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.
Friday, August 30, 2013
Thursday, August 29, 2013
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
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.
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.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
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.
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.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
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.
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.
Monday, August 19, 2013
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.
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.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
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.
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.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Day 13- "I wish you had more time." Man on Fire
Black days are a Godsend after the brutality that is a white day. Even so, I am exhausted, so this won't be long. Read 180 went well with minimum problems. I have a student who loves to talk and get off topic, and I need to do a better job of not engaging him in off topic conversations. If I can keep him focused, the class will go smoothly. We meet again tomorrow morning, so I can get my practice in. My sole English 12 class was a repeat of the paraphrasing lesson I taught yesterday. This class really took to the paraphrases for saying someone or something was dead. I told them one group in another class had 15, and they took it as a challenge to top them. They did a good job with this, and even their group paraphrasing seemed to be a little bit better than the previous classes. I'm looking forward to getting into actually developing compositions soon, but the groundwork has to be laid. They are enjoying the smaller activities, so hopefully it will spur on at best a tolerance for writing when we get to the actual deed. Who knows, maybe my enthusiasm for writing is actually rubbing off. The 180 lab was ok today. We moved past brainstorming and planning and into actually putting their words onto paper. I didn't get a chance to read them, but that will be tomorrow night's endeavor. I know this will be a long process with them, but I'm looking forward to it. I saw that class twice today and this is the only negative to my black days. 2 of my 3 actual teaching classes are with the same kids, with iPass and prep to break it up, but 140 minutes in one day is a lot with one group of kids, no matter who they are.
I need sleep, and a break, and a clone.
I need sleep, and a break, and a clone.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Day 12- "No, no, e's uh...he's resting." Monty Python and the Flying Circus
Another white day means another trip to the 9th circle. Brutal every single time, no matter what. I find it amazing how a 30-minute time period can drag when it's part of a class, yet when it's a lunch break, its like blinking. Maybe I just shouldn't blink...
Today was a full load of English 12 in that I saw very single one of them today. First block was a Groundhog Day of yesterday, and they did a pretty good job with the main idea and supporting sentences. Ok, honestly, at this point, I don't freaking remember how that one class went. I moved on to teach new material to my other classes (which previous said class will get tomorrow), and that class happened at the beginning of my 11 hour day. All my lessons seemed to go well today, but I will have to check their assessment to see how well it really went, or if they grasped it. Between thinking about my other lessons today, soccer stuff, and thinking about teaching tomorrow, first block might as well of been last week. It's just one of those days.
In my other English classes, the ones where I taught my other lesson and same lesson 3 times today, I do feel those went very well. We talked about paraphrasing and how properly use it to avoid plagiarism. The students, in groups, came up with as many paraphrasing ways to say something was dead (little bit of a Patch Adams scene), and they really enjoyed this. I don't think they thought paraphrasing was such a simple concept. While the concept may be simple, the application can be a little more difficult. I modeled how to paraphrase from an article I found online, then I had them paraphrase a different article in groups. The groups, for the most part, did an exceptional job with putting a tough passage in their own words and not plagiarising. The real litmus test will come when I grade the homework that is due tomorrow. If nothing else, they had some great examples of how to paraphrase, now if they can only do it. Guess I'll find out tomorrow.
In the 180 lab, we worked more on brainstorming and organizing for their writing. Its such a drastic change to go from teaching how to paraphrase to how to brainstorm, but these kids need it. They truly struggle with how to brainstorm even about themselves. We discussed how to organize a short essay on themselves, and they needed their hands held through the entire process. I guess its good that I am teaching the entire "writing process" in varying ways in my classes and covering literally the full gamut of it. I know this is probably a pipe dream, but I really hope I can teach these seniors and some other writing classes (like the creative writing class I'm trying to put together) for a very long time.
Today was a full load of English 12 in that I saw very single one of them today. First block was a Groundhog Day of yesterday, and they did a pretty good job with the main idea and supporting sentences. Ok, honestly, at this point, I don't freaking remember how that one class went. I moved on to teach new material to my other classes (which previous said class will get tomorrow), and that class happened at the beginning of my 11 hour day. All my lessons seemed to go well today, but I will have to check their assessment to see how well it really went, or if they grasped it. Between thinking about my other lessons today, soccer stuff, and thinking about teaching tomorrow, first block might as well of been last week. It's just one of those days.
