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 ANY level to take care of academics first. Many would think this would be common sense, but it’s not always the case. Furthermore, motivating young athletes to be the best they can be — both on and off the court — is crucial in the development of the next generation of global thinkers.

And I agree…”it’s great having a president who is also a Motivator/Challenger in Chief.” I’m excited to see what the future will bring!

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 did not receive more proactive help before they even reached high school? This is probably one of the most frustrating factors I have found to be true even at the school I am in now. There are practically non-reading students in the 8th grade. Why were literacy/reading specialists not brought into the picture? The teachers acknowledge how sad this is and say, “Yes, he/she really needed a specialist.” If everyone sees this, then why isn’t it happening?

Then, I get even more frustrated

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, nor should they be the sole determining factor (at least in my opinion, for whatever that’s worth, ha!).

I agree that students who are able to comprehend in multiple ways can figure out what tests are asking. I believe that we need to help our students understand the power they possess and the foundational knowledge for the literacies they possess (i.e. digital, visual). In fact, I liked this quote for

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 the world, I think we’d realize how lucky we are…

With that said, check out this. Just sort of makes you stop, think, — and really appreciate the freedom we have.

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 I would rather unscrammble a bunch of jumbled words than read dotted-heart “i’s.”

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 the same time. My CT usually plans by week and copies when she needs to. Though I know I can’t make a whole year’s worth of copies at once,

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 not have things how they should be. However, with that said, I also am open-minded in that I understand not everyone is like me in my obsession for organization. For this reason, it does not bother me that others are not organized because everyone has their own “system,” which is one of the points Burke makes when he mentions his organization methods. [But for me personally, well, I’ve just got to be.]

Though I am highly organized, Burke mentions one of my biggest faults: 

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 so much power,” really resonated for me (440). At this point in my “teaching” career, I think I’m more caught up in the immediate how-to’s versus actually thinking about what I’m really doing (in the underlying, yet big picture scheme of things). I think Burke’s points are

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 area courses, too.)

I’m thinking about public speaking skills, public service announcments, persuasive essays. And I’m also thinking about all of the cool ways we could incorporate technology (aka: multiliteracies/21st century learning) to these ideas (i.e. podcasts, video commercials, online polls). In other words, the possibilities are there.

Do I think mock elections and debates can be used to effectively teach civics? Absolutely. Plus, they can provide real-world connections for our students AND what a great way to collaborate with other teachers to effectively use cross-discplinary teaching to really hook our students into the lessons (aka: set curriculum standards) in a creative and engaging way.