The Read-A-Thon this year is turning out to be a great success!  So far, our community has read for 53,000 minutes.  We have 25% of the students participating, 10% of the staff and 1% of the parents.  Come on, parents... we know you can do better!  Let's inspire even more students to read by setting a good example and reading ourselves!  Reading the newspaper or a magazine counts towards a reading goal, so even if you can't find the time to start that novel gathering dust on your bookshelf, the time spent reading the Sunday paper can go towards the Read-A-Thon goal. I'm ashamed to admit... I hadn't yet logged any reading minutes.  So I am now officially signed up, too. 

Logging minutes for the Read-A-Thon is made even easier by the fact that minutes can be logged directly online.  It only takes a moment to sign up, but it sets a lifelong example to your children that you value reading.  Go to the Read-A-Thon homepage to sign up for your account and start logging that reading!  

Mrs. Bettina Forman

     Bettina is not new to Terraset.  She has been the Reading Specialist for six years now and before that she was a Special Ed IA for three years.  And it seems more than a couple of our teachers have seen their children pass through the halls of Terraset.  Before working here she was an active volunteer in the school, helping with GRACE Art and the carnival.  She also helped start the chess club and used to pen engaging tales for her children's classes in which everyone got to be a character!

     Mrs. Forman works mostly with the first graders because 1^st grade is an important time for developing reading skills.  But she works with all grades to improve reading and writing skills.  She trains older children to tutor younger children in the Reading Together program.  She meets with students who are interesting in editing the Literary magazine.  She also has book clubs that are open to kids of all levels.  To choose books for the reading club, she finds books she has loved and enjoyed and reads a few pages from each book and lets the kids decide which book will grab their interest. 

       Bettina has always known she wanted to be a teacher.  When in high school, her Spanish teacher allowed her to teach a lesson and she was hooked!  But "everyone in my life said, "don't' be a teacher!" So I listened and went to college and majored in Government.  I got a Masters in Public Administration.  But while I was in that program, my part-time job was tutoring kids at a day care center.  That's what I really loved."  So it was not a surprise that she turned to teaching reading at Terraset!  Her biggest challenge in the job is synonymous with her biggest joy; and that is convincing children that what she wants most for them is to fall in love with reading and once they experience the joy, helping them find wonderful books to read.

       She can pull many wonderful books from books she enjoyed.  Of reading she says "I'm kind of an insane reader - I can never get enough of it.  My family makes fun of me because on vacation all I want to do is read book after book...My favorite children's book authors from my own childhood are Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume.  Now, I also love Sharon Creech,especially Love That Dog Louis Sachar who wrote Holes, and Jerry Spinelli, especially Crash.  Goodnight Moon, Where the Wild Things Are and Boodil, My Dog, were three of my favorite books to read to my children." 

        If any kids are looking for a great book recommendation to wrack up those reading minutes, Bettina is sure to have a book title to thrill any age.  Friendly and bubbly, she is sure to make reading infectious to the children at Terraset!

Ian Hansing as Harry Potter

     Smiles, laughter, and awe filled the Terraset Cafeteria on the evening of October 5th!  "Why?" you wonder.  Well, the show "Books! The Magic is Real!" was here thrilling kids and parents alike. This clever act combining kids, books & magic tricks inspired both young & old!  A perfect kickoff to the Book Fair and the new PTA sponsored Read-a-Thon Fundraiser!

     Our family of 6 almost had "just too much going on" to make it to this magical family event, but we're so glad we didn't miss it!!!  Joe Romano really wowed the crowd with innovative tricks & book references.  Let's see....there was talk of Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Snowflake Bentley, and more.  My kids were definitely inspired to savor reading in a new way!

     Several lucky students even made it into the show!  Dominick walked away with a very special hat mysteriously created by his own torn scraps of paper.  Two excellent sports, Haley and Jordan, played along in a superb card trick on a simulated "Love Connection" show.  Laela showed us how to lure a jumpy snake out of a basket with tiptoe pizzazz!  And with the help of a large black cloak & wand, my very own Ian brought the magic of Harry Potter to life by levitating ropes and connecting metal rings.

     Among a plethora of amazing moments, the show's highlight had to be the Diary of a Wimpy Kid act.  Joe drew the recognizable stick-like figure face of Greg on a seemingly simple whiteboard. As Joe turned to the audience, Greg came alive as the pin-point eyes began to move to and fro on the whiteboard.  The audience couldn't contain their gasps & giggles, which swelled when Greg's sketched mouth began to speak in full conversation with Joe.  It was truly magical! 

