Literacy Week – pamelascanepa

A Day in My Life: Give and Take, Teach and Learn

Jan. 26th. Welcome to Day 25 of #ADayinMyLife. and Day 4 of Literacy Week. I was so tired last night, I fell asleep before posting yesterday’s post. I sent it just this afternoon when I finally realized. I certainly did get my sleep last night!

So, today in Literacy Week, we celebrated the strategy of visualizing while reading a book. A few students made some art and drawings. A few others wrote entries today for our really-short story contest.

Mala’s story has my students intrigued, girls and boys alike! (The girl who stood up to the Taliban for the right of girls to get an education)

After announcing the other day that students could no longer borrow books from me probably for the rest of the school year, I asked if any of them would like to get the book checked out that we are reading excerpts from for my lessons. (Which is approved in the curriculum). I had about 8 students out of two different classes raise their hands. They were able to get them from the school library to take home today. That warms my heart, and I needed that for the following reason: Our library books are all covered up now. 😦

Three to five years ago, they sent off all of our biography and nonfiction books in the library somewhere, got rid of those particular bookshelves, and made a dedicated testing area. I was so hoping it wasn’t an indicator of changes to come, but it does seem that it has been an indicator of our state’s priorities. *Keep in mind, that this is my opinion and not necessarily that of my employer or of any state leadership.

Here I am, exercising my first amendment right. At any rate, my yearbook / Journalism class came in all boisterous as usual, but we got a lot done. There were photos to be downloaded from our cameras, photos to be tagged, students I needed to meet with about some changes to be made to their pages. It was quite productive!

Some of my energetic students, the type always finishing work early, helped decorate a bulletin board outside my room this week. They had the ideas, I supplied the materials, all of which I had in my cabinet. I love their creativity!

Wow! There is still some hope. I love many things about my job. I guess today has been a day for receiving appreciation and sending out gratitude! Have a great evening, everyone!

A Day in My Life, day 24

Welcome to day 24 of #ADayinMyLife and day 3 of Literacy Week. Today was wear-red-if-you’ve-ever-read-a-good-book day! There were many in red. Some of my yearbook members took pictures around school. I can’t wait to see them!

In conversations with many people, there arose a question of why schools are shutting down their libraries and hiding classroom libraries until further notice. A Facebook group led me to this Florida House bill, on which our state leadership added the requirement of one media specialist vetting all books for the school. It’s lengthy, so scroll down half of the page to get to the pertinent bits:

https://www.flgov.com/2022/03/25/governor-ron-desantis-signs-bill-that-requires-curriculum-transparency/

I went home and exercised on the porch, talked to Chris, then fell asleep early. I didn’t sleep so well the night before. Who could blame me, with all this crap going on. I was so tired or even forgot to post this on the correct day. Good thing I’m not in a contest anymore! Thanks for stopping by and reading about my life, and I will have this day’s post up definitely later on.

A Day in My Life, Day 23 #RRBC

January 24th. Welcome to day 23 of #ADayinMyLife and Day 2 of Literacy Week.

Today was Talk up a Good Book day at my school. I had to start my first class by explaining the empty bookshelves. It’s hard not to be too opinionated, but I did alright. This class particularly didn’t like the fact that books are not available to them now. They were my standard class, so I’m glad they care. They are pretty good kids!

Three of them actually requested to get the book,”I am Malala” checked out to them when I offered, which is allowed since her book is part of our curriculum. This warmed my heart! We have read excerpts in the last two weeks from it.

Anyway, students saw a teacher video we prepared about books that we remember from our youth. Then, they were able to record their own “book talk” on Flip grid. I had three students who actually recorded their own. It was so cute!

After all of that, I had News/Podcast Club, which went by quickly. Since I stay late on Tuesdays, I frequently go to trivia with Chris and another couple, which is always fun and challenging.

Have a great evening, everyone!

A Day in My Life, Day 22: Literacy Week begins #RRBC

Jan. 23rd: Day 22 of #ADayinMyLife and Day 1 of Literacy Week!

