Hey!
I realized I haven't posted in quite some time so this new post may come as a surprise. Anyway, I got an email today. Turns out my last post had a comment and according to the comment I have been nominated for an award by my friend, Mel. However, this award comes with a few rules.
1) Thank the person who shared the award with you! Just link their blog in your post about the award, as I did above. You can also thank them with a comment, but make sure to include a link to their blog in your post.
2)Share the award with 15 blogs or bloggers that you think deserve it.
3)List seven things about yourself.
So here we go.
1) Thank you Mel for nominating this blog for an award! There is a link to her blog already above.
2) 15 other blogs.
[Clever Title Here]
A Voice From The Middle
Jumpin' Of The Edge
Letters of Note
Through Night Skies on Soaring Wings
Whatever it's Worth
My Pug Rosie
Writing the Environment
Classical Gallifrey
(TMT: The Mental Toilet)
Chaos Theory
Theresa's Travels & Thoughts Along The Way
Life With the Mainiacs
Write Your Soul
MVHS Building Worlds
The last one is technical a wikispace but I follow it religiously. It is a place where students write stories and share them on the internet. Each year a new group of students creates a new world through their writing. Thus it functions similarly to a shared writing blog.
3) And finally we come to the 7 things about myself.
I love chocolate.
I live alone with my cat, Chloe who I adore. Unfortunately she is a cat and thus is indifferent to this. Which is why as I sit on my couch writing this I have no idea where she is.
I am a recent graduate from college and am thus looking for a job as a teacher. So if you are reading this and you are hiring please get in touch.
I love reading and writing. It is why I decided to go to school for teaching. I want to inspire my students to love reading and writing.
I started this particular blog as a place to store my reflections about student teaching. I am hoping to continue writing in it once I have a teaching job. Unfortunately it has been hard to come by so far.
It was very difficult for me to come up with 15 different blogs to nominate. I have this blog and another blog that I write in more often but I haven't really gotten too much involved in the social aspects that can come from blogging. In fact I am pretty sure only a handful of people read my blogs. If you are reader and your name isn't Mel, Dad, or Meg please speak up. It would be nice to know someone is out there.
I hate my job. I work at an office supply store and it is really boring. Especially after seeing what teaching is like. It seems these days that student teaching was just a big teaser for what my lie could be like.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Dream Unit
Dear Sir,
At my interview you asked me what I would teach if money were no object, if I could teach anything in the world. Realize now that my answer was lame. Yes, I would certainly love to teach the Hunger Games but now I don’t think I was thinking big enough. If I could sir I would teach a unit on Romantic poets. The unit would have students reading Wordsworth, Clare, and Shelley while traveling the English countryside. We would stop at all of these poets’ favorite outdoor haunts and while at each spot the students would be required to write a journal entry recording their thoughts and feelings. At the end of the trip they would be required to submit their journals and 5 poems, each poem written on a different stop on the trip. The trip would give the students a chance to see what it is these poets were feeling when they wrote their poetry. It would open them up to the changing landscape and the never ending struggle by conservationists to save it as well as the life of the everyday person.
Once we returned to school I would follow this unit with a unit over American transcendentalism. This would show them how this movement grew out of the English Romantic poetry but also the many differences. We would read Emerson, Thoreau, and the more modern transcendentalist, Annie Dillard. If I had the money still this unit would be followed by a trip to Waldo Pond, Mount Katahdin, and Tinker Creek so that students could compare this countryside to the English one. Perhaps they would see that the differences between transcendentalism and the romantics have to do with the differences in landscapes.
Sometimes to grasp what we see on paper we need to see what inspired it for ourselves.
Sincerely,
Ms. Danielle Terrill
At my interview you asked me what I would teach if money were no object, if I could teach anything in the world. Realize now that my answer was lame. Yes, I would certainly love to teach the Hunger Games but now I don’t think I was thinking big enough. If I could sir I would teach a unit on Romantic poets. The unit would have students reading Wordsworth, Clare, and Shelley while traveling the English countryside. We would stop at all of these poets’ favorite outdoor haunts and while at each spot the students would be required to write a journal entry recording their thoughts and feelings. At the end of the trip they would be required to submit their journals and 5 poems, each poem written on a different stop on the trip. The trip would give the students a chance to see what it is these poets were feeling when they wrote their poetry. It would open them up to the changing landscape and the never ending struggle by conservationists to save it as well as the life of the everyday person.
Once we returned to school I would follow this unit with a unit over American transcendentalism. This would show them how this movement grew out of the English Romantic poetry but also the many differences. We would read Emerson, Thoreau, and the more modern transcendentalist, Annie Dillard. If I had the money still this unit would be followed by a trip to Waldo Pond, Mount Katahdin, and Tinker Creek so that students could compare this countryside to the English one. Perhaps they would see that the differences between transcendentalism and the romantics have to do with the differences in landscapes.
Sometimes to grasp what we see on paper we need to see what inspired it for ourselves.
Sincerely,
Ms. Danielle Terrill
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Day 70: Writing, Writing, Writing
Agenda-
Meeting
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Homeroom
Creative writing worked more on their background stories. It is taking us a while to get everyone to a place where they are ready to participate in the big battle. Meg, Mariah, and I spent all day working on getting to my death scene. We need to kill me off before Friday because that it my last day. Then everyone can start working on the big battle. I’m excited about our idea. I have an awesome death scene. I will be sad to go though. I love this class.
The sophomores worked on their multi-genre projects. Meg, Mariah, and I worked on writing. It was fun and productive.
The seniors brought in funny stuff for us all to watch. Today we saw an episode of The Office and part of Baby Mama. Very funny. I am having a lot of fun with this unit. I like it. I think the kids like it too.
During homeroom Mariah came back and we did some more writing. We will probably write even more tomorrow. Yay!
Meeting
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Homeroom
Creative writing worked more on their background stories. It is taking us a while to get everyone to a place where they are ready to participate in the big battle. Meg, Mariah, and I spent all day working on getting to my death scene. We need to kill me off before Friday because that it my last day. Then everyone can start working on the big battle. I’m excited about our idea. I have an awesome death scene. I will be sad to go though. I love this class.
The sophomores worked on their multi-genre projects. Meg, Mariah, and I worked on writing. It was fun and productive.
The seniors brought in funny stuff for us all to watch. Today we saw an episode of The Office and part of Baby Mama. Very funny. I am having a lot of fun with this unit. I like it. I think the kids like it too.
During homeroom Mariah came back and we did some more writing. We will probably write even more tomorrow. Yay!
Day 69: Too Funny
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Today was a pretty uneventful day. I spent some time grading the sophomore’s Holocaust Victim Memorial wall and then I graded Hanson’s poetry portfolio. It wasn’t bad but it was missing a lot of pieces. The sophomores were working on their multi-genre research projects so I had time to grade.
The seniors did their first presentations of something funny for their “what’s so funny” unit. It was fun. We ate pizza and laughed a lot. Nate and Shayne presented today. Nate had a bit from Scary Movie 4. It was funny however, that movie isn’t something I would go out of my way to see. I usually just wait till they are on tv. All of the Scary Movies eventually end up on tv. Shayne did an episode of Drew Carey’s Improv-a-ganza. It was awesome. A lot like Whose Line Is It Anyway but still very funny. After that I showed some scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I love that movie. I think this unit is very interesting and I wish I could be here for the whole thing.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Today was a pretty uneventful day. I spent some time grading the sophomore’s Holocaust Victim Memorial wall and then I graded Hanson’s poetry portfolio. It wasn’t bad but it was missing a lot of pieces. The sophomores were working on their multi-genre research projects so I had time to grade.
The seniors did their first presentations of something funny for their “what’s so funny” unit. It was fun. We ate pizza and laughed a lot. Nate and Shayne presented today. Nate had a bit from Scary Movie 4. It was funny however, that movie isn’t something I would go out of my way to see. I usually just wait till they are on tv. All of the Scary Movies eventually end up on tv. Shayne did an episode of Drew Carey’s Improv-a-ganza. It was awesome. A lot like Whose Line Is It Anyway but still very funny. After that I showed some scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I love that movie. I think this unit is very interesting and I wish I could be here for the whole thing.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Day 68: Fun and Games
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Today in creative writing we did more work on our background stories. I was working fairly diligently and I am almost done. However, I was very distracted, worse than most of the students. I checked the weather for the weekend, I looked stuff up, I talked about books. I was a little all over the place. Hopefully I will have the background done by next time because Mariah, Meg, and I need to write my death scene. And then Lifa will be done. This is really the biggest thing I need to wrap up for student teaching. I will be all done after this.
The sophomores were given time to work on their multi-genre projects. Vanessa put the finishing touches on her Holocaust memorial. I think tomorrow I will print out the ones that were emailed to Meg and myself. Once those are up I can grade that assignment. I am not going to wait any longer for the stragglers. A lot of the sophomores had their topics picked out already. I’m betting they are going to be awesome.
The seniors played a game and had their pizza today. They decided to play huggermugger. I had never played before. I think I understand the rules however, I wasn’t very good at it. They were much better than me. It was nice to just sit with them, play a game and eat some pizza. This group of girls is pretty close knit too but in a different way. They are all very comfortable with each other too. I like that. I like that in class they felt comfortable to ask me awkward questions (not this class but previous ones). I wish all classes could be like that.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Today in creative writing we did more work on our background stories. I was working fairly diligently and I am almost done. However, I was very distracted, worse than most of the students. I checked the weather for the weekend, I looked stuff up, I talked about books. I was a little all over the place. Hopefully I will have the background done by next time because Mariah, Meg, and I need to write my death scene. And then Lifa will be done. This is really the biggest thing I need to wrap up for student teaching. I will be all done after this.
The sophomores were given time to work on their multi-genre projects. Vanessa put the finishing touches on her Holocaust memorial. I think tomorrow I will print out the ones that were emailed to Meg and myself. Once those are up I can grade that assignment. I am not going to wait any longer for the stragglers. A lot of the sophomores had their topics picked out already. I’m betting they are going to be awesome.
The seniors played a game and had their pizza today. They decided to play huggermugger. I had never played before. I think I understand the rules however, I wasn’t very good at it. They were much better than me. It was nice to just sit with them, play a game and eat some pizza. This group of girls is pretty close knit too but in a different way. They are all very comfortable with each other too. I like that. I like that in class they felt comfortable to ask me awkward questions (not this class but previous ones). I wish all classes could be like that.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Day 67: Winding Down
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
The sophomores finished up their memorial for the Holocaust Victim wall. I think there are still a few missing but most of them are up. I will have to go through and grade them soon. For the most part I have been very pleased with what they have created. They did a really good job internalizing their victim and appreciating their life stories.
With the seniors it was game day. We played anomia. So much fun. I couldn’t help but notice that Hanson was doing the same hand gesture all the time so then I was making fun of him for it. He was easy to get cards from if he wasn’t paying attention. If he was paying attention it was harder because he would say what was on the card and threw you off. I will have to remember that strategy in the future. I won the first game and did well the second game. Shayne won the second game. He got good at it fast. I really enjoy this class. They are a tight knit group but fairly welcoming. You just have to be willing to let them tease you a bit. Or in Heidi’s case, let them be very blunt with you. I’ll miss them when I am gone.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
The sophomores finished up their memorial for the Holocaust Victim wall. I think there are still a few missing but most of them are up. I will have to go through and grade them soon. For the most part I have been very pleased with what they have created. They did a really good job internalizing their victim and appreciating their life stories.
With the seniors it was game day. We played anomia. So much fun. I couldn’t help but notice that Hanson was doing the same hand gesture all the time so then I was making fun of him for it. He was easy to get cards from if he wasn’t paying attention. If he was paying attention it was harder because he would say what was on the card and threw you off. I will have to remember that strategy in the future. I won the first game and did well the second game. Shayne won the second game. He got good at it fast. I really enjoy this class. They are a tight knit group but fairly welcoming. You just have to be willing to let them tease you a bit. Or in Heidi’s case, let them be very blunt with you. I’ll miss them when I am gone.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Day 66: Portfolio Presentation
Today I spent having my exit interview with my field supervisor and presenting my portfolio in the North Dining Hall.
While I was away the sophomores worked on their Holocaust Memorial Wall and the seniors were taking their AP test.
While I was away the sophomores worked on their Holocaust Memorial Wall and the seniors were taking their AP test.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Day 65: Memorial Wall and Conversation with a Student
Agenda-
Free time
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Homeroom
Today the sophomores spent time working on their memorial for their Holocaust Victims. Their pieces will be going up on the bulletin board on Thursday. So far it looks like they are all doing a really nice job. Mariah, Lorryn, and Brooke were mostly done with theirs so we use those as examples. The kids had some really good ideas and spent the class diligently working. I can’t wait to see how they whole thing turns out.
The seniors did some test prep. They took the multiple choice test the class yesterday took. They did a little bit better but I kind of expected that. They tend to do a little bit better analyzing. After the class was over I had a little chat with Hanson about his poetry portfolio. He seemed to be beating himself up quite a bit about not getting it done. I hope that he has learned his lesson but I’m not sure. I gave him more than enough notice and time with the project. We even cornered him in the hallways a few times to remind him. He just didn’t do it. We had a lovely conversation about what needs to happen now in order for him to graduate, what he can do to help himself, what we can do to help him, and what he has learned from the experience. I really wish I had given them a grade for having things done on time. Maybe instead of using a rubric to grade these assignments I should have used a checklist and given a grade for each thing on the checklist. Might be something to think about in the future. It would make the project worth a lot but it would be a lot of little grades spread out over time. That might work with the sophomores too.
Free time
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Homeroom
Today the sophomores spent time working on their memorial for their Holocaust Victims. Their pieces will be going up on the bulletin board on Thursday. So far it looks like they are all doing a really nice job. Mariah, Lorryn, and Brooke were mostly done with theirs so we use those as examples. The kids had some really good ideas and spent the class diligently working. I can’t wait to see how they whole thing turns out.
The seniors did some test prep. They took the multiple choice test the class yesterday took. They did a little bit better but I kind of expected that. They tend to do a little bit better analyzing. After the class was over I had a little chat with Hanson about his poetry portfolio. He seemed to be beating himself up quite a bit about not getting it done. I hope that he has learned his lesson but I’m not sure. I gave him more than enough notice and time with the project. We even cornered him in the hallways a few times to remind him. He just didn’t do it. We had a lovely conversation about what needs to happen now in order for him to graduate, what he can do to help himself, what we can do to help him, and what he has learned from the experience. I really wish I had given them a grade for having things done on time. Maybe instead of using a rubric to grade these assignments I should have used a checklist and given a grade for each thing on the checklist. Might be something to think about in the future. It would make the project worth a lot but it would be a lot of little grades spread out over time. That might work with the sophomores too.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Day 64: Test Prep and Wrapping Up
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Creative writing went awesome as usual. Today we discussed how we are all going to get to the big battle with the evil guy who is running all the evil stuff going on in all of the regions. Now we just all need to get to the place where the evil guy is at so that we can start writing the epic battle scene. I am pretty excited. My character is going to have an awesome death scene.
The sophomores were given there end of the year project. It is even bigger than the project I gave them and they have the same amount of time. However, there are a lot more specific due dates for this then there were for mine and a lot more class time for work on them. I think the kids will do well on it. They are all very creative. Today they worked on the memorial we are creating for their Holocaust Victims. Brooke, Lorryn, and Mariah have excellent ones so far. I think this small project will be amazing and I can’t wait to see the final product. The students were all working diligently on it today in class. I think this will be a nice easy transition for them into their next project. Something small in between to give them time to breathe before the big end of the year push.
The seniors did some more AP test prep today. Took a multiple choice test, went over the answers, discussed test taking strategies, and then talked about ways they could use the things they have read in the past few years to answer their essay questions. The kids are all very smart. I think they have just psyched themselves out over this test. We keep reminding them that this test really doesn’t have that much effect on their life overall but they don’t believe us.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Creative writing went awesome as usual. Today we discussed how we are all going to get to the big battle with the evil guy who is running all the evil stuff going on in all of the regions. Now we just all need to get to the place where the evil guy is at so that we can start writing the epic battle scene. I am pretty excited. My character is going to have an awesome death scene.
