A Tragedy of Epic Proportions… or a Comedy of Errors… You Pick

Thanksgiving weekend means several things to many people. It means a time for less than adequate cooks like myself to panic over cooking chores. It means a time for families to get together, sometimes awkwardly and uncomfortably, sometimes to argue, and sometimes to celebrate – it depends up on the family and the day. To some it means the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, including the early hours of Black Friday and continuing (after a nap) with trips to the mega malls, the discount stores, the mom and pop shops, and the bargain basement venues. To many English teachers, including myself, it means that research papers are due. It means a long weekend of reading, editing, giving revision advice, and generally massacring the weeks of hard work and effort by every senior in my English 12 class. (The kids loving call this process “hacking,” and some of them even ask me to hack their scholarships and other written assignments because they know I will give lots of feedback on the paper to improve before they turn in a final draft.)

The students understand the importance and weight that the research paper has on their quarter grade. We have devoted most of the second quarter to the research process, the writing process, MLA form, and to vocabulary and grammar related to these 7-10 page papers. They have been really busy. They have not had time for much else and they know their grade will reflect that effort. The last day before Thanksgiving break, for the students, is a day of relief and a time to forget about their papers, the topic sentences, the thesis statements, the work cited pages, and the statistics. They can relax – but I can’t. So you are probably wondering why I have time to write a blog on the Sunday afternoon of Thanksgiving break. You might be thinking that I have them all done, and that might have been a good guess if we hadn’t had a major tragedy just few short minutes ago…

My children and I traveled 6 hours away to visit my grandmother in the care home in Wichita, Kansas. My wonderful son drove all the way from home to Wichita with no complaints, so I got about ½ of the research papers read, edited and “hacked.” I laid the papers aside, put them away in my school bag while with the family, and enjoyed the rest of the weekend. Today, as we were leaving, and my son again took over the driving, I pulled out the remainder of the papers with hopes that I could get them all done before we pulled into our own driveway… and I got a lot done.

We pulled over several times for quick breaks, snacks, rest area visits, and the like, but eventually the late nights of hanging out with rarely-seen cousins caught up with my teenage chauffer and he wanted a break from driving to take a quick nap – so we switched drivers. I laid my folder of hacked research papers on the dash and jumped out. Since it is really cold and windy, we changed seats quickly and started moving again. As we pulled out, I asked my son to put the folder in my bag because he was beginning to read through the newspaper and look at the ads in an effort to finish his Christmas list, which he was to email to Grandma as soon as we got home. “No problem, Mom,” he said. I figured the folder was safely tucked away in its regular bed, also known as my computer bag.

He read the newspaper, made his list, took a nap, listened to some music, watched part of Disney DVD with his sisters, and then requested food. As we jumped out of the car to get food, all three kids did what every good child should do, they made their mother proud and grabbed all of the trash, cups, wrappers, and other debris from around the seats, in the door pockets, and on the dash. After I finished my lunch, and we switched drivers again 200 miles down the road, I realized that Carson had thrown the newspapers away. I looked in my bag, in the back window, on the floor of the car, between the seats, and everywhere else I could look. I also began to panic. We pulled over, on the highway, not in a nice parking lot, rest area or even a convenient driveway along the highway… right on the shoulder, in the bitter cold wind. They were gone!

How do I go back to school tomorrow and tell my students what happened? This is like the worst example of “my dog at my homework” that I have heard of in a long time. I am going to have to admit that I was careless, and that I didn’t get MY homework done on time, even though they had to meet all of the deadlines with no excuses. Believe me, I have thought several times that I COULD lie. I could tell them that I had them 80% done when they landed in the trash, but they wouldn’t have to believe me because I can’t PROVE a thing! I could also BLAME the entire thing on my kids, which I kind of have done in the blog post, but I should really admit that it was my fault. I SHOULD have taken the time to put the folder away myself before changing seats. I could simply tell them, “I am the teacher and I don’t have to do homework, so you will just have to live with my timeline,” but that is not my style. They know me better than that, and they will remind me of my PROMISE to have them done. (Note to self: Don’t tell the students they are “homework free” for the holidays, but that I will have tons of homework and they can “relish the fact” that the teacher will only enjoy turkey dinner with all the research papers and a red pen next to the plate.)

