Symbaloo for Research

Research Tools for #RM140 students.

Spring Fever, The Odyssey, and Pride and Prejudice...

This is the last day before Spring Break! Here in Room 140, we've been studying Homer's Odyssey in English and Pride and Prejudice in Novels. The students are working diligently on analyzing the text in Odyssey, but SPRING FEVER is definitely upon us! In novels, we are analyzing the characters in P&P, and we're also studying the camera actions from the film version of the novel. It has been great! Several of my students are now reading other Austen books which makes me very happy. Today, the students are writing 6 word memoirs based on one of the characters in P&P. I know it will be great. This is the time of the year that always has me reflecting on the lessons I've been teaching, and planning how I want to change things before school begins next August. Hopefully, I won't spend my entire break working on lesson plans. My hope is to read at least a book a day, beginning with Becca Fitzpatrick's Black Ice!

Peace!

Mid-Summer Blues Mixed with Excitement for Fall

The hottest part of the summer always brings with it the blues. Anyway, I'm reworking several lessons for the beginning of school, and I can't wait to see if they will be successful. SO...I've been making sentence strips, vocabulary cut-outs, and a host of other "elementary" school type manipulatives. Ugh! I can't believe how much time it takes to make all of this stuff, and I'm extremely thankful that I do not teach elementary school. :) I definitely would not want to depend on myself to make all of these items for every day of the week--all year long. I can happily do this for unit enrichment, but for every day??? However, I'm looking forward to my mixed English and history class which will be using the majority of my handmade manipulatives. The class will be working in "Labs" (think centers or stations) one or two days each week, and the material making/locating for those is making me crazy...crazier than normal! The labs will be reading (English, literary nonfiction, and history materials), writing/grammar, geography, computer, vocabulary, and fun/games. Oh how I wish that the English department could use the ipads; I've found so many apps that would be great for my labs! Anyway, I'll be updating my blog with information about all of my classes, so stay in touch.

WEB 2.0 Symbaloo

Teen Read Week~ We're Zombified!

My PreAP English 9 class is gearing up for Teen Read Week (YALSA). This year's theme is "...it came from the library". Our school's librarian, Ms. Madison ( ) is hosting a door decorating contests and we're in it to win it! Our door's theme comes from one of 1st blocks most loved authors, John Green! One of my students read his novella, Zombicorns, and we decided to use it as our inspiration. Part of the contest involves writing haikus that are also tweets about a zombie apocalypse, so today we haikued and tweeted for about fifteen minutes.
 Here are a few of our twaikus:
 • You can't run from them...It's impossible to hide... The ZOMBIES will feast! #TRW12
 • Zombicorns are there... Everyone in town is scared... Run everybody, run. #TRW12
 • Eating people's brains...while driving your friends insane... Zombicorns are here! #TRW12
 • They came in the dark... and ate lots of people's brains. Not a very good day. #TRW12
 • The dead are living...craving human flesh and brains...people running for their lives! #TRW12
 • Blood runs down the streets, the walking dead plague human life, every man for himself!#TRW12

2012 CIP

The First 6 Weeks of School

    Six weeks of school are behind us now! PreAP English seems to be rolling along. The new pacing guide's activities are keeping the students actively engaged in lessons that revolve around the theme of "justice vs. injustice". The main piece of this unit is Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Students have been practicing effective sentence structure and the correct use of quotations in writing as the language component. All of the students are using DIDLS (Diction, Imagery, Details, Language, Syntax) graphic organizers to help prepare them for a literary essay at the end of the unit.

 In world history, the year began with a geography unit. It was followed by a unit on the early Renaissance then the era of exploration. We're currently working on Absolutism and the later Renaissance period. Students completed a projects about various explorers last week which were both  informative and entertaining. 

    The novels class have been actively engaged in reading every single day. We've had a great  time!This week we're taking a break. We're watching Secondhand Lions starring Robert Duval (Boo Radley) then they're writing tall tales. These students are completing at least one novel every three weeks,  and they're completing two DIDLS and two projects during each 3 week period. Their Thinkbooks are filling-up fast! :-)

GREAT GATSBY Trailer (2012) Movie HD

Book Quotes

Create Story Cubes With Templates from Read Write Think

Create Story Cubes With Templates from Read Write Think

Common Core

With everyone focusing on the new Common Core Standards for ELA, I thought about looking through the suggested canon of works. The list is extremely varied and will cause a big shift in what each grade is teaching. Since our textbooks were not designed based on the CCS, I wonder if the state will be helping us to supplement our teaching materials? Who will decide which grade will be teaching a particular work? Will there be a pacing guide for each grade based on the end of year tests? The major shift will be for the students who are in the middle of the transition. For example, a student who studied Romeo and Juliet in 9th grade and should have Macbeth in 11th or 12th grade in our current COS, may miss this wonderful play because of the change. I like to "change it up," so I'm looking forward to studying some different works in preparation for working with the CCS. Here's a list of reading titles for middle and high school listed by the CCS:

