Monday's Plan:

B-Oatmeal with raisins
L-Tuna with rice
D-Greens

6-Day Muscle Builder, Fat Burner Workout

DAILY

MID SECTION & AEROBIC WORK
20 minutes of intense cardio
Crunches, Leg Raises, Rope Tuck, Hyperextensions

MONDAY/WEDNESDAY/FRIDAY

UPPER BODY
Dumbbell Chest Press (3x8-12)
Wide Grip Pulldown (3x8-12)
Dumbbell Incline Press (3x8-12)
Seated Lat Row (3x8-12)
Dumbbell Shoulder Press (3x8-12)
Dumbbell Incline Curls (3x8-12)
Dips or Triceps Press Machine (3x8-12)
Pulley Pushdown (3x10-12)

TUESDAY/THURSDAY/SATURDAY

LOWER BODY
Squats or Leg Press (4x12, 10, 8, 6)
Stiff Legged Deadlift (4x10-12)

Leg Extension (4x12)
supersetted with
Leg Curl (4x10-12)

Calf Raise (4x15)

3 rds. of shadow boxing

God, Food, Work Out

IEP

-I have this one student who is all about making comic books. He’s an avid reader and is decent when it comes to writing papers, but he pours his heart and soul into making comics. I wanted to aid him into making something more concrete than merely a notebook filled with comic strips. So I created this digital comic book unit.

-I’m not technologically advanced in any capacity, so even scanning pictures onto adobe Photoshop was a process for me. After a full day of cursing the computer, I learned that I had to save the comic pictures on jpeg, and then I could move them onto PowerPoint.

-I had arranged a deal with the student to get me the comic strip early so I could work on it. He didn’t come through until the very late stages of this project, although I had already designed the Unit. I was able to transfer the comics onto the computer and create the digital comic book using PowerPoint so you can view it as a slide show.

-I’ve been thinking whether or not this assignment should be beefed up if I gave it to a whole class, as in making the students add music and a voice over. I figure that it’s best just to get them to create the comic book and get familiar with scanning the pictures and putting them into a slideshow onto PowerPoint.

-I’d like to teach this assignment earlier in the year, and then later in the year have the students create a music video of their favorite song using PowerPoint. I chose PowerPoint because this will let the students become familiar with this program that they will no doubt use for however long they attend classes. I-movie would work too, but most students that give presentations use PowerPoint and I-movie was never used for presentations when I went to school for my under-grad.

Here are the links to my student's digital comic book as well as the lesson plans.

Comic book


lesson plans

Assistive Technologies for Reading

-This article hit home for me as a future English teacher. I'd like to first discuss how learning disabilities entered the American classroom, as I understand it.

-Before “Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka” altered the educational system in America, you had regular students and you had mentally retarded students. This was before we had the special educational programs that you see today. Mentally retarded students didn’t do much back then and had basically no inclusion into the regular classroom.

-After the Brown vs. Board of Education, black students were admitted into non-segregated public schools. Many black students were deemed mentally retarded because they came to school without what was deemed basic skills for public school. So there was still just regular school and mentally retarded classes. When it was noticed that some students just couldn’t seem to stay on task yet had all the necessary skills to pass any subject, learning disabilities such as ADD and ADHD were introduced, so as not to declare regular kids mentally retarded.

-I remember milking the system when I went to school and trying to convince my parents that I had ADD or ADHD, but they didn’t buy it. I see a lot of those now, kids milking the system that is. I sit in these IEP meetings to declare whether students have a learning disability or not and it has been the same outcome for me every time: the student, for whatever reason, decides he can’t do the assignment, and finds a way to get all sorts of unnecessary special help.

-While I’m sure there are computer applications that help student’s reading comprehension, I truly believe there is no substitute for having a student read a book on their own and come up with their own response, conclusion, and message of the book. If you can read a novel, any size, you can read and comprehend any text, including computers.

-Reading novels cover to cover is becoming a lost art with all the gadgets we have that make comprehending stories so accessible. But I think that students miss the point when they simply use computer programs. It’s similar to students using calculators and not understanding “why” they come up with a particular answer, or why algebra, calculus, and geometry work. Reading is a very solo thing when it comes to the high-school level, unless the student is such a poor reader that they’re deemed illiterate, they should come to reading on their own, guided and aided by their teacher.

-You become a better reader by reading, the most efficient assistive technology. Comprehension is bettered with each finished book, and I’m saying this as a student who read maybe 4 books after the 5th grade up until college.

-The trick to getting your kids to read is by having them pick out their own book, and they’ll be smart enough to select a book that is doable for them. If we can teach students to read for pleasure, they will no doubt be able to read for school or for work but they must learn the value of reading for the sake of reading.

Online Community Experience

-I set out to join an online community that would aid myself as an English teacher. At first, I was going to settle on the National Council of Teachers of English(NCTE). However, although they seem to be the McDonalds of the online English teacher's communities, I didn't want to pay $40 to join.

