Day 90- "I'll see ya when I see ya." Rounders and Ocean's 13

I love the curve balls life throws. I wasn't at school long today, well it was staff record day anyway and I had all my grades put in last night, but I was there even less than I thought I would be because I had to fix my hot water heater. We had our annual staff Christmas breakfast, received a pat on the back by admin for surviving the semester with all the changes we weathered, and saw the best retirement exit ever. Our media specialist retired at the semester, and she is very dear to everyone in the English department. Southport has a tradition of giving retirees a rocking chair and allowing them a farewell speech. There were four retirees at the semester, and MJ was the first to give her speech. At the end, she waved, and instead of going to sit on her rocker like everyone else does, she walked out the door and left. She is already sorely missed.

Day 89- "We're in trouble. I just checked with the guys at the Jewish house and they said that every one of our answers on the Psych test was wrong. " Animal House

Last student day of the year!I gave 3 finals and an rSkills test for my Read 180 students. Fairly easy day, but a little boring. Hard to believe this semester is already over. I have a staff holiday party to get to, but at some point over the break I will blog about this semester and my thoughts on what went well, what I need to improve on for next year, and other strategies I would like to try.

Day 88- "You know, a lot of people would think these questions are difficult... not me." The Perfect Score

Yeah, I could have not come to school today and as little or as much as I did or didn't do would have still be accomplished. My first period Read 180 class took an rSkills test, then my senior classes all "reviewed" for the final and attempted to decipher the Christmas carols that my other class deciphered on Monday. My second period class struggled with this, and I wasn't sure at times if they would be able to complete it, but they found their inner Christmas spirit and were able to create their own in-class Christmas miracle. My other two classes did the activity well, and my last class even wanted a harder challenge, so I reached into my files and pulled out a harder Christmas carol list for them to attempt. They did not disappoint and collectively deciphered every carol.

Day 87- "If God wanted him to graduate than God would have given him the right answers. "- Easy A

Finals start today! Yeah, it really isn't that big a deal for my classes. I have a hard time being forced to give a final to my composition class who have already written all their papers for the year, but I made a final nonetheless. If anyone fails it, they deserve to fail out of school and be doomed to making my fries at McD's for the rest of their lives. Enough said. I only gave one final today because the READ 180 class must follow Scholastic's curriculum to a T, and they do not deem a final necessary. So, today consisted of a Read 180 quiz, an English 12 final, iPass, prep, and Read 180 lab. Farewell black days. I can only hope next semester you are my same oasis.

Day 86- "The rest of those who have gone before us cannot steady the unrest of those to follow."- Finding Forrester

Ah, the start of the last week. My first period class has their final tomorrow, so we reviewed for the final, then I had them attempt a Christmas carol deciphering game as a class. They actually did better than I expected. The activity consisted of 20 Christmas carols reworded from the thesaurus from hell. The easiest one on the list to decipher was Bleached Yule, which since many of them didn't know what Yule meant, wasn't as easy as it could have been. Anyway, there were 19 more worded in this fashion.

The rest of my classes finished up Finding Forrester. A few weren't happy about the ending, but I believe they all enjoyed the movie. These classes won't meet again until Wednesday, where I will review for the final and have them do the Christmas carol deciphering. Just need to make it 3 more days.

Day 85- "The first key to writing is...to write, not to think."- Finding Forrester

Friday the 13th. Symbolism would make this a black day Friday, but alas, the literary gods missed the memo and today was a red day. With our finals starting on a black day (and if you have figured out our fubared schedule by now, I need to buy you a drink), this left a couple of days of flux since one class gets a day less of instruction. I decided earlier this week I would introduce my seniors to what a good movie actually looks like, so I showed the first part of Finding Forrester. This is one of my all-time favorite movies, and the fact that the main character is a writer just fits this class like a glove. Not a single one of my students had seen it before, and probably only a handful of them would ever watch it on their own, but they were completely engaged throughout. Every class was disappointed when the bell rang because they wanted to finish the movie. Even though this is a movie, it has some great quotes about writing and the struggle of what it means to write something truly great. I truly wish I could read some of William Forrester's writings, especially his two books.

Day 84- "If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane." Robert Frost

Mundane. That was today. Black days can be that way, but they are more than welcome in the chaos that can be my days. First period was rote Read 180, second was a repeat of the letters of recommendation letters with my lone senior class today, then iPass, prep, and Read 180 lab. I will say iPass and prep were very productive as I have everything in my grade book except the finals. I'm figuratively, and mentally literally done, no matter what the calendar says.

I had two highlights todays. First, I received an email from a fellow teacher who is a kindred spirit of mine. The subject was blank, and it only had one line, a line from a hilarious on-line video about a bad lip reading of A Game of Thrones. I read it and laughed so hard I had to sit down. Great way to break up the monotony of the day. My second highlight has to do with my club soccer team. (I coach an extremely highly competitive club soccer team that is one of the best in the region.) A friend of mine and fellow coach just recently signed to play with our local professional NASL team Indy Eleven. He contacted me today and wanted to train with my team tonight. Even though I've known him for a while and we have worked camps together, it was cool to have a professional train with my team, especially where I was providing the training.

Day 84- "This is business, not personal." The Godfather

This was probably the best Wednesday of the year, even with the fact it's a white Wednesday! No, my account has not been hacked, this is really me. I am capable of positive emotion on rare occasion.

In my English classes, we discussed letters of recommendation. I told them that a few of them, especially the ones who already have jobs, may have to write one of these in the very near future. We had a great discussion on what makes a letter of recommendation professional and not personal, and I inadvertently said the famous Godfather line in class, which brought a smile from a few of the students (first lesson only, after that, I planned it). I again gave them sample letters that I wrote so they could see the formatting and content this type of writing should contain. Being the nerd that I am, I made one letter about Jon Snow joining the Night's Watch in Game of Thrones, and the other letter about Will Hunting being recommended for a job by Lucious Fox of Stark Enterprises. Yes, I realize I just committed comic world blasphemy by mixing the Marvel and DC worlds, but I took it a step further and put Mr. Fox's contact number as working number that dials Santa Claus. I need to have some sort of fun with this job. I also received a recommendation letter from fellow Star Wars fan that recommended me for a position with the Mandalorian bounty hunters. Needless to say, this one is a keeper.

Cluster today was quite different. Last week when I was absent, a firestorm happened in cluster and revolt almost took place. Many of my colleagues said it probably was a good thing I wasn't there. So on Sunday, I wrote a lengthy email to our cluster leaders with a study attached the shows how writing across the curriculum is the best way to improve writing. In today's cluster, our leaders had a completely different tone and actually said teaching writing cannot solely fall on us. I may had said "It's about dang time" louder than I meant, but they didn't hear me. I am not naive enough to believe my email had anything to do with this, but at least we seem to be all on the same page, or heading there. I did get quite a bit of a vindication that English 12a is working. In part of our cluster, we looked at all the student data we had access to in a data warehouse called Pivot. I was curious to see my student's SAT scores. I was able to see a student of mine who took the SAT in June and then again in October. After 8 weeks of my class, her writing score went up 40 points on the SAT. What we are doing with our students in 12a is working. I wish we could start this sooner. I was very encouraged that we have hard data that in some form shows that what we are teaching and doing in 12a, with a curriculum myself and another teacher virtually created, is working. I was also encouraged that it appears some conversations will take place about writing and reading across the curriculum may start taking place.

Day 83- "Yeah, I know him. I know him! He's my boss! He's my unholy, disgusting pig of a boss!" Office Space

Today started the last teaching rotation of this semester for me. I have all my grading caught up, and the end is in sight. We discussed complaint letters today and times when an employee could and should file an official complaint against a boss or co-worker. We discussed the proper procedures for this along with the format of this letter and what is should and should not contain. Office Space clips may have been viewed as an educational tool of what not to do. We had a nice discussion of how business letters differ from academic writing and MLA format and the reason behind it. The students were then given a couple of scenarios of complaints they could write about, but many of them chose to write legitimate complaints they had from either their current job or a former job. I was happy they could see an immediate relevance for this type of activity.

Day 82- "Cause the house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes. The house takes you." Ocean's Eleven

Black Monday, you almost making Monday bearable. Read 180 runs itself, so that was a nice start to the week. During my lone senior class, I handed back the rubrics to their papers, discussed them, went to a lab to have them review the comments I made, and had them fill out a self-evaluation. This class had a high number of plagiarisms in class, which was unusual for them. I had many students try to justify their plagiarism because of how much the score dropped their grade, but since the pre-Christmas Grinch and I lack a heart, I would not relent on their zeroes.  I found out later in the day that these students didn't even write their papers! They paid another student to write their papers, and he plagiarized on his and theirs. I took more than a little smug satisfaction out of that. You can't cheat the house silly kids. iPass and prep came and went, and my Read 180 lab class continued to work on their short stories after a pleasant trip to the IMC and silent reading.

Day 81- "Brace yourselves. Winter is coming." A Game of Thrones

Well, winter came today. I work in a district where typically a 2-hour delay is the equivalent of a unicorn having brunch with Nessie, but today I received a glorious 5:30 am phone call stating we had a delay. Not a bad way to come back after being gone for two days either I might add.

This day actually turned out to be rather easy, and the 30-minute reduced classes helped quite a bit. My first period seniors must have thought the 2-hour delay made school optional because 11 out of 23 showed up, even though they didn't have to arrive until 9:25. My 11 who actually came thought I was going to give them a free day. Ha! I told them we are going on with the lesson as they know it is the responsibility of anyone who is absent to come see me. (Also, the material is not that hard and finals are  a week away. Becuase of our schedule, white/black day students have one less day of instruction, so missing another day was not just an option.) I went over the acceptance and rejection letters with them and they were able to produce their own. I will put my VoiceThread lesson my My Big Campus for the ones who took the day off.

