengths the children have, and then use these strengths to help children in areas they need improvement.

First Post

This is a test post. Just testing to see if Stephanie and Katie can access the blog, comment on each others posts and what not! I'm yet to do the reading, so once I finish them I will post. But quick question, we all three post, then what? We comment on each other? Do we comment on all posts or just one? 

Thats all! Happy Wednesday!

Jessie