   After the show, Joe generously autographed books and interacted with his captivated audience.  As we gathered the little Hansings to leave that fun evening, I must admit I thought to myself, "I do hope this combo book-magic act makes its way back to Terraset in the near future!"  Ian, Esme, & Nicholas emphatically exclaimed, "2 Big Thumbs Up!!"

Motivating children to complete a task can be somewhat daunting, especially if they don't care about the task or would rather be outside playing with their friends than finishing their homework.  When it comes to these types of situations, intrinsic motivation is the most effective way to encourage children to finish their work.  However, intrinsic motivation differs from extrinsic motivation in that intrinsic implies an internal desire to get the task done.I am very intrinsically motivated: my parents bribed me with a car in high school to improve my grades.  I was intrigued but not particularly motivated by rewards.  So unfortunately, I never improved my grades because that internal motivation to get the school work done just wasn't there (I got the car anyway).  Perhaps I would have been better served if my parents had tried to increase my intrinsic motivation for the task rather than offering rewards.  Here's some tips for helping to increase the intrinsic motivation within your child:

•        Offer Choices: Giving children the opportunity to make their own choices gives them a vested interest in achieving and maintaining their choice.  My son chose to play football this season.  He knew it would take a lot of time, but since he made the choice himself, he goes to his practices even when he's tired.  He understands football gives him less homework time but he realizes homework is important and so manages to get it done... most of the time!
•         Use Rewards and Punishments with Caution: Excess use of rewards has been shown to lower motivation to complete a task.  This also goes hand in hand with allowing children to fail without penalty.  It is only through experiencing the consequences of their actions that they will become motivated to succeed.  And when they do succeed, celebrate with them without giving them a tangible reward. 
•         Scaffold Children and Teach Them How to Manage Their Tasks: Help children manage their time by offering suggestions that aid in completion of tasks in a timely manner.  Help them understand how to organize work so it will get done and, as they become better at managing tasks, step back a little and allow them more decision making.  Many students spend more stressful time worrying about how to get things done and we benefit them by helping them organize a task into manageable steps.
•        Be a Good Role Model: Isn't that such a recurring theme in our childrens' lives?  As a full time student, myself, I show my children that I value my own work.  They see me study for tests and complete homework.  They see my forgo doing an activity because I need to complete a college related task.  By modeling your own desire to complete work without praise or rewa rd, you set a good example for children.  I also talk with my children about how what I am doing now (and what they are doing in school) can be applied to real life situations.

  Trevor Boatwright shows intrinsic motivation gets the job done!

 There are so many ways to help children increase their internal motivation and it's an essential lifeskill.  When children have intrinsic motivation, they will be better able to manage and complete their tasks while forgoing micromanaging by parents.  External motivation has its place, but in the end, intrinsic motivation is a more powerful tool for success in the world.

Adapted from: Priscilla Theroux, Intrinsic Motivation, January 1994.

            In his next stage, myth and art from Egyptian, Greek and Roman times caught his eye.  Mark believed in the collective unconscious: that people can communicate through emotions, ideas, symbols and experiences and without the use of formal language.  Rothko felt strongly that he should create work that everyone could understand because it used preverbal language.  He didn't want art to be just beautiful, he wanted to evoke emotions in people similar to emotions felt when people listen to a piece of music.  In the next stage of his career, he began to paint in a surrealist style- ie: he painted automatically, without planning his work.  Later, his paintings no longer included recognizable objects and eventually he began to paint "multi-forms"- small, floating shapes in yellow, orange and salmon-pink.  He also felt the descriptive titles in his paintings her obstacles between himself, the idea and the viewer so he quit titling his paintings.

            As Rothko's ideas progressed, he moved into his 'classic' period.  He used color as a means of allowing the viewer to feel instead of think.  He desired the viewer to come close and become a part of his painting.  During this time he experimented with colors moving from red, orange and yellow, to green, blue, brown and black and then to brown, black or grey.  He continued simplifying his paintings until there was only a distinction between matte and shiny surfaces.

            Mark loved playing with light and color.  He used watery paints to allow a color underneath to show through.  He used bright colors to make shapes come out and darker colors to make them fade away.  He also used matte and glass for his dark colors to challenge the viewer to look at color and light in a new way.  He was he was always painting to "find his inner light".  As he experimented with color and emotion in his paintings, Mark Rothko started using darker and more angry colors.  Rothko finally committed suicide in 1970.