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.

I'm sending them the bill from my colorist...

Today was a hectic day. We are giving out textbooks and that always makes things crazier. Of course the freshmen can't believe how thick the books are and how are they to ever carry it around? Half of them claim that they'll never take it out of their locker.

I was hoping that with this being the second week of school and with there being no more homeroom, things would settle down some. I think I hoped in vain. If nothing else, they were more hyper than usual. Some of that was probably my fault. Looking back, I made some first year teacher mistakes today.

Second period was particularly annoying. I am trying to train them in protocols to help with peer editing. I didn't have their groups ready. Did I say earlier that we only got through half of the activities in first period because of textbooks? I apparently wasn't ready. They formed their own groups and it will be the last time that it happens. During third period, I formed the groups and things went a lot smoother. See? First year teaching mistake.

I'm also back to planning day to day. This doesn't make my days easier. Planning from the end of the unit sounds good, but it is hard! I don't even know where we'll be on Friday, much less where we'll be in a month! I need time, but there is still only 24 hours in the day. For the 14 hours that I am NOT in school, I'm pretty exhausted. Is it Labor Day yet?

A New Week and Some New Wildlife

So it's our first full week of school. It is definitely a Monday. But this Monday comes with a twist.

There was a snake in my classroom this morning. That's right. A snake. I walked in as normal and put my personal things away and went to prop the door open. (Luckily it's my new thing to get to school as early as possible.) I saw something on the floor and stepped to get a closer look. That is when it slithered.

I do not like snakes. Not in the least. Luckily another teacher, armed with a tennis racket, was willing to come to my rescue. Otherwise I may not have been able to function today in the snake pit.

So think your Monday was rough? How many snakes were in your classroom?

Putting Best Practices into Practice

I've spent the last four years learning what to do and how to do it. It's a different animal when you get in the trenches and do it, though. Since I'm back in the classroom, I'm making a conscious effort to to do all those things that I learned about--read-alouds, mini-lessons, embedded grammer instruction, modeled thinking...the list goes on forever. So what do these things look like in REAL classroom? I'm not talking about the ideal situation of a reading lab like a lot of experts have. I mean a room full of real ninth graders on as many different levels as there are bodies in the room.

Yesterday was day one and I started with a read aloud. I decided to do Duck on a Bike as a little lesson that you can do whatever you believe in. I will say that the reception wasn't hostile. They weren't exactly clamouring for more, but they were attentive. Today, after bellwork, I read Incredible Me! to help kick off our "Who am I?" unit. I was very impressed by my connections. They were present. Slightly quieter than yesterday. Still not overly ecstatic.

Will read alouds work for us every day all year? Sure they will! All great classes start with a read aloud. But all of them can't come from children's books. I'm on the lookout for blogs and columns to share with my students. I like starting the class with a read-aloud. It gives me structure. And since I don't believe in DOL, it gives us a way to start class.

Next time, embedded grammar instruction. We started today and will continue as we go. We'll see. This afternoon, I'm going to model thinking in front of seniors. Wish me luck!

Planning to Plan

Right now, I am planning to plan. That's right. I haven't actually planned anything yet, except two cool community builders for the first week. But I open my new teacher's edition nightly and then shut it with disgust. It isn't the book I wanted and it isn't the book that I like. I won't name any names, but I want a textbook to be organized around universal themes...like Monsters and Heroes and Unrequited Love. I don't want a book organized around The Narrative Structure, which just so happens to be unit one of my new book. It's frustrating.

So I open it nightly and shut it in disgust nightly. I'm planning on doing some planning later on. (Did I mention that I am the world's worst procrastinator?) Getting started is the hardest part. I have some older curricula to guide my thinking, but the kids are going to show up on Wednesday, whether I have the first lesson planned or not.

But I am thinking about it. It's constantly on my mind. What to teach, what to teach? I think I'll open up with one of Stephen King's most recent columns for Entertainment Weekly about screen addiction. That will be a nice introduction into reading strategies. From there, who knows? The Most Dangerous Game? The Cask of Amontillado? Both great stories, but likely to lose freshmen if I don't find some catch for them. Any suggestions? I'll take them all.

Until then, I'm going to turn in and dream about perfectly designed units.

