Teacher KaShiim’s Blog Site

I came across some riddles and chants about frogs on a web-quest curriculum example which meets the 2nd grade science standards for the Life Cycle of Animals . Stuff like that makes teaching fun!

Riddle: What do you get when you cross a rabbit and a frog?

Answer (look closely):  A  ribbit!

Riddle: Why did the tadpole cross the pond?

Answer: To get to his school.

Riddle: Why do frogs live on every continent except for Antarctica?

Answer: Because they are already “cold”-blooded.

I hope you enjoyed those riddles as much as I did. Learn more about frogs on a webquest page I found while looking for educational websites to review.  You can cut and paste the link below to the web address window. Learning is fun and frogs are cool.

http://www.ourclassweb.com/webquest_frogs_introduction.htm

Summer is finally here! For me, that means it is time to apply for Master’s Program for Teaching Curriculum + Reading Certification. It also means making copies of the Letters of Recommendation I’ve received since last year and in my 1st placement, updating my resume and hand delivering them to the schools I’d like to work for. Some how, I will figure out how to scan my certificates and achievement awards to the Edjoin site so that they can be uploaded to the schools I’d like to work for as well. Currently, I must focus on the matter at hand…completing Webquest assignment and the 4 Lesson Plans for TED Art class. So, although school is out a teacher’s work is ongoing.>^_^<.

I remember being a bit frightened when we were told at the end of last quarter that we would have a computer training class. I just got a little bit freaked out and looking back over I see why I was freaked out, I feel like I am computer illiterate. I don’t know much outside of word and powerpoint so to have created a teach website that has functional links and pretty graphics I am truely impressed.

Yes, thankfully, we had Instructor David Thornley to guide us through everything he assigned. It helped keep me on task and that made understanding the assignments a whole lot better. I appreciate that he gave us time to ask questions and work on our assignments in class. He was patient in helping us during class and by web on non-class time.

Yesterday I saw “Orphan” on a 3-story tall movie screen outside under the stars. A group of my friends and I went to San Jose to the movies. He had our snacks and lawn chairs and everyone brought their own blanket and sat outside the cars enjoying the Action-Thriller “Orphan”. It was like a tailegate party without the bar-b-que grills. If you haven’t seen that movie, go see it. It is worth watching…although there are several, ”look away” scenes, it is worth the $6.75 you’ll spend per person.

So, one of my friends and I had some miscommunication the other day and our other friend became the buffer and counselor between us for help on being honest about what we felt. I honestly felt better about saying truthfully how I felt and sharing my emotions however, I did not feel good about the fact that my friend was hurt by my not wanting to do things her way. She felt like she spent enough time preparing me to say what she wanted me to talk about to my peers. I feel like I did a poor job of communicating that I disagreed with her point of view, thus, when it came down to it, I did not feel comfortable sharing the matter her way. She was upset and she was hurt because I told her I would share with our peers but I did not tell her that I would do it my own way. The result, we resolved. I did not share my ideas with as many of my peers as originally expected. Overall, it is still on my mind…bummer.

In 2002, a couple I know got married and passed out their wedding music soundtrack on CD as the gift to the adult guests who attended. I just came across their CD today and let it play. I remembered there were not many songs played with words just instrumentals, mostly classical music…and right now, I’m loving it!

I have been dreading the tech assignments lately because I don’t understand fully what to expect as I go to start the task. My computer had been giving me the blues. It seems everytime I open it there is a new feature to download or add to make the performance of my, brand new computer!~!!!! Huh! (sigh), better. I sometimes ignore the prompts but they only come back. So I reluctantly click to upgrade whatever software enhancement blah, blah, blah.

My reluctance is from fear that whatever it’s doing may crash my computer forever as I wait, the anxiety mounts with ever minute that goes by. I fix my lunch and come back finally it is done. “Please Shut down windows to fully install the updates.” “OH GREAT! Is there any other way to get the show on the road, here?!” Well, yes, but I am so frustrated and ready to finish the process I click the shut down button, the computer reboots itself and I just don’t want to do anything else technical.

I have been neglecting my TeacherWeb project. I know it is due 08/10/2009 and I know I’ll finish but I’ve been afraid to do it wrong.

Today, I’ll put my fears behind me and get to work. Wish me luck! 