In my other English classes, the ones where I taught my other lesson and same lesson 3 times today, I do feel those went very well. We talked about paraphrasing and how properly use it to avoid plagiarism. The students, in groups, came up with as many paraphrasing ways to say something was dead (little bit of a Patch Adams scene), and they really enjoyed this. I don't think they thought paraphrasing was such a simple concept. While the concept may be simple, the application can be a little more difficult. I modeled how to paraphrase from an article I found online, then I had them paraphrase a different article in groups. The groups, for the most part, did an exceptional job with putting a tough passage in their own words and not plagiarising. The real litmus test will come when I grade the homework that is due tomorrow. If nothing else, they had some great examples of how to paraphrase, now if they can only do it. Guess I'll find out tomorrow.
In the 180 lab, we worked more on brainstorming and organizing for their writing. Its such a drastic change to go from teaching how to paraphrase to how to brainstorm, but these kids need it. They truly struggle with how to brainstorm even about themselves. We discussed how to organize a short essay on themselves, and they needed their hands held through the entire process. I guess its good that I am teaching the entire "writing process" in varying ways in my classes and covering literally the full gamut of it. I know this is probably a pipe dream, but I really hope I can teach these seniors and some other writing classes (like the creative writing class I'm trying to put together) for a very long time.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Day 11- "Day 11, Test 37, Configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option, Dummy is still on fire safety" Iron Man
I was pretty happy with classes today. Read 180 is continuing to go well and the kids are adjusting to the routine. Tomorrow I have them in the lab section again, so we will continue our development of basic writing. In my English 12 classes, we reviewed main idea and started on supporting details. We started by finding them in pieces of writing, then I ended the day by having them write their own 8-10 sentence paragraph with a specific main idea and supporting sentences. It was a topic with meaning to them (How the new school schedule has affected them), so they should have been able to give plenty of support for the topic. I'll guess I'll find out when I grade them tomorrow night.
One cool thing I did was use a website called socrative.com for my Chromebook class. It allows all the students to log in, and I can ask a question, then they can respond on the site and I see the results. Everyone was able to participate and I was able to see instant feedback. I am able to make quizzes and other assessments on the site, and get immediate feedback on my iPad as we work in class. I probably won't make quizzes on the site because it is just an extra step to grade (and I can do that on our grading system Skyward, or as some of us call it Skynet), but I like that I can ask a question, have every student answer, and get immediate feedback on my iPad or computer. I will probably use this a quite a bit. I still need to figure out an effective way move their daily bell work online where I can assign it and grade it easily. I may just keep it old school for now, or I may change up their bell work to daily writing prompts where they have to write on a topic of their choice and keep the document all year. I could do this on Google docs and check it all the time to keep them accountable. Wouldn't be too difficult to do, but I want to make sure all my students are 100% up on their Chromebooks. Regarding the Chromebooks, it is very cool to be sitting at home and get an email stating one of my students submitted their current assignment via Google docs. The kids are actually working to get stuff done!
One big frustration is not having a daily prep. I worked for my entire prep, all 70 minutes doing work, not messing around at all, and I still only got maybe 2 days ahead. I didn't even have any grading to do today. I got quite a bit done, but I felt like I should be able to get more done in 70 minutes. Maybe it's all mental knowing I wont have a prep tomorrow and all, but I'm not used to it yet. Teaching from 7:25-2:20 with only about a 30 minute lunch, then straight to soccer practice is brutal. I'm looking forward to game days so I get a little more of a break. I'm making it though, and will continue to keep calm and teach on.
