307 Free-Write-Habitat for Humanity!

Spring break is a time for relaxing, having a break from school, and recharging your batteries to finish out the rest of the semester. My sorority sisters have gone to Florida to disney, a cruise to the bahamas and other fun things. However, for the past 2 spring breaks i've gone away with SCSU Habitat for Humanity! i will be graduating next may 2013 and when i look back on my college career i remember habitat as one of my favorite experiences hands-down! Last year i was the treasurer of SCSU Habitat For Humanity and the treasurer of Southerns Future Teachers Organization. I have to say that although i really enjoyed SFTO i more so enjoyed Habitat.

In high school i really wished we had a habitat chapter or habitat club, but we didn't. As soon as i got to SCSU i really sought out habitat and went to as many events as i could. It wasn't until my 2nd year in habitat that i went on the spring break trip. My first year going on the spring break trip myself and 12 others ventured to Harrisburg Pennsylvania to help the habitat for humanity chapter work on hundred year old houses or fix up already finished habitat homes in the area. Our group split into 2 teams, 1 team went to fix up the already finished houses and my team went to completely gut hundred year old habitat homes! I absolutely LOVED this-i got to use power tools that my parents would have never let me go near before this experience, i learned new skills, conquered a few fears, got really messy in dirt and dust and had an absolutely phenomenal time with my fellow SCSU habitaters! We ripped up old floor boards and could see straight into a basement, climbed a latter into the basement because there were no stairs, ripped out walls, sawed out posts and boards, cut out floor boards, ripped up a deck and installed new boards in a deck. I also sawed the long ways through a nail and got to keep it as my souvenir-its sitting proudly on my bookshelf at my house. For this trip we stayed in a church rec-house and slept on air mattress' on the floor, played ping pong in the church rec house basement, played old school N-64, played pranks on each other and our advisors, went to hershey chocolate world on our day off and made friendships into a habitat family i will never forget. We were exhausted this week, we didn't sleep much, and we worked a lot but i wouldn't trade this experience for anything in this world. Looking at a finished product of what we did to help someone else in need is a feeling that cannot be replaced or forgotten. While my sisters were soaking up the sun in Florida i was wearing a hard hat and ripping up floor boards in the freezing PA cold-it was wonderful! 

My second habitat trip was to west palm beach florida! This was only the second time i had been on an airplane and when we got to florida i had to drive the other van of our habitat members around for the week. We stayed at Florida Atlantic University in their dorms-which was a nice change to have a bed but it wasn't as fun because we were in rooms of 4 people and all of our habitat family was split up in a dorm hallway-we wanted to all be together like we were in PA-one house all of us. We spent the majority of the time all in the same small dorm room all 13 of us-playing games late at night. Our work this week consisted of painting the exterior of 2 houses-trim and boards in the sweltering 89 degree florida sunny heat. Sunscreen was our best friend that week. I had never been to florida before so it was a great experience to go somewhere new! SCSU also got to work all week with UCLA habitat-it was so interesting to hear all about where they were from, what their school was like and how they were different from us! on our day off we went to the beach, and took a boat taxi to a little island for the day, we went to some really neat restaurants and had a great time!  it was such a wonderful experience that nothing can relate to and nothing can top that feeling of satisfaction of a spring break well-used! 

This year however, i haven't had time to volunteer with habitat, so i won't be going on spring break. This thought upsets me so much just because i want that experience again and i know that people wait to have that experience and i need to let someone else have the habitat experience and the habitat memories of their own-its just something i really love to do. I'm lucky i was able to go twice! This spring break for a few days my sister and i will be going up to boston to visit one of my best friend who goes to Boston University. It won't be the same as helping habitat families but i know it will still be fun for the time we have away from CT staying in her apartment and exploring our favorite city! 

I still love habitat for humanity and hope that some day i'll have the time and the money to contribute even more to such an awesome cause!

EDU 307: Write about writing

Writing: The activity or skill of marking coherent words on paper and composing text, the activity or occupation of composing text for publication, written work especially with regard to its style or quality, books, stories, articles, or other written words, a sequence of letters, words, or symbols marked on a paper or other surface.

I'm not entirely sure what to write about writing. I think that writing is not only writing on a paper so you can visually see words on a page but also spoken. In the new digital age that our society is in we have to start opening our eyes to not just the written word but also put more weight on the spoken word. Sometimes people will talk about how if its not written down its not a "contract" or its easy to go back on your word if you're frequently a dishonest person-this i find to be true. However, i feel that the spoken word has much more than the written word in some circumstances. Spoken word has inflection and emotion attached to it-yes it is true that written word can be interesting and have emotion but spoken word is attached to a person.

EDU 307: Collaborative learning

Does collaborative learning support literacy? 