The rest of my classes were given back their persuasive paper rubrics and we went to the IMC so they could review the comments I made on the papers. I also had them fill out a self-evaluation for the paper and ripped them a little bit for being so lazy with their grammar. I have them submit their papers via Google Docs, and unlike Microsoft Word, Docs does not auto correct capitalization errors on the first word of a sentence and I", so a vast majority of them had these very basic errors. Their laziness cost them better grades, and they have no one to blame but themselves. I am looking forward to reading their feedback on their evaluations because I want to know what I can do better next time.

Day 80- Sick day with a twist- "Are you talking to me?" Taxi Driver

I had to take another sick day today, but I wanted my lesson to be taught. Today I was going to cover business letters, specifically acceptance and rejection letters. With a substitute, I never know if I'm going to competent person or a corpse who steals my Sharpie pens, so I trust very little to be done when I'm gone. In order to remedy this, I used a website called VoiceThread to teach my lesson. I uploaded the letters to this site, then I recorded what I would say if I were in the classroom. I typically do a discussion and inquiry with my students, drawing the answers I want from them, but obviously I couldn't do that with this. I was able to do an audio modeling of these letters for my class though, then they were given templates to follow to write their own. Hopefully this will be successful and something I can use for a planned absence in the future.

Edit note: I had a few students tell me they thought it was cool how I used the VoiceThread and it was better than having a sub try to explain things.

Day 79- Sick Day

I had to take a sick day today. It was a black day, so Read 180 ran itself while my lone senior class typed their resumes.

Day 78- "Why are you always giving me your resume?" A Few Good Men

My first period class was a repeat of the resume activity for yesterday, and the rest of my classes actually build their resumes on computers in the IMC. I had a template that they could follow according to what we discussed yesterday in class. Unfortunately, Google Docs doesn't have a resume template or format the Word template well, so the students had to use Word and print them off. This will be the first mass hard copy grading I will do all semester, so that will bring back memories of last year. I emphasized to them that I would be very strict on grammar, so they better pay attention to it. Based on their attention to detail in their compositions, my confidence is not high.

Day 77- "I have fired up my resume, as I suggested all of you do as well." Despicable Me

14 days with students, 15 days total. Not like I'm counting down or anything. With our schedule being what it is, and our black day students receiving one less day of instruction than the other days, this means I only have 8 class periods (7 for black days) before finals start. As a collective of senior teachers, we decided to spend these last couple of weeks instructing the students in some business and technical writing. This is completely different that composition writing, and some of our students may be doing some of these type of writing shortly after graduation. Today, we started with resumes. We went over dos and don'ts for resumes, proper formatting, what should be on a resume, and how important grammar and spelling are to show an employer that an applicant pays attention to detail. The classes did a good job with know what was supposed to be and not supposed to be on a resume and they were fairly engaged. I believe since most of them are looking for jobs or want to be working, this was very relevant to them and they wanted to do this so they could have a resume for their job search.

Day 76- "If all the animals on the equator were capable of flattery, then Thanksgiving and Hallowe'en would fall on the same date." Ocean's Twelve

Black Tuesday on a shortened schedule due to a pep session: best way to start a 5 day break. My lone senior class did our thankfulness activity (which they struggled with being the day before break), iPass and prep, then my Read 180 lab class did the thankfulness activity as well after our 20 minutes of SSR. They actually probably did the best job with this of any of my classes.

After school, many of us met at a local establishment for a much needed meeting. I love my department and the people who choose to associate with us at these outings. A good time was, as always, had by all.

Day 75- "We've got ANOTHER holiday to worry about. It seems Thanksgiving Day is upon us." Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

This is the start of a two day week, and of course, it has to start on a white day. Since the seniors papers are due tomorrow, we are doing a different writing activity for today. My first period class was a redux of Friday (creative writing), and my others classes all did a couple activities themed around Thanksgiving. First, I had them list 100 things they were thankful for. This was a task that proved very difficult for them. After a few minutes, I allowed them to work with partners to help jog their memories of other things or ideas that they are thankful for. After that, I had each of them choose a teacher or staff member in the school, and write a short thank you letter to that person indicating that they were thankful for them and what that adult means for them. I thought students would reject this, but they all had people in the building they were thankful for, so hopefully those teachers who received the letters will be encouraged. Also, writing a letter or note to someone stretches most people as it is not easy at times to show gratitude.

Day 74-" I thought you didn't believe men and women could be friends." When Harry Met Sally

Today beings our last 3 day cycle before Thanksgiving break. With my seniors last paper due on Tuesday, which is our last day before break (for some reason we don't go on Wednesday, but no one is complaining), I thought we could some different types of writing for the next couple of days. Today, we had a creative writing day with our marathon writing activity. My third period class stole the day for with a lively, riveting discussion on can guys and girls really be friends. The class was a modern day "When Harry Met Sally" argument with the solution being that the debate still continues to rage on.

I have a new Thanksgiving related writing lesson I'm going to try out next week, so hopefully my students haven't already checked out when Monday rolls around.

Day 73- “I asked him if it were a mirage, and he said yes." Smoke and Mirrors

Oh black day, you are the oasis of my week. New unit with my Read 180 group, peer review with my seniors, iPass, prep, then character development and setting development for the Read 180 lab groups' short stories. My seniors did a much better job with their peer feedback this time, and I'm sure this will translate into better papers for their final papers of the semester.

Day 72- "What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?" Groundhog Day

For a white Wednesday, this was an non-stressful day. My English 12 classes peer reviewed their rough drafts of their persuasive papers, and my Read 180 lab class explored what makes a good fiction story. After exploring those elements, I put the class in groups so they could brainstorm what problem they would like to write about in a fiction story. They are going to write a group story in the next few weeks, so I wanted them to start from scratch and work together to develop a background from a story.

Cluster was, as always, an experience. I still feel when I ask direct questions I don't received direct answers in return, but I am fairly adept at sifting through the double-speak. Still feels like Groundhog Day. At least next week we only have to meet for a bagel.

Day 71- "My boy is wicked smart." Good Will Hunting

Today was the last writing day of the semester of my red/white classes. They are having a hard time with the process of writing. By this I mean they just want to turn in a final copy. I completed grading their pro/con essays, and while the content was what I was looking for, their grammar took a turn for the worse. Almost all of them admitted to not proofreading their paper (when we peer review, we don't make grammar changes due to research showing that peers tend to make the grammar errors worse). We have used Google Docs all semester to write and submit papers, and Docs does not perform some of the automatic grammar corrections that Microsoft Word performs, and in the amazingly proficient laziness, they do not check their papers for errors. I have informed them I will be the toughest I have been all semester on grammar, so they better make sure they revise their papers. Ok, I'm off my box now. Anyway, I made them make more of an effort to have a paper to revise and edit (meaning I made it worth more against them if they didn't have a draft). They seem to think they can just write and turn something in, and they can't. Heck, no one can. They at least produced some competent drafts, which I'm hoping will turn in to effective revision and well written final draft.

I had my post-eval for my observation from Friday today. My observer tried to get me to admit that modeling is essential at all times, but he couldn't get me to do it. I admitted that I model new skills, but at this point I have expectations for my classes and I want to see what they can do. I told him I didn't do my modeling he saw for all my classes due to the student in my other classes, and that is how it should be at this point in the semester. I'm not sure he agreed, but that doesn't surprise me since modeling everything we do, and yes, I mean EVERYTHING, is our new cluster obsession. I received a solid score, and with my wicked genius IQ I was able to quickly calculate that I need an average of a 1.4 on my next two evals to have my job next year. Since all my scores have been double that, I can virtually sleep in my next two evals and be "effective". Oh the points I want to prove with that theory.

Day 70- "Are you threatening me?/ I'm just giving you some free advice, doctor. I suggest you take it." Hard Rain

Today was a very typical black day. I had a nice repeat of the analysis lesson I did on Friday, and this class did very well. As goofy as this class is, they are my highest performing class. They drive me crazy at times! iPass was a productive as I had students come in and begin working on their last papers, and I was able to get some of the papers graded that were turned in late. I hope they take my 3:00 p.m. deadline next Tuesday seriously, because I am sticking to it. I didn't threaten them will failure, I just promised them I wouldn't accept late work.

Day 69- "You want me to get up on the table and dance for you? Shine your shoes? Smile atchu?" Ocean's Eleven

Today rounded out a very frustrating week of teaching. Let me clarify that last statement. Teaching was great this week, but dealing with the conflicting ideologies of our department, well most the school, and those of our "master teachers". I taught a lesson today in English 12 where we analyzed a non-fiction opinion article from the Indianapolis Star where the students were pull out the pieces where the author is showing support for his argument and providing relevance to the reader. We have done activities such as this all semester long, and we just analyzed another piece of persuasive writing last week. I read through a couple paragraphs with my class and pulled out the pieces where I found the author doing the above techniques. After that I had them finish reading the article and pull out the pieces on their own, then they discussed their findings with a partner, and finally we shared out as a class. During one of my lessons, a "master teacher" stopped by to see how my modeling was going. With this being day 46 of a 60 day instructional day semester, I found it was time to pull back a little from my students, to take off the training wheels, and to see if they could ride for themselves. Apparently, my lesson wasn't very effective because I didn't hold their hands and show them on the SMART Board what I would underline or highlight. My question was at what point in the year, and keep in mind these are seniors, do we pull back the hand-holding and expect them to have a certain knolwedge of skills? Do we show them every single task every single time until the day we hand them a diploma? At what point do we have high expectations and academic rigor for our classes? How is constant hand-holding this late in the semester preparing these kids for college? By this point in the semester, and with this being their senior year, I have expectations of my students and they should be able to do these tasks. I asked today, and also two days ago, where the line is between modeling and expectations for our students, and I did not receive an answer. I believe my students need to be expected to be able to do some tasks, especially a task I have modeled and they have done throughout the semester, without me modeling how to highlight or underline. My department agrees with me, actually every teacher I have talked to in the building agrees with me, except for the four who are in charge of our professional development. It feels like Groundhog Day here sometimes.

