“PL recap: fabo style”

I know I mentioned it awhile ago, but here it is “PL recap: fabo style” (AKA: Paradise Lost Recap: Facebook Style). More on the name to come, but for now the recap…

I had my seniors reading PL for a few reasons: 1) I’m not a big “classical” lit person (gasp! <then again, you all know rhetoric/comp. is my thing>), but LOVE PL and think Milton is a genius for this work, 2) I wanted to make my students think, and 3) I thought it would be fun/a great challenge to teach as well. By no means do I think it went perfectly, but I thought it went well and accomplished my reasons for teaching it too. Here’s an outline of what I did/what I found:

Shhh!

Today I found out I have secret bloggers in my classrooms. Students who have started blogging on their own. Telling me my class motivated them to do so.

How awesome is that?

They don’t necessarily want their peers (or me for that matter) to know about their ventures in the blogosphere…yet. One said I could know the URL once the blog became more developed. But the fact that a few of them told me. Awesome. (I think at least! And exciting!)

And who said kids aren’t reading/writing today?

Words, words, words

I have a vocabulary workbook that I use for my 10th and 11th graders, but can “freelance” vocabulary work for my seniors. So, I thought…what could I do to pull words that students would find interesting and not “typical” vocabulary work? I mean, yes, I still pull words from the texts we are reading that I feel are important for them to know, but I wanted something else…

And then it hit me: “Words, words, words.” This is the name of our new group on our class ning. Basically, here’s how it works…

• Find a word that you don’t know and find interesting.
• Look up the definition (and be sure to cite location you pulled definition from)
• Take a picture of something that reminds you of your word/definition (think: trying to create a meaningful understanding here vs. just solely a memorized definition)
• Upload picture to Picnik and create representation of word, definition, image, and anything else that you think adds to your understanding
• Save representation; upload to “Words, words, words”

Their representations are due Monday of each week…tomorrow marks the first time, so I’m interested to see what all they come up with! Essentially, we are creating our own little class “visual” dictionary (which you all know I’m all about!). And it’s my attempt for my students to have a little fun while expanding their vocabulary (which is something many of them claimed as a “weakness” in English class).

Encouragement

I’ve been MIA from my blog for a bit now but have a lot to get up here…however, I needed this time to “pause.” I’m feeling refreshed, and I’m feeling encouraged…especially knowing that I’m making a difference.

I mean that’s why we teach, right? To make a difference? At least that is one of the reasons I know I do. But to be honest, sometimes I’ve doubted myself. Are these the right reading choices? Are students really seeing the point behind this lesson? After all, I’m just a 1st year teacher with tons of ideas on reading/writing and teaching, but what does that really matter? Lots of questions constantly circling through my head.

And then I’m reminded.

“That class is so legit.”

Apparently one of my students walked out of class the other day and told another student in the hall…one of the other teachers overheard and told me…

Encouragement. My motivation to continue to be “legit” and push myself to be the best teacher I can possibly be for myself, but more importantly for my students. Here’s to a great Monday and start of another wonderful week of teaching!

Pause

I’m exhausted, and should be asleep, yet all I can do is think. (Must be the “teacher brain” I keep hearing about everywhere!) Seriously, I think that’s part of the reason I AM exhausted. My head will not stop thinking about things I want to try and do in class with my students, comments they’ve made, things I can do better, etc. And it’s not like I’m unfamiliar with this kind of non-stop, busy feeling (after all, many of you already know I like to stay busy).

Then I was glad I came across this post which harps upon the importance of taking advantage of “me” time and served as a reminder for me. I’ve talked about it. I’ve made conscious decisions to improve in this area. And I’m trying.

So, this is just a “gentle” reminder to myself to simply push “pause.” (And be ok with it!) And though “me” time may be my biggest weakness because I am absolutely one to overload and go 110 mph ALL of the time, I AM improving already (through the use of my yellow “idea” notebook, a new twitter app <though still not 100% sure how to use it>, trying new, different ideas one class at a time <such as this>, spacing out major assignments with my classes, exercising, writing, reading, playing games <yes, I enjoy an occasional MarioKart on Wii>, and many more things to help me improve in this area, including taking the time to pause).

But my question to all of you out there is this…what do you find to be your biggest weakness as a teacher? And how do you push yourself to become better at whatever “it” is?

(note: I have many weaknesses and things to improve upon. However, for me, being able to “pause” is just one of my harder ones to achieve!)

The forgotten & hope

I recently read and saw Precious (based on the novel Push by Sapphire). I have never been so moved, so disturbed, so…reminded.

I’ve mentioned many times before that our students’ lives outside of school have a direct impact to what goes on inside of our classrooms. That’s just how it is. This book reminded me that and so much more.

It reminded me that kids need help. It reminded me that there are some people who don’t care. It reminded me that there are a lot of people who do care. It reminded me that all of our students need to know that they are smart and capable. It reminded me that I must always do whatever I can to help students make that realization. It reminded me that we cannot forget kids…

Especially in the English classroom…because let’s all be honest with ourselves, kids may

The New Year

Happy New Year, everyone! I don’t know about you all, but I’m excited to get back to school…yet sitting here wondering where in the world break went! I feel like I should’ve done so much more than I did, and yet I realized how much I really needed this break. As in unplugged for days, sleeping, and just doing absolutely nothing related to teaching (or coaching for that matter). I can’t be the only one out there who can admit this, right? I think sometimes we all just need a little down time to recharge ourselves!

