Welcome to Essentials of Writing! We look forward to working and learning with you. In order for everyone to get the most out of the course, please be sure to read and respond to each others comments.Please try to keep your responses within one allotted "comment" space to ensure that the blog remains manageable for all participants.
Also, you may want to type your comments in a Word Document and either copy from Word and paste onto the blog or save it in a folder on your computer and then post it to the blog. I have written a couple of lengthy comments that I lost before I was able to post it to the blog. This extra step may save you some frustration later on this term.
Last of all, we will write our comments to your posts on the blog, so you will need to check back to the corresponding week for feedback (and to make additional comments if you wish.)
Let us know if you have any questions. You can email us, but please put the words "Question for Essentials of Writing" in the subject line so that we can respond in a timely fashion.
ASSIGNMENT ONE: Post your Introduction to the course Blog.
Introduction Post- Tell us about yourself. Where do you teach? What grade do you teach? How long have you been teaching? How many students are there in your class? Do you have instructional support? What does your current literacy program look like? (If you aren’t currently teaching let us know.) What is your knowledge/training in the area of literacy (be specific about your experiences teaching writing?) Does your district provide training in literacy –especially writing? If so, what exactly have they offered? Has your district been bogged down with getting students to perform well on state writing assessments – prompts? How do you feel about teaching? Are you happy at work? Also, let us know a little about you outside of the classroom: Interests/ Hobbies/Family Life? What do you hope to get out of this course? Post your reflection to the blog.
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My name is Tricia Zielinski. I am a native Oregonian and have lived in Oregon most of my life. When my husband was in the military we were lucky enough to live in Germany and travel throughout Europe. After he finished his military contract we moved back to Oregon and I began teaching in the Centennial School District at Parklane Elementary School; formerly Harold Oliver Primary. I have taught 7 years in the district. I have taught Kindergarten, a K/1 blend, and next year I will be teaching 1st grade. Before moving back to Oregon I also taught in California for two years. In California, I taught one year of 3rd grade and one year of 2nd grade. The 2nd grade classroom was a GATE classroom for talented and gifted students. My husband has been accepted into the University of Portland nursing program and is currently a full time student. We have two wonderful daughters, Izzy and Maggie. Izzy will be entering 3rd grade in the fall and Maggie will be starting Kindergarten. Our family loves to read books together, go on hikes, ride bikes, go camping, and take trips to the beach.
ReplyDeleteMy current school is a Title 1 school and has been identified as a priority school by the State of Oregon. We will be in priority status for 4 years. During this time our leadership team will be creating and implementing a plan to improve our school. I am a part of the leadership team. Our district is a balanced literacy district. The class size in the district ranges from 26-35 students per classroom. Our school has a Title 1 push-in model for reading instruction. There is no additional support in writing or math. My current literacy model is a workshop model for both reading and writing. I incorporate many of the Thinking Strategies that I learned from visiting the schools in Denver, Colorado. My district has not spent much time providing literacy training in the past few years, especially in the area of writing. Most of our professional development over the past several years has been on PLC work, development and training in the data team process. The district has also focused a lot of time working on writing prompts for our universal screener. Students are given prompts three times a year to monitor their progress in writing and to assess their risk level. I believe that this was in an effort to better prepare students for the state writing test. These new writing prompts are aligned to Smarter Balanced and will be implemented this coming school year. Even though my school can be stressful, there is a lot of pressure to do more and do better considering we are a focus school, I enjoy my work and I am lucky to have a wonderful and collaborative team to work with everyday. I hope by completing this class that I will find some concrete teaching practice to use in my classroom this coming year to improve my students success in writing.
Lori Fossati
ReplyDeleteAssignment 1
I am a catholic schoolteacher at Christ the King Catholic School. I have just finished my 23rd year of teaching. The last 21 years have been spent in first grade. This fall I will have a full class of thirty students with some help from an IA. I have taken a few different writing classes, including 6+1 Writing Traits. I feel that I struggle the most with teaching writing.
I have went back and forth on journal writing and whether or not students should worry about spelling, or not to worry about mechanics until the final copy. I do not work for a school district. However, my school does help pay for classes when funds are available. Not specifically writing. The big push right now is technology in the classroom. I love teaching first grade. The end of the school year is bitter sweat. I need a break but I miss my students. With a new administration we have had a lot of staff changes the last few years and it has made for quite a bit of stress. But once I enter my classroom and look at those little faces, things are put back into prospective and life is good again, at least until 3:00. I have lived in Oregon my whole life. I have been married for twenty-four years and have a twelve-year-old daughter. I enjoy spending time with my family, reading, gardening and walking my dog, Max. I hope to get out of this class everything mentioned in the welcome letter. I want writing to be easier, manageable, and enjoyable for both my students and me. I want to know that my students are getting the best writing instruction possible.
