A Letter from an Author

Remember all the Jorge activities we've done this year? Well, I wrote to Jane Medina (the author and creator of Jorge) to let her know how much we've grown because of him. And guess what? She wrote us back! (Okay, she wrote us back a while ago, but...I'm still on my maternity leave, so I'm just now posting it.)

Isn't that amazing?? She wrote it FROM JORGE!

And check this out. She wrote it in Spanish, too!

Jane Medina, you rock! :)

An Unwarranted Thank-you

Not sure what I did to deserve this thanks, but then again, what kind of "thanks" asks you to pay money to receive your thank-you? Not sure if I should feel honored or offended?!

A New Job

We had our baby! Thanksgiving Day 2010 Corban James Steele graced the world with his presence. 6 lbs. 11 oz., 20 inches, and gorgeous red hair. He absolutely is our pride and joy and a "gift devoted to God" (Mark 7:11). I'm starting to feel the pangs of postponing the work I love and watching my students grow to be with my son and growing him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We love you, Corban!

Misunderstanding Skits 5th

Sooo Coooool!

Remember Levi, "my new favorite zero"? Well, we finished a project we'd been working on to give his parents. I had him create a book from the sentence stem, "This is my family member." We had read a book together about family and drew a picture of our families (although his family looked an awful lot like mine, which worried Mom when he showed it to her at home...she's not pregnant nor trying!). So in order to help differentiate between my family and his and to become familiar with a useful phrase ("This is..."), we created said book with computer paper for the inside and construction paper for the cover. We finally finished yesterday (I wanted to make sure he was able to take it home before Thanksgiving Break), so I laminated, punched, and spiral bound it and pulled him out of his classroom to give it to him. 

His reaction?  Biiiig eyes. "Oh. My. Gosh!" His tiny fingers caressed the shiny pages. "Wow! Soooo cool!" I handed it to him. 
"This is for you, Levi," I said. "Read it to your Mom and Dad, okay?"
"No, now," he replied. So we stood right there in the hallway and read My Family by Levi. 
"Again," he whispered. So we read it again. 

As I took him back to class, he did nothing but look at his precious creation, and as soon as we arrived in his classroom, he marched right up to his teacher and handed it to her. And the coolest thing that she did? "Will you read it to me?" So he did. And then he proceeded to read it to the rest of the class. They oohed and aahed over the beautiful book, and several students were heard remarking about how very much they would like to make a book about their families. Levi went from being the new curiosity to the coolest kid in school that day.


And I just know his mom loved it.

The Brick Wall of ESL

At a recent ESL training led by Katie Brooks & Susan Adams from Butler University, we practiced an activity called Barriers or Bridges. We tweaked it a little for use in our classroom. I wanted to take some time one of these odd three days before Thanksgiving Break to remind students of the purpose of ESL, no matter what teacher is guiding them. We wrote down any and everything that came to mind of things that we've done in the ESL room that have helped us connect to our mainstream classrooms. We put the completed wall in the hallway outside our room. Check it out!

We have some 5th graders coming in today to draw three things--on one side of the wall, we'll have some pics/graphics that represent ESL; going across the top of the wall will be footprints; and on the other side, we'll have some pics/graphics that represent our regular classrooms. Genius, eh? But really, I hope even moreso that they'll remember that ESL is not just a bunch of fun random activities where we read cool articles and meet new people, but that what we do in that classroom is actually beneficial in making them successful students...no matter the environment. (*sigh* It's hard to talk about this like it's over, but for me, it almost is. :( )

That's What I Said!

A student came rushing into my room during homework time today.

"Mrs. Steele, I need help with disability!"

Normally, she and I work on math concepts--multiplication, division, fractions, factoring, etc. Disability was a new one for me. She wrote the word on a whiteboard. "D-i-s-a-b-i-l-i-t-y." I realize I've been out of 6th grade math for a while, but I wasn't sure I'd even heard of this new concept!

"Could you start it for me? What does it look like to do 'disability'?"

She wrote the following: "15: 3, 5. 20: 2, 5, 10."

"Ohhhh!" I exclaimed. "Divisibility!"

"Yeah, that's what I said, 'disability.'"

'Member when I wrote about misunderstandings in one of my recent posts? I think we found a real-life example! :)