NETS Standards

     NETS stands for the National Educational Technology Standards and are the, "standards for learning, teaching, and leading in the digital age".  These standards are commonly used worldwide and are taken very seriously in the context of technology and education.  NETS outlines different aspects for teachers and for students. For more specific information on what NETS is and does, click on the link below:
http://www.iste.org/standards

     For students, NETS are the standards that lay out what students need to be successful in our increasingly digital world, specifically when it is related to technology and education.  These standards not only extend to learning but also involve living productively in our current and future society.  To learn more about NETS and how it relates to students, click on the link below:
http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students

     For teachers, NETS are, "the standards for evaluating the skills and knowledge educators need to teach, work, and learn in an increasingly connected global and digital society".  This means that NETS sets up guidelines for determining the skills and education that teachers need to be successful and up to date on their technology in working with students and schools overall.  Technology is always developing new ideas and products and teachers need to be able to use these new technologies effectively.  NETS helps set up standards for what teachers need to know at certain points in their career. To learn more about NETS and how it relates to teachers, click on the link below:
http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers

     In response to the question, "How are you going to make sure that you and your students possess the skills to be successful?" that was asked by my Educational Technology instructor, I would have to say that I would do my best to stay up to date on current technologies and be able to use them effectively in both personal and school aspects in order to serve as a resource for both my students, and their parents.  In addition to this, I also plan on taking the time to teach students how to use different up-to-date technologies so that all students can be on the same playing field when in comes to the ever expanding and influential technology in our society. 

     Thank you,

     Olivia

Ipad as Doc Cam/Smartboard

     In my Educational Technology class, my teacher brought in her Ipad one day to demonstrate how to use an Ipad as both a Doc Cam (Document Camera) and as a Smartboard.  This was intriguing because she showed use multiple apps that perform the same functions that a Doc Cam and Smartboard can perform.  The apps she used were often free with a few minor exceptions, making it possible to, if in possession of an Ipad, to be able to use a Doc Cam and Smartboard for no additional price. 
     This is significant because schools often spend thousands of dollars on Doc Cams and Smartboard technology, including North Dakota State University and Valley City State University.  If schools continue to switch over to using Ipads, the need to spend that money will diminish, saving the school time, space, and money.  My teacher mentioned that with this Ipad technology and with technology being constantly updated, Smartboards may be beginning the end of their journey in education, even though they are extremely new technology. 
     I currently own an Ipad and am eager to play around with the programs that my teacher showed us to find out whether I prefer the Smartboard and Doc Cam themselves or the tablet technology that is currently being developed and implemented in schools.

     Thank you,

     Olivia

Apple in Education

     Apple is making great strides in contributing to the educational and technological world that we live and function in today.  Our students are using more and more updated technology each year and teachers often are forced to keep up with the same technology.  However, with Apple, keeping up with technology is not as hard as it always may seem. 
     Apple has a program called Itunes U, which is short for Itunes University.  It is a place where you can look at notes, lectures, coursework, etc. and learn much of the material you would learn in a regular classroom if you take the time to explore the subject.  This is a wonderful resource for personal learning but Itunes U also provides many functions for teachers.  Teachers can create classes with Itunes U and use their material to teach their classes, along with providing materials to students at the touch of a button.  In addition to this, Itunes U also works closely with iBooks to help supplement materials that are taught in class.  This is a wonderful resource for teachers and students.  I hopefully will be able to use this technology in a classroom in the future.

      Apple also has many other educational products that you can learn more about by clicking on the link below:

http://www.apple.com/education/resources/#pages-epub

Thank you,

Olivia

Ipads in the Classroom

     Ipads are becoming more and more popular in classrooms as a tool for students.  Some classrooms have a single Ipad for the classroom and some schools have received grants that allow them to supply an Ipad for each student.  The thought of the second one baffles me because when I was in elementary school, the glue stick was an exciting item we got to use.  Now, each student having access to an Ipad opens up doors for more opportunities that I could think of.  The websites that are hyperlinked below allow for further research and reviews on different apps that have been successful in classrooms.
     One of the resources below is called Socrative.  It is, "a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets" according to the third website below.  This resource allows for an easy to use system of assessments that are normally taken with pencil and paper, such as multiple choice, true/false, and short answer exams.  It also allows for games, such as Space Race, to be played and for easy to understand reports to be assembled for each student.  This software is definitely a software I would like to see demonstrated in a classroom and possibly use in my own classroom someday.
     Another one of the resources below is called Wet-Dry-Try and is a way for students to practice their handwriting skills, especially with capitals and numbers.  It also allows for easier teaching of  correct formation and orientation habits with students.  My educational technology teacher expressed in class that she really likes this particular app and I am intrigued to see how it works in an actual classroom setting.

Resources for using Ipads in the classroom:

http://learninginhand.com/do

http://www.schrockguide.net/ipads-in-the-classroom.html

http://www.socrative.com/

http://www.freelyeducate.com/2012/04/free-online-learning-games-for-kindergarten-and-elementary-.html

http://snapguide.com/guides/search-for-copyright-free-images-on-your-ipad/

http://wetdrytry.com/

http://www.sparklefishapp.com/

Thank you,

Olivia

Teacher Versus Student Role

     Being in an elementary education classroom is a different experience depending on whether you are in a teacher or student role.  Being a student, you often do not know what is going on the next week, month, or year.  You often live in the day, and potentially the week if you were like me as a child.  However, once you become a teacher you are forced to think in planning terms 24-7.  You have to plan your daily lessons, have back up plans for those lessons if something goes wrong or something comes up, plan weekly or monthly units, and a whole school year of standards and strategies.  The list is endless and you always have to stay on top of your work, otherwise the learners that depend on you, the school that depends on you, and the parents that depend on you will not be successful. 
     When you are a student you only have to worry about your own school work, and maybe a couple others' if you are completing a group project.  This is completely different as a teacher. You have the people mentioned above, and many others, depending on you to be on top of everything and be successful at it.  It is quite a load of stress to carry as a teacher. 
     Stress level and the amount of tasks that have to get done each and every moment of every day is exhausting and it becomes hard to enjoy the lessons and projects that you complete because the deadline is always looming overhead.  You never have enough time to complete a project at a normal and enjoyable pace.  I am not a fan of this.  I am also not a fan of how little sleep being in a teacher and student role causes.  As both a pre-professional teacher and a student, I rarely get more than four hours of sleep a night this semester and it is extremely taxing. 
     On the opposite side of the spectrum, there are many things I enjoy about being a pre-professional teacher and getting a chance to act in the role of a teacher.  I really enjoy when you can see on a student's face that they understand the material or understand a concept that was a challenge for them beforehand.  I enjoy decorating classrooms and designing/putting up new Bulletin Boards in and around the classroom.  I also enjoy the little quirks that make each student unique. 
     Overall, it is a constant balance of what you enjoy and what you do not enjoy, and hopefully, a majority of the time you like aspects more than you dislike them and you are able to get a decent nights' sleep. 