The sophomores were given there end of the year project. It is even bigger than the project I gave them and they have the same amount of time. However, there are a lot more specific due dates for this then there were for mine and a lot more class time for work on them. I think the kids will do well on it. They are all very creative. Today they worked on the memorial we are creating for their Holocaust Victims. Brooke, Lorryn, and Mariah have excellent ones so far. I think this small project will be amazing and I can’t wait to see the final product. The students were all working diligently on it today in class. I think this will be a nice easy transition for them into their next project. Something small in between to give them time to breathe before the big end of the year push.
The seniors did some more AP test prep today. Took a multiple choice test, went over the answers, discussed test taking strategies, and then talked about ways they could use the things they have read in the past few years to answer their essay questions. The kids are all very smart. I think they have just psyched themselves out over this test. We keep reminding them that this test really doesn’t have that much effect on their life overall but they don’t believe us.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Day 63: I'm Impressed
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
I collected the last of the projects from the sophomores today. They had some very interesting pieces and I am looking forward to reading them. The other class did such a good job that I can only expect that this class will be just as good, if not better. There was a member of the visiting team in this class. He was super impressed with the project. Yay! My class rocks! I already knew that though. I found an email from a parent in my inbox when I woke up. It was from a parent of a student in the other class. I found out later that it was about the project. The parent was concerned about the amount of work and how late the kids were up working on it. We were able to walk away understanding each other and feeling everyone was treated fairly. I think though that if I ever do this assignment again I will have them do one reflection on the research presentation project, one reflection on their Holocaust Victim, one reflection on a classmate Victim Card, 3-5 genres, and then essential questions like I did with the seniors rather than passage reflections. I think that I would have more specific due dates for the genres too. Many of the students put these off till the last minute and it was because of this that they had so much trouble with the project.
The seniors turned in their projects as well. I started grading them during the breaks and was impressed with the number of good grades I got. They did really well on this project! I was interested to see how many of the seniors spoke highly of Browning despite the fact that they did not like Aurora Leigh. I didn’t think they would. I was also impressed to see that many of the seniors went and picked poems of their own choosing rather than use ones I had read to them in class. They didn’t need to do the extra work but they did. I am proud of them.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
I collected the last of the projects from the sophomores today. They had some very interesting pieces and I am looking forward to reading them. The other class did such a good job that I can only expect that this class will be just as good, if not better. There was a member of the visiting team in this class. He was super impressed with the project. Yay! My class rocks! I already knew that though. I found an email from a parent in my inbox when I woke up. It was from a parent of a student in the other class. I found out later that it was about the project. The parent was concerned about the amount of work and how late the kids were up working on it. We were able to walk away understanding each other and feeling everyone was treated fairly. I think though that if I ever do this assignment again I will have them do one reflection on the research presentation project, one reflection on their Holocaust Victim, one reflection on a classmate Victim Card, 3-5 genres, and then essential questions like I did with the seniors rather than passage reflections. I think that I would have more specific due dates for the genres too. Many of the students put these off till the last minute and it was because of this that they had so much trouble with the project.
The seniors turned in their projects as well. I started grading them during the breaks and was impressed with the number of good grades I got. They did really well on this project! I was interested to see how many of the seniors spoke highly of Browning despite the fact that they did not like Aurora Leigh. I didn’t think they would. I was also impressed to see that many of the seniors went and picked poems of their own choosing rather than use ones I had read to them in class. They didn’t need to do the extra work but they did. I am proud of them.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Day 62: Big Projects Due
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Creative writing was wonderful as always. The kids were a little bit wild. It was hard to keep them on the subject at hand but they are always really good at returning to it when asked. We edited the last two quest stories today and then we talked about what we are going to do for our final battle. Lifa’s commander is going to be the big bad guy. It is going to be an awesome story and I am wicked excited to get writing it I can tell that the students are excited too. After we talked about everything in class they had time to start working on the background leading up to everyone meeting in Atlia to take on the bad guy. They were working away at it as usual. And making jokes. We have a lot of fun in that class.
The sophomores got a little time at the beginning of class to put the finishing touches on the scrapbooks before handing them in. Then I asked them to share their favorite pieces. Next, I had them do a little feedback for me. I asked them to write about their strongest piece and why they think it is their strongest, their weakest piece and they think it is their weakest pieces, and then I asked them to write down what they thought of the project. Was it fun? Was it hard? Was it a lot of work? What would you do differently if you did it again? What should I do differently if I do it again? They gave me a lot of grief verbally about the fact that the other class had the weekend to do their project. It is interesting that they are complaining now because when I asked them if class time in exchange for a weekend was fair they said yes. Apparently because I wasn’t there on Wednesday it wasn’t fair. I eventually told them that enough was enough and that we had discussed it and I didn’t want to hear any more about it. They are so very whiny. The biggest loudest complainer was Chandler who in her feedback to me said she procrastinated. So… how would having the weekend have helped?
The seniors were much better about their projects. They took some time to get their stuff together, handed the projects in, listened to their poem, talked about Aurora Leigh, and did test prep without any complaints. They are awesome. I like that I don’t get any whining from them. They were even appreciative of their song as a poem today. They liked watching the music video. I’m looking forward to reading their poetry portfolios. They were a little tired today. I think that though is just because it is Friday, they had a big project due today, and it was a nice day out. They would have rather been outside.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Creative writing was wonderful as always. The kids were a little bit wild. It was hard to keep them on the subject at hand but they are always really good at returning to it when asked. We edited the last two quest stories today and then we talked about what we are going to do for our final battle. Lifa’s commander is going to be the big bad guy. It is going to be an awesome story and I am wicked excited to get writing it I can tell that the students are excited too. After we talked about everything in class they had time to start working on the background leading up to everyone meeting in Atlia to take on the bad guy. They were working away at it as usual. And making jokes. We have a lot of fun in that class.
The sophomores got a little time at the beginning of class to put the finishing touches on the scrapbooks before handing them in. Then I asked them to share their favorite pieces. Next, I had them do a little feedback for me. I asked them to write about their strongest piece and why they think it is their strongest, their weakest piece and they think it is their weakest pieces, and then I asked them to write down what they thought of the project. Was it fun? Was it hard? Was it a lot of work? What would you do differently if you did it again? What should I do differently if I do it again? They gave me a lot of grief verbally about the fact that the other class had the weekend to do their project. It is interesting that they are complaining now because when I asked them if class time in exchange for a weekend was fair they said yes. Apparently because I wasn’t there on Wednesday it wasn’t fair. I eventually told them that enough was enough and that we had discussed it and I didn’t want to hear any more about it. They are so very whiny. The biggest loudest complainer was Chandler who in her feedback to me said she procrastinated. So… how would having the weekend have helped?
The seniors were much better about their projects. They took some time to get their stuff together, handed the projects in, listened to their poem, talked about Aurora Leigh, and did test prep without any complaints. They are awesome. I like that I don’t get any whining from them. They were even appreciative of their song as a poem today. They liked watching the music video. I’m looking forward to reading their poetry portfolios. They were a little tired today. I think that though is just because it is Friday, they had a big project due today, and it was a nice day out. They would have rather been outside.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Day 61: Procrastinate Much?
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
The sophomores today had even more questions about their scrapbook. I can tell that a lot of them are very stressed about the project. I tried to set their minds at ease by saying that they have already done a lot of it by doing the passage reflections. They still seem to feel that they don’t have a lot of time. Many of the students were showing me and telling me about their genres. They came up with some ideas that I had never even considered. I am very excited to grade their scrapbooks. They are doing word searches, crosswords, charts, poems, pictures, and diary entries. I never thought of any of that. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
The seniors did not do a lot of work over break. There were a couple additional students who had done the reading and the essential question but not all of them. Many of the students need to make up a lot of work. I should have checked their essential question answers as we went. I didn’t think I would have to if they knew they would be a part of the portfolio at the end. Apparently, that just means they can put it off. Lesson learned. Seniors are not any more mature than sophomores. Next time I will at least check them and give them a grade for doing them. I am happy that most of the students who don’t do the work at least try to contribute to class discussions in some way. Heidi and Hannson always talk, even if they don’t always do the work. Kym and Shane don’t necessarily. They have at least done some of it though. I’m really worried about Hannson. He still hasn’t done anything.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
The sophomores today had even more questions about their scrapbook. I can tell that a lot of them are very stressed about the project. I tried to set their minds at ease by saying that they have already done a lot of it by doing the passage reflections. They still seem to feel that they don’t have a lot of time. Many of the students were showing me and telling me about their genres. They came up with some ideas that I had never even considered. I am very excited to grade their scrapbooks. They are doing word searches, crosswords, charts, poems, pictures, and diary entries. I never thought of any of that. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
The seniors did not do a lot of work over break. There were a couple additional students who had done the reading and the essential question but not all of them. Many of the students need to make up a lot of work. I should have checked their essential question answers as we went. I didn’t think I would have to if they knew they would be a part of the portfolio at the end. Apparently, that just means they can put it off. Lesson learned. Seniors are not any more mature than sophomores. Next time I will at least check them and give them a grade for doing them. I am happy that most of the students who don’t do the work at least try to contribute to class discussions in some way. Heidi and Hannson always talk, even if they don’t always do the work. Kym and Shane don’t necessarily. They have at least done some of it though. I’m really worried about Hannson. He still hasn’t done anything.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Education Job Fair
I attended the Education Job Fair on campus and thus was not able to be at school. No reflection for today.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Day 60: Looming Deadlines
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
The sophomores were extremely worried about their scrapbooks today. I had a hard time keeping them discussing the book. In the end though, we did have a good discussion on the book and then I gave them their last Victim Cards. They were pretty excited to find out what happened. After the discussion and the cards they were given some time to work on their scrapbooks. They were much more productive today than they were last week. I saw everyone working. They still had a lot of questions on the scrapbook and I answered them as best as I could.
seniors did not do a lot of work over break. There were a couple additional students who had done the reading and the essential question but not all of them. There was more conversation about the book today. I was happy to see that. There was also more conversation about the poetry portfolio. I can tell that with the deadline looming in front of them they are all looking at it a little bit more seriously. I talked to this group more about the Wordsworth excerpt they read. They described it as very long. Someone even said that only a poet could take that long defining poetry. They seemed to have gotten something out of it at least. Cam read something from the packet. What he read was something that I had underlined, but at least he had taken the time to remember it and think that it was something he wanted to talk about in class. I think that this class at least will have quite a bit of success in a college English class. They seem able to talk about literature even if half of what they say is bs. Sometimes you need to be able to do that.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
The sophomores were extremely worried about their scrapbooks today. I had a hard time keeping them discussing the book. In the end though, we did have a good discussion on the book and then I gave them their last Victim Cards. They were pretty excited to find out what happened. After the discussion and the cards they were given some time to work on their scrapbooks. They were much more productive today than they were last week. I saw everyone working. They still had a lot of questions on the scrapbook and I answered them as best as I could.
seniors did not do a lot of work over break. There were a couple additional students who had done the reading and the essential question but not all of them. There was more conversation about the book today. I was happy to see that. There was also more conversation about the poetry portfolio. I can tell that with the deadline looming in front of them they are all looking at it a little bit more seriously. I talked to this group more about the Wordsworth excerpt they read. They described it as very long. Someone even said that only a poet could take that long defining poetry. They seemed to have gotten something out of it at least. Cam read something from the packet. What he read was something that I had underlined, but at least he had taken the time to remember it and think that it was something he wanted to talk about in class. I think that this class at least will have quite a bit of success in a college English class. They seem able to talk about literature even if half of what they say is bs. Sometimes you need to be able to do that.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Day 59: In Class Work
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Creative writing went pretty well. They had to read two of the quest stories over break, write comments on the stories, read an outside book, and write a comparison of the dialogue in their book to the group quest story they wrote. They didn’t have a lot of advice for Meg, Mariah, and I on our story. Most people said they liked it and that it was funny. There was one question about one line in the story. My thought though is that if they are going to be that picky then the story must be pretty good. The other story was written by Loryn and Myrranda. I thought the class did a very nice job explaining exactly what it was that they thought needed to be worked on. The class said that they liked the characters, the plot, and where the story was heading but they needed more. They wanted the girls to elaborate and then they gave specific examples. I think they are right. Everything to make a story is already there it just needs to be fleshed out a lot more. If Loryn and Myrranda did that they would have a solid story. After we talked about editing I gave them time to read the next stories and to work with their group on editing. I thought it would give the two girls time to maybe implement their classmates’ advice.
The sophomores were exhausted today. They did not want to do anything. They kept asking if they could work on their scrapbooks. I told them that if there was time at the end of the class they could work on them. I wanted to talk about Night and give out their last Victim Card. They whipped through Night. They even stole my discussion idea. Almost every group wanted to talk about the same thing I wanted to talk about. I couldn’t very well make them do it again. So I gave out the cards and they spent time working on their scrapbooks. Many students went to the hallway. The ones that did stay in the room were very quiet and very diligent. They just sat there and worked on their projects only speaking when they had a question for me. I was impressed by their behavior.
The seniors were also tired. However, they did a much better job sustaining a discussion about Aurora Leigh. We talked for most of the class about the book and about the Victorian time period, specifically the Victorian view point of sex. I had to explain this to them because of the mention of Marian getting thrown out by an upper class woman who had hired her as seamstress. I wanted them to understand why she did this as well as see the irony in the situation. After they were done with the discussion I gave them time to work on their final projects too. Both the poetry portfolio and the scrapbooks will be due this coming Friday so many of the students are freaking out a little.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Creative writing went pretty well. They had to read two of the quest stories over break, write comments on the stories, read an outside book, and write a comparison of the dialogue in their book to the group quest story they wrote. They didn’t have a lot of advice for Meg, Mariah, and I on our story. Most people said they liked it and that it was funny. There was one question about one line in the story. My thought though is that if they are going to be that picky then the story must be pretty good. The other story was written by Loryn and Myrranda. I thought the class did a very nice job explaining exactly what it was that they thought needed to be worked on. The class said that they liked the characters, the plot, and where the story was heading but they needed more. They wanted the girls to elaborate and then they gave specific examples. I think they are right. Everything to make a story is already there it just needs to be fleshed out a lot more. If Loryn and Myrranda did that they would have a solid story. After we talked about editing I gave them time to read the next stories and to work with their group on editing. I thought it would give the two girls time to maybe implement their classmates’ advice.
The sophomores were exhausted today. They did not want to do anything. They kept asking if they could work on their scrapbooks. I told them that if there was time at the end of the class they could work on them. I wanted to talk about Night and give out their last Victim Card. They whipped through Night. They even stole my discussion idea. Almost every group wanted to talk about the same thing I wanted to talk about. I couldn’t very well make them do it again. So I gave out the cards and they spent time working on their scrapbooks. Many students went to the hallway. The ones that did stay in the room were very quiet and very diligent. They just sat there and worked on their projects only speaking when they had a question for me. I was impressed by their behavior.
The seniors were also tired. However, they did a much better job sustaining a discussion about Aurora Leigh. We talked for most of the class about the book and about the Victorian time period, specifically the Victorian view point of sex. I had to explain this to them because of the mention of Marian getting thrown out by an upper class woman who had hired her as seamstress. I wanted them to understand why she did this as well as see the irony in the situation. After they were done with the discussion I gave them time to work on their final projects too. Both the poetry portfolio and the scrapbooks will be due this coming Friday so many of the students are freaking out a little.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Day 58: Unproductive Day
Agenda:
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
The sophomores were not terribly productive today. We discussed Night and then I gave out their Holocaust Victim Cards. We went over the rubric for the Holocaust Victim Memorial Wall. They didn’t have any questions on it. So, either the rubric and my instructions are very good or they were just tired. I think it was because it is the day before vacation. They weren’t as with it as they usually are. I could tell when I gave them time to take notes on their cards and do work on their scrapbooks that their hearts weren’t in it. They were up and about talking to their friends and just really not on task. Some of them were working and those students were able to ask me questions and that was good. If I was them I probably wouldn’t be doing work either so I can’t really blame them.
The seniors were the same way. They talked about Aurora Leigh but when I set them loose to edit poetry for their portfolio I knew they just weren’t into it. They were watching videos, cracking jokes, and browsing the web. At that point I knew that they weren’t here either. They were already day dreaming about vacation. I kind of wish I had come up with a game or something to do with both classes. Something fun but still semi-productive so that they would at least be on task. Vacation clearly makes everyone crazy.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
The sophomores were not terribly productive today. We discussed Night and then I gave out their Holocaust Victim Cards. We went over the rubric for the Holocaust Victim Memorial Wall. They didn’t have any questions on it. So, either the rubric and my instructions are very good or they were just tired. I think it was because it is the day before vacation. They weren’t as with it as they usually are. I could tell when I gave them time to take notes on their cards and do work on their scrapbooks that their hearts weren’t in it. They were up and about talking to their friends and just really not on task. Some of them were working and those students were able to ask me questions and that was good. If I was them I probably wouldn’t be doing work either so I can’t really blame them.
