Burnout: it's not just for race cars.

This week, I posted this sentiment on my Facebook page: "I refuse to put this much effort into something that so few people truly appreciate, especially when I'm worth so much more." I am ready for a change. Teaching has never been what I thought it would be, to be sure. However, I was passionate and excited enough to overlook the constant disappointments, lack of respect, and overwhelming heap of responsibilities because I cared about helping my students. I put my job and everything that comes with it first, and put myself and my family last because I am often too tired or distracted to enjoy being at home. Following my parents' example, I try not to bring work home with me so I can enjoy my time with those who mean the most to me in this world. So, I go in to work an hour early every morning, and I stay 1-3 hours after work every day (without a minute of overtime pay, but I'll get to that later). After that, any work that is left undone (papers that needed grading, lesson plans that needed organizing, copies that had to be made, emails that went unanswered) constantly weighs on my mind and prevents me from fully enjoying my time away from school. Why should it be that way? I've slowly become more efficient in accomplishing these necessary elements of my job, but still constantly have things that are left undone or unfinished.

I am still unwilling to sacrifice my personal time for work, though. Why should I? To be a good teacher, we are told that we should follow the examples of the likes of Ron Clark (The Ron Clark Story) and Erin Gruwell (The Freedom Writers) and put aside our own needs and interests to complete focus on our students. While these individuals are amazing teachers, their personal lives are in ruins. To be a good teacher, we are told to look at the overtime we put in as our "professional responsibility" and to not complain that we don't get paid for all of the extra hours we put in. I'll admit, I have it easier than others. As an ESOL teacher, I teach no more than 100 students per day while there are teachers who teach closer to 150 students a day. With growing class sizes, more non-teaching responsibilities, less pay than expected, a decrease in maturity and sense of responsibility in the students, diminishing (if at all existent) parent involvement, and more pressure to deliver top results under these conditions, it's no wonder that I am feeling burned out!!!!

I was recently telling a friend about how disappointed I was this year to not feel excited about coming to work. I am usually extremely excited on the first day back to school, and I pretty much stay excited because I enjoy most of the lessons I get to teach. This year truly feels like work, though. I wasn't excited about the first day of school; instead I felt weighted down by the anticipation of everything for which I would be held responsible. I'm not excited about teaching my lessons; instead, I feel overwhelmed and scatterbrained by trying to prepare for 4 different classes of the 5 classes I teach in a day. I'm not excited about seeing any particular class or students; instead, I feel like they all need to learn better manners, responsibility, and self-control. (Believe me those "gem students" are become a severe minority in the classroom.)

Nevertheless, I put all of my effort into the lessons I teach, I am energetic and supportive during classtime, I treat each student as an important member of the class, and I try accomplish what is expected of me by my school and my county each and every day. It's the only way I know how to be. That is exactly why, however, I know it is time for a change.... I'm putting all of myself into something out of which I receive very little payoff, return, or fulfillment.

That being said, I'm starting to consider my options. I am an intelligent, quick-thinking, well-spoken, independent, motivated, organized, confident woman (Yeah, I said it!). I put all of my heart and effort into helping others, teaching others, and taking care of others. However, as Suze Orman has taught me, I refuse to give myself away. I'm not going to allow myself to do a job in which I constantly feel like a failure when I know I'm not. I'm not going to continue to work for pay that is less than what I deserve.

Teachers make up the majority of the work force in this country, and there are plenty of them who simply come to school and do the bare minimum to get paid. I can't be like that. It goes against everything that I believe about work ethic, job performance, and personal responsibility. So, to prevent myself from being taken advantage of and from become something that I hate, it's time for me to consider moving on. For now, I am one of those teachers who comes to school to do as much as she can to facilitate learning. I earn my meagre pay; and I don't expect people to praise me for doing my job, to get a special award for helping my students learn, or to become famous for my creative ideas and teaching methods. I just want to work under conditons that are fair and to be paid what I am worth. And yeah, I want to enjoy my job!

As they say in education, you never leave because of the kids. It's always the other stuff.... That other stuff is starting to affect me so much that I don't even want to think about writing about my classes this week. So, for now, I'm just another teacher complaining about her job. Those of you who truly know me must know, then, how deep my frustration must be.

Things They Sometimes Teach Me

Seeing Improvement is a Wonderful Thing

D___ is a student who is taking my class for the second time because he failed SOPH LA last year. An extremely likeable person, his quick wit often helps him make friends but does little to keep him on task in class. Until the very last few weeks of school last year, I thought he would turn his grades around. He has the intelligence to do well, but lacked the motivation. So far this year, however, he is doing MUCH better. He is one of my top participants in class, he is consistently turning in his assignments, and he is doing high quality work.

The other day, D___ came to class and said, "Ms. Greene, there was a show on NAT GEO last night about Gilgamesh. They wre comparing his story about the flood to Noah in the Bible, and were doing a test to see if he could really build a boat using the measurements from the story and if it would work."

"We're going to be comparing those two stories, too! Did you watch the whole program?" I replied and asked.

"Yeah, Miss. It was pretty interesting."

If D___ finds it interesting enough to watch the entire program, then I think it will be good to show the rest of the class. I went on National Geographic's website and found the program: Search for Noah's Ark. It's on again tomorrow (9/31) and the Media Center is going to tape it for me so I can view it and hopefully use it in class during our study of the similarities and differences between these two stories of the flood. I was so impressed with D___'s motivation that I gave him extra credit for watching and telling me about this program. :)

Teacher Tip

My singular most important purchase for the new school year was my first-ever E-Z Grader! I haven't had one before this year because I always forgot to purchase one with my "Sonny Money" purchases and would never go back to get one since I resent spending my own money on school supplies. After wishing I had one many times last year, I made up my mind to get one this year. At the end of July, I went to The School Box, and made one purchase: my new E-Z Grader. This $6.99 investment has made grading a breeze! If you don't have one, get one!

Reflection

I'm noticing that my students in LAII (level 2 English) are anxious for more opportunity to practice their spoken English. I need to foster that motivation in them. Most of them actually have very good English pronunciation, and can read in English very well. There are 2 or 3 students who are quite far behind the others, but that's true in every class. Hopefully, they'll be inspired to work harder. This week, since we've been reading stories about challenges, I think I'll have these students write a short story (with a graphic organizer of course) about a challenge they've faced. I'll hook them up with partner to practice reading their stories out loud. Then, they'll have to read in front of the whole class.

As for my SOPH LA class, we are continuing our study of Gilgamesh and, as noted above, will be moving toward a compare/contrast essay between flood stories. On a very good note: my 6th period class is not as evil as they were a week or so ago. One of the most disruptive students in that class has separated herself from the rest of the class to the table in my room. ...a step in the right direction! I'm starting to warm up to them a little, though I did have to call one of the students out on copying work and then lying about it.