     Thank you ,

     Olivia

Paperless Educator

     Having a classroom "go paperless" is a very popular notion in today's schools.  Many teachers are trying to either go paperless for a day, a week, a year, or even have their entire classroom be paperless.  For example, Dave Glenn, a 6th grade teacher from North Carolina, who, with other teachers in his school, pledged to go paperless for Earth Day this past year.  It was very successful for him and the other teachers within his school.  However, this was just a day. 
     While, I think that reducing the strain on the environment by using less paper may be a good idea, I do not believe that a classroom or educator can go completely paperless for the following reasons:

• The school, the school district, and other companies that schools work with will often be using many paper forms to gather information from teachers and other faculty
• Many parents may not have access to the same kind of technology that teachers want to use in the classroom to Go Paperless
• Some students get headaches from looking at electronic screens or have some other accommodation that needs to be made for them involving paper. 

Paperless Links:

• http://teachpaperless.blogspot.com/2010/04/paperless-earth-day-what-teachers-did.html
• http://thepaperlessclassroom.wordpress.com/the-paperless-classroom-i/
• http://prezi.com/zmckfolwulxg/the-paperless-classroom/
• http://www.aacsb.edu/publications/archives/janfeb08/36-41_paperless_bized.pdf
• http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2010/06/paperless-classroom-web-apps/

     I particularly like the third link, a Prezi, because it goes through some reasons to try and go paperless, such as potential improved learning environment and organization, potential for less impact on the environment, and high opportunity to be more efficient. 
     Which links do you like? Any you dislike?  Feel free to comment below.

Thank you,

Olivia

Blurring Faces with Photoshop

     In the future, you may find yourself needed to blur a face in a photo for confidentiality purposes as a teacher.  This is really simple to do using the Gaussian Blur function in Photoshop.  As you can see below, the first photo is a photo of Ryan Gosling on the front page of the GQ magazine.  The second photo is the same thing, except for Ryan Gosling's face has been blurred so you cannot tell just by looking at his face who it is. 

 

 

Thank you,

 

Olivia 

Flickr

 

     There has been a significant number of people using and joining Flickr over the past couple years.  Flickr is an online storage place for your photos where you can create galleries, sets of photos, etc.  It is commonly referenced when used with Facebook.  In my Educational Technology class, we had to create a Flickr account to store our photos. 
     I personally am extremely dissatisfied with the Flickr product as it is open hard to use, the tutorials on the website have inaccurate instructions and the layout of the website is disorganized, and busy to eye, making it hard to follow.  I would never recommend this site to anyone.

Thank you,

Olivia

Link to Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/
Link to my Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brownsonolivia/
    

Updated Teacher Forms

     During my 40 Hour Field Experience in a 4th grade classroom and in tandem with my Educational Technology class, I was asked to update a few forms for my Field Experience teacher.  We were to take the recommendations from the teacher and use programs such as Power Point and Photoshop to recreate and update these forms.  The forms that I updated are below. 

Thank you,

Olivia 

Instagram Images

     In my Educational Technology class, we worked with Photoshop to create some Instagram image strips that you can use for many different classroom applications.   One way that you can use these images if by printing them on photo paper, cutting the images out, and mod podging them onto small tiles.  Once they are dry, you can attach a small magnet to the back and have some personalized magnets.  This is useful for the classroom because you can have a photo of each student on a magnetic board along with images of "Hot Lunch", "Bag Lunch", "Milk", and "Orange Juice".  Then, you can teach your students to put their specific magnet next to which option they want for lunch and snack, allowing you to record them during extra time and not take away time on task with the students.

Thank you,

Olivia

Exploding Box

Hello,

     In class this past week, we created a special project called an Exploding Box.  This box functions as a regular box but also as a way to creatively display different photos, etc. within the different layers of the box.  When you take the top off the box, the box opens up into what seems like three different boxes (images below).

Some ways to use this box:

• Holiday presents
• Storage
• Classroom project so students can create different projects within the curriculum, such as a twist on a timeline or a fun book report project
• Etc. 
• If you have any ideas of how to use this box, comment below :)

     This project is really easy to make - 3 large pieces of cardstock, scissors, and double-sided tape. I also have access to the cut-out templates, so if you are interested in completing this project for school, holiday presents, etc. comment below :)

     Thank you,

     Olivia

Chapter 17

     This is the last chapter in the novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.  This chapter is narrated by Oskar and there are two major events that happen during the final chapter.  The first is that he and his mother begin to open up to each other.  Oskar finds out that his mom is part of a group of people who have lost a family member and that is how she met her friend Ron.  Oskar gets a chance to ask Ron about the family members he has lost, starting a bonding process between them that could potentially grow into a more meaningful relationship.  Oskar also gets assured by him mother that he will not be hospitalized (for giving himself bruises) and that his dad would be proud of him for how hard he has tried over the past two year span of this novel.
     The second major event is the digging up of Oskar's father's empty coffin in order to receive some closure about his death.  He goes over a span of two nights with "the renter" and the second night, Thomas Sr. brings all of the letters that he was never able to send to his son and filled the coffin with those, finally able to give the letters to his son.  Oskar eventually realizes that "the renter" is his grandfather but the details are not fully explained in the novel. 
     Some meaningful quotes to leave you with:

     "I don't think I figured out that he was my grandpa, not even in the deep parts of my brain.  I definitely didn't make the connection between the letters in his suitcases and the envelopes in Grandma's dresser, even it I should have.
      But I must have understood something, I must have, because why else would I have opened my left hand?" (page 322)

"I told him, 'We'll fill it, obviously'" (page 321).

