Blog 10: A Friend Is...

For my descpritive part of my MGP, I decided to do a poem. The poem describes what is to be a friend. Its kind of nerdy but I think children would like it!



“A Friend Is…”

A friend is someone who will always be there,
Who likes things you like and knows how to share.
A friend is someone who knows how to be funny,
They can make you happy and your days sunny.
A friend is someone who will never let you frown,
They always know what to say and will never let your down.
A friend is someone who brings joy to our lives,
With fun, laughter and unlimited high fives.
A friend is someone that we treasure,
Because a great friendship can’t be measured.

Blog 9: Turning Bullies into Friends

For my persuasive part of my MGP, I had decided to do a skit. My skit has 4 main characters. and it is basically about a little kid who is being picked on and he persuades the bully to become a better a friend!



“Turning Bullies into Friends”


Characters
Steven~ kid being bullied Alex ~ Steven’s friend
Mr. Anderson ~ Teacher Johnny~ Bully


(Playing at recess)
Steven: Johnny! Stop throwing rocks at me.
Johnny: No, this is too much fun.
Steven: Stop throwing rocks, please. It hurts.
(Steve starts crying)
Johnny: No.
Alex: Leave him alone, Johnny. He isn’t doing anything to you.
Johnny: Do you want me to throw rocks at you Alex?
Alex: No.
Johnny: Then go away.
(Alex runs away to get help)

(Mr. Anderson and Alex walk up to Johnny and Steven)
Mr. Anderson: Johnny, what are you doing?
Johnny: Nothing
Mr. Anderson: Steven, what is Johnny doing?
Steven: He is throwing rocks at me.
Mr. Anderson: Is this true Johnny?
Johnny: No. He is lying.
Alex: He is throwing rocks at him, Mr. Anderson.
Mr. Anderson: Johnny?
Johnny: Yes. I am.
Mr. Anderson: Why are you throwing rocks at him?
Johnny: Because it’s funny and he starts crying like a baby.
Mr. Anderson: Do you think you are being a good friend Johnny?
Johnny: Yes
Mr. Anderson: And why is that?
Johnny: Because I’m having fun.
Mr. Anderson: Steven, do you think Johnny is being a good friend?
Steven: No.
Mr. Anderson: Steven, do you want to explain to Johnny what it means to be a good friend?
Steven: A good friend is like Alex. He is someone who is nice and friendly. He doesn’t throw rocks at people and doesn’t make me cry. Instead of fighting back to bullies, he goes and gets help from teachers and other adults. He always shares with me when he has something that I don’t and I always say thank you. Would you like it if we were always throwing rocks at you?
Johnny: No.
Steven: Would you like it if we made you cry?
Johnny: No
Steven: So, why do you think that we like it?
Johnny: I don’t know, Steven. I never thought of it like that.
Mr. Anderson: What do you think you should say to Steven?
Johnny: I’m sorry for throwing rocks at you and making you cry. Do you think we can be friends?
Steven: Yeah, Johnny. We can be friends.
Alex: What about me?
Johnny: You can be my friend too.
Mr. Anderson: Ok boys, go play now and remember what you learned.
(Boys go and play)

Stiletto Stoners

When we first told about the Stiletto Stoners video, I didn’t think it was real. However, when we saw the video, I thought it was quite interesting but yet disturbing as well. It’s something I would never do of course, but I never doubted that women who were as successful as they were do that kind of thing. As bad as it is, it is quite common for people to smoke out to relax. As for it being compared to a simple glass of wine, I think that is totally wrong. Drinking a glass a wine is okay and it’s something I really can’t get in trouble for, smoking weed however, is something I can get in trouble for. Plus after spending so much time in the elementary school and teaching them that drugs are wrong, its seems like we’re contradict what we are telling them.

Blog 8: Expository

An expository is basically to give you information. The writing will either consist of steps, directions or some type of explanation of what to do for a task. It doesn’t have to be written in paper format like with the beginning, middle and end. It can be on a chart, a poster board, a recipe if you are cooking something, so on. I recently changed my topic on my MGP to friendship for first graders. I have a couple of ideas that I could do. The first idea being a poster about a being good friend and the second idea making friendship hearts.

So for the poster, it would called “How to be a good friend” or ”How to be friendly”. I really haven’t decided yet. I would make this probably into a poster board with ways the students can be a good friend to others. Ways that I have come up with to be a good friend are: Good friends don’t put each other down, good friends respect each other and good friends care about each other.

The friendship hearts sounds like fun too. There are two ways to do it, the teacher and the students all together or individually. I’m going to explain how to do it as individually.
1. Each student will get a piece of the “friendship heart”
2. They will decorate the piece by putting a friendly term or drawing a picture of being a good friend. Then they will decorate their puzzle however they like.
3. The teacher will decorate a piece too.
4. Once they are done, then the students will help the teacher put the puzzle together. It will look like a heart and show different ways of being a friend.

