Technology Reflections

I have been teaching the novel Tangerine for four or 5 years now. I’ve lost track – I could figure it out if I really wanted to, but that’s not important right now. What is important is that each year that I teach it I learn more about the story. I analyze it further and I pass that analysis onto the kids. I think last year was the first year that I really felt that my teaching of the novel was really good – that I imparted real analysis to the kids. This year I felt rushed in the middle of the book and was actually getting bored with it. Until today.

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!

We are almost done with the first four weeks of school. Summer vacation seems so far in the past now. We’re past the excitement of the start of school and the “I don’t want to get up the morning” blues have hit. It’s amazing how many times I hit the snooze now – sometimes without even realizing it! Today is a day off for the Jewish holiday and it’s a welcome day of rest. I’m actually feeling refreshed today. I fear that tomorrow will be tough – coming back to school for one day at the end of the week! Ick!

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!

This time it’s two weeks with students. So far, so good! Most of my students and classes are really good. A few random kids who still do not understand that it’s rude to talk when someone else is talking, a few who will take negative attention over no attention and I always forget how young and needy the 6th graders are at the beginning of the year.

In Reading class we are reading Tangerine by Edward Bloor. This is probably the 4th year that I’ve taught this book and every year I learn more about it and like it even more! It’s always a slow start, but we’re getting through it. I’m supposed to do a book in about 4 weeks and then the LA teachers do a book in their class for the second half of the quarter. Luckily I only have one LA teacher to coordinate with and we are really flexible with each other. Also, she tends to read the book more in class and I tend to have the kids read more at home so that we can discuss in class. The idea is to not have the kids have to read too many books for homework. In addition to the books we read in class, they all have to be reading an independent book for our Reading Counts program.

The computer classes are going well. We’ve finished the Online Safety unit in all computer classes. 6th graders are making Wanted Posters for the WizzyWigs, characters from the Netsmartz curriculum that I use. I’ve moved onto teaching the 7th graders how to use Word more effectively and 8th graders are about to begin a Unit on Digital Photography.

I have decided NOT to use blogs in my classes this year. One overriding reason is the time and effort it takes me to set up all the accounts. In order to ensure safety, I created gmail emails for each of my students in 8th grade computers and reading classes – thats about 100 kids. Then I had to go create each of the blog accounts for them, because I had to keep the gmail email passwords private (I did the gmail+name trick so that all passwords and emails came to one gmail account that I had control over). This week I found a new tool that I am going to use – www.myhaikuclass.com While it does not have blog features, it does have a discussion area where the kids and I can have message board type discussions. It also allows students to upload assignments to me, which I think is cool! There is an email feature, but the teacher has to ENABLE the feature for students to email each other – I won’t be doing that for liability reasons, but I will be able to email the kids and they can respond to me. One other great feature is that the kids do not need to have an email address to sign up and I can have each kid sign up on their own through a special link. That will save me hours of time. I plan to use this program with 8th Grade Computers and Reading classes.

Ok well a day and a half, but since my last post was Two Weeks I thought it was a catchy post title

Last week teachers were officially back to set up rooms and have meetings. Actually, our first required day back was Friday, August 10th. I started going in on Wednesday the 8th. I was in for 3 hours on Wednesday and 7 hours on Thursday, but it was worth it. On Wednesday I got the “OMG there’s so much to do I don’t know what to do first so I’ll do nothing” out of the way On Thursday I pretty much got my whole room set up, so on Friday when everyone was back, I didn’t feel guilty taking time to talk to everyone!

There was a whole schedule re-do since my last post, but the good news is that my schedule didn’t change (YAY!). My classes look good – one class has a higher incidence of yahoos, but the rest look pretty good.

I’m really having positive thoughts about this year, but there are two teachers who are really negative. One I can deal with, but the other one is really annoying. I’m just going to try to avoid her as much as I can.

Here are some pictures of my classroom. The pictures are basically a tour around my room starting from walking in the door and turning around to the left. The big purple board will be filled with paper “bricks” that my students will put up when they finish reading a book and pass the Reading Counts test. The brick has a spot to write the book title, the student name and they will get to put sticky stars on it to rate the book. I expect to fill that board up each quarter! (I left the purple paper up over the summer – I hate changing bulletin board paper. It doesn’t really go with the red bricks and the yellow caution tape, but too bad )