Epic Adventures Are Often Uncomfortable

Scaffolding

2012-01-25T09:03:00.004-05:00

I think I already do a pretty good job of offering support for our study of Julius Caesar. It's a challenging text, and one of the things I hate most about it is that there's not a lot of GOOD supplemental material. The Shakespeare Set Free series from the Folger Institute is awesome, but there's nothing in it for Caesar.Additionally, the feature films are WAY out of date and somewhat painful to

...just to make it today

2012-01-17T20:25:00.002-05:00

So we had an unexpected mid-year retirement in the department. Fortunately the teacher who retired is going to be all right, but he's having some health problems and between being in the hospital for testing and for treatment, he used up all of his sick days. So he chose to retire rather than take unpaid leave.That means that the search is on for a new language arts teacher. The thing is, none

How Long Can You Tread Water?

2012-01-06T08:58:00.004-05:00

Right now, I hate teaching.Specifically, I hate teaching under the constraints that administration has placed on me for journalism, and it has spread out to "I just don't want to do this" in a more general sense. I said last year that I was ready to give up journalism so that I could focus on teaching English (and also, in a huge-but-unspoken reason, because I hate these constraints) and was

Not Ning

2011-12-07T11:23:00.011-05:00

One of the things I'm pretty proud of is that I actually have a functioning class website this semester. Two, actually; one for my English II classes, and one for Journalism. For next semester, I want to do a bit more planning-ahead of how I can use those sites more effectively. It's especially important for English II, where the class is large enough that I need to sign out a laptop cart if

Balance

2011-12-06T21:30:00.002-05:00

Dang. How did it get to be quarter of ten already? I didn't get to do any of the schoolwork that I brought home. I did put dishes away and do a load of laundry. The Hunk was wonderful enough to cook dinner for us - PANCAKES! YUM! - and we watched last night's episode of Castle. There just never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done that needs to be done. I doubt I'll even be

Survey Says:

2011-11-22T09:36:00.006-05:00

I decided to take a survey posted over at the EC Ning.Details after the cut. What grades do you teach? High school; mostly sophomores right now, but others 9-12. Do you have a classroom library? yes How did you collect your books? And how do you get new ones? (Garage sales, gifts, bookstores, grants, school money, book fairs, etc.) Mostly through donorschoose grants, giveaways at

Moneyball and Education

2011-11-20T10:44:00.009-05:00

A claim that I hear a lot -- and one that invariably raises my hackles -- is that "everyone 'knows' who the good teachers and the bad teachers are." I was reading a post over at The Learning Nation, and Cale neatly summed up my thoughts:When we visit a classroom, we might observe the teacher and their students for a few minutes and walk out saying "That was good teaching!". Someone could walk

Challenges with Technology

2011-11-18T09:47:00.006-05:00

And in this case, it's not even really a technological challenge, so this isn't really an accurate image. (But it's certainly more interesting than the problem we had.)Because we have all of next week off for Thanksgiving break, our administrators scheduled a volleyball tournament this afternoon as a way to encourage students to be even more distracted and fidgety. As a result, our classes were

Yuck.

2011-11-16T09:48:00.003-05:00

One of the things I both love and hate about teaching is how individualized it is. I love being able to tailor the lessons and pacing both to my personal style and interests, and to the interests and abilities of my students. This week we're spending a little more time on sentence structure than I'd originally planned, but getting to watch students notice more about authors' choices in writing

Because I Said I Would

2011-11-09T06:13:00.002-05:00

Our social studies teachers are putting together an EF Tours trip to Europe for 2013. And... well... we'd like to go. I try not to listen to those announcements too much, because it's incredibly expensive and all that, BUT then the Hunk went and made puppy-eyes and said HE wanted to go, and how can I just squelch that?!Thing is, I think I'm the only member of my family who hasn't left the

Crash & Burn

2011-11-01T08:05:00.004-04:00

We're finishing up our Julius Caesar unit and it has been miserable. I know I'm already on record with how much I hate, hate, hate, HATE this play, and how infuriating it is that I'm required by my school to teach it despite having other options that I feel are far superior.It doesn't help that I'm sick. But with the test tomorrow, of course I dragged myself in today so that we could review.

Trapped

2011-10-25T09:14:00.004-04:00

This year is particularly challenging in Journalism. We're not allowed to do any interviewing during class time, and the students DON'T do much interviewing on their OWN time. Their articles for the school newspaper are understandably much more like personal essays. And some of them haven't completed the article requirements and as a result are failing.I'm scared because I feel like I'm going to

Is a "Fair Tax" Really Fair?