I think the students would enjoy something like this. They are learning good ways to be friends and they are doing art.

Blog 7: WHAT IS A NARRATIVE?

A narrative is a type of writing that includes a beginning, middle and end. It also includes a plot, a setting which is the time and place, characters and some type of conflict and resolution to fix the conflict. When writing the “beginning” of the narrative, it usually has 4 to 5 sentences and it starts with the topic sentence. This sentence basically tells you what the story is going to be about. Next is the attention grabber. The attention grabber is basically to grab the reader’s attention (duh) and make them WANT to read your story. After the attention grabber, you have about 2 or 3 sentences giving details about what is going on so the reader has a better understanding of the story.

An example of a narrative would be Shel Silverstein’s “The Missing Piece”. I love this story; it has to be one of my favorites!!!

Blog 6: Narrative Story

Cupcakes for Sarah

There was a little girl named Sarah. She came from a wealthy family and always had everything she could have ever wanted. Her sixth birthday was coming around and she had just started school. She wasn’t very excited about it though, her birthday was never a big deal. She knew about birthdays. She could hear her classmates talking about their parties and how fun they were but she was never invited. You see, the thing was she didn’t have many friends. In fact, she had none. Every day she would go to school, she would sit by herself at lunch, play by herself at recess and work by herself during work time. Sarah was miserable.

Mrs. Smith, her teacher, knew she wasn’t making friends well and knew her birthday was coming up next week, so she came up with a great idea. She called Sarah’s mother to explain the situation going on with Sarah. Her mother had no idea. So Mrs. Smith suggested that Sarah have a birthday party and invite her classmates. When Sarah got home from school, her mother asked if she wanted anything for her birthday. Sarah replies, “What do you mean? I can have something for my birthday?” Her mother tells her yes and that she can have anything she wants. Sarah replies, “I want a BIG fun birthday party with CUPCAKES and ALL my classmates to come.” Her mother knew what she had to do.

All weekend her mother was at hard work, making plans for Sarah’s birthday party. All Sarah’s classmates would come over for a party and play games. Before her classmates would leave, they would decorate their own cupcakes. Sarah was very excited for the cupcakes. She had never had a cupcake before but she knew it was going to change her life. All her classmates loved them so she knew she would feel the same. Sarah and her mother made the invitations and sent them out. It was going to be a great birthday. She just knew it.

The day of her party came and she was so excited. She put on her special party dress and had her mother fix her hair just right. The party was set for one o’clock but no one came. Her mother told her the kids were probably just running late. Two o’clock came around and still no one had showed up. Sarah was getting worried. Four hours later, it was six o’clock and the party was supposed to be over and not one person came. No one! Sarah was crushed. They had spent all that time setting up for the party and making invitations for nothing.

Monday morning when Sarah was supposed to get up and go to school, Sarah told her mother she didn’t feel well and was not going. Her mother knew why. Later on that day when Sarah was in her room playing, her mother contacted Mrs. Smith. She explained what had happened the day of the party and Mrs. Smith was confused. The invitations had said the party was the following weekend. That was it, that is what had happened. The invitations had the wrong day. Sarah’s mother felt terrible and knew she had to do something. So, Mrs. Smith and Sarah’s mother decided to have a party there at school the next day.

Tuesday morning, when Sarah arrived to her classroom she was shocked! It looked exactly like her house did the day of the party, except all her classmates were there. She couldn’t believe it, she was so happy. And the best thing was she finally got her cupcakes. They decorated them with sprinkles, frosting, and candy. It was great. She was right; the cupcakes did change her life. She had brand new friends to play with at recess, friends to talk to during lunch and friends to work with during work time. Sarah couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Blog 5: Memories

In class last week we talked about different memories that meant a lot to us. Memories that made us cry, memories that made us laugh, memories that make us feel warm and memories from a long time ago. In class I talked about the memories that made me laugh, feel warm and from a long time ago. My favorite memory is the one that makes me feel warm.

The summer after I graduated I moved to my grandparent’s house. I loved living there and I always had fun there. My grandma makes the best food ever. I’m sure that is what everyone says about their grandma but mine really does. Well every thanksgiving she always made pies. Whenever we would go over to her house and walked in, it always smelled really good. You could smell the apple and pumpkin pies before you even entered the house. So the year I moved in, when thanksgiving came I helped my grandma make the pies. I always thought it was something really hard to do but it wasn’t hard at all. It was time consuming but not hard. She makes everything from scratch and I think it taste the best when it comes from scratch. Anyways, I remember having a lot of fun spending time with my grandma. My grandma is a really special lady and I love to spend as much time with her as I can. Now, every year when thanksgiving comes around my grandmother and I are in the kitchen making the pies. Sometimes I get tricked into doing it by myself but my grandmother is never too far away!

