My school had parent-teacher conferences tonight.  Since I'm not in a classroom of my own this year, my role was somewhat different from past years.  I am an Academic Coach.  Our school's Reading Coach and Math Coach share a room with me.  We have been turning our room into a resource room for all of our teachers.  Tonight we had copies of lots of reading and math resources for parents to use to work with their children.  This is the first time we've tried this and it was very successful.  Traditionally, we have a poor turnout at our school.  Twenty-one families visited our new resource room, which made the three of us very happy.

We had several handouts -- higher order thinking questions for before, during, and after reading; tips to improve fluency; lists of Dolch words by grade level; lists and run-downs of websites for reading and math activities; as well as several games for reading and math.  We also handed out packs of index cards to use for flash cards, dice for a math game, and decks of playing cards for addition and multiplication games.  Parents were genuinely appreciative.  We played some of the games with the children so they understood what to do.  If parents didn't understand some of the reports from their conferences, we helped explain them.

Tonight was so fulfilling.  I wasn't sure how it would go and knew I would miss the interaction with students and parents.  What a pleasant surprise when so many of them came and sought out advice.  We're already planning for the next conference night.  I'm ordering books so that we can hand a book to every child who comes.  We'll get bookmarks and other giveaways.  Tonight was a success, but it was also a trial run.  We now have a better idea of ways we can help our parents help their students improve their reading skills.  Being out of the classroom doesn't mean I can't still help students.

Our Reading Coach is also planning a Family Literacy Day for this next month.  Family members are invited to come to the school during either of two different time periods and read with their students.  She has connected with a local bookstore to get books to give away at the event.  Each student with a family member attending will receive a goodie bag with books and other reading materials.  Our goal is for families to share a positive reading experience together and learn ways to help their children.

I would love to hear other ideas and suggestions from others so that I can help make further reading events meaningful and successful.

I have learned so much more about technology in the past two or three years.  However, these past two or three months have been record-breaking in that regard!  Through this Literature and the Learner Master's course, I've created a blog and a webquest.  I am also in the process of completing a training through the Lee County School District called Lee Digital Educator Training.  Two weeks ago I learned more about Power Point and how to make my presentations more interactive.  I also worked in Microsoft Excel and learned some new things there.  Yesterday, I learned how to use Audacity to record my voice and place it in Power Point or in a Smart document.  My mind is spinning with ideas to incorporate all of my new technological knowledge in the classroom.  I still have two more full-day sessions in the Digital Educator class.  Next meeting we're working on photography and the last meeting will be about embedding video.

Yesterday I showed my webquest to a teacher at my school.  Her excitement was just what I needed.  She asked me to show her how to do a webquest.  We agreed to do one together for her third grade class.  However, we first have to complete a project for our Digital Educator class!  I'm thrilled to be able to teach someone else how to do a webquest.  I want to experiment with the other webquest site, other than Quest Garden.  I believe Dr. Slick said it was weebly, or something like that.  It seems I've gained a new freedom by being able to use this technology to create lessons to help students want to learn.  Also important, I've gained the confidence to know that I can use new technology by experimenting with it and taking the time to learn how to use it.

I've been thinking a lot about the books I've been reading.  As I look through my blog posts and the personal summaries on my Annotated Bibliography, I notice a common thread.  Long before I'm done reading, I'm sold on the book!  One common thread I haven't mentioned often is that when I first begin many of these books, I'm not sold on them.  My thinking is this is because they aren't books I just chose on my own; they had to be from award-winner lists and weren't necessarily my "type" of books.  I'm currently working on When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead and am experiencing the same thing.  Although I'm almost halfway through it, I'm only mildly interested in it.  For some reason it just doesn't grab me.  The story isn't awful; it just isn't that deep - at least so far.  However, I'm sure children will enjoy it.  There is a mystery developing.

The point I think I'm reaching as I type this is that usually I end up enjoying these stories very much.  How often do I hear students say after reading only a few pages of a book, "This is boring.  I don't want to read it."  If I can motivate children to give them a fair shot, chances are they will end up enjoying the stories as much as I have.

Also, I'm noticing that when I think about how the first part of a book isn't interesting, at least so far I've been proven wrong.  Every book I've read so far has value and I'm glad to have read them.  Most often I absolutely love them!  Of course, maybe that's what I should expect.  After all, I'm only reading award-winning books at this time.  What's kind of funny is that I've got a new list going of other award-winning books I want to read based on my classmates' recommendations and personal summaries.  My list of the books remaining on my Annotated Bibliography sits by my recliner.  I cross off the titles as I complete them.  My new list awaits and I find that I can hardly wait to get to it. 

          

Happy reading everybody!!!