Books Bought and Donated to Date

Thank you to a close friend who is a vision specialist and teacher locally, mother and grandmother. She has books shelves full of great children's literature and I truly appreciate her sharing. With her help I believe the Listening to Literacy Grow library will be well stocked.

Thank you to all who have contacted me about donating iPods too. I will be picking one up today and hope to have all others in my possession in the next couple of days as I prepare to launch the program with the students.

School Site Visit & Introduction

Happy Monday to you all.

I am very excited to meet the lead teacher and be introduced to the school site I will be developing the Listening to Literacy Grow program at.  I have begun to sincerely feel the importance and reality of my new project come to life with having made this site connection and with all the support and encouragement I receive from my education peers.

The original site I had planned on being welcomed at was not the best fit. After scheduling a meeting with the principal, they did not see the importance or quite understand the scope of what my goals are.   I learned a lot from that rejection and I know it made me think harder about how I was approaching the situation and the way in which I am explaining the true importance of Listening to Literacy Grow project for students.

Taking into account the amount of learning I will be doing along the way, I have to be sure that I stay focused and set clear goals. With this in mind I will be able to better share with you the program developments more clearly.

To begin, I hope to accomplish these items on site today:

• Introduction to site, administration and classroom environment.
• Introduce the Listening to Literacy Grow blog, goals and plan for successful launch.
• Understanding of the curriculum and the thematic genres they are working with.
• Choose 4-8 students to have cooperate with the Listening to Literacy Grow project.
• Develop an understanding of the students individual strengths and needs. 
• Identify the best times within current curriculum to incorporate the Listening to Literacy Grow project into the curriculum.
• Collaborate with lead teacher to develop a daily timeline for each Listening to Literacy Grow gathering.
• Plan my consistent days on site for next several weeks of daily Listening to Literacy Grow incorporation. 

Following:

• Schedule my appointment at the Apple store to validate my method of recording and necessary tools and accessories I will need.
• Gather additional used, library and donated books that compliment the curriculum and reading levels.
• Preparing the full Listening to Literacy Grow materials (books, iPods, Discussion Cards, iPod accessories, cleaning materials, etc.) and proper storage method for transportation. 
• Complete the lesson plans for the mini-lessons used as introduction to: Listening to Literacy Grow project, iPod use and students individual goals throughout our time together.

I look forward to sharing about the successes throughout the day today!

Regards,

Nicole McFadden