Well I thought I was a rock star after I posted last week, but I am not feeling that way now. I feel overwhelmed and stressed at the thought of having to write this blog. I was expressing this to my sophomore class, and they laughed at me. One them even quoted my famous advice, "suck it up buttercup and just get it done." Okay I needed that kick to get busy. This week I started a new intervention on two students. It is the FastForword program. Our k-12 interventionist found it at a conference this summer and fell in love. It not only helps with reading, but it rewires the brain. The program helps with focus, retention of all information, and auditory processing. My youngest son has an auditory processing disorder and so he was the first guinea pig for me to use with this program. With our school day schedule the way it is, I gave up my prep period so junior high student could have access to this program. We just started last year and my son hates it - so it must be working! Seriously, what seventh grader wants to give up his only study hall to sit in his mom's room and play video games. The program is hard to explain but check out the website if you are looking for reading interventions. https://www.scilearn.com/ This week also marks the start of English reading the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I really enjoy teaching great literature that is historical relevant. The students can really dig in to the story when I can relate real life events and people. Although showing the Monte Python movie clip is the real highlight of the unit: This year marks my 14th year here at Riceville Community School. I am excited to be teaching some great classes with some awesome students. I spent much of my summer planning and looking for new and exciting projects to try with my students. Along the way, I also decided to add to my education. I enrolled at UNI in the Instructional Technology Cohort. Upon completion this is add a second master's degree to my resume. I am taking two classes right now but will discuss more about that later.
I discovered an impressive writing project for my sophomore English 2 class to do for the trimester project. I was tired on the old project I had used in the past. I had also heard talk that the district would be adding a district wide writing goal for this year. I was extremely excited to unveil this new project. The project called for each student identify a world/global issue that they wanted to learn more about. Each student had to set up his or her own webpage and start blogging about the issue. The students must also create a PSA, podcast, physical display of the work, present the project to a small group of community members, and develop a possible solution. Now as most veteran teachers will understand, the students were slightly less excited about this undertaking than I was. They complained about having to write a weekly blog and to publish it. I dismissed the concerns, until... my professor tells me that for my graduate class I have to write a blog! What?!?!?!? I was hit with a wave of anxiety. Me? Write for all the world to see? What if no one read it? What if people did not like it? WHAT IF I MADE A GRAMMATICAL ERROR? I quickly assumed the panic position - put my head between my knees and took several deep breathes.... at look at me now - BLOGGING....feeling like a rock star! Until the next post - check out my students' blogs and feel free to comment. Mrs. Kuhn's Webpage |
Robin Kuhnjust a teacher, mom, runner out here trying to learn new things Archives
November 2016
Categories |