AuburnChick's Adventures

Week 22 of my first year of teaching flew by!  It was great to have Monday off.  Personally, I think we should have four-day school weeks.  I’m sure my students would agree.  We need three-day weekends to recoup from all of the learning that’s going on!

So, Tuesday arrived.  I usually arrive at school between 7 and 7:15am.  I need that time to get myself together and refresh my brain on what I’m about to teach.  What I’ve recently begun doing first, though, is reading my devotion…

And yes, that is one of my knitted socks.  It is probably the second or third pair I ever made, way back when.  At that point in my knitting career, I was into striped yarns.  That is a Chevron pattern, which plays quite nicely with self-striping yarn.

Oh wait…this is a post about teaching.  Good gravy, but I totally lose my focus when I start thinking about knitting.  Sigh…my poor knitting needles are so lonely right now.

Ok…back to the teaching stuff.

Tuesday

Yes, that’s right.

My Seniors and Juniors began reading an excerpt from The Book of Margery Kempe.  We had read the background for this story the week before.  The excerpt was short, and we were able to read it on one class sitting.

We also had some very good discussion as we read.  Margery Kempe lived during medieval times, and led quite the interesting life, at one point becoming very ill and, in her words, being tormented by demons that made her do bad things.  But, she was healed by a visit from Jesus.

My students and I talked a lot about that.  We discussed how people exaggerate when writing to make things more interesting.  The kids thought that maybe she had suffered from a mental illness, not really sure that she had experienced a religious experience.  Personally, I don’t completely discount her story because I know that people have had experiences like this.  The Bible clearly illustrates examples of extreme demon possession.

Our discussion allowed us to share our religious beliefs.  I learned a few things about Islam.  Like I said, it was very interesting and, at the same time, wonderful that we could talk so openly.

My 6th graders continued working on the exercise we had begun the Friday before…replacing ho-hum verbs for more interesting verbs.  I absolutely LOVED hearing the discussions that were going on in the classroom as they worked in pairs and used thesauruses to find new words.  I heard them practice playing with words in the context of the sentences.  This exercise gave me a chance to explain how some words were not appropriate for sentences given the connotative meanings.  This was a very good lesson, and one that I was proud to be a part of.

In addition to the exercise, I conducted a mock spelling bee to prepare my students for the class spelling bee that would be held the next day.  Instead of counting students “out” when they missed a word, I allowed them to continue simply to give them more words to practice spelling.  It was a lot of fun.

My 9th and 10th graders had to turn in an important assignment…

Yep.  Sonnets!

We had spent quite a bit of time discussing the format  that Shakespearean Sonnets take, and they were charged with writing their own.  I wanted to assess their mastery of iambic pentameter (which also checked their understanding for syllables) and their ability to rhyme properly and create the three quatrains and one couplet that this format requires.

I will say that I was very disappointed when I saw one of my students writing his sonnet during lunch, which occurs right before that class. Regardless, I held out hope that he would be able to pull something out of his hat.

I instructed the class to read out their sonnets.

Without seeing the words on paper, I thought they had done a decent job.  Some of the students did not want to stand up and share them, but I insisted.  Learning to speak in public is very important.  Being able to articulate yourself is an important skill that people need to learn.

As I sat down to grade the sonnets that evening, I smiled when I read one of my student’s poem.  “N” had outdone herself, and she scored an A on the rubric.  The reason why I was so impressed was because she struggles in my class.  She is incredibly bright, but English is a tough subject…especially my English class.  She had proudly informed me, when she walked into class that day, that she had used a thesaurus to look up more descriptive words.  Instead of using the word “love,” she had used the word “passion.”

Do you know how much that meant to me?  THIS is why people teach!

She had also not misspelled one single word.  Spelling is another area that does not come easily for her, but she had taken the time to look up words that were difficult for her.

Again, my heart soared!

Being a teacher is so much more than imparting the knowledge that kids need to learn to meet certain standards.  It is about teaching kids to take pride in their work…to do their best…to go beyond what is requested to excel.

“N” had done this, and her grade reflected her effort.

I want to share a sonnet that a different student wrote…

TV

The talking heads make noise and hurt my brain.
And no one can be certain what they’ve said.
I turn the TV volume down, in pain.
And reach to plump the pillow on my bed.

Commercial time I click what do I see?
But other networks chatty pundits poised
To talk atop each other in a spree.
I fell assaulted bothered over “noised.”

I click around each channel and I find
Only tire some reruns I find boring.
I think perhaps that I might lose my mind.
Better yet, I must just start ignoring.

Tonight, perhaps, at bed time, I will look,
Instead between the covers of a book.

Very creative, eh?  It was a great way to end the day!

Wednesday

The 11th and 12th graders continued working on Margery Kempe and discussed characterization.  I had them work in pairs to find character traits and quotes from the story that matched these traits.  Again, the cooperative group exercise, like the 6th grade the day before, made me happy.  I really enjoyed listening to them work together, argue their points with their partners, and come up with what I was seeking from them.  I found that cooperative learning, as experienced teachers already know, is a wonderful, interactive way to involve students in the learning process.  It is a nice change of pace from simply listening to lectures.

I also assigned these students the task of creating outlines (due Friday) that would be used to write autobiographical sketches (due Monday) that reflected tone and vivid descriptions to describe illnesses they had previously suffered from.  Students were given rubrics as well.