2011-10-21T19:21:00.006-04:00

So I've been catching up on old episodes of The Daily Show, and while usually I just play it in the background, I actually listened to Stewart's interview with Bill O'Reilly. It was pretty interesting, because while O'Reilly got in a few good zingers, Stewart was surprisingly gentle. (At least much more so than I would've expected.) Anyway, I went ahead and found the link to the rest of the

Why I Write

2011-10-20T20:48:00.003-04:00

So apparently it's National Day of Writing? I dunno for certain - Google isn't saying anything about it, that's for sure. But I saw "Why I Write" up on a couple of blogs today, and someone mentioned it, and I haven't posted here since before fall break, so why the hell not?I write because I'm supposed to. Because I keep hoping that I will hate it less. Because maybe this time it won't be quite

Torn

2011-10-08T05:43:00.003-04:00

So, obviously, I really-really-really wanna go.Thing is, of course, once again there's no money to SEND me. And thanks to medical bills and taxes (why the hell can't you deduct medical bills from your taxes, dammit? WTF, Uncle Sam?!) and our heat/air unit crapping out on us (in JULY, no less) we are even broker than last year. Actually... maybe not. At least we haven't had to pay for car repairs

Too Much

2011-10-04T08:09:00.007-04:00

So we're off again, and all I can think of is "what all do I need to get done today and when do I need to do it?"I need to turn in sign the purchase order for the 2011 supplements. (done!)I need to find out if they've located the receipt books that I turned in last year. (done! though they're still looking)I need to find out what to do about tax when I pay for something & get reimbursed. (done!

Humor

2011-10-03T08:38:00.007-04:00

I actually posted this over on the EC Ning, but then I figured, hey, why not include it here? Who knows, I may have some readers that don't frequent the ning.So when I started pulling books from my classroom library to create themed sets, I noticed that I was having a difficult time finding ones I'd clearly categorize as "humor." I'd looove to hear some suggestions! Here are some of the ones I

Finally

2011-09-30T18:36:00.006-04:00

I've finally gotten to the point where I'm actually proud of my classroom library. I was going to take pictures today, but there were parents to call and photos to print and posters to hang and bulletin boards to decorate and journals to review and receipts to write and file and... and... and...UGH. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures on Monday. It was so hectic at the end of the day

An Open Letter to Penny Kittle

2011-09-28T08:02:00.001-04:00

Dear Penny,I still hate writing.But I am also still committed to being the best teacher I possibly can, so once again (even though we're almost a month into the school year, and that's WITH an extra-late start) I am resolving to post daily. It might not be here - probably over at Go Little Novelist - because I still want to make Epic Adventures about teaching.I tell my students that once they've

Is There Anything Wuss?

2011-09-26T21:42:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I just posted a not-really review of Beauty Queens. It arrived at the school today (thanks AKJ Books! thanks DonorsChoose!) and I hopped gleefully around the room when I pulled it out of the box. But...I'm almost AFRAID to read it. My online buddies (hello forever ya!) have been gushing about this for MONTHS and I have waited and waited and WANTED to read this for, like, EVER. And now

You've Heard This Before, I'm Certain

2011-09-24T11:44:00.005-04:00

So there's a teacher I've been pestering to get a blog going, and he finally has! And of course now I feel obligated to resolve to post more often, because otherwise I'm a frickin' hypocrite. :PI did post earlier this morning over on Go Little Novelist, but it doesn't really count. ;)You're on my bloglist, now, though, so you better post regularly. Hopefully this post will somewhat redeem me. I

Why Charter Schools Should Not Be the Enemy

2011-08-06T17:47:00.005-04:00

Bear with me; the ideas connected to this post are all jumbly and I think I'm going to go ahead and publish before I'm truly satisfied with it, just so that something is OUT THERE. And I'll revise and tweak it bit by bit. There seems to be a general consensus that charter schools and traditional public schools are pitted against each other in some kind of siege war; that charters are The

SOS thoughts

2011-08-04T07:06:00.003-04:00

So this is how much I dislike writing. It's my second day of ... well, neither bedrest nor house-arrest, but something in between. I haven't spent all the time in bed, but I haven't left the bedroom much at all, either.And I'm FINALLY bored enough to write. ;) Although I'm very seriously considering using this time to label the books I got at the ALA convention. TenureNo, teachers who have earned

Examining Success

2011-07-03T10:33:00.006-04:00

So I've been thinking about trying to write things that might be helpful for other teachers, and it's been difficult. Mardie asked why, and I realized that I hadn't really thought about that.When things go wrong, it's often fairly simple to point to when: you have a pull of tension in your lower back that shoots up your spine, your ribcage tightens and your breath gets shallower and faster.

Writing for Others

2011-07-02T10:25:00.000-04:00

Up until now, I’ve been writing primarily for myself. And it’s really neat that I’ve been able to engage in discussion with other professionals, because doing so has helped me to refine and clarify my own ideas. But I’m getting to the point where I feel pretty confident in my teaching and so I’d like to begin sharing with others. It’s just that up to now I hadn’t really thought about what might

More books!

