Out Like a Lion

March 30, 2012, the last school day of the month, went out like a roaring, rampaging lion in my Composition II class.  Ironically, after yesterday's post, I thought, aaaah, I have teaching figured out.  Apparently, that idealistic arrogance was brought to humbling reality when yesterday I limped along like a first-year teacher (to those teachers who had marvelously smooth, intelligent and poised first years, please don't tell me, at least not until April). My first year of teaching was a thundering storm of natural and unnatural disasters from every possible NSEW direction combination that can ever, has ever or will ever be made, but before my post traumatic stress disordered memory kicks fully into gear, I suppose I should report yesterday's classroom failures--I do this not to torment myself, but provide examples of failure's necessity for improvement.


The day started fine.  I'd say until fifth hour rolled around, the day was a breeze.  But then came the unexpected monsoon during the dry season--chat and snack in Composition II.  I thought chat and snack would be a success.  I had promised to celebrate the end of the position paper unit filled with researching, annotated bibliographies, 12-15 page papers, pages long revision checklists--basically every English teacher's ideal unit of student growth, learning, and achievement--would be a nice transition to the next unit: the proposal to solve a problem.  So I had my 18 quotes from a variety of problem solvers copied and ready to go.  I even patted myself on the back for being a pale shade of green because I saved at least a twig from a tree by only making 25 copies, and to be 100% honest, I even expected student praise for that (I firmly believe in having high expectations so students have to rise to meet them). Anyway,  the plan included students furnishing the snacks and I proudly presenting the main dish:  the chat.  Who can resist discussing great quotes like    "The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year. (John Foster Dulles, Former Secretary of State) or "Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into the world?'" (Marcus Aurelius).


Students dropped off their snacks before school, and one brought little smokies in barbecue sauce.  The smells made the other classes hungry when they entered the room.  I expected to hear students wonder why I was so mean to them and never allow food in their classes which is why I reminded the freshmen in homeroom that we have birthday treats and the freshmen in class about our "Inner Party" party after we finished reading 1984.  I ignored the sunshine's blatant sign of the most destructive storms that ever hit the classroom causing treacherous ruin to lesson plans and irreparable damage to students' delicate attention spans:  beautiful spring weather on Fridays.


Fifth hour is right before lunch.  The students prepared their buffet.  I was even smart enough to have students hand out the chat sheets. Thoughts of life's pleasantness rolled through my mind just as the summer breeze pushes clouds aside to clear the sky. Then the freeze pops started dripping, the cup of barbecue sauce had to be confiscated so a student would not get paid $5.00 to drink it during class, the glass of Hi-C punch had to be wiped off the floor.  Granted, students did share an example or two about selected quotations, but then food returned to being the lesson plan.  The students were happy and helpful; all was not lost.  Messes happen. Plans change.  I decided how to modify 7th hour's chat and snack to meet the Iowa core. Winston Churchill's wise words  "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm" moved me forward with renewed energy.

The bell rang, lunch  was eaten.  I looked forward to the next class being conducted in a discussion-friendly circle of desks.  This time we set up the buffet, I passed out the chat sheet, we discussed for ten minutes.  Full of the confidence I feel when a weather warning times out, I sent the students to the decadently sweet banquet of student-brought cupcakes, ice cream cake, donuts and sugary HI-C.  They came back to our circle.  They ate.  They talked.  They talked.  They talked.  Discussion in the school setting of course means one person talks and everyone else listens.  But they talked without even expecting a response.  They talked. They talked. There was NOOOO listening happening. Sure, I quieted them down, but the same pattern returned.  I refused to cower to this storm; my mind returned to solution mode.


The entire 8th hour class must have skipped lunch because the students were downright angry when I told them we had to chat for twenty minutes before their buffet could be gobbled.  After holding my ground, and sending a student back to his seat when he impulsively rose to cut the rest of his fudge, students halfheartedly followed my directions while saving their glares for me and their attention to the food table which held center stage in front of their eyes.  Finally 2:20 rolled around, and my deep disappointment in the entire Composition II chat and snack failure was written in all of my actions and comments.  The students ate happily, and I admit it, I sulked a little. I visualized dainty tea party and intelligent conversation, not starving students gobbling food while the devastatingly most dangerous temperate spring Friday of any March 30th ever experienced in 2012 beckoned them with its advertisement that this day was not meant for scholarly discussion. But by the end of the period, the mess was cleared, the students were happy. Like the thunderstorm that breaks the humidity, the bell rang releasing the storm of open campus students to their weekend.


