Some Basics

Not surprisingly, the time has flown by and the end of the first term is tomorrow.  I feel super fortunate to have the students I have this term, as they are all very easy to get along with, something that isn't always true.

My home room and first block is the largest class, with an enrollment of twenty-seven, but it sets a really positive tone to my day.  It's Honors English 10, and they are a pretty happy group.  I have about ten AVID students in the mix, and so far I haven't had personality issues with any of them, nor have I seen any occur.  One student had to go on home bound services at the end of the second week due to surgery, and a new student transferred from a different class to due a conflict with another student, but it seems to be going well.  I provided color paper and markers earlier this week following a test and encouraged them to make a get well card, but only a couple did it.  One or two of the boys suggested I make a large one and just have them all sign it, which seems like a good idea, so I am planning on doing that tomorrow.  So even though it's a large class, it's easy to manage.

My second block is my Transition English 10 and only has a total of fourteen students now.  My roll had started with sixteen, but one was a no-show and the other one moved during the second week.  The interesting thing is that there are only three girls in that group, which definitely affects the management.  But they are a nice group and most are working hard, although two are not passing at this time.  Two of the boys are repeating English 10 with me even though all three of us had the chance to make a change if we wanted to.  One of them is still doing the same behaviors of sleeping and not working much, mainly due to his home life, but the other one is killing it!  He said he just decided to make a change and do it right this year and that is exactly what he's doing.  He has an A and lots of praise.  Pretty cool.

Lastly is my English 11 class, which is inclusion with a co teacher, and it's working well.  We have twenty-two students, ranging from very low to two who should be in Honors.  We had the one student put into Honors today, and the other one is still having his schedule manipulated to try and make it work.

More on instruction later.

Graphic Novel: Magneto

I gave my Honors English 10 class the graphic novel, Magneto, to read this week.  Most of them read it on Wednesday, the first day, and the remainder finished it the following day.  I grouped them in groups of five, trying to mix them so there was a balance of genders and were also from different areas of the room.  I also tried to place one outgoing person per group so that there was some balance that way as well.  I used a set of Literature Group job sheets for each group, letting them decide the roles within each group.  On Friday I gave them a set of five discussion questions, in the hopes of guiding the discussion somewhat, and it seemed to go well.  I also gave each person a project choice board from a book I have, and allowed them to work on the project in class after their discussions.  I told them they will have one more day in class to work, and then the rest of the projects will need to be done outside of class and due next Monday.  They all seemed to be interested and engaged, and I'm hoping this will lead to further interest in the theme of social justice.  For instance, I'm thinking about including the issue of current day genocide in the list of research project topics this year.  Interestingly enough, I heard on NPR last weekend that Germany is having a rise in anti-Semitism again, something I told my students about when I introduced the novel.  Hard to believe.

Trying to follow through on my ideas from this summer has been difficult as I adjust to three preps and new textbooks, but it's also been exciting to plan these types of relevant activities.

So Many Resources, So Little Time

As I sat and reflected on the upcoming week, I remembered to look on the Teaching Tolerance website, and found a unit on Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice, as well as a number of other fabulous ideas.  I'm not sure where I'm going to fit this in, but I know that I will.  I need to take some quality time to plan outward, to think beyond the next week, which is hard with the new preps and the new textbook and corresponding curriculum framework.  I need to sit down and map out the entire semester, at least loosely, so I have a better idea of what I'm doing and how to include the "extras" I so want to teach.  I also am realizing that the first semester is going to be as much error as trial and error, and I have to be okay with failing a bit more than I am comfortable with.  What was the phrase?  Spend more time in the unknowing?  Oh, but it's oh so hard to do that.

Also, I received the Virginia Holocaust Museum loan of a class set of graphic novels, X-Men: Magneto Testament; a timely resource, especially with what's happening in Germany right now.  

New Year

Three great days completed; I'm loving the fact that I have my Honors 10 class for home room and first block.  They are so cooperative and calm, compared to my last two years at the high school.  The tone of the class is making me think I can do some really fun things in there, since I don't have to review as much as I'm used to doing.

