Books and Daydreams

Jane Written by Aline Brosh Mckenna and illustrated by Ramon K. Perez 1.       Jane is a modern re-telling of Jane Eyre that takes place in New York City. The plot centers around Jane who is a broke art student trying to cope with the loss of her parents, her own identity as an artist, and her lack of financial stability. She eventually takes on a nanny position in order for her to stay in the city and continue to go to art school. She ends up being a nanny for Mr. Rochester who’s a well-off businessman. Jane ends up bonding with Rochester’s daughter Adele and eventually falls for Rochester as well. However, Jane ends up discovering that Rochester’s late wife is in fact very much alive. This leaves Jane not only questioning who Rochester really is but what kind of world she has been flung into.   2.       So why this book? I picked this one because I felt it could be the starting point for so many different units. I thought ...

I’m sure none of us were surprised that there was very little in the common core state standards about visual literacy. However, the reading standards for elementary students were more geared toward visual literacy than secondary students. The foundational standards for kindergarteners were especially geared toward acquiring visual literacy. It focused a lot on corresponding the letter sounds to their written characters, along with how to read letters and words on the page. It made me think about how we often struggle most when learning a new language with writing and reading. I know when I took French classes in high school, I struggled the most with spelling and grammar, but I excelled at speaking. I thought it was interesting how visual literacy is seen as a foundational skill for students in kindergarten and first grade but is completely absent for second grade onward. I find it interesting that the common core standards don’t seem to include different types of reading in these s...

The strategies for active listening is what caught my attention the most. It made me think back to an entry-level psychology class I took. The professor was an old hippie and would often relate parts of psychology to yoga and meditation. The professor made us try active listening exercises, these fell under mindfulness and remaining present. He had the whole class try and just focus on our breathing while he lectured for about ten to twenty minutes. We were not allowed to take notes, we were not expected to engage in any sort of discussion with him, we didn’t ask any questions. We just focused on our breathing, we were also expected to not let our mind wander, our breathing was supposed to keep us in the moment. This professor said focusing on our breathing would keep us more mindful of the moment we were currently in and make us better listeners.       This actually really worked for me and I was able to completely absorb what he was saying, and it kept my mind from ...

Dr. Leib's article is applicable not just for NESTs but for any teachers that will have to interact with a number of culturally diverse students. I found her connections between Japanese students and NESTs ideas about how a classroom environment should be run to be the most interesting aspect of her research. The Japanese students that took part in her research wanting a more collectivist environment in their classroom was an intriguing idea to me. I think trying to implement ideas like that into an American classroom would be difficult. Especially since American culture is so individualistic. It made me wonder how I could incorporate more collectivist ideas and cultures into my own classroom. I think trying to connect with our students will have to be done on a more individual basis. I think incorporating different cultures in our classrooms will have to be left up ultimately to our students. Their going to have to be the ones to communicate with us about what aspects of their liv...