To end the day, on the last period of a no prep white day, one of the four horsemen came in to do my unannounced observation. I had a response that probably shouldn't be reproduced on here when I saw him enter my room. Anyway, I did the song and dance that they want because my job depends on it, but it was just not the way I wanted my day to end.

Day 68- "I'm invisible. Can you see me?" Mystery Men

Today was a fairly good day from a teaching standpoint, but from the standpoint of a teacher, it was highly frustrating. My Read 180 class had an assessment, so that was easy. My English 12 classes where tasked with starting their persuasive papers, and I was able to have some good conversations with many of my students on their writing and where this last paper was going. I did give them a "do or die" due date, so hopefully they will take that seriously and not fail their last paper due to complete and other slothfulness.

I want to go on a rant about the lack of voice I feel my colleagues and I have, but I am using a rare moment of good judgement and refraining. I will just say that its very irritating when we are told we are the best around, our opinions are asked about issues, and then the complete opposite is done. It's not quite as big a grievance as it was last year, but it's constant. We are being beaten not down, but into apathy. I'm tired of feeling like a ghost in the fog.

Day 67- "There's no place like home." The Wizard of Oz

I don't when the last time was that I missed consecutive days of school. It's an odd feeling being gone from school for what feels like a very long time, but in reality, was only about 12 school hours. Feels like being on vacation for a month and coming home. Also, coming back to a black day is a fantastic way to ease back into getting all caught up. Thankfully, I didn't get tapped on my first day back, but I kept looking down the hallway waiting for one of the four horseman to come my way. This will actually probably be a common practice for me until they ride in on one of their horses for my unannounced observation.

Read 180 was a review day, and my lone English 12 class had a research day. iPass, prep, and my lab class rounded out my day. Nothing much to report. Oh! I wasn't put in the front of the room in cluster this time! I'm sure that will be remedied next week though.

Day 66- Sick Day

Home again today to help take care of my wife and kids as she is recovering. My classes were tasked with research today, so I hope they were mature enough to spend that time wisely.

Day 65- Sick Day

I missed today to take care of my wife who was very ill. My students were left with an assignment we did with our previous paper to help them narrow down their topic and come up with a thesis for our next paper. This is mostly facilitation from a teaching standpoint. Thank you Joe Akers from HWP for this wonderful activity.

Day 64- "Sane is boring." R.A. Salvatore

Black Fridays need to be more prevalent than just once every three weeks. I love them, and they are almost like an extra 1/2 day weekend for me. Well, they aren't that easy, but its a fantastic way to end a week. This week felt as if it would never end. It's hard to believe it's only the second week back from fall break because that feels like fall break was months ago. Maybe I should check my totem.

My Read 180 class starting formulating their rough drafts, my second period class went through persuasive language, and I had a student try to persuade me to take him to McDonald's for lunch. He failed miserably. I did have a fantastic slippage of a euphemism that virtually ended all effectiveness of my class, which always makes for great teacher talk. I was instructing my students on an effective method to write a persuasive paper, and I may have said "You need to build to a climax and really ram it home..." Yep, that happened. Thankfully iPass and prep consumed my next 3 hours, so I was able to recover before my Read 180 writing lab. I was able to get some grading done during iPass, but my three senior school-adopted daughters came in, so it wasn't as productive as it could have been. I love those kids though. My day ended with my Read 180 lab where the students read for 20 minutes then typed up their final draft of their memoir. A day full of writing, my favorite students, and euphemisms is not a bad way to end a long week.

Day 63- "Words have power." Blackout

White days kick my arse, especially when first period is a little bit goofy and doesn't want to listen or be very engaged. They were engaged with the movie clips I showed, but there are just a couple goofy students who just make even a good lesson difficult at times. This is a bright class that does well, but a few students still act like freshmen. I have a feeling their papers they just turned in won't be as well written as their last ones, so maybe that fear of failure will help them shape up. Anyway, after that class I reviewed ethos, pathos, and logos, then showed examples of persuasive writing and language. We analyzed the first part of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech and examined the emotive and persuasive language and techniques in the speech. They seemed to do a great job of pulling out the persuasive language and realizing how emotion and symbolism can be used to persuade. Hopefully their understanding will carry into their papers as well. I'm pretty happy that "Tommy Boy", "Rudy", "Braveheart", "The Lorax", and Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything for Love" all made appearances in my lessons these last two days.

Day 62- "Helen, let me tell you why I suck at sales." Tommy Boy

Today was the beginning of instruction on persuasion. I really was hoping I would get observed today because I really loved my lesson, but alas, no dice. I showed them the three appeals or persuasive techniques of ethos, pathos, logos, then showed them commercials and movie clips where different persuasion techniques are used. The best one I used was a scene from Braveheart where Mel Gibson hits all three techniques in one two-minute speech. I was able to find and show a variety of clips that were engaging and showed a variety of different persuasion techniques in different circumstances. They were highly engaged and the lesson seemed to be very effective. At the end of class, I had them write an advertisement to try to sell a product to someone. They had to write two ads, and the products they had to choose from were jalapeno pretzels, a Scentbug air freshener, and a Batman thermal travel cup. They were fairly into the assignment after watching all the video clips, and I'm anxious to read their ads.

The day ended with cluster, which all I can really safely say about it is that it happened and no one got in trouble. I seem to routinely be right in the front of the room though. I don't believe this is coincidence either.

Day 61- "Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose." Bill Gates

I'm exhausted. My senior class that meets on black days tests me. They are a bright group, but extremely lazy. We peer reviewed our papers today, but many of them had very little written and weren't really into the activity like my other classes were. I will have to be much more structured with this group on how I make them do their peer revisions for our last paper and make them have some sort of rough draft due to evaluate. They don't take the writing process (I hate that phrase, but I'm not sure at this point what is a better description of it) seriously enough in my opinion. This class thinks they can slack off because they did better on their first papers than my other classes did, but if I had to wager, I would bet those scores aren't so high this time.

My Read 180 lab class started brainstorming and writing their rough drafts for their memoir papers. They are doing well with the writing workshop, but I want to really push them to make them better writers and readers.

Day 60- "We write to taste life twice, in the moment and retrospect." Anais Nin

Today was a fairly routine day in the world of writing. My first period English 12 class spent their last day in the lab writing their pro/con essays, while my other English 12 classes spent their class time doing peer revisions. I don't think many of them really take peer revision as a serious enough process. They do it, and they go through the motions, but I do not believe they see the value in it. I'm not sure I did at their age, and I probably didn't in college either. I need to figure out how to make them value this part of writing. There a couple mandates I could have for them that would make them actually take more time doing this, but getting them to value it is a completely different animal.

For my Read 180 lab class, we starting diving into doing writing workshop. I am using Nancie Atwell's Lessons that Change Writers as my curriculum and guide. I think this is a fantastic book, and I'm hoping it makes my struggling readers and writers become more accomplished. For this class, I introduced writing territories and we brainstormed as a class and as individuals what our own personal writing territories will be.

Day 59- "Bad improvisors block action, often with a high degree of skill. Good improvisors develop action." Malcolm Gladwell's Blink

Today I had planned to have my English 12 classes partake in peer review, but since my substitute on Wednesday didn't follow my plans, and my students are convinced she may be a customer of Los Pollos Hermanos' special dessert, I had to completely improvise. Since most of the work I had planned for Wednesday did not get completed, and this is the toughest paper my students will be writing this semester, I decided to give them a day to write and take specific time to conference with them, especially the ENL students and students who are struggling in class. It ended up being a productive day, and the students had rough drafts to review for Monday's class. In the end, I guess it all works out.

Day 58- "If you give orders and leave, the work won't get done"- Portuguese proverb

Coming back from being out is always interesting because I never know how much the sub covered. The only real class I had today was my English 12 class, and they were writing in the IMC, so it was fairly easy. I have a feeling based on the notes from my sub and talking to my students between classes, that my sub screwed me and peer review won't be happening tomorrow. I guess I'll be improvising.

I am going to have to change my seating chart for my Read 180 class. It can only help, but this class is just a struggle to exist. If they don't shape up in life, they won't even be able to serve my daily fry or coke intake from McDonald's.

Today is Halloween, but due to alleged horrific storms we will be having tonight, no trick-or-treating until tomorrow night. This will be a very uneventful Halloween, but at least I was able to wear jeans and a t-shirt to work today. I really do believe I am the most effective teacher I can be in this attire.

Day 57- Sick Day

I had to take a sick day today to take care of the family. Luckily, it fell on a white Wednesday! It was an easy day to miss as all my classes were in the lab typing their papers. If they need assistance, I can help during the next two iPass periods.

Day 56- "And so it beings." Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Today began the start of our second papers for English 12. I am giving them two class days to work on this one because it is fairly difficult, and I want to be able to work with them and assist them as much as possible. I gave them a small handout on the paper requirements, as well as a copy of the rubric. I also reminded them if they needed a refresher on in-text citations or MLA formatting, that those lessons were on the My Big Campus website and they could also come see me during iPass. Many of the students began working right away, especially at trying to remember (or for many of them, for the first time) formatting their papers in MLA format. Quite a few asked for assistance, but they mainly just needed reassurance as their writing was fairly solid for an initial draft. I'm looking forward to reading these papers in about a week and seeing how their writing has improved over the last month or so.