The hardest part of this year so far: trying to stay organized and ahead of the game while trying to keep up with 4 preps. I feel overwhelmed and confused sometimes trying to keep so many different classes straight. Making sure I have all of my copies, class notes, assignments, activities, quizzes and tests, and supplements in order is never done; and I usually forget 1 or 2 things. I don't like that. :(

I Hate My 6th Period!

The Class from Hell

I'm sure that I've had issues with a class period in the past, but none of that matters when I feel the frustration that I do towards my 6th period SOPH LA class. This class has a variety of age groups in it (one of the poor souls is a very mature senior), but the majority of the students are new sophomores. Until recently, they were rambunctious freshman who ran their teachers ragged with all of their energy and lack of focus. I am definitely not used to dealing with such immaturity and expect my students to conduct themselves like young adults. So, I've been trying to figure out what to do about this particular class that doesn't seem to know how to stay on topic, focused, or quiet.

Today, I'm rearranging their seats for the 2nd time to see if that will help. I've made notes about which students seem to get off task and talk to each other. Those students will be separated. I've also put out a stack of detention forms, ready to fill out if I have to speak to any one student more than once. Since they seem to have difficulty staying on task during our daily grammar warm-ups, I'm going to tell them that if they don't stay quiet and get it done, I'm just going to count that day wrong on their weekly grade.

This class has made me so upset that I don't even want to talk about school when people ask me how it's going. When my 7th period class arrives at the end of the day, they look at me and ask things like, "Miss, what's wrong? Is it your 6th period again?" I am visibly worn out and upset to my 7th period students! That is not acceptable, and I need to change it.

Other Things...Happier Topics

Some thoughts I had last week:
1. I need to stop lying to myself when I think I'll do grading or planning over the weekend. It's just not going to happen, so I need to be sure to get all of this done by Friday before I leave for the weekend.
2. Dr. Scholl's inserts are a miracle. For the first time in 2 weeks, my feet aren't killing me; and I can move my toes without my foot going into a cramp! Thank you, Dr. Scholl!
3. I must make all of my copies for the following week by Friday before I leave for the weekend. Oftentimes, I'll leave them until Monday morning thinking, "No one else will be at the copy machine." Inevitably, there is always something to do at the last minute on Monday morning, so I need to limit the number of factors as much as possible.
4. Now that I am only teaching ESOL classes, I can move at a little slower pace. I used to have to rush my ESOL students to somewhat keep up with my regular students (for my own sanity). I need to remember things like: don't try to give verbal information while they are copying notes--they can't process both at once; and stop more frequently while reading text out loud in class to assess comprehension and ensure understanding.

Individual Class Activities

SOPH LA: This week, the students were introduced to Ancient Middle Eastern Literature. They did comprehension questions for the unit introduction, looked at some picture books for ancient Mesopotamia and Sumeria, and viewed a Ms. Greene original PPT that introduced the Epic of Gilgamesh. I feel like I rushed through my beautiful PPT, though. I must remember to take it a bit slower. Maybe next year, I'll have the students read the slides aloud before I embelish.

JR LA: We read all 4 of the Native American origin myths in the text and had some great conversation about them. To help them pay attention to the details of the Navajo Origin Myth (see a similar version here), the students worked for 2 days on storyboards of the myth. It was pretty difficult for many of them because of the specific colors, directions, and movements. In the end, though, I think they saw how important it is to focus on the details. Some of them have some great artistic ability, too!

LDC III: For speaking day this week, we played Talking Cards. The students loved the game, and I learned a lot about each of them through it. They asked if we could play again sometime, and I promised that if we had free time one day, we'd play it again. This class also went to the Media Center to choose their silent reading books. To my surprise, many of the students were excited about picking their own books! A couple had never checked books out from a library before, and that's always a special experience to witness. :) On Friday, we started reading the parallel text of Romeo & Juliet. Some of them had already read it last year (and were bored), but each of them had a part to read aloud, and we made it through Act I, Scene i.

LA II: This class is pretty easy because I just follow the schedule laid out by Visions. This week, we read a story about a journey through Antarctica. We've been learning new vocab words, practicing grammar, learning writing skills, and pronouncing words aloud. This group seems especially interested in improving their English, so I think I'm going to have to veer off from the Visions curriculum sometimes and do more verbal activities. I picked up some flashcards from the $1 section at Target. They are for phonics, sight words, and rhyming. I gave each of the students 2 phonics cards each and they had to pronounce all of the words on each card. They did this with very little effort. So, I'm going to have to kick it up a notch somehow.

The Beginning of a New Year

In General

This week has been a whirlwind of paperwork and getting the students on a routine. I know I've probably said this before, but when teachers complain about paperwork, we are NOT talking about grading papers. We are talking about other paperwork that would keep an assistant busy while we did all of the things that people normally associate with teacher work. Despite the chaos, I've had the best start to a new school year of my career!

World Lit

It's my goal to correlate my world lit class with the world history curriculum so my students have a better collective and individual store of prior knowledge of the cultures we study through the literature. My dept. chair, Ms. W, is the sheltered world hist teacher; she gave me a copy of that course's curriculum and a student copy of the textbook. As I started planning lessons for the class, I flipped through the first unit in the world hist book and saw that they learned about cave paintings as they began their study of the world's earliest civilizations. I thought: "What better way to start our unit on ancient literature than to have the students reenact the earliest form of story-telling!" So, I asked my students to think of a story that is passed down from parents to children in their culture, and to write down as much as they could remember of that story. I borrowed some transparencies of cave paintings from Ms. W--the same ones the students had seen in her class the day before--and we discussed what stories the pictures might be telling. I even mimicked some caveman grunting to illustrate for them that pictures were probably the most effective form of communication for these people. :) For the following 2 days, the students worked with acrylic paints, sponges, and paint brushes to recreate the message of the traditional story they chose. Next week, I'll post pics of some of their creations! They'll present their pictures to the class and tell the stories that go along with the pictures. After that, I'll use their stories to discuss oral tradition: stories that are passed through the generations by telling and retelling through spoken words.

So far for this course, my 1st period is doing well and are actually a lot of fun. They've been working hard, have cooperated, and have had a great sense of humor all week. My 6th period, though, saw Mean Ms. Greene today as I told them off for their immature behavior (a culmination of their misbehavior during the rest of the week. I actually had a student in that class come up to me and say, "Ms. Greene, you should do to these immature people what you did to me last year."

To which I jokingly asked, "What, A___, you mean take them outside and yell at them some more?"

