McKenzie Ross

January 18, 2023January 18, 2023

A Problem Solver Student in a South Dakota High School

In a small town in South Dakota, a high school student saw a problem in her community. Instead of ignoring this issue, she put together a plan to help change her town in a positive way. She writes,

“I believe one of the problems in our community is our Humane Society for animals. I believe we can donate some money in order to prevent animals from staying in the shelter and give the resources so that the animals can be adopted within a shorter time frame. Donations, supply drives, and bringing awareness to our Humane Society can help aid the animals in the shelter as well as the workers in helping to provide a better temporary home for these animals before they are, hopefully, adopted. Donation requests on social media sites can help bring awareness. Starting campaigns, GoFundMe, and supply drives can also help. The supply drives can include cleaning supplies, cat/dog food, leashes, collars, bowls for food/water, toys, beds, and last but not least, monetary donations. I am working to partner with the Humane Society itself to help get the word out there that we are trying to improve the environment for the animals. I can also partner with numerous local businesses, private or public, to help receive donations.”

“I believe that these animals, no matter what their backgrounds are, deserve a second chance. I believe that all animals, big or small, should be able to have a loving home with a family that will care for them. My overall long-term goal is to improve the environment for the animals in the human society so that they can get the medical help, physical help, and behavioral help they rightfully deserve. I also want to provide a stable home that can help them temporarily while we look for a loving home for them.”

January 16, 2023January 16, 2023

The Different Ways We Learn

Sight words are such a buzzword in our household right now. And if you’ve had a kindergartener before, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Each day my daughter comes home with new worksheets, readers, and other various activities that have to do with sight words. Her teacher also sends her home with a new set of sight words to play with and master from home each week. We’ve had a lot of fun learning these words through the games and activities we’ve come up with together.

The way I tend to learn best is repetition, repetition, repetition. If I read the words over and over, say it, spell it, rush through them on flashcards again and again, and then I will never forget the words. My mind has to see the word, deconstruct the word, put the word together again, and then it’s set in there forever.

Because this is how my mind works best, this was the basis for a lot of the activities I chose to do with my daughter. The more exposure, the better! We were doing so much repetition of the words that I was surprised and frustrated when I started realizing that what we were doing wasn’t sticking. When quizzed on the words, she wasn’t able to recall what the words were.

To be honest, it made me feel like a failure. I have all of this background in teaching and I can’t even figure out how to teach my own child some sight words.

One night, my husband lovingly stepped in. He took out the sight word flashcards and they started making sentences together using only sight words. They would make a sentence, read it, and then create a new sentence, repeating the process over and over. Eventually, they pulled out the sticky notes and added CVC words like cat and dad. They spent about ten minutes doing this activity and while they were having fun and bonding, I was doubting his ability to get anything to stick beyond their current work. But nevertheless, I let them have their time.

The next evening we pulled out our sight word Jenga game, and immediately I was shocked. She knew the words! All of them! We had done so many different activities and nothing was working, but suddenly in one day, it all clicked for her.

I approached my husband about it afterward and he told me he was playing a word game with her in a way that he would learn the new words best. By application. By seeing them as a part of a sentence and reading them together with other words.

In my mind, this made no sense. How can she even read the words if she hasn’t spent the time memorizing them beforehand?

But in both of their minds, the path using real-life applications worked. I was trying to lead her down my own road of rote memorization for learning, while she desperately needed real-life application.

The concept that everyone learns in different ways is something I know and was taught how to work with during my undergrad. But when it came to my own child, I just assumed her mind worked the same way mine did. I was giving her varying activities to do, but the process for all of them was the same. Repeat the words over and over and over until eventually, you memorize them.

After my revelation, I started catering to her learning style better.

We continually made up sentences with sight words. We read books filled with sight words. We even wrote our own book using sight words! Anytime we were looking at words and sentences on cereal boxes, in grocery stores, etc., we pointed out the sight words and read them together.

More application. Less rote memorization.

It was a great, simple reminder that all minds have different systems and routes for learning. Yes, even our own offspring sometimes.