Hi there! My name is Kristin, and I have been teaching for about ten years, although I have to admit that my time teaching has not been consecutive. I currently teach 2nd grade at Horizon Christian School in Hood River, Oregon. I began my adventures in teaching at an early education preschool in California, but moved to Oregon three years later to help my family through a difficult transition. After my move I worked with at-risk children at a non-profit in Portland. Although I was not teaching, I was able to work with students, which I love! While in Portland I met and married my husband. We just celebrated 18 years of marriage! I took time off working to have children. When my third child turned 2, I returned to teaching and worked part-time at a pre-school. I was there 3 years and then I was offered a job at a private school in the Portland area. I worked there for 6 years, until my move to Hood River.
ReplyDeleteI had 13 students in my class this year. Of those 13, three were below grade level in reading and writing, one student spoke English as a second language, two students were above grade level in reading and the remaining 7 students were at grade level. Even though we have small class sizes, I still have a range of learning styles. We have no support services at our school, so all differentiation occurs in the classroom.
Our school has loosely adopted the CAFÉ system of teaching literacy. By loosely, I mean the teaching staff all read the book Daily 5 by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, and we each model our literacy instruction and implementation based on our interpretation of that model. I use the small group model to teach reading strategies, grammar, spelling (including phonics instruction), and writing. We also receive some instructional support from our local school district. This year the emphasis has been on developing strong writing skills. The district uses the Step-Up to Writing program for their writing instruction. This involves using the “stop-light” model to teach writing skills. Although this method is beneficial for my struggling writers, I find the method to be really boring and monotonous to teach. It just sucks all the joy out of teaching writing for me. Needless to say, I have not done a stellar job employing that model in my classroom. I do appreciate the support of our district however. I want implement a style writing instruction that excites me and motivates my students! Writing is such an important means of communicating; I want my students to feel confident in communicating their thoughts and ideas with others. That is what I hope to gain from this course!
I spend a lot of my free time on the sidelines cheering my children on in their various activities. I am a soccer/track mom by default and have a stinky mini-van to show for my endeavors. As a family, we spend a great deal of our summer going on hikes and camping trips. On a quieter note, I love to read, paint and garden. I consider weeding my “thinking” time. No one else likes to weed, so I use it as my time to organize thoughts. Good thing I have to post my assignments, my hand written rough drafts can be a little muddy!
Hi everyone! My name is Joyce Reynolds-Ward. I have been the Learning Specialist at Welches Middle School for nine years, six years full-time, three years part-time. I work students who have mild to moderate disabilities as well as general education students who struggle with writing. This past year I taught a section of 8th grade Social Studies which included some of our higher performing students, and was appalled at the poor quality of their writing work. The ELA teacher (who is also my district's literacy coach) and I collaborated on preparing our shared students to write a five paragraph argumentative essay on Civil War-related topics in May. I taught a Study Strategies class open to all students for six years, and incorporated daily "blog" assignments as bellringers for that class, as well as teaching business writing, grammar, and interview techniques to make writing interesting. I also taught Independent Study Projects which was, essentially, a how-to research paper class. Additionally, I have taught Journalism classes and sponsored a Journalism club. This coming year I will be teaching two literacy Intervention classes to 7th and 8th grade students which will include both general and special education students.
ReplyDeleteMy district's program has varied over the years.One school (Sandy Grade) has been working with Regie on a regular basis and our district's literacy coach has provided literacy trainings. Many district teachers have gone through SIOP and other ELL literacy trainings. This past year we have focused on Common Core standard alignment at the middle school level.
I have a Masters degree in Special Education from PSU. My thesis group project involved working with Dr. Steve Isaacson to test a narrative story lesson plan for a book he was developing. I continue to use his models to work with remedial writing interventions. I hope to participate in the Oregon Writer's Project next summer and eventually would like to transition to work as a writing coach. I not only love to write but I enjoy helping others improve their writing.
