Not My Hands

A reflective essay

It was at Mass yesterday that it happened.  We weren't as rushed as usual because only 2/5 of us were attending mass.  My middle child had been vomiting the night before and therefore couldn't attend.  And if one adult was staying home with a sick kid, then surely the 18 month old was staying home too.  Do you remember what it's like to be with an impatient, independent toddler at Mass?  Especially the Palm Sunday Mass where you know you are going to read the long (extra long), interactive Gospel that leaves you feeling guilty because you were asking Pontius Pilate to kill Jesus? Well, anyway, when you have the opportunity to attend that mass without the toddler, you take it.  But I digress...

There's a feeling I get sometimes.  It's the "ahhh home" feeling.  Except it was much more powerful than normal.  It was a wave of nostalgia so strong I time-traveled back to when I was a little girl, sitting at Mass with my mom.  I could smell the incense, see the blue carpet with indents from the kneeler, and feel the scratchy tweed seat.  I loved the glittery ceiling.  When I go there now, I am sad because what's left of the glittery ceiling is peeling off.  Man, I loved that ceiling.

I would snuggle in close and hold her hand and while Father Tony or Father Frank (whichever one it was at the time) was delivering a homily that she listened to so intently, I was studying her hands.  Every. Single.  Detail.  I would run my fingers over her hands and feel the dry skin.  I wondered at the veins that popped up ever so slightly so that I could push them around with my own small fingers.  Her nails, her rings, her knuckles, I studied it all as hard as Father Tony (or Father Frank) was hoping we were listening to the homily.

But this time the nostalgia was interrupted.  As it is when you are in the middle of a dream, and then you realize that you are dreaming, and you are disappointed but also happy that you haven't yet left the imagined world of your slumber.  Not bad feeling, just slightly disappointed.  And it was because I realized that my mom's hands that I was admiring were not her hands, but were, in fact, my hands.  The wrinkles, the dry skin, the veins you could move.  It was so weird.  I really can't think of another word for it.

They are no longer the hands of a piano-playing little girl.  They are the hands of a mother- dry from the incessant washing with the beginnings of wrinkles that will only deepen until someday they won't be my hands or my mom's hands, but my Maka's hands.  I have been blessed with the hands of my mom.  And the cute little hand holding mine- someday maybe she will be too.

Biography Study- Famous Latinos in U.S. History

Hispanic Heritage Month begins on September 15th every year.  So early in the school year, this is a great opportunity to affirm and celebrate some of the "greats" of our Spanish-speaking bilingual students' culture.  We do a project in Room 205 that not only teaches a plethora of skills and functions as the foundation of lessons on research, but also provides the class with about 20 new role models to revisit throughout the year.

Students do independent biography investigations of a famous Latino who has made a positive impact on the United States.

The Teaching:

I use the Big 6 to structure our investigations.

We discuss the importance of Hispanic Heritage Month and why we should study and learn about these people.  I then provide students with some initial websites and posters that give brief summaries of goal-achieving Latinos and the students create lists of who they would like to study.  For this particular project, it is important that each student studies a different person, because our final product is a Live Wax Museum!  

I teach multiple mini-lessons on the following topics:

• Internet research, book research, and everything in between
• citing sources
• The important components and text structure of a biography
• fact vs. opinion
• chronology
• big ideas- specifically, WHY is this person important?  Seriously, why should I even care to learn about this person?
• KEY details vs. "just" details
• Writing a solid paragraph: introduction, main idea, evidential support, conclusion
• Writing for an intended audience
• revising vs. editing, the difference and value of each

The Presentation:

Once students have a "publishable" paragraph (We talked about how in museums there are those little signs all over that explain the exhibits and they share only the most important information, so seriously, this time, just a paragraph), we learn the art of Photostory.  Students find (and cite) pictures of their person from the internet, record themselves reading their biography of their person and jazz it up with all sorts of fun transitions and music.  (Shhh.... they don't realize it, but this is their summative assessment for the project)  Once all projects have been emailed to me, the even MORE fun part happens... The Wax Museum.

We invite the entire school and our families to come tour our wax museum.  We plan and prepare costumes and background settings for each display.  We publish our paragraphs in English and Spanish (we have a bilingual audience, after all), and rearrange the room so that it really looks like a museum.  I don my best curator persona and the kids freeze as the first group of of visitors enters our room.  They stand frozen for a solid 15 minutes as the visitors watch their Photostories play over the projector and read about the famous Latinos.  The kids are grateful for the 5 minute break between classes so that they can relax a little and maybe find a new position to freeze into for 15 minutes.

It's a great time, and the kids are always so proud of all their hard work!  How do you celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month?

Help me decorate!

Help me decorate our new house!

1st- Here are the "workable" walls:

I'm content to leave this as is- but I just put the leaves there because there were already nails.

This is the upstairs hallway.  Lots of space on both sides, but dark, so I don't want it to feel too crowded.

Meh.  I want to make this area more useful and look nicer.

Downstairs walls.  

More downstairs walls.

Empty shelf/wall near bar

Now, here I want to put empty multicolored frames to put kids' artwork in when they make it because this is in the playroom.

There's this wall space above the stairs that I don't need to put something, but there are nails there now, which bother me. 

Now here are some pinteresting ideas:

I want to have a place for the kids to come in, put papers, hang backpacks, etc.  I think that shelf/mirror area is the best spot.  It would be nice to have a spot to put outgoing mail as well.  

I would like to do a wall like one of these.  I don't necessarily want to build shelves myself- that seems like too much work for me right now.  I'm thinking black frames and black and white pics.  Could do this where the leaves are or at the end of the downstairs hallway?

I am thinking this would go good on that angled wall in the downstairs hallway.  Not sure about pictures next to it?

I don't necessarily want a giant decal, but I saw a cute sign at Kohls that was on a canvas and looked something like this:

Let me know what you think!  Gracias!

Project-Based Learning- Part 1 of 4

When I tutored at ISU, they gave me a mug for graduation.  It had this Chinese proverb on it:

Tell me, and I forget.

Show me, and I remember.

Involve me, and I understand.

Any of my students would tell you that I don't go anywhere without my coffee in the mornings.  In fact, there was one day where I had a stomach bug and my student observed, "Teacher, you must not feel good, you haven't drank any coffee!"  But they may not have noticed that I don't go anywhere without that coffee mug either.  It is a reminder to me of what my teaching should be like, especially when working in English with English language learners.  


So, to me, it only made sense that my lessons would be student-centered and student-driven as much as possible.  I usually engage my students in the process of project-based learning.  Here are 5 reasons why I LOVE it!

1.  Each student must be an active participant.   

2.  Students problem solve.

3.  You can cover MANY standards with one project.

4.  It encourages collaboration, and therefore the use of academic English by the students.  

5.  It's fun!

The following 3 posts in this series will cover 3 specific projects the fifth graders completed this year.

New name, better blog!

I've changed my email address, got mad at my old blog template and decided it's time to start fresh and focused.  I look forward to creating a blog that is useful and entertaining.  Happy Reading!


Inspired by the Invitations to Play from The Imagination Tree, here's what the kiddos did today while I participated in a webinar:

Materials:

Bowl
Pom-poms
Egg carton
Salad pinchers
Salad dressing ladle

First Caribou sorted

Then after a rigorous game of "throw the pom-poms," Monster cleaned up!