2011-06-29T19:13:00.003-04:00

I worked SO HARD on my latest donorschoose proposal... finally got it approved for the Almost Home grant, and a day after the grant shows up, it disappears again. What a bummer!I can't complain too much, though, since my trip to the ALA annual conference was successful beyond my wildest imagination!The Sunday list is incomplete, because the Hunk very reasonably pointed out that it'd be silly to

The Haul - Day 2

2011-06-26T21:01:00.002-04:00

Friday made me realize that I didn't want to try to haul everything around with me. The Hunk ferried me to and from my breakfast (booklist will be in a separate post) but then I drove back downtown and parked across the street from the convention center. This was very helpful, as it allowed me to ferry a haul over to the pickup and then head back to the exhibit hall with an empty bag!Books from

The Haul - Day 1

2011-06-25T19:31:00.007-04:00

So yesterday the Exhibit Hall was open late and then we went out to eat and didn't get back until, like, midnight and then today I had the Harper Collins breakfast which started at 7:15. WHEW. I still have books out in the truck - the Hunk SO kindly brought in my haul from the breakfast AND two bags this evening.Today I drove to the convention center and paid $10 to park across the street. It

Be! Aggressive!

2011-06-24T17:18:00.005-04:00

So I'm sitting outside of Hall I-1 at the Ernest Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. We got here a couple of hours ago and there really wasn't much of a line to get a badge. (Yay!) So of course the first thing I did was find a place to sit down so that I could map out my plan of attack. ;)This may be my first ALA conference, but I like to think I'm something of a conference vet. It also

I Know the Truth

2011-06-17T07:29:00.001-04:00

My hair has been growing back since February or so. And... I hate it. I really, really, really hate it. It's finally (finally!) long enough that I may be able to use some small barrettes or something. I may see if we can go shopping today and pick some stuff up. (We need groceries anyway.) This is what my hair looks like. I haven't yet decided if I want to chop it in hopes that only the ends are

Keep On Keepin On

2011-05-27T10:36:00.005-04:00

Well let me tell ya. It has been one CRAZY year, what with cancer and my first NCTE and blizzards and tornadoes and OH YEAH I STILL GOT THE YEARBOOK DISTRIBUTED ON TIME WOT WOT!!Also, another reason I am amazing? I got my checklist turned in at 9 AM this morning - BOOYAH. I packed up my room VERY carefully, separately re-filing materials for language arts and journalism so that the new hire (

Playing around

2011-05-14T23:45:00.014-04:00

.Wow, so this is SO very clearly a first run! guess I shouldn't've selected widescreen format; perhaps the 3:2 iPhone setting would have worked better and poor Anne there wouldn't've been so smushed.There's also a voiceover option, which I was going to use, but I don't know that this computer has that capability. At least, it let me record, but then the 'done' button was greyed out, so I think

Counting Down the Days

2011-05-04T20:03:00.000-04:00

This year is devolving rapidly. So far we've missed three and a half days from the storms (and the other half of our half-day was mostly spent sitting out in the hall during the tornado watch) and we've had two delayed starts. We're scheduled for delayed starts on Thursday and Friday as well. I'm almost surprised the students haven't started eating each other alive.There's not a lot else to

Announcement!

2011-04-27T21:41:00.003-04:00

NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!I don't know how in the WORLD we're ever going to get our research projects done. :PAnd now it's Thursday and school is cancelled for Friday as well. AURGH!We are gonna pop by our house to see if they have power restored there yet. If not, we'll probably grill some steak since everything in our freezer will have thawed by now. Either way, I sure hope ONE of the houses has

Grinding My Teeth

2011-04-27T08:47:00.002-04:00

So we're under a tornado warning today, sitting out in the hall, and the students are SUPPOSED to be sitting quietly. As in, not talking. I'm seated with my class, and it's SO frustrating because ours of course isn't the only class out here. There is SOOOO much talking going on down at the other end of the hall that I'm like WTF? How am I supposed to ask my students to quit talking when other

Spring Fever

2011-04-25T08:15:00.006-04:00

I've got it as bad as the students do. They seem to have lost all pretenses of civilized behavior - hello, is there NO ONE who has heard of the concept of "knock, please?" - and my patience has been completely shredded. And it's only quarter after eight in the morning. *sigh*Also, I fussed at my sophomore class pretty heartily when I saw that after two full days in the library, some of them had

Tired of it

2011-04-21T11:29:00.010-04:00

Sometimes I feel like such a fraud. *sigh*I really don't enjoy reading the stuff my students write. Or, well, at least not most of it. It's just... gosh, I'm not even sure how to explain all of this. There are so many things that bother me about their writing that I'm often not sure where to begin when responding, let alone where I should begin with this blog post.First of all, the topics. I get

SCORE!

2011-04-17T16:45:00.006-04:00

I cannot begin to express how much I love, love, love living near a city with a gimungous used-book bookstore. That is, a used-book bookstore that is gimungous, not a bookstore that sells gimungous used books.They re-use grocery store bags, so every few months we stop by and drop off a few "bags of bags" - I'm sure most of you do something similar: you keep one grocery-store bag around & stuff

?! WTF, Blogger???

