"I like this!"

You know you've reached high engagement when you hear a high school senior say that she actually likes the assignment you gave her. It is a rare and beautiful thing.

So what, you may say, illicted this nearly extinct response? A Facebook feed project.

Facebook has taken over the world. Even my parents, nearing their 60s (although I hope they don't read this since they aren't there yet and will not like that wording), have gotten on Facebook and reconnected with dear old friends. I check mine several times a day. I'm addicted, I can't help it. I've even created a Facebook group for one of my classes--although not many of my students have joined. I think they're scared I'll see their pictures. And they probably should be.

So I wanted to incorporate Facebook into an assessment for my seniors. We are halfway through Beowulf and I want to check their understanding so far. I'm trying everything that I can think of to make the text accessible. I have a variety of levels--academic and initiative. We have read the poem out loud and used post-it notes to summarize in little chunks. We've identified literary devices and labeled them within the text. But how do I know that they know it?

Today we started a Facebook feed project. Students had to create a Facebook status page that reflected the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the first few sections of Beowulf. They had to incorporate an allusion, an example of personification, similes, and alliteration. They had to have at least 16 updates from 4 different characters, three of those being Beowulf, Grendel, and Hrothgar.

What I saw as I roamed the room was success. Students were engaged with the text, demonstrating high levels of understanding, and making the text their own. It was a beautiful sight! And it illicited that much-needed comment--I like this!

Making SSR Work

We have sustained silent reading in my high school, but it is not an ideal situation. We have SSR during our breakfast in the classroom. Right after the announcements. Once we get started, the breakfast comes in. It takes a few minutes to get started again. Just when we are good and settled, it's time to stop. I only have 60 minutes and we can't really give more than ten or fifteen up for reading.

It isn't an ideal situation, but I'm making it work as best I can.

There are two musts to making SSR work with high school students. The first is setting an example as a reader. Most students haven't seen a reader in their home. They don't know what a reader looks like, talks like, or thinks like. It is important for them to see someone who does read.

The other must for SSR is good books. Students will read if they have the right book. They will beg for more time to read. They'll even ask you if you will let them read the whole period. They think they're getting a free day. You'll have to fuss at them for reading during class. It is heaven on earth.

I don't have an ideal situation but it's a situation that I have to make work. I know that only by reading more will students improve their standardized test scores by building comprehension and text stamina. So I'll have to shhh them a lot and be a good example, but it is something that we'll keep doing.

Teenage Pride

I've read about ways to get your students to take pride in your classroom. I've walked into other classrooms, with all the clutter threatening to fall over and maim a poor freshmen, and wondered how anything got done at all.

Now I am not a neat person by character. I'm spending my day off catching up on housework that I have put off since July. (I was busy!) But I try to keep the majority of my classroom fairly wide and open. Only my desk bears the brunt of my pack-ratish self.

But I was still surprised by what happened Friday in class.

We do breakfast in the classroom during first period. It has turned into a time for SSR as well, which the literacy coach in me screams out that that is SO WRONG. But I'm making it work. We have a separate trash bag for breakfast trash so that it doesn't sit in the room all day. Friday, someone put their milk in the bag and it started leaking. One of my girls in the class pointed it out, and then immediately moved to put the trash can under the bag. Smart girl! I was impressed enough then.

But that wasn't all.

I left the room to get some paper towels to mop up the milk. I was gone for all of 30 seconds. By the time I came back, she'd cleaned it up already. She grabbed a clorox wipe from the top of the file cabinet and wiped up all traces of the milk.

Wow.

They tell you to build a community in your classroom so that students will take pride in it. I've tried to build a community and I've tried to make my classroom a welcoming place. This young lady showed more pride in her school and in our room than I have ever seen exhibited before. I was awestruck.

Needless to say, Friday was pretty good.

Worthy of a Read Aloud

I'm Southern to a fault. Born and raised in South Carolina and will probably die here too. My state has a lot to offer me--the mountains AND the beach and some of the greatest barrier islands in the world. South Carolina also has Pat Conroy.

Conroy has lived all over the world and had 22 addresses before he found himself in Beaufort, SC. But he, like I, is proud to call South Carolina home. I, however, haven't lived all over the world. I haven't even really lived all over the state. But that is neither here-nor-there.

In my quest to use read-alouds with my students, especially with my freshmen, I am constantly racking my shelves at home and at school for interesting texts to share with them. In my attempt to use the textbook that we are paying a small nation's yearly budget for, I have started a unit on author's purpose. To relate to Jamaica Kincaid's "Island Morning," I pulled out The Pat Conroy Cookbook. It was good to identify the purpose of cookbooks, but also to look at what Conroy did with a cookbook. Just by sharing the first two pages of chapter 4, "A Home in the Lowcountry," I was able to think-aloud a few inferences, identify a different perspective of author's purpose, and share some amazingly beautiful writing. His comparisons between the salt creeks and a woman are amazing, and yet also amazingly simple. They got it. They may have missed most of the beauty in the writing, but one student said, Hey, that's a simile. Yeah, it is, kid. Yeah, it is.

So through a beautiful read-aloud from a cookbook I already had at home, my freshmen were exposed to what words can be when coming from the right brain. They were exposed to an author that I am positive they had not considered before. While they may not be rushing out to check out The Prince of Tides or Great Santini, I've exposed them to something that I think is great. And they'll see that piece again. It is so rife with imagery, metaphor, personification, and eloquence that there is plenty to learn from it.

So learn from it we shall.

Too much wildlife in my life!

There is officially too much wildlife in my life. Last week there was a snake in my classroom. This week there are definitely some wild animals and the mice are taking over my pantry at home!

There is going to be a full moon this Friday, but I think it's hit room 303 early. There isn't any one thing that I can put my finger on. There isn't any one person that I can pull aside and deal with. My students are just all over the place. I'm doing my best song and dance to make author's purpose engaging, but I feel like it's in vain. There's a better show going on elsewhere in the room than the one that I am putting on. And it is really frustrating.

I've called the parents. Or at least I have called the ones that I have names and numbers for. I had to call one back today--after calling home and saying such wonderful things about little Billy--to tell her that little Billy was being a big pill. Shame on me for not letting the poor child put his head down and do nothing.

The one highlight in my hump day tomorrow is that I am leaving school early. I have last block planning and I am coming home to meet the exterminator! There are mice in my pantry--I swear when I opened the door it was going to sprout wings and fly into my face this evening. They are ignoring the trap and getting braver by the day. So I'm calling in the professionals.

Too bad I'm supposed to be the professional in room 303. It might be nice to have some backup.