Day 102- "A week! I can't do that; they'd have the black spot on me by then." Treasure Island

Not much to journal on this black day. My blended class met, and the majority of their questions were about technology and not the book. This group is reading fairly well, and from our discussion and coverage of what they have read, they are understanding the book fairly well. I was worried this group would struggle since we don't meet everyday, but they seem to be doing the best of all my classes. Read 180 ran itself, and in the lab class I gave them a day to work on homework since they all said they were behind and doing poorly in other classes. Prep and iPass were fairly productive as well.

I received my black spot for my announced observation. It appears I will face judgement in two weeks.

Day 101- "Today we woke up in a revolution of snow..." Snow Day by Billy Collings

Well, today is Wednesday. No, I didn't become unstuck in time, although that would be cool occasionally. Our mayor and almost every school in a 40 miles radius panicked about predicted cold temps of -20 or worse, and school was cancelled. We didn't get that low, but the decision was already made. This made my white day a Wednesday rough, which is always longer due to no prep and cluster.

This was my first white day where my blended class met virtually and that I was at school. I was a big fan of this as I don't get a prep on white days and this helps alleviate that burden. This was a beneficial time where I had a few students who were behind come in and we were able to get caught up and have some solid discussions about the book. In my other English 12 classes, we discussed one Mr. Roland Weary and how much of a, well, tool he really is when we first meet him in Slaughter-House. We compared and contrasted Roland and Billy and made some predictions about what we think may happen in the remaining part of the chapter.

In creative writing, we began a two day start replacement poems. Today, I chose a poem titled "Snow Day" by Chris Collins, and I took out all of the verbs. We discussed as a class how verbs have power and how they can change around writing. I had them fill in the blanks (the verbs I took out) with verbs of their own choosing. I didn't let them read the poem first as to not influence their verb choice. I then had them get in partners and read their poems to each other, then we discussed them as a class. We had a bit of time left, so I have them write for 10 minutes straight on any of their writing territories. Some thought this would be hard to write so long, but once they started they had no trouble continuing their writings. The next time we meet, they will have to replace all the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in a poem with their own. Should be fun!

Cluster had some interesting parts today. At times, it had the feeling our group leaders were going to make a script for us to teach a concept. I am sure my face didn't hide my disdain. Also, they want us to teach part of a concept that needs the whole concept to make sense. It would be the equivalent to asking a kid to tie his shoes, but only teaching him step 1, and ignoring steps 2 and 3. I don't know how to adequately break up this concept as it all is needed to effectively teach the kids how to respond correctly. It can be frustrating at times. I know and believe the strategy is a great strategy, but this baby step approach across so many weeks is difficult for me to accept.

Lastly, I wore a shirt today symbolizing The Counte of Monte Cristo. Not a single student had ever heard of it. I fear for our future.

Day 100- "So it goes." Slaughter-House Five

Another delay today, and a fairly routine day. I discussed the first part of chapter two of Slaughter-House Five with my English classes. They were slightly confused about this part of the book and didn't really understand Billy or his whole unstuck in time deal he has going on. The aliens threw them off a bit too and the whole 4th dimension thing seemed to more than baffle them. I tried to explain the Tralfamadorian's view of time as this: we see and are limited to time in a line. A beginning, middle, and end that goes in a progression. The Tralfamadorians, who on the other hand can see all points of time at once, see it more in a sphere or circle where they can see all parts at once with no beginning or end. Once they understood this, the phrase "so it goes" seemed to make more sense to them. It was like a light went off in their heads, which I'm hoping translates into a better understanding of the novel.

In creative writing, we discussed and wrote one of my favorite type of poems, the pantoum. It has a unique pattern with an abab rhyme scheme. After the first quatrain, second and fourth lines in the quatrain become the first and third lines of the next quatrain. This pattern continues into the last quatrain where the second line of that one is the third line of the first quatrain, and the first and last lines of the pantoum are the same. Some struggled with this, but others jumped right into it and produced some very nice work. I can't wait to read their finished product. A pantoum I wrote with them is below.

A Gentleman’s Game

22 men take the pitch, 11 on each side

Back-ups on the bench await their turn to shine

Coaches look on, as across the pitch begins to glide

The teams go to war, battling to get the ball to cross the goal line

Back-ups on the bench await their turn to shine

Work and effort put forth in practice are now put into play

The teams go to war, battling to get the ball to cross the goal line

Each player hoping the result will be in their favor today

Work and effort put forth in practice are now put into play

Passes are made, shots are taken, tackles are given

Each player hoping the result will be in their favor today

The true winners have a look in their eye, they are driven

Passes are made, shots are taken, tackles are given

Coaches look on, as across the pitch the ball begins to glide

The true winners have a look in their eye, they are driven

22 men take the pitch, 11 on each side.