   I had the most wonderful time in Texas this past weekend. I had just learned about the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in Central California during our GLAD Training and found myself flying over it Heading Southeast towards Arizona and Texas. I learned during my first placement that I am allowed to take photos from inside a plane. So I used my camara phone to take pictures of the beautiful Sierra mountains from 10,000 feet above them. This was my first trip to Texas. I planned to see my friend get married. We had been roommates for nearly 3 years before she moved to Texas for her beau. She is Asian but she was rasied in Spain. She and her husband have that in common though she speaks Spanish better than she does Chinese. Their common languages are English and Spanish though they are both Chinese.

So, I set out from California Friday morning and arrived to Houston in the afternoon their time, a little after 1PM. We rested their just long enough for others to board the plane. Then my plane left from Houston and brought me to Dallas-Love Field Airport. My boyfriend and his dad were waiting their to pick me up from the airport. My boyfriend and several other of our friends had arrived earlier in the week. I stayed behind to finish the GLAD training week. My boyfriend’s dad lives in Arlington and it was my first time to see him face-to-face though we had talked by phone weeks before. He is a very nice person. He drove us everywhere this past weekend! He drove about 400 miles in total. I met a lot of my boyfriend’s family members; in addition to his father I met his grand-parents, some cousins, uncles and his aunty Nise (Denise). 

Friday night I met up with the girls and we were up till 2 AM creating the bride and bride-maids’ bouquets. The bouquets turned out beautiful and I learned a new skill in the process. It was well worth the twighlight energy! The next day at 2PM was my friend’s wedding in Arlington! Before the wedding my boyfriend and his dad came to pick me up so we could find souvenirs at the mall. The saying holds true, “Everything Is Bigger In Texas!” The mall was incrediblely huge! It had the tallest vaulted ceilings I’ve ever seen. A souvenir shop specifically for Dallas and Fort Worth and for Texas (in general all parts). We shopped till about 12:30PM and in the process we got a wedding gift for the soon-to-be-wed.

The wedding was beautiful. My friend and her husband represented both Spanish and the Chinese Culture in their ceremony and reception. The bride-maids had on beautiful fusia satin dresses with Spanish-style shawls. The Maid-of-Honor wore a pink shawl while the others wore an ivory shawl. Every shawl had beautiful embroidery to them and streaming tassels, so lovely. At the reception from Kowloon Chinese Restaurant the newly wed couple performed for us a Flamingo Dance in their Spanish attire. At the top of the wedding cake were two Spanish dancer figurines, a woman in red and a man in black. She and her husband were very nice to each other during the cake cutting part. They fed each other. No “cake smashed in face” moments. I loved it. I especially appreciated how naturally our friends’ wedding opened conversation lines for my boyfriend and I to talk about our hopes for someday being married to one another. After the reception my boyfriend’s dad came and took us from Arlington to downtown Fort Worth. It was so warm and a little humid, we did not need jackets. The City of Lights is what I’ll call it. Everything downtown has lights on it and the people were still arriving into the area at 10:30PM the live bands sound like the real artists of the songs they covered. I was swept away by the numerous people around me who sound like Californians when they talk. They had no Texas accent at all! His dad says the city is like that. His dad has a slight Texas accent. We arrived back to Oakland, California this morning our friend came to pick us up from the ariport, for that we were very grateful. What a fun place Texas is.  

I wished we had GLAD from the very beginning of our cohort. There were so many strategies we have been taught as a result of going through that program. I really appreciate that they took two days to orient us to what is GLAD and an additional 4 days to show us how it looks being put into practice. I learned that the strategies are beneficial but as teachers we can not just assume because the students are exposed to the information that they really are learning. Some of us took time to ask the students engaging questions only to find that they had not yet made the connection that the information they were learning was about the state of California. Periodic assessments of individual students is neccessary and gives a clearer understanding of where each student’s level of understanding is. Group work helps the individual process information but assessments show the areas where that individual is skating by on the coat tails of other learners. It is good to assess the group but moreso the individual frequently throughout the GLAD process.

So, I only had to pay $7.90 extra for my plane fare to Texas and I will leave out on Friday morning! Wow! it has been a while since I’ve been on a plane. Speaking of a while… Do you know my GLAD Training starts tomorrow and though I have enjoyed waking up at 7AM and having afternoon classes, for the next week starting tomorrow class begins in the morning in Union City!!! I will be waking up early. The good thing is we get done with our trainings by 3pm and we only have one class for East Bay next week which end by 5PM. I love being a teacher. The schedule is so perfect most of the time.>^_^<.