| DUO Education: The Path to a Brighter Future |
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 Hi everyone. I hope all of you have a joyous, loving, and peace-filled Christmas. I hope it is a very merry and blessed day for all of you.  I wish you a Happy New Year! I hope it is pleasant and rewarding for all of you! I won't be posting again until the new year! But... I have some exciting things for you! Take care and God bless!
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 Hello everyone. At this time of year, I start to think about the goals I have made for this year...whether I accomplished them or not. If so, how well. If not, why not. So, today's post is all about goals. First, I tried to teach my students the importance of setting goals. I make sure that I say it in a way where the children felt comfortable with it. I included that everyone has something to work on or do. So, in order to work on it or do it, we often set goals. Even then young kindergarteners understood the concept. They enjoyed seeing their progress and achieving their goals. Not only that, but they felt like they had some say in what they were learning. I tried to promote setting and achieving goals throughout the year. However, usually after major assessments, I would talk with children about their skills. The level of the conversation was based on the level of the child's understanding. Sometimes it was in the form of a simple choice. "What do you want to work on for your goal, learning more letters or learning more numbers?" Sometimes it was a little more specific. "You have five more letters to learn, you have 2 more numbers, or 10 more sounds. Which one do you want to work on for your goal?" Sometimes it was an open-ended question. "What would you like to work on for your goal?" Often they weren't true goals with specific steps and a specific time frame, etc. But, it was definitely a start for kindergarten students. After the students chose their goals, I wrote them on a 3x5 index card similar to the one pictured. I named the goal and ideas of how to help the child achieve it. I also sent home a general note to parents explaining the goal setting, encouraging parents to help their children, and giving more ideas on how to practice each skill. This was in addition to their normal work and homework. It wasn't graded or anything. It only helped them and never took away from their regular work. It did take a few minutes away from class time. But could often be done in a few minutes as they came in the door or finished an activity early, etc. I thought it was well worth it!  As stated earlier, this is the time of year when I think quite a bit about goals. It is true! I have been doing just that! I am considering my goals for next year. I have some ideas and am planning some things for 2014. Yet, I would like to hear your comments, questions, ideas, inputs, and feedback as well. What would you like to see happen at DUO Education? New blog ideas? New classes? New programs? New services? New pages? Blogging more than once a week? Different page layouts? More activities? More news? More teaching strategies? More educational products? More guest bloggers? Please comment or contact me with any ideas. And, the more specific you can get, the better. Thank you!  This is the last post about the "Clarinda Cloud" giveaway contest for the year. This contest is in hopes of getting comments to help me with my goals by sharing your ideas for the site with me: Here is the last "Clarinda Cloud" contest of the year! This one, everyone can do! All you have to do is answer a couple of questions. You can answer the ones here, the ones atwww.ClarindaCloud.com on Clarinda Cloud's Feelings Blog, or atwww.AuthorJodiDesautels.weebly.com on my author blog. Of course, answering them at all three is good too! LOL! A winner will be chosen from all the entries at the end of the month. If nobody answers at least two of the questions, I will find a place to donate a copy. If you want to comment, but would rather donate a book to someone, feel free to do that as well. (Please, U.S. addresses only at this time.) Thank you! Here are your two questions for this site: 1. Please explore the site and blog. What is your favorite blog post and why? 2. Please explore the site. What else would you like to see on the site and why? A class? If so, what kind? Another type of activity? If so, what kind? Homework help? More guest bloggers? If so, what kind? More teaching aids? If so, what kind? What would you like to see out of this site? What else would you like to see me offer? *Also my ebooks, "Johnny's Adventure Makes Reading Fun" and "Clarinda Cloud" are free today on Kindle. I hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to get your copies. I would love to know what you think of them. Thank you!  Next Wednesday is Christmas! I will not be posting on Wednesday, but will write a simple post on Tuesday wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.
 Hi everyone! How are you today? I thought I would include an activity that I used to do with my kindergarten class about this time of year. It is a great activity to practice beginning sound for kindergarten and preschool classes. Back then, I used a template that was drawn by someone else. This is a stocking that I drew. (LOL! I hope it looks like a stocking.) The activity is simple. You ask children to fill the stocking with things that start with "s." That means they will draw things that start with "s" all over the stocking. At this point in the year, my students were usually just starting to put letters and sounds together to write their own words. So, often I would have them try to label their drawings as well. For some of them, the labeling would just include making an "s" next to the object. For others, I would expect them to write down as many of the sounds in the word as they could. I usually made a big deal out of this activity. It came at a perfect time to use it for some informal assessments. I would have the students color the items they drew as well as the stockings. Then, we would all get in a circle on the floor in order to share our drawings. Yes, I did one too! I also displayed them all on the wall or bulletin board. I was able to assess things such as: the letter and sound correspondence, the ability to hear sounds in a word and write them down, fine motor skills, and speaking in a group. Depending on your setting (home, public school, private school, etc.) and your limitations. You could also use this activity as the beginning to a talk about the tradition of hanging stockings at Christmas time. Or, you could ask children if there is anything in their stocking that they would like for Christmas. Notes and Announcements Yes, first of all, I would like to say that I am gearing up for some exciting things in 2014. I would like to do what I can to bring more traffic to the site, get more interaction, and supply more educational information, services, activities, etc. My hope is to build a nice community or even "family" of educators and learners. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them. Feel free to comment here or contact me.