But here comes the tragedy part, and the epic proportions part: I realized that all the research papers went into the trash along with the newspapers, along with hours of hard work on my part and a complete annihilation of my carefully written lesson plans for the rest of the week. Those of you who are teachers realize that there is no way to get another copy of those papers in time to teach class tomorrow morning. I will have to wait for the kids to come to class, get them to print another copy. I will get to spend a couple more days reading and editing them again, and then give them back. That means I need to find another lesson/unit to teach this week while the students are waiting to get their research papers back. Which means all of the hours of lesson planning I did last week, before I left school for the holiday, have also gone down the toilet. Lucky me, a late night when I get home! (By the way, I wrote this in the car, on my laptop, and I posted this to my blog when I got home. I really hate to ride in the car, it is such a waste of time. Ask my husband and the kids, I always grade papers or work on something in the car and “use my time wisely.”)

Resolutions in November

Paul McCartney was recently on the news talking about when he plays some of the Beatles songs live he gets lost in the memories. He said that he has to remind himself that 40,000 people came to hear him sing tonight, and that he can’t get lost in the memories and “drift away.” This led me to think about the fact that when I listen the radio, particularly the 80s-90s-and-now station, I hear my memories as well. As different songs play, I remember different times in my life when things happened. I have somehow tied different songs to my experiences. So my question is… as teachers how have we tied out memories together? Do we peruse through old lesson plan books and read a year’s worth of lessons for 8 different classes? No. Do we have scrapbooks of activities and projects we have done to remind us of our past? Rarely. Do we run into students who mention something we have done in our classrooms and that sparks a walk down Memory Lane? Once in a while. Do we run across old posters and bulletin board items, only to be reminded of different projects? Sometimes. Do we rely on our aging memories when different subjects come up and then fondly look back and say, “I remember how I used to teach that…” Yes, most of the time. But that is sad… teachers don’t really have a memory device.

So that evolves into more questions. Change is always good, but does every lesson need to change if the lesson went well, the students were engaged, excited, and learned a lot? When we do make little changes from year to year to improve lessons, does that mean it is not important to look back where we came from (what we evolved from) and realize the growth and professional learning that occurred? How do we manage something that could be a huge undertaking? Where would we keep such a large collection of lessons and their evolution? Who would want to go back and look at it? Who could really learn from it? When would we find the time to keep all of these notes and memories in order? I am super busy as it is!

If you are wondering, where is she going with this? I am not sure. I wish I had more time to really archive, or database, my lesson plans and their evolutions, but I am not sure who that would benefit. I love to go back and remember what I taught back in the first years of my career. I can honestly say that some of the lessons from the first couple of years were probably more thought out than the lessons I taught yesterday. Back then I was unable to “punt” or “fly by the seat of my pants” than I am today. Experience does that to people. But it can also make us lazy, and drives us into a rut that we are not aware we fell into.

By thinking about all of this, I am more motivated to take an old lesson and use it, just for a little change up! I am more motivated to lesson plan seriously and really work to give the same quality lesson I strove for in the first few years. I am going to strive to still be creative, to be organized, to be motivating, and to try to create the best lesson possible. I am going to try to think of all the things that can go wrong – especially in the technology era and with the fact that 1:1 lessons can often throw me a curve ball. I am going to have alternative plans and be willing to go “low tech” when the lesson is just as effective. I am going to stop assuming that students know how to do things. I have gotten into a rut while teaching tech classes that students are motivated by self discovery. That motivation of self-discovery is more a cultivated skill in the English classroom. Don’t get me wrong, they are – when it comes to technology learning – but they aren’t as motivated by self learning when it is grammar and writing skills. They still need some instruction, guidance and motivation to work harder on subjects they may not be as motivated to discover. I really need to get back my focus with planning, and work a bit harder. (This could have been called a New Year’s Resolution, too bad it’s only November!)

