For the past few years, I have drifted away from teaching my students the fine details of using Word and Excel to doing more projects that integrate those programs and doing more ‘fun’ stuff, like digital stories with PhotoStory and Movie Maker. I don’t want to abandon the ‘fun’ stuff, but as I was working with my Reading kids on typing and printing a book report, I realized that they do not know the basics of setting up a document. I told them what margins and line spacing they needed to have and most of them had no idea how to change those settings. I think that next year I’m going to have to go back to teaching the basics and maybe even testing those skills. I do only see about half of the 6th and 7th graders each year (one class of 20 – 25 students in each grade four times a year – and probably 50% – 75% of the 7th graders had my class in 6th grade) and then I only have one class each year of 8th graders (about 25 kids). It is entirely possible that I could have kids in my reading class that have never had one of my computer classes. But it still made me think about what I was teaching in my computer classes. I have to admit, too, that I have become lazy in those classes; pretty much everyone gets an A. But that makes me think that I’m not challenging the kids enough. I AM exposing them to new technologies, which I intend to keep doing, but somehow I need to work the basics back in. In a 9-week class thats tough, though. I added an Online Safety component a few years ago too and that takes a couple of weeks. I usually end that unit with a digital story of some sort. After we’ve done all that ‘fun’ stuff, the kids don’t want to sit still for boring Microsoft Word parts of the screen and how to set margins and line spacing. If anyone has any ‘fun’ ways to teach that, I’d love to hear ideas!

Some background: I teach reading. Reading and Language Arts take turns reading a novel so that the kids are not swamped with reading too many novels at once. This year Reading gets the first half of each quarter, while LA gets the second half. I hate having the first half because in the first quarter there are so many things we need to accomplish in the first week or so of school, that I don’t get to start the novel right away. That makes me feel rushed to finish the novel by midterm. I never actually do and I’m very lucky that my LA partner teacher and I work very well together and coordinate our book reading well.

So back to today. I actually skipped the whole second part of the book – well not skipped, but we didn’t discuss it deeply and we didn’t test on it. I did have the kids do a Who, What, Where, When, Why summary worksheet in groups and then I took those sheets and summarized Part 2 for them. It actually worked quite well. I was determined to finish the book this week (2 weeks after midterm). Originally I scheduled a test for Friday, then some school wide testing was thrown in for Thursday. So I changed it to a Final Project. The students have to complete a Story Plot Diagram, a Problem/Solution Graphic Organizer and a worksheet that I made where they have to analyze setting, symbols and quotes from the book. I spent yesterday and today reviewing and discussing Part 3. And wow! The kids blew me away – they were making connections from things that happened at the beginning of the book to the end of the book. I had to guide them somewhat, but after I showed one connection, they made more. They saw the pieces of the puzzle fit together. They got why the author showed us some things. At least the kids who actually finished the book did, but it was some of the most unlikely kids who were contributing some of the best ideas!

The project is due on Friday – I hope I have as much pleasure reading their work as I did discussing the book with them today!

I sent home grade sheets with the kids last week. Overall, grades are good, but that’s typical for the beginning of the year. Also, there were only about 5 grades listed, and not in every category. There were 3 WarmUp grades (10%) and one each of Classwork and Tests (30% each). Other categories that I have are Homework (20%) and Projects(10%). Projects are usually only one per quarter – sometimes I’ll break it up into more than one grade, but at 10% it’s not a grade buster if they don’t do well. When reading a novel, homework is mostly reading for the next day. Can’t really grade that. Sure, I could give them a few questions to answer at the start of class, but I have my warmups all set and that really IMO just takes away from teaching time. I have what I call an Active Reading Chart (ARC), which is an organizer for the kids to jot down important details while reading since they can’t write in the novels. I do an ARC check for a homework grade every now and then. I did one this week – they KNEW I was going to do it – and I still had some that were not done. That one zero killed a lot of grades – but that’s because that was the only homework grade. Interims are next week and I’ll have at least 2 more homework grades by then.

