TPACK in the Classroom!

4 Essential Strategies for Primary Readers

1. Phonemic Awareness- Heggerty Phonics (blending, chopping, rhyming etc.) & Phonics (visuals)
2. Decoding- sight words, decodable books, reading at an instructional level
3. Building Fluency: reading with speed, accuracy, and expression. Student Practice & Model through Read Aloud
4. Comprehension: predicting, questioning, and summarizing (the W's of a story)

Radical Christian Youth Subculture

This award-winning documentary sheds light on the increasing population of radical christian youth being spawn in response to the "war on terror".
It shows both sides- but the startling side is of the youth being seemingly brainwashed. Radical christian adults are teaching these kids to have narrow views and hate those who do not "love Jesus". Furthermore, it shows how impressionable youth. Youth want to be part of a subculture group to find their "identity" and "belong".

UbD-Stage 1-Teaching Fiction vs. Nonfiction Texts

Tarkington School of Excellence Walk Score Map

Tarkington WalkScore Map
The link above will lead to the Walk Score Map for the Tarkington School of Excellence
Overall, it had a low walk score of 48 and is deemed a "Car Dependent" neighborhood.
There are a lot of parks and green space around, but one definitely needs a car to access any major grocery or retail stores. The only two nearby stores are a "Food & Liquor" and "JJ Food store" which is typical for working class neighborhoods. However, there is a Park District/City run farmer's market at Ashburn park (although it is seasonal). The nearest library is 1 1/4 miles away. There are no CTA Rail lines for miles, so it is not easily accessible from other parts of the city (this is typical for the south side). Within driving distance there are some large stores (Wal-Mart, Jewel-Osco, and Ford City Mall). There didn't appear to be any churches nearby, or community centers, but there are a couple private/catholic schools.

"Bad Teacher"

First off, I saw this movie last week and it is very funny, I highly recommend it (for adults). There are actually a few teacher roles in the movie, and you can get the gist of them by watching the youtube trailer clip.

*Cameron Diaz plays the 'bad teacher' who is in the profession for all the wrong reasons, "summers off, no accountability" (she says). She is in the profession until she can find a rich husband so her teaching degree is the stereotypical "Mrs. Degree". Everyday she goes to school hungover and shows a movie.
The "Mrs. Degree" is the term for women who get teaching degrees in order to have an "easy and enjoyable" job before finding a rich husband (becoming a Mrs.) and leaving the field to stay at home. I actually had classes with women at DePaul who would jokingly say they were getting their "Mrs. Degrees" when asked what they were in school for. Unfortunately it is women like them who un-professionalize our field.
Cameron Diaz decides to start teaching when she finds out about the teacher bonus for the highest test scores. Her motives here are the same however, she wants the bonus to get a boob job, to get her rich husband.
Like I said before, she would go to school everyday and show a movie remaining completely passive towards the students. All of the students remain equally passive and like having a class where they don't have work, except for the "class nerd" who routinely complains.
Additionally, there is the young, rich & attractive substitute teacher who is "there for the kids and experience" (played by Justin Timberlake). As well as the "passionate/good teacher" Ms. Squirrel who eventually burns out and goes crazy because of Cameron Diaz's character.
This movie says a lot about real education problems going on today and plays on the stereotypical teacher roles. It touches on issues surrounding standardized testing as well as the problems with teacher accountability.

Social Situation-ESR 505-North Ave. Beach Volleyball

This past Saturday I found myself observing beach volleyball in a new setting, at North Avenue beach. I typically observe and/or play at Montrose which I found is quite different.

PLACE: I didn't actually choose North Avenue beach. Montrose didn't have parking so we were forced to go North Avenue and pay in the lot. Nonetheless, it was interesting and entertaining. It is always the most crowded beach, ripe with young people showing off their "goods" and drinking illegally. The specific place was the south end of the beach where all of the sand volleyball courts available for rent- it is difficult to get a court so groups of people often go early and stake out a couple courts to hog for the rest of the day. (This is the Saturday beach scene)

ACTORS: The actors in the situation are the volleyball players and the other "volleyball players". Let me explain, at Montrose people actually go there to play volleyball (they are they volleyball players) and there are a few courts of actual volleyball players at North Avenue beach. However, the vast majority of people at North Avenue Beach are "volleyball players" ie. they are there for the social scene and/or don't know how to play.

ACTIVITY: What I saw was that the guy "volleyball players" at North Avenue are there to show off for the girls. They meticulously plan their look and pose after each play. Most can't even play very well. The girls watch on the side for a little while until the guys end their match and invite the girls to "play". Then the girl "volleyball players" prance and dive around in their bikinis trying to look cute for the guys. They can't actually play volleyball, but the guys let them stick around in hopes of getting their number or something.
At one point a group of four girls started to play on our court without our permission when we left to retrieve a ball that went in the lake (I was with a group of guys who actually were volleyball players). They didn't know how to play and had basically stolen the court, but their attractiveness flustered the guys I was with so they were too afraid to ask them to leave. Finally, after a couple witty/rude comments from me one of the guys asked them to leave but nervously blurted out that they could play with us later if they wanted. The girls figured out that we were actually there to play and never came back.

Thinking back, the situation was quite humorous. However, the "volleyball players" at North Avenue beach are obnoxious and I hopefully won't have to go there again. It was funny to see the male/female interaction and to witness people trying so hard to impress others.