2011-04-14T21:47:00.001-04:00

Okay, I completely don't know why my cut-tag hasn't worked for my last several posts... This makes me sad. :(

Book List

2011-04-14T11:32:00.009-04:00

I try to keep a running list of books I'd like to get for my classroom library. I'd love to hear additional suggestions! I've also had people say "get anything that this person wrote!" Here are some authors that have been mentioned - some of them I've read, others are ones I still want to look into.Walter Dean Myers, variousSharon DraperGary PaulsenMalcolm GladwellDavid Macaulay: How Things Work

More on gaming

2011-03-06T10:08:00.009-05:00

Over on a discussion at the EC Ning, Andres Esquivel Jr shared this TED talk: And while I replied within the context of that particular discussion, I think I still have quite a bit more to say on the issue. And for once I actually feel pretty confident about what I'm saying. (In fact, I just took a quick break to add "play theorist" to my profile!)A bit of background - first of all, I don't see

What doesn't kill me...

2011-03-01T21:53:00.004-05:00

... may drive me insane. Yearbook deadlines loom. Actually, only the final one at this point. One way or another, in two weeks, it'll all be over. Also, random updatey thing: whenever I feel crappy, I read my reviews on fanfiction.net. Very cheering. People are so positive. :)

Walking Away

2011-02-20T11:15:00.002-05:00

There has been a LOT of discussion of late about just what teachers should and shouldn't be allowed to post online. The general consensus seems to be that while Natalie Munroe certainly shouldn't be prosecuted (free speech and all that), workers shouldn't curse about their work in public and expect to keep their jobs.And, I dunno, I can kinda see that? I mean, in fairness, that's one of the

Writing Again

2011-01-13T17:29:00.004-05:00

In an effort to keep writing while letting my brain recharge from that last post, I started working on - of all things - a Cinderella fanfic. Yeah, yeah, pointless kiddy stuff, I know. Shut it.I got started reading fanfic again through recs on tv tropes which is an absolutely amazing website - it's like happycrack for English teachers, I swear. [Tangent: Hey Mardie! That's one of those things

Here we go...

2011-01-12T15:19:00.013-05:00

I am cheap.The reason that I avoid purchasing materials for my classroom is the same reason I avoid credit cards - I know how very, very easy it would be to continue past the point of sense. To a lesser extent, it is a matter of setting a challenge for myself - given these limits, what can I accomplish with what I do have?I scavenge pens and pencils from the floor before leaving each day. I rifle

Staring at failure

2011-01-04T21:33:00.001-05:00

Okay, so we are now definitely into January 2011 and I don't have my essay written. *sigh* I know, I know, there's still time, but the truth of the matter is, I don't know if I can do it, no matter HOW much time there is. I really have NO idea what I'm supposed to be doing. And I'm petrified.I have all of my foundational stuff - I know which work I want to promote, I know what reasons I plan to

Interview

2010-12-30T14:48:00.002-05:00

Teacher, I Don't Get It posted some interview questions that intrigued me, so I answered them behind the cut. Interview:How was actually teaching different than what you expected it to be when you went into teaching?Well, I've got the yearbook, for one thing. And it's not too bad. Frustrating and stressful, definitely, but also liberating. And I'm better at it than I thought I would be. I'm not

Idea? I don't know.

2010-12-29T16:09:00.003-05:00

It's entirely possible that I'm still logy from whatever was pumped into me for today's surgery - I got my port taken out. It feel SO GOOD to have it gone, though it didn't really trouble me that much. There's just this loosening of tension that I hadn't noticed. Though that may also be the drugs...Anyway, so my copy of The Results Fieldbook came today - well, yesterday, I guess, since we got it

Dear ELA Teachers

2010-12-07T19:55:00.003-05:00

Please stop telling students that "the protagonist is the 'good guy.'" I get them as tenth graders and they have it so well drilled into their heads that four months into the school year, they can NOT identify the main character of "The Last Boast."

Sneaky-Sneaky?

2010-11-29T20:30:00.002-05:00

So I have been thinking about trying to run some kind of radical-for-here ideas through the gauntlet of our department. The first one is switching Julius Caesar for one of the comedies - probably Midsummer Night's Dream or Much Ado. This afternoon I kind of tested the waters. I mentioned the idea to another teacher in our department - one who's been at the school for quite a few years AND is

WoW: Guidelines for Addiction

2010-11-22T05:43:00.018-05:00

Monday morning and we're getting washed and dressed and we'll be taking things down to the truck in just a little bit. NCTE has given me a lot to think about - in some ways, it has raised more questions than it answered.So at the conference, rockstar teacher-author Carol Jago gave her NCTE Presidential address. She also posted it to the EC Ning. In her speech, she brought up an issue that I've

NCTE: Last day

2010-11-21T08:19:00.003-05:00

So this isn't a reflection; I'm at the first session and somehow I got here early! I'm typing this on my phine and it's quite tedious. :P But I didn't want to lug the laptop with me cuz after this I plan to head over to the exhibit hall and get more stuff. I don't yet know if I'l get reinbursed so I'll have to be careful.Thumbs can't take anymore. Stopping for now. Long drive ahead - YECCH!