6-8th Grade:

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott , 1869
•  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain , 1876
•  “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost , 1915
•  The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper , 1973
•  Dragonwings by Laurence Yep , 1975
•  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor , 1976
•  “Letter on Thomas Jefferson” by John Adams , 1776
•  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass , 1845
•  “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: Address to Parliament on May 13th, 1940 by Winston Churchill , 1940
•  Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry , 1955
•  Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck , 1962

9-10th Grade:

•  The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare , 1592
•  “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley , 1817
•  “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe , 1845
•  “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry , 1906
•  The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck , 1939
•  Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury , 1953
•  The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara , 1975
•  “Speech to the Second Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry , 1775
•  “Farewell Address” by George Washington , 1796
•  “Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln , 1863
•  “State of the Union Address” by Franklin Delano Roosevelt , 1941
•  “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr. , 1964
•  “Hope, Despair and Memory” by Elie Wiesel , 1997

11-12th Grade:

•  “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats , 1820
•  Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë , 1848
•  “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson , 1890
•  The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald , 1925
•  Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston , 1937
•  A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry , 1959
•  The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri , 2003
•  Common Sense by Thomas Paine , 1776
•  Walden by Henry David Thoreau , 1854
•  “Society and Solitude” by Ralph Waldo Emerson , 1857
•  “The Fallacy of Success” by G. K. Chesterton , 1909
•  Black Boy by Richard Wright , 1945
•  “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell , 1946
•  “Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry” by Rudolfo Anaya , 1995

Books on my list...

Today I visited Barnes and Noble because I accidentally ruined my Nook charger. I couldn't help perusing the bookshelves while I was there! :) Anyway, I made a short list of books that I'm considering for my class library, and I asked the lady who runs the S9GS Library Book Fair to add some of these titles and some other fun stuff to the items that she brings to our book fair. Anyway, these are the books on my list:
Abarat by Clive Barker
Scat by Carl Hiaasen
Payback Time by Carl Deuker
SpellBound by Rachel Hawkins
A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan
Sophie and Carter by Chelsea Fine

  

Character Caricatures

My students are creating character caricatures about their favorite character from a novel, play, or short story using SP Studio <http://www.sp-studio.de/index.htm>.  My character's name is Roarke. He's from the "In Death" novels by JD Robb. Some of my students think he looks a bit like Rochester...

This is actually pretty fun!

Final Exam--EDU 597

I’ve been familiar with many of the tools we’ve studied for quite a while; however, I have learned a great deal about incorporating them in different areas. For example, I learned how to embed several items, and I think it is so cool to dress up my wiki and blog. I’ve found that writing a blog isn’t as tedious as I had found it to be on an earlier try. Also, teaching my students to use technology isn't always easy, but having them figure some things out for themselves may be beneficial for them. Many of them have created blogs, tricked them out, and are adding to them even as I write this. I know that following their writing on the web will save time and paper. Some of the tools we've used that I had previously discarded from use, I've revisited and found that I could and should incorporate them in my life and classroom. From previous experiences with Apple products, I had definitely become anti-Apple, but I believe that I'm beginning to rethink my position. After using an iPad, I can see how beneficial it would be if my students had them to use both at home and at school. I had previously dreamed of a 1:1 environment utilizing laptops, but I now know that iPads could also work quite well. All in all, this class has been a wild ride through tons of cool tools for educators, and I've enjoyed it tremendously. 

Digital Citizenship

Digital citizenship means the responsibility that we all have when using digital media. According to the article on the Edorigami wiki, there are six tenets of digital citizenship:

1. Respect yourself, 2. Protect yourself, 3.Respect others, 4. Protect others, 5.Respect intellectual property, 6.Protect intellectual property. These six tenets are similar to the rules in my classroom. In fact, I believe that they are things we all should follow in a digital and real world. By respecting yourself, you will protect your digital profile and you will abstain from posting inappropriate information which stays on your digital footprint. Respecting and protecting others means that you refrain from posting information that is hurtful and that may do harm to someone even if it seems innocent. By respecting and protecting digital property, you give credit to someone's published ideas and research, which we expect in any other media. Through websites and curriculum like i-safe, students can learn how to use the Internet appropriately. Students don't need to be blocked from the Internet, but need to be taught how to use it in a safe way. Internet safety instruction needs to begin early, and students also need to learn to cite the information that they use from the Internet at an early age. As educators we must teach our students to follow these rules of citizenship.

Apple News

The Apple video was exciting to say the least. I would love to use iBooks or iAuthor with my classes. The interactive aspect of the texts would be great, and I believe if the students had an opportunity to see great photography, watch interesting video, and listen to better audio they would be much more interested in what we're reading. I really like the idea of choosing the stories that my students need, rather than including a bunch of stories that they won't even be reading. I like the idea of students carrying IPads rather than books, and we'll be saving trees! Students of all ages (adults too) like to be engaged with whatever material they are studying; therefore, I believe we'd see some great advances through the years working with the Apple products, and truthfully, I've never been a big Apple fan. Maybe I'm beginning to see the light.