Secondly, my ebooks are going to be free on Kindle on December 17th and 18th. It would be a great time to check them out and perhaps even give a review! Please check out "Clarinda Cloud" and "Johnny's Adventure Makes Reading Fun" on Amazon.com. Taking advantage of an ebook giveaway is a great way to pick up new books, decide whether you would like to have a book in softcover, or write a review for an author. I am not a big fan of ebooks for children. However, they do make it easier to bring along your child's favorite books for vacations, trips to the movies, shopping trips, etc. If you have any questions or comments about my books, or ideas for me to use in future books, that you would like to share with me, please feel free to contact me. Speaking of book giveaways, I am going to be co-hosting (with author/illustrator Virginia Wright) and participating in a Facebook event called, "2nd Annual Author Christmas Giveaway," on December 17th. Various authors are going to be getting together online to give away their books either in ebook form or softcover form. If you are on Facebook, please feel free to stop by. You are all welcome! It is a great way to chat with authors online! Also, please remember that I am having a book giveaway contest for "Clarinda Cloud" for the month of December. Really, I am looking for feedback on my sites and interaction. However, I am happy to giveaway a book in the process. It is a win/win for both of us, right? Please follow the links for the blog posts on these sites for more information and to comment. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you! *DUO Education Learning Blog *Clarinda Cloud's Feeling Blog *What is New with Jodi Desautels?  Hi everyone! I saw this whimsical little cover come across my Facebook page. Aren't the snowmen adorable? I am FB friends with the author, so I inquired about it! "Snowman's 'Noggin and Neck' Award" by Joyce Mitchell is primarily a wordless book. The book is about Prancer and Blitzen (two of Santa's reindeer) go around the neighborhood looking at all the snowmen. The only words are an introduction, an ending, and labels for the home where the snowman was built. Wordless books like this one have great educational value. It leaves so much for the imagination of young children who can't read. Wordless books get children thinking about the story, by getting them to look at the picture and make up their own story. This leads to using the pictures as cues for figuring out the words as a strategy when they really start to read. In this particular book, where the images are similar... different looking snowmen in various yards. Venn diagrams can be done on two different images at a time. It is a great book for lessons on similarities and differences. And, the topic of cute little snowmen makes it that much more exciting for the children, especially in the winter months. "Snowman's 'Noggin and Neck' Award" is currently only available as an ebook at the moment. You can find it on Amazon.com by pressing the title text or the picture image.  You can connect with Joyce on her Facebook page. She has other children's books listed there. I haven't read all of them, but hope you find one that you enjoy! Notes and Announcements:*First of all, you may have noticed, but Clarinda Cloud is getting a new cover! Instead of the plain cover that she has now, she is getting the one below. So, if you see it, know that it is the same great story with a different cover. She will be unavailable for a day or two during the switch. *Secondly, I am always looking for guest bloggers, friendly and inspiring educational sites to visit, etc. I also give shout outs at times...for innovative educational sites and ideas. If you would like to guest blog or if you have an educational site, article, or product you would like me to see... please feel free to contact me.  Here is the last "Clarinda Cloud" contest of the year! This one, everyone can do! All you have to do is answer a couple of questions. You can answer the ones here, the ones at www.ClarindaCloud.com on Clarinda Cloud's Feelings Blog, or at www.AuthorJodiDesautels.weebly.com on my author blog. Of course, answering them at all three is good too! LOL!
A winner will be chosen from all the entries at the end of the month. If nobody answers at least two of the questions, I will find a place to donate a copy. If you want to comment, but would rather donate a book to someone, feel free to do that as well. Thank you! Here are your two questions for this site: 1. Please explore the site and blog. What is your favorite blog post and why? 2. Please explore the site. What else would you like to see on the site and why? A class? If so, what kind? Another type of activity? If so, what kind? Homework help? More guest bloggers? If so, what kind? More teaching aids? If so, what kind? What would you like to see out of this site? What else would you like to see me offer? |
Jodi DesautelsJodi Desautels is a wife and mother. She is a life-long learner, educator, author, illustrator, crafter, creator, and photographer. She lives by two rules: "The Golden Rule" and "Live. Laugh. Love." 
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