NCTE Day 2 notes, unedited

2010-11-20T07:07:00.001-05:00

There is a distinct shortage of Y-chromosomes around here. My first thought was "what a shame," but upon reflection it's kind of neat. Here we are, a group of passionate, motivated... dare I say ambitious? ... group of individuals, and we're not a bunch of old dudes.Also incredibly white. But still more diverse than in my district.Another point. The ballrooms are FREEZING. Who knows, though,

NCTE Day 1 lookback

2010-11-19T06:51:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I had the Hunk set his phone alarm for 7 AM (first session is at 8:30) so that I'd have plenty of time to get ready, and doncha know I was awake before 6:30. So I got dressed, checked my email from school (sixty-some emails in one day? really? sheesh peepz!) and then figured I'd go ahead and blog since I've got something relevant to say and I've been so lax over the past few weeks.The

NCTE Thursday

2010-11-18T14:21:00.003-05:00

I'm feeling kind of nervous and alone. We got here late last night and I hardly slept. It's starting to catch up with me. Just finished lunch and came back for a session with Penny Kittle and Tom Romano. Saw Gary from the ning in passing... It's weird having people who know you but don't recognize you!We're going to the park for the Christmas party so I'll hafta duck out early. I'm a little

Minor Point

2010-11-10T08:45:00.002-05:00

Allusions can make you sound well-educated. However, when you misspell the titles or character names you're referencing? Not so much.

Temptation

2010-11-10T08:03:00.001-05:00

Woo! I think I may be doing more typing (if not posting) on the way to school. It is COLD - but my laptop keeps my legs nice and warm! ^.^Anyway.So it looks like I will be the only teacher from my school going to the NCTE convention. (What's the difference between a convention and a conference? I never know which word to use!) This is somewhat good, because that means I can "out" myself to the

Good Writing

2010-11-03T12:50:00.001-04:00

How do you define "good writing"? How do your think your students define "good writing"? (This is my favorite workshop exercise with teachers. Teachers tend to value creativity, voice, and expressiveness; students assume that good writing is proper and correct. Where do students get that message if the teachers tend to believe something else? Hmm. Are we sending mixed messages about what we

Feathers on the Fly

2010-10-17T08:13:00.001-04:00

It's times like this when I am just horribly sure that someone's going to realize that I don't really know exactly what I'm doing. AURGH! I have a love-hate relationship with change. I love the idea of doing new things. I mean, change is good, right? Isn't it?Except when it isn't, of course. *Sigh*ANYWAY. My next unit is coming up in a matter of DAYS and I am not DONE with it. AURGH. So

Further Resolutions

2010-10-15T09:11:00.003-04:00

Okay, I am not taking ANY student work home anymore. AT ALL EVER. I'm going to have to do ALL my grading here at school. Period. That means I'm going to have to be VERY careful about scheduling when I collect writers' notebooks - I need to make sure that for the next TWO DAYS there will be no interruptions to my planning period.Also resolved: I am going to input assignments into the gradebook

Where'd you GO?!

2010-10-14T03:57:00.002-04:00

WAH! I can't find the blog with the post I was looking for about National Breast Cancer Awareness Month :( I swear I got to it from my blogroll... dangit! I read the post and knew I wanted to comment but my thoughts were all jumbled and I wanted to ponder a bit.DANGIT DANGIT DANGIT!

Further Feathers

2010-10-13T10:41:00.009-04:00

I am beginning to realize that the only reading that's going to take place outside of school is assigned SSR. So I'm thinking about going into grammar and writing when we begin our performance & poetry unit next. We'll do personal writing and independent grammar study for homework. The texts we study as a class will be read IN-CLASS. Because they don't read the class stories outside of class (

Feathers for 1984

2010-09-25T11:08:00.006-04:00

Sooo, my 1984 unit is winding down. [Side note: I just gasped so hard I almost puked. I put my head down to think and as I opened my eyes I saw this HUGE SPIDER right by my eye. As I yanked myself upright, I noticed that it flew away... along my arm? Spiders don't do that... Turns out it was a big ol' ball of lint on the sleeve of my sweater that had picked up a hair or two... maybe coming out

And let's not fergit...

