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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.