Conference Time

The Arkansas Cirriculum Conference was an interesting experience. I started the day off by convincing my fellow students to pet an alligator. We then returned to the work of learning to teach better.

The workshops I atended were interesting. I think the one I liked best and learned the most from was the first one I went to. It was presented by two teachers that teach writing, and I recieved some great ideals about how to get my students started writing in new and interesting ways. I learned to Doodle Write and how to use it as a method to get my students to begin writing by breaking the blank page with a doodle.

Another fav was the presentation on using music in the classroom. I found new ways to used music to lead my students to write. It was a good day overall with a few minor pet peeves (such as teachers behaving like my ninth graders!!). I had a good trip and learned quite a bit.

The Power of Empowerment

Please click here to ponder with me on my thoughts on attending the Arkansas Curriculum Conference on November 5-6.

Teachers: Are we our own worst nightmare?

After attending the curriculum conference in Little Rock last week, I became acutely aware of teachers' inappropriate behavior in mass workshop settings. In just 4 hours, I saw more inappropriate cell phone usage, disruptive behavior, and downright rudeness than I have seen in close to 3 months of teaching 8th graders.

Why is it that teachers abandon every rule they set for children in their own classroom as soon as they enter someone else's? It astounded me that teachers could exhibit the very behaviors they complain so often about; they had, in fact, become their own worst nightmares.

Micromanaging as teaching?

My 8th grade class is wrapping up a unit on Edgar Allan Poe Over the next two weeks. Because of block scheduling, I've decided it's easier to think of lesson in 2 week groupings since 2 weeks allows me to see all classes 5 times. Anyways, I assigned a group project which asks groups to act out a Poe poem that we've read. Watching students work on these projects has been an interesting observation experience for me. I hate micromanaging, but as I watched Mrs. F help the groups, I realized that micromanaging is somewhat necessary at this age. The more I think about it though, the more I realize that this miromanaging is serving as a means to teach the students how to work on group projects independently. We ask them questions that force them to thinka bout the process of a group project, and by doing so, we lead them to understand the group process just a little better than before.

Back to Literature

The students in the ninth grade are excited about moving back into literature, or maybe just watching Troy. We are starting the Odyssey and the class is watching the movie Troy to allow them to see that an older piece of literature can still be relevant in our modern times and to give the classes a little bit of background on who this guy Odysseus is and why is he important. We have just finished a section on grammar, exploring phrases, and the students were unexcited and at times just simply bored. There's not much a person can do to make grammar exciting to a student so I am also excited about lit also.



The students have a graphic organizer for important information they find during the movie which will be helpful when they have a test at the end of the unit. They are asking some very good questions about things they see in the movie that they don't understand, and I am explaining things as we watch. Today, they noticed the coins on a dead man's eyes and ask why this was being done, allowing me to explain about Greeks belief in having to cross the river Styx to get to their afterlife and needing the coins to pay the ferryman to take them across the river.

I think this unit will reengage the students that have been bored with grammar. Hopefully, we will all have fun learning about the Odyssey.

A Framework...how sturdy is it?

The Arkansas Frameworks guide our instruction. Due for a revision, this document review was set aside as the committee awaits the outcome of the national move to a Common Core.

Please take some time this week to review latest draft of the Common Core Standards located here.

What are your thoughts on such documents? Do they serve their purpose? Are your mentor teachers modeling their use? How are you utilizing them as you begin planning lessons for your "adopted" classes?

New awesome site for English Teachers! Please visit the English Teacher's Friend...I am considering purchasing a membership. Please give me your feedback on this site on Friday.

Have a grand week as you continue your experiences interning, as you continue connecting the dots of your college classes, your personal experiences, and your core philosophy of education.

Please take a few moments to look over the following sites from last week's topic:

Literature Circles ~ Overview

• What Are Lit Circles?
• Lisa Huff's Workshop Wiki

Literature Circles ~ Setting up the Groups:

• Lit Circle Notes (Jim Burke)

Literature Circles ~ Sample Lesson Plans

• Reading in Literature Circles

Literature Circles ~ Sites with collections of other sites...

• Web English Teacher

Please ponder on how you might include a lit circle within your upcoming lesson plans.

Changes...

This past week has been my first in a new school. Changing environments midyear is disconcerting, stressful even, but I'm thankful to be where I am. I learn daily that my previous conceptions of myself were incomplete, sometimes even false. I'm learning that I love working with younger adolescents, whereas I previously thought I wanted to work with the oldest students I could. My logic behind this was pretty uppity too... I wanted to have the students capable of the deepest analysis in hopes of maintaining an intellectually stimulating environment for both my students and myself, but my earlier plans didn't account for fun within the classroom. Younger teenagers are just fun, and I'm learning that a capacity for fun is far more enjoyable to work with than a capacity for analytic thinking. I'm excited to be where I am now, which is a welcome relief. I usually hate change, but this time I'll admit it is a great thing.

Is It All Too Much?

I'm sitting in class wondering if I have set a goal this year that I may not be able to accomplish. I am in class as a student 17 hours a week, working at night, keeping up with a teenage daughter's schedule, and now, not only observing and helping in the classroom but also teaching a class. I hope it's just "a too much to do this week" mentality, but there are days the stress lets me know I'm overloaded.

I realize that I have to make more time in the day for preparing for class and for getting more of my work finished on the weekends and in the little bit of time I have between classes before I start teaching more classes per day. I'm working on becoming more organized and using my time more wisely, but it would just be so much more easy to be able to wave that magic wand and invent more time in the day!


I am determined to suceed and graduate in the spring so I will make this crazy schedule of mine work. After this it can only get easier! Right???

The Journey Begins: Connecting the Dots

Welcome to Secondary English Methods!

Please join me in a semester of blogging, reflecting, teaching...then blogging, reflecting, teaching again.

My hope is that this class enhances your experience and is a strong source of support throughout your first semester of student teaching.

Most information for our class will be posted here on this blog or on my class wiki at Mrs. G Info Page: Secondary English Methods.

Good luck...and may we begin?