2010-09-19T13:34:00.003-04:00

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, me hearties!! Say it wid' me now:ARRRRRR!Even the President canna ixcape, though it seems he be needin' a few lessons:Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/talklikeapirateday/3831480470/

Green Eyes

2010-09-19T08:54:00.004-04:00

I have to admit, this made me a wee bit pouty. Why couldn't they have picked MY state? Then again, I can't complain TOO too much. I've only had one project not get funded - in fact, Real-Life Reading was funded earlier this week, and I only have two projects left over on my DonorsChoose page. I better get crackin' on some new proposals! :D

How to Give Students (or Anyone!) the Stink Eye

2010-09-18T08:37:00.001-04:00

<-- This? This is not the Stink Eye. This is the face after the Stink Eye gets ignored. This is a face I don't have to make!But sometimes I do just because it's fun. Grr. GRRR!Anyway, it was actually a post by Happy Chyck that got me thinking about the Stink Eye and exactly how I do it.A good Stink Eye can be very useful! The key is that most students (particularly at the high school level)

The big debate over at the NYT

2010-09-09T09:24:00.006-04:00

So in order to lock in a lower price for the NCTE convention, I paid annual dues (oddly, the members' price for the convention PLUS the dues was STILL lower than the nonmember price). And then this morning know what I got? I got a CARNIVAL in my inbox! So that was pretty cool.Anyway, one of the many interesting posts that they linked to was - well, actually, a series the New York Times is doing

facepalm

2010-09-08T05:30:00.002-04:00

Seriously. Seriously? Why would you take pictures of people standing around? Do you realize how boring that is? Why would you not wait for the team to start practicing before you leave? You know, so that you can have pictures of them actually DOING something? instead of just ... not?AURGH!

On (Not) Teaching Values

2010-09-05T21:12:00.009-04:00

Over on the EC Ning, Michaeld asked me 'is a reluctance to teach others your values some sort of value you hold? Do you try to pass it along?' He followed it up with another comment in which he asked 'Are values merely "mine" or "yours" and not "correct" or "incorrect" (or "good" or "bad")?'In short - no, I don't try to teach my values. But I will explain them if I'm asked. Or if someone asks me

Scary Music Begins...

2010-08-30T23:14:00.001-04:00

Today is Photo Day. Annnnd we have a new company. So I don't quite know how it's going to play out. I've got my fingers crossed.

Snark

2010-08-21T17:34:00.004-04:00

Sometimes I think I must be a masochist for keeping Joanne Jacobs on my blogroll. Posts like this one invariably attract teacher-hating trolls.Since my comment is a fairly inflammatory response to another commenter, there's a possibility it will be removed, and so I'm cross-posting it here:Allen, you're so welcome. You know, I'm always delighted to have my words distorted by teacher-haters, so

Week 1

2010-08-21T07:15:00.002-04:00

Somehow I managed to get through the first week of classes. It felt a lot like this. I did keep all my plates spinning! Overall, it went quite well. I really did end each day feeling like it had been a good day. My English II classes are a breeze. The hardest part is going to be not letting myself become complacent. I already have my units sequenced for the year (depending on what changes we

Why I Don't Teach Graphic Novels

2010-08-17T05:52:00.003-04:00

Okay, it's almost time to get ready for Day 2, so this is gonna have to be pretty darn fast. I'll probably put my foot in my mouth again but oh well.So I'm STILL not done going through the NCTE program - I managed to narrow it down to TWO PANELS during session H, which was nice after the TWELVE that I liked in session F - and I keep seeing panels about graphic novels. Which ones to use, why to

NCTE frustration

2010-08-14T06:47:00.003-04:00

So I'm going through the online searchable program. It's impossible. I'm maybe halfway through the list. It's taking FOR EVER. Also? Worse? Session F. There are TWELVE that I want to go to, all at the same time! SO unfair.

Placing My Foot Further Into My Mouth?

2010-08-09T15:35:00.003-04:00

Hey Bill, this is just for you! :)Before I go too much farther, I want to say that this is kind of off-the-cuff, so ... I hope it doesn't suck too much. Anyway.First of all, I really am kinda annoyed by the implication that I don't think for myself - that I am just blithely happy to follow the indoctrination of professors who had a bone to pick with Shakespeare and other literary Gods. Seriously

Ooga-Chaka

2010-08-05T17:35:00.007-04:00

In Nomine Shakespiri, Amen...I am going to risk being burned at the stake (or, if folks are feeling generous, simply poisoned) and say it:Shakespeare is usually overrated.People? We are talking about a HUMAN BEING here. Not a late arrival to the Greek pantheon. Not the savior of the human race. Not even the savior of the English language!(What's really creepy is that there are probably people

Whee!

2010-08-04T22:44:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow's a big day - first chemo session, a wig consultation, and hopefully I get to have the drain taken out. YAY!

Book Talks

2010-08-03T11:11:00.000-04:00

So, every day I am going to transition from our writing time into our lesson time with a read-aloud. And I'm going to switch back and forth between books and poetry. After the reading, I'll give some details about the book and briefly (that's the tough part!) explain why I like it so much. I'm going to try to keep these under five minutes.Behind the cut I've got books listed. This is based on

New Place for Updates!