The seniors were the same way. They talked about Aurora Leigh but when I set them loose to edit poetry for their portfolio I knew they just weren’t into it. They were watching videos, cracking jokes, and browsing the web. At that point I knew that they weren’t here either. They were already day dreaming about vacation. I kind of wish I had come up with a game or something to do with both classes. Something fun but still semi-productive so that they would at least be on task. Vacation clearly makes everyone crazy.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Day 57: Productive Day
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
The creative writing students did their final edits on their stories today and posted them. Meg and I gave them their assignment for over break. After they finished editing and got everything posted they were allowed to work on their vacation assignments. I am very excited to read all of the stories and to see what the class had to say about our story.
The sophomores whined about having to pick random seats again. I am hoping that after I make them do it a few hundred times they will get over it. We talked about the memorial I am having them create for their Holocaust Victims. I had a talk with Meg over this project and she said they wouldn’t do the assignment unless it was graded. So today I handed out a rubric for it and we went over it. I am really excited for the wall. I can’t wait to see what they come up with to memorialize their victim. I also took more questions on the scrapbook assignment that they will have due on the 29th. I explained to them that I would give them class time to work on it. We discussed Night and I handed out their 3rd piece of their Holocaust Victim Cards. I live handing these out. The students seem to be getting into it. They get excited to learn what is going to happen next. I can tell the suspense is killing some of them. I like this activity. It gives them a direct connection to the Holocaust.
The seniors wanted to talk about Aurora Leigh a lot today. I had let them pick their own question for this assignment. I wasn’t surprised by how many of the girls wanted to discuss the possibility that Aurora may have feelings for Romney or vice versa. They did a good job finding evidence that answered this question. A few people branched out and asked other questions. Lynsey did a comparison of Aurora Leigh to Sold. She did a good job comparing the plot lines and how the characters handled the traumatic events in each story. After our discussion they got out their poems and I worked with them on editing them. They are coming along really well with this. I have no worries for this class on their project.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
The creative writing students did their final edits on their stories today and posted them. Meg and I gave them their assignment for over break. After they finished editing and got everything posted they were allowed to work on their vacation assignments. I am very excited to read all of the stories and to see what the class had to say about our story.
The sophomores whined about having to pick random seats again. I am hoping that after I make them do it a few hundred times they will get over it. We talked about the memorial I am having them create for their Holocaust Victims. I had a talk with Meg over this project and she said they wouldn’t do the assignment unless it was graded. So today I handed out a rubric for it and we went over it. I am really excited for the wall. I can’t wait to see what they come up with to memorialize their victim. I also took more questions on the scrapbook assignment that they will have due on the 29th. I explained to them that I would give them class time to work on it. We discussed Night and I handed out their 3rd piece of their Holocaust Victim Cards. I live handing these out. The students seem to be getting into it. They get excited to learn what is going to happen next. I can tell the suspense is killing some of them. I like this activity. It gives them a direct connection to the Holocaust.
The seniors wanted to talk about Aurora Leigh a lot today. I had let them pick their own question for this assignment. I wasn’t surprised by how many of the girls wanted to discuss the possibility that Aurora may have feelings for Romney or vice versa. They did a good job finding evidence that answered this question. A few people branched out and asked other questions. Lynsey did a comparison of Aurora Leigh to Sold. She did a good job comparing the plot lines and how the characters handled the traumatic events in each story. After our discussion they got out their poems and I worked with them on editing them. They are coming along really well with this. I have no worries for this class on their project.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Day 56: Senioritis
Agenda-
Meeting
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Homeroom
The sophomores were not overly impressed when they realized they would be picking new seats every day. However, they handled the change well. We saw presentations and talked about Night. This class always has really good discussions.
The seniors talked about Aurora Leigh and I again got on the case of the students who hadn’t done any of the work. I went over meter with this group of seniors. They were a little overawed with how much work the meter poem was going to be. I told them about the deal. I will be interested to see if any of them take me up on the offer with the sonnet. Shawna might. She seems like she is a pretty good poet and I could see her wanting to stretch herself that little bit to try something new. I am really glad I decided to include the meter poem. Hannson found a website online that generates poems. The website does free form poetry only. So he might be able to cheat on the 6 free choice poems but the website doesn’t create sonnets. Also, they have to write a one page description of what their poetic style is. I think that if Hannson uses the site he will have a hard time doing that one page. I am worried about him though. He never comes to class prepared, his grades aren’t the best, and he doesn’t seem to do any work during class. His mother called Meg. Apparently she is worried as well. Hopefully Hannson gets it together soon and does well on the poetry portfolio.
Meeting
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Homeroom
The sophomores were not overly impressed when they realized they would be picking new seats every day. However, they handled the change well. We saw presentations and talked about Night. This class always has really good discussions.
The seniors talked about Aurora Leigh and I again got on the case of the students who hadn’t done any of the work. I went over meter with this group of seniors. They were a little overawed with how much work the meter poem was going to be. I told them about the deal. I will be interested to see if any of them take me up on the offer with the sonnet. Shawna might. She seems like she is a pretty good poet and I could see her wanting to stretch herself that little bit to try something new. I am really glad I decided to include the meter poem. Hannson found a website online that generates poems. The website does free form poetry only. So he might be able to cheat on the 6 free choice poems but the website doesn’t create sonnets. Also, they have to write a one page description of what their poetic style is. I think that if Hannson uses the site he will have a hard time doing that one page. I am worried about him though. He never comes to class prepared, his grades aren’t the best, and he doesn’t seem to do any work during class. His mother called Meg. Apparently she is worried as well. Hopefully Hannson gets it together soon and does well on the poetry portfolio.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Day 55: Fixing Problems
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Creative writing was spent doing more work on our quest stories. Meg and I went around today to see how close everyone was to being done. They are close. Most are just editing. We are going to give them until Thursday to get it posted. Then over break they will have to read an outside book, compare the dialogue in their quest story to the novel they read, read two of the quest stories, and leave comments on the discussion page. Then when we get back we will give each group feedback on the story. The first story they will read will probably be ours since it is 18 pages long. Not sure how it got so long. But that way the class will have time over break to read it. Also, we noticed that the seniors will be graduating soon and I will be leaving soon. There isn’t enough time left between now and the end of the year to write another quest story. It is time to get to the big battle with the big evil villain.
I decided that the sophomores will be picking their seats every day. I want them to sit with someone different every day. After the outburst from Tori on Friday I think it will be good for them to mingle with people they wouldn’t pick to work with. I also decided that I needed to have a conversation with Tori. After everyone was settled in their seats, I took Tori out in the hall and talked to her. I asked her about what happened on Friday and if she was ok. I explained to her that I know she doesn’t usually act like that and that I wanted to make sure she was ok. She told me she just feels very strongly about it. I explained to her that what I was saying wasn’t meant to be a personal attack on her and she said she knew that. I asked if she understood what I was trying to say and she said she did. I told her that we were going to talk in class about propaganda of the time period and how people were labeled and stereotyped. I asked her if she thought she would be ok with that. She said she would be. I’m not sure if my talk with her in the hall accomplished anything. I know it definitely didn’t change her opinion. It also didn’t explain to me why she is so attached to labels and feels so strongly about it. What is the point of labeling people? I decided that she and I were on better terms since talking though and I didn’t want to push the matter any further. So we went back into the classroom, we watched the presentations and then I talked to the class about propaganda. The class was very serious and very quiet as I gave my little lecture that I had given the class before. I hope it makes some difference.
The seniors were awesome as always. We talked about Aurora Leigh and then we talked about meter. They seemed like they were grasping the basic idea. We scanned a few lines together and by the third line scanned they knew which syllables were stressed and which weren’t without my help. I went over what to call each number of feet in a line and what each grouping of stressed and unstressed syllables means. I showed them the rhyme scheme for a sonnet. I made a deal with them. If they write me a sonnet they can use that as both their poem with meter and their poem with a rhyme scheme. But then they need to write an extra free choice poem. I did this because sonnets are hard to write. Some of the students asked if they could work on writing poems once I was done. I let them. Many of them immediately started trying to write a sonnet. Some of them got out other poems and edited those. This class is always very productive when I give them time to work on their poetry portfolio. I really don’t mind letting them work on it at all.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Creative writing was spent doing more work on our quest stories. Meg and I went around today to see how close everyone was to being done. They are close. Most are just editing. We are going to give them until Thursday to get it posted. Then over break they will have to read an outside book, compare the dialogue in their quest story to the novel they read, read two of the quest stories, and leave comments on the discussion page. Then when we get back we will give each group feedback on the story. The first story they will read will probably be ours since it is 18 pages long. Not sure how it got so long. But that way the class will have time over break to read it. Also, we noticed that the seniors will be graduating soon and I will be leaving soon. There isn’t enough time left between now and the end of the year to write another quest story. It is time to get to the big battle with the big evil villain.
I decided that the sophomores will be picking their seats every day. I want them to sit with someone different every day. After the outburst from Tori on Friday I think it will be good for them to mingle with people they wouldn’t pick to work with. I also decided that I needed to have a conversation with Tori. After everyone was settled in their seats, I took Tori out in the hall and talked to her. I asked her about what happened on Friday and if she was ok. I explained to her that I know she doesn’t usually act like that and that I wanted to make sure she was ok. She told me she just feels very strongly about it. I explained to her that what I was saying wasn’t meant to be a personal attack on her and she said she knew that. I asked if she understood what I was trying to say and she said she did. I told her that we were going to talk in class about propaganda of the time period and how people were labeled and stereotyped. I asked her if she thought she would be ok with that. She said she would be. I’m not sure if my talk with her in the hall accomplished anything. I know it definitely didn’t change her opinion. It also didn’t explain to me why she is so attached to labels and feels so strongly about it. What is the point of labeling people? I decided that she and I were on better terms since talking though and I didn’t want to push the matter any further. So we went back into the classroom, we watched the presentations and then I talked to the class about propaganda. The class was very serious and very quiet as I gave my little lecture that I had given the class before. I hope it makes some difference.
The seniors were awesome as always. We talked about Aurora Leigh and then we talked about meter. They seemed like they were grasping the basic idea. We scanned a few lines together and by the third line scanned they knew which syllables were stressed and which weren’t without my help. I went over what to call each number of feet in a line and what each grouping of stressed and unstressed syllables means. I showed them the rhyme scheme for a sonnet. I made a deal with them. If they write me a sonnet they can use that as both their poem with meter and their poem with a rhyme scheme. But then they need to write an extra free choice poem. I did this because sonnets are hard to write. Some of the students asked if they could work on writing poems once I was done. I let them. Many of them immediately started trying to write a sonnet. Some of them got out other poems and edited those. This class is always very productive when I give them time to work on their poetry portfolio. I really don’t mind letting them work on it at all.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Day 54: Propoganda
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
I decided that because of the outburst last week I needed to have a conversation with both sophomore classes about the propaganda and anti-Semitism during the time period. I think that maybe if I show them some examples and explain to them why we are reading Night that they will understand me a little better. I did a google search for propaganda and got a ton. So after the students were done giving their presentations I hooked my laptop up to the projector and showed them the many different examples that google pulled up. Then I explained to them that it is important we read Night because we are not exempt from treating people like this. We did the similar things to Native Americans and to Japanese Americans during WWII. I explained that we still see these things all the time. We hear on the news all the time that such and such a kid in such and such a place killed themselves because they were being bullied, or cyber bullied, or picked on for being different. I told them that we are reading Night and learning about the Holocaust because the only way to prevent these things is to learn about them. Ignorance causes fear and fear of what we don’t understand creates hatred. So the only way to keep these things from happening is to educate ourselves. They seemed to understand what I was trying to say. I am hoping that now they will be more interested in the subject.
The seniors and I talked about Aurora Leigh. The same students didn’t have their work again. They seem to be making this a habit. I reminded them that the essential questions I am requiring them to do are due in the poetry portfolio and I will be reading them. They said that they knew that and they planned to do them. There really isn’t anything I can do to force them to do the work except maybe start checking them every day like I do for the sophomores. But it seems to me that the seniors should be able to regulate themselves better than that. After all in college there will be work that professors ask them to do that the professor never checks but it will be on the test. It always comes back to bite you in the end. I explained to them that doing the work when it was due would help them not have as much to do at the end. That does not seem to matter to them. Despite four students not having done the assignment we still had a good discussion. It seems like those students are just really good bs. That will be helpful on the AP exam at least.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
I decided that because of the outburst last week I needed to have a conversation with both sophomore classes about the propaganda and anti-Semitism during the time period. I think that maybe if I show them some examples and explain to them why we are reading Night that they will understand me a little better. I did a google search for propaganda and got a ton. So after the students were done giving their presentations I hooked my laptop up to the projector and showed them the many different examples that google pulled up. Then I explained to them that it is important we read Night because we are not exempt from treating people like this. We did the similar things to Native Americans and to Japanese Americans during WWII. I explained that we still see these things all the time. We hear on the news all the time that such and such a kid in such and such a place killed themselves because they were being bullied, or cyber bullied, or picked on for being different. I told them that we are reading Night and learning about the Holocaust because the only way to prevent these things is to learn about them. Ignorance causes fear and fear of what we don’t understand creates hatred. So the only way to keep these things from happening is to educate ourselves. They seemed to understand what I was trying to say. I am hoping that now they will be more interested in the subject.
The seniors and I talked about Aurora Leigh. The same students didn’t have their work again. They seem to be making this a habit. I reminded them that the essential questions I am requiring them to do are due in the poetry portfolio and I will be reading them. They said that they knew that and they planned to do them. There really isn’t anything I can do to force them to do the work except maybe start checking them every day like I do for the sophomores. But it seems to me that the seniors should be able to regulate themselves better than that. After all in college there will be work that professors ask them to do that the professor never checks but it will be on the test. It always comes back to bite you in the end. I explained to them that doing the work when it was due would help them not have as much to do at the end. That does not seem to matter to them. Despite four students not having done the assignment we still had a good discussion. It seems like those students are just really good bs. That will be helpful on the AP exam at least.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Day 53: Student Blows Up
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Creative Writing went well as always. I asked them today to think about a date system of some kind as some of the students had already included dates in their biographies and stories. We decided that we are currently in the year 1000, that there are 10 months in every year, they are 6 weeks in each month, 10 days in each week, 25 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. Everyone threw out ideas and then we voted on them. We decided to let people name the months regionally but that they would be known all over our world as 1st Moon, 2nd Moon and so on. The students then worked on their quest stories some more. There were a few that seemed like they had quite a bit more to do and then there were some that were like us and were almost done. We decided that we could afford to give a little extra time to finish them up and for editing before break.
The sophomores were not happy with the seating arrangements. They were rather upset that I decided they couldn’t handle sitting where ever they wanted to. I explained to them that there was a little too much chit chat for me when they picked their seats and that I wanted to see them working with different people. We talked about the book and then I handed out their Holocaust Victim Cards. Once I had handed them out the students got out work to do either on their presentations, on their scrapbooks or on their reflections over their cards. The 4 boys asked if they could go out in the hall to work and I said yes. The complaint about the seats came up again and I explained again why they weren’t allowed to pick their own seats. Tori spoke up and said that the boys weren’t working right then and that they were probably just playing games on their computers. She said that they were just jocks. I told her that we shouldn’t label people because of we label people then we run the risk of treating them differently and then we risk treating them badly. She responded with how she labels herself all the time. I then asked the class how the Holocaust got started and explained that there was a lot of propaganda during that time period against Jews and it was the stereotypes and labeling that eventually led up to the persecution of the Jews. It was at this point that Tori started yelling about how she was a teenage girl in high school and that she labeled people and that maybe she would regret it later on in life but for now that was what she was going to do. She said her family does it and so she was going to do it too. I didn’t know how to respond to this so I said nothing at all. All I could think is that this girl clearly thought that I was trying to attack her in some way. And I was suddenly very disappointed in her. She is one of my students with a 4 in the class. I thought, such a bright girl and she can’t even see beyond herself for 1 minute. I thought “No wonder this class is so obsessed with seating.” They can’t stand to be near each other. I knew this student has an attitude but I has always thought that attitude was towards stupid people. I didn’t think that her definition of stupid people might be different from my own. I couldn’t come up with anything to say to her or a way to react. I just let it go. I think I just need to regroup and maybe rethink this unit. They obviously don’t understand why we are reading Night.
