Missing the Music and Musicians of One Voice

Driving home the other day I heard an interview with members of a pop band who were retiring after 31 years of musical performances. As they talked about what they would miss about their musical life together, I started thinking about what I've been missing since the final One Voice concert two years ago. At first I hoped we would get back together but after so much time has passed, I doubt we will sing together again until we sing together in heaven.

I have so many great memories of the times spent with this group of singers. In the beginning I would bring Emily and Joey with me to practice. They were too young to stay home alone.

The first mission trip the group took was to Hawaii. We participated in Musicians on Mission. The whole group didn't get to go and one person was a new recruit who had never sung with us before. A couple of things have stayed with me from that trip. At one concert we traveled a long way through pineapple fields to a small church. There were about as many people in the congregation as in our group. Some of those sweet people later met us at the airport as we were leaving and brought each of us two boxes of ripe pineapples! Those were the best pineapples I have ever had.

Another thing I remember from that trip was traveling to a fabric shop, several historical sites, and a museum complex on the city bus. It cost only 60 cents to ride all over on the city bus. I went by myself because no one else was interested in museums. As I returned to the hotel on the bus I looked into a woman's shopping bag and saw a live duck! Someone's dinner, I guess.

I miss the concerts and traveling together, even when we got lost or came home late. Some concerts I hope to always remember. We sang in Nashville and we couldn't see the audience because of the lighting. We sang 'Shut De Door' and the lights were blacked out. The crowd roared. What a feeling.

Another wonderful concert was in a huge, unheated church in China. I don't think many, if any, could understand our songs as we were singing in English. But as we sang 'When I Survey' and did the motions where our arms were outstretched, there was a reaction that made us feel that the words were understood by everyone there.

Others will remember different things from our practices, concerts, and trips. There was the time Troy's hat was rescued when we were whale watching in Alaska, the Irish Coffee that enabled Dot to play the piano as never before or since, and the unsanctioned trip to the flea market in Honolulu. Singing in One Voice was an experience like no other. I miss the songs and the singers.

Cooler Days and other ramblings

When I read back over old posts, and yeah I do that, I see that I complain a lot about having too much to do. Guess I could do something about that-like say 'no'. So anyway, I will try not to complain about too much to do. It'll all get done. It's just whirling around in my brain and sometimes it helps to write down everything so I don't keep thinking about it.
What I really want to write about is the feeling of being flooded with too much information that I have most days. I know I could stop checking email, unsubscribe to updates, stop watching TV, and listening to the news on the radio. I think the most annoying are the email updates I get from SmartBrief. They seems to be sent several times a day. Sometimes the same 'news' is sent over and over. Most of the articles are not research but just opinions in the newspaper or someone's edublog. I am very close to deleting that service.
Enjoyed listening to teachers sharing ideas this afternoon. The members of Madison Reading were discussing writing instruction. Two National Boards candidates shared ideas they were using with students. Of course, I had to chime in (several times). They had articles to share, too. I will make time to read and try to absorb those this weekend.
Now to the title of this post-we are finally getting some cooler weather. We had a blistering hot, dry summer. Then a mostly dry, warm fall. If the temperature got down to the 70's, the kids at school thought it was freezing. On top of that, many of the rooms at school have malfunctioning thermostats. I'm ready to wear turtlenecks and jackets. Ready for the cooler days.

Conversations with other teachers

This afternoon I had a chance to talk to two kindergarten teachers. One is a first year teacher; the other has taught three or four years. Both are very young teachers compared to this gray-headed old lady. For the first time in over a year, team meetings were not all test-data compilation time. We talked about students and I tried to shed some light on the behavior of young English learners. The little boy who disrupts is really an outgoing child who wants to communicate but doesn't have the English skills to play with his classmates. I suggested that the teacher help him with short social phrases like 'let's play', that will enable him to play instead of disrupt. We talked about how level 1 ELs need to hear others model new language, so putting them in mixed language groups helps them.
One boy seems not to pay attention. My thoughts were that he may get tired of long stretches of a language he doesn't understand and then drifts off. I shared backward build up as a way to get ELs to repeat longer sentences. I suggested 'yes' or 'no' questions for level 1 students. The next step is to offer a choice in the question: "Is this a cat or a dog?" In my class the kindergartners like songs to learn new words, stories with very few words, or repetitive stories. In nine weeks some have made lots of progress. Others are just beginning to tune in. It was a very productive exchange.