"Yeah, Miss. Seriously. I'm glad I'm not like these kids anymore. When you explained what I was doing, I changed." I never gave him credit for it, but he did change. I guess it was a good lesson for him to learn.... (score 1 for discipline!) :)

LDC III

I've never taught this class before and am glad I'm not alone. Ms. W is teaching it also, and we've been collaborating on what to do. We've set up a schedule for each week: writing day, speaking day, vocab day, reading day, and Romeo & Juliet Friday. The LDC classes are meant as companion classes to the LA classes and LDC III goes with FR LA. However, the shelter teacher for that class found last year that she didn't have time to fit novels and plays into her schedule, so she asked us to pick up the slack. I can't teach these texts as I would for an LA class (frankly, that's not my responsibility), but this does give me the opportunity to make learning Shakespeare all about having fun. :)

This class has good kids in it. There is a nice mix of cultures, and it seems like everyone knows each other already and get along well. There's one boy who says he's probably the only Chinese student at our school. ...I'm pretty sure he might be right. LOL

LA II

This class is the 2nd level of English for our ESOL students. In the beginning, the most important thing I can do in these types of classes is assess the students' English ability. We've been working with simple past tense verbs, and I'm seeing that most of them are good with conjugating, but they are still having a bit of difficulty with sentence structure when it comes to making sentences negative past tense and asking questions in the past tense. So, we'll continue working on this next week before we move on to the next lessons. I was told that this class might be a handful because of a few particular students, but those students have been very sweet so far. A couple have actually been very helpful (collecting folders, putting books away...)!

American Lit

The curriculum for this class begins with Native American origin myths: stories that try to explain the how and why of natural phenomena. So, before we begin our study of these works, I had the students work in small groups to create their own origin myths for well-known natural occurrences like the Grand Canyon, Amazon River, and Sahara Desert. They worked on these for a couple of days.

One cool moment happened when I walked up to one group in the middle of what looked like a heated debate. I was worried that their creative differences would stall progress, so I went over to mediate. As I walked up, C____'s head whips around and she asks, "Miss! Wasn't it in Gilgamesh that the gods were so mad at humans that the sent a flood?!" (She studied Gilgamesh with me last year in World Lit.)

"Yes! It was!" I replied with a huge smile on my face.

"See, Miss! I remembered." Then she told her group, "We can't use that idea because someone already did." She was so proud of herself. This particular student has struggled with staying focussed in her classes and hasn't done as well as she could. I think this year will be different for her, though. :)

To start our study of Native American lit, I picked up a couple of illustrated books from the Media Center that show many aspects of N.A. life. I'm going to put together an activity this weekend so the students can use our textbook and these other books to become more familiar with the cultures from which these origin myths stem (a scavenger hunt or something similar). Then, they might appreciate the stories' themes and subjects a little better. I'm sure that they're learning about N.A.'s in American history, so this should build on that prior knowledge.

Final Thoughts

This first week has been tough: my feet are killing me, I am exhausted by 2:30PM, and I feel like there is only enough time in the day to move from one priority to the next before falling into bed at night. However, I know I am where I belong for now. When my students from last year and the year before (this is only my 3rd year at this school) come to visit me with smiles on their faces and ask if they can be in my class again, I know that everything I put them through while I have them (lectures about life, constant essay writing, taking tests that rival those given to honors students, and reading literature without giving in to complaints that it's just too hard or too stupid to read) is all for the best. They know I do it because I care.

This seems to be the secret ingredient to being a successful educator. Not only do you have to know what you are doing in your subject area. You have to care...with your whole heart. And, as stated above, sometimes you have to show that you care through stern words and a little harsh discipline. :)

Preplanning: the to-do list that never ends

This week, we had 3 days to prepare for the start of the new year. That's a whole lot to pack into 3 days!

1. Faculty, department, and team meetings

2. Unpacking and organizing classroom

3. Updating and copying class syllabi

4. Homeroom and 1st period paperwork

5. Textbook retrieval and scanning

6. Decorating classroom in a way that is stimulating for but also appealing to students

7. Legal briefings and training

8. What to do on those first few days

That's only what I can think of off of the top of my head. For every task we finish, there are at least 3-5 other items that are spur-of-the-moment requests from someone else: "Could you send me...?" "Will you email...?" "Can I get your help with...?" Not only are we getting ourselves ready, but we are also taking care of colleagues. It's what we do.

My Classroom

This year, I moved from my sweet little trailer way out yonder in the trailer park to a small classroom inside. I'm convenient to pretty much everything now, which makes me (and my feet) very happy. No longer will I have to plan an afternoon trek to make copies the next day, or make sure I have water and snack to tide me over during the long hike to the front office. I'll be in the middle of the action!

It took some rearranging of the furniture that was already in the room, but I think I've set up

my class in a way that will suit my teaching style. 3 of the rows of desks are facing front, and 4 of the rows are facing the door. This set up is a trick I learned from a colleague at my previous school to help make the room seem bigger. I've also set up a "creativity table" for those who aren't suited to traditional desks.

On the board are 4 taped boxes for my various classes. As always, I'll put daily assignments and reminders here. Even with the 4 boxes, I still have plenty of space for notes and activities! It is a big board!

I've also already posted my rules. I've found that these few rules have helped me manage my students' behavior and activity better than anything else. 6 simple rules:

1. Be prepared for class: Brain, Materials, Supplies

2. Absolutely no sleeping

3. Take responsibility for your actions

4. Don't make excuses. Create solutions.

5. Never mak

e fun of someone for not knowing something

6. Stay on task and on topic

I've found that all I have to do is give "the look" to a student, and they know that they've probably broken one of these 6 rules. I'm pretty easy like that, and it truly helps students to

know what your boundaries and expectations are. If I need to add a rule, I will. These 6 have worked for 3 years, though. :)

My Space

This will be my 6th year teaching, and I have never felt more confident about beginning a new school year. I truly feel like I can handle anything that comes my way because of my experience and my flexibility. I haven't made copies of my syllabi yet...but I'll get to it! I forgot to make seating charts, but I can do that when I get to school

early on Monday! I already have assignments ready and waiting for the students, and that's my main concern right now. I know how to prioritize the rest of what needs to be done.

As you can see, I've created a little fort for myself in my "teacher corner." :) I don't like students touching my stuff or invading my space, so I do what I can to clearly set up a "no-fly zone." I've already made myself comfortable, though, and am ready to get to work! Notice "Piggy" on the book shelf for Lord of the Flies, and the raven on my media cabinet for our study of Poe's poetry. These things are fun because when students look at them, they have an association with the literature we studied. I like it when something tangible can help them create stronger links to the reading. (On a side note: this is undoubtedly the neatest my desk will be ALL YEAR. LOL)

Student Space

Letting the students know that I have high expectations for them to be productive as well, I've set up a little "productivity corner" for them. Here, they can type, study, read, or take a break from the rest of the class while they think about how to make better choices. (I just thought up that last bit, but it fits with the corner set-up.)

