Dictionaries and Athletes

I really just liked this idea. Period. Basically, I liked how this note talks about the increased focus on academic as well as athletic success for the Oregon State basketball team. I can speak from the experience of having been a student athlete and I cannot emphasize enough that there is a great need at [...]

Literacy gaps and curricula

[Response to BPR's chapter 18]
I immediately have to start off by pointing out that high school completion rates have decreased due to the fact that students can’t pass their reading proficiency benchmarks (274). Am I the only one that sees a problem with this? Not that kids aren’t graduating, but why is it that they [...]

An important goal

[Response to BPR's chapter 17]
Well, I think this chapter really hits some of the key struggles that we will face as teachers. I have never been a fan of the formal assessment measures as the sole deciding factor on what students have learned. Formal assessments are definitely NOT the final product of a student’s learning, [...]

Web 2.0 tools?

I ran across this and thought I would share. It seems the opportunities to utilize Web 2.0 technologies are practically endless!
I’ll have to check this out and maybe provide a list of some of the most useful/interesting sites I find…

The lucky ones

You know, I think we take advantage of the fact that we have a right to education in our country. We’ve all complained every now and then about the extra readings assigned or the lesson plans we have to write. I mean that’s normal. But if we all take a moment and really look around [...]

Mailbox, mailbox, mailbox!

Had to share this because well, it’s just comical. Especially after taking a course that discusses how fonts work visually.
I often wonder how I could classify my students’ writing into fonts. In fact, this is probably the biggest challenge for me as a teacher: decoding some of my students handwriting. And yet I find that [...]

The Copy Room = Battleground!

[Response to Chapter 10 in Burke's "The English Teacher's Companion"]
Before I jump into the “curriculum” specifics, I have to admit I laughed when reading the section about “determining your needs” (268). In my annotated remarks, I put, “Plan ahead! Especially when it comes to the copy machine, ha!” I say this jokingly, but seriously at [...]

Organization!

[Response to Chapter 24 in Burke's "The English Teacher's Companion"]
Burke discusses many ways to help teachers “organize,” which can often be one of the biggest personal learning lessons teachers go through. I have to admit that I would consider myself highly organized (almost in an obsessive-compulsive way, ha!) and find myself stressed if I do [...]

English Teachers = POWER

[Response to Chapter 22 in Burke's "The English Teacher's Companion"]
I have to admit, this chapter really touched upon many of the things I know, but have not necessarily really thought about. Burke’s initial lines, “It is a courageous act to teach middle and high school English,” and “People often fear English teachers because we have [...]

Mock elections and debates: the opportunity for cross-discplinary teaching

Here is my opinion on the idea of using mock elections and debates to effectively teach civics.
Though my ideas are outlined in my opinion, I do want to throw out some of the ideas I think would work in the English classroom. (And, I do offer some general suggestions in my opinion for other content [...]