Mobile Learning

The article titled "Five Ways Readers are using iPads in the Classroom" included some very practical and sound ways to incorporate IPads in any classroom. Finding ways to use them for intervention, like Taunya's RTI folders, or for enrichment activities in small groups would be sound practices. Assistive technology apps could be used with autistic students or with students in the autism realm, especially those who are included in regular classrooms. Actually, any student who benefits from a different learning style could use them to augment their instruction. Teachers can find many uses for IPads, especially in the area of organization. We've learned how to use Endnote, and there are other apps that could be used in much the same way. It seems like teachers who take the time to search for great apps would find that the Ipad would be beneficial and practical in their classrooms.

Superintendent Interview

We watched Mr. R from Gwinnett, GA interview for the MCBOE superintendent job a few nights ago. Truthfully, I wasn't overly impressed with this interview. However, he did say one thing that really impressed me,  "There are two types of employees in our school system: the teacher and those that support the teacher. If you're not one of those, we do not need to be in this field".  Most of the people interviewing for these types of jobs use politically correct material, but I believe he was sincere in his message. I just don't believe that test scores are the most important part of education. Although I don't believe that my students would disappoint me in this area, I believe that standardized tests are only a small part of what a child must accomplish to become successful adults. Therefore, the idea that 70% of a principal's salary should be based on test scores seems ridiculous to me. A superintendent should be able to articulate his or her beliefs and answer questions in a straightforward manner without invoking the royal "we" within every answer. I'm intrigued by some of his ideas, but feel that MCBOE is really headed in right direction. I'm not sure that we need a superintendent that wants to overhaul our system. I plan to watch all the other interviews as soon as they are posted on the web.

Blogging With My Students

     This week I began asking my students to set up blogs for English and/or Novels class. They will be writing about the books they are reading, about what we're doing in class, and about their thoughts on school in general. I'm hoping that writing for an audience will help them become more focused as writers. Therefore, this blog is becoming one for both my students and my Samford class.
     I've read three pretty good books this week. The first book, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, written by John Green and David Levithan. WG, WG is about two Will Graysons whose lives unexpectedly become intertwined. Anyone who has read John Green before knows that his books can sometimes be over the top, but they are always funny and often insightful. The story centers around the first Will Grayson and his best friend Tiny--who is actually extremely large, extremely gay, and who is writing a fabulous musical for the Gay-Straight Alliance at their high school. Green continues to examine social issues in ways that relate to  teens, and Levithan's writing is very good as well. I came away with a good laugh and had a lovely time reading this book. This book may not be suitable for immature students who are unable to issues such as homosexuality or other "high school" topics, but many students will love it.
    I also read John Green's latest book The Fault in our Stars this week. This book just hit the stands this month. My goodness, I don't know where to start with this one. Although this book focuses on a difficult theme (dealing with teen illness), it may be one of my favorite books by Green. He continually finds ways to interject humor into the lives of his characters no matter what the circumstances are surrounding the story. I LOVE students who are like so many of his characters. Hazel Grace, the protagonist, is one exceptional young lady, and her boyfriend Augustus may be an even greater character. They meet at a cancer support group and soon the adventure begins. For Green lovers, this book will rank right up there with Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines.
    The third book of the week, Entwined by Heather Dixon, is about a seventeen year-old princess named Azalea who becomes involved in a magical plot that threatens her family and her friends. Set in the half magical world of Eastbury, Azalea must find the clues to restore order to her family and her father's kingdom. This book had some pretty good reviews on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I did enjoy it, but I'm not SUPER exited about it. I do think that students who enjoy a bit of magic and a historical romance will devour this book.
    I recommend checking John Green, David Levithan, and Heather Dixon out on the web. John and his brother Hank also produce some wonderfully funny podcasts ( Vlogbrothers on YouTube).

Why I want to become an administrator...

I suppose the truth is that I'm not sure that I do want to become an administrator. I'm very afraid that I'll miss sharing my literary friends with my students. I've enjoyed working on the Continuous Improvement Plan, and I've also enjoyed sharing new ideas and technology with my co-workers; however, I'm not sure that I would be up the disciplinary part of  administration.  I've heard that members from earlier cohorts have felt the same way, but have eventually decided that they could do that part of the job.  I'm definitely uncomfortable with the financial portion of the job. I'm just not great with numbers. I think I would like a job working with teachers to streamline their jobs and to provide them with inspiration for new and improved lessons. I would like to help them feel less frazzled and more excited about teaching. I love learning which is probably the most important reason that I have for pursuing this degree. I would probably have fifty degrees if I could afford to continue my education to that extent.