Settling Down

Well, after the BIG birthday weekend, I am finally settling down and getting into the routine at work. I have spent all the grant money. Some of the new materials have come. I am pleased with the leveled science readers. I'm going to use them with first and second graders. Most of the groups have settled into a routine. Today the second grade group read for about twenty minutes. We have been working on stamina and reading for longer periods of time. I complimented them for their progress. I think I have found a combination of materials to use with the two kindergarten groups that will accelerate their understanding and get their interest.

Too Much , Too Many

Once again I have too much to do. All testing has to be done by Friday. The first 30 days of school will be over. Schedules are still in conflict-tutoring, OD, ESL, Dyslexia, Specials. Two schools' paperwork to worry about and one sick friend who would be helping with the paperwork. I need to have a conference with teachers and explain what their ELLs Can Do but I have to go to a meeting tomorrow. That leaves Thursday to get paperwork done and meet with four grade levels. I should just cancel classes like some other folks do. But I won't. I'll just worry and lose sleep about it.

In the meantime there are too many things I would rather be doing. Like reading a new magazine from IRA and a new ebook. I am reading the second 'secret' book. It is a newish kids' series. The Name of This Book is Secret is the first book. At school the older two groups are listening to a couple of great books-The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Because of Winn-Dixie.

IRA has changed Reading Today from a newspaper to a magazine. I like the change so far. Newspaper pages were hard to copy and they tore easily. Back to the kid books-I got the sequel to Lawn Boy. It seemed like it ended so I wonder what happens next to the main character.

Continuing the Daily 5

Even though I last posted some weeks ago, I wanted to continue writing about The Daily 5. I have been working with students for 2-3 weeks now. I have a large bulletin board dedicated to CAFE: Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expanded Vocabulary.
I only have 45 minutes per group, so I have modified the lessons from the book. Each day I have introduced a strategy with a read aloud picture book. The groups are first grade ESL, second grade ESL, third grade ESL, and fourth/fifth grade ESL. Some days I read the same book with all four groups and some days I pick a different book according to the group's interest and grade level.
After I model the strategy with the group, they take their zip bags of five or six books and practice independently. The older groups are doing better at this than the younger groups.
The strategies have included how to choose a good fit book, three ways to read a book, check comprehension, tune in to interesting words, and back up and reread. The goal is for the students to continue reading while I have conferences with individuals and small groups.
The Daily 5 has five components as the title suggests. I don't think I am going to be able to do all 5 in the short time I have each day. One way I may use other parts is to have a writing day and a working with words day each week. I may do partner reading but haven't decided.
Anyway, this is how far I have gotten with The Daily 5 and The CAFE Book.

If I were going to teach 5th grade reading

As I may have written in another post, I really liked the Daily 5 and the CAFE Book. They are both so helpful, well-written, and comprehensive that I wish I were teaching a reading class again. If I were teaching reading I would try to follow the lessons as written in the book.

The problem is how to get grades when everything is individualized. So, one way I would get grades would be to give a weekly reading test in the format of MCT2. To get a starting point for reading grade level, I would give the Cloze comprehension test. If the students had very different reading levels, I would give several versions of the weekly tests. Hopefully, students would be successful and show progress as they read more in class.

To encourage reading more at home, I would assign a weekly homework reading log. Students could choose their homework grade by how much they read at home. Thirty minutes four times a week would be a 75, five times a week would be an 85, six times would be 95, and 7 times a week would be 100. Parents would have to sign off on the reading log and students would have to list the title of the book(s) and how many pages read each day.

Vocabulary would come from the read aloud and classroom word collector. If the students were older, like 5th or higher, I would use WordGeneration and the five weekly words in the program.
I have some other ideas but will have to write about them another time.