The calendar on the board is for students to announce their birthdays and special events. One of my SOPH LA students from last year has a birthday coming up in 3 weeks! He will be in my JR LA class this year, so I will get to wish him a happy birthday! :)

Well, that's just some of what I've been up to in these past 3 days. When I arrived at school on Wednesday, I was a little overwhelmed with everything I needed to do. Unpacking all of my boxes and setting up my classroom was a priority, though. When my surroundings are in order, my mind is at ease, and I am better able to focus. So, it looks like the year is off to a good start! I'll be making weekly postings about my 4 different classes (LA II, LDC III, SOPH LA, and JR LA), so stay tuned if you want to know more about what goes on in an ESOL classroom! :)

End of the Year

My students are currently working on their final exams, and I am forced to sit quietly and busy myself with something that is not distracting for them. So, I am making my final entry of the school year. I may post over the summer as I am taking home all of my SIOP materials to get some ideas for classroom management, lessons, and activities for next year. At the end of each school year, I always have aspirations for reworking some of my less successful lesson plans and coming up with projects, powerpoints, and activities. The truth is, though, I mostly forget about school during the summer months. My brain doesn't even want to think about the chaos of it all: the paperwork, the gradebook, the never-ending questions, the complaints, the sleepers, the eyerolls, the 5AM wake ups, the 20 minute lunches, the commandments from the County.... A two month break from it all is barely enough to recharge for the next go-round.

A couple of things that I do what to think about, though, are: 1) how to give immediate punishment to sleepers. They drive me crazy, and it's not enough to give them detention the next day. I want to make a "Standing Corner" in my room next year where the sleepers have to go stand up for the rest of the period and do their work. I have to consider its positioning, though, so I can send a sleeper there during lecture, reading time, presentations, or individual work time. 2) Next year, I need to not be worried about damaging a students' social skills by moving him/her away from friends. Sometimes I worry that a student will shut down if he/she isn't near a particular person with whom he/she feels safe. This only applies to a few students each year, but I'm going to see if moving them isn't the best thing for them. 3) I want to incorporate more world lit into SOPH LA (WORLD LIT). Especially for the novel selections, the students read Lord of the Flies and Bronx Masquerade or Go Ask Alice. One of those is by a British author, and the others are by American authors! What is so "wordly" about that? I already have some new texts in mind and I'll have to see if we have money to purchase a class set. If not, I may have to do a fund raiser to buy the books. :)

I don't know if I posted the best news: I'm staying at CHHS next year! I'll be moving inside the building and will no longer have to plan my treks into the building to make copies, use the RR, or visit the media center. I'll directly across the hall from my department chair, and close to everything! The kids have been great about helping me pack up and move. They are happy I am staying even though they know I work them hard. I guess they can really tell a difference when you work them hard because you care.

Today is graduation, and I'll be sitting with O___, my student from Rwanda. She is such a joy, and I am delighted for her. She'll be going back to Rwanda this summer to visit her family for two months. She said that she'll be staying with her grandmother for two weeks out in the country, which is something she's never done before. She says it makes her nervous to be out in the middle of nowhere in her grandmother's house with nothing by cows all around. It is about two hours away from Kigali, the capital, where O___ lives. She promised to send pictures and also invited me to go with her next year! :) That would be the trip of a lifetime!

I'm sitting here looking at my 6th period students as they take their final exam, and I'm thinking: "How strange. I do not have a favorite among my students." I enjoy them all for various reasons: some are hard workers, some have a great sense of humor, some are sweethearts, and some are just so clueless that I'm always anxious and excited to see that lightbulb turn on.

Time to grade some tests. I hope they did well!

Ending with Novels

"Miss, I'm going to keep this journal forever," said C___. "It has my thoughts and my poems, and it has quotes I like from the book we're reading. That's special."

My SOPH LA students are reading Bronx Masquerade, and I've asked them to do a collection of activities to help them connect to the themes and message of the book. On days when we read 15-20 pages, the students have to do a double entry: choose one quote to copy into their notebook journals and respond to with at least one paragraph of thoughts, reactions and feelings. To help them locate their quote of choice, I cut up post it notes into strips and passed them out in cups. The students had them on hand for when something sounded particularly moving or interesting. At least twice a week, I also have them write Free writes where they fill up a page in their journals with prose on whatever they like. To connect with the poetry in the book, the students will also write at least seven poems with themes similar to those in the book. So far, they've written a "Shape" poem about their secret identity, two "What if" poems about social issues, and a "Where I am from" poem.

Some of the students have not embraced this "easy project grade," and have not completed various assignments. Most students, though, are enjoying this break from the standardized format and the opportunity to express themselves more creatively. To grade their work, I do a journal check each week to check for completion. At the end of the novel, we'll have an "Open Mike" day during which they can share one or more of their best journal entries (poem, free write, whatever). After that day, we'll be watching Freedom Writers together, and I'll use those couple of free days to read the complete journals of those students who want to share with me. :) When I do journal checks, many of the students are excited to show me their entries and want me to read them. They are so proud of their words!

In my JR LA class, we are almost done reading Of Mice and Men. I always enjoy reading this novella with my classes because the students really get attached to Lennie and are excited about the story. Every day, they walk in and ask, "Are we reading today?!" If I say yes, they light up; if I say no, they wilt and say something like: "...Oh. But, I want to know what happens to Lennie." Usually, when I read out loud in class, it's a struggle to keep everyone interested, and I often lose a few students to sleep. During this novel, though, I can read straight through an entire chapter and they are glued to the page the entire time!

I wish I could find more books that the students love like these two, especially for SOPH LA. The choices for that level are all either too long or too complex for sophomores to truly connect to. Worse, the choices for "world lit" are mostly by American or British authors! I might ask the Media Center specialists for some help in coming up with some new choices.

Pressure to Perform and Intro to Steinbeck

As the students take their Gateway exams this week, I feel relieved to be done with the preparation for them. I honestly lost sleep over worrying about whether I was teaching them enough and giving them enough practice to do well. From what the students told me, their science and social studies teachers thought it sufficed to give the students 1 practice Gateway prompt the week before the test. They didn't even practice together - the students recieved the assignment and had to complete the essay. Which means (as always), the other core area teachers are relying on the language arts teachers to teach the majority of the test-taking skills. That's not OK, but I've accepted it as reality. Therefore, to follow up on the work my SOPH LA students did on their whole group essay (the one we wrote together on the overhead), I had them work individually on an essay to practice and refine those skills.

First, I gave them their new practice Science Gateway topic and a handout of the work we'd previously completed together. Then, each day, I asked them to complete a portion of the Gateway process on their own. Monday, they had to complete an outline of the topic they chose. Tuesday, they had to complete an introduction and 1st body paragraph; Wednesday-their 2nd and 3rd body paragraphs; and Thursday-their conclusion, Gateway Checklist, and final draft. On Friday, we used a rubric to peer review and comment on each other's essays.

This process was great! The students asked so many great questions, helped each other, and improved so much in such a short time. On their peer review rubrics, a couple of students even wrote comments like, "You did a great job, and I actually learned some things from reading your essay!" I am so proud of them all for working so hard, and the cool thing is that they actually seemed to enjoy being pushed to write well on difficult topics! No one complained about our prep work being "too hard," or "too much work." They were determined to do well, and I constantly reminded them that failure was not even an option. :)

I know that teaching my students to write chunk paragraphs and giving them so much practice was key to them learning to write a Gateway essay so quickly. Next year, I think I will introduce the chunk paragraphs at the beginning of the year, and will try to require a document-based essay for each unit. ...Of course I say that now, but it's always so hard to fit in everything we need to do.

