A Visit from an Author

Throughout the years, I've really come to believe that each situation I'm in is a chance to learn from someone else's story. This week, that was definitely true in English class! We had a substitute para for the day who was helping students in my sixth hour.

 

The students were working to write dialogue, when the para said, "You know, it's so true. I've written a book and dialogue was the most difficult place to really capture the action and the characters." Our para was Mrs. Donna Boddy, who published the book "Angel on a Mission" in 2011 and is working on the sequel.

 

With a quick change in the lesson, we had time for the students to ask questions about what it's really like to write a book. What an awesome chance for the students to learn! So many of them raised their hands that they wanted to write a book. We have some budding authors!

 

Mrs. Boddy talking with the students. Check out her website at http://donnaboddy.com/.

Blackout Poetry

Seventh graders have been working with punctuation so one day we got to break some of the punctuation rules we had been working with! Instead of looking for correct sentences, we created blackout poems where we took a variety of words and puncutation marks from a Kansas City Star article.

 

 We transformed the meaning of the article from one topic to another. (Below you'll see a poem about bullying. The article was originally about acting.) They did a great job!

 

 



Giving up: I believe that giving up is a kind of joke

 

Decisions: decisions could be simple it might also stretch who we are but who we know we are

 

Bullying: watching bullying can be exhasting. one stopped and the other began.

 

 Love: friends say I love you it's necessary to tell you I want everyone to know feelings are strength

 

Have Trust: I believe God speaks "I love you."

 

Music: When it comes to music it blows my mind it makes me want to laugh it's so brilliant it's really not opinion definitely More than that

Feedback on the Snapshots Unit

2013 8th Grade Class Snapshots

Joe B.

Tom D.


Kyla D.


Bridgette D.


Abby E.


Michael F.


Dylan G.


Adriana G.


Brenna H.


Braedyn K.


Ryan M.


Connor M.


Mykenzie M.


Nick M.


Skylar O.


Madi O.


Ava S.


Zac S.


Matthew S.


Alex T.


Erin W.


Max Y.


Marielle A.


Mac B.


Tori C.


Molly H.


Anna H.


Chris H.


Spencer K.


Andrew L.


Joanna L.


Sophie M..


Kathy N.


Ali O.


Connor P.


Avery R.


Sam S.


Bryce S.


Dylan S.


Shelby S.

br /> Jacob T.


Brady T.


Peter W.

Snapshots

My 8th graders this week will be looking at writing as a form of expression and reflection. One concise way to capture the memories and emotions of a memory is through a picture. Students will use their presentations of Animoto videos about snapshots of their lives to create expressive and poetic writing for their portfolios. Here's the example I made of my life.

Collin's Cause

 

 

Students and families,

 

I would like to ask you to pray for one of my students during student teaching who is now battling with brain cancer. Collin had returned to Manhattan High School during his sophomore year, which is when I had the pleasure of teaching him. He had spent much of his freshman year battling with cancer, but was in remission.

 

Collin's cancer has returned and a cure has not been found for this type of cancer. I would like to ask all of you to pray for this junior in high school and his family/friends. It's hard to see someone so young who is struggling.

 

If you have any desire to donate to the fund to support his family as they visit Collin and pay for medical bills, students in Manhattan have started this fund and almost $20,000 has been raised as support. To donate, go to this website (http://www.giveforward.com/collinscause).

 

Thanks for your prayers!

 



The One and Only Ivan Conclusion



We've finished! The 6th-grade classes have completed "The One and Only Ivan." I think they'll miss our reading days in class. Applause rung out in one of my classes at "The End." :)

 

With this exciting Global Read Aloud Project, the author of the book (Katherine Applegate) is answering students' questions about the book. More than 30,000 students participated in the Global Read Aloud Project, and we got to be part of it here in Shawnee, KS. This link is the one students will need to complete their homework for Tuesday.

 

While the students were writing two-word sentences to form a poetic reflection of the book, I wrote one about the process.

Taking a Chance

Teacher creates.

Miss Rajewski finds.

Book speaks.

Class smiles.

Journey starts.

Pupils listen.

Cities join.

Students converse.

Teacher loves.

 

Almost every single one of the students said they would enjoy participating in the project as 7th graders so we'll plan on that for next October. It will be a new book to read. Check out the students' blogs from this past week to see their final thoughts. 

 

Making Vocab Movies

My 8th-grade classes created stories in the computer lab this week to use their vocabulary words in context. Next week they will be receiving the rubric for a writing opportunity about themselves. They will also be creating videos with this same program to share in class, so these vocab videos were a great way to get familiar with the program.

Here's an excellent example of one student's work.

Remember, students, be collecting pictures for next week!

Celebrating Halloween

Happy Halloween! Here's a view of the day from my classroom.

 

 



The middle school teachers (and the rest of the faculty) took the day to embody the school theme -- "Make me an instrument of your peace."

 

 

The seventh-grade girls gather for a picture outside at the parade.

 

My homeroom class had some pretty creative costumes. Thanks to all the parents who helped with the party. We had a great time!

 

Students practiced active listening and made predictions as I read "The Tell-Tale Heart."

 

Once they made predictions, we checked to see if they were right!