02/04 First Day REFLECTIONS
Today was exciting to get into Mrs. Bradshaw’s classroom. I can’t wait to meet my students and get started. I usually work with K-2 students so working with an older grade will be a new experience for me. I thought that students this age would be embarrassed or think that a storytelling like a Chautauqua wouldn’t be ‘cool’, but as I observed the students during Frances’ performance, they were very engaged and seemed to enjoy it. This semester is going to be fun!!
2/11 Meeting my students
So today I met my students Ishmael and Shawndean. They seem a little shy, but I am sure it is just because I am new to them. We talked about Chautauqua’s and I just wanted to make sure they knew what it was and what we would be doing this semester (writing a Chautauqua, costumes, etc). I wanted them to get to know me more so I brought my computer and showed them a bunch of pictures of my family. We also talked about their families and I could see Shawndean starting to open up.
2/18
My students will be brainstorming for their Chautauqua characters with Frances group as I will not be there. I have a doctor’s appointment and am sad to miss out. Thanks Frances for taking my students!!
2/25
This week we narrowed our possible characters down to three. Ishmael and Shawndean made a list of stories they could tell for each character. Shawndean is really starting to open up and I have determined that she is a natural storyteller. She could talk and tell stories the whole hour. I am very interested to see the end result of her Chautauqua. Ishmael on the other hand, is VERY quiet and doesn’t like a lot of attention on just him. I am having a hard time getting him to open up but I am looking at it as a challenge to get him to talk more.
3/04
Today my students chose their characters. Shawndean has started writing her Chautauqua. She didn’t have a problem choosing her character. Ishmael is starting to talk a little bit more is still very reserved. We are working on what he wants to portray through his character. I am asking a lot of questions to help get ideas running through his mind. Hopefully he will put some of these ideas in his story. I am working on getting to know my students even more and I am hoping that soon we will all be comfortable enough to write or say what we are feeling for our Chautauqua characters.
3/12
Today was a great day!! Shawndean was a little busy body writing her Chautauqua. She had so many stories to tell (although most had nothing to do with her Chautauqua) but she likes to talk so I let her go. She wrote a lot about her character which is her friend, but they are more like sisters. So as long as she was progressing with her story I let her tell us stories about other things too. I made a breakthrough with Ishmael today. I brought my computer and let him use it to type his story. He made so much progress. I guess the writing with a pencil and paper isn’t really his thing. He really enjoyed typing. In the previous weeks, I would ask him questions to get more detail about things, but he would just stay really quiet but today as he was typing, I was asking him questions and when he answered I suggested he type it too. He did such a good job, as did Shawndean!!!
3/18
Today was another very productive day. I brought their typed stories and asked them to read them aloud. But first, I talked to them about being a good listener and told them to listen for things that they liked about the other persons story and to remember or write down any questions or clarifications they had for the storyteller. Shawndean wanted to go first, then Ishmael went, and I went last. We told what we liked about the other persons story, then we asked a question. They were very polite to each other and I think asking questions helped their stories. We talked about how we could incorporate different costumes and props in our Chautauqua. We still have a lot of work to do but we are getting closer each week.