Why are Fables still important?

Who doesn't love a good story? Everyone. Telling stories is part of our human nature. Story telling allowed history and culture to be passed from generation to generation and gave people a sense of belonging to their times and society. It has been used to educate, entertain and to teach a lesson. For instance story telling is responsible for the survival of Aesop's fables for thousands of years. These fables were and still are the perfect instrument for moral education of our children, because they are short, unforgettable, and intuitive. What's more Aesop's fables present repeatable animals. They tell essential truths about human beings and their ways, so each student can have a connection to make with their lives. Fables could be used as a guiding light to mold children's attidudes and approaches in their lives, a path to implement values in their hearts and minds.

Engage vs. Enrage

After playing with font, color and layout to create my Wordle, I asked myself the BIG question, Why wordle? Is it the right tool for my students? and the answer is YES!!! It is a great visual representation of themes, key words, synonyms/antonyms, description of characters, setting, etc. It will be very useful to develop my ESOL students' social language and academic vocabulary.
Wordle Ideas has more and advanced ideas on how to use it in and outside our classrooms. We could also add pictures! I will try this later though. I do not have those advanced skills yet.

It's snowing!

Soft, flaky
Not every winter we have this surprise
Old and young were playing outside
Wearing their winter best and building
their first snowman!

What are the words you can describe yourself with?

“Energetic” and “imaginative” best describe the 4 year-old kids. My daughter Sofia fits perfectly into this description. Every Saturday and Sunday as soon as she opens her eyes, she asks “Mom, what are we doing today? Where are we going?”, therefore I need to be prepared with a plan A, B or even C to channel all that energy and imagination.

Last Saturday, it was effortless though, because the Chinese New Year Celebration took place at the Art Museum in Myrtle Beach. So, there we went…; it included an array of different activities she really enjoyed such as story telling, crafts, face painting, eating with chopsticks, etc. This year it is the year of the Tiger, so everything revolved around this fierce feline.

Besides the fun and the insight we got from the Chinese culture, I also got some material to work with in my classroom: the Chinese Horoscope. Each sign is represented by an animal that is thought to dictate personality traits. For instance the description of people born under the Tiger sign read as follows:

“Tiger people are sensitive, given to deep thinking, capable of great sympathy. They can be extremely short-tempered, however. Other people have great respect for them, but sometimes Tiger people cannot make up their minds, which can result in a poor, hasty decision or a sound decision arrived at too late. They are suspicious of others, but they are courageous and powerful. Tigers are most compatible with Horses, Dragons and Dogs.”

When I ask my students to describe themselves, they usually say “nice”, “friendly” or simply “I don’t know”.

Teaching adjectives using these short descriptions hopefully will make them more tangible and everyone will be able to connect to their own personality traits. In addition, their vocabulary will increase tremendously! In my classroom, I plan to use Burke’s Vocabulary Square as it will be really effective to teach these words as well as create the mental visual my students need to incorporate into their own vocabulary.

Can you name 5 adjectives to describe yourself? Which is your Animal Sign?

Bringing the Inside Out

The day of my high school graduation, approximately twenty years ago, a friend of mine gave me an unexpected present: a notebook “to write about your high school memories” she said. A Photo album, a bouquet of flowers, a jewelry box, or a special ornament were among the list of presents I had in mind. She knew I loved reading and always did the writing assignments. She may have assumed that writing was easy for me, but it wasn’t. That night I got home late, exhausted. However in the middle of the night my friend’s voice echoed in my mind and remembered her sparkling eyes saying “You can do it!”. I looked for the notebook everywhere. I did not remember where I put it…It laid forgotten on the couch. I opened it slowly, looked at the white paper for a while, held the fancy pencil it came with, wondering how it could help me express my thoughts, and feelings. I did not know where to start, what to say. Finally I decided to write about that special night in my life, my graduation. The thoughts expressed would be for myself alone. At that time I did not conceive the idea of sharing or talking about my writing. It was more a private, solitary and usually risk free activity for me.

“Living the life of a blogger” completely changed my conception of writing. The very moment I posted my first blog for “ Writing in the Digital Classroom” I have not only been challenged to bring the inside out , but also to be aware of the large audience residing in cyberspace. I am not still confident in my ability to present and share my ideas, but I know that I need to be courageous and take the risk every time I post a new blog. Blogging demands some research, long hours and lots of thinking. Fortunately, reading experienced bloggers and following my own classmates' blogs inspires me to persevere.