"Finally, I found the pictures of the falling body.
Was it Dad?
Maybe.
Whoever it was, it was somebody.
I ripped the pages out of the book.
I reversed the order, so the last one was first, and the first was last.
When I flipped through them, it looked like the man was floating up through the sky" (page 325).

"I don't believe in God, but I believe that things are extremely complicated, and her looking over me was as complicated as anything ever could be.  But it was also incredibly simple.  In my only life, she was my mom, and I was her son" (page 324).

Chapter 16

     This chapter is narrated by Oskar's grandmother, in a very poetic format with a  content tone - no longer the resigned sadness, more of a resigned contentedness.  It is a beautiful poem, combining a dream and reality, understanding of what will stay and what will go, and what is really important in life.
      Her poem is to and for Oskar, describing a dream she had where time was going backwards as well as her experience and a new found honesty between her and Oskar's grandfather.  Her poem comes to a conclusion and important piece of advice about telling someone you love that you love them...

"Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you, Oskar.
It's always necessary.
I love you,
Grandma" (page 314).

In addition to this, Thomas Schell Sr. has finally found a place to put the letters he wrote his son everyday but was not able to send...

"I have been seeing Oskar, he wrote...I was with him last night.  That's where I was.  I buried the letters.
What letters?
The letters I never sent.
Buried them where?
In the ground.  That's where I was" (page 311). 

...He finally gave them to his son, in his empty coffin.

Thank you,

Olivia

Chapter 15

     This chapter, narrated by Oskar, is the beginning of the resolution of the novel...things are starting to come together and make sense.  Things that didn't have much meaning before have significant meaning now.  It turns out that Abby Black, on of the first people Oskar visited had more information than she had originally let on, and eight months after that visit, Oskar receives the message and visits her.  The following realizations occur:

• The key goes to a lock box that William Black owns (Abby's ex-husband)
• The lock box was passed from William Black's father to William Black
• This information was given to William Black in a letter
• The key to the lock box was inside a blue vase that William Black sold before reading the letter
• The vase was sold to Oskar's father less than a week before 9-11
• Oskar's mom has been keeping tabs on him since the beginning of his journey, contacting everyone he was planning on meeting with to keep him safe

"My search was a play that Mom had written, and she knew the ending when I was at the beginning" (page 292).

Oskar, in the chapter reveals a desire he has deep down, and what I think contributes to his self harm of giving himself bruises.  His desire is to be forgiven...

"I asked him, 'Do you forgive me?'
'Do I forgive you?'
'Yeah.'
'For not being able to pick up?'
'For not being able to tell anyone.'
He said, 'I do'" (page 302).

Thank you,

Olivia

Chapter 14

     These chapters are getting harder and harder to describe with the justice and meaning they deserve.  This chapter was so moving in its description of Oskar's grandfather, also named Thomas Schell, coming back into Oskar's grandmother's life, and later, into Oskar's. 
     Oskar's grandmother is a complicated character.  One the one hand, you want to call her a saint because of everything she has been through and continues to go through with Thomas Schell, Sr. and coming from Dresden and the bombing.  On the other hand, she seems to have a resigned sadness about her that she seems to mask as a form of being content but inside I think she really struggles to stay strong.  She is a brave and courageous woman that if she were real, I would love to meet and have a long conversation with. 
     Thomas Schell Sr., formally known as the old man, is narrating this chapter, which goes in and out of overlapping with Oskar's chapter previous to this one.  They both take the time to explain where they are coming from, not necessarily to each other yet, and recap their initial meeting with different understandings because Thomas Sr. knows he is meeting his grandson for the first time and Oskar is meeting a stranger and confiding in that stranger because he cannot find his grandmother.  It makes for a very interesting dynamic. 

"...that night was the first time your mother and I made love since I returned, and the last time we ever made love, it didn't feel like the last time, I'd kissed Anna for the last time, seen my parents for the last time, spoken for the last time, why didn't I learn to treat everything as if it was the last time, my greatest regret is how much I believed in the future" (page 281).

"I tried to learn about him as he tried to learn about you, he was trying to find you, just as you'd tried to find me, it broke my heart into more pieces that my heart was made of..." (page 279).

"...she led me to the coat closet, which faces the living room, she went in with me, we were in there all day, although she knew he wouldn't come until the afternoon, it was too small, we needed more space between us, we needed Nothing Places, she said, 'This is what it's felt like, except you weren't here'" (page 276).

REALIZATION:
     Thomas Schell Sr. has the same name as his son, and when he came back to New York he asked Oskar's Grandmother if he could sculpt her again.  When she agreed, he went to the craft store to buy some clay and ended up writing his name on all the pen, marker, etc. paper test pads...a.k.a. that is what Oskar saw when he went to the craft store in search of what "Black" meant on the envelope!  He saw his grandfather's name, not meaning to be his father's...what an interesting twist...

Powerful Quotes from Chapter 13

"...the whole time I was imagining a plane coming at the building, just below us.  I didn't want to, but I couldn't stop.  I imagined the last second, when I would see the pilot's face, who would be a terrorist.  I imagined us looking each other in the eyes when the nose of the plane was one millimeter from the building.
I hate you, my eyes would tell him.
I hate you, his eyes would tell me" (page 244).

"I thought about all of the things that everyone ever says to each other, and how everyone is going to die, whether it's in a millisecond, or days, or moths, or 76.5 years, if you were just born.  Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers.  The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped" (page 245).

"'In fact, New York's most famous building is made with materials from just about everywhere but New York, in much the same way that the city itself was made great by immigrants'" (page 248).

The title of the book:
"'...so I invented a device that would detect when a bird is incredibly close to a building, and that would trigger an extremely loud birdcall from another skyscraper, and they'd be drawn to that.  They'd bounce from one to another'" (page 250).

