Day 117- Partial sick day

Today, I didn't come in until third period. My wife was having a rough morning physically, so I stayed home to get one boy on the bus, and dropped the other one, the the first time ever I might add, at his preschool. It's things like that that many people may take for granted, but as a teacher, I don't have the type of job I can go in late to take one of my boys to school or go have lunch with them or do many school activities. I do wish I could do more of that.

I was at school for iPass, prep, and my Read 180 lab. In the lab, we went in depth into how to write an introduction, and the kids practice writing a sample one for an essay we will be working on for a few days.

Day 116- "You're a strange-looking cat." Milo and Otis

For a white day, this one was more than bearable. My blended class met virtually, so that is a nice way to start the day. In English 12, we discussed some mental health issues associated with Slaughter-House Five and possible disorders or conditions Billy may have had. We specifically discussed PTSD and schizophrenia. I went over what these mental health conditions were, and we looked at both and discussed if we could see how they related to Billy. We also discussed if we could see evidence that maybe Vonnegut could have suffered from PTSD. The class determined he has symptoms of PTSD, but we don't know enough about his personal life to make that distinction. They thought Billy and the book were examples of him working through his demons of Dresden. In one class, I had a student share that her mom has schizophrenia, and she told the class about her mom's experiences and her condition. It was a little awkward at times for the class because it made it more real that just me talking about it, but the student was very comfortable with it and I was glad she was brave enough to share.

In CW, we did something a little different. I brought in the move Milo and Otis, and I had the class watch the first 10 minutes. (This movie is about a cat and a dog and other farm animals where the narrator gives each of the characters voice and dialogue, even thought none actually talk). After they got the feel for the movie, I then muted it and played a 2-minute clip. I played the clip a few times as I had them write the dialogue for the movie. They did a good job with this and had fun with it too. I have some other ideas to advance dialogue and work with it, so those will come in the following days.

Day 115- “We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” Kurt Vonnegut

Today was a different day. I had four classes meet today, and I had to do 4 completely different things with them. Typically I have classes repeat, but since we missed last period Monday, I had to get them caught up on chapter 5 of Slaughter-House while my other English 12 class discussed parallels in the novel. I also had Read 180 and CW, so today was a fairly tiring day due to teaching 4 completely different things in my classes.

I was fairly happy with how well my students found the parallels in Slaughter-House with Billy and Vonnegut, Tralfamadore and the POW camp, and the Kilgore Trout novels and the Tralfamadorians. I have two more classes to do this with, and I'm hoping they do just as well as this class did.

In CW, I gave them a day to continue writing anything they have been writing all semester and turn it in for me to look over. I'm excited to see what they submit and how they take some of the writings we have started.

Day 114- "You got no business in the ring with those animals." Warrior

Fairly mundane day. Started a new unit in Read 180, so today was vocab and background. I think they will like this unit because it is about two friends who have to fight each other in a boxing match. Guess we will see.

Blended English met today, and for the ones who read, the quiz was easy. If they didn't, well, they failed. We had a pretty good discussion on the second half of chapter five, and went over some questions they were confused about on the study guide. They all seemed to grasp the "everything is beautiful and nothing hurts" epitaph, yet they couldn't put it together on the study guide question.

iPass and prep, then Read 180 lab where we went to the library and checked out new books, read, and discussed what they were reading. I'm glad this week has two black days.

Day 113- "Randy, Danny come on, let's get out of here. Come on. Lets go, let's go." Antitrust

Well, I thought today we would get our second consecutive full week at school going every minute of every day. Yeah, that didn't happen. We left school early today due to an ensuing ice/sleet storm that was scheduled to hit the city around the time the busses would be dropping off the elementary kids. This messed with me a little since my last period didn't meet and my other senior classes did, but I can re-work things in the next couple of days.

In English 12, we discussed the last part of chapter 5, and I gave them my "did you read" quiz. This was a short multiple choice quiz that if a student read, they would do fine. If they did not, well, they were screwed. In this section, Vonnegut describes Billy as "having a tremendous wang". So, I had this as one of my questions. The students who didn't read couldn't possibly imagine I would ever had "wang" as a correct answer on a quiz. Yeah, I did that. Oh, I also made every single answer to the quiz "D". That really messes with the kids as well as they don't think all the answers can be the same. Yeah, I did that too. Anyway, after the quiz we had a really good discussion on chapter 5, then I allowed them time to finish up their study guides.