I Break All the Rules in My Blogging

Since I have been focusing on writing in my English 9/10 class for the past couple of weeks, I have been really working on revamping the minilessons I use to introduce writing. To find these resources, I could have gone out on Internet and searched, but Twitter has become such a wonderful resource that I didn’t need to. I searched for a Twitter list of English teachers, and there was a goldmine of information shared by these people! (Thanks to everyone!) One of the tweets that circulated during the past few days sang the praises of Ken Wilson’s post on his blog titled “Rules for Writing Blog Posts.” (http://burcuakyol.com/ ) His advice included: 1) sometimes you have to have one-sentence paragraphs, 2) personalize but don’t focus on yourself, 3) tell a story instead of regurgitating facts and research. Each of these rules was accompanied with an example of different ways blogs can be written with the best example saved for the end. (Which by the way was a great way to teach blogging by example if a student were to find the examples and want to read them.)

But if you analyze this blog post I am probably breaking all the rules. Let’s see, I used the word “I” in the first sentence, and now I am analyzing my own writing, so I am focusing on myself. I tend to steer away from short paragraphs, because I have been writing in a traditional format for years where you need a minimum of 3 sentences per idea or you don’t have enough to say. I haven’t really told you story – maybe that can come later. If you look at many of the other blogging resources, you’ll find that I have broken more rules than just these, but that didn’t make me a better blogger. Writing made me a better thinker – and that is really what I was hoping for. I write for me, and I know that not many peole read my blog and I am ok with that. I am not that worried about style; I am more concerned with formulating my ideas and if someone else gets something from it – that is just icing on the cake or strawberries on the cheesecake.

After over a year of blogging I wanted to share my love of blogging and the freedom of writing it gave me. So I decided to do a little research before starting a blogging project with my journalism students. I read hundreds of resources about blogging. I tried to compile a list of dos and don’ts for the kids to follow. I even created a web page so the kids could come back to it and use it as a resource… how ridiculous. They were not that interested in how to write a blog, and they certainly didn’t want to spend a lot of time reading about writing – so they didn’t. These kids wanted to just start writing, and by trying to teach them to blog, I was crushing their interest and enthusiasm to get started. I should have just let them go!

So if you are interested in letting your students start a blogging project, here is my advice for any blogger, student, teacher, or adult: 1) Do you own research about how to write a blog, because then you will find your own style and you wont’ be bogged down by required reading. Read learning is self-discovery and you might learn to blog by reading one resource, and you might be interested in ready several. You might also enjoy learning about blogging by reading blogs by people who write in your interest area. 2) Write for yourself, write what is on your mind, write for your own learning, and if no one reads it, so be it. If someone reads it then great, and if someone reads it and thinks that it is worth commenting on or passing onto a friend, then you have hit a homerun! 3) Write only about topics you are interested in. Write only about things that you want to learn more about, otherwise why bother. If you try to force yourself to write about a topic that you may not be interested in or passionate about, or that you don’t care to learn about, then you are just into self-torture. I try to encourage students to abandon and start over again if necessary. 4) And lastly, I would like to say that grammar, spelling, and punctuation are not that important, but I would be lying. As a blog reader, a person who relies on their RSS feeds coming into my email daily, I hate blogs that are grammatically a mess. It is not that I am feeling English-teacher-ish 24 hours a day, but the mistakes are a distraction and make the author look like they didn’t care enough to proofread, or that they weren’t intelligent enough to correct their mistakes.

What do administrators look for in a good tech integrated classroom/lesson?

Maybe the question should be, what should they be evaluating?

• How should students be participating in this lesson?
• Are the students learning or doing something that couldn't have been done without technology?
• Who is doing the work - the teacher or the student? Who should be doing the work?
• Are they focused on content or technology? Which should be the focus in this lesson and all lessons?
• What standards are addressed in this lesson?
• Does the teacher provide exemplars?
• Are the student distracted by "bells and whistles" and how does the teacher get them back on track?
• How engaged are the students? Are the engaged the entire given time, or does their interest wane as time passes? How much self-discovery is expected by the teacher and how much self-discovery does the student exhibit on their own? (What is the difference between engaged and motivated - where is the change?)
• Will students exhibit 21st century skills (create, collaborate, publish...)
• Are the students expected to show higher order thinking skills? Critical thinking skills? Problem-solving skills? (the effectiveness of Bloom's Taxonomy)
• How much differentiation is included in the lesson for students of all skill, knowledge, comprehension and interest levels?
• Are students collaborating with each other to create new knowledge, with people outside of the classroom, or with people outside of their circle of acquaintance?
• How much creativity is required for success in this lesson?
• How transformative is the lesson? (If they are using the technology as text - like powerpoint or typing word documents only - then it isn't transformative. The teacher then spends time creating worksheets in adobe or word, places them on a network share, and takes students to the lab. Now the students fill out the worksheets and save to a network share or drop box. … Has this technology changed or improved the learning model? Was there any advantage gained in learning or productivity by using electronic documents rather than paper documents? In my experience, using technology in an "old-school" model usually DECREASES learning and productivity... The students finish the worksheet as rapidly as possible so they can get on the internet and play…Ultimately the success or failure of any technology is based upon how well the classroom teacher has implemented it into the curriculum (which should revolve around the school improvement goal and or state standards).
• The real evaluation is how students use tech to learn even when the teacher isn't driving the lesson...