And if we can take some time to figure out each individual mind and the route they personally need to take when they are struggling to grasp a concept, it can make all the difference in the world to them. It may even turn them into a little, tiny reader.

Photo by James Wheeler

January 14, 2023January 14, 2023

Can A Worksheet Do That? Teaching Social Studies in a Hands-On Way

We recently made the decision to pull my daughter from school and do “distance learning” for a short time because we had a new virus or sickness in our home every week and it wasn’t sustainable anymore (more on that story to come later).

Luckily, the school was able to work with us to make her a “distance learner” because of Covid protocols still in place, instead of unenrolling and re-enrolling her when she’s ready to head back.

She is in kindergarten, so the workload is fairly easy and somewhat hands-on. However, one worksheet for social studies looked like this:

Photo: A group of neighbors with adults and children standing around, laughing, and talking. Food is being exchanged.

Text on photo: Talk About It: Essential Question. Who are your neighbors?

Text: Talk about how these people are being good neighbors. Draw and write about one way you can be a good neighbor.

Writing prompt: I can be a good neighbor by

I am sure this worksheet sparks great conversations in classrooms and it gives the students a chance to draw and write about what they’re talking about.

The only requirement for my daughter was to do everything this page said. Talk about it, write about it, and draw a picture. Then she would have been done with the assignment and moved on.

But what did she learn from that interaction?

Are we really learning social studies with this worksheet, or are we learning conversation skills, writing, and drawing?

How can we do this… better?

We started with a picture book.

Good Morning Neighbor by Davide Cali and Maria Dek

I highly recommend keeping this one in your personal library, it’s a good one with many applications.

After reading the book, the discussion started.

Who are our neighbors? What nice things have they done for us? What nice things have we done for them? Why is it important to be a good neighbor?

And then we took it one step further, what can we do for one of our neighbors today?

This led us to making and delivering dinner and cookies for a neighbor that we knew was sick. We also stopped next door to an elderly widow and chatted with her for a while, asking her if she needed anything. On our way out, we quickly shoveled her driveway and cleared her car of snow and ice.

On our walk home, we noticed that another neighbor near us had some rugs left outside on their doorstep that had blown into the yard from the high winds. We spent a few minutes gathering them up and stacking them on the doorstep since they were not home to take them inside.

Once we were finally home, we pulled out the worksheet, and my daughter felt like she was ready to write a whole paper on ways she could be a good neighbor. She wanted to give the full story of everything we accomplished in our afternoon of service. Instead, we settled on a simple few-word sentence, and then she was able to tell her teacher the whole story the next time we went into the school to bring back her finished schoolwork.

Looking at it overall, how much would she have taken away if we would have had the discussion and written the sentence? She would have practice in writing, that’s for sure. But the whole point was to focus on social studies. What did she take away from a social studies standpoint?

She would probably know that she needs to be a good neighbor. And maybe have some ideas on how she can be that will stick around in her mind for a few weeks, maybe up to a month. Nothing would stick around long-term.

But after spending an hour serving our own neighbors, the lesson will engrain itself in her mind more than a light discussion and sentence writing ever would.

Now I know delivering dinner and sitting down to an afternoon chat with everyone’s neighbor isn’t doable in a full classroom. So what can we do in a classroom of 25+ students to give them a similar experience?

Talk about neighbors within the classroom. Our neighbors in a classroom are our friends sitting by us, but all together, we are a full community. Discuss ways we can be a good neighbor within our own classroom.

Give them opportunities to draw pictures or notes for their neighbors. Maybe create crafts or pick treats for their neighbors. Let them practice helping their neighbor when zipping up coats to go outside, or picking up trash around their desk during messy play.

If you’re creating an uplifting, teamwork environment in the small community of your classroom, it will eventually translate itself into their daily life and show in small ways around the school and in their neighborhoods.

Can filling out a worksheet accomplish that?

Photo by Katerina Holmes

January 11, 2023January 11, 2023

The Pure Bliss of Childhood

Their coats are washable.

The shoes will dry, with time.

Pants can be washed and dried, as well as their bodies.

Their socks will survive.