Collaborative learning activities such as jigsaw activities and think, pair, shares are helpful for students to better understand material. In a jigsaw activity students will boost their self confidence when they become the "expert" when they are with their groups discussing their section or topic. When students share their answers with other groups or teach other groups about their section they start to build self confidence because other students are turning to ask them questions and students get the opportunity to act as student and teacher. 

Think, Pair, Shares are great for students because they get to think independently about their answer and then get to pair up with other students and share how they feel about a specific topic which helps students see other opinions and other answers or thoughts about the topic which they didn't originally see. 

These and many other activities help students collaborate with each other as well as learn collaboratively. This supports literacy in the classroom because students will be able to think outside the box and be able to see other opinions which broadens their horizons and allows them to become even more literate. 

414: Topic of choice Due 2/19

Vehicle: A thing used for transporting people or goods, especially on land, such as a car, truck, or cart. 

Most people have to have the newest gadget, phone, or most upgraded car or newest year SUV. I however, only wish for my vehicle to get me from point A to point B most days. I don't commute because i'm an RA on campus but needing a sturdy car is something i've thought about since my car started going down hill fast. My nissan is my 2nd car-my first was a purple sparkly station wagon a hyundai elantra-of course the highlight of owning this vehicle was my brother had to drive it all through high school until he went to school in arizona and bought his own car-a enormous truck. My Car is one of a kind...my car is falling apart in every sense of the world and is referred to as "The egg carton" by many-this i feel makes it unique. I drive a 1995 Nissan Altima and while i love my car because it gets me (usually) to where i need to be and generally gets me there on time i am in desperate need of something, shall we say in this decade.

 

when bringing my car to the auto shop to get something fixed (yep you guessed it, this happens often. The mechanics and i have quite the first name basis relationship) they can't even start my car. My car has a trick to start it-you have to use a certain side of the key and pull the key out slightly and wiggle the steering wheel to get the car to start. If this doesn't work remove the key, try it on the other side, and repeat. while it took a few months of having this car to develop this ever so scientific systematic trick i would rather be able to start a car the usual way that cars usually start-insert key, turn. 

sadly that is one of the easier things that my car has to deal with a general list of tricks i have developed to combat these issues has been developed along the last 6 years:

-The dash lights and tail lights flicker and go out while driving-usually at night because whats more convienet than that? Of course the only thing that is lit up on the dash is the clock when this happens-because i can tell you what time it is, but i can't tell you how fast i'm driving. These lights have been replaced 3 times and still the mechanics are stumped to figure out what this could be. To combat this minor issue i thought of 2 options 

   1.) Stop driving at night (not the most realistic option for a 23 year old with a very active social calendar)

or

   2.) Purchase a 10 dollar book light at barnes and noble and clip said book light onto the signal light switch pointing towards the dash. When interior lights go out i can still vaguely see how fast my car is going. The issue of the tail lights going out when this happen still prevails but the only option i see fit to combat this:

1.) don't drive near the cops-they will pull you over.

-i don't have a passenger side mirror any longer. About 2 years ago someone in the brownell parking lot decided i no longer needed my mirror....i however, beg to differ. After calling campus police to see if it was illegal to drive without a passenger side mirror i decided to combat this in the following ways:

  1.) Drive with passengers-especially on the highway who are able to look into the lanes to the back right corner of your car so they can tell you if you can switch lanes to the right and exit the highway. 

2.) Duck-tape the mirror-less nub with black tape so strangers and other road users do not point and laugh or take notice of your lack of mirror

3.) option number 1 is the only option for this situation so far which i see fit.

-The center console in my car between the drivers seat and the passenger seat falls off into the back seat on a regular basis while trying to remove and replace my GPS. I see two options to combat this issue:

1.) Glue metal part of console back onto its hinge using any sort of very sturdy glue or multiple glues-duck-tape is also an option.

2.) when option 1 doesn't work and the box falls off anyway after trying every glue sold in every store within a 20 mile radius-have the passenger in the vehicle hold onto the center console top and remove and replace GPS as necessary.

-My car has no hub caps. This i don't feel has been especially pertinent in fixing for my car as hub caps are nearly decoration to me in this situation. However, hub caps that fly off the car like paper plates taped onto the wheels is a less than convienet condition for driving. 

1.) hub caps found that were once on the car are stored in the basement for the day when you finally "get around to putting them back on" so your car isn't a complete disgrace. 

-The cassette player and radio in my car don't work any longer and the antenna doesn't revert back into my car. My cassette player has a tape that is stuck in it (the tape with the wire so you can plug your ipod into it) turning off the car and jamming various items into the cassette player helped to partially extract the tape and let the radio work for a few weeks until the radio itself stopped working. There are no ways to combat this other than to sing to yourself while you're driving-Being tone deaf this isn't an option passengers enjoy too much.