I am a professionally published writer. I was a PSU Vanguard columnist during 2/3rds of my graduate study and have sold some nonfiction work to professional blogs. Most of my paid work has come from speculative fiction sales. I have sold eleven short stories and earned Finalist and Semi-finalist placements in several contests. I have taken coursework from James Gunn of the University of Kansas and worked with Nalo Hopkinson as a mentee. I currently have two independently published novels available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords, and one available on Createspace. I plan to have another novel available this fall/winter, and am also currently negotiating a publishing contract with a small press. I participate as a critiquing writer in science fiction convention workshops and have also been on the other side of things as the writer being critiqued!
The greatest challenge facing my school at the moment is shrinking size and an excessive amount of principal turnover in the past four years (six). This past year was a quieter, rebuilding year as we hope this current principal will stay for a while! My husband is nearing retirement and I would like to develop myself further as a writing coach and tutor. At this time I currently tutor a young man who is now in college--very brilliant but initially, he struggled with writing work. Over the course of a year, we went from needing to meet twice a week for 1 ½ hour sessions to being able to work in quick 30 minute sessions using Skype and Google Docs.
Besides writing, I ski and own a horse. I maintain a regular blog at www.joycereynoldsward.com where I write about skiing, horses, and writing. Come on by and check it out--I also post free vignettes, stories (well, okay, mostly stories) set in my Netwalk Sequence world every first and third Mondays. It's an interesting experiment in worldbuilding for me….
Assignment #1: (Mary is posting for Tammy.)
ReplyDeleteHi! My name is Tammy Hanel. I teach at Oliver Elementary in Centennial School District in Portland, Oregon. I taught a 1/2 blend for two years and next year am excited to teach second grade. I have taught for over 20 years. I was a substitute teacher for about 8 years. Then I was an elementary Librarian for 8 years and now it will be my 4th year in the classroom. For 2 years, while I was teaching in a 1/2 blend I had 36 and then 32 kids in my class. Next year I have 26 on my class list.
We are a title I school so I do have support for an hour a day with a push in reading specialist to work with at risk kids. Our school has a half time Literacy Coach who helps the staff. My District’s literacy program is the balanced literacy model. We begin with a 10-15 minute mini lesson where we give a learning target and model with whole class. Next, students write independently. We have a reflection at the end of writing to see how successful students were with the learning target. Writing is 60 minutes a day. I have taken several classes /workshops on literacy. We have had book studies and Staff development every year, but not to specifically teach literacy.
I love teaching and I love my students. Oliver is a very high poverty school where 85% are on free and reduced lunch. They do not have the family support at home. It has been very stressful teaching in a blended classroom for 2 years with so many students. I am very excited to teach second graders next year with only 26 students. I think this course will help me with my writing workshop. I hope to learn a way to get my students excited about writing and love to write.
I have been married for 28 years. My husband and I love bowling and we are very involved in our church. We both have big families and spend time with them weekly. We have 3 daughters. Sarah is married and is expecting her first baby in November. I am excited to be a grandmother. Maggie is 24 and will be married this summer in July. Jamie is in her last year of college to be an Accountant. We have a busy summer with the wedding so I hope I can keep up with the assignments of the class. I am also taking Reading Essentials from you.
Tammy Hanel
Second Grade
Oliver Elementary
Hello Everyone! We hope you are all enjoying your summer. (It’s been raining here in Vermont for the last several weeks so we were all surprised and happy today when the forecast was wrong and we had SUN all day! :D
ReplyDeleteHi Tricia, I’m so jealous you were able to live in Germany! A dream of mine is to live in Europe…someday I will! When we were much younger, my husband and I almost moved to Munich… oh, coulda, shoulda. ☺
Hello Lori, Yes, those little faces do make it all worth it! Both you and Tricia mentioned hoping to come away with concrete teaching suggestions that you will be able to implement into you classroom. We believe you def. will. Later in the text Regie addresses journaling, spelling expectations, mechanics and more. So we can have more of a conversation about these topics then.
Kristin, Congratulations on your anniversary! Hood River is a great town. I’m also heading back to work this year with my daughter just turning two in May. I’m sad I need to leave her but feel so lucky to have been hired at a K-2 school 2 miles from my house and my children’s school. My husband and I also shared being home for our children but it’s now time to get back into that workforce.
Kristin, for you and any other teachers in this course, you will find that Regie and this text meshes nicely with The Sister’s Daily 5 and CAFÉ as Regie was one of their inspirations.
Yes, we believe you will find ways to bring the JOY back into writing with this text. The great thing about Regie is that her ideas work for any situation, no matter if you are free to develop your own writing program or have one that the district requires you to use.