Day 55- "We go no food, we got no jobs...OUR PETS HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!!" Dumb and Dumbrer

First day back from a two-week break, and it was a little bit of a cluster. First, Skyward (a.k.a. Skynet) thought today was a red day and not the black day that it truly was. (Although if Skynet says it was a red day, part of me fears we should listen.) The wi-fi was down until about 1:00, which doesn't go over so well in a school that is using Chromebooks for some classes and technology use by students is greatly encouraged. A server was also down rendering the IMC and its bank of 90 computers useless. Also starting today, part of the school that has been under construction was opened making new traffic patterns and confusing student and teachers alike. The irony of all the technology issues was that our bandwidth was supposed to be doubling over fall break, but it wasn't even working the majority of the day. Oh, and apparently I'm teaching at Howarts. Wonder where platform 9 3/4 leads.

Anyway, today being a black day was about as great a way to start break as I could imagine. First period was the beginning of a Tim O'Brein short story, second period was research day in the lab, third was iPass, fourth lunch, and fifth was the writing section of Read 180. We actually spent most of the class period reading and in the IMC gathering books to read since they had been gone for the break. Overall, an easy but chaotic day to return from break. 

Fall Break- "There is never enough time to do all the nothing you want." Cavlin and Hobbes

It never ceases to amaze me how two weeks can feel like two days. I think partly because I had soccer the whole first week of break, it really didn't feel like a break. Anyway, we won Sectionals again, but lost 2-1 in Regionals to Center Grove. It was a great season, and I'm very proud of the boys. I usually have a "what the heck do I do now" feeling when soccer ends, but with soccer ending on a break, it feels a little bit different.

It was a nice, relaxing break just hanging out with my family with really nothing to do except spend time together.  We went to the Colts-Broncos game, hit a couple pumpkin patches, played video games, watched movies, read (many hours worth, but not enough), and slept as much as I could. After a grueling soccer season, that time with them is very necessary. I think the comic below explains all breaks the best though.

Day 54- "When all else fails, take a vacation." Betty Williams

Last day before a two-week break, and of course, it would be a flipping white day. With this class be the exact same class that meets on second period of the Monday when we return, I figured it should be something that requires very little memory recall on the student's part. Due to this unconventional break in classes (white and black days being 2 weeks apart), today was deemed a research day. The students need multiple, quality sources for their next paper, and since we are going to start writing as soon as we return, all their research needs to be completed for them to stay above water. A day spent in the IMC can be a slow day, but I felt it was best with how the schedule played out. I won't see these classes until Tuesday after break, which will most definitely have to be a review day.

Sectional finals are tomorrow, and although we are the favorite to win, I'm still incredibly nervous. I think the expectations are what is making me nervous. Once the game starts, I'll be fine, but it will be a long, slow day tomorrow.

Day 53- "Anyone who undertakes the literary grind had better like playing around with words." Roy Blount Jr.

Two more days until break! This break is coming at a odd time in my writing class schedule. We are ready to begin our next paper, but with a two-week break coming up, it would be fruitless to start it now. I gave them today to work on their introductions and organization of their papers. I conferenced with the vast majority on their introductions and we discussed how it could be written better. Hopefully they will take the advice they were given and make their introductions much more powerful.

Day 52- "Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting." A Thousand Splendid Suns

Usually I love black Wednesdays since it's a saving crazy from cluster meetings, but today I'm not a fan. Today, we had our first sectional soccer game, and we don't play until 5:30. Although black days tend to be easy days for me, they sometimes drag with iPass and prep back-to-back. Today was a slow, long day. It was any easy day as my only real class I had to teach was a repeat of yesterday, but I swear the clock moved backwards at times. I almost fell asleep in cluster because I'm exhausted and this semester is kicking my arse, but I was kept awake by a riveting read on something from a physics magazine we had to analyze. The writing in the magazine was fairly poor, which irked me a great deal. That wasn't the point of the cluster, but that is what I took away from it.

We won our sectional game 5-0 tonight over rival Roncalli. It was a fantastic bounce back win after a couple heartbreaking losses. We are again in the finals on Saturday. If we play as we should, we should be hoisting another trophy around 8:30.

Day 51- "Didn't we just leave this party?" Star Wars

Dang. White days beat the crap out of me. My first period class did the activity on pro/con organization, while my other classes did a review of in-text citations. I don't feel I did a very thorough job of teaching it the first time, and the students papers showed it. I won't take all the blame though as they admitted to being lazy and not following directions as well. I emphasized this time that without a bibliography or in-text citations, they would earn a zero for plagiarism. I broke down in-text citations as simply as I could, gave them a hand-out, and a sample essay where they had to put in the correct in-text citations. Once I broke it down this time, they all seemed to understand it. I think they were surprised at how simple the citations are to actually do because they thought it was some complex process. Maybe now that they realize its a simple task, they will actually take the time to do it. If not, well, they may have the opportunity to try again next year.

I really don't feel I taught this topic well the first time around, but after today, I feel they really have a grasp on it. This is something to definitely keep in mind next year when I teach this so I can do a better job instructing it the first time around.

Day 50- "I love it when a plan comes together." The A-Team

This is the last Monday before our two-week fall break, and I'm seriously very unmotivated to do much. I'm at a lull in English 12 were we are very close to getting ready to start our next papers, but I don't want to start them until we are back from break. Today's lessons ended up not be as long as I had originally planned, so I'll have to add to it for my one class tomorrow. I ended up just giving my classes more time to plan for their papers than I had originally planned. I showed them today two different ways to organize a pro/con essay. They did a fairly decent job of comparing the two styles and discussing which topics may be more suitable for which organizational style. I then allowed them to have time to show me how they would organize their essays with a handout I had made. They had more time for this than I had planned, but improvisation is the lifeblood of teaching sometimes.

We ended the day with a thrilling faculty meeting which I walked out of at 3:00 I had soccer practice and had to supervise my team since I don't have a lay coach as the other fall team sports do. I thought I was being a rebel just walking out, but apparently head coaches aren't required to be at faculty meetings during their season. This fall in the information that would have been useful two years ago category. I'm a head coach for my club soccer team too, and we practice November through June. Does that count too?

Day 49- "Shall we play a game?" War Games

This was a quick week, and today was a very non-eventful day. Black days are usually easy, and this black day was no exception. My first period Read 180 class finished up watching Contagion, my only English 12 class of the day did research on their pro/con essays, iPass, prep, and then my Read 180 lab class worked on re-writing and revising their drafts for the narrative paragraphs.

During my prep, I did have my post-evaluation meeting to go over my lesson and receive my TAP score. It went about as I thought it would, and I  was right where I needed to be. My evaluator said it was a ballsy lesson to be evaluated on, but that it worked well. I chose this lesson to be evaluated on because I wanted to prove a point with this whole TAP rubric stuff. I did very little "teaching" in my lesson, and I was only the facilitator of what went on in my classroom. Also, this is a lesson I could use again at any time, and I very well may with a different evaluation and a different evaluator. Sometimes, everything is just a game that must be played, and this is no Kobayashi Maru.

Today was also my school's homecoming. The soccer team was in the parade, and my two oldest boys rode in the truck with me throwing candy to the masses. We stayed for the first half of the game, then we went home were I promptly collapsed and lost consciousness around 10 pm. Yep, asleep at 10 pm on a Friday night. Maybe I need a break soon.

Day 48- "Gentlemen, which brings me to my next point. Don't smoke crack."- The Waterboy

After the marathon writing day, it was time to get back on track with our pro/con paper to end out this three-day cycle. My first class did the marathon writing since they are a day behind due to our different schedule. This class is always interesting, and I never know what is going to be said. I feel as if some of these students could be a poster child for staying off drugs. 

Since we developed our thesis statements earlier this week in my other classes, I decided today would be a good day for the students to get their hands dirty and research their topics. I want to go over organization with them next week, so I figured it would be a grand idea if they had some information to organize. I warned my classes this would not be a paper they could do at the last minute, and the research for this paper was of paramount importance. As I walked around the IMC and answered questions, I believe they took me seriously because they were all looking for information and asking questions about sources. There is hope maybe they are listening in class.

Day 47- "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"- Batman

Today was my first planned TAP observation of the school year. I chose to do my marathon writing lesson for this evaluation, and it fit nicely since we were do for a pure writing day anyway. I chose be evaluated during my Chromebook class, and the students behaved and were engaged well. The prompts the students chose were very creative and allowed for some great thinking and writing. I had some pre-planned prompts that included pictures, movie quotes, and even a bizarre word that students had to make up a definition for. Overall, I was happy with how my classes went today. I won't know how well I danced until Friday though.

Day 46- "Sometimes people need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy." Batman Begins

I needed this black day. My soccer team decided to not play with much effort last night, so we lost our third straight game. We went from 10-0-1 to 10-3-1. I need to figure out how to right this ship, and it just made for a long day.

My lone English 12 class was a repeat of the thesis development my other classes did yesterday. This class took a little longer than the others, but I think that is because, despite their goofiness, they actually take this more seriously than my other classes. They did a great job. I looked at all the thesis statements my classes have written in the past couple of days, and so far I am very pleased with their statements. Hopefully, this will help drive their research.

iPass and prep were fairly routine today. My Read 180 lab class took an assessment today, which took up the entire class. This was an assessment over their first two units, so it will be a good judge as to how they are progressing in the program.

Tomorrow I have my first TAP evaluation of the year. Guess its time to dance.

Day 45- "I'm trying to free your mind Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one who has to walk through it." The Matrix

From a teaching standpoint, today was a very good day. I handed back the rubrics for my first period class, and we discussed their papers. This class had the overall highest average of all my classes on the first paper, which honestly surprised me a little. Their scores could have been much higher if they would have paid attention and not rushed this paper. After this first paper, I realize I didn't do a fantastic job of teaching in-text citations. I need to cover this again and really make sure I am clear, learn from my mistakes, and do better next time. In the rest of my English 12 classes, we continued to develop our thesis statements. I used a lesson to help develop their thesis statements that I saw demonstrated this summer at the Hoosier Writing Project. It is all based on questions, answers, and discussions of each individual question, and students get feedback from a wide variety of their peers. I chose the modify the lesson a little to fit my classroom better, but it worked out very well. It was another day where I showed them what I wanted them to do, and facilitated what they did. As my friend and colleague Sam and I discussed last week, many times learning best takes place when we as teachers just get out of the way.Show them the door, and let them have the courage to walk through it.