I had one student who scored a 59 (F) on the one test that we’ve had so far. Her overall grade was a 69 (D). She had one assignment that was listed as missing, but not a 0. Turns out I had that assignment, but the student did not put her name on it. We determined that it was hers and I said I’d grade it and add it to the gradebook. I proceeded to teach the class for that day. At the end of class the student asked if I had added that grade – did she not see me teaching? LOL Obviously, I told her not yet and she proceeded to complain that it was affecting her grade (she also had to take the grade sheet home to get signed!). I told her not to blame ME for her low grade and I pointed to the test grade and said this is why you have a D! This is a student who thinks she is ‘all that and more’. She is one of the few who I mentioned previously about not understanding that it’s rude to talk while I’m teaching. She’s also one of those who need to comment on everything I say – usually to try to butter me up, but in reality it pisses me off LOL She is also, however, a very intelligent student. I just wish she’d use her intelligence more positively! While I do try my best to encourage her and give her credit for good answers, she always will be one of those kids that I just never warm up to.

To end on a more positive note, I have a bunch of students who were pains last year who are so much better this year! Maybe it’s just the change in maturity between 6th and 7th graders, maybe it’s difference between having them in a computer class (6th grade) compared to Reading (7th grade), but these kids who names I cringed at when I first saw them on my class lists, are proving to be different kids this year – yay!

Google would be another good alternative – Google Docs and Spreadsheets are great, and they can be shared and collaboratively edited. After reading Clarence Fisher’s post today, I started thinking about teaching RSS to the 8th graders next year. Since I use Google Reader, it would be easy for me to teach the kids how to use it. Keeping everything in Google makes sense.

For the past two years I’ve used blogs with the kids as a means for them to respond to writing prompts. I want more of a true blog next year, with student reflections. I’m thinking about having the kids write something reflective twice a week. Their reflections could be about anything school related; a book they are reading, how hard the science test was, how much they hate math , etc. Just to get the kids writing. I will grade it only on completion, I will not judge their writing or their spelling or their grammar. I will comment when I can and I will encourage them to read their classmate’s blog and make appropriate comments. I think this will help their writing overall. For blogs I use wordpress.

I’ve also been thinking about the email accounts that I mentioned in my previous post. The kids need email accounts to register for all the wonderful online stuff. Pros: I have control of each and every email account, I have the passwords if someone should forget theirs (I don’t let the kids change their password from the default one) Cons: It takes a long time to set up each account, I will have to monitor all the mail when they start sharing documents Alternatives: Have each student set up their own gmail account. They would have to give me their password so that I can monitor them (but in reality, I probably wouldn’t log onto what could be 100 accounts to monitor them). Am I being too over protective? – these are for 7th and 8th graders. I would love to hear thoughts on this – help me decide how to handle the email issue.

One thing I want to do better next year is having my kids take notes – Reading classes and the 8th grade Computer class. Reading classes need to take notes on literary terms and things specific to each story or novel that we read. I would LOVE to have them take notes online and be able to collaborate on those notes. I could use a wiki – we used wikis this year and it worked pretty well, but the kids are still very focused on changing fonts and colors and stuff. That would be a problem anywhere, anyway.

Then I thought about using an online note taking tool. I read about a few and NoteMesh looked interesting, but it’s really more for college students and I’m just not sure it’s right for Middle Schoolers. Then I read an article about the new Zoho Notebook (beta). It looks really cool and I played around with it a bit tonite. I could set up books and share them with my students. I can set some books or pages to be read only if I want them to see info, but not be able to edit it. In order to have control and for safety issues, I will make each of my students a gmail address using the +name feature

(add another name to your gmail email and it acts like a separate name, but all mail comes to the main email ex: you have a gmail account for username@gmail.com. For my student emails I use username+studentname@gmail.com. All the email for the students comes to my gmail account)

Zoho has some other really cool tools that I’d like my students to use next year too; Writer, Show, Planner and a few others. I wish Zoho Challenge (Test creator) was free – I’d love to do online testing too. I’m sure that I can find somewhere to do that

I’d love to hear thoughts and ideas about my idea of online collaborative notetaking. Maybe I could even find another class that is reading, or would be willing to read, the same novel with me next next year.