The day is done.  March in the classroom is done.  Marcus Aurelius's wise directive to toss away the bitter cucumber is enough to soothe the roaring lion.  As for the stormy setting to this day's events, before I headed to take tickets at the school play a beautiful rainbow filled the sky in a boldness that made me say "thank you" and reminded me to have hope in the future.  Monday is a new day, a new month, a new unit.  Learning shall return to room 67.

Why Read Shakespeare?

SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2012

Why Read Shakespeare?

1. Because Shakespeare will challenge you to go beyond your reading comfort zone.
2.  Because you will learn new words and phrases.
3.  Because you will have firsthand expertise at understanding Shakespearean references in songs, movies, and books.
4.  Because you will remember this literature.
5.  Because you will get used to paying attention to punctuation marks, signal words, and clever word usage in order to comprehend the complex sentence structure.
6.  Because you will get used to interpreting figurative language.
7.  Because the themes in Shakespeare's work still abound.
8.  Because you will research the references you do not understand (a.k.a. independent learning)
9.  Because even though you know how the plays end, you will be mesmerized by Shakespeare's telling of the tale.
10.  Because you can be inspired to be a word wizard in your own writings.
11.  Because there's nothing like knowing you had to work hard to comprehend, and you did it.  That kind of confidence comes only from taking on a challenge.

Schoology

Thanks to the helpful technology professional development day at SLHS on January 4th, I decided to set up a Schoology account for my students in Creative Writing and 9th hour Advisory.

Schoology is a free way to communicate with students in an online classroom of sorts, but it is more than that. Teachers control everything from who enters the class--there is a code to give to the students--to the questions and discussions online which students respond to, so the site is monitored.  It's part school because it is a way for students to individually take online quizzes, submit assignments, have discussions, etc. . . but it is also part social with a place for sending messages, updating personal biographies, and sharing pictures with their peers. If I post a question like "What were you assigned in each of your classes today?" Students can answer, and build a community of learners online. Since I'm a novice, I've only used online quizzes, assignments, inbox messages and discussions, but I look forward to learning how to use links, uploading, and more collaborative commenting features.

What I like so far is keeping in touch with my advisory group.  I teach some of these students in Accelerated English, but most of them I do not, so if I don't get a chance to conference in-person with them about their grades, homework, and questions they have, Schoology allows another avenue for me to do so. Of course there are bugs to work out, like what to post where, how to share comments, and keeping the students on task, but for the most part this site helps me challenge and communicate with the students and more importantly for the students to voice their opinions, questions, knowledge and goals.

Fall Semester 2011 Top Ten Moments

#10.  Writing recommendations for students I know will become future success stories.
#9.    Working beside Ms. Gunn, a great addition to Storm Lake High School.
#8.    Being planked during 8th hour Composition class  (I wish I had a picture).
#7.    Being amazed by the Accelerated English students' in-depth blogging assignments over five novels supplemented with current events, poetry, allusions, vocabulary and pictures. This task was nearly trumped by the My Antonia newscast done early in the semester.
#6.  Working with the first hour Elements of Writing students who researched and wrote about their interests, which created interesting writing. I learned about the Illuminati, skateboarding, dance, an underdog football player, music, the lady in black, and many others.
#5.  Teaching Introduction to Literature. The 5th hour students were a refuge in the middle of the day.  Who would have thought that explications and critical analyses during a pre-lunch class could be so relaxing and intellectually stimulating?
#4.  Having a new advisory group. It is the beginning of a four-year bond.
#3.  Watching the Composition students learn to objectively and confidently critique peer and their own written work. The profiles challenged them, but the outcome is a wonderful heirloom and achievement.
#2.  Learning what makes the students tick, and noticing how they find ways to reach the goals they set for themselves.
#1.  Being reminded once again that students want to learn.  They may complain, procrastinate, seemingly ignore, or even dread, but when it comes down to it, they want to be proud of actually accomplishing tasks they were not sure they could master.

Accelerated English Project

I dreamt up a new challenge for the freshmen, and all of it will be shared online.  It is the first time I have approached an assignment this way.  Students will have temporary blogs where they will share the nine parts of a project encompassing the five novels we have read so far this semester:  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, My Antonia, To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and The Outsiders. 


On Friday I revealed the assignment's directions so the students will be able to come to class on Monday, grab a computer, and get to work for the next two weeks.  They will also need to work outside of class to meet all of the requirements.  I asked the students to read the entire set of directions before asking any questions aloud.  When it was time to answer their questions, the inevitable "Why?" came up.  Well, there are many reasons why.