Day 99- "Fear is for the winter, where snow falls a hundred feet deep and the ice wind comes blowing out of the north." - A Game of Thrones

My first 2-hour delay of the week! Based on the weather forecast of frigid temps and wind chills, this trend will continue. Not too shabby for a black Friday as well. Read 180 and the lab pretty much ran themselves with the short time period, and iPass and prep were very beneficial as I was able to get caught up quite a bit. My blended class met today, and I was able to get almost everyone set up on MBC and with the annotations. I have 2 students who haven't shown up in a week and aren't paying attention to the online work, so they are already getting very behind. I've tried to contact them and have had their friends relay messages to them, but they don't seem that interested in class. Hopefully they get back in touch with me soon and get working on what they need to. For the class, we discussed chapter 1 and they took a quiz. I need to grade their study guides over the weekend, which will give me a great indication of who is reading and who is not.

Day 98- Funeral

I did not attend school today due to a funeral. My English classes did their annotations and took a quiz while my creative writing kids did the marathon writing. This is the second day this week I missed that we had a 2-hour delay.

Day 97- "I am Sparticus"- Sparticus

Today was pretty good day, outside of the fact we had cluster and it was -3 when I left my house. My English 12 classes discussed the first 11 pages of Slaughter-House Five, and completed their annotations (these are assigned with every reading). For the most part, I think they understood this part of the book, although chapter one is pretty cut and dry compared to the rest of the book. I could tell a few of them didn't read it, but I informed them they would have a reckoning tomorrow over chapter one, so for their own sakes, they better read.

In creative writing, as always, we had quite a bit of fun. After our quick write, we discusses found poems. Found poems are where the writer takes a piece of writing, anything from the instructions to open a toy to actual literature, and either re-writes part of it or rearranges it into a poetic form. For an example, I used a poster of movie quotes in my room and made my own found poem for the class to see (modeling at its finest). I'll leave at the end of today for your viewing pleasure.

Things went back to normal in cluster with me being placed in the front of the room again. I don't mean just the front, I mean the literal front of the room. My chair was right next to the cluster leader. If someone walked in, they would have assumed I was one of the presenters myself. I can't wait until next week. Maybe they are just preparing me for the time comes when they ask me for my expertise on writing and they have me lead a the group. Eh, I am not sure they will go there.



Movie Poster Found Poem

You talkin to me?

Who am I? Do you really want to know?

Me? I'm dishonest,

and a dishonest man

you can always trust to be dishonest.

Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for,

because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly...

stupid.

I am Sparticus.

I wish I knew how to quit you.

I see dead people.

I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way.

I feel the need, the need for speed.

I’m the king of the world.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning

I choose not to choose life.

I choose somethin’ else

and the reasons?

The are no reasons.

I guess it comes down to a simple choice

really

get busy livin

or get busy dying.

I do wish we could chat longer

but I’m having an old friend for dinner.

I’m going to make him an offer

he can’t refuse.

May the Force be with you.

I’ll be back.

La di da, la di da, la la.

Day 96- Sick Day

I had to take a sick day today because my son was sick. Today was a black day, and school had a two-hour delay, so this is not a day I wanted to miss. Black days are the easiest to miss though since I have iPass and prep. I left plans for my blended class to get set up with Remind 101 (a service where I can text them class updates but don't need their number), My Big Campus, and their first assignment. I can see online what they get done, which is very helpful.

Day 95- "All this happened, more or less." Slaughter-House Five

Today was a long day, which felt right since this whole week felt like an extremely long week. I guess first weeks back tend to have that feel about them though. I'm glad we get Monday off, but I am not looking forward to the grind that will happen from then until spring break.

When I asked, begged, pleaded, begged, and went Machiavellian to teach blended English and creative writing, I didn't really think about white days. Due to the nature of white days and the classes that meet, I ended up teaching 4 different lessons today with no prep. Now, before any of you feel too awfully terrible for me and want to just give me money, the lesson I taught to my first period class was a repeat of the lesson I taught yesterday to my other English classes. The rest of my lessons I taught to English 12, creative writing, and the Read 180 lab class were new. In English 12 we started reading Slaugher-house and I handed out annotation bookmarks to the class. In an effort to make sure they are reading daily and not just using Spark Notes, I am making them annotate and fill out definitions of unknown words for each reading. I've used this tactic before and it tends to work, but it usually works better after I take the first grade on it and they fail the first quiz. Baby steps, Bob, baby steps.

In creative writing, we each read some different types of poetry that we liked, where it be song, rap, classic poems, or anything else poetic. Many of the students chose music, which I figured since it resonates with them and they really aren't readers of Dickinson or Frost. We then discussed overused metaphors and simlies that have become cliche, such as dead as a doornail, hotter than hell, older than dirt, etc. We listed all these, took out part of it, and replaced it with something else. For example, for older than dirt, dirt was replaced with a teacher's name at school who is older than most. They class had fun with this activity. They then wrote some poetry using some of their remade metaphors and similies.