Having said that, I explained the concept of a Writer's Notebook to all three classes, Honors, Transition (at risk for dropping out) and Inclusion, using Kelly Gallagher's words that "just as an athlete practices far more frequently than he/she plays in a game/competition, the Writer's Notebook allows for the practice of writing without judgement." (My summary of his actual words).  I then showed a TED Talk clip of  Malala Yousafzau's father speaking about how a patriarchal society affects everyone to all three classes. I then had them orally define a few terms before asking them to write in their Writer's Notebook.  Every class participated and more importantly, seemed enthusiastic and engaged, which is the point, right?

I'm hoping this will be a good foundation to further explore the topic of social injustice and the power of writing.  I think it's a good start.

First Day

Interesting moment today. While having my students participate in a paired AVID activity entitled, Pet Peeves, one of the portions required the pairs to discuss and write down three areas of commonality and three areas of differences.  A student asked me if race could be used to describe a similarity or a difference, and I said of course, because race and gender are definitely part of our identities.  I'm hoping this sets the tone for allowing race to be part of our conversations.  I didn't realize it would begin on day one, but I'm so glad it did.

The Night Before

Double checked my bag, car is packed with even more stuff, and my stomach is queasy.

Yes, it's the annual back to school jitters, right on schedule.

Labor Day Weekend

This year our pre-school week had more meetings scheduled than usual, which left me with very little classroom prep time.  If I were a new teacher, I would have been in high stress mode the entire week, but luckily, I am an eighteen year veteran and realized that regardless of how crunched I was for time, I would somehow manage to be ready for Day One.  Thankfully I made the decision to go in a couple of times before I had to, and so my room was pretty well set up by the day I had to report back.  This allowed me to make copies of the first week activities in fifteen minute blocks of time, which was truly all the time I had.  I finally got the stacks of papers organized on Friday before I left for the day, but because we adopted new textbooks and a new scanner system to track them, I have 180 textbooks spread all over my room, which means I am going into the building on Sunday to shelve them.  It's either that or do it before class on Tuesday, and Sunday is definitely the lesser of two evils.

I hate that I spent very little time on the curriculum, but that just means I will stay late a lot the month of September.  I did find a website that I'm browsing through this weekend: the National Wriring Project.  And I still have the books I bought in July and August to study, so all is not lost.

How are your first few weeks looking?

PLC

Our back to work in-service was about Professional Learning Communities; thankfully, I already knew a little something about them, thanks to the VCET Academy this summer.  I think I've said before that my principal is really good about implementing practices that are good for everyone, whether or not he gets support from downtown.  He's also good at getting the faculty to buy in and have ownership of them as well, and today was no exception.  We worked in teams with people we normally don't work with to practice setting group norms, in preparation for our department meetings on Wednesday, using strategies we could/should use in our own classes.  And we read an excellent article on the topic as well, which will now be in my notebook for future reference:  "What is a Professional Learning Community?", by Richard DuFour.  The big take away for me was that instead of focusing on our teaching, we should focus on the learning that is/is not occurring.  And just as importantly, we should have intervention for students as opposed to remediation.  I'm interested in how this looks in practice, something I hope to learn more about on Wednesday.

And by the way, I am so glad I decided to begin this blog and only wish I had begun years ago!

Time to Begin

Of course, we never really stop thinking about our students and how we can improve our instruction, do we?  And yet, all the thinking and planning wouldn't mean a thing if it wasn't put into practice with our students.  This pre-school week is filled with meeting after meeting, but I'm hoping the structure of showing up will help me put some plans down on paper.  I've been reading all summer and I'm at the point where my mind is so filled with ideas and information that I'm in danger of becoming paralyzed with indecision.  But I've been at this point before, and I will trust that I will move forward, just like I always do.  After seventeen years, I've also learned that it takes students showing up before I really know where we're going.  Not that I don't have plans and goals, just that it doesn't really come together without them.

The two books I've been reading this weekend are Fires in the Bathroom by Kathleen Cushman, author of the book we used in July, and one of Kelly Gallagher's books, Teaching Adolescent Writers.  Both books have a wealth of information, and I will be referring back to them during this week and the following weeks, as I plan, try, fail, plan, try, fail, plan, try, and at some point, meet with some successes along the way.