HA! You can come to my house and “think” and weed any time. I was just out there thinning the seedlings and the CARROTS…oh why, oh why did I not take the time to plant the carrots spaced correctly???? Aghhh, it takes so much time. ;)
Hi Joyce! OH, I’m so jealous. I WISH I was at a school with Regie. One day I’m going to see her in person. Or at least I hope I do. Wow! You have quite a list of writing accomplishments! Your students and school are so lucky to have such a talented resource at their disposal.
Yes, good principals are hard to find. (Or at least that has been my experience. I’ve had some amazing ones, and some that were not.) Six principals in four years is an unusual amount of turnover and how difficult for your staff to develop the trust that is needed with the administration when it feels like the office has a revolving door. Hopefully your principal will be a good fit and stay for a number of years.
It’s wonderful what the web and social media allows writers (and other artists) to share and self-publish. Your background is a little different from our “typical” course participants so we’ll be interested to hear your thoughts about the class when you’re done. (As well, as everyone else in the course! We appreciate your thoughts and comments, as we want the class to benefit teachers.)
Hi Tammy! A warm welcome to you also! We have some connections with the elementary library positions and then classroom positions. Plus I’ve taught at several Title One schools also, so I know the struggles that many of our little ones have coming from families in poverty.
ReplyDeleteHow exciting that you will be becoming a grandma! What a special time in your life!!! And you have a wedding, too??? You do have a busy summer ahead of you! Let us know how you are doing over the term and we’ll do our best to help you out!
Hello everyone, my name is Todd Kerr. I apologize for my tardiness in posting, but I have been out in the forest camping with my kids and thus did not have any internet access!
ReplyDeleteAfter 20 years in finance related work, I returned to school to pursue my dream of becoming a teacher. 2 years ago I graduated from University of Portland with an MAT and am licensed in ece/elem. My main struggle has been finding a teaching position in the current financial times. But there has not been one day that I have regretted my decision! I enjoy working with the students and look forward to each day and new challenge. I will most likely go the subbing route for next school year. I hope some day soon to have my own classroom (anywhere from 1-5 grades).
Over the course of the last two years I have chosen avenues that provided me direct experiences to further my knowledge and abilities in the classroom. For two years I have taught on a volunteer basis a 4th grade accelerated math class for Rock Creek Elementary. The teachers and principal were wonderful in allowing me to do all planning, prep-work, and assessments/grading. I had 33 students this last year and it was quite a challenge!
I also worked part-time at St. Matthew's School in Hillsboro as an instructional assistant. In this role, I worked with the 2nd grade during a literacy block and 1st grade during a writing block. I was given opportunities to work one on one with students, small groups, and even many chances for whole group instruction. Again, I am appreciative of the respect and roles the teachers allowed me to take on in each of these classrooms. And I am also very appreciative of their willingness to discuss, answer all of my thoughts/questions, and pass along their experiences and knowledge to a newbie.
In 1st grade classroom, we used a writers workshop format. While this approach was successful with some students, we did not feel it always best served others. In the math curriculum used by the Beaverton School District there is a heavy component of open response. A majority of the class struggled in crafting solid open responses on assessments and exercises.
While I am taking additional classes in advance of my upcoming license renewal, this class specifically jumped off of the page. I truly hope to gain new insights and ideas into teaching writing. My hope is to become more effective while making the learning environment more efficient and fun.
Hi Todd!
ReplyDeleteNo worries about joining now. We'll have more students joining us up to Aug. 6th. Plus it's the summer and we have to take the sunshine when we can. (At least here in Vermont... more rain for the next 10 days--ahhhhh. :D)
Truly, we believe that one of the benefits of distance classes should be that you can work at your own pace and time. So if you need to go on vacation or spend time with family that's fine with us. We just don't want everyone waiting until the last day to submit all their assignments. Plus, with the blog classes, a big draw is the discourse between the participants...so keep pace if you can, but if you have things going on for a week or two or here and there, no problem. :D (You'll find that Jackie and I may take a little time to respond now and then. Just remember to email us with a note in the subject line if you need an immediate response.)
I think it's great that you are reading one of Regie's books early in your teaching career. She'll provide you with a great framework to develop your writing program when you get your own class.