Going Beyond the Cliches

November has been creeping up on me, and time is flying. It is hard to believe that Veteran’s Day is tomorrow already. Our school is in the midst of planning for the Vets program. The band is practicing, the 7th graders are memorizing poems, and the 8th graders are anxiously awaiting the results of veteran’s essay contest. The first and second graders are learning how to fold the flag and meaning of each fold. The thrid graders are learning to march with their “sergeant” teacher. With all of this in mind, Veterans’ Day has different connotations during a war period. I was fortunate enough to be in the generation that grew up in peacetime. I was born between Vietnam and Desert Storm. I was actually in college in the early 90s when we first started sending troops into combat. However, by the time the government began calling it a war after September 11, 2001, my generation was older and not of your typical combat age. My children are unfortunately not going to experience that sense of safety that I grew up with. Not that they are worried at this point, but as my son gets older and has entered high school, he is very aware of the fact that he is the generation that will continue to fight this war. It will be him, and his friends, that try to resolve this conflict. It will be (and is now) our neighbors, kids, our nieces and nephews, and our students.

One of my students has prompted me to think about the young Veterans. She is completely focused on her Veteran’s speech about Americanism. For the first time, she is writing a speech (other than entertaining speeches for competition) and she will speak to the entire student body, K-12, and the entire community: veterans, grandparents, parents, business owners, and small children. It is quite an honor, and it is quite a responsibility, and she is handling it very well. As I have just finished reading her speech, a week in advance of the actual day, she wanted to help her refine and make better word choices. She really wants to do a good job. She wants to blaze a new trail and she wants to talk to the teens in the room, not to the veterans. It’s not that she doesn’t want to talk to the veterans, but that she thinks it is time, especially for the high school students, to begin thinking about what Americanism really is. It is an action, and everyone, regardless of age can DO something. They can do something to help our veterans, to help our brave men overseas, and to be better citizens in the very near future when they are running this country. A daunting task at best. As we all know, presenting to students and community in the same program can be difficult. What interests someone of advanced age may not interest a restless elementary student, or a distracted middle school student, or a whispering high school student.

But as I read her speech my thoughts kept wandering back to “what would I say to these kids if I were in her shoes?” I would hate to use any of those old clichés. You know the ones that everyone uses, the clichés that seem to appear in all Veteran’s Day speeches, that we are starting to not pay attention to. What phrases are so over used that we don’t even hear them anymore? We always here people saying thank you, and for the Vietnam Vets this means a lot because they were not thanked when they came home. We always hear about the sacrifice that veterans have made for their country, but do you really think that the third graders in the front row really know what these people gave up? Do they realize that these men and women gave up nights at home with their families? They miss school programs, family reunions, birthdays, and watching their children grow up. Do the students realize that these vets gave up a warm bed when it’s cold, an air conditioned room when it’s hot, a warm shower at the end of long day, a sturdy roof over their head instead of a tent? Do they realize that these vets put their own lives on hold and then returned from war only to find the world went on without them, that their children grew, their wives had found jobs, their own jobs were not the same, and that other news took the front page and lead story on the nightly news?

