Happenings

The summer trips my family takes are always met with great anticipation-especially if it involves a visit to Mammoth Lakes, California…my all time favorite place to be! One of the reasons I enjoy this trip so much is that I am give nthe chance to take my children on some of the same adventures I went on as a child. However, while exposign them to my own memorable experiences, I inadvertantly create new ones for them in the process.

That was what happened warm summer afternoon as we ventured out on a hike. Our original plan was to follow a familiar trail that runs just below Old Mammoth Rock.

“Mike,” I hollered up the trail, “let’s just go around this bend and stop-I don’t want the kids to get too tired.”

“Oh Mommy,” Carrie whined, “Can’t we walk all the way to there…” she asked pointing far across the meadow that lay below us.

“I don’t know Carrie,” Mike replied, “It’s awfully far.”

“Peeeeeez,” three year old Christopher chimed in.

With much hesitation, we relented and agreed to hik the entire 3 mile trail down the mountain and across the meadow below.

Our hike was fairly quiet as Carrie took the lead along the dusty trail. I followed a short ways behind her holding Christopher’s hand so he wouldn’t wander off the trail and Mike walked beside us. Suddenly from up ahead, Carrie turned and chattered, “Hey look! A horse!”

“No there’s not, Carrie,” I answered condescendingly, “Horses don’t come up here on this trail, it’s too narrow!”

“Uh-huh Mommy! I saw a horse!”

I rolled my eyes, not believing a word she said and tried to catch up with her to show her just how wrong she was. As Christopher and I emerged from the trees to where Carrie stood we were greeted by the shock of our lives! As it turned out, it was not just A horse on the trail-it was A hundred horses clampering up the trail in front of us! As luck would have it, we had stumbled upon an old fashioned horse drive.

We had to step off of the trail to allow the ginormous herd of horses to pass. While waiting, we sat on a giant boulder just watching the 100 horses make their way from their winter home in Independence, California to their summer home in mammoth Lakes. We’ve never seen that many horses at once…what a moment to remember!

Students:  This week I would like you to focus on writing a QUALITY comment to this blog. I am seeing too many comments where the only thing you have to say to the writer is “I liked it.” or “That was really good but you need flashy vocab” (there is so much more to writing than flashy vocab!) Think about what a teacher or another adult would say to the writer about the piece…please respond to this piece with a QUALITY comment in which you:

1.  Tell the writer at least one specific thing that you liked or you believe is a strength about the piece (besides flashy vocab!)

2.  Give the writer at least one suggestion for improvement…every writer has room to grow, but they won’t know what to do unless you tell them!

Squ-i-i-i-sh…splat…squish…splat…squish…every step I took down the dark tunnel was greeted by the sound of my sopping wet shoes slapping against the pavement. As we emerged from the tunnel, Christopher whispered, “Please…please…please…don’t let anyone be in line…” and sure enough as we stepped into the sunlight we saw that indeed no one was in line and we were able to step directly into the car and begin riding Journey to Atlantis (an enormously exciting water roller coaster) for the umpteenth time.

Click-click-click, the car stuttered as it began the upward climb. and then suddenly “A-h-h-h-h-h-” we screamed as we plunged downward and were drenched yet again by a blast of freezing water. As the ride ended we carefully climbed (or rather dripped) out of the water-coaster-car (you know-they really should consider calling it a boat instead!), at which point, Christopher looked up at me and said…”Let’s do it again!”

“Oh no…I don’t think I can tolerate that arctic blast again!” I uttered to myself. “However, anything for my son I guess!”

And so, once again my sopping wet shoes plodded their way down the dark tunnel-squi-i-ish…splat…slop…squish…splat…slop-towards the orange roped barricades where we would once again board a “boat” to travel this journey once more for the umpteen millionth time. “Maybe there will be a line this time,” I thought to myself…but no such luck…I could only be so lucky…

“Yes!” I heard Christopher scream as he rounded the bend and realized that once again there was no one ahead of us and we were able to climb right in and begin our trek up the tracks…click-click-clack…the car taunted teasingly as it teetered at the top of an enormous drop. “Ahhh-h-h-h-h-h!” we all screamed in unison as we flew towards the enormous pool at the bottom of the tracks. And once again we were drenched by a blast of freezing water as the car thundered down the tracks. SPLASH!