In CW, we continued our voice/tone theme. I gave them four different people, and described each one's age, occupation, gender, and interests. I then gave them a scenario of a snow storm, and had them discuss how each one would react, then they had to write about the snow storm from that persons perspective. I allowed them to submit for a grade either this assignment or the one we did on Friday.

Day 112- "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt." Slaughter-House Five

My English 12 classes were awesome today. I'm not sure what it is with Fridays and epiphanies for me, but I hope they keep coming. In order to help my classes understand how the Tralfamadorians say Earthlings see time, I put up a picture of a mountain range on the screen, but the only part they could see was a 2" diameter section of it. I then put up the whole picture, but I had one student have his eyes closed, and gave him a 3 foot tube of paper that had a bout a 2" diameter opening. I had him look through the paper at the picture, and describe what he saw. I held his head so he couldn't move it around. I then had him take it away and see the whole picture. I could almost see the lightbulbs click on in their heads. We then had a great discussion about what the phrase "Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts" means in the book. Sometimes these kids surprise me.

In CW, I really challenged them. I read two different scenarios of people walking through the woods to a watering hole. The first was of a young boy, and the other a was of an early 20's woman. The pieces were written from the perspective of each person. I had the students compare and contrast the writings, the tone, the voice, the styles, and see if they could determine the age based on how each was written. I then gave them the following sentence: "He/She walked across the fairgrounds". They then had to take one of the two characters and write about a day at the fair from his or her POV using their tone and voice. They seemed to struggle with this, we talked it out and how each may sound, what each would do, and even how the flow of the writing should be. I can tell many of them have never done anything like this before. We have quite a bit of work to do before they get to their short stories.

Day 111- "Brevity is the sister of talent."- Anton Checkov

I really have no complaints on my black days. My blended class met and we went over the current readings for Slaughter-House, and I gave them a "turn your crap in or you will fail" speech as they are getting lazy. I kinda got the feeling they aren't all reading as they should, so I am feeling a "did you read" type quiz coming on. I'm definitely going to be playing with their minds with this one.

Day 110- "Learn to write well, or not to write at all." John Dryden

Ugh. I hate white Wednesdays with the fire of a thousand suns. We continued on in SL5, trekking through chapter 5. They are beginning to see the parallels in the book, and next week we are really going to dive into these.

In CW, we continued our transition out of poetry and intro voice and tone. Today, I had the kids write an argument a mother/father would get into with their daughter/son. I gave them 20 minutes to write this. Once they were finished, I flipped it on them and said they then had to write in the voice of the parent (since to a T they all chose the daughter/son). They weren't huge fans at first, but they were able to do this. I purposefully had them use a voice that wasn't their own that they were familiar with so this task would be easier. This is going to get harder for them in the upcoming classes. I hope they are ready.

Day 109- “You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”- Zen in the Art of Writing (Ray Bradbury)

Today was a busy day, but nothing really out of the ordinary. In my English classes, we discussed the first part of chapter 5 of Slaughter-House, and I showed these kids my epiphany I had on Friday with the stopped traffic and moving cars and how the universe was seen by humans and the Tralfamadorians. This seemed to help this class as well. They did a good job of contrasting the American and English soldiers, and then we saw Billy seep into a bit of madness at Cinderalla.

In my CW class, and for my observation, we did the marathon writing activity that I have done before. They kids came up with some great prompts, and some very thought provoking discussions took place. I tweeked it a little bit in that this time I had the students in groups of three so they could share out in groups, then with the whole class if they wanted to. It seemed to go well, and I think it was very productive. I have my post-conference in a couple days, so I'll see how it scored then.

Day 108- "It's called reading! Top to bottom, left to right... a group of words together is called a sentence." Tommy Boy

I could start every Monday with a black day as it is my lightest of days. My blended English class met today for "did you read quiz" over chapter 4. This class is starting to slack, so we will see how they did. I had some students come in for iPass to make up quizzes, and a few CW kids come in for help with some of their missing writings. Other than that, it was farily routine.

I did have my pre-conference for my observation tomorrow, and it seemed to go well. Just need to see how well I can dance. I'm not really worried, but this isn't a traditional lesson, but it has scored well in the past.