One cool thing I did was use a website called socrative.com for my Chromebook class. It allows all the students to log in, and I can ask a question, then they can respond on the site and I see the results. Everyone was able to participate and I was able to see instant feedback. I am able to make quizzes and other assessments on the site, and get immediate feedback on my iPad as we work in class. I probably won't make quizzes on the site because it is just an extra step to grade (and I can do that on our grading system Skyward, or as some of us call it Skynet), but I like that I can ask a question, have every student answer, and get immediate feedback on my iPad or computer. I will probably use this a quite a bit. I still need to figure out an effective way move their daily bell work online where I can assign it and grade it easily. I may just keep it old school for now, or I may change up their bell work to daily writing prompts where they have to write on a topic of their choice and keep the document all year. I could do this on Google docs and check it all the time to keep them accountable. Wouldn't be too difficult to do, but I want to make sure all my students are 100% up on their Chromebooks. Regarding the Chromebooks, it is very cool to be sitting at home and get an email stating one of my students submitted their current assignment via Google docs. The kids are actually working to get stuff done!
One big frustration is not having a daily prep. I worked for my entire prep, all 70 minutes doing work, not messing around at all, and I still only got maybe 2 days ahead. I didn't even have any grading to do today. I got quite a bit done, but I felt like I should be able to get more done in 70 minutes. Maybe it's all mental knowing I wont have a prep tomorrow and all, but I'm not used to it yet. Teaching from 7:25-2:20 with only about a 30 minute lunch, then straight to soccer practice is brutal. I'm looking forward to game days so I get a little more of a break. I'm making it though, and will continue to keep calm and teach on.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Day 10- "Can anybody tell me why writing is important?"- Summer School
Today being a black day was fairly simple, and is always a relief after a white day. Read 180 again went very well, and the kids are adjusting to the routine of the class. My second block class was seniors, so it was a repeat of the annotating and author activity my other classes did the day before. Again, they students did very well with this, and everyone seemed to grasp how to pull out the main idea from a 2-page article. I used the iPass period to get a few students who were absent caught up on how to use My Big Campus and Google docs, and then was able to get some grading done. Prep and the Read 180 lab rounded out my Friday. In the lab, I worked with the students on how to brainstorm before they write. I asked them to write down a few things they think are important about themselves and what they would want others to know about them, and they actually struggled with this more than I anticipated, so we will have to hit it again before we can even get to writing a paragraph. Overall, their writing is below a very basic level. Guess that's what I get paid for!
Soccer was a great way to end my work day. The boys really got after the defensive activities we did, and the effort was at a level that will only make us better. If I can make it through the school days, I'm really going to enjoy this soccer season.
Soccer was a great way to end my work day. The boys really got after the defensive activities we did, and the effort was at a level that will only make us better. If I can make it through the school days, I'm really going to enjoy this soccer season.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Day 9- "Hey, whats the big idea?" Donald Duck
Today was about as long a day as I have had so far. White no prep day, followed by soccer practice, and then back to school night. It was a very interesting day.
My first class did the marathon writing, and they thoroughly enjoyed it. The topics weren't quite as good as the previous day, but the writing was good and many of the kids shared out. For the rest of my English 12 classes, we started to discuss how to find and determine the main idea of an article. I put the students in groups, then showed them pictures and they had to discuss and determine what the main idea of the picture was.Then, I used a strategy I was given at Hoosier Writing Project called annotating an author for them to find the main idea in a 2-page article. They did a phenomenal job with this! I was excited to see this strategy work, and I know I can adapt it to other readings and writings with a different focus. Thank you HWP!
I did the writing marathon for part of my Read 180 lab class, and the kids actually thoroughly enjoyed writing about the different topics, and they enjoyed sharing their writing more. There is definite work to be done with their writing, but they did enjoy writing about themselves and sharing their work.
Soccer practice was...wet. About 30 minutes in we were hit with a monsoon that completely soaked us to the bone. I think I could have jumped into a pool with my clothes on and been less wet. This wasn't a huge deal, except I had back to school night, and didn't really come prepared to have to change all my clothes. I had the distinct privilege of attending back to school night with no socks on and as the title of an Arnold Schwarzenegger/Alyssa Milano movie. Since I had the lowest number of parents in the department attend (I think I hit 3), I was able to get caught up on some much needed reading.