If anyone reads this and wants to know what this lesson was and see the guts of it, contact me and I will share the protocol with you.

Day 44- "When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." Ernest Hemmingway

Today is the last day of the grading period. It is also the day I handed back the senior's first essays. There was very little joy in Mudville today as I pretty much lectured my seniors for being lazy and not taking the first paper seriously. The vast majority of the errors for this paper were based on sheer laziness. I made a pictorial of screen shots with step by step directions for the students to follow to format their papers for MLA formatting in Google Docs. I also included how to format the bibliography. Only 6 out of 110 students followed it. When I asked the classes why they didn't follow it, they all said they forgot or just didn't care. I bet they care now. To prove my point that following directions makes their lives easier or better, I gave them a "screw you" test for bell work. The "test" consisted of 20 random pure nonsense questions. The first question told them to read the entire test before they answered any questions. The last question says do numbers 1 and 2. After about 2 minutes, I told them to stop doing the test, and if they were still working, then they didn't follow directions. To a T, about 50%-60% of my classes were still working on the test. Most of the classes were a little shocked I did this to them, but I believe my point was made. Follow freaking directions!

I handed back their essay rubrics (all were submitted online via Google Docs), and the classes went to the IMC so they could all view the comments I made on their essays and I could have a dialogue with the students who had questions on my comments and wanted more feedback. Overall, it was very productive. I also received a note back from a student on one of the notes I made, and her note to me made my day.  This student was 2 days late, so I had to take a percentage off of her essay. Also, the essay grade dropped her to a class grade to a C, which was the first C she ever had on a report card. The note said, "I like how mean you are, it honestly helps. Thanks." Sometimes, maybe, just maybe, what I do does make a difference.

Day 43- "Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn." John C. Maxwell

Black days are always very easy and welcome. My first period class was Read 180, and the students did a word challenge based on their vocab words. My second period is my class that can struggle to keep on task, but 2 students were absent today, so it really made the class run much smoother. Today was the lesson on thesis statements, and they did a fairly decent job. They probably came up with the best thesis statements as a whole group, so I'm hoping they can do the same for their own personal thesis statements for their paper.

Tonight, my soccer team played the #1 team in the state. We lost 2-1 on a heartbreaking goal in the last 2 minutes. The boys played fantastic, and despite the loss, I'm very proud of them.

Day 42- "Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis." Manfred Eigen

So last night was a long night as I didn't home from Bloomington until after 11:00. Also, losing sucks. It was our first loss of the season, and we played like absolute poo. I hate losing. I guess its a good thing that, including club and high school soccer, it was only my 6th loss since January. As cool as that sounds, it doesn't make it any easier. Oh, and today was a white day, so lemon juice was poured into my gaping wound of a day.

First period was the College Go class for that group since we didn't meet yesterday. For my other classes, we discussed thesis statements for an evaluation paper. Every class had a fantastic discussion about how to narrow a thesis statement, make it debatable, and make it as specific as possible. I went over a few topics and how to come up with a solid thesis statement, then I let them develop 3 thesis statements in groups for the legalization of marijuana and the issue of government surveillance. Each class come up with some great thesis questions and statements, and I was very happy with how the lessons went. I then gave them the list of topics they are allowed to choose from for their evaluation paper and gave them a guide to help them develop their thesis question and narrow it down. I also showed them a couple websites on opposing views in context and a pro/con website that has a plethora of information on debatable issues. I just hope my class tomorrow, who is my wild bunch, can mimic the success these classes had today.

Day 41- " You know a lot of people go to college for seven years." Tommy Boy

Since I didn't work yesterday, today is my Monday. This really shouldn't affect me at all since my life is dictated by cycles of red-white-black days, and I rarely know what day of the week it is. I know that today is a red day and I have a soccer game in Bloomington; beyond that, its all a mystery.

This week is College Go week, which means that many Indiana colleges have waived their application fees. Also, a magazine was distributed to all the English classes with specific information regarding college, planning for college, and preparing for college. Every year during this week, I go through the magazine with my seniors and let them spend a day in the IMC to apply for college or do whatever else they need to do, such as FASFA applications, ACT/SAT registration, or just research a college. The vast majority of students actually took this time to use wisely and I was able to help them and answer many of their college questions. I discovered a few years ago that not many of my students have much guidance on their future, so this time is very helpful for them.

I only have 7 essays left to grade of my 110. I should really finish them, but I seemed to have lost my motivation. I believe he is reading a book somewhere or getting caught up on Game of Thrones. I envy him.

Day 40- Sick Day

I took a sick day today. It was a black day, so no new material was to be taught. Its probably the best day to miss, but also my easiest day of the cycles. Oh the catch-22.

Day 39- "We've been fighting a long time. We are out numbered by machines. Working around the clock,without quit. Humans have a strength that cannot be measured. This is John Connor. If you are listening to this,you are the resistance."- Terminator Salvation

I have been making my white days easier recently. My first period class was, as always, a repeat of my classes yesterday. It actually was probably the best discussion of all my classes on the tablets vs textbooks article. This class is always an enigma as to how they will perform on any given day, but today they were a pleasant surprise. The rest of my senior classes were in the lab to do a writing assignment where they summarized the debate topics we discussed about the text vs tablet article. They had to mention 3 pros and 3 cons, and my goal was to see how they organized their writing. This will come into play later.

My Read 180 lab class had the privilege of taking an "assessment" on a reading about rats. This was assigned, and yes I do mean assigned, to our English classes by our professional development team. Not best practice, but choices are limited at this time. This was suggested to be bell work for most classes, yet in talking with a few teachers, this took their classes 20-30 minutes, and it took mine 40. Sometimes I feel the disconnect between non-classroom educators and classroom educators grows daily. Next week's cluster should, as always, be interesting.

Day 38- "This debate is stirring up a lot of excitement." The Great Debaters

Today I was fairly happy with what my English 12 classes did and how engaged they were. In keeping with our theme of evaluation essays, I put the class in 6 groups. I gave everyone an article from procon.org that compared and contrasted the use of tablets vs. textbooks in schools. Everyone was assigned to read the article, but 3 of the groups were assigned to highlight or mark in some fashion the pros of the article while the other 3 were tasked with finding the cons. They read the article individually and made a list of their top 3 pros or cons depending on their group's task. Then, I had them discuss their top 3 in their group and as a group come up with a consensus as to the groups top 3 pros or cons. After the group consensus, I then paired each pro group with a con group and they had to tell the opposite group their pros or cons. Afterwards, I gave them a chance to debate with each other and see if as a whole group or pro and con they could come to a consensus. Only 1 group in all 3 classes came to a consensus. I then listed on the board the top pros and cons of each of the groups, and as a class we discussed other pros or cons that the article didn't mention. I wanted them to see that personal preference may play a role in a person's decision on a debatable topic, but both sides of the topic have relevant information and argue fine points.

Day 37- "Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul." Billy Madison

School today was fairly routine and easy as it was a black day. My first period English class was the lesson from yesterday on finding pros and cons from articles. This class, which is usually a bit squirrelly, did a great job with this activity today. Read 180 and iPass went as scripted, and I was able to get quite a bit done on my prep, despite it being a shortened day. In the Read 180 lab, the students read, then typed a "final draft" of their narrative stories. I had them type them so I could read them, and next we will take them and add more detail to them.

Day 36- "Define irony: Bunch of idiots dancing on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash." Con Air

Today was a quick day. White days always seem to move quickly because I go non-stop, but today seemed quicker than usual. Block 1 was a listing and discussion of debatable topics. This class came up with an excellent list, but I reaffirmed today that this class is not capable at all of choosing their own groups. All my other senior classes can, but this class just does not have that capability. All my other senior classes were on a new day, and I was more like Virgil today with those classes. Keeping with our pro/con paper theme, I gave them an article on social networking that had data about the pros and cons of using a social networking site. They had to read the article, then discuss in small groups the pros and cons they found. Then, we shared out as a class what information they found from the article. The classes did a fairly good job of this, and as a class they found every pro and con. This was a little challenging for some because they wanted to insert their own opinions into the discussion, but I made them stick to strictly what they had read in the article. As an individual assessment, I had them read an article written in a similar fashion about the effects of video game violence on teen behavior, then they had to list 5 pros and cons they found. This was ironic because by sheer coincidence, today was also the release of Grand Theft Auto 5, a video game series that has been blamed for violent youth behavior. I wish I could have this was planned on my part, but it was a true coincidence.

I looked in my Google drive to see how many students had submitted their papers, and save for one class, it appears most of my students did. My second block class seemed to not understand when a paper is due considering I had 12 out of 26 students turn in the paper. My hope is they will finish quickly so they can hopefully earn a decent score. I may be calling a few of them down during iPass. I am stuck between wanting to have some of them come to iPass and make them finish the paper, but they are seniors, and its time that school stopped holding their hand and treated them like an adult. Many of them are adults and have jobs, and college is less than 12 months away. I will make a few parent contacts, but its time for many of them to accept responsibility and be ready to join the real world. Now, I need to do my responsibility and find time to grade these 110 essays. I'm very hopefully the electronic submissions will speed this long, and at times brain numbing, process up.

We had a home game tonight against Franklin Central, our only game of the week. We played a very solid game and won 2-0. I was thrilled with our effort and how we bounced back from two mediocre games on Saturday. We are currently 10-0-1, have 8 straight shutouts, and a state best 2 goals allowed, both of which game in our second and third games on communication issues on corner kicks.

