So, today was a total crapshoot.

Before I start this rant, my freshmen were awesome. Really, really good. They are really getting in to what they are doing. More on that in a future post.

My seniors, however, are another story. We're doing pastorals and sonnets, which I realize are archaic and a little complicated. And some of them are a little boring. My goal here is to expose them to universal literary themes. These guys were struggling with the same things they are. Love lost, unrequited love, love, love, love. All you need is love.

In order to balance things out, the class sat in pairs. Hard literature is sometimes easier with a friend, I think. We started with a review of the pastorals we covered on Tuesday. They charted each of the shepherd's stanzas and then looked at the nymph's reply. There were a lot of light bulbs. The poems got the attention they deserved. No one was glossing anything over.

Then we moved into sonnets. A little background notes and then some translation. And this is where I lost them and my headache came back. There was talking and texting and daydreaming. There were very few giving me or the sonnets any attention at all. We got through one translation before everything fell apart and I gave up. Luckily, I did make it to the last ten minutes of class and pretty soon the announcements were on. Not much time wasted. Now they have a homework assignment over the weekend. And I still have a headache.

Once again, I'm left with the question, what in the world do I have to do in order to get these kids to pay attention? They don't want to do the work in class and they don't want to do the work outside of class and sometimes I swear they don't want to be taught. So I'm sending home six Fs next week on the report card. Six Fs. Seniors. They need this class to graduate. I think I care more than they do.

Two days down, three to go

11:30 a.m. will mark the middle of the first week back after Christmas break. And since my teacher cadets are going out into the field for research, my day will technically be over. You can color me excited.

This week has been better than I expected, and just as hard as I expected. I am immersed in Shakespeare and Elizabethan England. Lovely, ain't it? The ninth graders are starting Romeo and Juliet and the seniors are starting the English Renaissance in order to move into Macbeth. The lessons have gone well, but every spare second has been spent trying to decide where to go next.

Romeo and Juliet has been my challenge. I haven't taught the play in eight years and I didn't know ANYTHING eight years ago. I thought you taught things like Shakespeare because it was what was taught to you. I thought kids HAD to read Shakespeare, like it was law or something.

The truth is, it's not. There is no law that kids have to read Shakespeare. However, they do need to learn how to struggle with a text and come out the other side successfully. And that is was we are going to do. That is what is feeding my plans for this play. I need for my students to experience the Prologue in it's original language. I need for them to study the balcony scene and recognize it's beauty. I may even want them to study the death scene and understand the conclusion. Other than that, what do they really need? There's a lot to R&J that is extraneous and causes excess pain. So, we'll read certain sections and then study other texts that represent the universal theme of the play. They will have their Shakespearean experience. They will deal with a difficult text and be successful.

I hope.

That's the plan anyway.

The end of books?

I adore Jenn Lancaster! She is one of my favorite authors and really turned me on to memoirs. I used to hate reading true life--even though I adore trashy reality TV shows and really like it with Law & Order is "ripped from the headlines." But memoirs were never my cup of tea until I read Jenn Lancaster's Such a Pretty Fat. Now I follow her blog fairly regularly and keep up with her antics online while I wait for a new memoir. Today, she posted a link to this. And it got me thinking.

I don't have a Kindle. Nor have I looked at a Nook. For starters, I try to stay away from technology in it's first generation. There will be bigger and better versions soon to follow. But more importantly, I love books. I love the crack of the spine. I love that my shelves are bulging, both here and at school. But the Kindle might have some merit for me, if Jenn is telling the truth.

See, about two days ago, I finished every book that I brought home for the break, plus one that I bought at B&N. So I'm in a lull. I haven't picked up anything new. I sometimes go through these commitment issues. I just finished the House of Night series and I'm anxiously awaiting the newest installment. None of my fave authors have anything new out. So I'm in a rut. According to Jenn, this wouldn't happen with the Kindle. There would be another book at my fingertips, some of them free, and I would be a happy reader once again.

Some may think that the Kindle signifies the end of reading as we know it. I'm not buying into this. There are enough of us that still have to have that paper/hardback feeling at our fingertips. But the Kindle might be a little bit more convenient. It surely would stop all that fussing that my kids do when they get their 30 pound textbook at the beginning of the year. And if all of their textbooks fit in one place, they might actually bring them to class everyday.

Imagine that? Students WITH books EVERY day. That doesn't sound too bad to me at all.

It's a New Year! Time for a New You!

I've spent a lot of time on the couch this break and it has been wonderful! I believe that it will make me a better teacher and colleague in the coming weeks. I've seen a lot of weight loss commercials the last week or so. Since the new year is here, people are vowing to improve themselves. I'm vowing to improve myself, too.

I resolve to continue to perfect my pedagogy every day. I'm not going to stop trying new things until I find something that works.