Chapter 13

     This is a powerful chapter because Oskar meets his grandfather for the first time but he does not know it is his grandfather.  Oskar thinks it he is a just an older man who is renting a room from his grandmother.  They wouldn't have met even if, when Oskar really needed to talk to his grandmother she wasn't there and the renter was.  The interesting thing is how much Oskar opened up to this man while knowing little about him.  He even plays 5 of his father's last messages for his grandfather, which no one else has heard, even his grandmother, who he confides most in. 
     (Random side note, I think that Oskar and his mother have a strained relationship because they are both trying to protect each other - Oskar by hiding the answering machine messages and his mother by hiding her crying.  I think they should both open up to each other in order to begin to heal together instead of separately.)
     While Oskar confides in the renter he notices a number of similarities between the way the renter acts and looks and the way his father did, such as shrugging shoulders the same way and having the same gap in their teeth.  However, this may seem obvious to us as the readers, Oskar doesn't seem to have picked up on the meaning of these similarities yet. 
     In addition to meeting his grandfather-without-actually-knowing-that's-who-he-is, Oskar tells about the many Mr. or Ms. Black's that he interacts with, spending a particular amount of time on Ruth Black, who lives at the top of the Empire State Building.  The Mr. Black who has been helping him look for the other "Blacks" on his list also helped him conquer part of his fear of being in tall buildings and elevators.  This is quite a remarkable thing to do because it is one of the most terrifying things to Oskar because of the way his father died. 
     I think that Ruth Black will turn out to be quite important because of the amount of time Oskar spends talking about her and the sheer number of pages that her story takes up in the novel.  I'm just not sure what role she is going to play...

     Thank you,

     Olivia

Chapter 12

     Oskar's grandmother is the narrator of this chapter.  She is telling us as the readers and Oskar in the book about two different stories.  However, she tells these stories together, flipping back and forth with little warning.  It is an interesting way of story telling that adds a new dynamic to both stories because of the parallels between the two.  The two stories she tells are (1) the day her son, Thomas (Oskar's dad died) and (2) of her experience in the bombing of Dresden. 
     I really enjoy her style of talking and her way of "writing" in the chapters.  Her chapters are always full of emotion and overall life experience that is touching and enables you to put yourself in her shoes. 
     This story also tells of the different points where each member of the family knew when Thomas was not going to come home and was dead.  Each of their moments are below:

Oskar's Mom:
"She had been married to your father for twelve years.  I had known her for fifteen years.  It was the first time she told me she loved me.  That was when I knew that she knew" (page 226). 

Oskar's Grandmother:
"I looked at my arm.  It was bleeding through my shirt.  Had I fallen and not noticed?  Had I been scratching it?  That was when I knew that I knew" (page 226). 

Oskar:
"You asked her if your father was in the building for a meeting.  She told you no. You tried to find her eyes, and that was when I knew that you knew (page 229).

The last thing I would like to say about this chapter is that the end of the chapter leaves us with a twist and a colliding of stories...

"When your grandfather left me forty years ago, I erased all of his writing.  I washed the words from the mirrors and the floors.  I painted over the walls.  I cleaned the shower curtains.  I even refinished the floors.  It took me as long as I had known him to get rid of all of his words.  Like turning an hourglass over.
"I thought he had to look for what he was looking for, and realize it no longer existed.  I thought he would write.  Or send money.  Or ask for pictures of the baby, if not me. 
For forty years not a word.
Only empty envelopes.
And then, on the day of my son's funeral, two words.
I'm sorry.
He had come back" (page 233). 

Powerful...I wonder, if I was in her place, if I could forgive him.  I'm not sure.  Even if I couldn't I think I can understand why he left.  I think he left because he never got the official closure of Anna dying the bombing of Dresden because there was never an official list of those who had died because there were too many bodies and two many who were destroyed beyond recognition.  Very sad...

I wonder why he came back...did he get his closure?

Thank you,

Olivia

Chapter 11

     This chapter is titled, The Sixth Borough.  It is a collection of the parts of a story that Oskar's father told him when he was still alive.  This story is of an additional Borough in New York that no one believes ever existed.  The story seems to be a story of fiction but Oskar's father presents it as if it were true, trying to get his son to believe the story.  I believe that his father was setting him up for their next adventure together.  The question now is, can Oskar finish it? Or is The Sixth Borough lost forever?

     The story is one of great detail and providing a mere summary of it would not do it justice.  I would like to provide a small sample of the nature of this story that will hopefully convince you to not only read the story included in Chapter 11, but to take the time to read the entire novel.

"'The children of New York lay on their backs, body to body, filling every inch of the park, as if it had been designed for them and that moment.  The fireworks sprinkled down, dissolving in the air just before they reached the ground, and the children were pulled, one millimeter and one second at a time, into Manhattan and adulthood.  By the time the park found its current resting place, every single one of the children had fallen asleep, and the park was a mosaic of their dreams.  Some hollered out, some smiled unconsciously, some were perfectly still'" (page 221).

 

Thank you,

 

Olivia

Chapter 10

     Chapter 10 is by far one of my favorite chapters.  It is also one of the saddest chapters in the book.  This chapter is a letter written from the old man to his son that he never met.  In his letter he is telling his son about how he lost his family and his beloved Anna in the bombing of Dresden.  Soon before Anna dies, she told him that she was pregnant with his child.  This chapter is so powerful that I feel like my words alone cannot describe it.  I have included some quotes from the chapter that I feel speak better than I could describe it.

"At 9;30 that night, the air-raid sirens sounded, everyone went to the shelters, but no one hurried, we were use to the alarms, we assumed they were false, why would anyone want to bomb Dresden?" (page 210)

 

"I told my parents I had to go find Anna, my mother told me to stay with them, I said I would meet them back at our front door, my father begged me to stay, I grabbed the doorknob and it took the skin off my hand, I saw the muscles of my palm, red and pulsing, why did I grab it with my other hand? My father shouted at me, it was the first time he had ever shouted at me, I can't write what he shouted, I told them I would meet them back at our door, he struck me across the face, it was the first time he had ever struck me across the face, it was the first time he had ever struck me, that was the last time I saw my parents" (page 211).

 

"I remember a single thought in my head: Keep thinking.  As long as I am thinking, I am alive..." (page 214).

 

"...a nurse was standing beside me...she apologized and touched me, doctors operated on me, they gave me injections and bandaged my body, but it was her touch that saved my life" (page 214).