The seniors were much better. I did the same activity with them that I did yesterday. It always amazes me which students sort of open up and respond to you when they realize that you understand them. Makenzie really enjoyed my poem that I read. She really wanted me to read her poetry after I had read mine. She talked to me about how she wants to be a human rights activist and she talked about how she really found getting inside people’s heads. Her poem that I edited for her today was really very good. I only had one suggestion for her and it was really just changing one word. I recommended to her that she read Maxine Kumin since she seems to interested in the human rights, politics, and people. Maxine Kumin is the kind of poet who really makes these issues stand out. Maybe I will read one of her poems in class someday. It was nice to have the seniors after the fiasco with the sophomores. The seniors suddenly seem so much more mature. They were a little bit more talkative today and again I saw a lot more students wanting to share their poems with me. I’m glad I read them one of mine.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Creative Writing went well as always. I asked them today to think about a date system of some kind as some of the students had already included dates in their biographies and stories. We decided that we are currently in the year 1000, that there are 10 months in every year, they are 6 weeks in each month, 10 days in each week, 25 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. Everyone threw out ideas and then we voted on them. We decided to let people name the months regionally but that they would be known all over our world as 1st Moon, 2nd Moon and so on. The students then worked on their quest stories some more. There were a few that seemed like they had quite a bit more to do and then there were some that were like us and were almost done. We decided that we could afford to give a little extra time to finish them up and for editing before break.
The sophomores were not happy with the seating arrangements. They were rather upset that I decided they couldn’t handle sitting where ever they wanted to. I explained to them that there was a little too much chit chat for me when they picked their seats and that I wanted to see them working with different people. We talked about the book and then I handed out their Holocaust Victim Cards. Once I had handed them out the students got out work to do either on their presentations, on their scrapbooks or on their reflections over their cards. The 4 boys asked if they could go out in the hall to work and I said yes. The complaint about the seats came up again and I explained again why they weren’t allowed to pick their own seats. Tori spoke up and said that the boys weren’t working right then and that they were probably just playing games on their computers. She said that they were just jocks. I told her that we shouldn’t label people because of we label people then we run the risk of treating them differently and then we risk treating them badly. She responded with how she labels herself all the time. I then asked the class how the Holocaust got started and explained that there was a lot of propaganda during that time period against Jews and it was the stereotypes and labeling that eventually led up to the persecution of the Jews. It was at this point that Tori started yelling about how she was a teenage girl in high school and that she labeled people and that maybe she would regret it later on in life but for now that was what she was going to do. She said her family does it and so she was going to do it too. I didn’t know how to respond to this so I said nothing at all. All I could think is that this girl clearly thought that I was trying to attack her in some way. And I was suddenly very disappointed in her. She is one of my students with a 4 in the class. I thought, such a bright girl and she can’t even see beyond herself for 1 minute. I thought “No wonder this class is so obsessed with seating.” They can’t stand to be near each other. I knew this student has an attitude but I has always thought that attitude was towards stupid people. I didn’t think that her definition of stupid people might be different from my own. I couldn’t come up with anything to say to her or a way to react. I just let it go. I think I just need to regroup and maybe rethink this unit. They obviously don’t understand why we are reading Night.
The seniors were much better. I did the same activity with them that I did yesterday. It always amazes me which students sort of open up and respond to you when they realize that you understand them. Makenzie really enjoyed my poem that I read. She really wanted me to read her poetry after I had read mine. She talked to me about how she wants to be a human rights activist and she talked about how she really found getting inside people’s heads. Her poem that I edited for her today was really very good. I only had one suggestion for her and it was really just changing one word. I recommended to her that she read Maxine Kumin since she seems to interested in the human rights, politics, and people. Maxine Kumin is the kind of poet who really makes these issues stand out. Maybe I will read one of her poems in class someday. It was nice to have the seniors after the fiasco with the sophomores. The seniors suddenly seem so much more mature. They were a little bit more talkative today and again I saw a lot more students wanting to share their poems with me. I’m glad I read them one of mine.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Day 52: Editing Poetry
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
I decided today that I am going to try assigning seats randomly. I am going to have them draw from the coffee can of doom. It seems like a fair way to do it plus it will mix them up nicely. I tried it first with the A day kids because they tend to respond to change better than the B day kids. It seemed like it went ok. I got to see some students interact who I hadn’t seen work together before. They were well behaved too. It was a good class overall. They seem to be having good discussion now that I am giving them topics to discuss in their groups first and then share with the class. I gave out their next Holocaust Victim Cards today and I found out that some of the students had gone and looked up their victims. I was a little disappointed that they had ruined the surprise. On the other hand though, I had been worried that they weren’t into the cards. It was good to see that they were so curious. I decided to have them research their victim and include that in their Scrapbooks since they ruined the surprise. They took the initiative so they should be willing to do the work. They didn’t seem to mind the extra work.
The seniors were their usual selves. The same students again didn’t have their homework done. I asked them why hadn’t done it. They said that the questions on top of the reading was just too much. Mmmm, I’m not buying that. It isn’t that hard to write down a passage as you read and then write a page after you finish reading. We talked today about how to edit a poem. I read them a first draft of one of my poems and then I read them the finished version. We discussed that when you edit poetry you are really looking for a way to make it better. How can you show somebody something rather than just tell them. After I shared my poem some of the students were asking about things in the poem. They wanted to know if it was true. Heidi said that she understood now why I liked Aurora Leigh, because it was the story of a struggling artist. I then set them loose to edit their poems. They were much more willing to let me take a look at their own work now that I had shared mine. I’m hoping that means they felt more comfortable with me. Next, week we are going to talk about meter. I think it is time that they learned a little bit about the more technical aspects of poetry.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
I decided today that I am going to try assigning seats randomly. I am going to have them draw from the coffee can of doom. It seems like a fair way to do it plus it will mix them up nicely. I tried it first with the A day kids because they tend to respond to change better than the B day kids. It seemed like it went ok. I got to see some students interact who I hadn’t seen work together before. They were well behaved too. It was a good class overall. They seem to be having good discussion now that I am giving them topics to discuss in their groups first and then share with the class. I gave out their next Holocaust Victim Cards today and I found out that some of the students had gone and looked up their victims. I was a little disappointed that they had ruined the surprise. On the other hand though, I had been worried that they weren’t into the cards. It was good to see that they were so curious. I decided to have them research their victim and include that in their Scrapbooks since they ruined the surprise. They took the initiative so they should be willing to do the work. They didn’t seem to mind the extra work.
The seniors were their usual selves. The same students again didn’t have their homework done. I asked them why hadn’t done it. They said that the questions on top of the reading was just too much. Mmmm, I’m not buying that. It isn’t that hard to write down a passage as you read and then write a page after you finish reading. We talked today about how to edit a poem. I read them a first draft of one of my poems and then I read them the finished version. We discussed that when you edit poetry you are really looking for a way to make it better. How can you show somebody something rather than just tell them. After I shared my poem some of the students were asking about things in the poem. They wanted to know if it was true. Heidi said that she understood now why I liked Aurora Leigh, because it was the story of a struggling artist. I then set them loose to edit their poems. They were much more willing to let me take a look at their own work now that I had shared mine. I’m hoping that means they felt more comfortable with me. Next, week we are going to talk about meter. I think it is time that they learned a little bit about the more technical aspects of poetry.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Day 51: Still Messing With Seats
Agenda-
Presentations on Color Theory and Visual Literacy
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Homeroom
Creative writing was good. Loryn came over and said that her group member wasn’t doing anything. I am not sure how that works. They both come to class every day. They both get out their laptops. What are they doing if not working on their story? All the other students are working. I hear them working all the time. I guess we need to talk to both girls and see what is going on there. Meg, Mariah, and I have finished writing our story and we started editing today. We have a lot of editing to do. Then after we polish it up we should be all done. Next, we are going to have the class read each quest story one at a time and leave comments in the discussion tab. Then in class we will discuss the story together. We are hoping to help them practice some good editing skills. Then probably give them a day to edit anything and then change their groups up again. I will be sad to see our group dissolve but I wouldn’t mind working with most of the students in that class. So it might be fun to work with someone else.
The sophomores got to try sitting wherever they wanted to sit today. I told them they could sit anywhere they wanted to but the desks had to stay where they were. The 4 boys, Sean, Jake, Adam, and Ryan whined at first because it meant one of them had to go elsewhere. But once they saw I wasn’t backing down, Ryan went and sat with a couple girls and the 3 boys were fairly well behaved. I was actually happier with their behavior than with the group of all girls. Tori sat in a single desk I was going to use for myself behind a group of three desk and thus the 4 girls ended up sitting together. The group as a whole was pretty well behaved. However, there was a lot of chit chat and even more off topic conversations than usual. I ended up moving Garrett because he was sitting alone. I liked having him with Jeremie and Arseniy. I think what I am going to do is have them in different groups every day. I want to have them work with different people. I will just have them draw from the coffee can of doom every day and like colors will sit together. This will keep things interesting. Plus sometimes they will get to sit with friends and sometimes they won’t. They will learn how to work with everyone in the class.
This group of seniors is still hard. It is hard to get them to open their mouths and speak up. I need to do something about it! I ask them a question and wait for an answer but all I get is whispers or nothing at all. I don’t understand. It isn’t like I ever tell them they are wrong. I never ridicule them. In fact even when they are way off base with their passage choices I work to try and make it work. They are also always on the fence. Every time I try to get them to take a side on something they sit right in the middle. They seem afraid to have an opinion. And even when they do they are easily swayed. For their next question I am having them look at textual evidence and pick a side to argue from. They pick a character and then decide if that character is flat or round. I am hoping that they will at least pick different characters even if they don’t pick different sides. The question after that requires them to compare their poetry to that of Aurora’s. I am hoping this will help them connect a little with the book. They at least always have their work done.
Presentations on Color Theory and Visual Literacy
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Homeroom
Creative writing was good. Loryn came over and said that her group member wasn’t doing anything. I am not sure how that works. They both come to class every day. They both get out their laptops. What are they doing if not working on their story? All the other students are working. I hear them working all the time. I guess we need to talk to both girls and see what is going on there. Meg, Mariah, and I have finished writing our story and we started editing today. We have a lot of editing to do. Then after we polish it up we should be all done. Next, we are going to have the class read each quest story one at a time and leave comments in the discussion tab. Then in class we will discuss the story together. We are hoping to help them practice some good editing skills. Then probably give them a day to edit anything and then change their groups up again. I will be sad to see our group dissolve but I wouldn’t mind working with most of the students in that class. So it might be fun to work with someone else.
The sophomores got to try sitting wherever they wanted to sit today. I told them they could sit anywhere they wanted to but the desks had to stay where they were. The 4 boys, Sean, Jake, Adam, and Ryan whined at first because it meant one of them had to go elsewhere. But once they saw I wasn’t backing down, Ryan went and sat with a couple girls and the 3 boys were fairly well behaved. I was actually happier with their behavior than with the group of all girls. Tori sat in a single desk I was going to use for myself behind a group of three desk and thus the 4 girls ended up sitting together. The group as a whole was pretty well behaved. However, there was a lot of chit chat and even more off topic conversations than usual. I ended up moving Garrett because he was sitting alone. I liked having him with Jeremie and Arseniy. I think what I am going to do is have them in different groups every day. I want to have them work with different people. I will just have them draw from the coffee can of doom every day and like colors will sit together. This will keep things interesting. Plus sometimes they will get to sit with friends and sometimes they won’t. They will learn how to work with everyone in the class.
This group of seniors is still hard. It is hard to get them to open their mouths and speak up. I need to do something about it! I ask them a question and wait for an answer but all I get is whispers or nothing at all. I don’t understand. It isn’t like I ever tell them they are wrong. I never ridicule them. In fact even when they are way off base with their passage choices I work to try and make it work. They are also always on the fence. Every time I try to get them to take a side on something they sit right in the middle. They seem afraid to have an opinion. And even when they do they are easily swayed. For their next question I am having them look at textual evidence and pick a side to argue from. They pick a character and then decide if that character is flat or round. I am hoping that they will at least pick different characters even if they don’t pick different sides. The question after that requires them to compare their poetry to that of Aurora’s. I am hoping this will help them connect a little with the book. They at least always have their work done.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Day 50: OK
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period (Worked on TWS)
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Seminar
The sophomores were pretty good about their discussions. There were a few students who didn’t have their homework done but they were still able to participate because I had them working in discussion groups. I think that the class does better as a whole when they talk in groups before talking in front of the class. I am wondering if maybe I should be timing their group discussions in order to eliminate some of the side conversations. I know that they pick passages to talk about with the class and then turn their attention to their friends to talk about things not related to the book. I am walking around trying to assess how each group is doing and they are not on task. The timer might give the process a little urgency. I also noticed that they stop talking when I stand near their groups. I am trying to listen in to their conversations but they stop talking. May be I should take myself out of the conversation completely. I wonder if they have the maturity and skills to do carry on a discussion by themselves. I wonder if I could steal a page from Dr. Grace’s book and just say “get in a circle, now talk, I’m just going to listen.” It just seems to me like the discussions function very much as they speak, I speak then they speak again. I would like to hear more of them and less of me.
The seniors are interesting. Sometimes they get a good discussion going between themselves and sometimes their discussions are like the sophomores. They speak, I speak and then they speak again. I do really like the questions that I am giving them over their reading. I am disappointed that some of the students didn’t do it. However, it isn’t due till they turn in the poetry portfolio and the students who didn’t have it done still managed to contribute to the discussion. At least they were honest in saying they didn’t do the work. I don’t think I am going to do anything about the fact they didn’t do the work. The only person they are hurting is themselves. In the end that just means they will have more work to do for the final project than everyone else. They also won’t be getting practice for the AP exam. I think I need to point that out to them though. Megan asked me today if they would be getting any practice for the exam. And I told her we were. She expressed concern that about the fact that they had done a lot of poetry and not a lot of test prep. I told her there would be a lot of poetry on the test and that unlike their last AP test, this one was much more about can you analyze something. I think I need to explain to them that the questions I am giving them over their reading is a practice for the test in some ways. I also need to talk about editing poetry. Justin asked how you edit poetry since it is feelings. I think I am going to take one of my poems I have edited in to show them an example. Then next week we are going to talk about meter because Hannah and Lauren were asking about that. I always feel like there are a million things I want to do and about 5 minutes to do them all.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period (Worked on TWS)
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Seminar
The sophomores were pretty good about their discussions. There were a few students who didn’t have their homework done but they were still able to participate because I had them working in discussion groups. I think that the class does better as a whole when they talk in groups before talking in front of the class. I am wondering if maybe I should be timing their group discussions in order to eliminate some of the side conversations. I know that they pick passages to talk about with the class and then turn their attention to their friends to talk about things not related to the book. I am walking around trying to assess how each group is doing and they are not on task. The timer might give the process a little urgency. I also noticed that they stop talking when I stand near their groups. I am trying to listen in to their conversations but they stop talking. May be I should take myself out of the conversation completely. I wonder if they have the maturity and skills to do carry on a discussion by themselves. I wonder if I could steal a page from Dr. Grace’s book and just say “get in a circle, now talk, I’m just going to listen.” It just seems to me like the discussions function very much as they speak, I speak then they speak again. I would like to hear more of them and less of me.
The seniors are interesting. Sometimes they get a good discussion going between themselves and sometimes their discussions are like the sophomores. They speak, I speak and then they speak again. I do really like the questions that I am giving them over their reading. I am disappointed that some of the students didn’t do it. However, it isn’t due till they turn in the poetry portfolio and the students who didn’t have it done still managed to contribute to the discussion. At least they were honest in saying they didn’t do the work. I don’t think I am going to do anything about the fact they didn’t do the work. The only person they are hurting is themselves. In the end that just means they will have more work to do for the final project than everyone else. They also won’t be getting practice for the AP exam. I think I need to point that out to them though. Megan asked me today if they would be getting any practice for the exam. And I told her we were. She expressed concern that about the fact that they had done a lot of poetry and not a lot of test prep. I told her there would be a lot of poetry on the test and that unlike their last AP test, this one was much more about can you analyze something. I think I need to explain to them that the questions I am giving them over their reading is a practice for the test in some ways. I also need to talk about editing poetry. Justin asked how you edit poetry since it is feelings. I think I am going to take one of my poems I have edited in to show them an example. Then next week we are going to talk about meter because Hannah and Lauren were asking about that. I always feel like there are a million things I want to do and about 5 minutes to do them all.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Day 49: Better Discussions
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Today went much better than Thursday did. In creative writing, Mariah was absent so Meg and I decided to poison her character since she wasn’t there to write as him. Then while he was passed out from the poison we finished writing the story. I think it came out really well. However, it is very long. We are going to have the students read each other’s stories next and give suggestions for how the story could be improved. This means that ours may be a little long for that task. We are going to edit on Wednesday. Hopefully, we can find some ways to shorten the story without getting rid of the pieces that we really like. I have had a lot of fun writing it so I know it will be hard to go back through and get rid of things.