I resolve to use my inside voice with my sweet little children. Even when they aren't being so sweet.

I resolve to remember my student's learning styles and personal interests when planning our units. Since I have 50 freshmen, that can be a little difficult. But I resolve to try.

I resolve to stop focusing on these tests so much and just focus on good teaching. If I am a good teacher, surely they will learn the reading skills they need in order to find success on standardized tests.

Finally, I resolve to be on time. Even early. Our school day begins at 7:40. That is SOOOOOO early. If I had thought this out, it is possible this would have been a deterrent to the field of education. 7:40 is really early. My new goal is to leave my house by 6:50 in order to have a few extra minutes to myself before the day starts.

That is easier said than done. If I know me, by the end of the month, I will already have been late at least twice and I will have yelled at least once. Each week. But I know that I will continue to work on my pedagogy. That is what I have set my sights on from the very beginning of the year. It isn't easy coming back into the classroom after three years in coaching. But reflective teaching is something I am committed to. It's a resolution that I can keep.

All I want for Christmas is a working plan of action!

It is three days before Christmas. Exams are done and scanned. My computer and Smart Board are unplugged and safe from surges. The desks have been rearranged and the floors should be waxed by now. I'm enjoying my break and reading The House of Night series (totally awesome and kinda hot, fyi).

My presents are wrapped (for the most part) and my yearly Christmas gathering last night was a huge hit (as is usual). There's just one thing on my Christmas list and I'm hoping Santa will help me out with--I need a working plan of action.

Test scores for the freshmen babies were not good. They said that they tried. They looked like they were trying. But it was more of a holy-crap-what-is-all-this-text-look that crossed their faces at sight of the benchmark exam. I think I had six or seven pass the test. That is pretty much on par for how our students have done on this benchmark the last several years. This is, of course, not good enough for me. So I need a plan.

I started working on my POA before I checked out for the holidays. We'll be starting Shakespeare when we come back (both in freshmen AND senior English) but this is not where the POA lies. No, it lies in the day to day activities that will lead to stronger reading and writing skills. Here's what I have so far...

We already read daily. And my kids are pretty good, for the most part, about reading, really reading every day. But that is the extent right now. So, for the New Year, we'll add in a reading response log. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, students will work on making connections to what they've read. This will require a brief mini-lesson on making connections and the different type of connections. On Thursdays, students will respond to their reading in the voice of a character. And Fridays will be all about summarization. (Oh by the way, I need about 50 folders with prongs to keep all this good stuff in--expecting them to keep up with something is like expecting South Carolina to have a white Christmas.)

So, I'm adding in a reading response log. This will be followed by a daily poem. Our poet laureate has a wonderful website that features 180 poems aimed at high school students (please infer, easy to understand). We will follow our reading response logs with a brief discussion around the poem of the day. This should expose them to more poetry, and give them a chance to dissect without pressure.

The last leg of my POA, right now, is an article of the week. Kelly Gallagher has his students read and respond to an article each week. He also puts these on his website (kellygallagher.org) and lucky for me, he has freshmen this year. So we'll have exposure to informational text and a chance to practice reflective writing.

Right now, that's my plan of action. In addition to our daily and weekly activities, we'll be reading Romeo and Juliet and maybe doing literature circles. Consider my English classes a science lab...I'm looking for something that will work magic.

'Twas the Night Before Exam Week

'Twas the night before exam week,
and all through the school,
students were cramming
and acting a fool.

They all want extensions!
They need it, they swear!
If only they'd been concerned,
instead of brushing their hair.

The calculators are clicking
as they average in haste
and wondering how
such a low grade did they make.

"How will I ever,"
they exclaimed all distraught,
"Memorize this stuff!
This is all for naught!"

You should have learned it,
as we went along.
Then you wouldn't be stuck cramming
all evening long.

Instead you could relax,
leave your boots by the fire,
instead of feeling as though
you were stuck in the mire.

So while others are laughing
and kissing under mistletoe,
you, my dear student,
must figure out what you know.

For it's exam week for you,
This last test of the year,
and you can show all your teachers,
that sometimes you do hear.

Analyzing Bias in Fairy Tales

Bias can be one of the hardest lessons for high school students to truly grasp. Unfortunately, it's everywhere. If they don't really understand it, they'll miss the sly nuances that are slipped into our daily news. If they can't recognize it, they'll be more likely to believe what they read. They'll take things at face value. They won't question the world around them. They'll be sheep. And we don't want a nation of sheep.

At least, I don't.

So we've been doing bias for what seems like forever, when in actuality it's been a week and a half. We've finally reached the final project.

To introduce bias in the media we defined the term and looked at clues for identifying it. Then we picked through examples. In the week of our lesson, Bobby Bowden retired from college football and President Obama announced the surge into Afghanistan. News sites were rife with opinions and my students had ample opportunities to examine word choice, tone, and hidden bias in headlines. Using my Smart Board, we analyzed headlines that looked at different sides of each story. We looked for emotions and discussed word connotation.