2010-07-31T13:21:00.003-04:00

I thought I posted this before, but I can't find it. I want Epic Adventures to focus on teaching, so I'm doing my discipline updates and any posts about my cancer over at Go! Little Novelist, Go!I'm not entirely out of commission, as you can see, but my meds make me groggy and sleepy. It's always hard to say exactly what I mean, but now it's also hard to even figure out what I mean in the first

Yay me!

2010-07-29T20:59:00.001-04:00

I took out the trash because tomorrow is trash day. AND also I even put a new bag in the trash can!

Poetry = Huh?

2010-07-29T20:06:00.003-04:00

So yeah. After sketching a unit outline for 1984, I glanced at the next unit (poetry & presentation). And I realized that I hadn't thought much about poetry except as a vehicle for presentation. But I think there's gotta be more to it than that. That's how I came up with my essential question for the poetry part of the unit:Why do people create poems instead of just saying what they actually

Scaffolding

2010-07-28T11:32:00.001-04:00

One thing I'm REALLY struggling with, particularly with 1984, is the scaffolding. How much should I do? What should I do? For example, our page 1 includes the first two paragraphs of the novel. The words that I expect my students will not know (lift, varicose ulcer) are easily defined through context. But... it's more than that.I guess... I guess I expect that students will start my class with

New Tag!

2010-07-27T13:04:00.000-04:00

I unloaded the dishwasher. Yay me!

In a Nutshell...

2010-07-26T18:21:00.003-04:00

Right now I'm feeling REALLY overwhelmed. I just cleared off my desktops on our two home computers, and there are just SO MANY files that I've saved as possibilities for the upcoming year or professional materials to read... I guess it's a good problem to have, but it's a little frustrating. I hardly know where to begin.The first step was sorting out the teaching stuff from the other cool stuff

First Day, First Unit

2010-07-25T15:38:00.007-04:00

I usually begin with a unit on poetry & short stories so that the lessons can be "one-shots." That way students who transfer in don't find the lesson we're on completely confusing in addition to needing to get caught up with the lessons they missed. The very first day begins with a quickwrite on the board: Is it important for you to graduate? Why or why not? As they respond on notebook paper, I

Briefly

2010-07-25T10:58:00.002-04:00

In case you were wondering, I have created a new blog for my freewrites so that I can keep this one kind of focused on teaching.That's all for now. It's time for bed.

O Be Careful, Little Mouth, What You Say

2010-07-24T19:14:00.000-04:00

So, several years ago, the president of Harvard made some ill-chosen remarks about women in science & engineering fields at a conference at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The response from the feminist community was an immediate "Wait, he said what?" followed quickly by a very loud "WTF?!"This may have been back before Epic Adventures was up and running, but I remember the chatter

Kicked in the Gut (and stabbed in the back)

2010-07-23T10:39:00.008-04:00

So, yeah. Every couple of weeks I get a promo email from DonorsChoose about fundraising opportunities and stuff. Sometimes there's additional funding for STEM, or if you live in a certain state or county, or if your project is part of a college-readiness program, that kind of thing. Other times DonorsChoose enters into charity contests. You can go vote for your favorite chairty, and if

Discipline Update & Freewrite: July 22

2010-07-22T10:37:00.007-04:00

Starting to feel achy-sore now. I stretch pretty carefully about a minute and a half into my walk, maybe halfway through, after I finish, and then off and on for the next hour or so. Thus, so far, I have not had to worry about cramps. Just being tired and sore. When I got up I noticed that there was a sticky bun out. So I ate that after I came back from my walk. Wouldn't want it to go to waste.

Discipline Update & Freewrite: July 21

2010-07-21T08:25:00.008-04:00

Good news and bad news. Good news is, I woke up early enough to get in a decent walk. I even did some jogging again. Even better, I was able to set a pace that did not leave me gasping. I think I'll continue that for the rest of this week and add some distance on Sunday.Bad news is that waking up that early means I got less than five hours of sleep. That is even worse than the past couple of

Ning vs BuddyPress

2010-07-20T19:55:00.001-04:00

I've been hearing a lot about WordPress. I know a lot of people use it and like it better than Blogger. And I was kind of intrigued when someone over at ecning mentioned BuddyPress, which has interactive features the way ning does. I'm thinking about setting up something for my classes with BuddyPress, because it's free, and ning isn't. Dana Huff mentioned that with WordPress, you can use

Discipline Update & Freewrite: July 20

2010-07-20T07:58:00.003-04:00

I walked today! Hooray! In fact, I even added a little bit more running. Yesterday I tried out running just the upper part of my loop (I walk to the park, do three of 'my' loops, then walk back) on the last one. It wasn't too bad, but it sure got me out of breath! Today I ran the upper part of the loop all three times! The Hunk said that he thought I might benefit more from weight training than

Discipline Update / MRI: July 19

2010-07-19T17:41:00.008-04:00

So today when I got up I discovered that the Hunk had not come to bed! AT ALL! But he had folded the clothes AND he was getting breakfast ready for me. Sweet, no?However, I had gotten up early so's I could go for my walk - well, first of all because I noticed he wasn't in bed and that made me pouty, but I also figured I could do my walk. So the eggs had to wait.But however #2, I didn't have