A Love Affair with Real Life

I've been a fanatical follower (albeit an embarrassed one) of reality. I love reality television. It's quite embarrassing when speaking to adults, but I still watch The Real World and I immediately get sucked into all the new ove reality shows. Now, please understand, The Bachelor/ette is not trashy enough for me! I prefer Rock of Love and Real Chance of Love and, most recently, Megan Wants a Millionaire.

You can imagine the looks I get from self-respecting adults, but I have no shame.

My love for the real life has never bled in to my literature life. I have looked at reading as my change to escape the real world, not an opportunity to study it. I don't even like documentaries. The real world in literature and in movies bore me. Literally, they put me to sleep.

That was until this summer. I stumbled upon a new author (new to me)--Jen Lancaster. My first memoir by Jen was Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest to Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big or Why Pie is Not the Answer. You can see how the title made me pick it up immediately. And the memoir did not disappoint. It was funny (often laugh-out-loud funny) and light-hearted. I didn't get the typical happily-ever-after-once-you-are-skinny ending, which I really appreciated. Lancaster made me hunt for more.

The next week in Target, I picked up Lancaster's Bitter is the New Black and another memoir--If I am Missing or Dead. The former was just as funny as the other Lancaster memoir and the latter was a heart-wrenching tale of long-term abuse. If you ever wonder how smart, emotionally-centered women become the victims of abuse, If I am Missing or Dead provides some heady insight into the answer.

And today I have found three documentaries to be more interesting that my Law and Order marathon. I started with Prom Night in Mississippi, which had to be followed up with Prom Night: One Year Later. I was appalled at the fact that segregation was alive and well just a year ago. I finished up my documentary afternoon with a moving documentary of what drives a 15-year-old to commit suicide. Boy Interrupted studies how bipolar disorder drove one young boy into so much self-hatred that he couldn't find his way out.

So today I have had a love affair with real life. Now, it did start with Megan Wants a Millionaire. Reality TV makes me feel good about myself. Don't hate. We all do what we can.

Back to school!

August is here and that can only mean the start of a new school year! As for me, I'm shaking in my metaphorical boots (cute, ankle boots from Target that are on the way as we speak). I have been out of the classroom for 3 years and this will be my foray back into it. I'm making big plans, of course. I bought 4 cute summer tops to wear with my dress slacks this afternoon. It's tax-free weekend and they were $9.99 a piece! Can't beat that.

In addition to that, I'm working on syllabi and trying to remember what the first day looks like from the podium. Two of my classes should be no problem--Teacher Cadet and English IV. However, it's those three classes of 9th grade English that are a little daunting. I haven't taught English I in seven years and it has changed a lot since then. I have changed a lot since then. Through my experiences as a literacy coach, I'm not the same teacher I was when I left the classroom. Now comes the time to marry the coach I am to the teacher I was. Now is the time to find the happy medium between that ideal situation in an English class to the more realistic situation that occurs. Basically it is time to put my money where my mouth is.

So tomorrow I head back to the classroom. Have to unpack and clean and rearrange. Have to start planning. Check in on me often. In the past I used this blog as a place for my students to comment on classes and projects. This year, I think I'll use this as my own personal sounding board. Let the games begin!

MySpace strikes again!

Last week, a gorilla briefly escaped from the Columbia, SC zoo. There doesn't seem to have been many injuries (certainly no unfortunate mauling of any innocent bystanders) but the ramifications aren't quite over for a former elected SC official.

If there is one lesson that we must teach our students, it is to use networking sites responsibly. We have conversations about online predators, but we also need to talk about how what we post on social networking sites can effect our livelihoods and relationships. Just ask Rusty DePass.

Now I don't know Rusty personally. In fact, I've never heard of him. But I'm going to gander that he isn't too terribly bright. After the gorilla escape, he posted on his MySpace page that he was sure "it's just one of Michelle's ancestors — probably harmless." The posting then was publicized on a state politics blog. Now he is making public apologies and I would gander that his political career has ended, whatever it may be.

We have to talk to our students about the things that they say to others, so why aren't we talking to them about their Internet postings? This is a valuable conversation to have, no matter the age. What you put on the Internet is out there for everyone to see and share. It is in permanent publication and can really hurt you if you aren't careful. As we address media literacy in our English classrooms, we need to address social networking sites. They aren't going to go away and almost all of our students participate in them. It is a conversation that has to be had.