Day 35- "That's debatable." The Office

I was fairly happy with how today's lessons went. Read 180 was the same as always, so not much new going on in a scripted class. In English 12, we started discussing what debatable topics were. I had the classes come up with a list of debatable topics that they could write a pro/con paper on. I was surprised at the depth of topics some of the classes came up with. There was, of course, the staples of legalizing marijuana and lowering the drinking age, but most classes also suggested topics such as later start times for schools, the pending altercation in Syria, corporal punishment, gun control, and minimum wage. They showed they actually pay attention to their world and aren't as lazy and as laissez-faire as they seem.We also discussed fact vs opinion of statements that could be confusing. The statement that stumped them the most was that milk does a body good. They have heard this their entire lives, so they assumed it was a fact. This led to a good discussion on how what we hear isn't always fact, even if we are inundated with it.

Today was also D-Day for their papers be doing. I had a quite a few who didn't have them finished on time. I'm not sure if they didn't think I was serious about the deadline or just thought they could BS me with excuses, but I heard many of them today. I have a feeling that many of them will be shocked with their grades on this first essay, and not in a good way.

Day 34- "Do I feel lucky?" Dirty Harry

Today is black Friday the 13th. Thankfully, this day did not live up to it's ominous name. Black days are an amazing gift, especially after a late night in Bloomington the night before. This was a fairly uneventful day as my first period was Read 180, then my English 12 lesson I taught yesterday, iPass, prep, and the Read 180 lab where the kids started brainstorming for their narrative paragraphs they will write. The English 12 class also got a kick out of all the grammar errors how a simple comma can completely change a sentence. With the seniors having their papers due on Monday, I had a large number of students request iPass passes to work in a lab or my room, and as far as I could tell everyone showed up to their assigned area. They have been given ample time to write their essays, but I have a feeling many have waited until the last minute. I haven't even started grading their essays yet, but I have a feeling many of them will be shocked with their grades.

Day 33- "Did you eat a lot of paint chips as a kid?" Tommy Boy

I'm exhausted, so this will be short. Its never a good night when I get back to school from a game as the 2nd shift custodians are leaving, and I know I'll be back before the 1st shifters arrive. In my English 12 classes on this white day that my never end, we discussed grammar error in sentences and how it can be the difference between being nuts and feeling them with the proper use of your or you're. Also, we talked about how putting a comma in the proper place could save Grandma's life or stop a baby seal from being clubbed. It was a fun lesson, and the kids had a riot with it. I actually had to walk out of my last block "night class" to regain my composure. It was a merry time had by all. Hopefully, they can apply what they learned today and save lives with grammar.

In soccer, we went to Bloomington South tonight and won 3-0. We played a truly complete game, and it made this late night easier. I am not sure it will make the early morning any better though.

Day 32- "Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances." The Wide Window

Today, my lesson was one I stole from Joe who I did the Hoosier Writing Project with. We did peer review of the seniors essays all based on questioning as a reader and not worrying about grammar correction. I will not post the lesson on here, but if anyone ever reads this and they want it, I'll gladly pass it along. This lesson was by far the most effective peer review I have ever had my students do. They were able to review 6-7 papers, which meant they received feedback from 6-7 people on their papers. I instructed them to use the information and feedback they received to drive their future writing and their revisions of this essay. The activity went very well, and I would say almost all of the students took it seriously and did a great job with it. I was very happy with how smoothly the activity went, and I think I can make some improvements from what I learned from it today and make it even better.

Day 31- "An elegant solution for keeping track of reality." Inception.

This was probably my easiest day of the school year so far. Not going to lie, I needed it. My first period Read 180 class was the start of a new unit, so it was just background videos and a little bit of discussion. My sole English class that met began typing their essays, and my Read 180 lab class spent the class time reading and then perusing the library to find interesting books and what other types of reading there is available to them at school. My iPass period was full today because I had quite a few students who wanted to come and use laptops to type their papers. I'm not sure how much work they all accomplished, but they were given plenty of time to type this first essay, so there should be no excuses for it being late. I do enjoy iPass for this reason, and it gives me time to check in with struggling students, but at times I'm not sure its the sacrifice of my daily prep. I work every single minute of my prep and I still feel like I do not get much accomplished. It's hard, and I'm exhausted. I currently live my teaching live three days at a time. I am living in 3-day cycles and my days of the week have turned into colors. I need to check my totem.

Day 30- "Are you watching closely?" Prestige

White Mondays rival white Wednesdays in the longest day of my week category. Part of that is due to picking up O from his soccer practice after my soccer practice, but both days pretty much suck.

With it being a white day, my first class was a repeat of my Friday classes where we discussed conclusions. I think this class did the best job with their group conclusions and understanding how to write an effective conclusion. I won't know until I grade their individual writing of them, but as a whole, they seemed to do the best job. My other senior classes began writing their essays today. I was a little shocked at how many of them couldn't follow or refused to follow the MLA format handout I gave them. I think most of them didn't take me seriously as to the format because not many of them were using the handout. Following directions is important kids. They have a week to write their papers, and we are going to peer review the papers on the next red day. I'm excited to try the peer review activity that I learned at the HWP this summer, so hopefully it will go well. 

For my Read 180 lab, I did put in place an activity I learned at the HPW. I had the students find a partner and then turn a desk so one partner faced the SMART Board and one faced away from it. I then put a picture of some street art on the board, and they had to describe in vivid detail to their partner what they saw. The street art pictures were optical illusions, and there were many other details in the picture. I wanted them to learn how what they see and what they write and say are different, and they need to be as descriptive as possible in their writing so the reader can get a clear picture of what is being described. They really enjoyed this activity, especially discovering the cool types of street art. For those who care, these are the images I used:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglNkWomvSXHv7ZyKXW1OKmtMQzEc4NfJSHO2II-Ezd-QJvcJ0QY0UhXy1i1-dkOj2DOqASF2KjJaLBwI0VQtapiv1A2IjKtQqedKxGKSl9lqmkfSl1gZHJTFlJrPRWhXjAoIOrvVO9gZwD/s640/3d+Street+Art02.jpg

http://clinock.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/banksy-graffiti-street-art-flower.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llbpzqj8AH1qipk8io1_500.jpg

Day 29- "I'll see you again. This side, or the other." The Town

Today was the last day of prep work before the students started their first paper. I showed them MLA formatting, then I showed them a PPT that gave them a step-by-step pictorial of how to set up MLA formatting in Google docs. If they can't follow this handout, well, then maybe they need to take a class on how to follow directions. After the paper dress code was established, we discussed conclusions. We discussed how a good conclusion wraps up an essay, and we went through strategies to make a conclusion effective. I had them get in groups and write a group conclusion based on a silly introduction I wrote on origins of bowling, then I had them read an essay written by a high school senior. I blacked out the conclusion of this essay, and I instructed them to write their own conclusions based on what the read and the elements of a good conclusion we discussed in class. Hopefully, they will do well.

The highlight of the day was something unexpected. In all my classes, I have students read something aloud to the class at the beginning of each class. They have signed up for this, and they do it twice a semester. I tell them they can read anything that is school appropriate. Some choose parts of books, some read song lyrics, some read a few quotes that they like, and others read material they have actually written. Today's reading will go down as one of my favorites: a student read a letter her brother had written her from prison. I was amazed at the courage this girl showed to read something so personal to her classmates. She told us she received the letter three weeks ago and hoped to receive another soon. She told us she misses him, and this is their only form of communication. Times like these remind me that no matter how stressed or tired I am, I have nothing to complain about and some of my students truly have very difficult lives. I have a very blessed life.

Day 28- "I don't need easy. I just need possible." Soul Surfer

iPass and prep back-to-back on this black Thursday were extremely welcome. I'm exhausted and need a break. I have personal and sick days, but it would be so much more work to not be at school. I will forge on and sleep when I'm dead.

In Read 180, we recently finished our unit on survivors. Bethany Hamilton was one of the survivors the students read about, so I decided to show them "Soul Surfer" and do a comparison of the film to the non-fiction story we read. We watched the first part, then discussed the similarities and differences between what they saw and what they read. They did a great job of analyzing the similarities and difference they found.

My sole English 12 class today discussed introductions, and it was probably the most effective lesson I taught on the subject. I guess the 4th time is the charm. Now, if only I could get that class to turn in their freaking homework, I would be getting somewhere.

For the Read 180 lab, we did another day of marathon writing. They students really like this, and at times I'm not sure they realize they are actually writing more in one period than they probably did all of last school year. This is also a great way for me to get to know my students better and I'm always surprised what I learn about them.

In soccer, we played our nemesis Perry Meridian tonight. We played our best game of the season and probably the best game we have played since September of last year and won 2-0. Its much easier to sleep after a win, but right now, sleep may not be an issue, no matter what.

Day 27- "Call me Ishmael"- Moby Dick

For a white Wednesday full of teaching, this was a pretty solid day. In English 12, I covered introductions and effective leads. I was able to put into practice the lesson I taught this summer at the Hoosier Writing Project, and I think it went fairly well in all my classes. I combined the lesson I used last for teaching introduction and I bettered it by using my demo from the HWP and what I learned in that amazing 13 days. For this lesson, we discussed as a class what makes a good beginning to a book or movie and what elements of those really captivate us. I then showed a few different types of leads in movies, and we talked about what made them interesting. I then asked them to tell me if they could remember any books they have read in school or for pleasue (um yeah, right) and how they began. There were very few examples since the vast majority of my student's daily intake of words comes from Twitter, but almost all of them remembered how To Kill a Mockingbird begins. They read this book as freshmen, and even the ones who claimed they never read a word of it remembered how it began with Jem having a broken arm. We discussed how to turn these concepts from books and movies into an interesting introductory paragraph for an expository essay. I showed them a model introduction I wrote if I was writing an essay on a destination as will be their first assignment. To end class, I had them write an introduction for their essays. I told them this didn't have to be perfect introduction and they should revise their writing anyway, but I want to see if they have the correct elements for an introduction. I'm hoping I don't see any of these introductions on their actual essays because that means they are at least revising in some way. Baby steps I guess.