 

"And here I am, instead of there. I'm sitting in this library, thousands of miles from my life, writing another letter I know I won't be able to send, no matter how hard I try and how much I want to. How did that boy making love behind that shed become this man writing this letter at this table? I love you, Your father" (page 216).

Thank you,

Olivia

Chapter 9

     Oskar is back to being the narrator in this chapter.  The chapter starts out by relaying a television interview between an interviewer and a person named Tomoyasu.  Tomoyasu was a survivor of the bombing of Hiroshima and was relaying their experience to the interviewer.  However, as the interview continued, Tomoyasu began to ignore the interviewers questions and continue on describing their experience trying to find their daughter, Masako.  It was a really sad interview.

"It doesn't matter what uniforms the soldiers are wearing.  It doesn't matter how good the weapons are.  I thought if everyone could see what I saw, we would never have war anymore" (page 189).

     Once the interview was over, the chapter transitions into letting us know that Oskar showed this video to his classmates as part of a presentation.  However, as the chapter continues, we learn there is a disconnect here between Oskar and the rest of his class.  Oskar is mainly focused on the math and science behind the bomb, its radius, damage caused, etc. while everyone else in the class is moved by the meaningful story told by Tomoyasu.  One student, Jimmy, is a bully in the class and makes fun of, mocks, and is overall a jerk to Oskar and it was hard to read without getting really angry.

"Friday, Jimmy Snyder called me from across the playground, and then he came up to me with a bunch of his friends.  He said, 'Hey, Oskar, would you rather have a handjob or a blowjob from Emma Watson?' I told him I didn't know who Emma Watson was.  Matt Colber said, 'Hermionie, retard.' I said, 'Who's Hermione? And I'm not mentally retarded.' Dave Mallon said, 'In Harry Potter, fag boy.' Steve Wicker said, 'She has sweet tits now.' Jake Riley said, 'Handjob or blowjob?' I said, 'I've never even met her" (page 192).

     Oskar had trouble sleeping that night after his presentation because he was so excited to go looking for the lock that goes with the key.  He goes and picks up Mr. Black from the apartment above him and they go visit quite a few people that Saturday.  This is significant because Mr. Black from the apartment above Oskar helps Oskar take public transportation to get places faster.  He also helped Oskar eat something that wasn't either plastic wrapped or made by his mom. 
     During the meetings with these different people, both in this chapter and previous chapters, there have been characters that seem to know more about Oskar than they are letting on.  One person he visits knows his name before Oskar tells her.  Another person says that he cannot help Oskar before Oskar even asks for help.  This same person also answers the door by saying, "Oh, it's you", which is curious.  I wonder if they somehow already know about Oskar's journey...

Thank you,

 

Olivia

Guess How Much I Love You Book

 

     In my Educational Technology class, we picked a children's book and created an audio recording of it for classroom and personal use.  I chose to do a recording of Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram.  While my recording is not included in this post, the book is wonderful and if you would like to read it, click on the image below and it will lead to you Amazon.com where you can order your very own copy of this wonderful book. 

Thank you,

 

Olivia

Thanskgiving Plans

Hello Everyone!

     What are your plans for Thanksgiving?  I am planning on making the rounds between my family and my boyfriend, Justin's, family's houses.  I am leaving on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and staying at Justin's mom's house.  We are going to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday afternoon and go Black Friday shopping overnight, starting at 8pm when the first store we want to go to opens.  Then, Justin and I will be travelling to my parent's house to  celebrate Thanksgiving with my parents and sisters.  Then, on Saturday, we will be traveling to my brother's apartment for our final Thanksgiving of the weekend. 
     Once, that Thanksgiving is over, we will travel back to my parent's house and sleep for a few hours and get up at 5am, leave by 6am, in order for me to arrive back at school by noon for my work shift.

     Thank you,

     Olivia

Snagit - Classroom Organizer

     As part of a multimedia project in Educational Technology, we were required to use the software Snagit to create a video about a specific classroom resource.  In my group, we chose to use Snagit to explain how to create your own classroom library using the Classroom Organizer website and app.  This is a simple and easy way to create and maintain a classroom library.  To learn how to use it, watch the video below.

 

 

     Thank you,

 

     Olivia

Chapter 8

     This chapter has a new narrator - Oskar's grandmother, and she writes with a completely resigned sadness in her heart.  She is writing about her past and a bit of her present with Oskar's grandfather.  The story correlates with the story of the old man in previous chapters, confirming that the old man is Oskar's grandfather and Oskar's grandmother is the sister of the woman, Anna, the old man pines for.  This chapter paints a picture of two people who say they don't know how to live and therefore live in routines and rules and habits.  They never really talk about the real things in their relationship - such as the fact that the old man has been pining for her sister for their entire relationship and has been trying to mold her sister into Anna but can't. 
      It is an interesting relationship because they seem to really care for each other but not in the way that a typical married couple would.  They seem to be people who have had similar pasts and trauma's and therefore have bonded on a different level than typical people.  They have a very dynamic and slow moving relationship made up of rules, somethings, and nothings.  It is a very resigned way to live.  Some quotes to demonstrate this resigned sadness are below.

"Why are you leaving me?
He wrote, I do not know how to live.
I do not know either, but I am trying.
I do not know how to try" (page 181).

"I spent my life learning to feel less.
Every day I felt less.
Is that growing old? Or is it somthing worse?
You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness" (page 180).

"When I said goodbye to him, before he left for the airport, I lifted his suitcase and it felt heavy.
That was how I knew he was leaving me" (page 178).

"It was the first time I had ever cried in front of him.  It felt like making love" (page 178).

"I would have done anything for him.  Maybe that was my sickness. We made love in nothing places and turned the lights off.  It felt like crying. We could not look at each other.  It always had to be from behind.  Like the first time.  And I knew that he wasn't thinking of me" (page 177). 

Thank you,

Olivia

Re-created Classroom Poster

         In my Educational Technology class, we were given an assignment where we had to find a classroom poster we liked and re-create it using Photoshop.  The catch was that we couldn't use copy-paste or pull anything from the poster other than looking at it.  This was a good assignment because it makes you think about the work it takes to create a poster, how significant following copyright laws are, and how creative you can be with Photoshop.  My re-created posters and the original are below.

