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| Happy Holidays, one and all! |
| 12.22.03 (9:01 pm) [edit] |
May your holiday be filled with joy and peace,
Nancy Peralta
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| All I want for Christmas................Part 2 |
| 12.21.03 (11:04 am) [edit] |
Well, here it is, my box of supplies for IraqiSchools.com. It contains paper, 30 pencils, sheet protectors, markers, glue, tape, rubber bands, pens, file folders, a binder, post-its, paper clips, 3 x 5 cards and word cards, rulers, crayons, antiseptic hand cleaner, band-aides, shampoo, toothpaste with brush, assorted snack size chocolates, and gum. I'm going to inquire about books in english for future shipment.
[image]npera2_51830977.jpg[/image] Yesterday, we had neices and nephews over to bake cookies, and play games. (I got slaughtered playing Mancala--and I'm the one that taught them to play!) They saw the box I'm sending to Iraq and asked about it. My oldest nephew, age 12, asked why I was sending supplies to the "bad guys." I asked the group if they thought Iraqi kids might consider them the "bad guys." One of my neices replied, "We didn't make the war. We're just kids!" All the others chimed in "Yeah." So I asked if they thought the Iraqi kids "made the war." Several replied, "No." (One said, "The bosses of us did.") This led us into a discussion about how the country has to rebuild, about what happens in their own schools when they don't have enough books, desks, etc., and what they think it's like in a war torn country when you go to school but there are no books, papers, pencils, etc. We ended with the idea that perhaps we cannot change the whole world in one fell swoop, but we can help make things better person to person. And, helping others helps us, too, because a world where everyone has what they need will be a safer world for everyone. They asked if I would take a picture of them with the box and post it on SuperThinker's blog so that "other kids will think about it, too." Check them out, with the box, at BlogHeads.
I've decided to send a box per month, no matter how big or small, as my personal way of connecting with a teacher who is far away and struggling in ways I cannot even imagine. [b]Whether a one time thing, or an ongoing commitment, I hope other teachers will consider sending supplies to IraqiSchools.com. As Mike Arnzen commented, "Teaching is future-directed; helping other teachers across the planet helps the future of the planet." [/b]
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| All I want for Christmas is................CHALK!?!! |
| 12.14.03 (5:56 pm) [edit] |
It's a rainy California day and I've spent the morning organizing the materials that I need for next week while cooking up a big pot of "cocido" (a mexican style beef soup that's DELICIOUS). The house smells sooooo good--it's warm inside, the dogs are bathed and laying around, and my fiance is humming christmas songs. Life is good. I have so much to be appreciative for. After a piping hot bowl of cocido (with just enough chili), I log in to Bloglines and find Mike Arnzen's post Gun and Pencil: Book Buyback for Baghdad?
What the Iraqi people have lost is amazing, and so unimaginable to me, looking out from my plentiful life. But this post really brings it home. Schools are a shambles--without books, chalkboards and chalk--and rebuilding will take a long time. In the meantime, students and teachers need help. Mike's post provides many informative links, including Iraqi Schools.com. A grassroots volunteer project helping Iraqi children, the site provides those who are interested with a list of student and teacher needs, and instructions on how to donate materials:
"What do Teachers Need? A Reply from Major Softy:
I think sponsoring a teacher would be a great idea. Teachers here are no better off than their students. When we arrived, they were one of the lucky ones if they had a piece of chalk. Thanks to everyone's efforts so far, the situation is improving, but still a long way to go. We have been making teachers boxes from the items we have received for the children. The only thing distinguishing the teacher from the students is the obvious age difference. They are in just as bad a shape as the students."
Immediately I decided to sponsor a teacher. I explained this to my fiance who was supportive at first, then got so riled up he grumbled,"I can't believe that American teachers, who aren't paid well, and already buy supplies for their own classrooms, are being put in the position of supporting Iraqi schools. What all you teachers need to do is write to the CEO's of the corporations that made the bombs we dropped and ask them to open up their padded wallets and send supplies. I don't know whether to feel proud of you teachers for taking action or ashamed that our country doesn't sufficiently value OUR teachers or fund OUR schools."
Whoa--huge issues, and right now all I know is that I have everything I need and more. Our own struggles to get school funding will continue, specially now that so many states are buckling under the weight of our federal deficit. (fittingly, a rerun of Saturday Night Live with REM singing "I'm pushing an elephant up the hill..." is playing on t.v.). Perhaps I can't single-handedly change the world but I can think of nothing more meaningful to me during this, the season of giving, than sponsoring an Iraqi teacher. And damnit-all, that's what I'm gonna do!
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| Dr. Strangeblog...or How I learned to stop worrying and love the blog |
| 12.11.03 (1:38 pm) [edit] |
Yesterday I led a 1 hr. workshop for teachers interested in using a shared journal space on my tabulas blog, which I've titled Reflective Learning, to collaborate and reflect on our literacy work. They were very receptive but the blogging itself was strange. I’ve been touting blogging as the easiest internet publishing EVER, but of course, nothing worked right yesterday. Teachers were able to log on to the Airport base (shhhh...don’t tell) but I wasn’t. This was my first time taking a group onto a shared blog and I didn’t realize that multiple bloggers using the same username and password would either have their entry kicked out OR the entry would post strangely--no username posted on a few entries and the comment page for those posts shows as a broken link!?! But, you know what? I ended up LOVING it!
