Book Review: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

I love this book. It is the story of a spunky eleven year old girl growing up at the turn of the century. Calpurnia Virginia Tate, aka Callie Vee, loves the scientific adventures she has with her grandfather. She loves to read, she loves to swim in the river, she loves catching fireflies with her 4 brothers. She does not love knitting, tatting, cooking, baking, or getting her hair done. I totally related to her. I'm lucky that I wasn't born during that time.

bratty birthday party

i'm so sad.

we just came home from a birthday party.

the birthday boy got a ton of stuff. he opened each gift by either tossing the contents from the bag or ripping the paper from the box and then just taking a quick glance at what was inside. one after another. again, and again, and again. my son picked up the gifts that he had chosen for him and held onto them while birthday boy slammed through the rest of his gifts. when he was finished, c asked if birthday boy wanted to look at the superhero book he got him. birthday boy was too engrossed in flashing toy to look at my boy.

birthday boy also sat and sulked until present unwrapping time.

so, so sad. my boy is unscathed, but i am not.

ground breaking stuff!

This is not my first foray into blogdom. Once upon a time I had a very craptastic blog over on Yahoo 360. Since then, the site has closed but I saved my stuff. ESPECIALLY since it was ground breaking stuff. So...I think that I am going to move some of the 'good' ones here, so I can clear up some space on my computer. Hope I don't freak you out too much with the going-ons of my CA-RAZY brain. You have been warned!

Boo!

Making sure my students are safe on the Internet is very important to me. I am perfectly okay scaring the crap out of my students. Boo!

I don't mind telling them that I can see their open pages on facebook. I also like to remind them that facebook rules state that they must be 13 years old to have an account. This sometimes has an affect on a few of my third graders...but usually not!

After the Dominion Post published the article about the 14 year old boy who had a real life meet up with another 'boy' he met on facebook, I shared it with all of my classes again. "This happened in the county right next to us!" I do my best to scare them.

As a future media specialist I know that one of my responsibilities will be to teach iSafe curriculum to my students. I look forward to that.

The making of a movie...

I would ideally make a photo tour of the media center for my students. I would have photos and captions of each area: fiction A-Z, reference, autobiographies, collections, magazines. I would also include photos of stuff: shelf markers, circulation desk, book return spots, date due cards. I think that this would be a fun way to share this info and something that my kids would enjoy. I want them to see the IWB in use this year. Photo Story seems pretty neat and at the same time user-friendly.

3 Questions...

How have you used productivity software with your students in the past?

• Publisher: newsletters, About Me posters, brochures
• Office: comics, reflections, letter writing
• PowerPoints: Biographies, All About 4th Grade, All About Me
• Excel: tables & graphs, creating floor plans
• Wordle: Autobiographies, Customs

How will you try to use productivity software with your students in the future?

• Prezi! I love it.
• Other stuff that I'm going to learn this week...

Why must students – of all ages – understand how to use productivity software?

• to keep them interested
• to promote creativity
• to prepare them for the real world

Educating Students for the 21st Century

My three year old niece, Addison, knows where to find her password to log in to her family's computer. She enters the 7 character code and logs in, clicks on the Internet icon, and knows where to go to find the bookmarks her favorite Aunt Sis has saved for her. This child is 3 years old. That little girl loves to get on the computer. This is the prior experience that many of the students who are coming into our classrooms are bringing with them.

Because of this, educating students to prepare them for the 21st Century is an extremely important one. It is my responsibility to teach kids how to stay safe on the Internet. It is my responsibility to teach kids how to tell the difference between a reputable website and a shady one. It is my responsibility to help students think outside of the box. It is my responsibility to fuel their love of learning.