Housekeeping.

Here we are at a NEW address!  Brynnalynea.com was expiring, and I felt the name no longer represented my purposes for blogging.  So without further ado, I give you the brand new Poetagogue.

Here’s a little etymology lesson:  the name is a play off the word “pedagogue,” which basically means teacher (more specifically, leader of children).  This word can have a negative connotation, but let’s ignore that for now.  The “gogue” part means leader.   So my two loves, the English language and teaching are combined into one beautiful (but sort of hard to pronounce) word.  Hopefully I won’t need to say it out loud any time soon.

I have kept the previous posts, but let it be known that my previous promises (ah hem – to finish my ORELA series, for instance) may or may not be seen through to completion.  For this I apologize.  I am simply too busy with my masters program right now to think about a test I took a year ago.    That said, please do not hesitate to direct any specific questions about the ORELA, CBEST, or Praxis II Language Arts tests my way.  Some pictures that were stored on brynnalynea.com were deleted before I could retrieve them.  I will gradually replace them, if possible – until then, sorry for the monochromy.

Poetagogue’s new vision is to focus on the now — what I am learning through training for my career — and will hopefully continue into my career. If I find a job in this economy, that is!

Thanks for following me around.

Love, Brynna

More time has passed…

…and I’m almost wishing I had started a wedding planning blog instead!  I just purchased the Adobe Creative Suite Web Premium, and as soon as I prove I’m a student I can activate it.  Then I plan on designing a web site for wedding stuffs.  So stay tuned.

For now, in my education world!

School has started and I’m enrolled in some interesting classes, and some not-so-interesting ones.  Highlights include Bill’s Prophets and Radicals lit class, and Teaching as a Profession, in which we get to do classroom observations.  I should be set up pretty soon to go observe high school English classes, which is exciting!

I got my scores back from the Praxis II content and essay tests, and I passed both (Yayyy!).  If anyone has any questions about the Praxis II language arts tests, please ask – I’d be happy to help.

My ORELA is scheduled for October 4th — coming up!  I plan to finish my Studying for the ORELA series eventually, but honestly it will probably not be complete by the time I take the test.  Still, I want it to be available for those who want to look over it.

Stay tuned for updates SOON.  (I promise).
Coming up:

Responses to articles on teaching sites I have found.

Studying for the ORELA – Stories and Speeches Pt. 1

This is the second in a 12-part series about studying for the ORELA – the Oregon Educator Licensing Assessment. This segment is on Language Arts: Stories and Speeches. All information is combined directly from What Your 5th Grader Needs to Know and What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know, both edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. Read the intro here.  This part will be in two posts, because it is quite long.

“Coyote Goes to the Land of the Dead” (folk tale, oral tradition)

In this retelling, from Native American, specifically Nez Percé and Zuni, folklore. This story draws on the archetype of the “trickster” in literature, who sometimes plays impish tricks on others, and sometimes makes himself a fool. In this story, a character called Coyote meets a spirit who tells him he can bring his wife back to the land of the living if he follows precise instructions. He sees his wife in the land of the dead, dances with the dead spirits, and then is told to follow her without touching her for 5 days. Every day he follows her he can see her more and more clearly. On the 5th day, Coyote “gathers his wife up in his arms” and she disappears. This is why the dead no longer can return to the world of the living.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

In this excerpt from Tom Sawyer, we get a good idea of Tom’s character, his desires and his mischievousness. The first scene included is the famous whitewashing scene, in which Tom convinces neighborhood boys that his job is so fun that they should do it, and they pay him to be allowed to do his chore for him. The next day Tom Sawyer goes to school, and stops to talk to Huckleberry Finn, who tells him about a cure for warts using a dead cat at a graveyard. Tom is consequently late for school. He sees that Becky Thatcher, the girl he likes, has an empty seat next to her. Tom tells the teacher why he was late in order to get in trouble so he will have to sit with the girls. Here Tom flirts with Becky, giving her a peach and writing “I love you” on his slate.

Studying for the ORELA – Geography

This is the first in a 12-part series about studying for the ORELA – the Oregon Educator Licensing Assessment. This segment is on Geography. All information is combined directly from What Your 5th Grader Needs to Know and What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know, both by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. Read the intro here.

Geography

Latitudes = Parallels, Longitudes = Meridians. Both are imaginary lines around the world, from east to west (latitudes) and north to south (longitudes). All are measured in degrees, in relation to the Equator (latitude 0º), the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England (longitude 0º), and the 180º Meridian (the other side of the Prime Meridian).

Hemispheres. The earth is divided into four hemispheres (northern, southern, eastern, western), and the hemispheres divide Earth into quadrants. (The United States is in the northwestern quadrant.)

The Arctic Circle and the Antarctic circle are more ways of dividing the earth. The Arctic Circle begins at 67ºN, and continues inward toward the North Pole. The Antarctic Circle begins at 67ºS and moves inward toward the South Pole.

The Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn are two more imaginary reference points on a globe. The Tropic of Cancer lies at 23ºN, and the Tropic of Capricorn lies at 23ºS of the equator.

Studying for the ORELA – Introduction

[This is Post 1 of 13]

I am registered to take the Oregon Educator Licensure Assessment (ORELA) in October. The MAT admissions program suggested that to prepare for this test, I should read two books: What Your 5th Grader Needs to Know, and What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know, both by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

For the next 12 weeks, I plan to review each of the 12 main subjects in these books. I will outline what I learn and share it here. I hope to have a new post from this series published every Wednesday, and I will do my best to stick to that goal.

The subject areas are:

[Intro]
Geography
Language Arts (Stories and Speeches)
Language Arts (Poetry)
Language Arts (Mythology)
Language Arts (Language)
Language Arts (Sayings and Phrases)
World Civilization
American Civilization
Music
Math
Science (Life Sciences)
Science (Physical Sciences)

In this series of posts, I will be walking (slowly) though some of the important information I learn. It may seem very basic – as it should! Feel free to use the information (completely adapted from the E.D. Hirsch Jr. books) for your own studying and edification. If you are taking the ORELA now or in the future, good luck!

References:

Hirsch, E.D., Jr, Ed. What Your 5th Grader Needs to Know. 1st Ed. New York: Doubleday, 1993.

Hirsch, E.D., Jr, Ed. What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know. 1st Ed. New York: Doubleday, 1995.