Challenges...then Success

“You don’t become enormously successful without encountering and overcoming a number of extremely challenging problems.”

Mark Victor Hansen

My reflective thought on this quote is that success does not come without hard work and some problems. When I think of the word success, I think of the word failure first. Failure is usually a stepping stone to success. I think of when I first learned how to ride a bike without training wheels. I did not jump on the seat and ride away. I remember falling and getting back on several times before I was to ride on my own.

Just as a graduate student, I became a better writer and thinker after many tries throughout my classes. I remember the many track changes from my first paper to fewer red marks on my final pieces of work. I remember my lame first power point presentation without any animation. After learning so much about power presentations, I can whip one with confidence.

As educators, we face many challenges in our classroom each school year. But as true educators, we find tools and strategies to support and meet those challenges and find the success in our students.

As graduate students, we had many challenges but we overcame it and find ourselves reaching success come on the 31st day of May….

This past class session (and semester) was great....Dr. Rivera will miss this cohesive and collaborating cohort group!

Health, Happiness and Success

"Health, happiness and success depend upon the fighting spirit of each person. The big thing is not what happens to us in life-but what we do about what happens to us."--George Allen

We are in control of our own destiny. It is up to us which path in life we would like to take.

Sorry, about the brain freeze I had at the end of class. There was so much laughter going on that I couldn't think of anything to say. Thank you to everyone for helping me out! Thank goodness the powerpoint is done! Thank you Dr. Rivera for being so patient and helping us get it right after the millionth time! Thank you Lorna for doing a beautiful job on the parent pamphlet. Next class is going to be awesome! Great presentation. Great theme. Great food. Great company. What more can you ask for?

Target

Did we hit target? I am sure we all did! It was not as stressed this evening. I felt my shoulders lightening up. I just can't wait until Wednesday. The pirate theme is kind of neat to have. Arrr! Too bad I don't look like Keira Knightley! Would our family celebration along with the power point presentation, treasure chests, pamphlet add extra points? I know it will.

"Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study. Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life." --Henry L. Doherty

This basically is saying that learning never stops.

"People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing" --Dale Carnegie


If you truly enjoy what you do, you would have forgotten you were "working". The 'FUN' in it all is the biggest factor of our success. This semester has been more than just FUN, it has been an experience I'll never forget. That is success to me.

Cef, the power point is GREAT!!! Kate, SMART...you threw it in my school bag and here I was glancing into my purse to make sure you didn't put it there. Lorna, the Parent Pamphlet is BEAUTIFUL!!! Lucille...THANKS... ;-)
See you all this weekend...Katie Watie, see you tomorrow.

"Failure is success if we learn from it." Malcolm Forbes

How you deal with failure can lead down two paths: you can choose to wallow in self pity or you can learn from your mistakes and take the necessary steps to improve. The latter will always lead to success!

My friends we are two sessions away! I am so looking forward to the Family Literacy Celebration next week. I think the kids are going to love seeing themselves in the power point and the parents will love seeing all the hard work their children have accomplished this semester. The celebration will be a wonderful culmination of everyone's hard work. Cef and Lorna thank you so much for creating the power point and pamphlet, both are wonderful!

I love the idea of going out to dinner for our last class. What a nice way to end a very successful and productive semester!

See you all next week!
Kate

Learning and Growing

"It is not what is poured into a student that counts but what is planted." -Linda Conway

Just like a seed, it can only grow and blossom into a healthy tree if it is watered, trimmed and cared for.

A child can only have a meaningful learning experience when teachers nurture and guide the child. Many times, it is the simple lessons that the student remembers and understands which becomes a life long lesson.

From my own tutoring sessions, I think that Andrew learned more about the reading strategies using simple stories or articles. For him, it comes easy for him to understand and remember. Hopefully it will help him in his reading and eventually develop a great love for reading!

This past semester has been a fun and enjoyable one! As a cohort of graduate students, I think we have learned so much but I think we have gained more in lasting friendships! Thank you, inner circle friends for a great semester!

Aaaaahhh!!!!

My stress level is at an all-time high! I have just recovered from strep and the flu and with all the deadlines to meet, I am exhausted. My left eye is twitching. There's SAT-10 info to enter on the students' answer sheets. I am so surprised I am still functioning on Thursday.

I am trying to convince myself that all this will be worth it. I guess I always feel this way towards the end of the semester. I sure will miss the get-togethers. I know that Charlene will miss going to UOG. Anyway, we're almost there! We do have one hurdle-Praxis II. Good luck, everyone!

