Book: Schools in Crisis

Book information:
Millions of children are not fulfilling their God-given potential in many of our nation’s classrooms. Their potential and purpose is literally being left on the floor of classrooms in many low-income communities. What may God have called them to do? How will a substandard education possibly prohibit them from accomplishing that purpose? In what ways are Christians and churches accountable for that? How are we our brother and sister’s keeper with respect to a quality education?

Join Nicole Baker Fulgham, formerly on the national staff of Teach for America and the founder of The Expectations Project, as she explores what our role is in solving the nation’s crisis for public education. This Barna Frame explores a critical topic of our time – Schools in Crisis

My thoughts:We don't have to look very hard in the news to find stories about problems in schools across our country.  What are we doing to try to solve these problems?  Should Christians get involved?  What can we do to make a difference?  These are the types of questions addressed in this little book from the Barna Group called Schools in Crisis.
 
What I like about this book is that it is easy to read and understand.  It is short in length so it is manageable to read in short time in a world where many people are busy and don't have time to sit down and read a long book about this topic.  It took me about an hour to read through it.  I learned some things about the problems facing schools across the nation and the trouble this causes for students and in turn society.  There are multiple graphs with data from various surveys that make the information presented easy to understand.  You will read a "frame" by Nicole Baker Fulgham who shares a story about a classmate that exemplified to her the vast disparity between education received by students from different schools.  This led her to want to know why this gap is the case for many students. In "Re/Frame" by Kristine Sommers and Jeff Martin, you will read three principles that should be considered by a church group before they begin helping a school.    

Whose problem is this?  Should you get involved?  Read this book and get some ideas on why it matters for you to be involved, even if you do not have children of your own in school. 

This book was provided to me through the BookLook Bloggers reviewer program.  Thank you. 

Have a day of blessings!

2010 Book #31: The Book Whisperer

I have finished reading an interesting book called The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. I chose to read this book for my yearly book to count towards my continuing education credits. Sometimes I am disappointed with the book I chose to use; this year I really enjoyed reading the book and agree with the author's opinions about reading.

Donalyn Miller is a teacher who loves reading and shares her love of reading with each of her students. In this book she shares her techniques and advice for how to teach reading. Students are not given much time to just read in today's classrooms. Teachers say they don't have time for that. Instead they are forced to read a book assigned to the class by a teacher, prepare for a standardized test, and do worksheet after worksheet. This is not effective. Mrs. Miller has a totally different approach. The kids in her class actually read. They take ownership of their reading through selecting their own books and sharing favorite books/authors with classmates as well as their teacher. She writes that the average each student reads is 40-50 books per year. It was interesting to read about the different types of readers she has in her class each year and how she gets all of them to read.

I am glad I read this book and wish there were more teachers out there who valued reading as Mrs. Miller does.

Have a day of blessings!

Book #26 7 Keys to Comprehension

I finished the book 7 Keys to Comprehension by Susan Zimmermann and Chryse Hutchins this week. It is the book I chose to read this summer to count towards my continuing ed. hours.

I enjoyed this book, and the way it was written made it easy to read. It was written for both parents and teachers. Comprehension is the key to reading. I've seen kids in my teaching days who could read very quickly but didn't have a clue what they were reading. This book gives ideas on how to help the reader become proficient. The seven keys (from the book) are:

1. Create mental images
2. Use background knowledge
3. Ask questions
4. Make inferences
5. Determine the most important ideas or themes
6. Synthesize information
7. Use fix-up strategies.




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"My purpose is that they may be encourages in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may now the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in who are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Colossians 2:2,3

23 Things

I am happy to say I completed the "23 Things" project I have been working through this summer for more continuing ed. credit. My Mom sent me the link to the site for Library2Play that she received from a teacher friend. I started back in June and finished up the last "thing" today. Yippee!! The deadline is next week so I was happy not to draw this thing out anymore.

I learned so much through this course. I cannot say enough good things about it! I had no clue many of the websites even existed let alone how to use them in the classroom. You can see the blog I created especially for the site here called Teacher Mommy.

One of the things I've been using that I learned about through the course is Google Reader. I have found this very helpful in keeping up with the blogs I read. Through my Google account I subscribed to the blogs I read on a regular basis. When these blogs are updated, the new updated post shows up in my reader. It is so nifty! I am sure many people already use this, but if you don't you should give it a try. It is easier for me to have them all in one place than clicking through my favorites list to see if someone has posted each day.

I also have been using igoogle to have my links to the pages I use in one place. I added a gadget of quotes and the quote below was in the box today. I liked it so I'm sharing it!




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"Love is not blind -- it simply enables one to see things others fail to see." Anonymous

Online continuing ed. course

Today I finished another continuing ed. course online. The training was through ISafe. This was an informative training for me for the most part. There were sections that were repetitive of each other, but I enjoyed it mostly.

It was alarming to hear the stories of online predators, identity theft, and cyber bullying. Several parents shared personal stories of how their children were killed due to Internet activities. As a parent and educator I see the value of programs such as these. Parents and students need to be aware of the dangers that do exist online. One point was made that just as we set guidelines for our children in their physical world, we must also set guidelines for the online world.

This course really opened my eyes to the dangers out there. We may think "that would never happen to us" but in reality it can and does happen to "regular" people everyday.

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Life is not a problem to be solved, but a gift to be enjoyed.

Continuing Ed.

With my teacher certification I must keep up with my continuing education hours. I have to get 150 hours over five years. I just renewd my certificate for the first time back in February for my first five years. Now I'm starting over on the hours.

I attended a class called "Make These Kids Behave." I've had the presenter(Gwen Ryan) in previous classes I've attended. She's entertaining and shares many personal stories that make the classes fun to attend.

I thought I could share a couple things I gained from this workshop. She had several "fundamental principles" that I think apply in the classroom or anywhere you are dealing with children.

1. All behaviors exist for a reason. If a behavior meets a need, the behavior will continue.
2. For 80% of your students, prevention is the most rewarding and effective discipline strategy.
3. The first 7 minutes of class determine the flow of the day or class period.
4. The dignity of the learner must be preserved at all times.
5. We can't make them behave! We can provide students with the structure, support, motivations and skills to become managers of their own behavior.

Time to fix supper, that's all for today!

"Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God." Matthew 5:8