At which point Christopher turned, with water dripping from his every being, grinned sheepishly at me and said…”Let’s do it again!”

Now students, what do you consider to be the strongest part of this piece? When you make your selection, think about which part of the piece created the strongest mental image. Think about which part made you feel like you were actually there. Explain which part of the writing you chose, why you chose it, and how you might borrow this to revise and use in your own writing.

Today in class I challenged the children to try a different type of writing…something other than a personal narrative. We discussed how you can take one topic and explore it with a variety of types of writing. I wrote 2 samples of my own for the kids regarding an encounter I had this summer with 2 mischievous baby bears…and a clean load of laundry! This entry gives an example of how a writer might use persuasive writing to explore this topic.

I should begin this post with a little background knowledge for those who don’t know much about my summer vacations. Each summer, since I was a small child I have vacationed in a small mountain community in California called Mammoth Lakes. Our time there gives my family and I an opportunity to explore nature, observe wildlife (racoons, and bears, and dear…oh my!), and get in touch with our “rustic” side. One example of such “rustic” living is the laundry accommodations. While the tiny cabin is fortunate enough to have a teeny tiny washing machine in a small shed adjacent to the back door, the drying conditions consist of a wire clothes line stretched between two towering pine trees and an ample supply of wooden clothes pins. And so it is with these rustic drying conditions that my story begins…

Dear Baby Bears,

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of the negative impact your crazy antics have had on me. I want to let you know that I worked really hard to wash and hang all of the laundry today..washing each garment clean of it’s fishy odor from our days at the lake and then carefully hanging it out to dry in the fresh mountain air. And that was when you came along and tore it all down, swiping down each bleach-white sock and crisp clean t-shirt from the clothes line before wandering off quietly into the forest with a look of satisfaction on your face. Oh, I know you meant it all in fun, but I’m here to tell you the reasons why you should never do that again!

First of all, it is quite dangerous for you to be in this area where we humans are living. While the laundry might seem like fun-while you are in the area, you may also find yourself tempted by the luscious smells that drift out of our kitchen window. You may not be able to resist the urge to climb through said window and ravage through our refrigerator. As you may or may not know..the forest rangers and local authorities do not take very kindly to such acts and have been known to chase bears who engage in such behaviors right out of the woods! If you stay away from my clothes line you will not even be able to smell or be tempted by the delicious smells of frying fish coming from the nearby window.

Secondly, I noticed that as you were playing with my socks your mother was walking off into the woods. You were so distracted by your new “toys” that you didn’t even notice until she was almost gone. Don’t you know what happens to baby bears who don’t pay attention to their mothers walking away? They often get lost…which would be a very frightening and lonely encounter for you. If you had not been playing with my laundry you would have noticed that your mother was leaving you and not had to chase after her.

And finally, Baby Bears, you should not spend time playing with my clean laundry and swiping it off the clothes line with your claws because…well…it is just plain RUDE! How would you like it if I came to your den and tore all of your clean clothes that you had worked so hard on all day to the ground? I do not think you would like it very much at all!

So in conclusion Baby Bears, I would like to beg you to MYOB (mind your own business) the next time you are wandering through the forest. If you see a freshly hung line of clothes…just walk on by baby…just walk on by!

Yours Truly,

Mrs. Hulburt

During our spelling introduction today Miranda posed 2 interesting questions that I told her I would find out the answers to. So…here they are:

1.  Does the word ‘substitute’ use the prefix “sub” (as in ‘under’)?

To which Mark questioned “Under the teacher?” Which I suppose in some degrees makes sense, but I had to think for a few minutes about it because while it does have “sub” in the beginning…’titute’ is not a root word. So I have to say no, substitute does not use the prefix sub (now if someone else knows otherwise please let me know! Perhaps there is some greek or latin root that I am not aware of?????)