My first class did the marathon writing, and they thoroughly enjoyed it. The topics weren't quite as good as the previous day, but the writing was good and many of the kids shared out. For the rest of my English 12 classes, we started to discuss how to find and determine the main idea of an article. I put the students in groups, then showed them pictures and they had to discuss and determine what the main idea of the picture was.Then, I used a strategy I was given at Hoosier Writing Project called annotating an author for them to find the main idea in a 2-page article. They did a phenomenal job with this! I was excited to see this strategy work, and I know I can adapt it to other readings and writings with a different focus. Thank you HWP!
I did the writing marathon for part of my Read 180 lab class, and the kids actually thoroughly enjoyed writing about the different topics, and they enjoyed sharing their writing more. There is definite work to be done with their writing, but they did enjoy writing about themselves and sharing their work.
Soccer practice was...wet. About 30 minutes in we were hit with a monsoon that completely soaked us to the bone. I think I could have jumped into a pool with my clothes on and been less wet. This wasn't a huge deal, except I had back to school night, and didn't really come prepared to have to change all my clothes. I had the distinct privilege of attending back to school night with no socks on and as the title of an Arnold Schwarzenegger/Alyssa Milano movie. Since I had the lowest number of parents in the department attend (I think I hit 3), I was able to get caught up on some much needed reading.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Day 8- "Why is it the words we write for ourselves, are always better than the words we write for other?" Finding Forrester
Read 180 finally went today. The software was up and and running, the sounds worked on the computers, I was able to show the intro video, and we were actually able to have class. Those of you who had day 7 of school in the pool, you win a cookie.
In an effort to keep my classes all on track, for 2 of my classes I did a marathon writing activity. The activity consisted of all students choosing a topic, word, phrase, or some sort of "prompt" that they would like to write or read about. Topics varied from "sharks" to "my favorite person" to "a futuristic society". I did this activity with two classes, and I was very happy with how it went. The students wrote for the entire period on varying topics! Students at SHS wrote for roughly 50+ minutes, and from what I could tell, enjoyed it! At certain points I gave students an opportunity to read their writing. For my first class, students were very quiet after the first couple of topics were chosen, but as the close went on and we did more writing, many students shared their writing and students who are usually very reserved began to share. I started out by sharing what I wrote to some topics, and I was real and vulnerable. I think this may have opened up the door to help them share and not have any fear about it. In my other English 12 class, which is the last class of the day and is the typical last class of the day (teachers, you know what I mean), students shared immediately, and the topic didn't matter. They wrote and shared everything, even the students who complained about having to write and appeared too cool for it. They truly enjoyed it, and it was a fantastic way for me to get to know more about my students.
My English 12 class that has the chromebooks had to play catchup today because of the snags we have had with technology. Today was just another day in that struggle. An update was sent out during my class that took Google Drive off the chromebooks, which in essence made them about as useful as a paperweight. I was told this was fixed a few hours later, but it really fubared my plans and the ability for my students to be able to submit work to me. I keep telling myself it will all eventually work itself out and the IT people will figure out which switches do what, but until then, we get to be the experimental marionettes.
PD was next, and it was on pacing. There was a beginning, a middle, and an end, so it was most likely effective.
Today was cut day for soccer. I hate cut day, whether it is in club or high school, it is always a very hard day. I am extremely excited for this season and the group of guys we have for our teams. Although it truly exhausts me to get through a day at times, something about walking out to that pitch puts a little more bounce in my step and for a couple hours, everything makes sense, and I forget I don't have prep tomorrow.
In an effort to keep my classes all on track, for 2 of my classes I did a marathon writing activity. The activity consisted of all students choosing a topic, word, phrase, or some sort of "prompt" that they would like to write or read about. Topics varied from "sharks" to "my favorite person" to "a futuristic society". I did this activity with two classes, and I was very happy with how it went. The students wrote for the entire period on varying topics! Students at SHS wrote for roughly 50+ minutes, and from what I could tell, enjoyed it! At certain points I gave students an opportunity to read their writing. For my first class, students were very quiet after the first couple of topics were chosen, but as the close went on and we did more writing, many students shared their writing and students who are usually very reserved began to share. I started out by sharing what I wrote to some topics, and I was real and vulnerable. I think this may have opened up the door to help them share and not have any fear about it. In my other English 12 class, which is the last class of the day and is the typical last class of the day (teachers, you know what I mean), students shared immediately, and the topic didn't matter. They wrote and shared everything, even the students who complained about having to write and appeared too cool for it. They truly enjoyed it, and it was a fantastic way for me to get to know more about my students.