-As an English teacher, I like to develop my lesson plans from scratch in order to buy into the lesson I teach. I've seen lots of English teachers who seem to teach out of a textbook and they have a hard time pitching the students on why they should be doing the lesson besides "you'll be graded on it". At the same time, I do think that you should have some sort of resource to rely on in a pinch if you're stuck and need a lesson or advice fast, and it would be annoying to count on the teacher next door.

-I found a perfect web community at http://www.webenglishteacher.com/contact.html, entitled, "Web English Teacher". Here's a list of the different areas of English-Education that you could get lesson plans from:
AP & IB

Book Reports

Children's Literature

Drama

ELL/ESL/ESOL

Grammar

Home

Interdisciplinary

Journalism

Just for Fun

Literature (Prose)

Media

Mythology

Poetry

Professional Resources

Reading/Literacy

Shakespeare

Speech

Study Guides

Vocabulary

Writing

Young Adult Literature

I like that it's broken down by various subjects that are put into the one subject of English; opposed to being labeled by grade-level.

In one of the forums, I asked how I could incorporate Truman Capote into a high-school American Lit. class without having to go over "In Cold Blood" which probably wouldn't be acceptable for high-school students. This was the response I received:

From EnglishTeacher48- Try Capote’s short story, “A Christmas Memory,” it might be a little late in the year for a Christmas theme but this is a great way to introduce Capote. The style within the story is one that you could have your students try to mimic by having them create their own “Christmas Memory”. There’s a link to a lesson plan using this short story.

This online community and website isn't better than the NCTE by any means, but it is good enough for what I would want.

Educational Websites

www.etymonline.com

This is the best online etymology dictionary. This website is a great resource for English Teachers and wordsmiths alike. Look up your name or see what language your favorite word is derived from.

www.inthesetimes.com

This website kills it. Kurt Vonnegut wrote for it which gives it enough literary credit.

www.urbandictionary.com

This is a great tool to get students interested in the words they use. Once students are aware of their lexicon, it can only get better. This site is great for discussing the prescriptivists vs. descriptivists debate.

www.ncte.org

This website is alright, but nothing special. This site is convenient for referencing but it's overused, big time. This site works for substitute teachers and teachers that can't think on their own. However, this site and organization set the trends within the subject so it's important to know what these guys are doing.



It was great seeing the other websites from my incredible classmates, I liked mine the best.

"Tools For The Mind" Article Response

I found myself completely inline with Mary Burns' article, "Tools For The Mind". While I may seem slighly negative when discussing the issue of technology in a "Language Arts" classroom, the reason for this is because it seems that I've seen the same old song and dance everytime a language arts teacher brings technology in the classroom: powerpoint, wikipedia.com, and that's about it.

In today's American society, blue-collar workers are becoming more and more nonexistant. The need for students to learn about technology is greater than it has ever been, because most of our students will go on to desk jobs where they sit in front of a computer all day. I guess I've never thought there was a technology problem in American education, but I've had the luxury of going to JDHS and co-teaching at JDHS, where technology is top-notch seems widely used. Which is why it was very surprising when Burns made the statements she did about technology, or lack there of in present day education.

It makes all the sense in the world for teachers to apply Burns' "Strategy 1: Teach critical thinking first and technology later." That's one of my probelms with the way technology is used in the classroom, there's never a before lesson about how to search for useful and legitimate information on the inernet.

I guess the root of the technological issue within education is more of the teachers issue. I've said that students get enough technology at their home, but it's not always practical. Teachers need to find ways to bring technology into the classroom for practical reasons and not let the students see the internet as merely entertainment.

There does need to be more professional development, something that Burns touched on. That's the key to bringing technology in the classroom, it has to be professional and practical otherwise the message is lost.

"The Educator's Guide..." Article Summary

The article entitled, "The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web", by Will Richardson, was a very enlightening article for me. It seemed to sway my views regarding technology in a language arts classroom. The point the article made that really stuck out to me was that literacy does not just involve reading and writing, or at least not in the traditional sense.

I'd like my future language arts classes to be based on reading and writing workshops, and I always thought of these workshops to be non-web related. However, I think it would be highly beneficial if I had my students create their own blogs and had a good 5 minutes of free-writing in their blogs everyday, opposed to free writing in a journal.

My main focus for language arts is to get kids addicted to reading, but the purpose for this is to get kids addicted to gathering knowledge. The biggest and best venue for knowledge is the interenet, so I'd be cheating my kids out of the technological education they need if I kept my classroom oldschool, the way I've envisioned it.

Another focus of mine is to get kids to develop their own and unique style of expression. The internet is a great way for kids to express themselves. I've always envisioned putting my student's work up on the classroom walls, but I think another very valuable tool for getting student's work out for the public to see, is to put it on the internet where students, parents, and the public can view student's work without having to acutally come in the classroom.

I also like the point that Richardson made about teaching students what information is valuable, and what isn't. This is an area that I'll need to work on if I'm going to bring these technologies in the classroom.

To build upon this technology, I would want to keep a language arts integrity. Too many times I see information on the internet so bulleted and written as if it were a PowerPoint, this is something I would not want to get my student's very familiar with. While I find it highly beneficial to be a minimalist, I also see the need to be able to fully and thoroughly express ideas, so as to not short-change your expression. Perhaps this is just a personal taste.