Anyway, you all know me and my “lists,” so I figured the start of the new year is as good a time as any to put a few thoughts down as I relish the last few days of my break!

• I so wish I could do this. And am determined to! However, I know January is not the month for me (at least when I sit down to look at my color-coded calendar and see the string of basketball games taking over this month I really don’t think this is the month for me, ha!).
• Speaking of coaching, I love sports. LOVE sports. I love playing sports. But still feel I haven’t grown into coaching as of yet. And it’s frustrating. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, but transition from athlete to coach has been much harder than I thought. Rather transition from English teacher to coach has been a harder factor than I thought, too.
• Another great idea that I so wish I could do! As noted, a part of best utilizing your PLN is to really engage with it…after all that’s how we best push our own thinking too!
• What will education look like in 2020? I have absolutely no idea. No one really can…but it’s exciting to think of the possibilities!
• I’m going to utilize my yellow notebook to the max…but not be hard on myself if I don’t try everything I have written down in there. Now, this doesn’t mean I’m not going to push myself to try lots of stuff in the classroom (because I do try a lot of different things). It just means that I don’t have to do everything all at once!
• I really need to follow through with my posts and articles. In other words, submit!!! I have tons of drafts sitting here with thoughts that I need to push through…

Random thoughts, then again…I’m a random person! And another random tidbit, how excited was I to unwrap this and this? Told you all I missed my “reading!”

Top 10 Thoughts (1st “real” semester teaching)

As you all know, I’m big on my “top 10″ lists and think these lists are an important part of my reflection process. So I figured it would be a good idea to continue my trend with my top ten thoughts from my very first semester of teaching!

Here we go…

The end is near…

…of the end of first semester. My very first “real” semester that is. I can’t believe how quickly this semester has gone by. Just a few months ago I was narrowing down my potential list of teaching jobs. And now here I am…at a school I love, doing what I love:  teaching.

I’ll include my top ten thoughts on this semester in a few days after I give my finals (all on Wednesday), turn my grades in (all by Thursday), pack and head to spend my holiday break with a graduation celebration and my family (as in arriving with them at some point Thursday night). Did I mention how long I’ll be on the road? HA! I’ll just leave it at that

However, here are a few notes I’ve deciphered from my sticky notes:

• I know I’ve mentioned it before, but sometimes students get so frustrated at you because you won’t give them the easy answer. (In other words, I make them “think.”) I never realized how much resistance some kids have to this idea…I know I can’t be the only one out there facing this type of resistance, right?
• Something I’ve always done with every class/group of students I’ve worked with is write one thing they really liked and one thing they really didn’t like over the course of the semester. I encourage them to be completely honest (they don’t have to put their names) because I greatly value what they have to say. Though I had a range of responses there were several similar trends including the following: many LOVED the book trailer projects, many HATED grammar, many wanted more flexibility with turning in assignments late (because I do not accept late work — this response was actually only dominant in one of my classes), and many appreciated all of the hands-on “stuff” we do to keep English class engaging.
• With finals around the corner, I thought it was cool that students were talking about using Quizlet. As in creating a quiz and sharing it with the class (particularly with vocabulary).
• Kids are kids no matter where you teach.
• And last but not least…I love teaching.

And on that note, I wish everyone the best as he/she heads into the homestretch!

Blah

Yep, that about sums me up right now. Doesn’t help that I’m sick, too, but blah just seems to be the way I feel right now.

I’m not sure what it is…Yes, it’s the end of the semester. Yes, it’s the end of my very first real teaching semester (though I’ve taught, student taught, and took classes before so I’m used to being very “busy”.) But I don’t think either one of those are “it” (and “it” being why I feel blah).

My teaching is going well (in fact, I’ve had some of my best classes recently and can’t wait to share those with you all), my coaching is going well (though I still haven’t found my happy medium zone between former athlete and coach), and my grading is ready to go as we finish up the school year and head into finals. (And I even have my Christmas shopping done, ha! )

Yet despite all of these great things going on, I’m still blah. And then it hit me tonight as I finished up my official NCTE recap: I need me time. I’m not talking about the me time where I’m going out and running sprints or getting a pedicure (though both are great examples of me time!). I’m talking about reading and writing for ME. I went back through some of my boxes (still stacked from the second move after the flood) and found some of my graduate work. From essays to poems, I realized how much I used to write…going back through my work made me realize the power of writing and reminded me of why I want my students to understand that they are active writers (and readers) in their lives too. I want them to know what that power is about.

I also sat in the middle of my floor and looked at the books around me (though not that many anymore sadly after yet again the flood). But the bottom line is that I need books in my life. I go through phases where I read a lot and then when I don’t read (aside from prepping for my classes). But phases doesn’t work for me. I need some composition studies,  visual theory, YAL, Milton, hooks, and Barthes. I also need books like this, this, and this.

I need reading and writing for me  to avoid this blah…I don’t know why I stopped. (And isn’t it ironic this is the same question I ask myself about my students?) I don’t know why it feels easier said than done. But I’m determined to make them a priority next semester…