The students have taken the Science/LA Gateway and will take the Social Studies/LA test tomorrow. Overall, they have told me that the practice we did in class really helped them on their tests. They said:

1.) They thought about me repeating "Hook, Background, Thesis" when writing their introduction paragraphs.
2.) Even if they didn't completely understand the topic, they remembered how I showed them how to highlight key words in the Scenario, Task, and Bullet points, and to use those key words to help them write their introduction.
3.) Writing the thesis was easy because they thought about using the Bullet points to create the main idea of their essays.
4.) They felt like they new exactly how to organize their essays so it made sense and flowed well.

To me, this is the best part of my job. The students rarely ever say "thank you" for teaching them something, but when they are excited to tell me that they thought of my class or something I said while they were completing their test, I know I did my job well. :)

I only wish I recieved results from these tests, too. I'd like to know how many of my students passed and how many failed. If they failed, I want to know why they failed so I know if I need to alter or abandon my strategies. I want my students to do well, but I also need to be told if they are doing well if I am going to be the best teacher I can be. Who do I talk to about that???
_________________________________________

My JR LA students have been introduced to Of Mice and Men, and (only one chapter in) they are already in love. I read each chapter aloud to them, and I do different voices for the characters: slow and high for Lenny, short and gruff for George, etc. The students laugh out loud at the funny parts and mummble audible "Aww's" when George is mean to Lenny. It's great. :)

Some of my JR LA students are also in my SOPH LA class, so they were Gateway testing yesterday. A couple of students stopped by my room at the end of the day yesterday and asked if we had read Chapter 2 in class while they were testing. When I said no, they were so happy and said they were wondering what will happen once George and Lenny get to the new ranch. I love teaching this novel....


Moment that Made me Smile:
R____, who I taught last year for LDC II (level 2 English Language), was hanging out in my trailer in between classes. He looked at my poster of Subordinating Conjuntions and asked, "Miss, what is a subornitating conjunshion?"
"A subordinating conjunction usually starts the dependent clause of a sentence."
His face became concentrated and his eyes focused while he thought. "And, a dependent clause can come at either the beginning or end of a sentence. Right?"
"Good, R____! Where did you learn that?" I was so excited that a level 3 English student would know such a thing!
"Um.... Lemme see. Ms. W___? No. She don't talk about grammar. Hmm... I think you, Miss. You taught me last year." He smiled.
"Well, then I'm very proud of you for remembering! That's impressive!" I beamed back.
He laughed and humbly but matter-of-factly said, "I know, Miss. I have to do my best because I want to go to college."

Gateway Prep and Prufrock Talk

For those of you who are not high school teachers in Gwinnett County, let me explain: the Gateway is a document-based essay exam given to all sophomore students. The test is given in three subject areas, and the tests are categorized as Social Studies/Langauge Arts and Science/Language Arts. The two essay exams are given on two separate days (Tues and Thurs). As you can see, the students are graded on their LA skills twice. Now, with as much writing as we do in LA, most students pass these portions of the tests with no problem. The only time my ESOL students have issues is when their English skills are still lower than expected for Sophomore students. Most students also pass the SS portion without much trouble. It is the Science portion that gives many students headaches. For many of them, it is difficult to write about science.

Thus, in my SOPH LA class, we are in the middle of Gateway prep. I actually enjoy teaching this unit because it's basically a culmination of everything I've been teaching the students about writing all year. So, it's cool to see all of their work come to fruition as they work on practice prompts, group-work essays, and individual-work essays. For the past week, we've been working on a group-work SC/LA practice test that has to do with Biology ("The Ecosystem and Food Webs"). I'm taking them through the entire process of Gateway testing. We began by looking through and reading the entire test (the students are given a scenario, 2 writing task choices with bullet-point topics, and a variety of documents to use as concrete detail), then we brainstormed in outline form how much they collectively new about both writing tasks so they could see how to visually assess which topic choice would be the best for them. Afterward, we reviewed the format of an introduction paragraph and got started with our writing!

I'm trying something new this year: as we group-write this essay, I'm projecting everything they do on the overhead screen from my laptop. That way, as students call out sentence ideas, revisions, or and questions, they see every change and every addition. Every day, they learn something new about what to do and what not to do. Plus, they are seeing the importance of revision...something they previously thought was the same as editing. I'm finding that it's one thing to tell students how to write well, but it's a whole other thing to show them how to write well. Of course, the success of this activity is yet to be seen, but I already feel confident in saying this is something I should continue to do in years to come.

The thing that makes this successful, in my opinion, is that I give students sufficient "wait time" as they are processing the Gateway topic, the information in their test packet, and what I say to them. If I ask them to think of a topic sentence for the first body paragraph, and to look to their thesis statement and writing task information for help, I'm not afraid to give them 1-2 minutes of wait time to get their thoughts in order. In our education classes, you know they always tell us how important wait time is, and it is so true! Many times, if students are silent, teachers think they need to fill the quiet with extra explanation or rephrasing. On the contrary, students often need us to just quiet down to let them think. :) It is the greatest feeling to set my students up with a task, give them a little bit of direction, and watch them come up with the answers or solutions themselves! When I know they can do it on their own, I know I have done my job.

...Not to leave out my JR LA class, today we began our study of T.S. Eliot's "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Modernism is my absolute favorite literary period, and my students are always shocked to learn that it's the darkness, dispair, and disconnectedness that draws me to it. "But Miss, you are so nice! Why do you like such depressing things?" LOL I have no idea! To me, though, Eliot is tops. Once my students know that I would name my first-born Eliot (with one L, of course), they know that they better respect the poet's work.

To take them through "Prufrock," I give them two documents: a copy of the text and a handout that walks them through explicating the work stanza by stanza. On the copy of the text (by the way, yes, it is in their textbook; but you can't really study Eliot without marking up his texts!), they highlight and take notes on the imagery, simile, symbolism, and vocabulary he uses. This helps them better understand how the tenets of Modernism are exceptionally represented in this poem. On the handout, we answer questions about the text together.

Students are always overwhelmed by Eliot when they are first introduced to his work. So, it's always a bit of a bumpy start. By the end of explicating the first stanza, though, most of them are hooked and are taken in by the genius of this man's style. Of course, that always makes me very happy. :)

Student-Teacher Conversation:

"If there were any author who I would marry because of his genius, it would be Eliot."

"Miss, didn't you say that already about Langston Hughes?"

"No, D__. I have a crush on Mr. Langston Hughes, but that's different."

"Yeah right, Miss. You just say that every time so we'll treat the literature with respect. That's what you say right? 'I love this author's work, so treat it with respect.'"

"That's definitely what I say, D__. I'm glad you remember it." :)

Can We Read More Stories Like This?