Original (Above)

Re-created (Below)

 

What do you think?

Thank you,

Olivia

 

Polaroid Pictures

     In my Educational Technology class we learned how to use Photoshop to mimic Polaroid pictures.  You can make large ones and small ones, or even multiple mini-Polaroids on one sheet.  The examples I created are below:

     What do you think?  How can these be used in a classroom setting? Post your answers and comments below.

     Thank you,

     Olivia

Meaningful Quotes from Chapter 7

     "I didn't put them [his bruises] there for her [his mother], but still I want her to ask me how I got them (even though she probably knows), and to feel sorry for me (because she should realize how hard things are for me), and to feel terrible (because at lease some of it is her fault), and to promise me that she won't die and leave me alone. But she didn't say anything" (page 173).

     "Then, out of nowhere, a flock of birds flew by the window, extremely fast and incredibly close" (page 165).

     "My boots were so heavy that I was glad there was a column underneath us. How could such a lonely person have been living so close to me my whole life? If I had known, I would have gone up to keep him company (page 163).

     "'Did you know that in the last 3,500 years there have been only 230 years of peace throughout the civilized world?'" (Page 161).

     "'The ax won! It's always that way!'" (page 161)

     "I was impressed by how much life Mr. Black had lived, and how much he wanted to have his life around him" (page 160).

     "'It's not a horrible world,' he told me...'but it's filled with horrible people!'" (page 156)

     "'I've lived long enough to know I'm not one-hundred-percent anything!'" (page 156)

     "'Oh,' he said, 'she died twenty-four years ago! Lone time ago! Yesterday, in my life!' 'Oops.' 'It's OK!' 'You don't feel bad that I asked about her? You can tell me if you do.' 'No!' he said. 'Thinking about her is the next best thing!'" (page 154)

     "'You have to keep the door open so they can come in! But it also means you have to let them go!'" (page 153)

     "'Ghosts don't care if you believe in them," (page 151)

     "'I know what I am.' I nodded my head, even though I didn't know what she was talking about or what it had to do with anything. 'Even if I don't like what I am, I know what I am. My children like what they are, but they don't know what they are. So tell me which is worse.' 'What are the options again?' She cracked up and said, 'I like you.'" (page 150-151)

     "'Do you have more things that you need, or more that you don't need?' I said, 'It depends on what it means to need.'" (page 150).

Chapter 7

     This chapter is a very powerful one.  Oskar is back to narrating and we learn a lot about his relationship with his mother.  Their relationship is very complicated because you can tell that they care deeply about each other but sometimes they do not understand or know how to communicate well with each other.  Then you add the feelings of grief in the mix and things get even more complicated.  Their different coping mechanisms are below:

Oskar's Mother

• Cries alone, hiding it from Oskar
• Hanging out with Ron and laughing
• More spiritual

Oskar's Response to his Mother's coping mechanisms

• He feels like his mother has moved on and loves Ron because he only sees the laughing side and never the crying side and he seems to resent her for it

Oskar's coping mechanisms

• Inventing things in his head
• Counting things
• Giving himself bruises
• Oskar wants his mom to notice how hard all of this is for him
• He refuses to move on (he hasn't fully accepted and processed everything)
• Sometimes having loud outbursts, sometimes saying things he doesn't mean
• Uber realistic and Atheist

Oskar's Mother's Response to Oskar's coping mechanisms

• She feels hurt when Oskar has an outburst and says something that he doesn't mean
• She saw the bruises in this chapter but didn't say anything, not sure what she is thinking in regards to the bruises
• Gets frustrated when Oskar is super realistic about things, especially his father's death

     I hope Oskar and his mother can work through some of their grief and open up to each other and help each other grieve.  I think Oskar really needs it and his mother could probably use it too. 

     In addition to all of this development, Oskar meets two new people with the last name "Black", one of which lives in the apartment above him and is really loud because he doesn't have his hearing aids in.  During their visit, Oskar, with permission, turns Mr. Black's hearing aids on and the first thing he hears is a flock on birds flying by, causing him to start crying and listening to all the different noises and crying even harder.  This is a really touching moment and makes you think about the little influential things in life and the abilities, such as hearing, that we often take for granted.

     Thank you,

     Olivia

Chapter 6

            This chapter has switched back to the old man narrating and provides us with more details and clarity about the significant parts of his life.  Some of the things I figured out, in no particular order, are listed below:

 

-          He used to be with a girl named Anna when they were younger back in Dresden and he loved her very much

-          A part of him still loves and will always love Anna

-          He traveled to the United States to live at some point during his life

-          He has troubles speaking from some sort of trauma

-          He had a tattoo “yes” and a tattoo “no” put on his hands at some point – not sure when in the timeline of things

-          He wants to be a sculptor

-          While in the United States, he runs into Anna’s little sister

-          Anna’s little sister really likes this man, and has since him and Anna were together, and in a shop, she asks him to marry her

-          He draws and creates many sculptures of her – originally mainly to recreate Anna but then slowly the art turns into depicting the woman before him

-          They get married but as their marriage continues, they start to divide spaces into “Something” spaces and “Nothing” spaces with the “Nothing” spaces growing larger and larger

-          He suggests that she write a book of her life to help process all that she has been through and sets up a writing area in a “Nothing” space

-          She writes every day and one day, when she is done, she has him come read her pages

-          He looks at the pages and they are blank…he realizes that she is blind and has been for a long time but he never picked up on the signs

-          One day, he leaves the house on the pretense of going to the airport to gather papers, etc. in English for his wife to read (which he did often) but has decided that he is going to leave and not come back

This chapter begins to unfold into more a letter style where he is writing to his unborn son about why he left and the background behind everything.  He has filled notebook after notebook with his writing to his unborn son.  His writing is very honest with an overall melancholy tone that is fascinating to read.  I overall enjoy reading the chapters he narrates over Oskar’s narration.