After the initial anxiety wears off, I hope the students look closely to see what they would have missed if they had not completed this project.  I'm asking the students to find pre-1900 poetry that connects to the novels in some way. This will expose the students to literature they search for on their own, but more importantly,this will help students practice their thinking and communicating skills by sharing the connections between the novels and the poems. To counter the past, I want the students to find current (as in happened during the month of November 2011) news that reflects the issues that are found in the novels we have read.  Stories change, but conflicts humans face will always occur.  It's one of the reasons we read literature--to reflect on the causes and effects of human experiences. Poetry, news and novels have much in common despite their varied purposes.  Toss in a Works Cited, along with some well-written explanations, and the students are on their way to communicating complex thoughts in writing.  To balance all of that written work, I want the students to create a collage of pictures and then analyze what the images from the five novels reveal about their similarities and differences.  There are other parts to the project--explaining allusions, writing book reviews, and determining whether or not each book can be classified as a bildungsroman-- that will enable students to practice reading, writing, critical thinking, and researching, but they will also practice the life skills of time management, organization, following directions, and communicating with more than just the teacher.

When this project is all said and done on November 21st, I hope the students will know that there is not one right way to fulfill this task.  I also hope that the students will share their blogs with their classmates, so all can see the unique fingerprints students leave on the assignments they complete.

The students have asked me to complete this project too, but I can't start until Monday the 7th(their rules). They seem to think the task is so impossible that even I won't be able to complete in the time allotted.  But I already know they can do it.  Cheers to this project merging so much more than literature.

Good Students of Life

This year I advise twenty freshmen (and they are stuck with me until they graduate--hahahhaha).  I look forward to the day when I see each and every one of those students cross the stage to receive their diplomas.  These students, with both burdens and talents, need direction, boundaries, nurturing, encouragement, and goals to reach.  


My wish is that this year's freshmen become good students of life.  I want them to know they need to be advocates for themselves.  It is a sign of strength to ask for help when they are stuck. I want them to know that confidence comes from facing fears, from using obstacles as new avenues not dead ends.  I want them to see the moment as an opportunity, not something that can be saved for later.  I want them to use their gifts and talents with 100% effort, and if they don't, I want them to know a fresh start is only a decision away. Finally, and most importantly, I want my advisees to see they are no better and no worse than any other person.  We all have minds and hearts, hopes and worries, gains and losses, so why not treat each other with respect and open mindedness?


Good students of life show up, follow through on commitments, and have a good time doing what needs to be done because life is too short to stop being a student, which is a privilege and a responsibility that includes much more than doing homework and getting good grades.

Is it a Mistake?

1.  To give half credit when work is redone.

2.  To value that students meet deadlines more than the work turned in.

3.  To avoid asking students to evaluate teachers early and often.

4.  To ignore issues that arise.

5. To work in isolation when trying to solve problems.

6.  To punish rather than postively reinforce.

7.  To not have clear, reasonable consequences for students who misbehave.

8.  To have power struggles.

9.  To punish students who are parents or who have full time jobs.

10.  To expect less than the best from our students.

11.  To create lessons that are not real world.

12.  To assume our students won't do homework so we don't make them do it.

13.  To shut down students with words or looks or assumptions.

14.  To forget that students choose to learn from us.

15.  To not listen when students say they do not understand.

16. To blame teachers when students do not succeed.

17.  To allow students to avoid doing what it takes to learn in the classroom.

18.  To avoid having frank but gentle conversations when students need correcting, direction, or are clearly having trouble coping in class.

19.  To assume students will come to the teacher if they have questions, concerns, issues, or need to advocate for themselves.

20.  To allow lack of discipline to hinder students' classroom experience.

I have struggled with the above list at some point in my career, even now after eighteen years in the profession I have not arrived at the magical right answer in all situations (Rats!).  Teaching material is pretty simple-- present a skill, an idea, an event, a coping mechanism--but presenting the material in ways that prove the teacher believes all students are capable takes creative thinking, problem solving, reflection, and constant revamping.  All students learn differently, are bogged down by different burdens, are trying to grow into themselves at different rates, have different values and goals that may or may not match teacher expectations, and face the assumptions teachers have about them.  As I review the above list, I'm thinking about what I need to work on so students get what they need from my classroom and my advisory time.  Teachers have a short period of time when they can intervene and do their best to be the bridge students need to get on with the rest of their lives as productive citizens.  I aim to continue asking myself the tough questions so that my mistakes can be corrected and my students know they are what matters in the classroom.