I can’t get past the sense of entitlement and lack of respect some of the kids have. As I explain, for the 40millionth time, how their behavior dictates my responses and they sit there with these looks on their faces like I’m the stupidest person they have ever encountered and of course it’s MY fault that they are being punished for not following the rules. Yes  – this is the ever-popular 4th period class (8th grade computers). Not all the kids are bad, and some have moved from the ‘part of the problem group’ to the ‘not part of the problem group’, but the ones who are the most disruptive and disrespectful just ruin it for me and the rest of the class. I tried all sorts of things with this class. I tried being tough, I tried being nice, I emailed and called home, I wrote detentions, I rewarded good behavior. When I stopped giving out candy (that I spent MY money on) for good behavior (because I wasn’t seeing a real increase in good behaviors) they complained! They just don’t get that they actually need to change their behaviors – they don’t think they are doing anything wrong! They questioned why I should give a referral to a student this week whose shirt was untucked (uniform school – shirts need to be tucked in at all times) after I told him TWICE in the same class period to tuck his shirt in. It’s like they don’t see the lines between child and adult.

I know I wrote in my previous post about how good these same kids were at the 8th Grade Formal – and they were! And they were also great on the 8th grade field trip and during the party we threw for them for having the highest scores on the state writing test in our county, but put them in a classroom or the cafeteria and they don’t think they have to behave.

To end on a positive note, my 7th graders were a bunch who I really liked (sure there were a few who I could live without – there always are) and I will miss them. Some were actually upset to realize that I don’t teach 8th grade reading. I’ve tried to encourage the ones I like to take 8th grade computers with me next year. I really hope I get a good group because that is usually my favorite class to teach, but I did not enjoy it this year!

I’m going to have a good summer, though, and next year will be a fresh slate!

Now on to my post……..

Lately my 8th graders have been really bad – well just a few of them – but they ruin it for everyone. With four weeks let in the school year I have decided that I was not going to fight them any longer. So I created a unit on Technology Careers that will keep them busy for the rest of the school year. They have something due each week and they have class time to work on it. On Thursday, they just wouldn’t stop talking while doing their typing (15 mins of silent typing at the beginning of each class) It took them 40 mins to all stop talking for any length of time. That left them 20 mins to work on their project. The first part is due at the end of class Monday (Friday was the 8th grade field trip so I gave them Monday for a due date). The biggest complainers were the kids who were talking! They seemed to think it was MY fault that they couldn’t work on their projects and when I pointed that out to them, they thought it was the funniest thing – that OF COURSE it was MY fault….sigh. Well, needless to say – I was very happy that I didn’t have to see them on Friday.

But I did see them tonight. Tonight was the 8th Grade Formal. Boy those kids clean up well! And they were so well behaved! I walked into the room at one point near the beginning and realized that there were no adults in the room except for the DJ. And do you know what those kids were doing? Sitting at tables or quietly talking in nice groups! They were being good! Overall, tonight was a really good night and the kids had a great time!

Damn I love those kids……sigh

Overall, it’s been a good year – my reading classes are great – a few individuals who I could do without, but mostly a great bunch of kids. Academically, I think they did well and we’ll be very happy with their state test scores. My 7th grade computer kids have also been awesome – I have accomplished much more with them this year than in previous years. Unfortunately, I attribute that to the fact that we got all the lowest level kids in a block reading class, which means they don’t get to take an elective. What it meant for me is that I got to teach at a higher level. For some reason, though that didn’t hold true for the 6th graders. Maybe they just aren’t mature enough – it’s no secret that I don’t have the patience for 6th grade silliness. I’d much rather teach 7th or 8th graders. Speaking of 8th graders- oy! I went from the best class ever (last year) to one of my most challenging classes in a long time. And it’s only a few kids who are ruining it. We had a day a month or so ago, when all the instigators were out on the same day! The rest of the class remarked at how much fun we had that day I had one student go overboard last week. I separated three big talkers and one girl kept on going by saying “Now who will I talk to?” I pulled her out into the hall and let her know that she had gone too far and that she’d better get herself under control. She admitted that it was uncalled for. We went back into the classroom and I warned everyone that anymore behavior issues and they would be off the final field trip and not be allowed to attend the 8th grade formal. I wasn’t making this up – that’s coming from administration. I hope they behaved on those two days that I was out before vacation…..