Day 107- "There is now why." Slaughter-House Five

White Friday. It seems fitting my longest day should come at the end of a very long week. Even though it was a virtual day in blended, I had a few blended kids show up in class to work on their study guides. Based on how many study guides were submitted, this class is beginning to slack a little. Nothing a little missing assignment zeros won't probably cure. My other English 12 classes took a quiz over chapter 4, then we discussed it. The chapter ends with the Tralfamadorians saying only on Earth is there free will, so I am anticipating a lively discussion on that in the upcoming days. I had an epiphany of sorts during class, and it seemed to really help my students understand how the Tralfamadorians see the galaxy. I prepped them for chapter 5, and told them that the Tralfamadorians see the universe as "luminous spaghetti". I tried to draw this on the board, but my epiphany showed it even better. I showed them a picture of cars at a stoplight, all in one moment. Next, I showed them a picture where the shutter was kept open and you could see just the streaks of headlights and brake lights the cars leave. I love photography, and I'm disappointed this light didn't go off in my head sooner, but it fit with where we were in the book. Hopefully these genius epiphanies keep coming.

Day 106- "When the night has come, and the land is dark, and the moon is the only light we'll see." Stand by Me Ki:Theory version

It appears I have jumped in time again, or we had another snow day. At times, I'm not sure myself. I rediscovered in Read 180 today that our text is slightly outdated. (I'm not sure the text has been updated by Scholastic since it was made, but I could be wrong.) Each unit has a real-world connection to a career based around the unit, and this unit was on money. The career for this unit was a music store manager, which is an almost obsolete career. Only one of my students had ever been inside a music store since they buy or download their music from iTunes or some illegal site. We discussed what careers were similar to a music store manager, such as the manager for other types of businesses.

In English 12, we finished up discussing chapter 3. I showed them some pictures of Allied POWs walking under German watch and a picture from a museum that depicted the men on a railcar like Billy and Roland were sardined into. They have to read chapter 4 for tonight with a day of reckoning tomorrow. For their sakes, I hope they read.

In creative writing, we started talking about tone. To show them how tone can change the feeling, I played two versions "Stand by Me". I started with the Ben E. King version, which is by far the most popular version of the song. I then played a version by Ki: Theory, which is radically different and dark. Here is the the link to this version if you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psm4XGVtQAY#t=72 (I heard this version on one of my new addictions, "The Following" on FOX. If you would be interested in a dark show about a former English professor obsessed with Poe who is a serial killer and his cult following, you should watch it.) I then showed them a poem I had written about dueling angels on my shoulders as in Tom and Jerry. We discussed how the good angel would have soft, sweet tone and the devil angel would have a mean, demanding, snarky tone. I showed them what I had done with it, and encouraged them to do this on their own in their own evil and good voices. They struggled with this as many found it hard to find their evil voice and tone. I told them it was in there, and we would find it and draw it out. We will have to continue this lesson tomorrow.

Cluster had a new time and day today due to our record 7th snow day yesterday, but we will return to our same bat time and channel next week. Today, we discussed the final part of the ACE strategy for constructed response, explaining the citation, which is technically more of an essay/SAT strategy, but it can have benefit on a constructed response as well. I discussed with our leader how I feared it could lead kids astray by them rambling and getting off topic, and that we need to have good discussions with our students as to when the citation is enough and when the citation needs further explanation. I have graded these type of tests before during the summer, and most of the scorers would struggle to adequately score a response that had the right answer then rambled. The leader and I had a good discussion and we both agreed on the same points and are on the same page. This part of the strategy will be the hardest for the kids to do well and stay on topic, but as with anything, practice and repetition tends to cure ails such as these. Next week we get to discuss what strategies would help students buy into reading and writing. I'm pretty excited actually, almost giddy.

Day 105- "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming." Finding Nemo

Today was a black day, so it was my easiest day of the week. With our weather forecast, this may be my only black day this week. We are supposed to get 6-8 inches of snow today into tonight, which probably means we will get our 7th snow day of the year. I don't think in my previous nine years in education I have had seven snow days total, yet we are on target for our 7th in the last month. Alas, I have digressed.

