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.