Blog 4: Dear Taqueria

This past week we have been discussing personal writing. I didn’t realize there were so many different types of personal writing and that I use many of those types of everyday. My three favorites are writing in my journal, texting and sending emails. I like to write in my journal so I can keep track of my life. I usually remember the big things but usually forget the small. Even recently when I go back and look at my past journals and read what I wrote, it’s pretty crazy. I can relive how happy I was or how angry I was. As for texting, I just prefer to text than to talk on the phone. When I am talking on the phone I can’t really get things done. But when I text, I can say what I have to say, go and do something and text again. I also love to send people emails. I know it sounds weird but many people really don’t email each other anymore. It’s all about MySpace and keeping in touch like that. I prefer an old fashioned email.

Well yesterday in class we made an “All about Me” book (it was so much fun by the way). One of the things that I wrote is that I LOVE Mexican food. I love enchiladas, tacos, gorditas and the list goes on and on. I love to make these foods but I love it even more when I go out to a Taqueria and they make them for you. So what I have decided to do it write a letter to Taqueria expressing my love for their food.



Dear Taqueria,

I have been going to you now for many years now and you always have just what I need. Whether I just want carne guisada tacos or Enchiladas de Verde’s, it always comes on a nice plate and taste wonderful. I try to make the same magic happen at home but it doesn’t come out like yours. It comes out good but not the same. And I really don’t mind waiting in my car for 20 minutes for a gordita. As long as it comes out fresh and its picadillo, there shouldn’t be any problems. So thank you. Thank you for all the years of providing me tasty food and always being there when I needed you most! Love you!

Lauren

Blog 3 Cont'd: If I Won....

If I won five million dollars, I probably wouldn’t even believe it! It’s not like people win five million dollars every day. Once I get over the initial reaction I would call my parents and tell my mom. My mom is always the first person I call when something good happens! Then I would probably call the rest of my family and let them know the good news! For me, five million dollars is a lot of money and there are so many things I could do with that. I could buy a plane, have my own movie theater, or even buy an ice cream truck. There are endless possibilities of what you can do with that amount of money! If I really had to choose what I would do with five million dollars, I would have my cupcake bakery, buy a new car and house, and use what I have left over for my family.

For some reason, I am completely obsessed with cupcakes. I love to make them and I love to eat them. But I do have more fun making then than eating them. So because of this obsession, I have always wanted a cupcake bakery. I have only been to one cupcake bakery in my life and it was nothing like what I imagined a cupcake bakery to be like. When I think of one, I think of colors and fun designs and kids stuff and this place was nothing like that. This bakery was more of an adult coffee place, like a Starbucks except they sold cupcakes. Any who, I would open a cupcake bakery with all different kinds of cupcakes. There are some many to choose from and I would like to think that I would try to make them all. I know that it is not realistic, but for now it is! I would have a big party room in the back hopefully it would tons of fun and really successful.

In view of the fact that I would have a cupcake bakery, I would want some type of new transportation. This is when I would finally go out and by my new 2010 Ford Mustang Cobra! I have five million dollars now, I can afford it! My mustang would be dark blue, with the two white stripes down the middle. That is all I would need for me to be happy with it. Now that I have a new car, I’m going to need a new house. I would like a simple one story home with three bedrooms, three baths and maybe a room for an office. I don’t want too big of a house because that just more that I’m going to have to be cleaning. No, thank you.

Now that I have everything that I would want for myself, I use the remainder of the money for my family members. I would say I have already spent a million dollars just on my stuff alone, so that would leave four million. I would pay everyone’s debts. Everyone owes money to someone for something. And to not have to worry about that anymore would seem like a weight has been lifted off everyone’s shoulders. Depending how much everyone’s debt was, I would go from there. If I had money left over( and I hope I would) I would like to take my whole family, all 30 of us, on a nice tropical vacation. We all really don’t get to spend much time together anymore since we are all adults and have our own lives. So it would be to go on a week vacation and just get away. I think everyone deserves that every once in a while.

Blog 3: Writing is a PrOcEsS!!!

As we all know, writing is a process. In this process there are five key features. The five features in order are prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. In the prewriting process, students get to choose a topic, figure out the purpose of the paper and create ideas. When students get to choose their own topic, their paper usually comes out stronger because they are writing about something they are actually interested in. When students need to come up with interesting ideas, they can actually engage in “rehearsal activities”. Basically when students take field trips, read books or even just view videos, they are gathering ideas from what they are doing and engaging in rehearsal activity.