Each and every worry that races in my mind

As they ride and splash and jump

Through every single tiny body of water,

It’s all such a minuscule anxiety

When you’re considering the bigger picture.

The picture that matters more than wet socks

Or muddy bikes

Or tiny cold toes.

What matters more than all of those combined

Is the absolute bliss

Called childhood.

January 9, 2023January 9, 2023

Mentorship In A Louisiana Community That Could Imapct Generations To Come- All Put Together By A Teen

A high school student in Louisiana observed a lot of bullying and a lack of role models in her community. She’s come up with a plan to combat this. She writes,

“The community I would like to highlight is fairly new to me. I moved here in May of 2022. This community has lots of kids ranging from toddlers to teenagers! Since I’ve moved into this community I’ve noticed a lot of bullying and horrible behavior going on. Not only that but there are also barely any role models in my community, so the younger children and following the older kids who are not showing excellent and responsible behaviors. I believe that making social media posts and planning a group meet-up in my community to meet the different teenagers and young adults would help start this project. Once I have a group we can do weekly meets and do fun projects and activities together with the younger kids. This would show teamwork and problem-solving. My goals for this project are to stop the bullying in my community and help everyone come together as a team. I believe this would just be the start of changing the view for teenagers and helping them understand how much they influence younger kids.”

What sticks out to us in this project is the generational effects this can have on her community. The work she puts into this will not only affect the teenagers in her area but everyone around them as well. Whether this Louisiana teen wins our scholarship or not, her determination, drive, and problem-solving skills will bring her great places in life!

January 7, 2023January 5, 2023

My Complete List of Books I Read in 2022

My complete list of books read in 2022. If you’ve read any, let’s chat about it! I wanted to write up my thoughts about every single book on this list, but then it would get too lengthy and no one would have time to read this post in its entirety. If you want to know more about a certain book, I am always open to talk about it and discuss. Reading books is my favorite hobby! If you want to learn more about how I was able to accomplish reading so many books, check out my last post.

Key:
📘 eReader books
👂🏼 Audiobook
📕 Physical book

1. 📘Curvy Girls Can’t Date Quarterbacks by Kelsie Stelting

2. 📘Luna’s Rescue by Erica Richardson

3. 👂🏼Educated: a Memoir by Tara Westover

4. 📘👂🏼Seven Perfect Things by Catherine Ryan Hyde

5. 📘He’s Just a Friend by Karly Stratford

6. 👂🏼The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

7. 👂🏼Night Road by Kristin Hannah

8. 👂🏼That Summer by Sarah Dessen

9.📘The Orphan Keeper by Cameron Wright

10. 👂🏼A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

11. 👂🏼Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

12. 👂🏼 Orphan Train Rider by Andrea Warren

13. 👂🏼 The Orphan’s Tale by Pam Jenoff

14. 📘👂🏼 Anxious People Fredrik Backman

16. 👂🏼Things My Son Needs to Know About the World by Fredrik Backman

16. 👂🏼American Royals book #1 by Katharine McGee

17. 👂🏼My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman

18. 👂🏼Forever Boy by Kate Swenson

19. 👂🏼Majesty: American Royals book #2 by Katharine McGee

20. 👂🏼 Inheritance: American Royals by Katharine McGee

21. 👂🏼 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

22. 📘👂🏼 The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

23. 👂🏼Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

24. 👂🏼 Where the Deer and the Antelope Play by Nick Offerman

25. 👂🏼 Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult

26. 📕The Stolen Sisters by Louise Jensen

27. 👂🏼The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida

28. 👂🏼Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

29. 📕Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

30. 👂🏼Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline

31. 👂🏼The One Hundred Years of Leni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

32. 👂🏼Book Lovers by Emily Henry

33. 📘He’s Just My Ex by Karly Stratford

34. 👂🏼The Help by Kathryn Stockett

35. 👂🏼To All the Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han

36. 📕P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

37. 📕Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Jan

38. 👂🏼To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

39. 📕The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

40. 📕 Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover

41. 📕28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand

42. 👂🏼The Book Haters Book Club by Gretchen Anthony

43. 👂🏼I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

44. 👂🏼Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

45. 👂🏼Thirst by Scott Harrison

46. 📕In Conclusion, Don’t Worry About It by Lauren Graham

47. 👂🏼The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand

48. 👂🏼People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

49. 👂🏼Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

50. 👂🏼Have I Told You This Already? By Lauren Graham

51. 👂🏼Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid

52. 👂🏼My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan

53. 👂🏼 Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Photo by Caio

January 5, 2023January 5, 2023

So You Want To Read More? Here’s Some Tips.