The sophomore class went better today too. I had them all sitting in groups today instead of in a circle like they were before. I also gave them a topic to think about in relation to their passages I was able to hear them talk more about the writing. However, I would still like to hear more disagreements and decision making going on. A few of the groups didn’t discuss passages but rather just picked one. It probably didn’t help that there were a couple students who didn’t do the assignment. One thing I liked was that they had so many questions about Hitler, the Holocaust and World War II. I think I need to brush up even more on my history. I also think I need to find a way to answer all of these questions. They clearly want to know more. I thought the presentations would be a good way to do that but maybe they need more. There is just so much stuff that goes along with this time period. It is hard to address all of their questions. I wish that I could team teach Night with a history teacher who was teaching WW II at the same time. It would make things easier.
The seniors did much better with their passages in Aurora Leigh. They picked more suitable ones. They said that this question was easier. That really confused me because I thought the first one was easier. I guess not. I told them that if they had any problems picking a passage for the next one they should email me and I would help them. I hope they take me up on the offer. I noticed that this class is still very hesitant to speak up and assert an opinion. They seem to want to not answer any of my questions. I’m not sure if they are afraid to be wrong or if they don’t understand. I really need to figure this out. I was trying to get a good discussion going about the main character’s feelings towards another character and at first they didn’t want to pick a side. It took me forever to get them thinking about how to read the evidence in front of them and to argue with each other a little. I think that the question for the 4th chapter will require them to pick a side of an argument and use textual evidence to prove they are right. I think this will be good practice for them.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Today went much better than Thursday did. In creative writing, Mariah was absent so Meg and I decided to poison her character since she wasn’t there to write as him. Then while he was passed out from the poison we finished writing the story. I think it came out really well. However, it is very long. We are going to have the students read each other’s stories next and give suggestions for how the story could be improved. This means that ours may be a little long for that task. We are going to edit on Wednesday. Hopefully, we can find some ways to shorten the story without getting rid of the pieces that we really like. I have had a lot of fun writing it so I know it will be hard to go back through and get rid of things.
The sophomore class went better today too. I had them all sitting in groups today instead of in a circle like they were before. I also gave them a topic to think about in relation to their passages I was able to hear them talk more about the writing. However, I would still like to hear more disagreements and decision making going on. A few of the groups didn’t discuss passages but rather just picked one. It probably didn’t help that there were a couple students who didn’t do the assignment. One thing I liked was that they had so many questions about Hitler, the Holocaust and World War II. I think I need to brush up even more on my history. I also think I need to find a way to answer all of these questions. They clearly want to know more. I thought the presentations would be a good way to do that but maybe they need more. There is just so much stuff that goes along with this time period. It is hard to address all of their questions. I wish that I could team teach Night with a history teacher who was teaching WW II at the same time. It would make things easier.
The seniors did much better with their passages in Aurora Leigh. They picked more suitable ones. They said that this question was easier. That really confused me because I thought the first one was easier. I guess not. I told them that if they had any problems picking a passage for the next one they should email me and I would help them. I hope they take me up on the offer. I noticed that this class is still very hesitant to speak up and assert an opinion. They seem to want to not answer any of my questions. I’m not sure if they are afraid to be wrong or if they don’t understand. I really need to figure this out. I was trying to get a good discussion going about the main character’s feelings towards another character and at first they didn’t want to pick a side. It took me forever to get them thinking about how to read the evidence in front of them and to argue with each other a little. I think that the question for the 4th chapter will require them to pick a side of an argument and use textual evidence to prove they are right. I think this will be good practice for them.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Day 48: April Fools Snow Day
SNOW DAY!!!!
I woke up around 9. Then fell back to sleep around 11 until 3. I then got up, showered, dressed and ate. Then I watched The 10th Kingdom and worked on my Teacher Work Sample. All in all it was a good day.
I woke up around 9. Then fell back to sleep around 11 until 3. I then got up, showered, dressed and ate. Then I watched The 10th Kingdom and worked on my Teacher Work Sample. All in all it was a good day.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Day 47: That Doesn't Really Answer The Question...
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Creative writing went well. All of the students worked in their groups on their group quest stories. My group managed to get 3 more pages written in our story. We should be done pretty soon and then we can work on editing. It is always amazing to me how much creating and on task work gets done in this class. I wish I could get my other classes to do this kind of work all the time. It is obvious that the difference is that this is a class where everyone is excited to be doing the work.
After creative writing I had the sophomores. They are working on Night now. They had read the first chapter and I tried to use their passage reflections to get a good discussion going. It didn’t go so well. The students seemed reluctant to share in the large group format. They also didn’t seem to have much to add to their classmates’ passages. I need to try something different next time. Meg suggested doing something similar to what I am doing with the seniors. Giving the sophomores a question to explore, then having them in groups discuss which of their passages best answer the question and of course what the answer is. Definitely sounds like a good to guide their discussion to me. Now I need to go through Night and figure out what I want them to consider in each chapter. So far their presentations have been very good. Maybe I can tie those in too somehow? I need to think about this more still. I have also noticed that the Holocaust Victim cards did not go over well. I had to explain to them several times how they were supposed to get two reflections out of their cards. They were very confused. I think they finally understood in the end though. I will have to try to explain it better to the next class. This was a good practice run.
The senior class had some good presentations. Again there was a range of presenting styles and comfort levels. There weren’t as many this time though and we had more time so we were able to get through them all and get to talk about the book. They picked some very strange passages to answer my question. I asked them to look at how Aurora Leigh defines poetry. They picked passages about greenery and dead mothers. I am not sure why they did that. There were plenty of other passages to pick from that said the words poetry, books, and words in them. I think this group may need more help in picking appropriate passages. I am going to see how they do with the second question now that they have seen how their passages will guide our class discussion and then go from there. Maybe I will do a workshop with them on how to address prompts like the ones they are doing over their reading.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Creative writing went well. All of the students worked in their groups on their group quest stories. My group managed to get 3 more pages written in our story. We should be done pretty soon and then we can work on editing. It is always amazing to me how much creating and on task work gets done in this class. I wish I could get my other classes to do this kind of work all the time. It is obvious that the difference is that this is a class where everyone is excited to be doing the work.
After creative writing I had the sophomores. They are working on Night now. They had read the first chapter and I tried to use their passage reflections to get a good discussion going. It didn’t go so well. The students seemed reluctant to share in the large group format. They also didn’t seem to have much to add to their classmates’ passages. I need to try something different next time. Meg suggested doing something similar to what I am doing with the seniors. Giving the sophomores a question to explore, then having them in groups discuss which of their passages best answer the question and of course what the answer is. Definitely sounds like a good to guide their discussion to me. Now I need to go through Night and figure out what I want them to consider in each chapter. So far their presentations have been very good. Maybe I can tie those in too somehow? I need to think about this more still. I have also noticed that the Holocaust Victim cards did not go over well. I had to explain to them several times how they were supposed to get two reflections out of their cards. They were very confused. I think they finally understood in the end though. I will have to try to explain it better to the next class. This was a good practice run.
The senior class had some good presentations. Again there was a range of presenting styles and comfort levels. There weren’t as many this time though and we had more time so we were able to get through them all and get to talk about the book. They picked some very strange passages to answer my question. I asked them to look at how Aurora Leigh defines poetry. They picked passages about greenery and dead mothers. I am not sure why they did that. There were plenty of other passages to pick from that said the words poetry, books, and words in them. I think this group may need more help in picking appropriate passages. I am going to see how they do with the second question now that they have seen how their passages will guide our class discussion and then go from there. Maybe I will do a workshop with them on how to address prompts like the ones they are doing over their reading.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Day 46: Research Projects Presented
Agenda-
Meeting
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Today I saw two Night presentations. They both did very well. There was supposed to be a 3rd but one student was absent. I am going to have her present next class. After the presentations were done I assigned for them to read chapter 1 and 2 and do passage reflections for both in order to get them back on track since I was unable to assign these things last class Then I went over their final project with them. They seemed ok with it. There weren’t a lot of questions so I am hoping that means they understand everything. If they don’t then I am sure they will let me know as we go along. After I went over everything there wasn’t anything else to do so we played hangman with words from the Holocaust. It wasn’t the most appropriate use of our time but it got them thinking about some Holocaust terms that they knew well. It was also a fun way to keep them engaged in the topic. They had fun with it. I also allowed them to work on other things while we played and many of them did. It was better than just turning the class time into a study hall. The senior class went much better. Heidi and Kym were absent when I gave out the presentation assignment so I gave them the option to go on Friday. Shawna was absent today so she will also be presenting on Friday. The rest of the class did their presentations. Some of them were very good. Others were ok. Most of the students did a good job. They all knew their topic fairly well. Some were more comfortable talking about it than others. Lauren spent a lot of time just reading off her slides but Cam seemed to really know his stuff. Overall, I was happy with the work they put in. I was especially happy when Cam picked up on why I was having them do the project. That’s right, Elizabeth Barrett Browning talks about these topics you are presenting on extensively in her poetry. Congrats! After the presentations were over we went over what happened in their first reading assignment and we discussed some of the passages they looked at. It sounds like they all picked out some of the passages that I was thinking I wanted to talk about too. So again, I was very impressed with them. I am excited to see how tomorrow’s class goes. There will be more time tomorrow and fewer presentations so I am hoping to get more discussion about the book and about the poems they are working on.
Meeting
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Today I saw two Night presentations. They both did very well. There was supposed to be a 3rd but one student was absent. I am going to have her present next class. After the presentations were done I assigned for them to read chapter 1 and 2 and do passage reflections for both in order to get them back on track since I was unable to assign these things last class Then I went over their final project with them. They seemed ok with it. There weren’t a lot of questions so I am hoping that means they understand everything. If they don’t then I am sure they will let me know as we go along. After I went over everything there wasn’t anything else to do so we played hangman with words from the Holocaust. It wasn’t the most appropriate use of our time but it got them thinking about some Holocaust terms that they knew well. It was also a fun way to keep them engaged in the topic. They had fun with it. I also allowed them to work on other things while we played and many of them did. It was better than just turning the class time into a study hall. The senior class went much better. Heidi and Kym were absent when I gave out the presentation assignment so I gave them the option to go on Friday. Shawna was absent today so she will also be presenting on Friday. The rest of the class did their presentations. Some of them were very good. Others were ok. Most of the students did a good job. They all knew their topic fairly well. Some were more comfortable talking about it than others. Lauren spent a lot of time just reading off her slides but Cam seemed to really know his stuff. Overall, I was happy with the work they put in. I was especially happy when Cam picked up on why I was having them do the project. That’s right, Elizabeth Barrett Browning talks about these topics you are presenting on extensively in her poetry. Congrats! After the presentations were over we went over what happened in their first reading assignment and we discussed some of the passages they looked at. It sounds like they all picked out some of the passages that I was thinking I wanted to talk about too. So again, I was very impressed with them. I am excited to see how tomorrow’s class goes. There will be more time tomorrow and fewer presentations so I am hoping to get more discussion about the book and about the poems they are working on.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Day 45: I'm Doing It All Now
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
In creative writing Mariah, Meg and I continued to work on our group quest story. I asked the class if they could use more time with their stories and all of the groups agreed that they could use more time. So I gave them another week. We all sent the rest of class working. The second set of sophomores did their presentations today. They were much better than the other class. Every group had something prepared and they were well done. The best one I think was Flynnpick’s music video. They did a really awesome rap. Ghost of Banquo acted their presentation out but it was very obvious to me that the only person who had any idea what was going on was Garrett. It seemed like he did most of the writing and the others were just taking direction from him. However, it was a good adaptation. They did a good job making it into a sci-fi action. I passed out to them all of their papers they need for the unit on Night that we are starting. I again got a lot of whining because of the projects they must create for. The students whose projects weren’t due the next class were even whining. I ended up having to tell them what projects are due when. And even then they continue to whine. I eventually gave up on them. I passed out the books and went over their homework assignment. They had time this time to talk about everything but just enough time. I did a much better job this time with timing. I was happy to see that we got everything in and that they got their homework assignments. With the seniors I did the same poetry activity I did the day before. The students did well with it again. I could see that they were surprised by which texts were poems and which weren’t. I think that this project will make their portfolios and their definitions of poetry interesting. I again assigned their projects, reading and a reading question. They handled the news even better than the last class. They were happy to get their projects so early. Plus once they saw that my plan was to front load the work in order to make it easier in the end, they were more willing to work. I think that all of the classes went well today.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
In creative writing Mariah, Meg and I continued to work on our group quest story. I asked the class if they could use more time with their stories and all of the groups agreed that they could use more time. So I gave them another week. We all sent the rest of class working. The second set of sophomores did their presentations today. They were much better than the other class. Every group had something prepared and they were well done. The best one I think was Flynnpick’s music video. They did a really awesome rap. Ghost of Banquo acted their presentation out but it was very obvious to me that the only person who had any idea what was going on was Garrett. It seemed like he did most of the writing and the others were just taking direction from him. However, it was a good adaptation. They did a good job making it into a sci-fi action. I passed out to them all of their papers they need for the unit on Night that we are starting. I again got a lot of whining because of the projects they must create for. The students whose projects weren’t due the next class were even whining. I ended up having to tell them what projects are due when. And even then they continue to whine. I eventually gave up on them. I passed out the books and went over their homework assignment. They had time this time to talk about everything but just enough time. I did a much better job this time with timing. I was happy to see that we got everything in and that they got their homework assignments. With the seniors I did the same poetry activity I did the day before. The students did well with it again. I could see that they were surprised by which texts were poems and which weren’t. I think that this project will make their portfolios and their definitions of poetry interesting. I again assigned their projects, reading and a reading question. They handled the news even better than the last class. They were happy to get their projects so early. Plus once they saw that my plan was to front load the work in order to make it easier in the end, they were more willing to work. I think that all of the classes went well today.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Day 44: Final Projects and Aurora Leigh
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Today the sophomores presented their final projects. I was fairly impressed with two of the projects. However, one group wasn’t prepared to present and another group you could tell rushed putting it together. It was obvious that group didn’t have good team work and hadn’t practiced. After the presentations were done, I started passing out the things for our next unit. We are doing Night. They weren’t entirely impressed with the idea that 3 of their classmates had presentations due the next class period. However, I know that the class will do just fine with this project no matter what order they go in. Unfortunately, we spent too much time on the Macbeth presentations and then on figuring out the Night presentations they are going to have to do. That left no time to really talk about their homework assignment, their final project or pass out the book. I will have to go over these things next class. I also started a new unit with the seniors. They are doing presentations as well except they will all be going at the same time and theirs will be over the Victorian time period. Their unit is on poetry. I am having them read Aurora Leigh. First, I did a short activity where they defined poetry and in groups decided if texts I put in front of them were poetry based on their definition. Then we looked at two different types of poetry definitions, value definitions and feature definitions. I revealed to them which texts were poems and which weren’t. We went over their presentations, then we talked about the questions I want them to answer after every reading assignment and I gave out the books. We had some class time left so I allowed them to work on their Victorian time period presentations. Overall, this lesson went well. I could see the wheels in their heads turning as they tried to define poetry. I could see them trying to figure out an answer to the question and realizing how very subjective it all is. At first they were a little whiny about all of the work they were expected to have done for the next class but then they realized that it wasn’t really all that much and that in the long run, doing the work now would make their projects easier. I think they are getting used to the idea of studying poetry.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Today the sophomores presented their final projects. I was fairly impressed with two of the projects. However, one group wasn’t prepared to present and another group you could tell rushed putting it together. It was obvious that group didn’t have good team work and hadn’t practiced. After the presentations were done, I started passing out the things for our next unit. We are doing Night. They weren’t entirely impressed with the idea that 3 of their classmates had presentations due the next class period. However, I know that the class will do just fine with this project no matter what order they go in. Unfortunately, we spent too much time on the Macbeth presentations and then on figuring out the Night presentations they are going to have to do. That left no time to really talk about their homework assignment, their final project or pass out the book. I will have to go over these things next class. I also started a new unit with the seniors. They are doing presentations as well except they will all be going at the same time and theirs will be over the Victorian time period. Their unit is on poetry. I am having them read Aurora Leigh. First, I did a short activity where they defined poetry and in groups decided if texts I put in front of them were poetry based on their definition. Then we looked at two different types of poetry definitions, value definitions and feature definitions. I revealed to them which texts were poems and which weren’t. We went over their presentations, then we talked about the questions I want them to answer after every reading assignment and I gave out the books. We had some class time left so I allowed them to work on their Victorian time period presentations. Overall, this lesson went well. I could see the wheels in their heads turning as they tried to define poetry. I could see them trying to figure out an answer to the question and realizing how very subjective it all is. At first they were a little whiny about all of the work they were expected to have done for the next class but then they realized that it wasn’t really all that much and that in the long run, doing the work now would make their projects easier. I think they are getting used to the idea of studying poetry.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Day 43: Accreditation, Again
Agenda-
Accreditation
We spent the day trying to figure out what everyone still needed for their evidence boxes as well as assigning ourselves jobs for when the visiting team comes. It was a pretty uneventful day. I got to talk to some of the other staff though. That was kind of interesting. I think they are starting to get used to seeing me around. I have been pretty shy with many of the other adults in the building. Sometimes it just takes me a while to make friends. I should try to be more outgoing.