I would like to end this chapter analysis with a poignant section within his letter to his unborn son, who I am starting to believe is Oskar’s Grandfather, is the following:

“I am telling you all of this because I’ll never be your father, and you will always be my child…I want you to be happy, I want that more than I want happiness for myself, does that sound simple? I’m leaving. I’ll rip these pages from this book, take them to the mailbox before I get on the plane, address the envelope to ‘My Unborn Child,’ and I’ll never write another word again, I am gone, I am no longer here. With love, Your father” (page 135).

Favorite Quotes from Chapter 5

            “It looked almost like she had been crying, but I knew that was impossible, because once she told me that she emptied herself of tears when Grandpa left” (page 100)

            “I watched the sheets breathe when she breathed, like how Dad used to say that trees inhale when people exhale, because I was too young to understand the truth about biological processes” (page 107).

Chapter 5

            Chapter 5 continues with Oskar narrating his story.  He is currently searching for someone with the last name “Black” who can help him figure out what the key inside the envelope means.  At the beginning of his decision to go to each address where the last name is “Black”, he decides that he “would be as secretive about [his] mission as [he] could at home, and as honest about it as [he] could outside home, because that’s what was necessary” (page 87).  This decision leads him to lie to a number of people, but he decides that he is not going to lie unless he absolutely had to.  This may seem like a smaller detail in the book but it becomes significant in the fact that Oskar proceeds to count all of his lies as he tells them.  At one point during the chapter he is up to 35 lies, with still many “Blacks” to go. 

            Visiting all of these people is a huge challenge for Oskar because of many of his fears.  He is afraid to use public transportation, so he has to walk everywhere he goes.  He also is afraid of walking over bridges, which presents a challenge in itself.  However, he has a coping mechanism that he uses to keep some of his fears at bay.  He has a tambourine that he shakes whenever he feels afraid and in his words, “I shook my tambourine the whole time, because it helped me remember that even though I was going through different neighborhoods, I was still me” (page 88).  He visits two different people with the last name “Black” in this chapter.  The first one is a bit rude at first but later is a bit nicer.  However, when he offers for Oskar to come up so he can take a look at the key, Oskar says he cannot because it isn’t safe to be on the 9^th floor of the building because it is high up and it alludes to the fact that he father died from falling from a high distance.  Mr. Black said that he would come down but he is hooked up to a bunch of machines.  Oskar left his business card under the door and left.  I find this interaction very interesting because later in the chapter he mentions taking 72 stairs up to his grandma’s apartment, which would be quite a few floors up.  So what is the difference? Is it because A. Black’s place is new while Grandma’s is familiar?  Or maybe since he has been to Grandma’s place before his dad died, it isn’t associated with being the same level of danger? 

            The second Black that he visited was a woman who Oskar thought knew something about the key even though she said she didn’t.  The interesting thing about this particular woman is the connection that Oskar seemed to have with her.  She seemed to calm him and she answered all of his questions, even when he was really blunt.  Oskar thought she was really beautiful and, to my surprise, asked her if they could kiss for a while.  She appropriately said no, and throughout the whole meeting between her and Oskar, we learn that she seems to be having some marital issues with her husband, which I hope we learn more about in the coming chapters because it peaked my interest. 

            Overall, it has been an interesting chapter with different developments.  Some other things we learn in the chapter are that Oskar has a really good connection to his grandmother and that the renter that lives with her is still an intriguing mystery. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to add them below.

            Thank you,

Olivia

QR Code Lesson Activity

• QR Codes are becoming more and more popular in today's technological world as well as in schools. 
• Teachers are beginning to use these for different activities and lessons during classtime. 
• In my Educational Technology class we took a stab at creating our own lesson using QR Codes. 
• Mine is attached below, what do you think?
• It is a lesson in culture and different countries history
• It would most likely apply to a diversity and history standard within a school's curriculum

Field Experience Final Reflection Paper

           During the past month I have spent a total of 40 hours in a wonderful 4^th grade classroom at Roosevelt Elementary School in Fargo, ND.  I helped out in the classroom on Monday and Wednesday mornings until lunchtime.  I frequently graded papers, put up art work, and took select students across the hall to provide them with individual assistance as well as time to finish incomplete homework. 

I learned countless things, which are fully laid out in the journals I kept during the experience.  A few of the important aspects of teaching that I learned were how to run morning routines and keep students on task while all the bells and announcements were ringing, an extremely valuable skill to have as a new teacher as well as a teacher in general.  I also learned how to interact with and what the developmental levels of 4^th graders are. This is helping me consider which grade levels I would prefer to teach.  I enjoyed the levels of intelligence and the independence of the 4^th graders I worked with.  However, I am still really interested in experiencing working with other grades as well. 

The best part of this experience was getting the chance to teach a reading lesson in the middle of my 40 hours at the school.  My assigned teacher gave me the unique opportunity of taking half of the class across the hall to teach them a reading lesson using a play in their Literacy by Design textbook.

  I also loved working with my assigned teacher.  She treated me well, guided me when I needed it, and kept me busy.  She was wonderful and easy to work with and I am going to really miss working with her.  However, the most frustrating part of the whole experience was the fact that I needed caffeine to stay awake during the morning because of my overall schedule.  I made it until this field experience without intentionally drinking caffeine in my life, and I am sad that I had to change that. 

Next time I am in an elementary classroom, I plan to ask for more hands on opportunities from the teacher in order to learn as much as I can by doing, instead of sitting and watching.  Overall, I had a wonderful experience and am very excited to learn even more in my next field experience.

Thank you,

Olivia

To read and comment, either comment below or click on this link:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwWgsO4NnCuyY2pIN21SSG1GaFE

Flickr Slideshow

Created with flickr slideshow.

Photoshop Final Project

     In my Educational Technology class, we were assigned a final Photoshop project where we were to create a magazine cover using the elements of Photoshop we had learned how to use over the past month or so.  The type of magazine we chose to create was left up to us and we had a significant amount creative leeway.  I decided to do a fun seasonal magazine and this is this would be the cover of the summer issue.  I had a lot of fun with this assignment and recommend trying this using pictures of your family and friends.  They make great poster gifts (using Vistaprint). 

The magazine cover I designed is pictured to the right.
What do you think?

 

Thank you,

      Olivia

About Me

Hello, my name is Ms. Brownson and I am your teacher for this year :)

To my students:

Some of my favorite things are fuzzy socks, watching movies, and reading. My favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast and my favorite color is light blue. I am excited to be your teacher and get to know each and every one of you!