2.  What is the difference between a “sea” and an “ocean”? (this came up as we were discussing our prefix of the week “sub-” and the word “submarine”.)

According to this site the difference is that a sea is partially enclosed by land and seas are smaller than oceans. Furthermore, another site “Tell Me Why“   an ocean is a large expanse of salt water that is bounded by the continents and while a sea is surrounded on all or most sides by land and/or part of one of the oceans.

As a writer, it is very easy to simply tell our reader what is happening in our story and how the characters are feeling.  However, a powerful writer doesn’t just tell their readers the information, they create an experience for the reader so that they too can live and feel the event.  This strategy is called “Show Me, Don’t Tell Me”.  Today, I would like you to try out this strategy on the sample below.  Please read the sample sentence, and then in your comment I would like you to revise the sentence by adding details and descriptions (using author’s craft tools as well) to “Show” the reader what is happening instead of just telling them as the sentence does now.  You will find that when you “show” your reader the event instead of just telling them, you will automatically slow down the moment and have a longer writing sample to share with your reader. You may add ideas to make it your own.  Please revise this sentence:

I felt very scared when I walked into the hot room.

I had an ah-ha moment this past week, but I’m not really sure what to do about it at this point. As a grade level we have been focusing our writing instruction on showing action and reaction of the characters in our piece. Basically, this involves the characters sharing their reactions and feelings. It’s been quite the struggle getting my kids to put emotions into their writing. The few that have attempted it have been very cautious about who they share their pieces with and in the event that they start crying while they share, they try very hard to hide it from others. That’s when it hit me, the magic that their writing needs is the personal touch that comes from adding emotions that truly come from the heart. I realized that they are afraid to do it though, they are afraid to show their true feelings out of fear of being laughed at.

I probably haven’t been a very good role model when it comes to adding emotions this year, I suppose in many ways I feel the way some of my students do…I question whether or not the support is there. How will they react if they see their teacher crying over a heart wrenching story? Will it touch their heart and make them realize the power that comes from a story that has true emotions embedded within it? Or, will it just be an opportunity to talk about just another something crazy that their teacher did?

How can I expect them to unlock their hearts and let their emotions guide their writing when I myself am having trouble doing it?

For years my father has been after me to continue my education, to go back to school, to learn more, to be more, to do more…and I always had an excuse as to why I couldn’t. My reasons ranged from there just not being time (although I realize that if I truly wanted to I could make the time) to not having the money (again, not truly an issue if I really wanted to do it). Now, however, I can look back with the realization that those reasons were truly just excuses. The actual reason as to why I never wanted to go back to school was rooted in the fact that I just wasn’t interested in any of the masters degree programs that were available…until recently.

As many of us know there has been an increased emphasis on integrating technology into the classroom. At first, I found that emphasis frightening due to the fact that I just wasn’t sure how to do it. Oh, I knew what projects were available, I just didn’t know how to implement them within my regular curriculum. In addition, I often times just didn’t have the technological knowledge or tools at my disposal in order to complete that which I knew I should be doing. Furthermore, I also viewed the technology component as just one more thing I needed to try to fit into my day (obviously I didn’t understand the idea of integrating technology).

Then, an opportunity came my way to be part of a technology committee at my school. An opportunity with I was excited to embark upon, yet still a bit hesitant. A million questions flooded my mind. Would I be able to learn all I needed to in order to assist my colleagues? Would I be able to offer them support that would be beneficial? Would this be a worthwhile commitment or yet another endeavor that I would dread participating in simply because I didn’t have the time?

Thankfully, all of my questions were answered in an extremely positive light. I have truly enjoyed being on the technology committee and through my participation I have been given even more opportunities and also had some enlightening moments as well.