This is the question I was asked today during 3rd period JR LA. We are in the middle of A Raisin in the Sun, and the students are loving it! I don't have to give instruction to take out their books or force students to read lines...they are all one step ahead of me by taking out their books when the bell rings, calling out the page number to each other for where we stopped reading the previous day, and volunteering (sometimes a little TOO insistently) to read lines for their favorite characters.

The language of the play is simple enough that I don't need to explain much to my ESOL students. They keep up with the dialogue, and there's actually been quite a bit of laughter during the exchanges between characters. Sometimes, I'm surprised that the students are paying close enough attention to get some of the more subtle comments, but they are!

A couple of days ago, I picked up the made-for-TV version of the play. I watched it a few years ago when it first aired on ABC, and it was a decent production. The women were strong and convincing, but P. Diddy did not pull off Walter's character, in my opinion. Anyhow, I asked the students: "Would you like to read Act I and watch the video of that part, then read Act II and watch it, or would you rather just read through the play and watch the movie afterward?" The decision was unanimous: "No, Miss, the movie will ruin it! Let's read it all first and then watch." I was floored....

I haven't done anything special to teach the book. We're reading it in conjunction with our study of Langston Hughes's poetry (with particular attention, of course, to "Dream Deferred"), but we're simply reading, answering some discussion questions, talking about the characters' motives and feelings, and taking a test in the end. The students will probably write a short essay to expand on the themes of the play, but other than those things, the characters and words are what make this piece so easy to teach. The students truly connect to it, and that is a wonderful event to witness.

As for my SOPH LA classes, we are completing our study of Inferno this week. The students say they have enjoyed reading this text and appreciate that Dante would have such vision and imagination to create such places in his literature. There are only a few Cantos in our textbook, and we only read Cantos I, III, and XXXIV; but I also gave the students a tour of the entire Inferno as I discussed in my previous post. As we read each Canto, I put up on the overhead projector "reading check," "literary analisis," "critical viewing," and "critical analysis" questions which I have taken from the margins of the textbooks. We'll read a section of the Canto, I'll summarize what has happened or what was said, and then we'll answer these overhead questions together. The students have not once complained about copying these questions and answers. In fact, they are asking questions, adding comments, correcting each other, making literary or historical references, and making jokes as we analyze the Canto.

After we finish reading the Canto and the discussion questions, the students answer certain "Review and Assess" questions from their texts. These they have to do on their own because they require deeper thought, and I want them to challenge themselves. We go over them together, though, and peer grade their work.

This Friday, the students will write chunk paragraphs about a topic related to Inferno. This will be part of their test on this unit. On Monday, they will take a 50-question multiple choice test to complete the assessment. After that, we'll get to work on a practice Gateway Exam (with a focus on medieval life). Then, the last few days before Spring Break, I think I'll reward the students with a viewing of What Dreams May Come, a film that uses some of the ideas of the afterlife and punishment from The Divine Comedy.

Quote of the Day:
"Mrs. Greene, it's hotter than the 8th circle of hell in here! Could we turn on the A.C. please?" Yay! Literary jokes! :) This student was one of my lowest performers last semester, but with Julius Caesar and Inferno this semester, he has been on top of his game and has a high B in my class now!

Hell and Harlem

This past week was a lot of fun for me! I think it was fun for my students as well. For my SOPH LIT class, I introduced them to Dante and his Inferno. First, I asked them to look at the "Prepare to Read" page in their textbooks that gives information about the author and work, and they used a cluster graphic organizer to take notes on these two topics. After that, the students had to answer 7 anticipation questions so that I could gauge their background knowledge of some of the themes and motifs.

Through these anticipations questions, I found that most of my students had no knowledge of the "7 Deadly Sins." So, the next day, we spent class time talking about these deadly sins: what they mean, what they are also known as, and how these seemingly natural human responses and actions (anger, hunger, lust) could become so intense that they would be considered sinful. The students were very interested in this discussion and asked great questions! After this, we only had about 10 minutes of class time left, so I showed them the first few slides of my "Journey through the Inferno" PowerPoint slide show (on which I'd worked for 6 hours last weekend!). Through these slides, the students were introduced to the main characters, Limbo, River Ascheron, and boat-keeper Charon.

On Wed and Thurs, I took my students through the rest of the slide show. As they learned, they had to take notes on a handout I entitled "Highway through Hell." I listed each Circle, Ditch, and Ring in the Inferno, and the students had to take notes about what type of sin landed a soul in that particular level, what their punishment is, and who some of that level's residents are. They didn't complain ONCE about the notes! In fact, while they were taking notes, they were asking questions and making comments. It was a lot of fun (and well worth the 6 hours of prep)!

On Friday, we read the version of Canto I that appears in our Reader's Companion workbook. This has a combination of original translated text and paraphrased sections, so it's a little easier to read. This allowed the students to focus on learning and practicing the important concepts of interpreting allegory and identifying magery. They said that they would prefer to read the entire original translated text out of the textbook than reading these adapted versions. ...Of course, they'll get that chance next week as we continue our study.

In my JR LA class, we finally began our study of the Harlem Renaissance. On Monday, I started us off with a PowerPoint show of the history, people, and culture of this period. I printed a handout with blanks where key words or phrases are in the original slide show, and the students took notes as we went through the slides. They enjoyed and had many questions and comments about the visual arts that I included in the show. Toward the end of the presentation, I mentioned that jazz and blues were key music styles during this time, and found that some of my students were familiar with jazz, but none of them knew the blues! I had to remedy this....

On Tuesday, I brought in some songs performed by Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong. All of them were recorded live performances, and I told the students to imagine being inside of the Cotton Club (they'd seen pics of this club during the slide show on Monday) while we listened to them. After these songs, I played some contemporary examples of jazz and blues songs (of course I had to introduce them to my beloved blues!) so they could hear how music evolved in 40-60 years. After we listened to the music, we read "The Tropics of New York" by Claude McKay and discussed the tone and theme of the poem.

Wednesday through Friday, we studied the poetry of Langston Hughes (some of my favorites!). We discussed how Hughes uses words to capture the rythm and spirit of Harlem in "Juke Box Love Song;" and how the themes of hope, pride, and disappointment are apparent in poems like "Harlem," "Dream Deferred," "I, Too," and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." With each poem, I stressed that Hughes's poems were short, but he packed SO MUCH meaning and heart into every line. With that in mind, we explicated each poem, getting closer to the heart of meaning for each one. The students enjoyed this and appreciated the Hughes's depth. For homework, each student had to choose one of these poems and write a contemporary version of it that was applicable to his or her life experiences. I expected resistance to this assignment, but they were all eager to get started. I even showed them my own version of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers":

"The Woman Speaks of Trees"
by Ms. Bobbie Greene

I have known trees:
I’ve known trees as ancient as the sound of the waves and older than the gray, granite rock of the mountains.

My soul has grown deep like the roots of the trees.

