Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Just a Reminder:

Give-a-ways every Friday between now and Christmas. Email me or send a comment, as to why Reading Rocks Santa should deliver to you a Classroom Kit, Magnetic Literacy Game Pack, or Bundled Workbooks. One will be chosen weekly... okay maybe two. Blog@ReadingReallyRocks.com.

Also, I am running a Bundle-Up for Christmas Sale on our curriculum. These are absolutely our lowest prices of the year.

Here's to hoping that your Principals are feeling the Christmas Spirit!

http://www.readingreallyrocks.com/shop/bundleupsale.html

Good Luck and Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Second Friday Give-A-Way

This week Ms. Trujillo a Teacher of young children with Autism at Dayton Heights Elementary School will be the recipient a Reading Rocks Classroom Instructional Kit.  From her ingenuity of creating her own materials, to her obvious passion for what she does, were just two of the reasons she was chosen.  Also to Ms. Blair at LifeSkills Academy, sometimes wishes do come true.  Yes, I have a nearly complete series two that I will award to you with endless printable children’s workbooks.  And thank you Wendy for very kind and motivating words.
For those of you, who were not awarded this week, please check back next Friday. The elves are feeling very generous. To all teachers who have been awarded please respond with an accurate shipping address. As always, spread the good news and cheer to all your peers. It’s bound to get you something good.  Many thanks and of course,
Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Christmas Give-A-Way

When I first considered having this Christmas Time Friday Give-A-Way, the sheer thought of ‘giving’ brought me great joy.  I just imagined how happy the recipients would feel! How wonderful it would be to deliver this Christmas joy.  And it is. It is wonderful.
But it also bitter sweet. As I read these emails I am reminded that so many of our teachers  who are working diligently everyday for our children are desperate for the materials that they need to have their children find success.  And I wonder, does that guy over at IBM have to bring his own ream of paper into the office?  I think not.
It’s just nuts.
So to that end, I was just going to give one large item each week, but now I see: that simply won’t do. This week, I have two winners. But I would like to say that if you did not win, I will hold your email for a chance at next week’s pick. There were several truly needy teachers, that are deserving, so please check next Friday.  Also remember to spread the word! As this is my very favorite time of year, and teachers are my very favorite people. Today we have a winner from California and one from Upstate NY.
A Reading Rocks Curriculum Kit is awarded to Ms. Rothfeld -LAUSD
Reading Rocks Magnetic Literacy Games awarded to Ms. Berndt – BOCES
Merry Christmas!
To enter or enter again write me at: Blog@ReadingreallyRocks.com

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Bundle Up Sale!

Encouraged by my teacher friends, I am running a Bundle-Up for Christmas Sale on our curriculum. These are absolutely our lowest prices of the year.

Here's to hoping that your Principals are feeling the Christmas Spirit!

http://www.readingreallyrocks.com/shop/bundleupsale.html

Give-a-ways every Friday between now and Christmas. Email me or send a comment, as to why Reading Rocks Santa should deliver to you a Classroom Kit, Magnetic Literacy Game Pack, or Bundled Workbooks. One will be chosen weekly.  Also an assortment of flashcards, ABC Cut Paste and Staple books, and student workbooks to randomly chosen emails.

Blog@ReadingReallyRocks.com

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

What Joanna taught me

Joanna always wore a smile from ear to ear, although slightly crooked and off to a side, it was there, that grin shinning through. Truly amazing girl, that Joanna. She stood in front of the class today with her mother looking on, rocking back and forth oh just a little bit, anxious for her turn. As I placed the magnetic flashcards up on the whiteboard to make a simple sentence, she waited, and rocked.
Without a word I put up each flashcard one by one. She follows the flashcards with her eyes:

Mother- is -in -the -red –car- with –the- little –girl.

“Will you read this for me please, Joanna?” She nods. As she points to each word and reads it to herself, the class knows to wait silently. She acts as the illustrator of this tiny story and needs to gather all the magnetic graphics that match the sentence. She reads silently and collects a graphic of a mother, a red car and a little girl. She turns proudly to the class and to her own mother; they applaud their friend’s success.

Mom cries.

Joanna at birth had had a stroke. Her mother was told repeatedly; Joanna would not ever walk let alone learn to read.

So guess who shows up in middle of the afternoon? Yup, Dad.

“Mom says Joanna can read.” He was a big guy, looming in the doorway, he came for proof. Naturally, proud Joanna stands up and goes to the board. I place a new sentence up.

The- boy -and -girl –are- with –the- brown -dog. Joanna points to each word but this time she speaks.
“The father and mother are with the brown cat.”

Her father shoots me a look of disapproval, as if to say ‘I left work for this???’ I explain to him to wait, just give her a moment. Then Joanna gathers all the correct  graphics: a boy, a girl and a brown dog.

Dad cries.

Dad cries, because not only can Joanna read, she comprehends. And he wonders, how often was she disregarded because of the assumption that she was confused, when in fact, she simply could not find and verbalize the correct word? Joanna's life and the perception her family held of her forever was altered.