Accreditation
We spent the day trying to figure out what everyone still needed for their evidence boxes as well as assigning ourselves jobs for when the visiting team comes. It was a pretty uneventful day. I got to talk to some of the other staff though. That was kind of interesting. I think they are starting to get used to seeing me around. I have been pretty shy with many of the other adults in the building. Sometimes it just takes me a while to make friends. I should try to be more outgoing.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Day 42: First Teacher Workshop Day Where We Weren't Doing Accreditation
Agenda-
Civil Rights Presentation
Lunch
Budget Discussion
Writing Across the Disciplines Presentation
is a teacher workshop day. Almost all of the teachers from the district were at our school today. The first thing we had to attend was a presentation about civil rights. This was the same presentation that I saw on Monday. Yay! Repeats. Except this time only the assistant district attorney gave the presentation. I have to say that it was a little more boring this time around. I knew all of the answers and this guy isn’t as funny as his cohort. I spent the time drafting essential reading questions for the seniors over Aurora Leigh, doodling, and making lists of things. I don’t know why I write lists. I hate them because I always feel like I don’t finish them. Anyway, after the presentation was over we had lunch and I helped Meg and Deb put together some packets for their presentation, Writing Across the Disciplines. We decided Meg was Batman, Deb was Robin and I was Batgirl. It was kind of hilarious. Then I went and listened to Dr. Tom, the superintendent of RSU 10 talk about the budget for the coming year. It isn’t looking good right now. They are looking to retain the teachers they have and if teachers retire they are looking to not fill those positions. Things were feeling a little bleak for me in terms of getting a job after I graduate. I imagine that many schools are in the same boat. The conversation was disheartening and boring. I found myself trying to stay awake. After that though I saw the Writing Across the Disciplines presentation. It had to be trimmed down because the budget conversation went too long, but it was still good. Meg and Deb did an awesome job. I liked their ideas. Writing is an important part of communicating and it really should be a part of what every teacher does in their classroom.
Civil Rights Presentation
Lunch
Budget Discussion
Writing Across the Disciplines Presentation
is a teacher workshop day. Almost all of the teachers from the district were at our school today. The first thing we had to attend was a presentation about civil rights. This was the same presentation that I saw on Monday. Yay! Repeats. Except this time only the assistant district attorney gave the presentation. I have to say that it was a little more boring this time around. I knew all of the answers and this guy isn’t as funny as his cohort. I spent the time drafting essential reading questions for the seniors over Aurora Leigh, doodling, and making lists of things. I don’t know why I write lists. I hate them because I always feel like I don’t finish them. Anyway, after the presentation was over we had lunch and I helped Meg and Deb put together some packets for their presentation, Writing Across the Disciplines. We decided Meg was Batman, Deb was Robin and I was Batgirl. It was kind of hilarious. Then I went and listened to Dr. Tom, the superintendent of RSU 10 talk about the budget for the coming year. It isn’t looking good right now. They are looking to retain the teachers they have and if teachers retire they are looking to not fill those positions. Things were feeling a little bleak for me in terms of getting a job after I graduate. I imagine that many schools are in the same boat. The conversation was disheartening and boring. I found myself trying to stay awake. After that though I saw the Writing Across the Disciplines presentation. It had to be trimmed down because the budget conversation went too long, but it was still good. Meg and Deb did an awesome job. I liked their ideas. Writing is an important part of communicating and it really should be a part of what every teacher does in their classroom.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Day 41: Student Led Conferences
Agenda-
Student Led Conferences
Today there weren’t any classes as all of the homeroom teachers were being required to hold student led conferences. Meg ran the conferences I observed and worked on my Night and Aurora Leigh units. I figured out what I want to require for both and created a rubric for the poetry portfolio. The conferences went fairly well. You could tell that the students that were doing the best were the ones whose parents were the most involved. The students who were failing had parents who had no idea what was going on at school. However, they really seemed to care that their students do well. They were all disappointed that their child wasn’t doing well. All of the conferences went fairly well. The parents liked knowing how their student was doing and liked the feedback on how their child could do better. One conference I was especially impressed with the parent. Meg told her that her son was very smart but that from what she can tell he is just bored and that is why he isn’t doing so well. The parent liked hearing that and agreed her son could do much better. Then Meg started talking about summer school as an option for making up failed classes. And mom said “You’ll be paying for that.” All I could think was, “Go, mom!” Maybe if more parents made their kids pay for summer school they would be more reluctant to go. One student and parent didn’t show up. This particular student is not doing well and tends to get in trouble a lot. It is too bad really that he didn’t come to the conference.
Student Led Conferences
Today there weren’t any classes as all of the homeroom teachers were being required to hold student led conferences. Meg ran the conferences I observed and worked on my Night and Aurora Leigh units. I figured out what I want to require for both and created a rubric for the poetry portfolio. The conferences went fairly well. You could tell that the students that were doing the best were the ones whose parents were the most involved. The students who were failing had parents who had no idea what was going on at school. However, they really seemed to care that their students do well. They were all disappointed that their child wasn’t doing well. All of the conferences went fairly well. The parents liked knowing how their student was doing and liked the feedback on how their child could do better. One conference I was especially impressed with the parent. Meg told her that her son was very smart but that from what she can tell he is just bored and that is why he isn’t doing so well. The parent liked hearing that and agreed her son could do much better. Then Meg started talking about summer school as an option for making up failed classes. And mom said “You’ll be paying for that.” All I could think was, “Go, mom!” Maybe if more parents made their kids pay for summer school they would be more reluctant to go. One student and parent didn’t show up. This particular student is not doing well and tends to get in trouble a lot. It is too bad really that he didn’t come to the conference.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Day 40: Sophomore Field Trip
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Today the sophomores had a field trip. I saw them for about 10 minutes before they got called down to get on the bus for their trip. Then the seniors worked on their multi-genre Hamlet papers during their class time. Therefore I didn’t do any teaching today either. *Sad face*. I spent the day working on Aurora Leigh plans and on Night plans. Had a break through finally on the Night final assessment. There was a scrapbook assignment online that Meg found. It’s awesome! I am now very excited to get started with Night. I think the kids will enjoy the project. I know I will at any rate.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Today the sophomores had a field trip. I saw them for about 10 minutes before they got called down to get on the bus for their trip. Then the seniors worked on their multi-genre Hamlet papers during their class time. Therefore I didn’t do any teaching today either. *Sad face*. I spent the day working on Aurora Leigh plans and on Night plans. Had a break through finally on the Night final assessment. There was a scrapbook assignment online that Meg found. It’s awesome! I am now very excited to get started with Night. I think the kids will enjoy the project. I know I will at any rate.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Day 39: Professional Development Day
Today I wasn't in the schools. I was on campus involved in a professional development day. I saw a presentation on civil rights. Then I watched a presentation on standards based grading. The civil rights presentation was good however, I had heard the speaker many times before when I was in high school and while I was in practicum. Thus the thing seemed a little repetitive to me. The standards based grading presentation was given by a student teacher who is at Searsport High School where they have implemented it. It was interesting but I am not sure that I completely buy it yet. I think that it is great that they are trying to emphasize that they need to be teaching skills to students and that they are moving away from grading. I agree that grading isn't really working. I agree that students need to be able to learn at their own pace. However, I don't think that the interventions necessarily work. It seems like the students are being forced to do the same work over and over again until they get it. It also seems like some students may get more practice at some things than at others. The students are required to show they can do each standard multiple times each year. However, there is no set number of times for this. So what if one year the student hits standard six 12 times but only does standard three 4 times? Or what if one year the students do standard two 12 times and the next year they only do it 5 times? It seems like some students would get more practice than others. And how does this affect them getting scholarships? Scholarships require academic excellence and need. I think I would need to try it and see it work first.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Day 38: Final Projects
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
gave out the project to my other group of sophomores today. They were equally excited to get it. They were a little better about listening to my going over what I want but not much. They were a little bit more original than the other class though. The other class did mostly songs. This group decided to try the adaptation. One group is doing a musical, another is doing a western, another a rap and one is doing a sci-fi western. It is going to be very interesting to see how they all come out. I am excited that they are excited. Everyone was on task as I did my rounds. I hope that it goes well! I told them I am looking to see they understood the plot and themes of Macbeth, that they are creative, that they work well together and that they incorporate another genre successfully. I think they can do this. They are good at being creative and their blogs have really shown me that they are picking up on the themes well.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
gave out the project to my other group of sophomores today. They were equally excited to get it. They were a little better about listening to my going over what I want but not much. They were a little bit more original than the other class though. The other class did mostly songs. This group decided to try the adaptation. One group is doing a musical, another is doing a western, another a rap and one is doing a sci-fi western. It is going to be very interesting to see how they all come out. I am excited that they are excited. Everyone was on task as I did my rounds. I hope that it goes well! I told them I am looking to see they understood the plot and themes of Macbeth, that they are creative, that they work well together and that they incorporate another genre successfully. I think they can do this. They are good at being creative and their blogs have really shown me that they are picking up on the themes well.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Day 37: Blood Points Argument
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Today I gave out the final project for the sophomores. They were so excited about it that they were talking to their group members about what they were going to do for it rather than listen to me explain it to them. I had to threaten to take away Blood Points to get their attention back. I managed to get them back on track and gave them the last bit of class to work on it. They also finished Act V today. There was much fighting at the board for parts. It is amazing to me how much this Blood Challenge has really worked to motivate them to participate. I did get a few complaints from the other groups. They were upset that the group of 5 was in the lead and they wanted me to take 25% of that teams points and distribute them evenly to the other 3 groups simply because that group had an extra member. I wasn’t going to. In fact I told them they had a chance to get 500 points in the last challenge and if they took bigger roles or got to class earlier then maybe they would get a chance to get in the lead. They are crazy if they think I am going to take points from a team simply because that team is larger. In the other class the larger team isn’t winning. So it isn’t like the teams of 4 have no way to win.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Today I gave out the final project for the sophomores. They were so excited about it that they were talking to their group members about what they were going to do for it rather than listen to me explain it to them. I had to threaten to take away Blood Points to get their attention back. I managed to get them back on track and gave them the last bit of class to work on it. They also finished Act V today. There was much fighting at the board for parts. It is amazing to me how much this Blood Challenge has really worked to motivate them to participate. I did get a few complaints from the other groups. They were upset that the group of 5 was in the lead and they wanted me to take 25% of that teams points and distribute them evenly to the other 3 groups simply because that group had an extra member. I wasn’t going to. In fact I told them they had a chance to get 500 points in the last challenge and if they took bigger roles or got to class earlier then maybe they would get a chance to get in the lead. They are crazy if they think I am going to take points from a team simply because that team is larger. In the other class the larger team isn’t winning. So it isn’t like the teams of 4 have no way to win.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Day 36: Good Day
Agenda-
Meeting
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: Senior AP English
Lunch
Free Period
Homeroom
Meeting
English went well today. The sophomores finished Act IV. I think they are enjoying reading the play in class. They get pretty into it. This class was a lot less chatty then the other class. It seemed to go well. They signed up for parts and I let some double up because they weren’t enough people who wanted parts. Tomorrow, I am hoping to give out their final assignment. I just need to create a rubric.
Meeting
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: Senior AP English
Lunch
Free Period
Homeroom
Meeting
English went well today. The sophomores finished Act IV. I think they are enjoying reading the play in class. They get pretty into it. This class was a lot less chatty then the other class. It seemed to go well. They signed up for parts and I let some double up because they weren’t enough people who wanted parts. Tomorrow, I am hoping to give out their final assignment. I just need to create a rubric.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Day 35: English Is All About The Fun And Games
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Seminar
Today I did the obstacle course with my other sophomores. I made the course different from the one yesterday. I made this one easier. I took out all but one bomb and made the paths a little wider to navigate. They did a pretty good job with the course. No one took much longer than 6 minutes to complete it. However, no one was under the 5 minutes. One group, The Ghost of Banquo came really close but then one of their members stepped on the bomb and had to start over. I did end up giving out points. I gave Team Terrible 200 points for being the fastest, then 100 points to Team BA, 50 to The Ghost of Banquo and then 25 to Flynnpick. They should have picked to sit out. I told them that no one had completed the task in under 5 minutes yesterday. I would have sat out. They had a chance to get 500 points without doing anything! I guess they like to play. After the course we had plenty of time to start Act IV. When we got everything put back together I told them they could sign up for parts. They were all over it! They were pushing and shoving and crowding around the board. It didn’t get out of hand and it was fun to see them so excited to take on roles. I told them that if they are going to be this excited about the play after doing a challenge then maybe we should do more challenges. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will have time to do many more challenges. Their final projects will be due the 28th and 29th. Despite their excitement though I had a lot of problems with chit chat today. I think I am going to have to start taking off points for talking while people are reading. I wonder why they were so excited and then they spent so much time talking. It’s a little ridiculous. Maybe I built the energy up too much?
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Seminar
Today I did the obstacle course with my other sophomores. I made the course different from the one yesterday. I made this one easier. I took out all but one bomb and made the paths a little wider to navigate. They did a pretty good job with the course. No one took much longer than 6 minutes to complete it. However, no one was under the 5 minutes. One group, The Ghost of Banquo came really close but then one of their members stepped on the bomb and had to start over. I did end up giving out points. I gave Team Terrible 200 points for being the fastest, then 100 points to Team BA, 50 to The Ghost of Banquo and then 25 to Flynnpick. They should have picked to sit out. I told them that no one had completed the task in under 5 minutes yesterday. I would have sat out. They had a chance to get 500 points without doing anything! I guess they like to play. After the course we had plenty of time to start Act IV. When we got everything put back together I told them they could sign up for parts. They were all over it! They were pushing and shoving and crowding around the board. It didn’t get out of hand and it was fun to see them so excited to take on roles. I told them that if they are going to be this excited about the play after doing a challenge then maybe we should do more challenges. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will have time to do many more challenges. Their final projects will be due the 28th and 29th. Despite their excitement though I had a lot of problems with chit chat today. I think I am going to have to start taking off points for talking while people are reading. I wonder why they were so excited and then they spent so much time talking. It’s a little ridiculous. Maybe I built the energy up too much?