We wore black and white today to represent newspapers. I pre-recorded a video describing what newspapers remind me of, memories of my youth when my dad would get engrossed in a newspaper. (Mom was always the one engrossed in books. I was fated to become a writer and an English teacher:)) Anyway, here’s the video I made: https://youtu.be/F5vrGODSr3c

I showed it to my students. They seemed to like it and were impressed that I had a YouTube channel. Yikes! Doesn’t everyone? My educational YouTube channel is private, and the videos only available to those with whom I’ve shared the link.

So, I did as I was told to do. Day 1 of Literacy week , and my bookshelves were almost empty at 10:30. Books all hidden away. I explained why to my students, state statute 847.012….they didn’t get it.
*
I cleaned off the bookshelf during class, and many kids were socializing and cutting up, but I had to do this. I couldn’t go in early. I do feel bad for my students, though.
*
I look back to the first year I started teaching and our county’s push for us to have a “print -rich environment” with reading choices, and I could just cry. It makes me want to leave teaching, but I won’t leave these kids behind. I hope to teach them to be very aware of what’s going on in the world and in our state.
**This is my first hand experience, not even opinion! However, I’m sure you can figure out my opinion, and any opinions shared here are my own and not those of my employer.

Right after work, I left to go to physical therapy. It seems to be going alright. After that, I stopped for a bite to eat and a woman at the table next to me asked for my prayers. She’s waiting to hear about a job interview she had a few weeks ago. She got caught in the rain yesterday. I’m not sure if she has to take the bus or is homeless. Most would tell you if they are. She didn’t want anything from me but to be heard. Send out an anonymous prayer, won’t you? She really is trying.

So, my evening is winding down, but I’m on my Gazelle exerciser typing this out. My phone makes that possible! The WordPress app is a wonderful thing for a writer.

That’s my day in a nutshell: the good a bad. What a rollercoaster! Have a good evening, everyone!

A Day in My Life, Day 18, Pre-Alarm Ideas

Jan. 19th. Welcome to Day 18 of #ADayinMyLife, in which the best ideas happen before breakfast, before my morning alarm even!

I kind of would have preferred getting back to sleep at 4 a.m., but that didn’t happen. I had a mixture of bright ideas and health worries (shoulder, inflammation levels, upcoming tests). I’m not sure why my brain was doing a jitterbug instead of a lotus on this night of all nights, but it is what it is.

On to the productive results of my insomnia! As I’ve mentioned, next week is Literacy Week in the U.S. , and I am an English teacher, so this is big for me! Several teachers did a recorded book talk with our Reading coach yesterday about a book from our youth. I did mine on a Judy Blume book, Deenie. Well, last night I remembered why it was once banned. No big deal, I am a quiet rebel. 🙂 Which led me to make this:

All true. But books are no more dangerous than walking out your front door.

My other idea had to do with newspapers.. I’ll share more Monday, since that’s newspaper day and the first day of Literacy Week!

Busy at work, hoping to spread the joy of reading!

My workday came to an end quickly. It’s a lot of fun planning for Literacy week and talking to my cohorts who share a joy for reading with me! Tonight, we’ll be having dinner with my dad again, but this time Chris can attend. It should be fun!

Day 17, A Day in My Life. #RRBC

Day 17 on Jan. 18th: A Day in My Life

This morning, I woke up and did some shoulder stretch exercises, then started writing this post during breakfast. I normally don’t do so much in the morning! Maybe I can get this daily writing thing going after all!

The school day was a normal school day with ups and downs. During planning time, I met with our Reading coach to record my “Book Talk,” and we discussed a few other things for Literacy Week, which is next week. There are a lot of fun activities we’ll be having. Monday, we’ll wear black and white for newspaper day. I’ve asked someone parents to donate newspapers so students can explore.

There will be fun activities centered around literacy every day. I’ll share more on this next week.

This evening, I picked up my son from work, and we met my dad and Patsy at a Mediterranean restaurant that I like. We started with their hummus, which is delicious! Everyone enjoyed their meal. I didn’t snap any photos, sadly, because the conversation was very engaging. My son had some grape leaves, a big plate of them. He let me have one. I got shish kebabs.