Faucets

I have fallen in love with the Narnia Series. This love of mine is about 15 years old. Every time I re-read one of the books, I marvel at how much I just love the well thought out plots and characters. I admit that they are not as complicated as some of the other well written series such as Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, but my love for this series has led me to want to share them with my class every year.

This year I started with "The Magician's Nephew". This book takes you to another world that is at its end, and ultimately lets you witness the creation of Narnia. My Third Graders loved it so much that they wanted another read as soon as possible. I decided to let them pick. They chose "The Last Battle". This book, interestingly enough, chronicles the last days of Narnia.

About 3 chapters into the book I had a thought, "Can I buy this book on itunes?" I decided to try and sure enough, for about 10 bucks I could relax to the sound of "The Last Battle" during our re-aloud time. Initially the kids liked it. The narrator was easy to listen to and there were sound effects and actors who spoke the various roles.

There were some downfalls to the itunes version. When I read aloud to my kids, I periodically will stop and explain various scenes to the class. This proved to be rather difficult when listening to the itunes recording. I also noticed that the class tuned out more than they would have if I were reading it to them. I must be that good.

In the end, I decided the next book I would personally read to them. We are currently reading "Voyage of the Dawn Treader".

What prompts me to write this post is something that was said at the end of "The Last Battle". When the story was over, the narrator gave a short commentary about C.S. Lewis (the author) and Lewis' attitude about writing additional Narnia books. Apparently Lewis said something to the effect that writing was like turning a faucet on and off. He felt that the faucet to the Narnia stories had been turned off and didn't think that it would be turned on again".

I, of course, related that to life almost immediately. In the world of teaching, we are required to think creatively and pour out new ideas almost every day. But sometimes our faucet is turned off. I don't have anything overly profound to follow that, other than to say, that it is ok. It's ok if the faucet is turned off for a while. From experience, sometimes the faucet is turned on so high that the ideas are hard to capture as they flow out. But sometimes, the faucet is just turned off.

This quote also gave me insight to my little writers in my class. On any given day their faucets are either on or off, or maybe a slow drip. It reiterated the fact how important it is for students to have ungraded writing happening everyday! They need to write about what ever they want to write about! Whether that be in the form of a picture, list, story, or description. Good writing can often be like a faucet turned on or off, even for kids.... especially for kids.

Yep, Teaching is a Thankless Job!

Teaching can be a thankless job. Especially from our kids. Could these be the same children who were just begging to read another chapter in the read aloud? The ones who are now excited that it is a three day weekend and they won't have to go to school for 3 whole days! Yes, these same boys and girls who hung to my every word when discussing the Ark of the Covenant and sang loudly and clearly in the songbook. The same children who want to learn another set of multiplication tables and play any game on "That Quiz". Those little darlings are booking out of my classroom at the sound of the magic word, anxious to get the heck out of the torture chamber, I call, B11, Mrs. Rumsey's Third Grade Class.

Teaching IS a thankless job.

As I slump into my over-sized desk chair, behind my over-sized throne - my desk, I can't help but think, I too am eager to hit the road and call it a week. Unplug this computer, turn off the lights and let's go! And as the weekend rolls to an end, looming over my head like an annoying buzzing bee, is the sound of "tomorrow's monday" buzzzzzzzz.......

There comes a moment, however, on most Mondays, when I sip my coffee and look out over my students and I get satisfaction. Which brings me to this verse:

12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.

I hesitate to tell you the book, chapter and verse. I'll give you a hint.... Meaningless... and a time for this and a time for that.

I know, Monday morning, Friday Afternoon, thankless job or not... I know that God's word says

"This is a gift of God."

On that I will meditate.

Keys to Success

• Always keep the vision or dream in focus.
• Act on the dream, even when you don't get support from others.
• Demonstrate and keep excitement high.
• When you need to add people to your team, make sure they understand the vision and are willing to work harder than they have ever worked before.
• Keep an abundant amount of humor handy at all times.
• Show support to other groups of people who are trying to create their own special place for kids.
• Know your "stuff" -- be able to defend what you stand for.
• It's fine to say the words, but it is far better to live them.
• It will never be easy but it should be wonderful.
• Enjoy the ride and celebrate the journey!

From Amity Creek Magnet School

I will be making a poster of these keys and posting them in my classroom!

PenPals... Thinking Ahead

Student's of the World

Please check out this website and let me know what you think.

One Step Closer...Maybe

Anybody out there?

This page address the issue of creating a class blog and then realizing that no one visits your site. Especially the outside world. I'm very interested in ways to get the world to my class blog. Any ideas?

Should kids read this?

This is an interesting thought. Read the quote below:
It is from the blog LiteraBuss

I looked a little deeper into this by researching it and reading the book. I found out that this books treatment of Native Americans was in fact not appropriate. It stereotyped Native Americans, reminded everyone of hateful attitudes towards "Indians," and presented a racially superior world view (whites as superior).

Now it's one thing to say that this book reflected the ideals of the time when it was written. OK, fair enough, I couldn't really argue with that. There's one problem here. The Sign of the Beaver was written in 1984, so explain it now. It's not a historical criticism, to argue that basically means that you haven't read the book and are just arguing for arguments sake.

This same argument is equally valid for Little House on the Prairie, a book that claims that "The only good indian is a dead indian," a book that presents a story told from the perspective of power, the white group settling west.

To choose to keep this book in the classroom, you must deal with the above argument, it's right there in front of you. When confronted with the fact that The Sign of the Beaver was a blatantly racist book, I removed it, because there is no argument to keep it there. If you say you are keeping Little House around because it offers children a chance to critique racism historically, think again, especially when some of the comments I received talked about reading it to 6 and 7-year-old kids. These children don't yet have that capacity (I don't care how advanced they are, they DO NOT have that capacity yet).

It's one thing to pull out these books in an AP English class in 12th grade, or in college, and critique it, but for children, they are not going to see that far beneath the surface, even with help from the teacher/parent.

Not only do I have girls reading the series, but I was considering having a Little House of the Prairie Lunch for them. We were going to make authentic food from that period of time. Interesting thinking.......

Freedom to Choose....

Reading a book all the way through, now there's a concept.

"What really bothers me is, I've met college students who claim that they've never read a book and wear it like a badge of honor."


You need to help students choose their own books. This is a process that should involve both student and teacher in order for it to be effective.

You also need to give them some freedom to abandon a few books. I have some students who, still, here at November, will read a few pages of a book, put it back, and get another one.

In fact, some of the books I discuss on this very website are the book that I read aloud to my class. Occasionally, a student will want to re-read the book I read aloud. Believe it or not, this is a great practice, especially for students who aren't quite ready to take some risks when self-reading. Let them do it.