Monday, March 14, 2011
Day 34: Obstacle Course
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Yesterday before leaving school I built my sophomores a lovely challenge for today. It was an obstacle course. The students had to pick one team member to be their caller. The callers job was to lead their blind folded team members through the obstacle course using only their voices to guide them in under 5 minutes. If they completed the course in under five minutes then they got 100 points. Under 3 minutes they got 200 points and if they did it under 2 minutes then they got 500 points. There was a bit of strategy involved too though. One team had the option to sit out. If a team chose to sit out without looking at the course and none of the other teams completed the course in under 5 minutes then they would get 500 points. If a team chose to sit out after seeing the course and no team completed the course in under 5 minutes then they got 200 points. None of the teams decided to sit out. The course was a lot of fun and I could tell that the kids were having a lot of fun with this challenge. However, no one completed the course in under 5 minutes. One teams did it in 7, another in 12 and then the last two didn’t end up completing the course. I had to stop one team because they were up to 15 minutes and the other team ran out of time when the bell rang. I didn’t think I made the course too hard but apparently I did. Only one team managed to not step on any bombs. I built a new course for the class tomorrow and I think it will be easier. I took out all but one bomb, I’m going to only make the person trying to complete the course start over this time instead of all of the team members and if they go over 5 minutes I am going to stop them because at that point there is no reason for them to continue. I think this course will be easier. At least I hope it is. I decided to give the teams today a few points. The team that completed it in 7 minutes got 200 points and the team that did it in 12 got 100 points. That will help the second time a lot since they are in last place. Unfortunately, I meant for this challenge to even the odds and it didn’t really do that. Oh well.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Yesterday before leaving school I built my sophomores a lovely challenge for today. It was an obstacle course. The students had to pick one team member to be their caller. The callers job was to lead their blind folded team members through the obstacle course using only their voices to guide them in under 5 minutes. If they completed the course in under five minutes then they got 100 points. Under 3 minutes they got 200 points and if they did it under 2 minutes then they got 500 points. There was a bit of strategy involved too though. One team had the option to sit out. If a team chose to sit out without looking at the course and none of the other teams completed the course in under 5 minutes then they would get 500 points. If a team chose to sit out after seeing the course and no team completed the course in under 5 minutes then they got 200 points. None of the teams decided to sit out. The course was a lot of fun and I could tell that the kids were having a lot of fun with this challenge. However, no one completed the course in under 5 minutes. One teams did it in 7, another in 12 and then the last two didn’t end up completing the course. I had to stop one team because they were up to 15 minutes and the other team ran out of time when the bell rang. I didn’t think I made the course too hard but apparently I did. Only one team managed to not step on any bombs. I built a new course for the class tomorrow and I think it will be easier. I took out all but one bomb, I’m going to only make the person trying to complete the course start over this time instead of all of the team members and if they go over 5 minutes I am going to stop them because at that point there is no reason for them to continue. I think this course will be easier. At least I hope it is. I decided to give the teams today a few points. The team that completed it in 7 minutes got 200 points and the team that did it in 12 got 100 points. That will help the second time a lot since they are in last place. Unfortunately, I meant for this challenge to even the odds and it didn’t really do that. Oh well.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Day 33: Predictions, Act III and Blogs
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
The class today presented their predictions for Act III and then I told them we would read Act III and do a challenge Tuesday if we finished the Act. Their predictions were very good. Tori guessed correctly that Banquo would become suspicious of Macbeth. She also came up with a brilliant costuming idea for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. She said she would dress Macbeth in red to represent blood and dress Lady Macbeth in black or green to represent ambition and greed. It would be amazing to see how that would look on stage under the lights. I am guessing she will be doing the directing in their final project. Some of the students had some questions about the blog so we spent some time discussing how to change the time on their blogs so their posting time is correct and I spent some time with students who couldn’t get their blogs posted. I went over the blood ranks with the class and Garrett asked me how one team got so many points. I told him they have a good strategy where they get large parts and therefore more points. I am hoping this will convince his team that they need to spend more time taking parts. I know his team was the team that wasn’t very interested until I told them that in addition to cake they will win a homework pass and their lowest quiz grade dropped. Today at 5 is when both classes have their second blog posts due. I hope that they are good. The last ones were fairly good. Most of the students did well if they did the assignment.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
The class today presented their predictions for Act III and then I told them we would read Act III and do a challenge Tuesday if we finished the Act. Their predictions were very good. Tori guessed correctly that Banquo would become suspicious of Macbeth. She also came up with a brilliant costuming idea for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. She said she would dress Macbeth in red to represent blood and dress Lady Macbeth in black or green to represent ambition and greed. It would be amazing to see how that would look on stage under the lights. I am guessing she will be doing the directing in their final project. Some of the students had some questions about the blog so we spent some time discussing how to change the time on their blogs so their posting time is correct and I spent some time with students who couldn’t get their blogs posted. I went over the blood ranks with the class and Garrett asked me how one team got so many points. I told him they have a good strategy where they get large parts and therefore more points. I am hoping this will convince his team that they need to spend more time taking parts. I know his team was the team that wasn’t very interested until I told them that in addition to cake they will win a homework pass and their lowest quiz grade dropped. Today at 5 is when both classes have their second blog posts due. I hope that they are good. The last ones were fairly good. Most of the students did well if they did the assignment.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Day 32: Act III
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Today I told the sophomores that if we got through all of Act III today we would do a fun challenge on Monday. They weren’t very enthusiastic at first but they were very quickly after I told them they had the opportunity to earn 500 points. I am going to design an obstacle course for them but I didn’t tell them that part. We did get through all of Act III and still had some time left over at the end. Some of the students seem very into acting and taking parts in the play, particularly this class and some of them don’t. The groups that have team members who take part every time have the most points. I suppose that is good because it means those groups are participating. And I usually get at least 1 or 2 from every group. However, I have been wondering if there is a way I could get the other teams more involved. I was hoping that when they saw the teams in the lead getting so many points by acting they would want to take more parts. I think it works some but not enough. Maybe there is a way to make reading Shakespeare more fun. I have to think about this some more.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Today I told the sophomores that if we got through all of Act III today we would do a fun challenge on Monday. They weren’t very enthusiastic at first but they were very quickly after I told them they had the opportunity to earn 500 points. I am going to design an obstacle course for them but I didn’t tell them that part. We did get through all of Act III and still had some time left over at the end. Some of the students seem very into acting and taking parts in the play, particularly this class and some of them don’t. The groups that have team members who take part every time have the most points. I suppose that is good because it means those groups are participating. And I usually get at least 1 or 2 from every group. However, I have been wondering if there is a way I could get the other teams more involved. I was hoping that when they saw the teams in the lead getting so many points by acting they would want to take more parts. I think it works some but not enough. Maybe there is a way to make reading Shakespeare more fun. I have to think about this some more.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Day 31: Time
Agenda-
Meeting
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Homeroom
The Sophomores read through all of Act II today and then I assigned them to write their predictions. Unfortunately this class didn’t have a chance to share their predictions with the class due to not having enough time because of the late start. I allowed them to take the assignment home with them and work on it there. Then tomorrow they will get to share their predictions with the class. I am interested to see what this class will predict. The other classes mostly predicted that Macbeth would feel so guilty that he would come clean and Lady Macbeth would turn on him. One student did come really close to the truth about Lady Macbeth. I am interested to see if this class will come up with more of the same or different things.
Meeting
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Homeroom
The Sophomores read through all of Act II today and then I assigned them to write their predictions. Unfortunately this class didn’t have a chance to share their predictions with the class due to not having enough time because of the late start. I allowed them to take the assignment home with them and work on it there. Then tomorrow they will get to share their predictions with the class. I am interested to see what this class will predict. The other classes mostly predicted that Macbeth would feel so guilty that he would come clean and Lady Macbeth would turn on him. One student did come really close to the truth about Lady Macbeth. I am interested to see if this class will come up with more of the same or different things.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Day 30: Act II Predictions
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Seminar
Today the last group did their presentations. I gave them 50 points because they had a very informative slide show and another 50 points for testing out the curse in the auditorium. They decided to take everyone down to the auditorium where we all screamed Macbeth very loudly to see if anything bad would happen. Some people then did the removal of the curse where you spin around in a circle three times. After that we went back to class and I asked for my actors to stand in front of the room. We went through Act II with me stopping them every now and then to review what was going on in the play with them. They were fairly good at explaining to me what was happening and even when they couldn’t they could guess. After they were finished with the Act, I had them do an activity where they make predictions about what will happen next in the play. Some of their predictions were good. Some were very close to the real thing. Many of them were the same. They all seem to think that Macbeth is going to get caught. I can’t wait to see what they make of what actually happens.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Seminar
Today the last group did their presentations. I gave them 50 points because they had a very informative slide show and another 50 points for testing out the curse in the auditorium. They decided to take everyone down to the auditorium where we all screamed Macbeth very loudly to see if anything bad would happen. Some people then did the removal of the curse where you spin around in a circle three times. After that we went back to class and I asked for my actors to stand in front of the room. We went through Act II with me stopping them every now and then to review what was going on in the play with them. They were fairly good at explaining to me what was happening and even when they couldn’t they could guess. After they were finished with the Act, I had them do an activity where they make predictions about what will happen next in the play. Some of their predictions were good. Some were very close to the real thing. Many of them were the same. They all seem to think that Macbeth is going to get caught. I can’t wait to see what they make of what actually happens.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Day 29: Snow Day?
No school today because the weather decided to be a jerk. Rain, sleet, snow, freezing rain. Yuck.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Day 28: A Slow Start
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Today I saw their creative projects. They were alright. One group was complaining about not having all of their group members there so I told them they could go next time. The other two groups I made go today even though they were missing people too. The group of five was only missing one member. Rebels of Vindr was missing half of their group but they didn’t put a stink up about it and went today anyway. I probably shouldn’t have told SUF that they didn’t need to go today but I thought that Sam was in that group and I got a call saying she was having a bad day so I was going to let them wait. Later I realized that Sam is in the group of five. Apparently, I was not with it today. I went ahead and gave out points anyway. I gave Sangue Maxia 100 points for their scavenger hunt, then 75 points for The Rebels of Vindr for their poem they wrote and another 50 to The First Five for involving the class. If SUF had not whined about having to go today I probably would have given them points too. Now they are in last place. Surprisingly I didn’t hear any complaints when I handed out the points even though SUF hadn’t presented yet. Maybe they figure they will get points for it later? I don’t know. After that I had them sign up for parts. I could tell the whole class was exhausted and not with it today. I wasn’t with it either. I have been coughing a lot today. Anyway, they finished reading Act 1 of Macbeth and then I had them do their “oh snap” projects and present them. They were very amusing. The students had a lot of fun with them and it seemed like the project brought back a lot of their energy. They were arguing over who was going to go next and had to resolve it with rock, paper, scissors. The vice principal came by at one point and told us we were having too much fun. Then there was 10 minutes left in the class so we did the anagram challenge. They didn’t have as much time as the other class to work on this so they didn’t get as many points but a couple groups still managed to get up to another 100-200 points. The class started out slow but by the end it turned out well.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period
Today I saw their creative projects. They were alright. One group was complaining about not having all of their group members there so I told them they could go next time. The other two groups I made go today even though they were missing people too. The group of five was only missing one member. Rebels of Vindr was missing half of their group but they didn’t put a stink up about it and went today anyway. I probably shouldn’t have told SUF that they didn’t need to go today but I thought that Sam was in that group and I got a call saying she was having a bad day so I was going to let them wait. Later I realized that Sam is in the group of five. Apparently, I was not with it today. I went ahead and gave out points anyway. I gave Sangue Maxia 100 points for their scavenger hunt, then 75 points for The Rebels of Vindr for their poem they wrote and another 50 to The First Five for involving the class. If SUF had not whined about having to go today I probably would have given them points too. Now they are in last place. Surprisingly I didn’t hear any complaints when I handed out the points even though SUF hadn’t presented yet. Maybe they figure they will get points for it later? I don’t know. After that I had them sign up for parts. I could tell the whole class was exhausted and not with it today. I wasn’t with it either. I have been coughing a lot today. Anyway, they finished reading Act 1 of Macbeth and then I had them do their “oh snap” projects and present them. They were very amusing. The students had a lot of fun with them and it seemed like the project brought back a lot of their energy. They were arguing over who was going to go next and had to resolve it with rock, paper, scissors. The vice principal came by at one point and told us we were having too much fun. Then there was 10 minutes left in the class so we did the anagram challenge. They didn’t have as much time as the other class to work on this so they didn’t get as many points but a couple groups still managed to get up to another 100-200 points. The class started out slow but by the end it turned out well.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Day 27: Oh Snap
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Today I had the sophomores present their “oh snap” presentations. The idea was for them to pretend to be thanes in Duncan’s court and make up their reactions to Duncan’s decision to name his son heir to the throne. They did a good job with them. They were all very good at conveying how angry or not so angry they thought the thanes would be. They came up with some really good reasons for the thanes to feel that way. They were amusing and had fun with the assignment. Then after that they finished reading act 1 of Macbeth. This time I made the sign up for parts on the board so there couldn’t be any fighting over parts. I also made them act the play out this time. They were paying a lot more attention this time. They weren’t necessarily as enthused as they have been doing other activities but they were certainly paying more attention. And the energy in the room was better. I am going to have to keep thinking about what I can do to keep them involved though. I also decided to up the stakes a little on the competition. I told them that they will not only get cake for a prize but they will also get a homework pass and their lowest quiz grade dropped. Then I told them that there was a new rule though. Come to class prepared or lose points. I can’t wait to see how it turns out. When I announced the new prizes the clan I was worried about not being in it to win it anymore immediately decided they wanted to win. After reading the class did another challenge and that clan got 285 points and beat everyone. They are currently in 3rd place but close to being second.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Today I had the sophomores present their “oh snap” presentations. The idea was for them to pretend to be thanes in Duncan’s court and make up their reactions to Duncan’s decision to name his son heir to the throne. They did a good job with them. They were all very good at conveying how angry or not so angry they thought the thanes would be. They came up with some really good reasons for the thanes to feel that way. They were amusing and had fun with the assignment. Then after that they finished reading act 1 of Macbeth. This time I made the sign up for parts on the board so there couldn’t be any fighting over parts. I also made them act the play out this time. They were paying a lot more attention this time. They weren’t necessarily as enthused as they have been doing other activities but they were certainly paying more attention. And the energy in the room was better. I am going to have to keep thinking about what I can do to keep them involved though. I also decided to up the stakes a little on the competition. I told them that they will not only get cake for a prize but they will also get a homework pass and their lowest quiz grade dropped. Then I told them that there was a new rule though. Come to class prepared or lose points. I can’t wait to see how it turns out. When I announced the new prizes the clan I was worried about not being in it to win it anymore immediately decided they wanted to win. After reading the class did another challenge and that clan got 285 points and beat everyone. They are currently in 3rd place but close to being second.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Day 26: Projects and Acting
Agenda-
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period (I saw an IEP Meeting)
Homeroom
I was a little disappointed today in my sophomores. They weren’t ready to present my project. One group told me they weren’t ready and I was just going to tell them well tough luck but then after I assigned the blog posts and handed out the release form for me to use their work I asked them to give me a show of hands for who was ready to present. Only one group was ready to go. Another group brought in a cake they had made with a Macbeth quote on it. I guess they had time to make a cake but not to work on their project? I gave them points for the cake anyway for making it for the class, making it related to Macbeth and sharing it with everyone. I made a deal with the class that I would give them until Friday if they would promise me they would be ready to kick butt when they present. I hope this turns out to be the right decision and that they don’t take advantage of me. Then I gave the group that was ready to go today points and gave them the option to present today or next time. They decided to present today so I gave them points for that too. Their presentation turned out to be really good. They did a scavenger hunt in the class. It was very interactive and the idea was for the class to go on a witch hunt while learning about witches in Shakespeare’s time. They did a really good job with it. After the clan finished their presentation I assigned parts from the play. I literally had students jumping out of their seats for parts and fighting over who would be who. They then asked if they could act it out. I told them I would give them more points if they did. So they did. This class was much more involved and paid a lot more attention to the play. I think I am going to make the other class act out Macbeth too. I think it will help keep them enthused and involved. It is at least worth a try. I am also going to go over the blood ranks with the other class and raise the stakes for both classes. The winning clan will also get their lowest quiz grade dropped, one homework pass and if they don’t come to class prepared they will lose points. It may motivate them a little more.