One such opportunity was given to me last summer when I attended NECC in San Antonio. I found myself a bit intimidated at first by the entire prospect of attending a technology conference. I was certain that the everyone there would know more that I did and be more capable than I in every aspect of technology. I was pleasantly surprised though to realize that many of the teachers in attendance were in the same boat as I. Many of us were there to see if we could take away just a small tidbit of technological learning that we could take back to our classrooms.

I attended many interesting sessions ranging from an introduction to podcasting (and a realization that I actually DID know what a podcast was), a session based off of using computer generated comic books and trading cards to enhance reading comprehension from Read, Write, Think, creating a school newscast, and my favorite was an interactive website called Into the Book that helps develop critical thinking skills in young readers.

All in all my experience at NECC was exciting, inspiring, and a tad bit overwhelming, but I left with a new focus. I came back to my classroom a more open mind about the role technology can play in my day-to-day classroom activities (although I still need some support in the actual integration) and with a new sense of vision as far as furthering my education. I came back having made a decision that when the time is right, technology is the direction I want to take in terms of pursuing my masters degree.

photo credit: tedkerwin

Where exactly did I go wrong in training my dog? Why does my German Shepherd Timber believe that he is king of the Hulburt household? I’m not really sure where this holier-than-thou attitude originated from, or whether I even perpetuated it or not…however Timbers seems to truly believe that he reigns superior over his castle. This mind set was never more evident than one cold winter night when Mr. Hulburt had arrived home late from work.

Earlier that evening the kids and I had snuggled into bed together to keep warm. Unable to resist the temptation of snuggling up against our toasty warm bodies, Timber lept stealthily up onto the bed to lay down with us. However, Timber is not the typical dog who would be content to curl up at our feet. No, no, no…that simply would not do! Timber felt that he deserved a pillow and blankie too. So, he sauntered up to the head of the bed where he promptly pawed the covers until he had the perfect place to lay down. Upon plopping down onto his side, he gently laid his head down on the pillow with a hefty sigh. (I suppose I didn’t help the situation much when I reached over and covered him up with the blanket).

So there we lay-snoring and snoozing-Timber and I sleeping soundly on the edges of the bed with the kids nestled safely between us. When Mr. Hulburt arrived home late that night he was tired and wanted nothing more than to climb into bed. So he quietly began to shake Timber in an effort to wake him and make him move. No luck! So he shook a little harder and angrily whispered “Timber! Let’s Go! Get down!” A gesture that was met with a deep growl from Timber, who raised his head and glared deeply into my husband’s eyes as if to say, “Do you mind? I’m trying to sleep here!” The deep throated rumbling growl was enought to shock Mr. Hulburt who quickly turned and stomped out of the room to sleep on the couch.

And Timber? Well, he calmly lowered his head back onto the pillow and drifted back into doggy dreamland for the rest of the night. At that moment, he must have surely believed himself to be King of the Castle. But isn’t that how a dog is supposed to feel?

Greasemonkey

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I was reading through comments (okay…our comments definitely need some work-but we’re first time bloggers so I’m sure they will improve with time) on my kids blogs today and stumbled upon one where the student felt she had nothing to write about.  I too have struggled with that lately.  I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have sat down at the computer, logged into my blog, and been unable to come up with a suitable, magical, inspiring topic to write about.  If I’m having trouble with that, I can’t imagine how some of these kids feel.

The ironic thing about this is that I have a million things I could write about.  This past summer was one of the most amazing summers for me.  I traveled to Mammoth Lakes (of course), Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons, Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, San Antonio, and San Diego.  I fished, hiked, stood on top of a volcano (all be it dormant), ran from a bear, saw moose, buffalo, geysers, and stood in two states at once.  I found a “new” house to buy, and put mine on the market…yet I can’t find anything to write about!  I begin thinking about these things and my mind just whirls around at an amazing speed and I just can’t find the words to tell any one of these stories in detail.

How in the world to overcome this mental block…how to help the kids overcome theirs…hmmmm…