My English 12 class that has the chromebooks had to play catchup today because of the snags we have had with technology. Today was just another day in that struggle. An update was sent out during my class that took Google Drive off the chromebooks, which in essence made them about as useful as a paperweight. I was told this was fixed a few hours later, but it really fubared my plans and the ability for my students to be able to submit work to me. I keep telling myself it will all eventually work itself out and the IT people will figure out which switches do what, but until then, we get to be the experimental marionettes.
PD was next, and it was on pacing. There was a beginning, a middle, and an end, so it was most likely effective.
Today was cut day for soccer. I hate cut day, whether it is in club or high school, it is always a very hard day. I am extremely excited for this season and the group of guys we have for our teams. Although it truly exhausts me to get through a day at times, something about walking out to that pitch puts a little more bounce in my step and for a couple hours, everything makes sense, and I forget I don't have prep tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Day 7- "Easy peasy lemon squeezy."- The Greatest Game Ever Played
After yesterday, I needed today. Today was a fairly run of the mill black day, if one can call the second black day ever experienced run of the mill. I started out with Read 180, and the students were actually able to log into the system! We went through the software demo cd and they were able to play around on the system and see how it works. Tomorrow we finally get to start in the actual program. Not bad for the 8th day of school.
My English 12 class was a repeat of a class I taught yesterday where my students got set up for Google docs and My Big Campus, and this class didn't make me want to jump through the boarded up 2" thick window that adorns my room.
iPass was a little mundane as I haven't had a need to call students down yet, but with assignments starting to be graded, I have a feeling this may change soon with some students impressively piling up missing work so early in year. I had quite a few students leave iPass to go see other teachers, so I'm glad students are benefiting from it.
Prep was next, followed by my Read 180 lab where students revised a writing assignment, then we played a vocabulary development game of Boggle. The class challenged me to a game of Boggle, me vs all of them combined, the next time we played. I'm pretty sure my ego will accept that challenged.
Soccer practice followed, and it was good to see the boys working hard. We are still in the tryout phase, and tomorrow is cut day. I truly abhor cut day, whether its for my school or club team, but it's necessary. Once cuts are made, the real work can begin.
My English 12 class was a repeat of a class I taught yesterday where my students got set up for Google docs and My Big Campus, and this class didn't make me want to jump through the boarded up 2" thick window that adorns my room.
iPass was a little mundane as I haven't had a need to call students down yet, but with assignments starting to be graded, I have a feeling this may change soon with some students impressively piling up missing work so early in year. I had quite a few students leave iPass to go see other teachers, so I'm glad students are benefiting from it.
Prep was next, followed by my Read 180 lab where students revised a writing assignment, then we played a vocabulary development game of Boggle. The class challenged me to a game of Boggle, me vs all of them combined, the next time we played. I'm pretty sure my ego will accept that challenged.
Soccer practice followed, and it was good to see the boys working hard. We are still in the tryout phase, and tomorrow is cut day. I truly abhor cut day, whether its for my school or club team, but it's necessary. Once cuts are made, the real work can begin.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Day 6- "What are you people? On Dope?"- Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Today was my white day, which at times feels like the 9th circle. Although they day is tiring, the time passes very quickly as I am literally constantly on the move. I do think today all my students were in league to see if they could drive me completely insane. If they were, well, they failed...mostly.
My first class went well as it was a redux of last Friday. The revision and editing in its basic form went well, and I believe they understand the idea and importance of revising. Or maybe it was just a cruel trick they were playing me.