Hello everyone!. My name is Stacey and I am currently a first grade teacher at Westside Elementary School in Hood River, Oregon. This will be my second year of teaching in my first grade classroom and I very excited to see what I’ll be able to bring to my students as a result of this class. I love teaching first grade and am continually amazed at the amount of growth that happens in students during the school year. I am fortunate to teach in a three person grade level team, which has been great for support, sharing ideas and strategies. We do have some instructional support, but it is limited to 30 minutes a day. As our grade level team teachers regularly discuss during our PLCs, writing can be a complex thing to teach and assess (i.e. calibrating writing criteria) with our students.
ReplyDeleteLast year I had 24 students in my classroom, 4 of which were ESL students. This upcoming school year, my class size is expected to be about the same size. (Fingers crossed!) Our district uses the Houghton Mifflin literacy curriculum and I model my literacy program off of the Daily 5 where students are engaged in these five components (guided reading, word work, writing, independent reading, listening) at literacy centers during our 90 minute literacy block. We then also implemented a separate writing block time where we used the Step Up to Writing and Houghton Mifflin Writer’s Workshop curriculum. I wasn’t completely satisfied with this schedule and I believe this a time that could be more effectively utilized. It is my hope that I’ll come away from this class with some ideas to better use this time and effectively engage my students in becoming successful writers. In addition, I hope to learn how to better support students who struggle with writing.
My interests lie around my family at this point in my life – this is what happens when you have a young family, right? I have two wonderful daughters, 8 and 5 and they keep my husband and I very busy with all of their activities. Next year, they will both attend the school where I am teaching and we are all very excited about that! When I do have a free moment, I enjoy yoga, reading, gardening and hiking.
Hello Stacey! Welcome, we are happy to have you join us this summer. How great that you will be able to work in the school where your children attend. :) We do believe you'll find new ideas to excite, engage and interest your students in writing from this course as well as support your struggling learners.
ReplyDeleteYes, my interests also lie with my children...they do keep us busy! :D
Remember everyone, Jackie and I are facilitators in this course, any ideas, thoughts or suggestions that you have for other participants are welcome. This discourse is what makes the blog format successful!
I'm off this weekend camping, but will be back next Monday. :D I've let Jackie know that I'll be out of town, so any questions, just email us and Jackie will get back to you. Otherwise you'll be hearing from me next week. - Mary :D
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ReplyDeleteMy name is Megan Downey and I am a Learning Specialist (Special Education Teacher) in the Centennial School District, on the east side of Portland. I will be starting my eighth year teaching this fall, all at the same school in the same position. There have been many changes within the school in that time, however. When I began at Harold Oliver it was an intermediate school (4th, 5th and 6th grade) and a few years ago, we became an elementary school serving grades k-6. Next year marks the 3rd administrator I will have worked with in that time. I am very excited about the leadership experience she brings, as she has worked both with the special education department at our middle school and as an elementary principal. The biggest change, or cause for change, is that we were identified as a priority school last fall. Being a member of the site council at my school has helped me learn a lot about the process and development of our schools improvement plan.
ReplyDeleteMy position as a learning specialist allows me to work with students in each of the grades and in different capacities. I run the resource room at my school and in a full inclusion district the students being served by this program range from students needing some academic support who fall just a few grade levels below to students who are much more impacted and are working on life skill development. My average caseload is in the mid to upper 20s. I have a handful of Educational Assistants who primarily support the students with behavioral or safety concerns as one-on-ones, but have a small amount of time that is allocated to supporting academics. My literacy instruction is primarily reading focused but I try to tie writing into each lesson. I work with small groups of students and target lagging skills or those things that have been identified as goals on their IEP. I don’t have extensive training in literacy; I have tried to focus coursework on classes that pertain to literacy. My district has literacy coaches in the buildings, but (at least at my school) they have only provided coaching to classroom teachers. Earlier in my teacher there was more emphasis on writing professional development, but we have gone away from this and there is now more of a focus on reading. While I feel like I have limited training in the area of reading, my training in writing is even more limited.
Teaching has become less rewarding for me over the past few years. Resources continue to be cut despite the increasing need of students, paired with increasing expectations on teachers has made the job much more difficult. This comes as no big surprise to all who read this, I’m sure. I’m excited for the upcoming year and the opportunity to develop an improvement plan that provides a clear plan to all staff.
My husband and I just bought our first home in November; currently my hobbies and interests lately include painting and weeding. But I love home projects, so this has been a lot of fun for me. I also Cooking and entertaining are also some of my favorite past times.
Welcome Megan, we're happy to have you join class. :D
ReplyDelete