How to Improve Reading Ability

A child's reading ability seems to be a common concern among parents. After all, if you can't read, you can't really do anything in our society. The ability to read is a must, in our education system. Especially since reading takes place in every subject in school. The article that I found discusses some suggestions on how to improve a child's reading ability. I thought that these suggestions were valid, but may not work for every student. This website that I got this article from provides more articles and videos about improving reading and writing skills. I think it would be great for parents and teachers to try one strategy at a time to see if it works. You can learn a lot from trial and error.


HOW TO IMPROVE READING ABILITY

Why Are Things Colored??

A friend posted this website on Facebook earlier and I thought it was very interesting.



Causes of Color

FukuShima 50

I attend The Crossing, which is a church here in Columbia. One of the things that I love about their website, is that they have a blog that they are continuously updating. I visited their blog today, and was glad that they had created a new entry about the occurrences that have taken place in Japan.
The link to this blog entry is found below


The Fukushima 50

Using Videos in the Classroom

In my classroom, I will more than like use a lot of videos. I am a visual learner, and videos always seemed to help me learn. I looked for awhile to find a good website and finally found one that I liked. It's layout is simple and the videos are divided into categories. After you choose a video, the website provides more information on that chosen topic, along with some trivia.



Educational Videos

Creating Activist Children

As an education major, I look back on all my experiences in school and think of all the things that we didn't do. In our social studies class we are learning about creating a socially just classroom. This is such a broad definition and can mean so many things.

I think it would be neat to create activist students at school. All kids need to care about something, anything. Some day I would like to have my classroom learn about organizations out there that are created to help those who are less fortunate than us.

I'm also a fan of American Idol and Chris Daughtry is one of my favorite artists. Every year on American Idol they have an episode dedicated to helping others, that episode is called "Idol Gives Back." I think it would be awesome to help students become aware of things that are happening around the world, good and bad. A great way to do this is to show them videos and websites about issues that are happening around our world and organizations that are created to help out these people.

Below I included a video by Chris Daughtry and a few links that some might be interested in.

http://one.org/us/

http://www.daughtryofficial.com/us/impact

Article Response

I really liked the article that I found. The article helps us to see that read alouds can be used to reach the standards and GLEs of your school. The author provides many ways to use read alouds effectively. Many of her suggestions can be used by teachers in the classroom. There are many benefits of read alouds, and the author lists some of these in the articles. Some of these benefits are building vocabulary, comprehension, and listening skills. The articles link is provided below. I hope that people find this article beneficial.

Journal Article

Reading Comments and Make Changes :)

I've always been interested in blogs, but I have never really understood how they work. The internet itself is very interesting. I love that it connects so many people and makes distance seem so small. When people comment on my posts, it makes me realize that people really read this stuff. Also, through the posts my classmates are learning more about me and in return I'm learning so much about them.

I also made some changes! I changed my background so that it would represent my personality! I love tie dye, and I think I have a pretty colorful personality. Also, in the left column, I added pictures. I chose to add pictures that represent the parts of my life that come from home. These pictures give my classmates an insight into what my life looks like when I'm not at Mizzou. There is a picture of my wonderful family and our summer past time, showing cattle. There is a picture of one of my most prized possessions, my dog Snickers. There is a picture of the gang from home. There is a picture of my parents and I. And lastly, a picture of me and the best roommates a girl could as for!

I Wish You Enough

Happiness at Home

A house of bricks, a home filled with love

A picture of my family on the wall
The role models of my life


Glistening stars and a full moon shining in the sky


Ever changing seasons
Dog tracks in the winter snow
Orange, red, and yellow leaves of Autumn
Vases of flowers in the Spring
Long summer days filled with boat rides and ice cream


All these things I miss so much
Sometimes it sucks to grow up.

Gary Paulson found poem

Life is the plot.

Acceptance. What a small word to mean

Your life, your work, your

hopes and thoughts and songs and breath


Lending itself to humor and outdoor adventure

Stories of love and death and cold and heat

and ice and flame

Stories sad and stories happy

Stories of laughter and tears and places soft

and hard.

real people living real lives

Imitation Poem

If I Were In Charge of the World
by Megan Walker

If I were in charge of the world
There would be peace on Earth.Everyone would be happy and there would be no more wars.

If I were in charge of the world
I would get to see my family every day but at least they are just a phone call away.

If I were in charge of the world
there would be music playing everywhere and dishes would do themselves.Roommates would always be clean
and I would always get to sleep in.

If I were in charge of the world
Money would grow on trees
and there would be enough hours in the day. A college education would be free
and all my future students would love me