In my other English 12 classes, I had netbooks brought in so my I could introduce Google docs and My Big Campus. We will utilize both very heavily this year, so I felt it more than necessary to spend a day going over Google docs, showing the students how to use and share documents, and getting them all set up and logged into My Big Campus. This was much easier planned and said than done. I wrote on the board all the information the students needed, I pointed it out, I referenced it, and even modeled how to go through each process on my SMART Board. I may as well have not done any of the before mentioned methods to assist them as I probably answered the same question of how to log in to their Google accounts maybe 200 times. Oh, these are the exact...same...accounts these students had last year. In fact, in my last class, while signing up for My Big Campus, one student said he didn't know what his school email address was after we had just spent 30 minutes going over their school Google accounts. I was starting to wonder if I was invisible. On top of this all, one student asked who Mark Twain was and said she had never heard of Huck Finn, even though she read the book last year in English 11. I told her to get out.
On a couple of positive notes, my students were in the system for READ 180 and were able to take the SRI test today. I also gave them a tour of the media center, introduced them to our media center specialist, and showed them how to check out a book. Today was also the first day of tryouts for soccer, and we are going to be good this year. For the first time ever, I truly believe I will have 21 guys who can get legit varsity time and make an impact, and our JV team has a chance to be the best we've ever had. This year looks promising and the future looks incredibly bright.
My first class went well as it was a redux of last Friday. The revision and editing in its basic form went well, and I believe they understand the idea and importance of revising. Or maybe it was just a cruel trick they were playing me.
In my other English 12 classes, I had netbooks brought in so my I could introduce Google docs and My Big Campus. We will utilize both very heavily this year, so I felt it more than necessary to spend a day going over Google docs, showing the students how to use and share documents, and getting them all set up and logged into My Big Campus. This was much easier planned and said than done. I wrote on the board all the information the students needed, I pointed it out, I referenced it, and even modeled how to go through each process on my SMART Board. I may as well have not done any of the before mentioned methods to assist them as I probably answered the same question of how to log in to their Google accounts maybe 200 times. Oh, these are the exact...same...accounts these students had last year. In fact, in my last class, while signing up for My Big Campus, one student said he didn't know what his school email address was after we had just spent 30 minutes going over their school Google accounts. I was starting to wonder if I was invisible. On top of this all, one student asked who Mark Twain was and said she had never heard of Huck Finn, even though she read the book last year in English 11. I told her to get out.
On a couple of positive notes, my students were in the system for READ 180 and were able to take the SRI test today. I also gave them a tour of the media center, introduced them to our media center specialist, and showed them how to check out a book. Today was also the first day of tryouts for soccer, and we are going to be good this year. For the first time ever, I truly believe I will have 21 guys who can get legit varsity time and make an impact, and our JV team has a chance to be the best we've ever had. This year looks promising and the future looks incredibly bright.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Day 5- " I love technology, but not as much as you, you see... But I STILL love technology..." Napolean Dynamite
Friday! I made it through my first week, and managed to blog every night (baby steps, baby steps). Today, outside of technology, was a fairly solid day. In my English 12 classes, we worked on the first steps of revising something that they had written. I showed them examples of handwritten lyrics by artists such as Jerry Garcia, Eddie Vedder, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Kobain. All of these handwritten lyrics had words or phrases crossed out or marked up in some way. I told them that even rockstars revise (I can't take credit for this as I stole the idea from Joe Akers with the HWP). I had them revise a sample paragraph I wrote, then I they worked with their partners to revise their own work. I wanted to see their revision process, and I'll be looking over those this weekend.
My students still weren't entered into the Read 180 system yet, so I had to again supplement material for the class along with them reading for 20 minutes.
One section of my English 12 class won a lottery of sorts, and everyone in the class was to be given a Chromebook (a laptop doesn't have an operating system and runs off Chrome and uses Googledocs). We went to the media today to pick up the Chromebooks and for the students to receive their orientation on how to use them. The students were all seated at tables of 4-5, and were dismissed by table to turn in their usage agreement in exchange for their new toy. As the students returned to their tables and attempted to log into their devices to behold the wonders their new temporarily personal devices would behold, the technology gremlins who torment my township took over. Only 5 of my 25 students were actually able to log into the devices, so my plan of showing them how to use them and their ins and outs was completely worthless. We made due in the media center, and I left with the hope that by Monday in class they could actually use the computers which were to be the text for my class.
