WOW! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your wonderful comments. My self esteem is soaring. You guys are great classmates. You make all the hard work and dead lines easier to handle.

Great Power Points by everyone. Lots of good information. Charlene, you really know your stuff. Your job must be very rewarding, as all of ours are I'm sure. Classroom Jeopardy sounds like fun. Kids of all ages like to play games and when there is a little competition involved, it's even better. Throw in a sticker and you're a winner. Well, maybe something more grownup for the older ones.

The activity we did was very thought provoking. All of you have a great week and don't forget, "Those who lose dreaming, are lost".

Quote Activity

Wonderful ED 641 Day

Wonderful ED 641 Day

The PEA feedback was heart warming. I was having a rough day but it just brightened up. I really felt special when I read the comments. It's wonderful when you read positive things about your personality. I guess it's true about what they say, "Words are timeless". Words are able to lift up anyone's day.

WOW! That was a lot!

Motivating to Read

Hi Everyone, 4/16/07

Everyone's presentation in class was very interesting and useful for our students in class. It seems that there are many ways to teach vocabulary acquistion with the students. Thank you all for sharing your great ideas. For sure, those techniques we discussed in class together will be implemented in my classes with my students. Dr. Rivera's in-class activities were very interesting as well. The feature fruit allows students to use their cognitive skills as they reflect on what they know about fruits. Sometimes, each student can support their choices based on the fruit's developmental stages of growth. The venn diagram was very interactive and definitely encourages students to join in in the discussions. The technique using the circular diagraming and putting related information regarding the stories was very organized and fluid. It allows everyone to see similarities and differences between the stories themselves. It gives students a chance to organize their thoughts and gives them ideas that might be useful to them. For example, as the discussion becomes more apparent using the venn diargram, this illustration can enable students to use this format as a basis of outlining ideas, and possibly give them possible angles to writing and presentations. Other things that we discussed such as journals, study guides, and other related activities were very informative and useful. These ideas help foster creativity and innovative ideas to learning through reading and writing. I am enjoyiing this class very much. Even though I am experiencing some tough times in my life, I honestly am learning alot from Dr. Rivera, and most of all, from everyone's ideas. Thank you everyone our time together so far. See you soon.

Si Albert

PTA

Hi everyone! I am so sorry I wasn't able to make it to class. If Dr. Rivera didn't inform you, I had a PTA meeting. It was suppose to end at five but right at the last minute one of my students parents showed up. We had an hour and half meeting. It was a longest meeting I ever had for a student, but it was good. We were able to resolve issues about my student. His parents are very concerned about him which I am very happy about. They had concerns and I had concerns that we discussed. The best part was that my student was with them. So he was able to clear up some misconceptions that his parents were having. We developed a strategy plan that would hopefully help my student pass the class. A communication log was also implemented. A communication log is how his parents are able to know what he has to do or what he is going to do at home. His parents write letters to me and I write letters to them in the communication log. I hope it will help with attendance also. It was a long PTA meeting but the results were good. It seems that you learned alot during the class, I wish I could have made it.

Strategies!

I, sincerely, learned from each and every one of you on Monday’s presentations. Richard, I am so ENVY of you that you were able to work with your own students to see if a concept really works. Someday, I hope, I will be able to incorporate everything I learned from ALL of you into my classroom. We read a lot yesterday. I personally, need to have hands-on activity to see if a concept really works. And that’s what, I hope, this course will lead me to--at least in my classroom. I, as an elementary teacher, have to work hard at it--thanks to my son’s girl/boy friends. As weeks go by, it is getting harder. My followers are avoiding me (but I keep enticing them with the best thing any human being needs –FREE FOOD!) In the end, it’s ALL about STRATEGIES that we learn in this classroom. And that--I am learning--thanks to all of you!

I really enjoyed hearing about the strategies you used and how it worked out for you and the students you worked with for the activity that required you to promote independent vocabulary acquisition with your students and the one which required you to use a prereading strategy. I certainly enjoyed the experience I had with my kids. I guess I'm blessed to have the kids readily available because I'm a middle school teacher, but I'm sure that you all can find a way to improvise. And that's part of being an educator; and that is to improvise on a lot of things.

I like the study guide ideas covered in class today, especially those dealing with the use of technology. I have some ideas on what I plan to do, but the problem is that with our school system and the situation of a lot of my students are currently experiencing in terms of their family background, they do not have the resources to take advantage of the technology I want them to take advantage of. Looks like I'll have to do what I mentioned earlier - improvise!

After hearing the presentations on activities 12 and 13 and all the interesting feedback all of you get from your students, I sometimes feeel like I would really like to try teaching older students. Maybe after I get my degree, I will give it a shot.
I really appreciate all the handouts that Dr. Rivera gives us to help us with our activities. When I get really lost, I pull out those handouts and get myself back on track. Thanks!