I climbed the sycamore when the stars were young.
I built a fort in an old walnut and it protected me from the storms.
I looked upon the massive roots of the banyan that seemed to hold up the clouds above.
I heard a coconut fall from a palm as the black earth baked in the early summer sunshine and the salty breeze cooled the herons in their canopy-top nests.

I’ve known trees:
Ancient, mossy trees.

My soul has grown deep like the roots of the trees.

I've Been Displaced

At the beginning of this week, all teachers received notice that there would be personnel cuts in many of our county's schools. On Wednesday, I found out that I would be one of the teachers to be involuntarily displaced. They do not have enough students to justify keeping me and 20 other teachers on staff, so we are being sent to other schools to fill open positions. I am not angry about this development...I am mostly stressed out that my job status is relatively uncertain at present, and I am sad to be leaving the people here.

This school has been a wonderful place for me to grow and improve as a teacher. I received my SIOP Model training here, I've had the opportunity to teach new material, I've had more support than I could have hoped for, and I've had resources (adapted versions of texts, a wonderful Media Center, awesome suggestions from other teachers) that have made all the difference in my teaching.

With this weighing on my mind, though, I still have a job to do. Today in SOPH LA, we played Julius Caesar Jeopardy. It's always fun to see how competitive the students get when it comes to winning extra credit points for their test. It always happens that the losing team sees how far they are behind the winning team, so they kind of give up on trying to answer the questions. So, one of my students suggested that we have the "Double Jeopardy" question next time on which the teams can wager as many of their points as they want...so the losing team still has hope that they may come out ahead. Great idea! Why didn't I think of that before? See...even as teachers, we are always learning. :) Tomorrow, the students will take their Julius Caesar test, and next week they have to present their projects for this unit. After that, we get to start our unit on Medieval Lit and Dante's Inferno! I already have some great ideas for helping the students understand the content and language of this piece, and a friend shared a project idea to really immurse the students in Dante's hell. Exciting stuff!

In my JR LA class, we read "The Story of an Hour" yesterday. We had some great discussions as we read the story bit by bit. The students asked so many questions and had great ideas when it came to analysing the images and irony in the story. Today, they answered some comprehension and critical thinking questions about the story; tomorrow they will write an essay to defend this story as a work of Realism based on 3 tenants: a) realities of everyday life, b) illusion vs. reality, and c) how society and environment affect individuals. They aren't going to like the fact that they have to write an essay, but that's just too bad. :) Next week, we'll finish Realism and start on the Harlem Renaissance! Yay!

The stress of being displaced is definitely weighing on my mind, but I know that these students still need me right now. I have to do what's best for them. As long as I keep that in mind, it will all turn out alright in the end.

Oh, I teach JR LA, too!

In all of my excitement about how enjoyable, productive, and necessary it has been to teach Julius Caesar to my SOPH LA classes, I've been neglecting my reflection of my JR LA classes. (By the way, I have a serious pile of papers on my desk that needs to be graded, but I can't grade when my mind is racing, so it's just going to have to wait. I'm hoping that blogging will help me focus.) Anyhow, in JR LA, we are in the middle of our unit on Realism. During this unit, we study African-American slave spirituals, Frederick Douglass, The Red Badge of Courage (an adapted text), Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, Jack London, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar.

I love, love, love teaching the African-American spirituals. My students do a mini-research webquest to learn about key abolitionists, different routes of the Underground Railroad (which they draw and color-code on a map), secret messages in the spirituals themselves, and quilt codes that slaves used as another means of communicating secret messages. They fill in their webquest packets as they learn all of this. I even have MP3's of various spirituals in my folder on the school's network so they can all hear the different spirituals we study. (Some of them sing the spirituals for days afterward, which is always cute!). At the end of the project, each student must make his/her own quilt square out of construction paper of one of the slave codes they studied. When they bring them in, I display them all on the wall for our own "quilt," as a reminder of what we learned.

I use Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage and Mark Twain's "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" to teach elements of Realism like regional culture/dialect, racism vs. social progress, the affect of society and environment on an individual, and illusion vs. reality; but I don't especially enjoy teaching them. Those are the works we are studying right now. I'm taking a break from the literature, though, to show my students the film Glory (one of my all-time favorites), during which they must take notes on examples from the movie of the 7 different characteristics of Realism that we've been studying. As we read The Red Badge of Courage, it became clear that my students (all immigrants) have almost no background knowledge of the American Civil War (save what they learned and actually remember from their U.S. History class). I'm hoping that this film will help to bridge the gap. Next year, I may show it before we read the story.

What I am REALLY looking foward to is teaching Dunbar's poetry. I do a lot with his poem "We Wear the Mask," and I always have my students write their own "I Wear a Mask" poems. From there, we will jump forward a bit and begin our study of the Harlem Renaissance! Just as I was so excited to NOT have Benchmark Exams for my SOPH LA class, the same is true of my JR LA class. This year, I will actually have the time to teach A Rasin in the Sun during our Harlem Renaissance unit. I've never taught it, so it's going to add some pressure on me, but I think it will be well worth it. :)

A note about my SOPH LA class: we're finishing reading Julius Caesar this week. Then, we'll have 2 weeks of a test, a project, an essay, and (maybe) a film. After that, it will be time for Dante's Inferno, which I've also never taught before. I want to do an intro webquest project so the students can learn about the set-up of hell before we actually start reading the Cantos. More work, I know, but very exciting!

Funny Moment Today:

After a brief discussion about examples of figurative language (simile, hyperbole, metaphor, etc.), we moved on to the concept of diction. I explained that diction simply meant "word choice." A young man, Alan, raised his hand and said he still didn't understand.

"Well," I said. "Remember, to be persuasive, you must choose strong, direct words. You must also choose words to most effectively communicate your message. For instance, rather than saying, 'Alan is a good student,' I should say something like, 'Alan is an intelligent and focused student."

"Oh, Miss! I know!" A shout came from the other side of the room. "That's hyperbole!" :)

...It's a good day when students make literary device jokes.

This is How Teaching is Supposed to Feel

Last semester, the Benchmark Exams that we must give per county orders were such bad tests and such horrible measures of student knowledge and skills that the county gave us a pass on the test this semester. Since my previous school was a "guinea pig" for the Benchmarks, this is actually my 5th year giving these tests. My current school only started giving them last year, so it's all still very new to most of the teachers. I thought I'd been well trained by my county (since I've never taught anywhere else, and don't know any better) to follow the pacing guides, reading schedules, reading lists, and testing schedule that they determined would be "best." Each year, I find myself feeling rushed, anxious, and frazzled in the attempt to kee up with the county's schedules. However, without the threat...er, deadline...of Benchmark Exams looming over my head, I'm finding that I actually enjoy coming to school, and am as excited as a first year teacher to teach lessons each day!

