My students are loving the bellringers that we are doing on Tuesdays that are centered around the question stem, "Would you rather..." It truly shows that students are more engaged and excited when the curriculum is meaningful and fun. Our district recently adopted a new curriculum so we cannot change much of it. The prompts … Continue reading Self-Study: Update #2
Literacy Education
Professional History
I'm getting ready to conduct a self-study on my own teaching for a research paper. However, I thought it would be fitting to give a little background information before I begin. I have always wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. Not because I have teachers in the family, because … Continue reading Professional History
The Culmination of Our Multimodal Book Review
As the last blog post for my Issues and Trends in Curriculum class, we were asked to reflect on our book study and the multimodal book review we were tasked to create. Here's my post: During these four weeks of Issues and Trends in Curriculum, I have had the opportunity to expand my knowledge about … Continue reading The Culmination of Our Multimodal Book Review
Response to Negotiating Critical Literacies with Teachers
This week we in my class, Issues and Trends in Curriculum, we were asked to respond to our common text, reflecting on our learning through this course. Here is my post: Response to Our Common Text, Negotiating Critical Literacies with Teachers Prior to starting this course, I had thought that I would be only looking at … Continue reading Response to Negotiating Critical Literacies with Teachers
ILA 2018 Report- What’s Hot in Literacy?
Amanda Coan_Commentary #3 Each year the International Literacy Association puts out a What's Hot in Literacy Report. This report compares the topics literacy professionals deem as important along with "hot" topics, which are topics that are currently receiving the most attention from educators. This list changes each year it comes out because our … Continue reading ILA 2018 Report- What’s Hot in Literacy?
Commentary #2: Hashtag Activism
"Taking social action is an attempt to move the school curriculum to the community; to make it relevant to the lives of the students we teach" (Vasquez, Tate, & Harste, 2013, p. 15). This quote from Negotiating Critical Literacies with Teachers: Theoretical Foundations and Pedagogical Resources for Pre-service and In-service Contexts (Vasquez et al., 2013) reminds us of … Continue reading Commentary #2: Hashtag Activism
First Commentary for My Graduate Blog
For one of my current graduate classes, "Issues and Trends in Curriculum" we were asked to start a blog and respond to some of the issues and trends we're discussing in our class. The requirement was to start a blog using Blogger, which was hard for me since I already have this educational blog. My … Continue reading First Commentary for My Graduate Blog
Thesis Decided
Even though I have about a year left in my graduate program, I am seeing the finish line. I have decided I am going to write a thesis for my final paper. It will be a self-study focusing on my writing instruction for my ELL students. I have my thesis committee members lined up and … Continue reading Thesis Decided
A Realization
As I was sitting on this Sunday evening writing a thank you letter for one of my scholarships, it dawned on me that in a short couple of weeks my life is going to change. I will be starting my first semester working towards getting my masters in Literacy Education at UNI. I will be … Continue reading A Realization