-My Heat doesn't work unless its on full blast. The heat doesn't work on settings 1,2, or 3 but works on blast. Wearing contacts in my car is never a safe option in the winter as your eyes would get so dried out from the heater in your face. 

1.) usually i just don't turn on the heat and wear mittens instead, unless I'm driving someone and they don't enjoy the winter months as much as i do in which case we turn the heat on and off regularly to try and regulate the internal temperature of the car. 

-My gas cap door doesn't open when the gas cap door button is pressed several times. As usual gas doesn't last forever and eventually this issue had to be creatively handled to solve.

1.) Hit gas cap door button several times a hyper speed, next take the gym membership key card and slide it in around the side of the gas door to pop open the door, fill up tank, body slam car and kick door closed. Try not to travel long distances where gas stations seem to be far and few between, repeat as necessary

2.) option 1 is the only successful option i have found for the past 4 years.

-Wheels squeak and shake any speed over 55. to combat this minor issue i see one option:

1.) remind the "jolly green giant" that you have places to go and it would be preferable to arrive in one piece. 

A 1995 green nissan Altima that looks much better than mine does.

The moral of the story is that yes, would it be nice to have had a new car 6 years ago when i got this car and it started going down hill? yes, it would have been helpful, and a heck of a lot safer. However, this car has gotten me through some of the best times and the worst times. Does it make me nervous that if something were to happen the air bags wouldn't necessarily deploy...yes it does but at the end of the day, it builds character and assists for a humorous blog post of my choosing. Saturday at 3pm i will be picking up my Tan/ Gold barely-driven, like-new 2006 Nissan Altima. In 11 years since the 1995 model i have to say Nissan has made some vast improvements to the model and i have to say i approve. 

My new Nissan Altima. Couldn't be happier!

I don't need the newest gadget, or the best car on the lot, or the most expensive anything because I'm creative, and sarcastic and am perfectly able of working with what i have. Life is all about working with the cards you're delt and it builds character if you approach it with the right mindset.

Family Fun Night

I've always loved school If i didn't love school then i think its safe to say i'd be going into the wrong line of work. As a kid our school used to have a lot of different things for families to do. We had book fairs and family field days, family fun nights, ice cream socials and days when parents could sign up to come into school and bring a snack or teach the class a craft to do or help out in the classroom- in kindergarten. My family was always really involved and i think that is a lot of the reason i have such a positive attitude towards learning and school in general.

One memory that jumps out at me is family fun night! every year in the spring time our elementary school:  Brewster Elementary School in Durham CT  (K-2) used to go across town to my high school: Coginchaug Regional High School's Gym and we would participate as a family against other families in fun and silly activities. My mom and my brother (who was in 2nd grade while i was in Kindergarten) were paired together and my dad and i were paired together. we participated in events like the bean bag toss, the potato sack race, the scooter race, and the broom race. My favorite was the scooter race of course. I got on the little scooter and my dad had to push me across the gym running behind me to touch the line at the far side of the gym and push me back, at the other line we would switch and he would get on the scooter and i would push him to the line and back. Of course a small kindergartener pushing her 7'1 tall father on a mini scooter made for children under 7 was quite the sight to watch. We also did something like this in the fall before it got too cold and it was family fun field day! we did water games where you have a cup with a hole on the bottom and a bucket across a line on the pavement where you had to fill up your cup at one end and put it on your head and run across the pavement to empty the cup into the other bucket and hope to fill it up to the line and beat the other team. Looking back my parents were such good sports about participating in events like this with my brother and i. They came to every book fair, every conference, my mom made all the costumes for the 2nd grade play for both my class and my brothers class, my dad showed my 1st grade class how to build a bird house and my mom made sea otter beanie babies for my classes project about the ocean unit. Inspiring, good hearted , supportive people help create children who love to learn i fully believe that.

Readers workshop

Going into readers workshop I'm not really sure what to envision to be completely honest. I googled readers workshop to maybe gain a better idea of what exactly to think. Basically this is what i found:

http://www.readersworkshop.org/

from this website i surmised the following:

1.) Readers workshop will teach students how to read and how to love reading
2.) students will explore different genres and different authors throughout the readers workshop course.
3.) students will learn how to "ask questions, make connections with prior knowledge and previously read texts, and ask questions to clarify faulty comprehension"
4.) Have peer conferences and teacher conferences
5.) mini-lessons
6.) independent reading
7.) sharing with peers
8.) Teacher instruction of small groups

this website i found to also be informative:

http://www.alpine.k12.ut.us/depts/curriculumDept/subjects/langArts/Framework/ReadersWorkshop.pdf

So far this is what i have gathered from what readers workshop means. I'm excited to explore the possibilities and to figure out what activities this entails. I'm still feeling slightly clueless about readers workshop for some reason but i am a hands-on learner and need to be fully submerged into something to get the most out of it. I think after Tuesdays class i will have a much better concept of this.