To parents:

My educational background includes a Bachelors in Human Development and Education from North Dakota State University and a Bachelors in Elementary Education with a Reading 1 Credential from Valley City State University. I also have minors in Anthropology, Sociology, Women and Gender Studies, and Psychology

 

Flu Season

    As I am sure you all know, we are entering the full swing of Flu season and as teachers, we need to keep ourselves healthy in order to teach our students at 100%.  One way to do this is to have hand sanitizer available to you on the go.  This comes in handy for both you and for the students around you.  However, sometimes the covers of hand sanitizer bottles are boring so I spruced mine up a bit, using the design I created below. 

    
      Once this was printed, I Mod-Podged it onto my pen-shaped hand sanitizer container for easy and germ free travel.  Good Luck to you all and stay healthy!

     Olivia

Ipad Guidelines

        Ipads are becoming more and more prevalent in student's lives and in school classrooms.  There are a few classrooms that have access to an Ipad, and therefore teachers are starting to need to create some guidelines for these Ipads.  I have created some guidelines of my own and designed the poster below using PowerPoint.

 

        You can feel free to use all, or some, of these guidelines in starting to create your own guidelines for new technology entering the classroom.  Good luck and have a blast with your new technology!

Olivia

Chapter 4

     This chapter is quite a confusing one.  I believe that Oskar is the narrator but I cannot be sure.  This chapter seems to be a collection of letters with Oskar's comments and plot points in between but there are not distinctions between the end of the letters and the beginning of the comments and plot points.  It seems as though this is deliberate but I cannot be sure. 
     One of the things I managed to pick up from the chapter was that Oskar seems to be asking different people to write him letters to he can compare their handwriting against the handwriting of the name "Black" written on the small envelope found in the chapter before.  He seems to have a letter from the following people:

- His Grandmother
- A woman whose letter is partly censored out
- A man from a Turkish Labor Camp
- Someone who signed the letter, "your father" but it doesn't seem to be referring to Oskar as the son
- An inmate named Kurt Schluter
- A schoolmate named Mary
- And at the end of the letter excerpts he says that he has a letter form everyone that he knew...a total of 100 letters

     Then the chapter seems to launch into a story from the past about a girl who had a crush on her older sister's boyfriend.  Then the story flashes forward to when they are grown up and in a different country (the USA, originally from Germany) and the girl, now a woman, sees the same boy across the street and goes up to him.  They have coffee and proceed to have him, an artist, draw her naked.  The story evolves to tell us that the woman is the girl and the man is the old boyfriend of the girl's sister.  The way the drawings unfold suggests that he is trying to draw his old girlfriend from the body of the sister he now knows.  However, as the story continues, the drawings start to look more like the sister in the room and less like his old girlfriend.  And therefore, this becomes a story of how they fell in love. 
     The story finishes with them in a coffee shop, where she writes down on a piece of paper, "Marry me" and he opens his palm to say, "Yes".  This connects two story lines - the one with the narrator from chapter two and this current story.  The chapter ends with it hinting that this story may be of Oskar's grandmother and grandfather.  However, I will not know for sure until later in the book.
     Overall, a very complex and confusing chapter, hopefully following chapters will share some light on the meanings of the different letters and how it is all connected.  If you, as the reader of this blog, have any ideas about what this chapter may mean, feel free to comment below.

Olivia

Chapter 3

     In this chapter, Oskar is again the narrator.  I have noticed some new things about Oskar during this chapter, they are listed below:

- Oskar cares deeply for his mother but sometimes he does not always express it.
          * For example, in the beginning of the chapter he describes the bracelet he made for his mother.  It is extremely intricate and detailed and each bead means something.  The sky blue beads = silence, the maroon beads = breaks between letters, violet = breaks between words, and long and short pieces of string = the long and short beeps.  This all adds up to a message in Morse Code.  The message it says is Oskar's dad's last message before he died. 
          * An example of how he cares for his mother is the fact, on page 68, where he deceives her a little bit.  Oskar is the one who comes home and hears the messages that his dad leaves before he dies.  Oskar cares for his mother, and therefore does not want her to have to hear the messages, so he goes out on the day his father dies and buys and identical answering machine and records the answering message and takes and hides the one with the messages on it in his room.  This is a real act of kindness and love on his part. 
          * However, Oskar is just a child so he feels the need to communicate the messages to his mother so he makes her jewelery, like the bracelet above, to communicate the messages to her.

- Oskar is also very detail oriented and focused, as explained by the bracelet he made, described above.

- He is very blunt and straight forward. However, this does not, in any means, mean that he does not have feelings. 
          * He is deeply sad about his father dying and mad at his mother for all the time she spends with her "friend" Ron.  One day, he asked her, "True or false: you are in love with Ron" (page 35).  This is a blunt statement but he needed to know because he thinks that it, "wasn't fair to Dad, and it wasn't fair to me" (page 35).  I can understand his feelings and where he is coming from.  However, he tells us as the readers that he buried it all inside, which leads to my next observation.

- Oskar self harms by giving himself bruises. 
          * There are a few times throughout this chapter where he does this. He seems to do it after he does something that he thinks that he shouldn't, such as, on page 37, breaking a vase on accident.  He also gave himself a bruise on page 41, when he was made at himself for not realizing that "Black" on the envelope might be a last name (explained later).  He continues to give himself bruises throughout the chapter for different things but they all seem to lead to the the question: Does he blame himself for his dad's death? - hopefully, more considerations and information on that in the chapters to come.

As for the overall plot for this chapter, Oskar goes into his fathers closet for the first time since his father's death (a year before).  He looks around and sees a vase on the top shelf and decides to take it down, but it falls and breaks.  Inside the vase is a small envelope with a key inside.  The envelope says, "Black" on it in small red handwriting.  The chapter is about his adventure to find out what lock the key fits and what, "Black" means on the envelope.  He ends up finding out, from a store manager, that "Black" is a last name.  He also notices that in the store, his father's name is written on the notepads where people write to test pens - the weird thing though is that the pads were changed after his father died...

Overall, a very intriguing chapter and I look forward to learning more.

Olivia