Nine down, one to go!

Wow, can you believe we only have one more session to go and then we have to write our "case report". Oh man, I am hoping that I have gathered enough information for the case report otherwise I will be conducting make up sessions..

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing" Walt Disney..

This exactly what I will be doing..

This week's session went very well. We missed Yollie but managed to survive none-the-less. The session consisted of building on the skills the we've worked on since the beginning of the semester. Hemrick's independant reading of The Block Mess Monster continues to improve. He seems to add more tone and feeling everytime. The introduction of journal writing was a new addition this week. Hemrick doesn't seem to mind writing so this will be an excellent opportunity to focus on the conventions of writing.

My quote was an Indian proverb. The gist is that if one speaks, one is unable to listen.

Three more to go!

My student was not feeling well tonight so we missed a session. I had some new strategies to try out but we'll just have to do it next week. I used up the time to research some resources for the professional development assignment and found some good ideas to use. Sorry to have missed you and Josh, tonight, Yolie. But I have to say, Alan did a good job with his student. I could hear them through two closed doors having a great session. Tonight's quote is "every path has its puddle" - an English proverb. The puddle in my path was my absent student. Oh well! I'll just step over the puddle and keep going. I'll make it up at the next session. See you all next week.

Mid Term March 11, 2010

Well, here we are at the midpoint of the course. Where has the time gone? I am actually having fun with this class and I am getting such a kick out of working with my student. I have enjoyed watching you, Yolie and Alan, working with your students and I think that it's great that our student ranges are so different. It gives me some exposure to the different age groups and the strategies that you are using with them. Thanks for the treats, tonight Yolie. Yuuuummmm! My student learned how to read that expression in one of our poems tonight. Sorry about interrupting your recorded session. There has to be a way to crop me out of the recording. I think that we are coming along with our final presentation and I do believe we will do very well. It helps that we are a small group. My quote tonight was from Abigail Adams and it has to do with working hard to get smart. Don't expect that being knowledgeable just happens or that it will somehow fall from the sky into your lap. You have to make it happen and keep making it happen. Image by Faye Kaible

Here we are! We worked really hard tonight and I.C. did great with reading her sight word sentences. We worked on "st" words as I practiced one of the roles of a reading specialist, being a support to the classroom teacher and complimenting her instruction during resource time. It actually makes my work easier because it reduces the amount of time spent to trying to decide what to teach at the next session. With the teacher making the recommendations for the content of instruction all I have to do is determine the appropriate strategies which will reinforce the classroom instruction and help the student improve or increase their skills. I think I am going to like being a reading specialist (not a literacy coach).

In this photo (compliments of Dr. Rivera) we are showing a visual we created about the book Frog's Lunch to help I.C. with recalling important information from the story. It works!

Moving Foward

" Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one." Dr. Seuss

Today's session was really engaging for my student and I. I ended up creating a new game called "Hello and Goodbye". The game is used to help him read and identify some of the vocabulary words that he is learning in the books that we are reading and as well as the dolch list. He thought the game was kind of silly but ended up being a trooper in the end. We were able to accomplish many things today such as reading, writing, matching words, answer questions from the books that we read and coloring. By the end of class, he said that he was tired. Sessions are getting easier and better. I can see a great improvement in my student.