In drafting, this is when students put their own ideas down on paper. It is best for students to skip lines when they write so they can leave space for revisions. The students usually mark ROUGH DRAFT so everyone knows it is their first copy. When writing the rough draft, spelling or punctuation doesn’t matter. The main point of the rough draft is the students content. In revising, students can do multiple things like: rereading their draft, sharing their drafts with others students aka “writing groups” or conferencing with the teacher. I would say the students would enjoy the writing groups a lot because they get to share with the fellow classmates and get the opportunity to get feedback to make their paper better.

In the editing process, students should proofread to find errors in their papers and correct these errors. When students proofread, they should be looking for any and all kinds of errors. These errors can range from spelling to punctuation to just having the wrong word all together. (Having the wrong word has happened to me, many times.) When students edit their paper they can use an edit checklist. With this checklist, students should have an editor to also look over their paper. Both the author and the editor go over the paper and through the checklist to make sure they find all mistakes. Once they believe they have found all the mistakes, they can correct them and move on to publishing! Publishing is the final step in the writing process. Students can share their writing with others, make final copies of the writing or read from the authors’ chair. Examples of students sharing their writing are: sending it to a pen pal, submitting their work to a writing contest, reading it at a school assembly or even sharing it with their parents.

My favorite as a child was making the final copies. I remember when we got the chance to write a story, publish it and make it into a book. I wrote about the twelve months in a year. I was so proud of myself when I finished it. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. That is something I will never forget, especially since my parents still have the book!

Blog 2: Make Reading Fun!

Today in class we went over the book, “If You Give a Pig a Pancake.” I had never heard it before and it was a really cute book. Basically the book it about a pig who gets a pancake and then she wants syrup. After she gets the syrup, she wants a bath. This routine keeps going on until she ends up back at the pancake. This is what you call a circular story. With this type of story, you start in a certain place and have events that follow and end back in the same starting place; like a circle. The book we made in class is a great example of way we can use a circular story. By creating the book, we got to come up with our own ideas, work together as a group and come up with an interesting story. Since we were all in college our example was good because it was about going to college and getting a degree. For a second grader, to incorporate the same idea it would be better to use ideas that would relate to them. Another example of how we could use it in the classroom is to have the students predict what is going to happen next. It is always fun to make a prediction and to see if it comes true. In the book, “If You Give a Pig a Pancake”, after the pig gets all sticky, you could ask “What do you think she will want to do next?”

As I have said many times before, I love to read! I find great enjoyment out of it and it can really relax me. With that said, I want all my future reading students to love it as well. I know that isn’t likely going to happen but a girl can dream. A lot of students really don’t like reading because they don’t think its fun but there are many ways to make it fun. Here are a few examples:

1. If a child is reading with a parent or a buddy, they can “Popcorn Read”. Basically the parent and students or buddy and student take turns reading. When a word gets too hard to pronounce or the child gets really frustrated, they can say “popcorn” and it will be the other person’s turn.
2. Have students partner up and read together. This always makes it more fun.
3. In a classroom, have a variety of books.
4. Have the students’ role play. When they act out the book they may find more entertaining.
5. Teachers can take turns having students bring in their favorite books and read them to the class.
6. Teachers can play “Picture Detective” with the class. The teacher can have students flip through a book and with the pictures describe what they this is going to happen. After the teacher reads the story, they can see how well they did.

Blog 1: Strategies... Motivation... Strengths.

Well as we all know, we are learn differently. The best way for me to learn things is to repeat them, write them down or do both, which it called the “rehearsal” strategy. If I just read something, I usually will read it but not actually being paying attention unless it is something interesting. So, I will have to read it again. I’ll hear it but I’m not really listening to it, so I have to reread it. Rereading it works sometimes but not all the time, so this is when I start writing it down. I’ve learned over the years that I do learn best by writing it down. I guess it’s because I learn best by doing then just by reading. When I’m studying for test or just trying to learn something new, I have to write it down.

As a child, I loved getting rewards for doing well in school or doing my chores, so I would have considered myself extrinsic. Now as an adult, I would consider myself to be intrinsic when it comes to motivation. I feel like I have been in school forever and it is something I would like to finish soon. So the motivation that I have to do my work and do it well, comes from within. It is always nice to have some appreciation but it’s not something that I need to have. Besides, I think that I have come to an age where I need to start doing things for myself. My mom always says, “You can make everyone around you happy, but if you’re not happy it’s not worth it” I couldn’t agree more!

According to MI, I am very musical and have a strong kinesthetic strength. Honestly, I think this is quite funny! I enjoy music as much as the next person, but I wouldn’t call myself musical. I can’t sing for the life of me, trust me, I’ve tried. I’ve always wanted to play an instrument but I can’t really do that well either. The best I can do is the drums on guitar hero. I’m actually pretty good at that, thank you very much! As for the kinesthetic strength, I guess I can see that. I can NOT sit still for long periods of time. I get really fidgety and it’s really annoying, especially at the movies. But I do learn by doing, like I’ve mentioned before and I like working with tools.