"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows." --Sydney J. Harris

We just can't see the same thing all the time. Windows hold a lot of opportunities.

Love What You Do

"People rarely succeed unless they enjoy what they are doing." --Dale Carnegie

If you love what you do, you will eventually forget that you were even working. If you forget that you were working, you will have done your job passionately, effectively, and successfully.

If time seems to have flown by, you must have loved what you were doing that you had no idea you were just about done. At times there may be struggles, but these struggles are what leads us to appreciate the end results.

Donovin has recovered, thank God! He and I worked just today, Wednesday, after school into the evening to get our assessments done. Of course he had his breaks in between to snack, play with my kids, watch a little television, and play outside so as not to overwhelm him. He did so great!!! Good news is that I started my case report early on with the facts and information that I already possessed, so my only task is to input the tables and interpretations that are in my session reports along with added in depth interpretations. I should be in your shoes in another day, ready for revisions...

GREAT GOING TO YOU ALL...Like Kate said, we are so close, you can almost feel it!

See you all on Friday ;-)

It's so close I can touch it!

May 31st! So close I can touch it!

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement, nothing can be done without hope and confidence." -- Helen Keller

If there is one word that can describe the inner circle it is OPTIMISM! We are constantly encouraging each other, cheering each other on and pushing each other forward to May 31. All of that bundled together creates a team of optimists and in a few weeks we will all receive our ulitimate achievement!

I just finished my addendum revisions for Dr. Rivera and I am awaiting Dr. Stoicovy's edits. As I wrote the addendum and compared the results of Nathaniel's scores from last semester I found myself saying over and over "Wow...he really did well!" I am so proud of him! I'm so proud of all of us; it's been a hectic but rewarding semester. Our next big goal is getting through the Praxis on Saturday morning. We've come this far, we can do it!!

See you all on Friday,

Kate

Successful men and women keep moving!

"Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." Conrad Hilton

In order to achieve our goals and dreams, we must be focused on the prize at sight. In our case, it's graduation!

I finished my Addendum for my Case Study Report early so I decided to blog and catch up on my other assignments. Good luck to my inner circle in completing their case studies. Have a great week and see you all on Friday afternoon.

The 10th Session

"Obviously, there is little you can learn from doing nothing." Zig Ziglar

If I didn't pursue my master's degree in Language and Literacy, I would not had the opportunity to learn all this great knowledge that I do now with the greatest bunch of people that I will ever know.

The last session was the best regardless if I didn't have Ahrian. We did our tenth session during Easter Break . He did great in all his activities. There was so much laughter and joy in the air. I can't believe that we are almost done with our program. Look at us now! I am so proud of us all!

Happy Belated Birthday Lucille! May you have many more birthdays to come!

Thank you, everyone! It's nice to celebrate being "25" so many times over. It was a nice surprise especially on the last tutoring session. Food was enough to keep me guilty of eating. Thanks again!

Charlene did her last retelling and spelling test. I took a quick glance on the spelling test and she did great! She's accomplished the level that she was struggling with. Yaay! All I have now is to get the diagnostic case report completed with uploads of Charlene's work! She seems more relaxed and warming up to being in social gatherings.

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." --Albert Einstein

Something good comes out of something bad. Or think of it this way, no pain, no gain!

Start and Finish

“If we don’t start, it’s certain we can’t arrive.”
Zig Ziglar

This quote comes in an appropriate time...As we end our tutoring sessions, we move on to the final weeks of our program. As the weeks come closer, we enter the last part of the completion of our Language and Literacy program. Then the grand finale…the great walk across the stage to reap what we have sowed these past couple of years.

In reflection, if we had not started the coursework, we would not be the receivers of much knowledge and wisdom as we have now. Now that we are (almost) finished, as graduates, we hope to impart what we have learned onto the students in our care.

WORK...ebay...WORK...facebook...WORK...ebay...WORK

"Choice, not circumstances, determines your success." Anonymous

It is not the situations that we encounter that bring us to success, but the decisions we make and what we do when in those situations that determines our success. We could easily take courses (the situation), but it is our decision (choice) to prioritize our daily activities in order to get our work done, hit target, and graduate (success). We can all play around about becoming "facebook'holics" or in my case an "ebay'holic", but all playing aside, we have made and continue to make the decision to get the work done, hit target, and head towards our success - GRADUATION!

