Gallery Idea!

I mentioned before that I really wanted to figure out something to incorporate into the National Day on Writing’s Online Gallery. And I realized I don’t think I mentioned that I did it! Well, my students’ work hasn’t been submitted yet; however, I did set up our gallery!
OK, so I may be way more interested [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

But what are YOU reading?

One thing I forgot to mention earlier…as we discussed in class what kids were reading/writing on their own, I had students shoot the question back at me, “Well what are YOU reading?”
I laughed. I loved it. And I read them off the various pieces of literature I was reading (and re-reading) for teaching purposes (including [...]

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 [...]

Legit lessons

Now that life has calmed down some (ha!), back to reflecting…
You may remember students referring to me before as being “legit.” Well it seems this group of kids think the same thing as I’ve been hearing this same comment recently. Not going to lie, it makes me feel good. I want students to realize we [...]