These are the small sacrifices. We aren’t even talking about the sacrifices the soldiers go through when they are/were in the battlefield. They often have to sleep on the ground or in a foxhole. They eat “less than gourmet” food for every meal. They don’t have much contact with family and friends. They work basically 24 hours a day, and when they do rest, it isn’t the safe, comfortable sleep we get in our beds each night. They endure very high temperatures and unbearably low temperatures while trying to work and keep themselves safe. They are dodging bullets, watching for landmines, and guarding locations, while we are simply trying to get through rush hour traffic, searching for bargains at the mall, and locking our doors before we go to bed. Our lives are not that difficult if you compare them to that of a soldier.
Part of being a good American is the little things we can do to support the vets and troops. We can write letters, send care packages, do positive promotions here in the states to ensure that when the troops return, they are honored and respected for their efforts. We at the school take a lot of time to talk about history, the wars and their consequences. We practice for programs, learn the pledge of allegiance in kindergarten, and we raise and lower the flag each day. That is what the school to show our Americanism. Other organizations around town also plan patriotic events, and honor those who deserve it. The question is, what have you done lately? Have you talked to your own children about the real meaning of veteran’s day, without the clichés? Have you told them the stories that will make them proud to say they have a vet in the family? Have you done anything… share it here.

How I Wish My Students Would Write

I was just reading an article titled, “7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School,” (http://www.copyblogger.com/bad-writing-habits/) and it really got me to thinking about what I think is good writing for my students and what I think is “bad” writing from my students. I am not sure that my ideas line up with those of this author, but you should know where this idea came from.

• I don’t expect the writing to sound like someone who is famous or who died 100 years ago. I want it to sound like the students in conversation – only more polished. I want to know what they think, or what they have experienced, not what they are retelling me from something they have read.
• You don’t learn to write by reading about writing. You learn to write by writing and writing often. Sometimes when you learn the most about writing, it is because you did not write well. You learn by editing and revising yourself. People who write and don’t ever look back at what they wrote are never going to get better. My brain cannot be the only one that jumps around. It is kind of like when you are in a heated conversation, when you walk away you always have those thoughts “I wish I would have said…” that only come to you when you go back and rethink what has already happened. It is the same with writing. In one sitting, you might think of a lot. In the next sitting, you will different influences that inspire what you have to say. A second pass any writing will only improve it. That is the fault of most school writing experiences. We give the assignment, we check it, and we hand it back, and we never look at it again. If you put a little time between the writing assignment and when you revise it, if the student puts a little effort in, they will be able to make big improvements.
• I want to hear their passion, or lack of passion, about a subject or they shouldn’t have wasted the time writing it. I hate assignments that the students are forced into writing. That is when you get bad writing. I would rather have them pick their topics and show their own opinions. I recently gave an assignment to write a personal narrative. The student didn’t want to write one, because anything they wanted to write about was “probably not school appropriate, and if it wasn't, then it was probably boring.” So their entire narrative was about writing personal narratives and what they "didn't really learn" while doing this assignment. This was the best narrative I read out of the entire freshman class.
• Who are you going to spend more time writing for? My guess: everyday people — your family and friends, your blog audience, your boss at work, maybe even a Letter to the Editor every now and again. None of them are academics. None of them want to read an essay. I know that English teachers like to assign essays. We want students to compare and contrast, persuade, describe, inform and once in a great while, entertain. But what we are missing in these assignments if making the writing enjoyable. I am not that naïve to think that my students will all enjoy writing, but if they can write what they think, without the fear of failing, it makes it more enjoyable. I want them to write what they think- and how teens think might be short and concise. They might be argumentative. They might be controversial. They might not be grammatically correct. They might use the wrong words, and they might not use correct references. They might misquote and they might have strange connections but at least they are thinking for themselves and they are expressing their ideas. Once they get used to us letting them writing without being censored, they will improve their writing.
• Some of the best writing is short. The writing says what needs to be said and finishes quickly. Requiring length is not going to make a better writer. What makes a better writer is experience. If a student writes a lot, then they will hone their skills. Most people like to read short things like newspaper and magazine articles and web sites. They read emails, wall and text messages, and blog posts. They don’t read 5 paragraph essays and research papers because they are boring. Yep, I said it… boring. And yes, if they are boring to read, then they are boring to write.
• Using quotes from research is not necessarily good writing. The author talked about being able to write an entire paper without writing a sentence of his own. That scares me! I am having my seniors write research papers right now and that is one big fear of mine. It is too easy for students to regurgitate what they have read and never really process the material and make it their own. I would much rather read a blog entry that is short and to the point where the person shows some interest, passion, critical thinking, and problem solving for themselves. Would you really want to read this blog if I didn’t have opinions of my own? Do you really need to read the link to the blog I read before my passions kicked in? If I was just going to summarize what the other person wrote, why don’t you just read it for yourself?
• Shying away from controversy or opposing ideas is foolish! I would rather read about something that makes me react, get mad, get upset, and at least think! Otherwise why bother? The only conversations people want to get involved in is when we can argue; when you can play the devil’s advocate; when you can scrap a bit. This is what makes things interesting. It is the same with writing. Why do you think The National Enquirer, talk shows, the Huffington Post, and other news sources are so popular? Just giving information about a topic is not interesting…