Wish me luck!

Yes

"If a student knows you care. . .
If they know they can trust you. . .
If they know you are a real person. . .

Then you can teach them anything.

Relationships first, content second."

Jeff Charbonneau

Pedagogy

I found this quote from Paulo Freire's book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and I am planning to focus on it throughout my year:

"But the humanist revolutionary educator cannot wait for this possibility to materialize. From the outset, her efforts must coincide with those of the students to engage in critical thinking and the quest for mutual humanization. His efforts must be imbued with a profound trust in people and their creative power. To achieve this, they must be partners of the students in their relations with them."

A Little Bit Overwhelmed

I taught middle school science for fifteen years and I have only taught high school English for two, so I still feel a bit like a new teacher.  The past two years have been about adjusting to high school students and immersing myself in a new content area.  That's why I was so excited to participate in the VCET academy last month; it gave me a chance to think deeply about what I want to do in my classroom.  I came home after a week of reading, writing, talking, and thinking about what I believe and want to do, and realized that although I'm super energized, I'm also a bit overwhelmed.

I ordered a few books and started reading them and now I'm feeling even more out of my depth than before, especially with so little time remaining before school starts.  I know I could start my classes and pull out some favorite activities and lessons that worked last year, and in fact, I know I will use some of them; I can't throw out everything and start completely new, but at the same time, I don't want to cling to the familiar just because it would be easier.

For now, I'll get back to my reading and trust that the combination of my enthusiasm and experience will help guide me as I start sketching out my plans.

Mulling Things Over

After watching an Upworthy video the other day, it occurred to me that one of the ways I might be able to help my students become activists is by sponsoring a Gay-Straight Alliance club.  I checked out this site and found a number of resources, and I talked with a couple of teachers who told me that our school has had a GSA in the past, so I plan to speak to my administration about it this week.

I actually don't know anything about sponsoring a club, and I'm not as educated about gay issues as I probably should be, but I do believe in equal rights for ALL, so I am hoping that my good intentions and ability to locate resources will be enough to get started.  My objective is to provide a place to have conversations, and to assist interested students as needed.

Any suggestions are welcome!

A Sigh of Relief

I just uploaded my project and I feel an intense relief, especially since I just received my grade of an A!  But at the same time, I know I have plenty of work to do before my classes begin.

This semester, I will have a Transition English 10 class, an Honors English 10 class, and an English 11 class, which may or may not be an inclusion classroom.  I am planning on implementing my Social Justice Project Plan in both of my 10th grade classes, but I haven't decided whether or not to try it with my 11th grade class, mainly because of the stress of the SOL test that will be given about a third of the way through the semester.  I may begin it after the test because then I'll have some idea of the revisions I'll need to make, and the stress of the test will be over.  Hopefully.  Assuming the results are good.

I would have liked to have written an entry prior to this, detailing some of my issues with completing my project, but I had forgotten that this blog is under a different email and password than my other blog.  Now that I've remembered, perhaps I can be a bit more regular.

The experience at GMU was incredibly inspiring and empowering, giving me all sorts of things to think about.  For one thing, it reminded me how much I enjoy reading professional journal articles, and it has caused me to purchase the following five six books:

• Talking Race in the Classroom
• Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry
• Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir
• Stirring Up Justice: Writing and Reading to Change the World 
• Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word

• Differentiation: From Planning to Practice, Grades 6-12

The book about memoir isn't exactly for teaching purposes, but if I want to participate in writing with my students, this may be helpful to me.  And I know that I should write in order to authentically talk to and with them about writing.

So now, my job is to read the books I've bought, and to add details to my implementation plan, so that I'm prepared for the beginning of the semester, before all the housekeeping tasks begin to mount up.

Am I ready?  Sure I am!  After all, I'm a teacher, and we are used to doing impossible things.  Sometimes even six impossible things before breakfast.

Starting Up

I have just finished the most exciting professional development week of my career and as a way to document what I implement as a result, I decided to begin a professional reflection blog. 

I have a farewell dinner to attend, so this is just a hello post.

Hello.  I hope to see you soon!