Day 14: Favorites! Tech Edition #aprilblogaday challenge!

Prompt: Resources and Recommendations: Favorite tech gadget, app or software you have used to support student learning! 

Sorry this isn't longer.  Happy almost Friday!
 
Turnitin.com-Kick plagiarism to the curb!

Learnerator - AP Test Prep

Quizlet - Flashcards!

Scratch and Scratch Jr. - Learning the building blocks of coding!

Busy week.  We have not had our spring break here in NYC yet and kids and teachers alike are TIRED.  Everyone is getting sick: we had six staff members out today and I have 5 each kids in two different classes out. I am exhausted...But....

60,000-volume poetry library in New York City.

60,000-volume poetry library in New York City.

 

Day 13: Standards- The Good, Bad, and Ugly

Prompt: How do standards (like CCLS or other local/state standards) impact your teaching?

I have written about this before. The summer after my second year teaching I was sent for a intensive to Columbia University to train in the new Common Core standards being rolled out.  Every school was to have a point person  to turnkey the new standards with their staff. As an English teach I went, along with the new first year we hired that spring. It was a good week full of workshops and discussion about what this was, how to read the document and how to implement.  I always felt confident about common core. I liked having clear standards for learning and to me it seemed we would not see the true impact of CCLS until the kids beginning kindergarten that year graduated from high school making them the first cohort to graduate and hopefully be truly college and career ready. 

Testing changed everything, especially for K-8 education. The money tied to test scores, the pressure on young children to do well hurt education and damaged the relationship between schools and parents. When parents started posting on social media about CC math I knew bigger problems were coming. 

The new teachers coming in don't know a time with out CC. I had a ton of training and that made all the difference.  As far as my planning goes- the standards narrowed the focus of state standards and exams here and NY.  The focus is on argument writing and reading of nonfiction texts.  So much so that, in my humble opinion, other types of writing have been sacrificed. This has pushed my thinking and ideas about what having experience doing all kinds of writing does for student learning, fluidity of though, stamina and creativity as a writer.

Day 12: My Dream Class

-->Prompt: My dream course would be.... (to teach or to take!)
Last summer I took a Memoir course at NYU.  It was ok.  It held me accountable for writing.  It was a blend of professionals, mostly like me, who had life experience they wanted to put down on paper--so to speak.  I liked being held accountable for pages.  I also enjoyed the writing prompts for on demand writing.  It reminded me why creative writing is so important to the development of a writers style, vision, point of view, diction, and control of syntax. There is a fluidity that comes with creative writing that we don't find in technical and argument writing. Currently, our curricula does not include much creative writing with the push from CCLS and even NYS regents to write an argument, synthesize evidence and analyze writers craft. In focusing so much on the words of others  (and how to use them to support their own arguments) their own creative flow is underdeveloped.  When they step into high stakes testing situations, the skills gained from creative writing are not there.  The ability to improvise on paper, something essential to both forms is missing. 

Currently, my dream class is a creative writing novel writing course. We will write and read both creative nonfiction and fiction. I would love to have a class do National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November, each student working to produce 50,000 words in 31 days. Then spending the remainder of the semester or even year work-shopping, revising, reading great short stories and novels and then applying knowledge of writers craft through our own writing. 

Day 11: You Pick! Integrating Student Choice

Prompt: How do you integrate student choice into your classroom? What impact does it have?

 

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There have been times when I have been better about integrating student choice than others.  I have been the most successful with choice in theatre class.  Each semester students have to self-select a monologue to learn and perform from memory.  The process goes like this: 

•  Day one: overview of the unit and present ALL monologues to students.  I have done this a couple ways- in the past, I have read all the monologues.  Other times I have given monologues out ahead of time to strong readers to prepare who then present all the monologues to the class.  At the end of the lesson, they each pick their top three choices and submit their request.  
• I go through and group.  Usually I have 4-6 kids doing the same monologue. I also always try to give a first or second choice.  If a kid selected a monologue that no one else did- I will give them their second choice if that means I can successfully partner them with someone.
• Then rehearsal begins.  
• Allowing students to pick the monologue they are working with gives them a sense of ownership of the text and the work ahead.
• Every semester EVERY student gets up and performs a monologue in front of their peers.
•  Choice is also built in to performance.  The rule is: everyone must attempt a performance in order to be eligible for a make up if they are not happy with their grade the first time.  It is their choice if they want to try again- however the first attempt must be made.

This fall I did all Shakespeare monologues for the first time (I know..) and it was a huge success.  "Will has bars, Miss." Indeed he does. :-)

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Ultimately, choice is tricky- especially where a class is content heavy and there are culminating exams like Regents that we have here in NY.  But it is important to find space and time for students to have some ownership of their learning.  This is what leads to independence at the college level.  Will your kids be able to self-select a research topic?  Can they pic an appropriate text that connects thematically to the content to supplement the work being done?  Both are things kids will have to do once they leave us.  Giving them the power of choice now will prepare them for later.

Day 10: Planning and Process

Prompt: Planning: What is your process? How do you get ready for the week? 

I am a fan of UbD, backwards planning and project based learning.  I love designing HUGE projects that take students through multiple layers of learning and experiences that culminate in product that demonstrates all the skills they have mastered and the content they have discovered.  As AFSE has made the transition to Mastery Based Learning, I am even more sold on how all these pieces can work together to create powerful, authentic, challenging, and exciting learning experience for my students. 

For my process- I always like to start with a theme.  For my AP Lang class I have 4 major units- The Role of Rhetoric; Language and Identity, Language and Gender,  and Language and Community.  Each one containing a major project as well as scaffolds to support progress and preparation for the AP Exam in May.  From themes I move to essential questions and understandings.  I often them move to compile materials.  I have a text for AP but I also supplement with a lot of current writing and journalism.  I am a huge fan of personal narrative too.  Time and place for all sorts of writing.  The internet is ripe with possibilities! If I don't compile materials I will write up the project- the assumptive piece with all the guidelines and directions as well as the assessment criteria. Sometimes I will present this information to students on day one of the unit so they know where they have to be by the end. It works for me.

What is your planning process?  How do you get from A to Z?

Day 9: Working for the weekend

Weekends...how do you structure your time? Do you have boundaries?

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After 10 year, I don't know that I structure my time well.  My routine is that I usually leave Saturday mornings for myself.  I catch up on TV shows I love (The season premier of Outlander this morning!) and nap a bit too. Snuggle with the dog, Rose.  After all my health and medical challenges this year, my body is still recovering and sleep is a blessing.  Saturday afternoon is usually work time.  Sometimes I go to the coffee shop around the corner, a little local place, where I know the owner.  I can sit for a long time and work and enjoy good coffee.  I teach three different classes this year so I prep lessons and power points for AP Lang and Theatre on Saturday and modify World Lit lessons on Sunday after my co-planner - a first year teacher who I also mentor-- sends the lessons.  

Sunday I email my AP class with reminders, then I do some more work- on and off throughout the day.  Sunday is also my cooking day.  Grocery shopping, prepping food for the week.  It is a busy day.  My rule is that I don't answer email after 6 pm from students on Sunday.  Any questions or requests come before.  Kids are pretty good about that. 

Self care is essential.  I do my best to balance, be comfortable and do what I need to do. :-)