Today as I was preparing to teach my 1st period class, I received some sad and unexpected news. Earlier in the semester, one of my master teachers was diagnosed with cancer, and so took a leave of absence. Although I felt a bit lost without his optimism and support, I understood his need to leave. Unfortunately, he passed away on Saturday. I wasn't sure how to respond. This was a teacher loved by students and faculty alike. Anything said about him revealed a sincere and deep respect for his practice and person. My second master teacher chose to have his students simply reflect on their experiences with my master teacher or their thoughts about death. I thought it was an appropriate and beautiful way to respond to the situation. Earlier in the semester, I also lost some one close to me. With the demands of the program and student teaching, I believe that I was unable to address my thoughts and feelings. But as the semester slows down and I am better able to look closely at all that has happened I realize the importance of allowing yourself some quiet space to reflect; I am only now beginning to realize how much this passing has effected me. But, I saw that sense of reflection today in the students as they wrote. Perhaps this will be my source of reflection.

Relevant?

With so few weeks left in the semester, I've decided not to begin another novel with my 9th grade class, instead planning for a unit on poetry. Last semester, we read several articles on strategies for teaching poetry. I was also inspired by our class mates' poetry books and I know I have many students who would enjoy writing and creating a poetry book. As some of the readings from las semester suggested, I chose to begin the unit with an exploration of what the word "poetry" meant to the students then introduce the concept of slam and performance poetry. I found a really (or so I thought) interesting and engaging article that discusses the connections between hip hop and slam poetry. My students are quite knowledgable on the subject, so I thought that opening a discussion of the similarities between the two forms would help them once we started reading and (hopefully) performing poetry. But perhaps because it was Friday or perhaps because it was expository writing, I had such trouble getting the students to focus. I am asking a slam poet to come to talk and perform for the students - maybe his expertise will engage and inspire the students.

Random

How do you channel students' energy when they want to talk about subjects that are off topic? I have found that as the semester goes on, my students have become more comfortable with me and more willing to engage in off topic conversation. I'm sure many of you know how random these conversations may be. Pokeman, fast food, the substitute they do not like. But I like to encourage my students to speak up and have a voice in the classroom, so sometimes I am reluctant to move them towards content. I think the answer lies in trying to connect what they are interested in to what we are studying in class ... but I have to manage a sneaky way of doing so. Perhaps I just need to gain more experience in leading classroom discussion, allowing students to veer off into other topics, but still be able to get them back to content, all the while illuminating the connections. To find those connections ...

Schedules

Last week (or was it the week before?) was the final week of testing at my school. Never before had the reality of the week's rythym been more obvious than during these two weeks of inconsistency. Students need a sense of safety, and although they will never admit it, this safety comes from a sense of routine. Students need to count on something, so it might as well be a schedule, even if what happens in between is different from day to day. But with the testing schedule, everything was complete chaos. Every day was like a Monday, with me trying to get the students to focus. Eventually things began to even out, but then the testing schedule was replaced by "old reliable" - 50 minutes, five days a week. The students revolted! I think they had grown accustomed to not seeing me every day. For a student teacher, who has to work hard to motivate and engage students, a messed up schedule is no fun because suddenly, all the small problems begin to become much more obvious. And I've spent the last two weeks trying to get over it.

This week during one of my seminar classes, some of my colleagues lead a group discussion on how to incorporate technology in the classroom. I was interested to participate in this discussion since I often avoid technology - a weakness I admit, but I am working towards incorporating the use of technology in my classroom. Now, this is often a difficult thing to accomplish since I have limited access to things like lcd projectors, even overhead projectors (Laurie, you know my pain). But I am trying to be creative in the types of assignments I give students by focusing on how they use technology to either produce or present such assignments. The discussion leader began the class by asking us what our "dream technological classroom" would look like in terms if there were no limits such as money, space, or technological advancement. After people shared their wishes, he went on to lecture us about how there were new developments everyday that would one day move classroom work to be done entirely on computers. Wait what?! No paper? Or books? Or writing? Madness.
I initially responded to this idea with skepticism because I felt the type of classroom he described would ultimately be in danger of limiting interaction among students. But soon I began to look closely at WHY I was a bit disturbed. Was I being close minded? Was I romanticizing the world of letters and books? Deep philosophical questions. But then I remembered a conversation I had with my master teacher. I asked him why he always wrote assignments on the board, then had students copy them down. He told me that he carefully wrote each assignment and tried to model the type of writing he expected from students in the prompt. He hoped that in addition to directly teaching his students writing, he would "secretly" show them what he thought writing should look like; it was the act of copying it down onto paper that he emphasized. Now, I am not sure if there is any theoretical or practical evidence to prove this, but it raises the question - what happens when student stop "writing?" Because in my colleague’s "dream technological world" students took notes on computers. I am not quiet sure what I think of all this yet, so I suppose I am looking for some direction into further inquiry. In any event, the discussion and presentation raised many questions, prompting me to look closely at my own fears and biases about technology, but also what I think might be the appropriate balance of technology, because I realize that students need the opportunity to learn those skills.

Success ... Sort of

I am approaching the final days of Romeo and Juliet. In the beginning, the students were so exicited to read the play, because you know, EVERYONE reads Romeo and Juliet. But they soon grew tired of all the drama. Then at the beginning of the week, I announced that we would begin working on our final project: rewriting a scene from the play using a modern setting and modern dialogue; the students had to choose character and dialogue that a modern audience could relate to. Now, I had deep reservations. Throughout the unit, students did "authentic assignments" - writing an advice column for Romeo, creating a myspce character profile. With each assingment, I had to explain WHY we were doing it. I think part of this had to with the fact that I am a new teacher and I need to work on how I go about establishing a purpose for my students. But I also think part of it might have been that I think students are reluctant to take any assignment seriously without the words "essay" or "test" in them. It becomes an excuse. But to my great suprise, once I explained to the students that the final project was rewriting a scene and NOT an essay, they seemed to get a bit more exicited. Perhaps the trick is to be sneaky - or remind student that the alternative is something that might be a little bit boring. Make them believe that the authentic assessment is less work - or at least because they have to be creative (and I also let them work in pairs) it doesn't feel like work.

Authentic Assignments

I am planning the next unit for my 12th grade class – we will begin reading Their Eye Were Watching God and as I combed the 11/12 standards, I found that my options for a final unit assessment were slim – reflective essay or research paper. Now, the research paper seemed tempting, but I went with the reflective essay because I realized that although I have bee teaching these kids (though on the brink of adulthood) I only know surface level information about them. So I thought reflective writing might be a good opportunity to 1) get to know my students better and 2) have them engage with the material on a more personal level since my attempts with the last novel we read (The Stranger) failed.

I thought that I could have the students write reflections inspired by the themes of the novel, something more than just writing about the novel. They would also do other forms of writing and perhaps a visual representation of the novel. Then they could choose 4 – 5 assignments and include them in a portfolio with an introduction. I thought this might be a good idea because I am having trouble getting my 12th graders to turn in assignments. Although each assignment would be worth points (for completion) students would have the opportunity to revise their work or a second chance to complete the work. I’m not sure how this is going to play out, because we are rapidly approaching the end of the semester and these 12th graders are getting anxious … could this be considered an authentic assignments?