Michelle TeGrootenhuis's Blog (31)

I'm a big fan of textmapping (check out the site www.textmapping.org) which is the brain child of a Mr. Dave Middlebrook. The process is a lot of work and takes some time to set up, but it is SO worth it! I've used this technique to teach nonfiction features the past couple of years. Here's how the process works.…

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So I am doing more and more of writing WITH my students lately. Actually, I really began taking it more seriously last year after reading Aimee Buckner's Notebook Know-How. (LOVE THAT BOOK and it's a quick, easy read!) And I was doing just fine with writing in my nice little composition book last year while the kids were writing in their notebooks. (LOVE those composition notebooks!)



BUT, now that I've begun this experiment in blogging, I feel I can relate more to… Continue

My nine year old son cleaned off his book shelf last month and put all of the books he didn't want into a "give away" box.



I brought that box into school yesterday to donate to various primary classroom libraries, but decided to take a look through the books he deemed too "babyish" for him first. I set the box down on the table in the teacher's lounge and dug through it. Lo and behold there it was The Emperor's New Clothes. You know, the 6 inch "Golden Books"… Continue

Thanks to the people at the International Reading Association and their "Reading Today Daily" RSS feed, I stumbled upon THIS article from the New York Times. Basically, the article compares reading online to reading print materials and asks if reading online is really "reading". The article hit a nerve with me as I recalled comments made on my blog… Continue

I am in love...



with my new lavendar Mead 5 Star Flex binder.



I just bought it today. Don't you just love this time of year with the EXPANDED school suppy sections? I go every so SLOWLY through those long, beautiful aisles, and, today, I saw it! There it was, a pretty lavendar colored "flexible" binder. To borrow words from Lily (as in purple-plastic-purse-Lily), all I could say was "Wow." It was love at first sight.…

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So pay day is here and my b-day is around the corner. I told my family that I would be happy to buy my own present this year (I've been asking for an iPod for two years to no avail). So, I'm finally getting an iPod. And, no, not my daughter's hand-me-down 30G classic that she wants to "sell" to me so she can get herself a new one. LOL!



Here's where the "dilema" comes in. I just can't decide which one to get!!! Honestly, I REALLY want the… Continue

A big thank you to David for creating the Classroom 2.0 Book Store. He's taken all of the books listed in the conversations about our favorite children's books from the… Continue

Yeah, well, this post isn't exactly "Classroom 2.0" material, but it's what's on my heart this evening. Yep, that's my "baby" with the belt sander! She's been a busy girl this week getting projects ready to take to the local 4H Youth Fair. That's a pallet table she's working on in the picture. She took an old pallet and made a really cute painted table out of it. She's hoping we can FIT the thing through the door, around the corner, up the stairs, around… Continue

My son made this list last week:

(Clean room, watch TV, watch movie, play out[side], have fire[campfire], go to bed)



Notice he got most of his list accomplished. Well, actually, his room is NOT clean, but somewhat more picked up. Somewhat. He did do a great job on the watching tv and movie part and he really excelled at playing outside. We didn't have a campfire that night because it was too hot & windy, so he'll have to add that… Continue

July in Iowa = a BAJILLION fireflies!

I don't care who you are or how old you are, fireflies are amazing. Our farmyard was full of them tonight and I just couldn't get enough of watching them flicker on and off like a symphony of Christmas lights.



When I typed in "fireflies" in the search box of www.teachertube.com, this came up. (I bet this dude's a reader!) Enjoy!





BTW, I know, I know, fireflies… Continue

Okay. So I'm sitting at a "Literacy Institute" and I'm surprised by a comment from a teacher who says she doesn't like to read.



Doesn't like to read? An elementary teacher, in charge of teaching kids to READ, doesn't like to READ herself? What's up with THAT? That's like a boat salesman who doesn't like water! Or a astronaut who doesn't like space travel, or a baker who doesn't like bread... (Feel free to add your own analogy in the… Continue