In 2022 my goal was to read 12 books, which is roughly the national average of books read a year. This is also one book a month, which felt doable for me. I was very into reading when I was younger, but then life became busy and finding a good routine was hard to get into, especially after having kids.

But 2022 was my year to change that. I made reading a priority, which was the biggest factor in finding success. I also trained my brain to listen to audiobooks. I had a hard time focusing on listening to anything from podcasts to audiobooks, so I took the time to slowly acclimate myself to listen when being read to. Once I felt like I had audiobooks down, I had to train myself to pick up physical books to read them. All of it took work and time, but I was making reading a priority!

Possibly one of the hardest things for me to do was retrain my brain to pick up a book instead of picking up my phone to scroll through social media. Whether we like it or not, social media has us trained to feel like we are missing out if we’re not on it constantly, so it’s easy and natural to open Twitter and Instagram multiple times a day without really thinking about it. It’s mindless. But once I replaced my social media time with reading, it gave me ample time in my day to finish more books.

By the end of March, I had accomplished my goal of 12 books. So I set a new goal to finish 50 books by the end of the year, and I ended with 53. How did I make such a huge jump from rarely reading to finishing 53 books in a year?

Because reading begets reading. This is true for adults and kids. Once you’ve gotten into and finished a book, it’s so much easier to pick up the next one and continue reading. And if the next book you picked up happens to be the first book in a series, well then once you’re finished, you HAVE to find the second book ASAP! And while you’re reading that book, a friend hears that you’ve been really into this series and suggests another similar book that he knows you’re just going to LOVE. So then you have to read that book when you’re finished. And once you’ve finished the book your friend suggested, you may stop reading for a time because you just blazed through so many books so fast. But once you give yourself some time, it’s not as hard to pick up the next book your librarian set aside for you because she heard it’s the type of book you really like and she thought of you when it was returned by the last person.

Reading begets reading, and once you start it’s much easier to keep going. A few tips I want to share if you or your child is trying to make reading more of a priority:

Reading can and should be fun. Do not read historical WWII novels or Jane Austen if that’s not what you’re into. Just because it seems “educational” or “better literature” doesn’t mean it’s something you have to be into. If reading cheesy romance novels or fantasy books is what you’re into, then read those. If you’re reading words on a page that work together to create sentences and paragraphs and chapters, then you’re reading.

Join a book club. This can be a great thing or it can backfire, that’s up to you and the book club you choose. Oftentimes book clubs rotate which book they’re reading and let members pick the book, which can leave a lot of variety and can sometimes make it hard to finish a book you’re not into. But it can be a great thing to have people who also read the book and loved it come together, sit down, and enjoy discussing what everyone did and didn’t like.

If you’re finding it hard to pay attention to an audiobook, find a mindless activity to do while listening. Simple games to play on your phone, knitting or crocheting if you’re into that. Or even go for a walk! Something to keep your hands busy while you listen.

Pick a book that’s also a movie. The book will always (ALWAYS) be better, but sometimes it can be great motivation to finish a book so you can watch the movie.

Find the right platform. We are lucky to have reading available in so many different formats! But it can be overwhelming. Try out physical books, audiobooks, a physical eReader, or an eReader app on your phone, tablet, or computer. Whatever works for you, stick with it. You don’t have to be reading physical books every time (or ever) to have it count as reading.

Dedicate reading time. For me, it was in the evenings before bed, that was the easiest time for me to pick up a book or listen to my audiobook. Maybe for you, it’s right after school? Maybe it’s first thing in the morning. Once you’ve dedicated reading time and made it a habit, it’s easier to do more and more often throughout the day.

What things do you do to help you make reading more of a priority?

Photo by Rahul Shah