In past years, as I may have already written, I taught A Midsummer Night's Dream to my SOPH LA classes. This is the Shakespeare text that was chosen by the county as being best suited to sophomore students. According to the pacing calendar, I had to teach this play--and all AKS (our county's standards) associated with the unit--in about 3 weeks. Now, this might be possible if I taught Honors students who had the maturity, ability, and motivation to do some reading at home by themselves; but I teach ESOL and collab. CP, and these students are not going to (and often times CANNOT) read alone at home. So, everything we read, we must read together in class. It is impossible to teach a Shakespeare play this way in 3 weeks. So, I never had time to fully explain, practice extention activities, or assign end-of-the-unit projects. It was all too much.

This semester, though, we are on our 4th week of studying Julius Caesar (I've posted previously why I decided to do this play instead), and we are reading Act III, Scene 2 together today. The students are totally into it. They want to know how Antony will exact his revenge on the conspirators for the death of his beloved Caesar! I am under no pressure to hurry myself through the unit, and it is great. Even more wonderful, though, is that I'm making time to teach EVERYTHING I'm supposed to teach while we are reading this play: grammar with bell ringer Daily Oral Language activities; writing with weekly and bi-weekly chunk paragraphs based on topics that pertain to the scene we are currently reading in the play; literary terms like monologue, soliloquy, aside, stage directions, etc.; sonnets (an activity inspired by this lesson plan from Folger); persuasive techniques (activities inspired by 2 other Folger lesson plans); and a love for literature that these students have never known before. I think that's pretty amazing stuff.

Brutus and his Betrayal

It took us a couple of weeks, but my SOPH LA students made it through Act I of Julius Caesar. They are wrapped up in the story now, and have developed a dislike toward Cassius for attempting to turn Brutus against his friend. This, however, is nothing compared to the hatred they now feel for Brutus for actually deciding to betray his friend.

Yesterday, we read Act II, Scene 1; and I focused their attention on Brutus's soliloquy at the start of the scene. The students were confused during our read-aloud. "How did Brutus change his mind so quickly? We thought he was Caesar's loyal friend!"
"Well," I said, "to understand that, we are going to have to look at Brutus's soliloquy line by line." I got the idea of taking a closer look at this speech from this lesson plan at the Folger site that focuses on the figurative language in it. I didn't have time for the activities in the lesson plan, so I adapted the idea for my own uses. Of course, I already had a handout prepared for this activity. :) On it were two columns: on the left, Brutus's lines broken down by sentence; on the right, empty boxes in which the students could write paraphrases.

Once we went through the speech, the students understood that Brutus admitted that he had no personal problems with Caesar, but that he must prevent Caesar's potential misuse of power for the good of the people. The students did a great job (with guidance here and there) of explicating the speech and using their own words to explain Brutus's meaning. At the end, one student in each class asked something like, "So, he's going to murder his old friend because of the possibility that he would become a bad leader?" ...a valid question indeed.

Today, I gave the students another chunk paragraph assignment:
In Act II, Scene 1, how does Brutus use figurative language (metaphor) to justify his betrayal of Caesar?

Some of the students are already complaining that I'm making them write too much (2 paragraphs in one week! What kind of teacher am I?). I want them to get used to using their own brains to analyze topics like these, though. They are so used to people giving them the answers or asking them to memorize something. They have very little practice in forming their own ideas/opinions/reasons, and then supporting those notions with evidence. With these chunk paragraphs, they have to do all of that in a condensed form. From what I've heard about chunk writing, if students are able to write a successful chunk, it will be easier for them to expand those ideas into essays later. I'm counting on that! I wish I could find more articles about the theory behind chunk writing...

Teaching Caesar for the First Time

We're supposed to teach selections from Dante's Inferno as a lead-in to the Renaissance, but I think my students actually need to know who Brutus and Cassius are before we talk about how treachery will land you in the 9th level of hell. So, I am attempting to teach Julius Caesar for the first time this year. I usually teach A Midsummer Night's Dream for our Shakespeare unit, but Caesar is more applicable to cross-curricular studies. So, I'm going against what the county says we should teach, and I'm doing what I think is best.

Never having taught this play, I found myself scrambling for lesson ideas. Thankfully, I found a lesson plan database that has been compiled and maintained by the wonderful people at Folger Shakespeare Library. I've adapted some of the lessons from this site already, and they have been great!

For instance, to introduce some of the themes in the book, I used this pre-reading activity. My students broke off into groups and came up with a list of 10 qualities of a good friend and 5 infractions that could end a friendship. Then, we came together as a whole class, and compiled all of the groups' ideas on what our top 10 qualities and top 5 infractions should be. With these lists, we created a "Friendship Constitution" and I made a poster for each class. Each of the classes had similar qualities and infractions, but there were some differences in the particular words they chose, so I typed up a different one for the respective classes. When I showed their posters to them, I said, "We'll use these constitutions to discuss what went wrong in Caesar's friendships that eventually led to his downfall." Everyone wanted to sign their constitutions, so we did that, too. :)

Also, I noticed that Lesson 5 of the Folger lessons focuses on persuasion. I like the lesson they have, but I didn't have time for it. My students do need more information about persuasion, though because they will focus on persuasion next year for the High School Graduation Writing Test. So, I made a handout on which I listed Pathos, Logos, and Ethos; I gave an explanation of each technique; and I gave elements used in each technique. On the back of the handout, I copied Cassius's two speeches to Brutus from Act I, Scene 2 (when he tries to change Brutus's perception of Caesar). Then, I told the students that their task would be to write a chunk paragraph in response to this prompt: Which persuasive technique does Cassius mainly use in his speeches to Brutus in Act I, Scene 2? No, I'll be able to evaluate each students' understanding of the characters and their motivation, organization skills, and level of ability when it comes to analysis. I think chunk writing is going to be of great benefit to their writing and analytical skills!

This week, we only got to Act I, Scene 2. I'm planning on getting through all of Act II next week; but with the long weekend, I don't know if it will happen. Oh well...at least I don't have Benchmark Tests to worry about this semester (the county realized they were ill-prepaired and not a fair measure of student achievement), so I can take my sweet time with Caesar!

New Semester, New Start

Becoming too busy and overwhelmed with paper work, I let my blog updates slide. However, after taking a "Teach with Your Strengths" seminar through our professional development department at school, I found that reflection is, in fact, on of my strengths. I care deeply about results and outcomes, and this blog is meant to be a way to help me reflect on those things. So, as was suggested to me in the seminar, I will make weekly (instead of the previous daily) postings to this blog. Certainly, there are daily occurrences in the classroom that are worth noting. Weekly postings will be much more manageable for me, though.

To start things off, I thought I'd give a glimpse into how I've been planning lessons for the upcoming first weeks of Spring Semester. My lesson plans typically look as they do in the picture below (backward, thanks to my Mac's PhotoBooth). It looks somewhat like a mathematical equation, but it all makes sense to me. I'll break it down in simpler phrases to post for my students' weekly updates on Homeworknow.com, which I use to keep students up to date on what we do each day in class (I can post updates, links, and documents for them!).

So, here goes nothing! I sure hope this semester goes by as quickly as last semester did, and I hope I can stick to my goal of being organized enough to plan ahead at least 2 weeks!