The Fun Theory

My principal sent out this video as part of our weekly notes…

That’s right. The “Fun Theory.” Thinking about all the ways this plays out in the classroom already…and the many more ways it can be included as well. (Because reading and writing is fun! And I think some of my students [...]

Images, writing, and video recording

I recently had my students work with Glogster (edu version) creating an important scene from their most recent novel Cry, the Beloved Country. I like glogs because they provide a really interactive medium for students to create a multimedia image representation (think: poster) of anything. Just like if they were to create a collage by [...]

National Novel Writing Month!

My students laughed when I mentioned the National Day on Writing and thought that I was just making up random days for English “stuff.” Then, I showed them the legislation behind the National Day on Writing, and they realized I was telling the truth.  (They also couldn’t believe that we have a National Grammar Day.)
With [...]

Grading essays

You all know the feeling. As you sift through the pile of papers in front of you (or in the online dropbox in my case), you think to yourself, “Oh, boy!” You spend a large amount of time carefully crafting your revision comments, corrections, and what I like to call “what the author did very [...]

Coach

That’s right. Not only am I Ms. Beach, the tough, first year English teacher…I’m Coach Beach, the (I have yet to fill in the blank here). And as I sit here typing away, I can’t help but wonder what I’ve gotten myself into this time!
OK, really I’m sorta joking, but I’m really not. Everyone laughs [...]

Who woulda thought?

Spirit week. Enough said. We ARE doing work in English class, but I think spirit week is taking over. Not to mention PSAT practice. PSAT testing. Just getting back from trip week. Conference day. Holiday. Oh, and we just switched our schedule around, so morning periods are in the afternoon and afternoon in the morning. [...]

Me, myself & I

I’ve been meaning to blog about this for a while now, but forgot to hit “publish.” Anyway, during my last English Dept. meeting, my dept. head asked us to think about what is keeping us from being the teacher we want to be. Our answer couldn’t be “having more time” because everyone needs time (though [...]

Trip Week: Check

Well for those of you who doubted my survival during the freshman’s class trip week, I survived, ha! I do not teach any freshmen courses, so it was a good opportunity to get to know more of the students at the school. I was thoroughly impressed by these students in many ways…
First, the kids were [...]

Reading and writing…and reading and writing some more

Two important things I’m currently pondering:
First, I really want to have my students participate in the National Day on Writing. Of course when talk of this surfaced awhile ago when I was still in graduate school (last fall), I kept thinking “when I’m teaching next year, I will totally do this…” And then here I [...]

“A Storm With No Name” –> No school???

The weather man just coined the term for what’s taking place down here around Atlanta:  A Storm With No Name.
I can’t seem to get away from water! I’m fortunate my home is dry now, but if you haven’t seen on the news lately everything around and north of  ATL, GA is currently under water. It [...]