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Free Period (I saw an IEP Meeting)
Homeroom
I was a little disappointed today in my sophomores. They weren’t ready to present my project. One group told me they weren’t ready and I was just going to tell them well tough luck but then after I assigned the blog posts and handed out the release form for me to use their work I asked them to give me a show of hands for who was ready to present. Only one group was ready to go. Another group brought in a cake they had made with a Macbeth quote on it. I guess they had time to make a cake but not to work on their project? I gave them points for the cake anyway for making it for the class, making it related to Macbeth and sharing it with everyone. I made a deal with the class that I would give them until Friday if they would promise me they would be ready to kick butt when they present. I hope this turns out to be the right decision and that they don’t take advantage of me. Then I gave the group that was ready to go today points and gave them the option to present today or next time. They decided to present today so I gave them points for that too. Their presentation turned out to be really good. They did a scavenger hunt in the class. It was very interactive and the idea was for the class to go on a witch hunt while learning about witches in Shakespeare’s time. They did a really good job with it. After the clan finished their presentation I assigned parts from the play. I literally had students jumping out of their seats for parts and fighting over who would be who. They then asked if they could act it out. I told them I would give them more points if they did. So they did. This class was much more involved and paid a lot more attention to the play. I think I am going to make the other class act out Macbeth too. I think it will help keep them enthused and involved. It is at least worth a try. I am also going to go over the blood ranks with the other class and raise the stakes for both classes. The winning clan will also get their lowest quiz grade dropped, one homework pass and if they don’t come to class prepared they will lose points. It may motivate them a little more.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Day 25: Wow Presentations
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: Senior English
Today the sophomores presented their creative projects that I assigned them over the break. They did amazing! I was doubtful a little bit about the scrolls one group made and about the cake another group built but I have to say that in the end it paid off. All of the projects were so good I had to give everyone 100 points. It was so awesome. I was very proud of them. I especially loved the rap that one group did about the real Macbeth. I am hoping I can convince them to send me a copy of it or something. I would love to have it. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow’s class has in store for me. I am betting it will be equally wonderful. I am really glad I decided to assign this project. They found out a lot of very useful information that will be necessary in understanding the play and at the same time they had fun.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: Senior English
Today the sophomores presented their creative projects that I assigned them over the break. They did amazing! I was doubtful a little bit about the scrolls one group made and about the cake another group built but I have to say that in the end it paid off. All of the projects were so good I had to give everyone 100 points. It was so awesome. I was very proud of them. I especially loved the rap that one group did about the real Macbeth. I am hoping I can convince them to send me a copy of it or something. I would love to have it. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow’s class has in store for me. I am betting it will be equally wonderful. I am really glad I decided to assign this project. They found out a lot of very useful information that will be necessary in understanding the play and at the same time they had fun.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Day 23: Rally
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Study Hall
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Rally
I gave students class time today to work on their creative research projects. They were for the most part on task all day. So instead of talking about class today I want to talk about the rally. At the end of the day the school had a rally in the gym to end the winter carnival that has been going on all week. The winners of the talent show performed again, then there was a 4 square volleyball game, then a relay race where students ran from one side of the gym to the other, sat on a balloon and ran back until everyone has popped their balloon and it ended with a dodge ball tournament. The seniors won dodge ball of course. It was interesting to see how many of my students competed in the events. It seemed like a lot of them did. Maybe it is becoming cool again to be smart? I don't know. I hope that the stereotype of being lazy and not caring about school as being the thing to do ends soon.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Study Hall
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Rally
I gave students class time today to work on their creative research projects. They were for the most part on task all day. So instead of talking about class today I want to talk about the rally. At the end of the day the school had a rally in the gym to end the winter carnival that has been going on all week. The winners of the talent show performed again, then there was a 4 square volleyball game, then a relay race where students ran from one side of the gym to the other, sat on a balloon and ran back until everyone has popped their balloon and it ended with a dodge ball tournament. The seniors won dodge ball of course. It was interesting to see how many of my students competed in the events. It seemed like a lot of them did. Maybe it is becoming cool again to be smart? I don't know. I hope that the stereotype of being lazy and not caring about school as being the thing to do ends soon.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Day 22: Creative Project
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Prep-Period
Today I did the same challenge I did yesterday with this group of Sophomores. They again did really well. They were much faster at solving the cipher (which we changed to something else before class in case the other class shared). Then they also got a puzzle to put together. After the puzzles were done I gave them their next challenge. Both classes are going to research a topic concerning Macbeth and find a creative way to present their findings to the class. The clan that is the most creative gets Blood Points. The topics are the curse on Macbeth, Tanistry, The Real Macbeth, and Witches during Shakespeare’s time. From what I heard walking around the room the presentations are going to be really good. The Real Macbeth group is basing their presentation on the Old Spice Commercial. The Curse group is going to take the entire class down the auditorium and invoke the curse. The group that got Tanistry is going to role-play what tanistry looks like. They even went and asked the Theatre Director if they could borrow costumes. The group with the witches is going to simulate a witch hunt in the classroom. They are even going to memorize and say some of the witches’ lines from the play. I am so excited to see them really getting into this. I can’t wait to what they come up with!
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Prep-Period
Today I did the same challenge I did yesterday with this group of Sophomores. They again did really well. They were much faster at solving the cipher (which we changed to something else before class in case the other class shared). Then they also got a puzzle to put together. After the puzzles were done I gave them their next challenge. Both classes are going to research a topic concerning Macbeth and find a creative way to present their findings to the class. The clan that is the most creative gets Blood Points. The topics are the curse on Macbeth, Tanistry, The Real Macbeth, and Witches during Shakespeare’s time. From what I heard walking around the room the presentations are going to be really good. The Real Macbeth group is basing their presentation on the Old Spice Commercial. The Curse group is going to take the entire class down the auditorium and invoke the curse. The group that got Tanistry is going to role-play what tanistry looks like. They even went and asked the Theatre Director if they could borrow costumes. The group with the witches is going to simulate a witch hunt in the classroom. They are even going to memorize and say some of the witches’ lines from the play. I am so excited to see them really getting into this. I can’t wait to what they come up with!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Day 21: Puzzle Challenge
Agenda-
Accreditation
Creative Writing
Pre-AP Sophomore English
AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Homeroom
Today I did a Blood War Challenge with the Sophomores. The idea was to hand out the rules for the Blood War and then present them with a puzzle challenge. My hope was that the group that was split on Wednesday would get the rules and learn to work together better. It worked! We went over the rules and then I gave them a cipher to complete. Once the cipher was done I gave them a puzzle to put together. The group I was concerned about ended up working together really well. They were the first group to figure out the cipher and the second group to complete the puzzle. There was none of the fighting or the attitude problems that I saw on Monday. They actually looked like a really good team. The challenge also put them in second place in the Blood War overall and they are only 15 points away from catching up to the clan in first place. I am so impressed with them! I can’t wait to give them out their next challenge..
Accreditation
Creative Writing
Pre-AP Sophomore English
AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall
Homeroom
Today I did a Blood War Challenge with the Sophomores. The idea was to hand out the rules for the Blood War and then present them with a puzzle challenge. My hope was that the group that was split on Wednesday would get the rules and learn to work together better. It worked! We went over the rules and then I gave them a cipher to complete. Once the cipher was done I gave them a puzzle to put together. The group I was concerned about ended up working together really well. They were the first group to figure out the cipher and the second group to complete the puzzle. There was none of the fighting or the attitude problems that I saw on Monday. They actually looked like a really good team. The challenge also put them in second place in the Blood War overall and they are only 15 points away from catching up to the clan in first place. I am so impressed with them! I can’t wait to give them out their next challenge..
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Day 20: OMG That's Better!
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Prep Period
Today I tried the lesson where I get the Sophomores started with the blogs and the Blood War challenge again with some improvements. First I rearranged the desks so they would make table groups and so they would be spread far apart from each other. Then I wrote students’ names on slips of paper and taped the paper to the desks. When they came into the room I told them to find their names on the desks. Then I gave 5 points to the table group to be seated with all of their members first. Next, I got them set up with their blogs using the projector and my laptop so they could follow along. Then I gave them out the rules for the Blood War, went over the rules and told them about their prize if they are the winners at the end of the unit. Then I got them started on their tasks. This group was completely different from yesterday. They gave me no attitude. They made jokes about fraternizing with the enemy because I made interactions with other clans against the rules. They all worked really well together on their names and on their flags. They came up with some amazing ideas. I think now that this class is doing so well I really need to take this and get the other class back on track. Otherwise the groups in the other class are going to be miserable for the rest of the year. I am going to have them seated in the table groups tomorrow and hand out the rules and go over them like I did today. Then so they can practice working together and feel out the new rules of the game I am going to give them a challenge to do. Hopefully the clans will bond over the challenge rather than get even more disjointed. I think that the group with Garrett will figure out very quickly that he is a major asset in this challenge. Same for the clan with Mariah, Brooke, Adam and Jeremy. I think Mariah and Jeremy will be able to show off their English skills proving to Brooke that they are assets. We shall see tomorrow.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Period
Class: AP Senior English
Prep Period
Today I tried the lesson where I get the Sophomores started with the blogs and the Blood War challenge again with some improvements. First I rearranged the desks so they would make table groups and so they would be spread far apart from each other. Then I wrote students’ names on slips of paper and taped the paper to the desks. When they came into the room I told them to find their names on the desks. Then I gave 5 points to the table group to be seated with all of their members first. Next, I got them set up with their blogs using the projector and my laptop so they could follow along. Then I gave them out the rules for the Blood War, went over the rules and told them about their prize if they are the winners at the end of the unit. Then I got them started on their tasks. This group was completely different from yesterday. They gave me no attitude. They made jokes about fraternizing with the enemy because I made interactions with other clans against the rules. They all worked really well together on their names and on their flags. They came up with some amazing ideas. I think now that this class is doing so well I really need to take this and get the other class back on track. Otherwise the groups in the other class are going to be miserable for the rest of the year. I am going to have them seated in the table groups tomorrow and hand out the rules and go over them like I did today. Then so they can practice working together and feel out the new rules of the game I am going to give them a challenge to do. Hopefully the clans will bond over the challenge rather than get even more disjointed. I think that the group with Garrett will figure out very quickly that he is a major asset in this challenge. Same for the clan with Mariah, Brooke, Adam and Jeremy. I think Mariah and Jeremy will be able to show off their English skills proving to Brooke that they are assets. We shall see tomorrow.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Day 19: Blood Wars
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Study Hall
Today I got the students set up on their blogs, into their clan groups and started the blood war that they will be competing in during the unit. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as well as I planned for it to. I got their blogs set up. That part went fine. Then I split them into their clans, told them where to move to and started them on their first tasks; picking a clan name and creating a flag. This did not go so well. Two groups worked really well together. The other two not so much. One group kind of pushed Garrett out and ended up sitting on his laptop while everyone else was coloring. The other group ended up split in the middle. Jeremy and Mariah on one side with Adam and Brooke on the other. The group created two flags because they couldn’t decide what to do for a flag. I told them only one was going up so they had to come to a decision. They took a vote and when the flag Brooke worked on didn’t win she threw a fit. I also saw a lot of people migrating from their group to other groups to gossip, talk and hang out. This was not what I wanted. I wanted them to be on task collaborating with their clan members. I had to keep asking them to go back to their seats or suggesting things for them to do in order to help. The whole thing was not what I wanted. I should have done table groups. I should have been prepared to tell them where to sit. I should have set some time limits. I should have set some more rules. I also should have been more certain about what their prize would be at the end of the unit. I should have been more clear with them and established this at the beginning. I think I need to try this with the next group.
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Study Hall
Today I got the students set up on their blogs, into their clan groups and started the blood war that they will be competing in during the unit. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as well as I planned for it to. I got their blogs set up. That part went fine. Then I split them into their clans, told them where to move to and started them on their first tasks; picking a clan name and creating a flag. This did not go so well. Two groups worked really well together. The other two not so much. One group kind of pushed Garrett out and ended up sitting on his laptop while everyone else was coloring. The other group ended up split in the middle. Jeremy and Mariah on one side with Adam and Brooke on the other. The group created two flags because they couldn’t decide what to do for a flag. I told them only one was going up so they had to come to a decision. They took a vote and when the flag Brooke worked on didn’t win she threw a fit. I also saw a lot of people migrating from their group to other groups to gossip, talk and hang out. This was not what I wanted. I wanted them to be on task collaborating with their clan members. I had to keep asking them to go back to their seats or suggesting things for them to do in order to help. The whole thing was not what I wanted. I should have done table groups. I should have been prepared to tell them where to sit. I should have set some time limits. I should have set some more rules. I also should have been more certain about what their prize would be at the end of the unit. I should have been more clear with them and established this at the beginning. I think I need to try this with the next group.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Day 18: The 34Second Hamlet
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Time
Class: AP Senior English
Prep Time
I did the 32 second Macbeth with the sophomores again today. It went over even better the second time around. It went so well in fact that Ms. Doughty and I decided to look for something similar to do with the seniors who are starting Hamlet soon. At first the seniors were not cool with this idea. They did not want to get up, they did not want to fall on the ground when they died and they did not want to act it out. But then we started timing them. That was when the race to beat the clock began and they started to enjoy the activity. They were laughing, they were trying to say their lines as fast as they could and they were picking on each other when they messed up. Poor Hanson got to Horatio and he had this huge long line at the end that he kept messing up so all of the students were picking on him for slowing them down. And poor Shawna had Ophelia who also had a long line. They were definitely pumped up for Hamlet by the end of it. They were able to figure out a lot of plot details and it gave us a chance to give them some more background information that will help them read the play. I am curious to see how they do with the play now that they have seen the whole thing in a slightly condensed format. Even though there was a lot more reluctance from the seniors I think that was just because they are older, it was later in the day, they were hungry and they were tired. I am hoping Mondays group will be fun.
Homeroom
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Free Time
Class: AP Senior English
Prep Time
I did the 32 second Macbeth with the sophomores again today. It went over even better the second time around. It went so well in fact that Ms. Doughty and I decided to look for something similar to do with the seniors who are starting Hamlet soon. At first the seniors were not cool with this idea. They did not want to get up, they did not want to fall on the ground when they died and they did not want to act it out. But then we started timing them. That was when the race to beat the clock began and they started to enjoy the activity. They were laughing, they were trying to say their lines as fast as they could and they were picking on each other when they messed up. Poor Hanson got to Horatio and he had this huge long line at the end that he kept messing up so all of the students were picking on him for slowing them down. And poor Shawna had Ophelia who also had a long line. They were definitely pumped up for Hamlet by the end of it. They were able to figure out a lot of plot details and it gave us a chance to give them some more background information that will help them read the play. I am curious to see how they do with the play now that they have seen the whole thing in a slightly condensed format. Even though there was a lot more reluctance from the seniors I think that was just because they are older, it was later in the day, they were hungry and they were tired. I am hoping Mondays group will be fun.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Day 17: The 32Second Macbeth
Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Study Hall
Today I started the unit on Macbeth with the Sophomores. It went really well! First they took a quiz which felt like it took forever. But then after that I split them up into groups to work on creating a KWL chart. Then I put all of their ideas up on pieces of paper on the board. They came up with a pretty good list of things. Then I handed out the 32 second Macbeth. This is where the lesson really took off. I had the class get into two groups. And their goal was to act the play out in 32 seconds or less. They had so much fun! They were laughing and practicing and determined to beat the clock as well as their classmates. They were also doing a really good job figuring out who the characters were and what was going to happen in the play based on the lines. They knew someone was going to get murdered. They knew there would be lots of blood. They got that there were witches. I think they did a fairly good job figuring out the plot of the play. Also, I loved the activity because it let me know who the actors and who the directors were in the class. I am now thinking that I will assign them their groups for the final project based on which students were clearly really into it and which ones weren’t. It also broke the ice in terms of reading Old English out loud and acting out what is going on in the play. I loved it and I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow!
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Study Hall
Today I started the unit on Macbeth with the Sophomores. It went really well! First they took a quiz which felt like it took forever. But then after that I split them up into groups to work on creating a KWL chart. Then I put all of their ideas up on pieces of paper on the board. They came up with a pretty good list of things. Then I handed out the 32 second Macbeth. This is where the lesson really took off. I had the class get into two groups. And their goal was to act the play out in 32 seconds or less. They had so much fun! They were laughing and practicing and determined to beat the clock as well as their classmates. They were also doing a really good job figuring out who the characters were and what was going to happen in the play based on the lines. They knew someone was going to get murdered. They knew there would be lots of blood. They got that there were witches. I think they did a fairly good job figuring out the plot of the play. Also, I loved the activity because it let me know who the actors and who the directors were in the class. I am now thinking that I will assign them their groups for the final project based on which students were clearly really into it and which ones weren’t. It also broke the ice in terms of reading Old English out loud and acting out what is going on in the play. I loved it and I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow!
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