It was a blast tonight learning all forms of technology. As we all read, technology is one that we all must learn and accept that we'll have to learn it one way or another. We all just learn 'technology' in our own ways (wink, wink). Thumbs up to Nathaniel's artistic skills portrayed in his sketch to stretch activity. I love this strategy. My students happened to do that very activity today with their Social Studies. I also included that skill in one of my paraprofessional lesson plans. Great going Kate! See you all at the reading hour this Saturday in Hagatna and at G.W. high for I.R.A.'s Spend It All event.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY AGAIN LUCILLE! HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT ONE!

The last session

"History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats." B.C. Forbes

As I said in class tonight this quote is another version of "If at first you don't succeed, try try again." Do not give in to defeat for then failure has won. Jump back onto the bandwagon and go for it again.

Wow! Tonight was the last session with the kids, I cannot believe this is almost over. Nathaniel did very well tonight, I love his sketches, he is such a talented artist. He worked very hard this semester and it has certainly paid off. I hope he takes some of the strategies I have taught him and continues to use them.

Happy Birthday Lucille! I am patiently waiting for your first facebook status update :)

See you all on Saturday at the library!

Kate

Child Centered

'It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts... it is to teach them to think, if that is possible, and always to think for themselves.' --- Robert Hutchins

In a true learning environment, the true learning happens when the child thinks and creates his or her own learning through opportunities provided by the teacher. Many times, I have found that when students bring up a topic or ask a question, it leads to more questions and the sharing of ideas. This becomes a learning moment for both the class and the teacher. This provides an opportunity for another lesson or an extension of a lesson.
This quote is appropriate for a couple of instances that took place this week. This week was a Science Fair on McCool’s school grounds. In my class, learning stations were set up for a “Bubbles Experiment.” The station had plates with soap and water and various objects. The objective is to make bubbles with the objects. The students were to observe and record their findings.
With the Science Fair, Andrew placed 2nd place for his grade level. Again, the quote suits well in this instant. Andrew and his cousin, AJ, worked together on an osmosis experiment using raw eggs. An exchange of ideas and thought processes between the boys helped Andrew answer questions and understand concepts.

As we "guide" our studens to meet their reading goals, we should keep in mind that we can't fill their minds with ideas but allow them to explore reading using the strategies that have been introduced adding to their schemata.

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. ~Robert G. Ingersoll


I like this quote. It reminds me of what I always tell my children and my students: I would rather have common sense and not be book smart than be book smart and have no common sense. This is not to be interpreted. I love to read and gain new knowledge but if I was ever put in a situation of saving myself from being hurt, I know I am not within reach of looking up a life-saving strategy or tactic in a book. I can be "street smart," too! It can save your life and help problem-solve!

I had a wonderful session with Charlene. We had a some spelling strategies that were worked with. Charlene read twice the iguana story and responded with her retelling. She did all right. We're going to continue to work on this and other comprehension strategies especially the question and answer part. Getting there!

"I challenge you to make your life like a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk." -- Anthony Robbins

Only you can make a difference in your life by practicing what you preach!

I met with Nathaniel yesterday afternoon in Lucille's classroom and will go back there tomorrow for this weeks session. I was excited to hear from his teacher that she too has seen a great improvement in his reading skills. She said at one point she was considering him a candidate for the child study team. Given his improvement over the second half of the year, she no longer thinks he needs it! I am so proud of him.

I hope you all have a wonderful spring break, I miss you and can't wait to see everyone!

Kate

I shine the light; you find your way.

"Every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you one corner, and it is for you to find the other three." --Confucius

As a teacher, it is our goals and reason for being in the position we are in to hand over the skills in attaining new knowledge to our students. The idea is that we scaffold our students in mastering the skills they need to learn independently. We don't want to give them simple, day to day lessons, but life long lessons that will lead them to find things out on their own. This is the strongest purpose of our roles as reading specialists.

Thus far, I have focused my session on assessments with Donovin. He has soared in progression with word recognition. Though I am testing, I decided to continue implementing strategies that will continue to guide him to literacy success. I'm starting a new strategy with word sorts. He seems to remember spelling patterns when comparing them to known words...sort of tapping into his schemata of spelling patterns. I'll be seeing him over the Easter break just to be sure we get enough assessments to show his overall progress. Enjoy your long overdue break! See you all in another week and a half. Until then, God Bless.