Teachers had fun with it. They liked seeing their words online and trying to comment on someone else’s post. It’s the nature of the blog; just love what you can do with it! You feel that anything’s possible ‘cuz you’re the creator of your blog! Even with all the glitches and silliness, the teachers WANT to take the professional development class on blogging that I’ll teach next month. You gotta love that!
Lesson learned. Make the first time memorable and fun, even if you fumble around. That way, you won’t shy away from the next time—you’ll look forward to it. Hmmm...sounds strangely familiar...
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| Welcome new tool AND back to old school... |
| 12.07.03 (9:42 pm) [edit] |
I just read Alberto's post on his excellent resource EducationalWeblogs in which he provides a link to InkLog, a new ink enabled blog site. Woo-Hoo! Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout! This is just the thing I've been waiting for. When used in the elementary classroom: Students can post without having to learn keyboarding, AND, they can easily post drawings and diagrams! (In theory of course--I've gotta try it out first.)
Oh yeah--just one little problem. I had to give back my tablet pc! Damn--bad timing. Well, I will not be defeated. I WILL find a way to get my hands on another tablet pc and try it out!
BTW, this post was brought to you the old school way--keyboarding. Well, the semi-old school way--keyboarding mixed with Q-Pointer, a great voice enabled software that allows you to voice enable any program (net browsers, word processors, photo editing--yes, any software)! You simply speak to click, surf, dictate, and keyboard using a headset. (Helps relieve wrist pain.)
And finally, I've received many questions about my blogs over the last month. Am I "rocky" from Learn,Teach,Learn...,repeat, npera1 from BlogHeads and npera2 from his site. The answer is yes. Why the name "rocky?" Check out my answer at Learn,Teach,Learn...,repeat.
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| Yo man, I got your highly qualified teacher right here... |
| 12.02.03 (10:17 pm) [edit] |
Oh no they dint! I heard that the powers that be are working on a scheme to require all previously credentialed teachers to take the same horrible exams new teachers have to take (MSAT) in order to satisfy the NCLB highly qualified teacher mandates. Give me a break! Is the thinking behind this bright idea that a highly trained and very experienced teacher (let's say 10 to 20 years teaching K-4) should go back to school, bone up on Trig and Physics that she'll never use, and pay several hundred dollars to take the multi-hour long and very stressful exam so that--viola--she emerges "highly qualified?" I actually heard the argument that new teachers who pass the test are better prepared to teach than experienced teachers because the latter "refuse" to learn new techniques and content! Huh? Untrue in my experience, and as a Literacy Coach I go into all our classrooms and observe experienced and new teachers. Our school is down the street from a major university and we often have 6-10 student teachers, so I see the whole gamut. Why not just call us "old dogs" since it's assumed we can't "learn new tricks."(BTW, most new teachers I know take the test 4-6 times before passing and are given multiple copies of the exam application up front so they can get a head start on "bubbling" them since odds are they will retake several times. Don't even ask about the expense.)
Well, take a look at one of our very experienced teachers who is HIGHLY QUALIFIED in my book! She continues to hold high expectations for herself as well as her students, even though she's close to retiring. She wasn't very tech savvy but as part of the Reading First Grant, she received a new iBook in August. Within 3 months--She figured out how to go wireless, purchased a cell phone with built in camera to take pictures of teacher and student artifacts which she emails to her online photogallery, and carries around her flash drive so she can share/collaborate with others! During recess she taught ME how to take a pic with her phone, record audio on it, and email it to myself-- from her phone! I'm just BEAMING with pride--YOU GO GIRL! [image]npera2_1382170785.jpg[/image] If we really want highly qualified teachers who can teach to the future, let's spend the money on training and supplying them with the tools of the trade, not satisfying paperwork mandates with pointless requirements. So, here's to you Ms. O--HIGHLY COOL!
Psssst! Don't tell anyone. Seems somebody let Ms. O. know (accidentally, of course) that someone on campus has an AirPort Base Station in their room and isn't sharing. Apparently, Ms. O. was able to connect to the station (purely accidental--oops), so now 1st grade can hold grade level meetings in a downstairs classroom and, um, accidentally work online together. Now, keep THIS one under your hat, okay?--I hear this accident is contagious and may spread to grades 2 and 3 (but you didn't hear it from me). (Here's the pic I accidentally took when she accidentally connected to the base station.)
[image]npera2_851695638.jpg[/image]
On a sad note, this is my last blog post on my Tablet PC. I'd like to thank Gateway from the bottom of my techie little heart for allowing me to love--er, I mean "evaluate"--the tablet for several months. Here goes (*sniffles*) my last stylus click (*grabbing kleenex*) as I post a farewell screen shot of my beloved tablet (*dabs tear and hums "The Way We Were"*)
[image]npera2_1371181699.jpg[/image]
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