Day 94- "When I was young I knew everything, and she a punk who rarely ever took advice." The Verve Pipe

Today was fun day, although I feel old. In my English classes we are getting ready to start Slaughter-House Five, so today was background on Vonnegut Jr., Dresden, and the book. I went into great detail about the dark parts of his life to help the students understand why he wrote what he did and the way he did. Even though I told my classes he was from Indianapolis, hearing where he went to high school, where he was buried, and his connections to our city really peaked their interest in him and hopefully the book. They were a little taken back by some of the tragedies in his life, but my goal of informing them about him and getting them interested in the book, I believe, was achieved.

In creative writing, we started really talking about poetry in all its forms and what makes up various kinds of poetry. We discussed and listed several different types of poetry and what sort of figurative language is used in poetry. To show them poetry they can relate to, I played some music for them, specifically Red by Taylor Swift, Freshman by The Verve Pipe, and Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah. I felt about 85 when no one had heard of The Verve Pipe or that song, but somehow I overcame it and class went on. I did stop class and tell them they needed to learn what good music was and as a concerned teacher, I'm available anytime to give them recommendations. Anyway,  we listened to those songs, analyzed the poetic nature of them, discussed what literary devices were used, and discussed what made these songs poetic. For writing practice for the day, they had to write something in a metaphor, simile, limerick, or shape poem. I knew at least one of my cat obsessed students would draw a cat shaped poem, and I was not disappointed. I'm excited for this class again tomorrow, and I kind of wish I taught it all day long.

Day 93-" It's never just rain." How to Read Like a Professor

Black days are my easy breezy days, except Wednesdays when I have to go to cluster, but they are still easier from a teaching standpoint than red or white days. In my English 12 class, I taught the lesson I taught yesterday about deciphering a novel. They were surprised at all the Shakespeare and Biblical references in movies, and they really enjoyed the water portion of the lesson. I think I may have convinced them to watch Shawshank Redemption as well, so that is always a win. Read 180, the lab, iPass, and prep were all productive, but I still feel like I didn't get everything done I needed to on my prep. Maybe I'm overachieving.

Day 92- "The is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature." How to Read Like a Professor

I still hate white days, but that will soon change. I met with my blended class today, and they are slated to meet during white days period 1 and black days period 2. We agreed as a class that our meeting day will be black 2, so on white days I will be able to grade my blended work and be available to them for help, but I won't necessarily have a class present. I make no secret about the fact that I planned it this way. We met, went over the syllabus, and since I have to approve all these students, I already know them, so they were free to leave. I could get used to this.

In my other 12b classes, I taught a lesson on the secret codes in literature and movies. I talked about water, meals, flight, trips, Shakespeare, and the Bible and how each can be seen or have influenced many of our Western novels and literature. I wanted to show students that if you know what is going on in a scene then it will give you a much better understanding of what they are reading or seeing. I tend to use movies more than books for this since they aren't well read and the same concepts can be seen in movies as in books. So Tarentino, The Lion King, Frodo, Neo, Gandalf, zombies, Yoda, Superman, Andy Dufrane, Stephen King, Bruce Willis, Denzel Washington, and Heath Ledger all made appearances in my classes today. This lesson went better than I expected and they were highly engaged in the discussion.

In creative writing, I introduced writing territories to the students and they them start to develop a list of writing territories that they have. They did this on their own, then we discussed them as a class so they could help each other out with ideas of areas they would want to write about. For the second part of class, I had them write a piece called "Where I'm From" or "Who I Am" that they used to describe themselves in a creative, poetic way so I could get to know them better. I told them they had the freedom to do with this as they pleased as this was a creative assignment. I have already heard feedback that many students love this class, and we have really only done one assignment. I share their joy already and this class has quickly become my favorite class.

Day 91- "So it beings."- The Two Towers

Note: This is being posted late because I fell asleep at the wrong end of the bed at 9 p.m. Yeah I was tired.

First day of the second semester, and for a day I didn't do much, it kicked my butt. We had an extended Christmas break due to winter "storm" that hit Indy, so we are coming back a week later than anticipated. The break was good, and bad at times, but mostly good. I'm fairly excited about this next semester 12b is literature and we are reading Vonnegut, I have a blended class (it meets half in class and half online), and I am teaching creative writing! I'm very excited about the creative writing and can't wait to get started. It's an extra prep for me this semester compared to last, but my enthusiasm for teaching creative writing outweighs the extra work it will be. I'm hoping my students enjoy the class as much as I do. Outside of cw, I'm excited but nervous to teach Slaughter-House Five to my seniors. Excited because I love Vonnegut, but nervous because it can be difficult and many of these kids don't read more than 140 characters at a time. Hopefully I can get them engaged with the text and they will enjoy it as well.

Today I really only handed out syllabi, discussed what my classes were going to be like, and became acquainted with my students. Even so, this day put me on my back when I got home. I was laying in bed, being warden of the upstairs, listening for the thump of kids getting out of bed, and I sort of just passed out. I guess I shouldn't have laid down, or maybe I should have gone to bed before 2 a.m. the previous three weeks.