Determination coupled with an open mind can bring positive monumental changes to a child's life.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Marvelous M&M Cookies

Who could resist?

With so many M&M's and naturally, a good strong dollop of brown sugar, too, you'll see why these are simply irresistible. ‘Mm’ says more than monkey, it says “Mmm, more please!” These are our most requested cookies. A family recipe kept secret until now. We promise you will love them! A trick we have learned to bake up those nice plump cookies, is to refrigerate the dough for an hour or two prior to baking.

Marvelous M&M cookies... PowerPoint for our visual learners can be viewed here, page by page or downloaded and viewed later. Remember to close a PowerPoint you may need to hit the escape button. There is music that accompanies this PowerPoint, for it to play you must click on the speaker icon on the title page. I hope you all enjoy them!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

What My Grandmother taught me

When I was four, I sat up on a stool in my mom's kitchen while my grandmother taught me how to properly level baking soda with the flat end of a knife for chocolate chip cookies. It's an important skill, because if it's not measured accurately your cookies will only be good for hockey pucks, and since we now live in Florida, there's not much call for those.  Today, I teach the same technique to my daughter.  And when I was ten, Grandma taught me the art of properly shadowing flowers when using oil paints.  I took my masterpiece to school for show-and-tell where my third grade teacher, Miss Johnson thought I was Renoir! Miss Johnson then conspired with the art teacher for me to travel with her from class to class passing on Grandma's lesson.  My grandmother believed that all one needs is patience to embroider, a good eye to appreciate the beauty in the subtle differences in color, and a little bit of extra brown sugar will make everything taste a bit sweeter.  She was a wonderful mentor. 
Somewhere between the daises and the brown sugar it became self-evident that the very fabric of my soul was that of a teacher, stitched by a teacher. It wasn't until I was older I understood the philosophical life lessons she was teaching me.

In life, as well as, in front of the classroom, these things I still hold dear:
One needs to practice patience,
Train your eye to the beauty of all those glorious colors,
Everything, absolutely everything is better with a little bit of extra brown sugar.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Gorillas, Monkeys & Zachary

In honor of Gorillas, Monkeys and Zachary, I have two printable Make-N-Take books for you and your kids. After they are colored, staple them inside a strip of colorful construction paper with the Letter Mm or Gg on the cover. The children seem to truly enjoy “reading” them over and over again.

If there is interest, I will post instructions and templates to those adorable mouse ears that I mentioned in my first post. 

As blogging is a new frontier for me, if you have any suggestions or corrections you can email them to me directly at Blog@ReadingReallyRocks.com. Yes, I will definitely respond.

In the first 24 hours of my post, hundreds of people came to view it. To thank you for your support, and to hopefully have you keep returning,  next week I plan on having some Freebies from Reading Rocks.







Wednesday, October 27, 2010

What Zachary taught me

It had been well over a decade teaching kindergarten children with disabilities, when it happened.  I had always been a particularly dedicated teacher; I truly loved the job, the kids, and the mission.   It was then, the second week of school; I had sixteen children on my roll, all with a variety of challenges. We were working all week on the letter “Mm”. On the walls, I had hung pictures of mice, moose and monkeys.  My plans included marble painting M’s, baking muffins and M&M cookies, and reading all those incredible books that start with “M”… like “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” and “If you Give a Moose a Muffin”.  Yes, we made Mouse Masks and Moose antlers.  Boy, my kids sure looked adorable! It was two solid weeks of “Mm” says “mmmmm."
How could I miss?
So there I sat in front of the all kids  gathered criss-crossed- apple –sauce at the foot of my rocker, “Okay class, before we head home today, who can tell me “what says ‘mmm’?”
Bouncing on his little bum, speckled with freckles across the bridge of his nose, Zachary, could not have been more eager. He absolutely knew the answer. I knew it, he knew it. He was a bright boy diagnosed with PDD-NOS.  He has never let me down.  His hand shot up through the air. “Yes, Zachary! What says ‘M’?”
“Gorilla!”Proudly announces Zachary.
Gorilla? … Gorilla?
I sat stunned. It was one of the moments where as a teacher, you wonder, “what were they thinking when they gave me a teaching certificate?” It shook the concept that I held for years, that I knew EXACTLY how to teach. Then there it was:
Gorilla.
Ten minutes later at dismissal, darling Ashley could not discern which backpack was hers among the dozen hanging on hooks at the back of the room, who leaps up to her rescue?
Zachary.
Not only did he know which backpack and cubby was hers, but every single kid’s in the classroom. He knew that Ashley went home with mom, and that Justin got on bus 582…. And now thanks to my flawless teaching, “M” says gorilla.
And so here was the moment for me. It wasn’t Zachary at all ‘doing it wrong’. 
It was me.
So this was the birthing moment for Reading Rocks. The moment Zachary taught me to truly think out of the box. And that pictures of monkeys look a good deal like pictures of gorillas to kindergarteners.