Woman

 There is a certain type of woman that I steer clear of in all ways.  If a conversation leaves the two of us alone I stop speaking.  If a situation leaves that two of us alone I excuse myself to go stand alone.  This woman does not understand me and has no intention of understanding me, because I should be more like her.  I spend precious moments of my life not making her feel uncomfortable.  Why do I do this?  I can't say for sure.  I don't understand the woman.  The woman thinks she understands me and if there is some push back that makes her think she does not understand me it almost immediately becomes a confusing conflict.  A conflict that takes weird twists and turns.  When I stand up for myself, this type of woman spends all of her energy telling me how she is right.  She spends all of her energy telling me that she is not trying to be what I so plainly see.  She spends energy telling me about her friends and activities.  I have never seen her in public because we do not live near each other shop near each other.  I do not see this as a problem.  She tries to convince me it is not.  In 50 years of living have found no version of this woman to convince of anything different and I remain wary.

Understanding

You know you don't have to understand me.  

I don't give a shit if you do.  

If you are not someone in my personal bubble, you may consider me cold or even deliberately offensive.  I am rarely deliberately offensive.  What I am is honest and truthful.  Don't ask me a question you don't want to know the answer to.  Seriously!  Why ask me a question and then argue about my opinion!!!  We do not ever have to agree.  We only have to be respectful to each other.

People call me blunt.  I'm not blunt.  I rarely say everything that is going through my mind.  Who wants that?!?!  Who wants to know the random trains of thought that run through my mind?  BUT IF I ask you a question, don't dance around the answer.  And if you aren't comfortable answering, then say that.

I don't even care about talking about me behind me back.  If you wanted me know you would say it to my face.

Review: Logic to the Rescue

Logic to the Rescue by Kris Langman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



View all my reviews

Transitioning

 I'm moving to a new building.  It's exciting and it's sad.  Not that anyone really asked me.  I was asked.  I mean they said they wanted me to be on board.  They wanted me to buy into it.  But how can I buy into when you asked me after you have already made a decision.  How can anyone buy into something that they have no real part of?  

Right now, I can make it mine.  At least I can try.  And I will try, no part of me will ever let me do anything less than that.  Right. Right.  Right.  

Now to go defeat the inner hoarder who wants to take over!  Pictures to be posted later!!

Differences

I've decided to pick this back up.

I like my blog.  I like writing down my thoughts and letting no one or everyone read them.

I'm watching The Walking Dead and it's oneof those shows that makes me think about differences and people and how we should all flow together.  We are all truly connected together one to the other.  There is nothing that you do that doesn't affect someone.  Even if it's in the smallest way.  It affects everyone.

There is a young lady at my school.  She became enraged about the students using color to describe each other and using color as a slur against each other.  This is not new.  You can't make people treat each other right.  You can only give them the information they need to make a better decision.

We are all different but ultimately the same.  We love.  We care.  We get upset.  We are disappointed.  We get bored.  We have moments of ennui.  One thing that is sooo the same is that we all have melanin coloring our skin.  The difference is how much melanin colors our skin.  I have enough in my skin to give me a caramel color.  One of my children is the smooth beautiful color of a tree.  One of my children is the color of a mocha latte with extra milk.  They are all gorgeous and individualized in their own way.  I teach all my children that they are different and it's ok. 

Don't teach children not to see color.  Teach them that seeing the color makes them see how unique everyone is and how special they are.

Spring Break and Assistive Technology

Well, what do you do on your spring break?

You don't turn to a blog that you almost abandoned and decide to post again?  Or do you turn your house upside down cleaning out cabinets and other places in your house that really really need it?  Do you lounge around until the middle of the day and then do a little bit of research for a project that you have been working on for years . . .

I do all of that lol!  Why shouldn't I?  I am a woman of the world.

So assistive technology has been on my mind recently.  I mean I can't stop thinking about it when I start thinking about lesson planning, IEP planning and all the other school planning that I have to think of on a daily basis.

I just signed up for a new webinar about assistive technology and helping struggling readers access grade level content.  This is fascinating and amazing if people are finally accepting this as a thing to do!

So many people get bogged down by what the students can actually read, that they lose the fact that students are not understanding what they read.  I have students who can read 40 random words per minute at 90% accuracy.  I think it's great.  BUT if you listen to the old research that tells us how reading faster predicts comprehension you would be going down a terrible path and taking your students with you!  Much of that research was not interpreted correctly.  And of course, since I know all (ROFLOL) I completely understand it!  I didn't have to read through it and talk with people and see it at work with actual students. . . anyway.  What I get out of this research is that if students are spending all of their time decoding they are not comprehending.  BUT in this post we are not talking about those students, because that is a different set of issues.  We are discussing the students who understand what they read, but read slowly.  I told a teacher once that my student didn't even speak in general conversation using 40 words per minute so there was no way she was going to be able to read 100 + words in a minute.  Now this student that I have in mind did eventually get to around 90 words per minute, but it took her until 6th grade and it took many many many hours of reading to her and with her.  What happens to the student who has the book read to them as they read along?  What if this student is given the time and space to read at their pace and rate?  What if the student is given some technology that helps them with the words they can't read? (I once saw a first grader read every word in a sentence EXCEPT orchard.)  These students in the classroom could easily use a simple technology solution such as siri to help them prounounce the words.

I'm not going to go on and on about this.  I just wanted to visit this a moment.  I want people to go in and evaluate what they are doing and see if it is truly meeting the needs of their students.  When we ask ourselves what is the learning goal for each of the students, we will have a clearer path for how to to help them reach that goal.


Click on this link if you think you might want to view this webinar.  If you sign up and can't view it at the time, you can always view a recording later, but you have to sign up first.
Turn Struggling Readers Into Leaders Using Assistive Technology

Make today so awesome that yesterday is jealous!

Google will be my student's world!

So we are going to do so much with google classroom this year.  We are going to use google drawings (as soon as I become fluent!).  I am going to let the students use google drawings to develop projects in math and in reading.  I am also going to put my instructions on Classdojo with links on how to help my kiddos at home.  I am ready for some screen casting.  Of course, I have to be careful, because my students can't be filmed etc when they are with me.  Sigh it makes displaying work difficult.  

Finishing this master's

This is killing me and my ADHD!  I have lost my interest in some of these assignments so it is killing me to complete them.  People with ADHD lack stamina.  Some people think that means you aren't strong or something like that.  No it means that once I am disinterested in something it is nearly impossible for me to complete any task which requires me to see it through to the end.  For instance, I should be writing two simple reading lesson plans right now.  I had three weeks to do them.  I did the first two, but these last two . . . I literally have  a "meh" sound reverberating through my head!!!  It's gonna happen, because it has too, but aw shucks I don't want to pa (imagine an Opie voice saying that.)  And seriously, I need to.  I really really need to, because I have stuff that I need to do for my classroom that I am much more (hmmmmm . . . maybe not much more haha) interested in doing.  Oh well it will get done and I will do it. . . right . . . now . . . as soon as I fix myself one more cuppa.