When the 6th graders came into my class, they saw this…

They were psyched, and they had a hard time settling down.

Finally, they did, and we began.  Another teacher had graciously taken over the responsibilities involved with running the spelling bees at the school.  I was supposed to, but I was very nervous about doing it, and I just did not feel like I would be able to devote much time to setting it up with all of the work that I had going on…lesson planning and my other classes.

My students went around and around.  It finally came down to two.  They went back and forth a couple of times before one of them got out, and the other spelled his word correctly.  It was time for her to spell one more word.

Teacher “H” called it out…

“Dandruff.”

The class sighed.  She looked confused.

It was one of the words I had randomly chosen the day before during our practice in class.  This was completely unexpected.  I had no idea what words the teacher had selected for the bee, and she didn’t know that I had even conducted the practice the day before.

Of course my student spelled it correctly.

What a fun time!  She would have to prepare for the school-wide spelling bee, which would be held two days later.

Meanwhile, there was still class time left, so we began reading Maestro, a cute little poem.

Soon, it was time for my 9th and 10th grade classes…

During our reading of Act 1, we discovered that Paris had requested Juliet’s hand in marriage, and her father shared that she was not yet 14 years old and was, in fact, his only living child.

My class discussed how people got married quite young in those days and how the average life span was much shorter due to the harsh way of life, lack of medical knowledge, and other factors.  I gave them the chart above and asked them to research the facts for homework.

Thursday

I walked into my classroom at my usual time and discovered that my recycle box was missing.  Oh no!  I collect the paper and every couple of weeks take it to a local recycling center I recently discovered.

I took action.

I went to the copy room and emptied a copy paper box of its contents.

Then, I “decorated” it…

I am not very direct, eh?  heehee

So, Thursdays are the days I administer vocabulary tests to everyone except my sixth graders.

Every other week, I am giving my students Greek and Latin roots/suffixes/prefixes exams.  My test was hard.  Even though most of my students did well, a few of them told me they did not think the test fairly assessed their knowledge of the list they had to study.  I am going to take a closer look at the next test I already made and see if I need to change anything.  I really do appreciate feedback and need to always remember to assess my own assessments.  This is an important part of teaching.

I allowed students to work on their outlines after they finished their tests.

My 6th graders worked on Maestro, begun the day before.

My 9th graders took most of the class time to finish their tests, so that’s all we did that day.  However, before beginning the test, I passed back their sonnets.  Several had not done well, and they were disappointed.

I explained that I would allow them to write another one and, if the grades were better, I would replace the first one with the second.  I read something last week about a teacher who handed unsatisfactory work back to students, several times if necessary, until the students turned in quality work.  This was done to help them give their best effort the first time as well as to prevent them from scoring poorly.  This idea intrigues me, and I want to discuss it with other more experienced teachers.  I decided to employ this tactic with this assignment.  I still need to grade the new sonnets that were turned in.

My 10th graders…oh how I love them, but one of the students had gone home sick, so I gave the other student (yes, I only have two) his test.  Then, because I did not want to discuss information that my other student needed, I let him use the rest of class time as a study hall.  This is one of the downsides to having very small classes…especially when one class has only two students.  Teaching when half of the class is missing is discouraging.  It also makes cooperative learning difficult because putting girls and boys together in groups is highly discouraged because of their religious beliefs.

Sigh.

Friday

I walked into my room and guess what?  While my recycle box was in the classroom, the paper INSIDE was gone!

Oy!  The people who clean the school are from another country, and they do not speak much English.  I asked my principal if he could talk to them, and he told me the best thing to do was write a note that simply said, “Don’t Touch.”

So I did…before I left for the day.

Sigh.

My first two class periods prepared for and watched the school-wide spelling bee.

As I stood in the back, I couldn’t help but notice that the students were arranged separately…boys on the left and girls on the right.  Again, this is because of their beliefs.  Having primarily worked in public schools, it is still something that catches my attention every time I see it.

My 6th graders worked on questions from the poems we had recently read.  The questions required them to think critically.  I am really enjoying the unit we’re on.  The title is “What Makes You Who You Are?”  It has provided a lot of fodder for discussing the things that contribute to who we are…our opinions of ourselves, our families, the things we do together as families.  Incorporating “Language Arts” skills with real-life issues is very important to help kids relate to what they’re learning.

My 9th and 10th graders managed to finish Scene 3 of Act 1.  I realized that we have got to go faster if we’re ever going to finish Romeo and Juliet this term!  I am such an overachiever that is is difficult to remember that I can’t possibly teach everything there is to teach about a particular piece of literature.

I gained a new student in my 10th grade class.

She is a teacher at the school.  I think she teaches Islamic education.  She only has three classes, so she doesn’t spend a full day at the school, but she had, the day before, asked me if she could begin sitting in on one of my classes so she could learn more about English and strengthen her skills.  This is an amazing woman who takes classes at the college for the sheer joy of learning.

So, she joined my last class of the day.  I gave her a textbook, quickly brought her up to speed, and we began.  At one point, I mentioned that Juliet’s nurse is like Mamie in the  movie Gone With the Wind.  Although my students had not heard of the movie, the teacher had, and she quickly spoke up saying, “I watched that movie for the first time last week!”

We chuckled.  This is going to be fun!

I now have another week under my belt.  Bring on week 23!

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