Book Censorship

Words are powerful things. And books are full of them. Words can start wars, a friendship, lead to love. Within their words, books contain ideas, memories, voices.

When books are banned, a voice is silenced. A voice is declared, "You are offensive," or, "You have no place here."

How can someone tell a voice that they have no place? Who is the judge of that? Who are we, to tell our children, the world's future, what they can or can't enjoy, just because it makes us look bad? They might not be able to handle it? They can't separate fiction from reality?

If you can't tell, I lean more or less towards the opinion that no books should be banned. In my opinion, telling people what they can and cannot read, what words they can and cannot see/hear, is trying to control their lives in more ways than anyone has authority to do. In today's post, I want to give you a list of books that have been banned, for one reason or another, and the reason behind it. Primarily, I'm going to be talking about books that have been censored but are considered an important piece of literature today, or should be. I want to shed light on the fact that book censorship is something that has been around for a long, long time, and it continues today in schools and libraries all over the country. When we are banning books and telling people what they can and can't read, we are silencing the freedom of speech. Books take us places; on adventures, through time, and teach us important lessons. These lessons should not be silenced.

Book censorship has been a topic on my mind lately, due to the fact that it was brought up in my diversity and equity class a couple months ago. A blog post was posted in a Facebook group about books that are good to use to educate children on the struggles and history of Native Americans and some books that are not good to do so. On the "do not read" list, Little House on the Prairie was mentioned, for being overtly racist towards Native Americans. 

I decided to do more research on book banning. 

There are many reasons why books are banned. The top 5 that I discovered were racial issues, sexism, political bias, explicit sexual content, and language. We ban books for these all the time. However, movies and TV shows contain the same, if not more, of these "explicit" contents, yet they are never banned, and children are allowed in many households to watch movies and TV shows that they can't even begin to understand, might be considered inappropriate, but never banned. Why is this? What is different about books that prompt banning and censorship?

While I don't agree with letting every child of every age get access to books that might have content too mature for them, I do think it's incredibly silly that we have been so quick to ban books and yet our TV shows and movies have incredibly explicit content and are never challenged or censored. These days, children and teens don't read nearly as much as they watch TV or movies. They have access to incredible technology that thirty years ago we could've never dreamed of. And yet before we would censor a movie or social media app or tv show...we ban a book. 

Keep reading,

Holly

In Summer

Welcome, summer. Boy am I glad to see you! 

I finished spring quarter with a 3.8 GPA (praise the Lord!), on June 13th, and my last day of school (Lowell), was June 19th. I spent the first several days of my break catching up on chores, selling bunnies, and getting ready for summer classes. To celebrate the first day of summer, I went camping with a really good friend on Thursday night up in the Granite Falls area. It was beautiful, peaceful, and so relaxing. It was so needed. The weather wasn't perfect, but it was amazing for the hikes we did and adventures we had. 

This summer I am working as a nanny for a 3 month old baby, Bear, in Edmonds. I'll only be working about 19 hours a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so I'll still have time to enjoy my summer and travel over my long weekends. In June, I also have a few other babysitting jobs scheduled - one over a weekend in Seattle. I've been wanting to visit the city since I never really have, and this will be a good weekend to do so with the girls I'll be watching. 

Speaking of travelling, in a couple weeks my family and I are going to Moscow, ID for our cousin's wedding. A couple weeks after that, I hope to take a trip to Leavenworth to explore. In August, I'll hopefully be cabin leading Jr. High camp at Lakeside Bible Camp, going to Oregon to see friends, and camping at the end of August. I'm really hoping to go to California after the summer. I wanted to go in September, but with school starting, it's a terrible time to leave. And then college will start again after that, so I will most likely go there in December. I want to go for a couple weeks this time. This summer, I hope to do lots of hiking and  

Summer classes started on June 25th. I only have 3 this quarter, and only 9 credits - PE, Health, and Social Studies online. PE is on Tuesdays and Thursdays but is only 4 weeks long. Health is on Wednesdays, and is 5 weeks long. Social studies has one in-class class on the 25th but is 8-10 weeks long. I'm glad that classes will be more chill this summer. I need a little break for sure - last quarter wore me out! You can find out more about what I've been doing over the past 3 months in my last post. Throughout the summer, I will also be working a lot with my church in kids ministry and service projects. I'm super excited for Reach's purpose here in Everett, and to see our ministry grow! 

Thanks for reading about my summer plans! Have a good weekend!

Holly 

The Last 3 Months

Well hello there . . . been a while.

It's been more than 3 months since I've made a real post, not counting the 5 I released as a school project. However, in February when I wrote my last blog, I stopped having time due to spring quarter coming up and preparation for that.