Discipline Update & Freewrite: July 18

2010-07-18T09:47:00.007-04:00

Once again: no walk. I'm in this horrid cycle of staying up and waking up late. I did have like two hours of dance yesterday, and then swimming in the lake for another couple of hours after we ate. So I woke up and it was already pretty warm... and then I just felt like I needed another good scrub (the lake was kind of grubby).And in fairness, I've got a performance this afternoon. I had been

Discipline Update & Freewrite: July 17

2010-07-17T08:35:00.004-04:00

Dance practice again today, so no walk. I have, however, been cleaning the house. Unfortunately, I mostly can't tell. It's distressing. I have a lot of posts seeds sort of in the back of my head - teacher effectiveness, scripting, affirmative action, the relative values of gendered work, how tenure really works, my questions on KIPP for which I can find no answers... yeah.But I don't really have

I Got Furious - Fast!

2010-07-16T18:45:00.004-04:00

This made me soooo mad. Mad enough to snark, folks. I'm gonna cross-post my response behind the cut, because to be quite honest, I'm not entirely sure it's ever going to make it past the moderators of the original article! Perhaps you need to make the time.Seriously? Since when are teachers the ones who determine their work schedules?Let’s be generous and say we take just FIFTEEN MINUTES to

Discipline Update & Freewrite: July 16

2010-07-16T08:42:00.010-04:00

Yesterday was so full - really, this whole week has been - that I'm counting last night's dance practice as my exercise for this morning. I'm going to try to have a healthy breakfast - boiled eggs, and ... I dunno, maybe toast or oatmeal. Someone has a wedding anniversary today! Congratulations, you guys - you need to come visit. It's nice and warm down here ;DMorning freewrite behind the cut!

Discipline Update & Freewrite: July 15

2010-07-15T07:38:00.006-04:00

Well, I wasn't planning to go for a walk this morning, but I woke up a little after six and couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up and got dressed, grabbed my new little Sansa and headed out the door.Today promises to be quite full, what with the MRI and lunch plans and then another doctor visit, and then I've got dance practice tonight. I've got to get ready, but perhaps if I'm quick I'll have

Discipline Update: July 14

2010-07-14T07:17:00.005-04:00

Crazy dreams last night. Very stressful. Slow traffic and miscommunication and things I forgot to do... I'm glad I set the alarm for almost an hour later, but that means that I haven't had time to go for a walk OR do any freewriting before heading to school. Plus I'm leaving just a little earlier (like 10 minutes) so that I don't feel as rushed.I'm so glad I didn't drink all my Diet Coke on

What I Know So Far, Part 4

2010-07-13T16:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday at school I told the other members of my department (well, the ones who are helping out with summer studying) about my diagnosis. I'm so fortunate to have coworkers who are caring and supportive!I need to call to find out how long my MRI will take, because I want to go out to eat afterward and I'd like to see if anyone wants to come along. But I don't know what time that will be yet!

Epic Adventures Are Often Uncomfortable

Scaffolding

...just to make it today

How Long Can You Tread Water?

Not Ning

Balance

Survey Says:

Moneyball and Education

Challenges with Technology

Yuck.

Because I Said I Would

Crash & Burn

Trapped

Is a "Fair Tax" Really Fair?

Why I Write

Torn

Too Much

Humor

Finally

An Open Letter to Penny Kittle

Is There Anything Wuss?

You've Heard This Before, I'm Certain

Why Charter Schools Should Not Be the Enemy

SOS thoughts

Examining Success

Writing for Others

More books!

The Haul - Day 2

The Haul - Day 1

Be! Aggressive!

I Know the Truth

Keep On Keepin On

Playing around

Counting Down the Days

Announcement!

Grinding My Teeth

Spring Fever

Tired of it

SCORE!

?! WTF, Blogger???

Book List

More on gaming

What doesn't kill me...

Walking Away

Writing Again

Here we go...

Staring at failure

Interview

Idea? I don't know.

Dear ELA Teachers

Sneaky-Sneaky?

WoW: Guidelines for Addiction

NCTE: Last day

NCTE Day 2 notes, unedited

NCTE Day 1 lookback

NCTE Thursday

Minor Point

Temptation

Good Writing

Feathers on the Fly

Further Resolutions

Where'd you GO?!

Further Feathers

Feathers for 1984

And let's not fergit...

Green Eyes

How to Give Students (or Anyone!) the Stink Eye

The big debate over at the NYT

*facepalm*

On (Not) Teaching Values

Scary Music Begins...

Snark

Week 1

Why I Don't Teach Graphic Novels

NCTE frustration

Placing My Foot Further Into My Mouth?

Ooga-Chaka

Whee!

Book Talks

New Place for Updates!

facepalm