Anyway – I’m on vacation and I’m going to spend the rest of the week relaxing, and catching up on cleaning my house and of course at some point I’ll be grading and writing lesson plans

I’m reading through 1st period’s answers and I’m pretty impressed. We did discuss the answers briefly after the movie, but I didn’t feed them any answers. I just clarified some things for them.

This whole experience is really opening my eyes to the idea that we get what we expect. Not that that is a new idea – I know that teacher expectations greatly impact student achievement. I even just read an article yesterday about a study that showed that students who were praised for their hard work put forth more effort and challenged themselves more than students who were praised for their intelligence (if I can locate that article again, I’ll link it here). My students keep telling me that Anthem is hard, and I keep telling them that I know it is, but that I wouldn’t give it to them unless I thought that they could handle it.

My kids are making really good connections about the conflict in Animal Farm and the theme of Collectivism vs. Individualism that we’re discussing with Anthem. They need help with their writing, but we’re working on that too

It’s days like this that really make me feel like I’m reaching the kids

I began teaching Anthem by Ayn Rand last week with my 7th Graders. I was concerned that it would be too much for them, but I boiled it down to Collectivism vs. Individualism. I did some pre-reading stuff by looking at vocabulary; collectivism, conformity, individualism and altruism. I used thereflectiveteacher’s powerpoint that he used to introduce Anthem to his class (he graciously sent me the powerpoint).

If I must say so myself – I think it went really well! At first he kids were extremely frustrated; they could NOT understand why anyone couldn’t have an individual identity. They couldn’t understand why someone would just go along with it. They couldn’t grasp the idea that someone wouldn’t know about free thinking and individuality. I finally had to tell them that they just needed to accept that there were times and people who were forced to do and think things and that they didn’t even know that there were other ways to act and think. It was interesting because we are in South Florida and we hear so much about people escaping from Cuba – but the kids didn’t seem to make that connection. By the end of the class period, though, they understood the idea of collectivism vs. individualism.

I’m not going to get very deep into Ayn Rand’s ideas…that’s too much for 7th graders. What I want them to get out of reading this book is that going along with the group, in essence, peer pressure, isn’t the best thing to do. I want them to see that thinking for yourself can lead to good things, even if it’s rough going to get there.

The second day we began reading the book together. I took the whole hour to get though about 2 pages because I really wanted to make sure the kids got it. One of the most difficult things for them to get was that the narrator talks in plural pronouns because there are no single pronoun words in his society. They thought that was “weird”

We had interesting conversations about when the story was taking place – they did all eventually come around to realizing it was in the future. Some are still very much in the concrete thinking stage because that was hard for them to grasp. Overall though, I think I am challenging my students to think and they are rising to the occasion.

Yesterday I had a sub and I left them the rest of Chapter 1 to read and some questions to answer. I wanted them to work in pairs because the text is difficult, but apparently in first period the kids weren’t totally on task so the sub decided they couldn’t work in pairs. I was in the building, just in a meeting, so I went to my room and told the sub they really needed to work in pairs because of the complexity of the text. She said “but they were talking about other things”. OK, I understand it’s hard being a sub, but what happened to “Do your work or I’ll leave a note for your teacher” or just being the adult in the classroom? Most of our subs are fantastic and I had a feeling this one was weak when I met her in the morning. I found out later that she is a sub who another teacher refuses to have her room after one time. I’ll be telling the sub coordinator not to give her to me again either

On Monday the 8th graders have a state science test so the rest of us have to stay with our first period classes for the first 3 hours of the day. This means that I won’t see all my classes on that day and again on Wednesday when we have the last of our tests. Since I have 1st period for so long, I decided that I wanted to show a movie, but one that would have some relationship to Anthem. We have the TNT production of Animal Farm in the media center so they will see that. They will have questions to answer, as well. I think I will also show it to my other classes even though it will take 2 class periods to get through the whole movie. Normally I’d do something like that after we finished a novel, but the timing works to show it now.

OK enough rambling I’m really excited about this novel – I think the kids will enjoy reading something different and being challenged to think in new ways.