The past 3 months have been INSANE. I worked at Lowell Elementary 5 days a week, 8am to 3pm, and then had classes 4 nights a week 5 to 9. 4 days a week, I was out of the house for at least 13.5 hours. And after classes, typically I would hop right in bed. I barely saw my family, and was only home to sleep and take care of my rabbits pretty much.

Wednesdays were particularly busy - I worked until 11:30, drove to Cedar Wood in Bothell for my half day practicum, left for school at 3:30 and sat in traffic for an hour on my way there. My busiest week was at the end of May. I had a lot of projects due in class, and was trying to apply for scholarships. I work up an extra hour and a half early all week just to write scholarship applications and essays before work, because I needed to do homework every other free minute of the day. That was a particularly stressful and exhausting week.

When I wasn't working, I was doing homework. Every second I could. I got to class usually an hour, an hour and a half early Monday, Tuesday and Thursday so I did homework during that time. I did homework all weekend. Any weekend that I was travelling or had plans set me behind and I did miss a couple nights of classes catching up, or did extra homework during IT class. I had huge projects due every other week, assignments and lesson plans due every week, and lessons to teach at Cedar Wood. I had 5 classes - about 16 credits. My practicum class, EOT (Essentials in Teaching), IT for Educators, Math, and Art. Thankfully Art was only 8 weeks long, so the first couple weeks in June before spring quarter was out, I had Tuesday nights off. I still don't know how I did it. It's by the grace of God that I made it through spring quarter without losing my mind and with a 3.8 GPA.

The things that kept me surviving through these months were my planner, car, and the Psalms. I love my planner. I took it everywhere (I still do), and wrote everything down. EVERYTHING. From what assignments were due when, to when I needed to clean bunny cages and when I had bunny pickups or work meetings. I thankfully got my license and a car right after spring quarter started. I don't know what I would've done without it. I'll write another post soon about my car story. It's quite a miracle! Pretty much whenever I had or made time to read my Bible, I read the Psalms. They are easy to read most of the time, and very comforting. Even if I wasn't pursuing God every second or even ever day, He reminded me that He was pursuing me.

Even though I barely had time to breathe, there were some highlights. Students at Cedar Wood told me I would make a great teacher. They learned something from my lessons. My CT told me that I made a difference in the life of one of her students. Even though I was only there for 3.5 hours, once a week. My kids at work make progress on their IEP goals. They didn't die or get hurt. One of my students did pull the fire alarm, but we sincerely hope he learned a lot from that experience (we're pretty sure he didn't). We had a talent show, carnival, and Last Day of School celebrations.

It was by far the busiest, most stressful few months I've had in forever. And hopefully it won't be repeated, at least for a long while. But it wasn't terrible. It was insane, yes, and I can't say it was worth it, but it was a challenge that I passed. I succeeded, I finished it, I grew, and I learned so much.

I have several blogs that I have started as I've felt led or inspired over the past several months, but haven't had time to finish. And even though not all of them apply to what's going on in my life immediately, they did at one point. I'll finish them up and post them during the next few weeks. My next post later this week will be about what my plans are for the summer. School's out now, and although I have summer classes and I'm working, everything will be much more chill. I'm so ready for a little relaxation and summer fun!

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Holly

My First Day Project - The First Day

The first day is here. It's third grade, 8:35am, and students are arriving. I'm ready, and here's the plan:

When students arrive to the classroom, I will greet them at the door. "Hi! I'm Ms. Wisniew. Welcome to your classroom! Find your name and have a seat."

Once all students have entered, and are seated in their assigned seats (they will have assigned seats for the first week), I will introduce myself again, talk about some things I like, my favorite book, animals, where I went to school, why I'm excited to teach 3rd grade, etc. We'll go over and practice our Call to Attention. We'll go over today's schedule, which is posted on the board. Then, I will pass out some questionnaires for them to fill out to get to know each other and for me to get to know them. After they have those filled out, they can talk to people in their table group and discuss their answers. While they are working on this, I will be taking roll, and asking students if they celebrate their birthdays. Next, I'll put 2 giant pieces of paper on the board and hand out some sticky notes. Students will write a third grade fear and a third grade excitement on their sticky notes and place them on the papers, without signing their name. Then I'll read them all aloud and students can see how similar their fears and joys are to other students. These are for me to review and use.

Around 9:15, I'll collect the questionnaires and we will go over our procedure for transitions. We'll practice, I'll model, and students will model. We'll begin some name games, where everyone stands in a circle and says their name along with a corresponding movement or hand gesture. I will begin to demonstrate. Then, everyone says the name and does the movement/hand gesture. After that, still in a circle, we will say our name as fast as we possibly can. Then once we've been around the circle, we'll start again, saying our name as slowly as we possibly can. After this, we'll all know everyone's names very well! I'll give students a few minutes to talk in their table groups again and get to know each other by providing some sentence stems or questions they could ask each other. Then, they will show me how to transition back into their seats like we talked about.