After thoroughly examining tone and word choice, students read "The Three Little Pigs" and highlighted words that showed the writer's bias for or against different characters in the story. All of that detailed analysis led us to a rewrite of the story, "Wolf Takes the Stand." Students were tasked with identifying bias in parts of the story and also examining how the wolf argues against stereotypes. We summed this up with a Venn Diagram on the two stories.

Now students are finishing up the lesson by rewriting another folk tale from the antagonist's point of view. The witch in "Hansel and Gretel" claims she cooked the children because they wouldn't do their chores. The wolf in "Little Red Riding Hood" proclaims his innocence because Red was a little brat that wouldn't give him anything to eat and he was just really hungry. They've come up with some great story lines. As we enter exam week, we'll finish up our stories and hopefully they'll demonstrate mastery of bias on their semester exams.

Fear and Loathing in Grammarville

Grammar. It’s a word that causes most high school students and younger to shudder in fear. It’s a weakness. Sally is a poor speller, Mark can’t get his subjects and verbs to agree, and Shana just runs on through the sentences.

As a junior high school student, grammar was as unrelated to reading as it could possibly get. There were two separate classes with two separate teachers to cover the grammar and reading lessons. God bless Mrs. Wall—she had the most hated job in school. She drilled grammar into us on a daily basis through 7th and 8th grades. She was unrelenting. She was the grammar drill sergeant.

But I know my grammar. Is it because it was kept separate? Is it because grammar was drilled into my head for an hour every day? What makes my grammar abilities stronger than those of my students whom I teach? Is it the way it was taught or is it because I was an honors student? And could it possibly be that I am better at grammar after my college grammar class than I ever was in high school? Shudder at the thought, but could I have possibly been as bad as the students I teach at naming nouns and pronouns and verbs.

The times have changed and high school teachers often see freshmen that cannot tell the nouns from the verbs. (I love the commercials: Verb, its what you do.) The current generation of high school students are media based. They are thrill-seekers. They are looking for the easy way out and rote memorization and knowing-it-for-the-sake-of-knowing-it just will not do. Grammarians must look for new ways to pass on their love of the standard written word. While they may shudder at making grammar lessons fun, surely its better than hearing yet another politician butcher the pronoun “myself”. It is time to change grammar lessons. Out with the DOL! Out with the memorizing! It is high time to relate grammar to the students and the reading that they are expected to do. It’s time to make grammar more accessible to all students—even the ones that aren’t honors level. So be proud, grammarians. Make your lessons fun and spread the grammar love.

Why is it not working?

Have you ever had one of those years (yes, years, not days) where nothing you try seems to work?

For heaven's sake, I am a trained literacy coach. I know how to teach. I've taught all levels. I've taught all kinds. I've taught kids who are now serving 25 years for serious crimes. And we got along fine! But I am very close to throwing in the towel because of one of my classes.

I've heard about "that" year. I've heard teachers refer to years in their careers that were horrid. I never thought I would have one...until I realized I was in the middle of one. And now what do I do?

So I've tried projects, busy work, tons of quizzes, group work, individual work, lecture, whole group instruction, and one on one instruction. Today I tried writer's conferences. I know what it takes to make them better readers and writers, but if you can't get through a paragraph without stopping to call down five students for noise, then you can't really get your point across. My conferences were totally ineffective today. I know that because I couldn't focus on one paper to give it justice without having to turn my attention to someone else.

I've tried strategy lessons. I've tried packets of activities that allows them to find their own answers. I've done just about everything that I can possibly think of. So now I'm contacting parents and about to get the administration involved. For some of these kids, it might be the first time they've ever been written up. I'm sure it won't be the last. But for my own sanity, I need some help.

I feel totally ineffective today. Even though my freshmen were little angels all day long, I've ended my day on a sour note. I sometimes understand why people drink themselves into oblivion...I'd give anything to forget.

Two Weeks to Go

Two weeks to go...only two weeks. I can make this. I can do it. I won't lose my temper. I won't yell at the sweet children. I'll be smiles and mistletoe and everything nice.

Who am I kidding?

I'll yell and carry on and give lunch detention--whatever it takes to make these last two weeks semi-peaceful. Luckily, the last week before break will be taken up with exams.

So, really, I have one more week. One more measly week to be interspersed with happy hours and Christmas parties to make me more festive and bright.

I can do a week. Granted, I have a skeleton of a lesson plan for tomorrow because I spent today watching Falalala Lifetime. And it was awesome. It had to happen in order for me to make it one more week. So tomorrow, we'll wrap up the oh-so-awesome bias lesson I came up with and I'll plan tomorrow afternoon.

That's what planning period is for, right?