Day 26- "I thought you looked like Christmas morning."- Mr. and Mrs. Smith

I'm going to be off all week. I have a hard enough time knowing what actual day it is, but since this week starts on a Tuesday, I might as well not even try. I know today was a red day, so I guess in the SHS world that is about all that matters.

In Read 180, the students took a vocab quiz and we discussed the answers. Fairly mundane. In English 12, we discussed word choice and how use more descriptive words instead of good, bad, nice, fine, like, etc. I showed a couple Ted Ed videos, discussed some real life examples of slang and cliches and how they can be misinterpreted, and put the students in groups to come up with a list of words they could substitute for good or bad. An example I gave them was a guy and a girl go on a date where they order pizza. The guy says that the pizza was good. His date asks how she looks, and he replies she looks good. I told the girls their date just used the same word to describe them that he used to describe his pizza. The girls didn't really appreciate being compared to a pizza, so I think the point was made. The students came up with very descriptive lists for both vague words. I ended the classes with an exercise where they had to made sentences more concise, eliminate cliches, and remove slang. Hopefully, in their writing I will see less informal language and more vivid, descriptive language.

Day 25- "Excellent. But you learned a lot, right?"- Inception

Well, this posting isn't happening until Monday night, which is Labor Day. Friday night I literally passed out on my bed before 10 p.m. with my shoes still on. It was the end to a very exhausting week. I am a night owl, and with my occasional insomnia, even being in my bedroom before 10 p.m. is the rarest of all occasions. I slept for 10 hours that night, which is probably as much as I slept the previous two nights.

Friday was an easy, almost boring day. The first class was Read 180, and we went over some grammar corrections in the small group part, and the students worked on the computer software during their computer time. During English 12, this group went to the library to do research for their destination topics. I had many students come to me for iPass passes to do research during that time as well, and according the records, almost all of them showed up to do it. There shouldn't be any excuse for my classes not having their research done. iPass and prep followed, and I was able to get my lessons all planned out for the next week. The last period was my Read 180 lab, where the students read and I had time to conference with them on their paragraph writing assignment. Some are getting it, others aren't. I am not sure if its laziness or lack of skills. I will keep forging on to find out.

The day ended by going to the first home football game of the season. We left after the first quarter when the game was pretty much already in hand. I took a few pretty cool pictures of the night's festivities. 

The Labor Day weekend was more eventful than I had anticipated with sick kids and an attack by some very angry hornets. I'm hoping that wasn't a sign of things to come this week.

Day 24- "It must be true. I found it on the internet."- Every kid since 1995.

Today was a very long day, as white days tend to be, but it was not a bad day. My first period class was my red day discussion on expository writing and topic selection, and it went well. I did have one girl who wanted to do research and visit the forest moon of Endor, and there was no way I could deny her that! The rest of my classes were in the lab doing their research. I'm allowing them one class period for research in case they have trouble getting started and need my help. Almost all of my students were working hard and found some very valuable information. I did have one student who was being very finicky about where she wanted to visit and write about, so she kept changing her mind. I may have told her to look up Westeros, specifically the region of Winterfell. I also may have let her look at websites for 5 minutes before I told her it was fictional. I repeated many times that a wiki site is not an acceptable source of information, unless they actually go to the footnote listed. One student told me she never uses anything but Wikipedia and she sees the need for research pointless. I told her she would probably not do well in this class. She still has a hard time believing that a wiki site isn't acceptable doctrine for life. Yep, these are my students.

I've determined that days in the lab are dull and boring. My day goes much quicker when I am teaching all day. I believe these initial lab days are necessary, but I'm glad I won't be doing them very often.

We had a game tonight, so that is the main reason my day was long. Leaving home at 6:15 a.m. and returning at 10:30 p.m. just makes me tired. We won 5-0 and played fairly well though, so that always makes the ending to a long day better. I'm sure I'll sleep better tonight than I did after Tuesday's draw.

Day 23- "Good. Where we going?" Ocean's Twelve

Today started the last lesson I had to plan for this week. I can get on board with the last lesson I have to plan landing on a Wednesday. Then again, it is also a Wednesday, so that means cluster after school. I can't ever escape that catch-22.

In Read 180, we did a lesson on grammar and punctuation, and I gave the students time to look over their papers and correct any grammar errors they had. They seemed to grasp the punctuation errors we were talking about, but we are editing the papers tomorrow, so I guess we will see how practically they were able to apply what we discussed.

In my English 12 classes, we discussed expository writing and topic selection for our first papers. The word "expository" seemed to confuse many of them, but when I defined it and had the classes tell me examples of it they see in everyday life, the length and newness of the word lost its intimidation over them. For their first papers, I am having them write on a place they want to live or visit, but it cannot be a place they have lived. The reason for this is two-fold: 1. last year my seniors were able to chose any topic at all, and many of them had a hard time staying on point, 2. this is what at least one Ivy Tech class does for their first paper, and since our curriculum was modeled after theirs, it seemed to be a logical choice of narrowed topic. We also had class discussions about what specifically they could write about (legends, attractions, history, etc), so I think the fear of having to write 500 words is starting to dissipate some. I am betting I don't have papers under 550, and they will be surprised how easy writing 500 words on a researched based topic is.

The school day ended with cluster, which was on thinking. Oh, the irony. Soccer practice then followed, which I cut a little short in light of it being the hottest day of the year, a game yesterday and a game tomorrow. Hopefully, we can bounce back from the disappointing tie and play better tomorrow.

Day 22- "We will be perfect, in every aspect of the game." Remember the Titans

Today was about as an uneventful day as I have had this year, which was welcome. Read 180 went smoothly this morning, even with the disruption for picture day. (Speaking of pictures, I wore a button down shirt for pictures, and my colleagues reacted as if I was wearing a 3-piece suit. Guess I don't realize how casual I always dress.) My one English 12 class today was my Jeopardy review and marathon writing from yesterday. This Jeopardy was the most competitive one of all my classes, and someone finally answered the $500 question on the "grammar errors" category correctly! Finally Jeopardy still foiled them as they too literally failed to see the writing on the wall. This class too loved the writing about what annoyed them and their pet peeves, but this class has some talkers who like think writing is talking, so it can be a struggle to reign them in once they get going. iPass and prep were very productive today, as was necessary. The Read 180 lab class read and wrote their rough drafts for the expository paragraphs. We will take some time to really work on these to hammer out a good, solid paragraph so we can get the basics for more writing.

We had a game tonight against Franklin Community, a team who has beaten us the last two seasons. We played to a 1-1 tie despite outshooting them 18-6, owning probably 70% of the possession, and playing a man down for the last 20 minutes. I know a majority of soccer games end in a draw and the undergo wins about 45% of the time and the average total number of goals scored in a game is 2.66, but this is one that we should have one. Execution around the goal has to be better, and we can't let teams hang out and give them hope.

Day 21- "Do you want to play a game?" War Games

White Mondays...what a way to start the week. Actually, this Monday wasn't bad because I planned it that way. Also, I discovered that when a white or black day falls on a Monday, I only really have 3 days of lessons to prepare. I guess there is my silver lining.

Today, my senior classes played Jeopardy (well, except my first class, which was a repeat of citing sources from Friday) for bonus points. The classes seemed to really enjoy the game and review, and they did a good job with their knowledge of the subject material. At times, I felt like I was in a SNL skit with a class full of "Sean Connery", even though no one in any of my classes has seen that skit (which saddened me beyond words). I had one question on grammar errors that one answered correctly all day, which was a catch-22 for me. I was happy I stumped them, but disappointed they weren't able to figure it out. I played a little mind game with them on Final Jeopardy and actually had the answer on the wall at the front of the room, which only one group found out. Sometimes, the best way to hide something is in plain sight. After Jeopardy, we did the marathon writing activity until the end of class. The students really got into the writing this time with topics such as "It isn't fair...", "It really annoys me when...", and "My biggest pet peeve is...". One of the prompts was "A day I'll never forget", and a student shared about the day her friend committed suicide. The class was dead silent after this, and I wasn't really sure how to proceed. I thanked her for sharing that event from her life, and then I moved on to the selection of the next prompt. I think it's really cool that she felt comfortable enough in class to share a writing that personal, and I hope this type of real, raw writing continues with my students. My last period class, a.k.a. my night class, was a struggle to keep on target today. Two kids who haven't been in my class in literally 2 weeks showed back up today, and some of the other screwballs in class couldn't handle their presence. I feel like I'm teaching freshmen with this class due to their maturity level, well, or lack thereof. They don't have the fear, but the fear may hit them when I send out progress reports on Friday, and they are 1/8th of the way done with their senior year and failing a class they need to pass to graduate. if they don't care then, well, its hard to fight apathy when it is a solution.

Day 20- "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."- The Shining

Note: This was written Friday evening, but I apparently hit the "save" button instead of the "publish" button. That's what I get for blogging at midnight.

I was dragging all day. I slept well after our win, but my body physically hurts. I hope not getting sick. Today was a red day, so it meant all new lessons to my English 12 classes. We also had a pep session today, so we were on our early release schedule, meaning the classes were roughly 5 minutes shorter. I say roughly because our new bell system continues to be daily attacked by gremlins and today, it didn't work at all. Admin had to come over the intercom to announce the release of classes and the start of classes, but even the intercom's functionality was sporadic at best. I believe an email was sent to release 1st period class, which I found ironic because if any of us were at our desks when the bell rang for the end of class, well, lets just say that would be frowned upon.

