Author Profile

I found a story by an author named Jane Kurtz. It is called Do Kangaroos Wear Seatbelts? It's about a little boy anticipating a trip to the zoo as his mother straps him into his car seat. Like most children, he would rather run free than to always be holding his mom's hand or wear a seat belt. At the zoo, the little boy poses questions to his mom like, "If I were a monkey, would I have to wear a helmet?" Of course, she responds in a motherly way. She makes the connection clear that no matter if you're human or animal, mothers take care of their young ones by keeping them safe and close. Many children get annoyed when parents are too protective and nagging all the time. This book is great because it shows that parents do what they do to protect their children, not to harm them. They do what they do because they know better; they're more experienced and they've been through it all!

Favorite Author

This blog is dedicated to my personal all-time favorite author, Louis Sachar. In elementary, I remember reading There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom. However, the series of Wayside School stories that he wrote are even better. It's about a school that was accidentely built backwards- instead of one floor of 30 classrooms, there are 30 floors with just one classroom on each . The focus is on Mrs. Jewel's classroom on the 30th floor. Miss Zarves teaches on the nineteenth floor. There is no nineteenth floor. Get it? Good, explain it to me. The schoolyard instructor's name is, go figure, Louis! It is awesome and kind of weird at times, but they are the types of books that you cannot put down. You must read the "next" chapter. In high school, our reading assignment was to read Holes as a freshman. This is one case where I read the book before seeing the movie. Not by choice- the movie didn't exist yet! [;)]

Author Profile

I looked up an author by the name of Peg Kehret. She wrote this one book titled The Ghost's Grave. It's about a boy named Josh that thinks he is going to spend a long, boring summer with his aunt. The tables turn when he meets a ghost of a coal miner that was killed in an explosion. The ghost, Willie, has been waiting for someone to dig up his leg and rebury it with the rest of him so that he can finally rest forever. Josh does agree to do this favor, but finds a lot more than just a leg- he finds a box of cash also. Who buried it, and why? And how far will they go to get it back? This story was the winner of young reader awards in PA, NH, TN, WA, and SD.

Stilleto Stoners

FINALLY- the blog everyone in class is waiting for me to write about (especially the professor). As you've guessed, I definitely have the schema to relate to this article. This is the way I see it: After a hard day of work, some people like smoking a cigarrette, and some like having a beer or a glass of wine. Besides the law, what is the difference in these rituals as opposed to smoking a bowl or a joint of marijuana. It is all done for the same reason- to calm some nerves and feel better. There is a very common misconception (just to keep kids away from it) that smoking weed causes one to be lazy and therefore cannot succeed in life (like the retarded commercials on T.V.). Just becuase someone smokes some greenery doesn't make them losers. There are two kinds of stoners in this world- aesthetic stoners and addicted stoners. The addicted stoners are the ones that let pot run their lives. They smoke when they wake up, before work, during work, after work, before dinner, and before they go to sleep. They can't make a decision unless they are high. They are angry without it. These are the ones I would personally call losers. I have plenty of friends that are these type of stoners- most of these guys live paycheck to paycheck and I've referred to them as "pathetic" sometimes. The women in the article are obviously aesthetic stoners. Weed doesn't run their lives- it's just a bonus at the end of the day. I know a teacher that is very effective and successful- but he enjoys a hit of chronic at the end of the day just as much as the next person. He doesn't share this with anyone, nor does he condone it to anyone. This is what he does. This is his personal life. This brings me to my last point. In the classroom, the teacher should be the best damn teacher he or she can be. Outside the classroom, teachers have different ways exhaling and releasing. This is nobody's business- as long as it's not interfering with anybody's life, who cares what they do? People that make such a big deal about pot are people that have never been exposed to it, and they have nothing better to do than criticize sometimes. What they need to do, honestly, is take a hit and shut the hell up!

Chapter 7

I've always loved me some picture books! I'm a visual learner, what can I say? Picture books define a wonderful relationship between literature and art. Another reason I always enjoyed picture books is because they eliminate one step in comprehending- trying to "picture" the story in your head. Instead, the illustrated story is right in front of you. Sometimes, being limited to a selection of genres was the reason I didn't enjoy reading. In this case, picture books came to the rescue because picture books are not a type of genre, but a form rather. Picture books can be extremely beneficial to students because they offer so much. The text doesn't have to be read to understand the gist of the story. Think-alouds through walk-throughs really get the children thinking and trying to make text-to-text or text-to-self connections. When they can make that connection, they enjoy learning more and participate more often. I love that there are several different types of art that can go into picture books. To put it simple, picture books are like a box of chocolates because you never know what they'll look like inside- that's what makes them so interesting. When I briefly skim through a picture book, my level of anticipation goes up a notch because now I feel I must read it. I enjoy the wordless picture books because the reader's opinion is definitely the only one that matters. If there isn't any text or very little text, then what the reader thinks cannot be wrong. There must be a variety of picture books within the classroom because these are extremely popular with children. We can teach writing through picture books.

Chapter 5

As a kid, I always hated poetry. I think it was because I would recognize so much emphasis on rhymes and the structure of the poem, rather than trying to decode or figure out what exactly they were trying to get across. In high school, they finally made me realize that poetry has endless meanings sometimes. That is, there are some pieces in where the author leaves the ending (or some part) entirely up to the reader. There is no right or wrong answer- but sometimes it drives you nuts because you are left in suspense... forever. I always enjoyed reading poetry with alliteration and onomatopoeia. It is easier to work with and remember words that have the same onset or are similar to one another. I've always been a simple person, so I only liked poetry if the messages were in front of you as opposed to hidden. If I had to choose a favorite form of poetry that I enjoyed the most, it would definitely be Limericks. I like the nonsense and humor that comes from these types of poems. I now understand that poetry is an important part of children's literature and must be implemented at a young age. Students must be exposed to different types of poetry, including multicultural poetry. The more students are exposed to poetry, the better chance they have at making a real-life connection with the poetry that's all around us. As we've said before, students work better toward something if they have the schema, or prior knowledge, for it. They must live poetry.

*Author to keep in mind for children't literature: Leonard Kessler has been creating books for children for the past 55 years. Visit this site for examples of his books: http://www.purplehousepress.com/Kessler.htm