Around 10, we will talk about what they want in a teacher. They will talk with their table group and come up with 3 things they agree are important to them in a teacher. Then we'll write them all down from each group on an anchor chart and post it in the classroom. I'll add a few of my own that I think are important to keep me accountable to. Then, we'll talk rules. What rules do they want to hold themselves and their classmates accountable to? Again, we will discuss in our groups and come up with 3 important ones. We will narrow it down to 5 critical rules for our classroom. If I deem it necessary, I may choose to add some important rules they left out. We will talk about consequences and what happens when rules are broken in this classroom.

Around 11, we will go over some procedures we use every day - especially flexible seating and the different group structures that we have, compared to most classrooms. We will talk about things we will learn this year - what they can expect in regards to homework, growth mindset, family interaction, etc. We will go over our entering the classroom procedure, bathroom/snacks/water/leaving the classroom procedures, materials/supplies/tech, classroom library/silent reading procedures, teacher mailbox and turn-a-card procedure. With all procedures, as appropriate, we will practice and model the expected behavior several times. At the classroom library procedure, students will actually choose books they want to start reading.

We will go over our lining up procedure, I'll show them how it's done, we'll practice it a few times, have some students model for us, and then we'll line up for lunch at 12:15. Let's say that they have lunch, then recess, then specialist, and don't come back to the classroom until 1:45. During this time, I'll be going over their questionnaires and preparing the lesson I'll teach when they get back.

Once students return, we will have a lesson on characters and talk about the books we chose for silent reading. I will introduce a book we will read together. We will go over the turn & talk procedures.

Students will have another, 10-minute recess at 2:10. When they return, we will go over our self-assessment procedure and they will have a chance to practice it. Then, we will go over and practice our dismissal procedure, line up, and they will dismiss for the day around 2:45 - 2:55.

Remaining procedures will be taught the next day. On day 2 we will go over all classroom jobs and what they entail. On day 2, they will also have their first Word of the Week (RESPECT), math and reading/writing lessons. They will be assigned classroom jobs on day 3. On day 3, we will also have a science lesson and play with some STEM supplies. On day 3, we will also begin math and reading/writing workshop procedures.

My First Day Project - Classroom Management

Strong classroom management starts on the first day. We will do a lot of team-building exercises, like a STEM project, a name game, and I will give a questionnaire to get to know the students, as well as tell them a bit about myself. On the first day, students will be greeted at the door, with a smile and a, "Hi! I'm glad you're here. I'm Ms. Wisniew." After the first day once I know names, I will greet all students at the door using their name and asking questions about their night or weekend if appropriate. 

Whenever it makes sense, I will talk to my students about what's going on their lives and find things in common - especially on the first day. Students love to know what their teachers' favorite things are, what they like and don't like, and I will talk about all these things. I will talk to my students as if they are adults. Not as little children. 

Turn-a-Card - Each student is given an envelope containing a green, blue, yellow, and red card. A child will use these cards to communicate their feelings. This way, I know where my class is at by a quick glance around the room and can redirect any students that are feeling frustrated or bored before they get out of control.

As part of my classroom management, I want my students to do a lot of their own behavior management. Students will be given journals/notebooks to record how they did at the end of the day. If they had a hard day, they will color the date (on a calendar on the inside), yellow or red. If they had a good day, they will color it green or purple if they had an outstanding day. They will also get a few minutes at the end to journal about what they did that day, how they felt about certain things, what they learned. They will be encouraged to be honest with themselves because this is for their eyes (and mine & their parents, later on), only.

Rewards - Students will be given a token (fake gold coin), to place in a jar when they do something that exceeds expectations, uses the word of the week, etc. Once the jar is filled, the whole class gets a reward (such as party, class snacks, extra recess). Also the procedure will be taught for whatever the school-wide motivation system is.

Consequences - yellow zone/red zone - send a note home, call home, principal's office, depending on severity of misbehavior. Something like not following directions all day or being asked multiple times to do something may result in a note home, and something as severe as bullying, throwing desks, or hitting another student may result in all three. 

Motivation - whole class rewards, self-assessment, calls home to parents/caregivers.

Whenever we have long breaks, before and after a sub takes over, Monday mornings, and whenever necessary, we will review and practice procedures by actually doing them and having myself and students model them. We will do the same with class and school-wide rules and review them often, whenever necessary.

Since I don't know what school I will work for in the future, I don't know what they policies will be with consequences, motivation, etc. However, I will always have a smile when I can, be positive and happy to see and work with my students which will aid my classroom management! Even if I am not always bubbly and excited, my students will always know that what is best for their learning is at the front of my mind always.