In Read 180 today, I worked with the kids on constructed response and citing evidence from a text after analyzing the question. Typically they would have to also explain their answer as well, but we discussed how sometimes, as in the case our reading and questions, the explanation was in the citations. They have done well and are improving, but I fear when they get a real test and the reading isn't interesting, they will balk at the work. I see this trend in class, and I would be foolish to believe it would change for a test. Hopefully by then, the constant training will kick in.

My blended class met today, and we had a great discussion over the first part of chapter three of Slaughter-House Five. I am really proud of this group as they are working hard on this book despite how confusing it can be. One thing I am doing this semester with all my classes is grading their work immediately and putting in zeros for missing work that same day. Since they are having daily annotations and study guides on My Big Campus for blended, they quickly see their grade changing. Since they are about 80 school days from graduation, this seems to be having an effect on their work quality and completion. The study guides are not easy, and they are not something they can find the answers to anywhere but in their reading, so I am greatly encouraged by how they are trekking through this book.

I had quite a few kids come to make up quizzes in iPass today, so it was a little bit of a full house. Prep was very productive and didn't require any Office Space style meetings with the copy machine. In my Read 180 lab class we continued to work on writing one single persuasive paragraph. This is a brutal struggle with these kids. We have been writing all year in this lab, but it is something they obviously have not done much of and based on their schedules, they don't do it any other class either. I feel at times I am starting at the very beginning with them, and I mean lower elementary level writing. Just have to keep swimming.

Day 104- "I won't be your winter. I won't be anyone's excuse to cry."- Your Winter by Sister Hazel

A white Monday covered in a fresh powder. There is something literary and poetic in there. I can see it, but I'll leave it alone today. Today was my blended virtual class meeting, but I am very happy to see a few of the kids coming into class, not because they forgot we weren't physically meeting, but because they had questions and wanted to discuss the book. This class is doing the best of all my English 12 classes, partly because they are, on the whole, much better students, but also because I think they are working harder on the novel. My other senior classes discussed the beginning of chapter 3 and how the Germans used propaganda films to further their cause in Germany among the people during the war. (In this part of the chapter, Billy is thrown in a bush to reenact his capture, although he was captured in a ditch by farmers.)

In creative writing, the class and I wrote direct address poems. They had to use a literary device, such as allusion, metaphor, simile, etc. in their direct address poem. We listened to Champagne High and Your Winter by Sister Hazel, both of which are direct address and full of literary devices. I had them write two poem, one to an animate object or person and the other to an inanimate object. I modeled this one for the and wrote a poem to my alarm clock. (I realize that writing to an inanimate object is personification, but this was understood and they had to use another.) They seemed to really have fun with this, and I'm looking forward to reading their creativity and seeing who they are with their writing.

My alarm clock poem is below.

Why are you so angry?
Daily, you scream at me
Loud, blaring, beckoning me to touch you
Once my hand graces your face
I receive 10 minutes of reprieve
Then your anger rises again

Why can’t you accept my new love?
We are happy together
She comforts me in a way you never could
She embraces in me her love every night
Yet, with the rising sun
You ruin our tryst with your angry noise

It is time to move on
We need a clean break
I will no longer allow your hatred to ruin my newfound happiness
We are done, so take you jilted love elsewhere
Goodbye, good riddance, and good luck

Day 103- "I'm Gotham's reckoning. Here to end the borrowed time you've all been living on!"- The Dark Knight Rises

Red Friday, and I'll be here all night as there is a girl's and boy's basketball double-header. In English 12, my classes took an open book quiz over chapter 2. My open book quizzes are brutal, and if a student hasn't read or paid attention to our class discussions, they will drowned. The quiz consisted of 14 essay type questions, and they were given 30+ minutes to complete it. In both my classes, almost every student took the entire time I gave them. I'm curious to grade them this weekend and see how well they did. Many of them are really starting to love this book.

In creative writing, we expanded on yesterday's writing. Yesterday, I had them replace only the verbs in a poem, but today, they had to replace all nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs with the same respective type of speech. I told them not to worry about it making sense, but to keep the same rhythm of the poem. Many said this was difficult for them as it wasn't entirely their own, but they all took the challenge well.

We have yet to complete a full week of school this semester with no cancellations or delays. There is hope that next week will be the first, but hope is a dangerous thing.