Overall, the week went well. I'm freaking exhausted from teaching like I have never been before. The zombie 5k I ran this summer was a breeze compared to this week. The new schedule isn't as bad as I thought it would be, at least not after the first 4 days. A group of us teachers went out after school and had a meeting off-campus, which is at least a monthly Friday tradition. I love working with those people who I am very privileged to call my friends. As tired as I am, I sit here on my couch and am watching "Stand By Me". I feel suddenly refreshed and rejuvenated watching a screenplay by my favorite author about a writer who writes a story about he and his friends when they are 12 and the adventure they go on to see a dead body. The last line Richard Dryfus types into his computer resonates with me, and brings me back to my students. "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" My students are older than 12, but its very cool to be a part of their lives they may never forget, even if its just as a vapor.
My students still weren't entered into the Read 180 system yet, so I had to again supplement material for the class along with them reading for 20 minutes.
One section of my English 12 class won a lottery of sorts, and everyone in the class was to be given a Chromebook (a laptop doesn't have an operating system and runs off Chrome and uses Googledocs). We went to the media today to pick up the Chromebooks and for the students to receive their orientation on how to use them. The students were all seated at tables of 4-5, and were dismissed by table to turn in their usage agreement in exchange for their new toy. As the students returned to their tables and attempted to log into their devices to behold the wonders their new temporarily personal devices would behold, the technology gremlins who torment my township took over. Only 5 of my 25 students were actually able to log into the devices, so my plan of showing them how to use them and their ins and outs was completely worthless. We made due in the media center, and I left with the hope that by Monday in class they could actually use the computers which were to be the text for my class.
Overall, the week went well. I'm freaking exhausted from teaching like I have never been before. The zombie 5k I ran this summer was a breeze compared to this week. The new schedule isn't as bad as I thought it would be, at least not after the first 4 days. A group of us teachers went out after school and had a meeting off-campus, which is at least a monthly Friday tradition. I love working with those people who I am very privileged to call my friends. As tired as I am, I sit here on my couch and am watching "Stand By Me". I feel suddenly refreshed and rejuvenated watching a screenplay by my favorite author about a writer who writes a story about he and his friends when they are 12 and the adventure they go on to see a dead body. The last line Richard Dryfus types into his computer resonates with me, and brings me back to my students. "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" My students are older than 12, but its very cool to be a part of their lives they may never forget, even if its just as a vapor.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Day 4- "I have ataraxia"- Lucky Number Slevin
Today was a day I had been looking forward to for many months, and the anticipation of tonight's soccer game had made me borderline giddy all day! In addition, my black days are pretty nice after a grueling white day. On my black days, I have Read 180, followed by an English class I taught 3 times yesterday, iPass, my glorious prep, and then Read 180 lab. The only frustrations today are a continuation of yesterday where my students are no yet enrolled in the Read 180 system, and access to the program is currently blocked. There is nothing I can do about this, so I just rub my earlobes, say woosah, and move on with my day. I spent my prep planning and preparing for next week's lessons, and I believe I am planned out through Wednesday, wish is a nice change from last year and I feel I went day by day. This is especially nice since soccer tryouts start on Monday, and its only my dreaded white day.
In the Read 180 lab we had good time working with vocabulary development playing Scattegories together. This simple game showed some of their deficiencies in even basic vocabulary knowledge, which was an easy, yet fun way for them for me to discover this about them.
The day ended with a very encouraging conditioning practice with the soccer team; a practice where they worked very hard and showed their desire for success this season. The day ended at Lucas Oil where I was able to watch Chelsea play Inter Milan with a few former players, my coaches, some very close friends, and my wife. It was a fantastic experience, and one that I will not soon forget.
In the Read 180 lab we had good time working with vocabulary development playing Scattegories together. This simple game showed some of their deficiencies in even basic vocabulary knowledge, which was an easy, yet fun way for them for me to discover this about them.
The day ended with a very encouraging conditioning practice with the soccer team; a practice where they worked very hard and showed their desire for success this season. The day ended at Lucas Oil where I was able to watch Chelsea play Inter Milan with a few former players, my coaches, some very close friends, and my wife. It was a fantastic experience, and one that I will not soon forget.
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