English class today was about the riveting topics of plagiarism, citing, and in-text citations. I showed a Ted Ed video called "The Perils of Plagiarism", which the students really seemed to enjoy. It discussed a few types of plagiarism they didn't know existed, and they were more than a little surprised to learn that our English word "plagiarism" comes from the Latin word "plagiarus", which means "kidnapper". In every single class a student asked me if a person could go to jail for plagiarism. Guess the association with kidnapping really stuck! Anyway, since a person can't go to the big house for kidnapping words, I showed them some real world examples of plagiarism. The ones that I believe had the biggest impact were the examples in music where musicians have copied others and had to play large settlement fees. We also discussed how using someone else's ideas without giving them credit (intellectual property) is also a form of plagiarism. To my slight disbelieve, very few of my students have seen the movie The Social Network. I used this as an example of plagiarism of the mind, but since maybe 10 students out of 60 had seen it, it took more time to explain the issue of intellectual property and what happened with Facebook than I had anticipated. (On a side note, I don't think the majority of high school students have seen three really good movies in their entire lives. This saddens me.) We then moved on to how to do a proper in-text citation. This was also a new concept to the all but about 10 of them. As sophomore's they do a research project, but only two of the sophomore teachers require them to do in-text citations. This needs to be remedied! Students should at least know what an in-text citation is before they are seniors in high school. Anyway, I discussed why it do it, how to do it, and then showed them examples of it (thank you Google). Lastly, I took them to the OWL site at Purdue. I told them this was by far the best site online that deals with everything they needed to know about the writing process. I almost threw up because I used the words "awesome" and "Purdue" in the same sentence though. I also gave them a handout of how to specifically do in-text citations in the event that feel too lazy to type OWL into a search engine. I did all of this to give them zero excuses when it comes time for the rubber to meet the road.

Grading may be the death of me. Its 11:30 on a Friday night, and I've been grading since 9:15. I was actually excited it was Friday so I could stay up late to grade. I have issues, serious issues. It will get better because I tend to front load my writing classes so I can make sure they are getting the concepts before they write their first papers. Then, I will have cluster gradings, but they will be big clusters. There is light ahead as the Labor Day weekend approaches. If I can get to it, maybe, just maybe, I will keep some sanity.

Day 19- "Well ain't this place a geographical oddity." O' Brother Where Art Thou

Today was about as easy a day as I could have. Read 180 first, followed by my senior English class which was a repeat of the credible sources and senior letter activities from yesterday, iPass, prep, then the Read 180 lab where the kids read and then wrote on random topics of my choosing. I was able to get quite a bit done on my prep, and the ocean of grading I was drowning in could probably be downgraded to just a large lake. It "rained' yesterday and today, so the water rose a bit. I think it will all be evaporated by Sunday night though. Tomorrow, there will be no more rain, and we will be discussing how to cite a source. Riveting information that I'm sure they will be on the edge of their seats for. It will be so engaging they will forget about the pep session and first football game of the season. Hey, one can dare to dream.

We had our first away game tonight, and we played at a place that not only had we never won, but our last three games there had some of the craziest events I've seen in soccer. One year, we out shot them 25-2, hitting the post 6 times, and lost 1-0. Another, we were "rained out" by a 2 hour lightning storm that produced nay a drop of water. Our last game there saw us tie the game with 1 minute left, take a lead in overtime, and have the tying goal bounce over my keeper's head on a shot from 50 yards with 28 seconds left on the clock. It was like my own personal Twilight Zone. We finally exorcised our demons tonight, winning at Roncalli 3-1! As great as today has been, I'm so looking forward to my 6+ hours of sleep tonight.

Day 18- "Well, good luck for both our sakes. See you in the future." Back to the Future Part 3

For a white day, it wasn't a bad day. I pretty much planned it so that my white Wednesday would be more facilitating than instruction just due to the fact that its a brutal day. Well, I wish I could say I planned it all out, but it just sort of happened that way. Its not a bad way to go though, so maybe I'll try to plan this type of day on white Wednesdays from now on.

Today, I first class was a repeat of yesterday where we talked about credible sources, and they did a really good job with it. This class can get a little wild, but today they were on target. In my other classes, I gave my seniors a topic and they had to find 2 sources on that topic. They then had to use the information we discussed yesterday (which I refreshed their memory with via a handout) to prove that the sources they found were credible sources. I gave them only 30 minutes to do this so they couldn't dilly or dally. After this was completed, I had them do an activity I have my seniors do every year: they wrote a letter to themselves. This letter was to be about their goals for this year, any apprehensions they have or expectations for their last year of high school. They will receive these letters the week of graduation. It's always very enjoyable to see them open these letters and see how they have grown up in the past few months. I think this year the overwhelming majority of them took it pretty seriously.

I graded most of the night after practice, and at 10:40 I'm stopping my work for the day. Man, this was a long day. I'll leave with a funny story that happened in my last period class. This class is a lot of fun, and they make the end of the day not so bad, especially on white days. They have taken to given the color of the day and the actual day names, such as Black Friday. Today, they deemed as White Girl Wednesday. Before the bell rang to start class, they had a debate over the name because a few students said it was also hump day. One of my students decided a truce was in order, and decided to call it Hump a White Girl Wednesday. Well, I reigned it all back in and got everything under control. Control and peace remained until I put the topics on the board they could choose from to do their credible sources activity on. One topic was the raising of minimum wage while the other topic was "Should  spanking be outlawed". It took about 2 seconds for one student to mention the appropriateness of said topic on hump day. Yes, these are my students.

Day 17- "Hey Mom, I find it interesting that you refer to the Weekly World News as "The paper." The paper contains facts" So I Married An Ax Murderer

Today felt like a Monday, and I'm not sure why. My best guess is because we had a game last night, and we only have one game year (outside of tournaments) we play during the week that aren't on Tuesday or Thursday, and since we have two practices before our next game, it felt like a Monday. If you can at all follow that sideways logic, then you are messed up as I am.

Today was a red day, which meant the start of a new "cycle" with my classes. In my senior classes, we discussed reliable sources, both print and electronic. We had some interesting discussions on what could be trusted, on what couldn't, and I even told them of a few instances where legit news agencies had been duped by people (see Sarah Phillips at ESPN). I have to be really diligent with my students about making sure they know what they find online isn't always true. They have grown up with the internet, and where I took trips in school to a library to learn how to research, they just pull out their phones and head to Wikipedia. I actually had a student tell me she would always use Wikipedia because it takes too much time to go anywhere else. Its alleged that I said good luck getting a good grade in this class (My filter may have been malfunctioning during that period). They are growing up in an instant society, and they don't get that even getting the correct information takes work. I believe they were more than a little surprised at how search engines work and filter the information we are given. We had a good discussion on what makes a source credible, and they seemed to really understand that. Tomorrow we will assess it and find out for sure.

I should have graded tonight, but I'm too tired. I would not be able to effectively grade essays tonight, and since I'm feeling snarky, well, it wouldn't have been a good idea. I need sleep, and a day off. As any teacher knows, planning for a day off is twice as hard as actually missing a day of school, so that really isn't an option. Maybe I'll sleep tonight, and not feel like Tyler Durden tomorrow.

Day 16- "I am the Architect" Matrix Reloaded

Today was an easy day. Long, but easy. Black days typically are that way though. My first class was Read 180, my second one was English 12, and they did the assignment everyone in English 12 did on Friday (if anyone actually reads this, and you can figure out our schedule from my posts, you deserve a medal and a cookie), had iPass and prep, then the Read 180 lab. The English 12 class pretty much wrote for the entire time, so today was more of a facilitator day as compared to an instructor day. It sort of makes up for the fact that it was a Monday.

Today we had our first soccer game, which was actually probably less productive than a practice since we won 21-0. Always good to start off with a win though.

Day 15- "Quit trying to hit me, and hit me." The Matrix

Today was a long day. Not only because it was a white day, but because my oldest had growing pains during the night, so I may have gotten 4 hours of sleep...maybe. Despite it being long and me being exhausted, the day went well. I had my seniors prove they could paraphrase and summarize through writing. It was time to do, and not just try. I gave them a topic (high school dropouts) and I gave them all the sources as to which to write from (thank Kelly Gallagher). They had three small articles on high school dropouts, and I wanted them to use the information given to write an essay on the topic. About half of my classes got finished, so I'm excited to read them come Tuesday and Wednesday to see how they did.

A few of the kids wanted to come see me during iPass for help, which is always a good thing. I like how iPass is working to allow me this time with these kids, but the sacrifices I had to make for this 70 minutes every three days are truly difficult. At times, I am not sure I can keep this pace for another 165 days. Its 10:30 on a Friday night, and I'm going to bed.

Day 14- "Baby steps to 4 o'clock. Baby steps to 4 o'clock."- What About Bob

Red days are like the beginning of a new cycle since the students are with us every 2 of 3 days. Somehow, my planning worked out that I'll finish summarizing with my English 12 classes at the end of this "cycle". I would like to say I planned that perfectly, but its was purely dumb luck.

We covered summarizing today, comparing it to paraphrasing and discussing how to summarize without plagiarizing. We reviewed paraphrasing, discussed summarizing as a class, I modeled it, then they did an activity to prove to me they could do both and differentiate between the two. I had a paraphrasing homework due today, and had them do the paraphrasing activity in class, so I foolishly left myself with couple hours worth of grading tonight. Since tomorrow I am doing a writing exercise with paraphrasing and summarizing, I needed to see if they grasped the concepts first. Thankfully, they have a good handle on it, so we can get to the writing tomorrow, but right now I'm regretting putting myself under the mountain of papers. I am very happy with their progress at this point though. I have made some changes to how I am teaching the material this year, taking baby steps right now so they can walk on their own when we begin to write in the upcoming weeks. This year, my classes seem to have  better handle of what we are doing than last my classes did last year. I am not sure if the students are just a brighter breed or if my changes in how I am teaching the material is really that much more effective, but I'm confident my students are going to be ready to write, and to write well. I can't say I felt that way all the time last year. As cocky as I may be, I am not foolish enough to believe this is all me, but maybe, just maybe, I am doing a better job at teaching this year.