Zombies in School?

zom·bie
Variant(s): also zom·bi\ˈzäm-bē\
Function: noun
Etymology: Louisiana Creole or Haitian Creole zonbi, of Bantu origin; akin to Kimbundu nzúmbe ghost
Date: circa 1871
1 usually zombi a : the supernatural power that according to voodoo belief may enter into and reanimate a dead body b : a will-less and speechless human in the West Indies capable only of automatic movement who is held to have died and been supernaturally reanimated
2 a : a person held to resemble the so-called walking dead; especially : automaton b : a person markedly strange in appearance or behavior
— zom·bie·like \-bē-ˌlīk\ adjective

With Halloween being just yesterday, and the fact that CBS Sunday Morning just did a story, it really got me to thinking about Zombies. I know, twisted mind, but that is OK for this time of year right? I love Halloween, love the costumes, love the candy, and love all the fun that goes with the holiday in general. However, zombies have really caught my attention. The question that comes to mind is, how do we not become zombies, automatons in our daily school lives as teachers? I am sure every district has them, and I am not saying that my district has them, but as I analyze myself I see that even I can become a zombie to a certain point.

I find myself run down, over extended, and tired to point of just wanting to become that “will-less and speechless human.” We have hit that time of year, when the sports seasons are changing so the kids are getting a short break from the overload of afterschool sports practices and other activities. However, as I look ahead at the months to come, the December calendar is very SCARY! We have something going on every day. Activities and sporting events start to show up two and three times a week. If you are like me, you attend everything. You go to the games, the concerts, the plays, and other things. You also attend family events, and holiday things. We all get tired. I think Halloween is the just the beginning of the zombie period of the year, when we all come to school tired.

I also can see people who are zombies on a daily basis. They are the students and teachers who only come to school because they have to. They are hear to collect the diploma or the paycheck and then their real life begins at the end of the school day. To me, that is so sad. When the students have to face a teacher who has reached this point, then students find it hard to get excited about school. When the students aren’t excited about school, then it is hard to get the teachers excited as well. We feed off of each other and morale is very critical to a successful school.

Now it you look at it from a different perspective, a zombie is “reanimated.” That means we can revitalized even from this “dead” tired time of year. I always seem to return to a question and this post is no different:

1. What can we do as teachers to revitalize the zombie-like elements of classroom? If we really took time to analyze our classrooms, and took a really hard look at what we have “done for years,” would we see if there a new and invigorating way we could do the same thing? Would
2. How can we make school more fun and interesting? I am not saying we have to entertain students, but how can we spark some motivation and make school more engaging so they want to be here and we are excited to be here with them?
3. How do we encourage teachers who arrive 2 minutes before the first bell and leave 2 minutes after the last bell to want to be here? How do we entice them into doing new units and infusing more interest into their daily lessons?
4. How do we generate more collaborative projects and real world experiences that the students can see will help them with their own futures?
5. How do we remind teachers of their first year enthusiasm? How do we reinvent ourselves to create more interest and motivation for ourselves, which will carry over into our teaching?
6. How do we remind students of their love of learning that they had when they were in elementary school? How do we get them excited to come to class everyday and want to work for us? How do we connect with each student on a personal basis so they feel cared about that we want them to succeed?

We have to eradicate zombies from our school, those that come in the form of teachers and those that come in the form of students.