How? Just...how?

How do 90% of my students fail a test on verbs and adjectives? How do they fail it after we spend so much time on them? We go over them as a class, I model them, they practice identifying them in small groups. They even have a homework assignment on verbs, identifying them in their own writing. And yet they still fail the quiz.

Not all of them do, of course. The ones that I know will pass it -- K and J and B all make As, as expected, bless their souls. They hardly even need the review. That is what this is supposed to be -- a review. That is the most frustrating thing about this. This is all supposed to be a review.

This is supposed to be something that these students were to learn in 3rd grade -- and maybe some of them did -- but they lost it somewhere, or maybe they just did not get it when they were supposed to. At any rate, I am stuck trying to catch them up, and they are just not getting it. On no less than three papers did students label blueberry as a linking verb. How does one blueberry, exactly? That is the question.

And, at the same time I am frustrated, I am absolutely baffled. I said that most of my students failed the verb and adjective quiz spectacularly -- and that is no lie -- but many of them did well -- splendidly, in fact -- on the preposition and adverb quiz I gave them on Friday. How does that make sense? These children do not know the different between an adjective and a verb, but they can tell the difference between an adverb and a preposition and can label the preposition in a prepositional phrase, which I've always considered the hardest part about learning the 8 Parts of Speech.

I am absolutely frustrated, baffled, and maybe just a little bit pleased. I just hope that they can remember that long enough to do well on their project. And hold onto that information for the rest of their lives, hopefully.

The Struggle

If I sat here and told you that this has been a challenging week in teaching, I would be lying to you. It has been one of the most challenging weeks of my life.

My personal life has been turned upside down in many ways, and it has been very hard to keep my personal issues from entering the classroom. This has been a daily struggle for me. But we're not here to discuss my personal problems. We're here to discuss my professional life, and it's been turned upside down as well.

Last week was my first week to be the official, full-time teacher in my 9th grade class. Let's just say that this class is going to break me in very quickly.

There are 22 students in this class, and about 75 percent of them have behavior issues and are known for giving teachers a hard time. Don't get me wrong.The students are great to be around. Of the 22, there are only two of them with attitude problems. The problem with this class is their talking. They want to talk about anything and everything, and most things do not pertain to our lesson. I've been faced with classes similar to this one, so what's so challenging about this class?

These students are incredibly behind. They are on a 5th to 6th grade level as far as grammar and writing are concerned, and over half of the class is failing. I have only a couple of students in this class that are truly motivated to get things done, and a combination of all these things, plus students' behavior, have made for a very interesting and exhausting week.

I'm a student myself, and on top of my teaching, I have to attend class and stay on top of MY homework. How can I motivate an entire class, bring students' grades up, and force students to behave properly in the classroom? Is it possible?

I believe it is. I believe I can motivate every one of my students. I believe I can teach them what they need to know. I believe I can get my students to behave, and I believe I can do it all on top of my school work. Everyday will be a challenge, and I'm still not exactly sure what it will take. But it can be done. After all, that's what teachers do.

An Exhausting Week

I have been in charge of the class grammar lessons for two weeks now, or about five lessons per class.

As the title suggests, it has been an exhausting experience so far. Some of the classes have been good…some of the others, well, not so much. But I will talk about those later. First I want to address my own issues.

We are covering parts of speech, something that really should have only been a review. They should have learned their parts of speech in third grade. At the very least, those are things they should have learned to tell the difference between a noun and a verb by seventh grade. I had planned my lesson to only take two class periods. Three at the most. That definitely is not going according to plan.

One class had one A and fifteen Fs on the noun review. Another class did a bit better, making two As, one B, three Cs, and fourteen Fs.

So, rather than simply reviewing the parts in a week’s time, I have been spending a class period on each part, giving them a review the next class period, and a quiz in the class after that. It seems like a very slow process to me, but I want them to know the difference between each part of speech for when they go to their later English classes. This has also been putting extra work on me, as I now have to create a review and a quiz for each part of speech when I originally was only going to give them two reviews and two quizzes.

So, even though it is exhausting, I hope that my extra work will help them.

In two weeks I will be in charge of the literature unit as well, when we finally start our first novel of the semester, A Single Shard. This ties in to my worry about the classes, or rather, the class, that has been troubling me.

To put it simply, they’re incredibly disrespectful. I have had trouble with this class before. Sometimes it is just one particular student that will not stop talking, even when he gets pulled aside by my mentor teacher. Sometimes, like on Friday, it is the entire class.

It was nearing the end of class, and we were running out of time because they had wasted time earlier on in the class period. We had been reading from a review in their grammar books. I had sorted them into small groups, and they had to pick the verbs from a sentence and identify them as either action or linking verbs. When one of the other groups were reading their sentence, a girl from an earlier group was talking to another student. I stopped the group that was talking and called the girl out on her talking before having the last few students go through their sentences.

I wish I could say that was the end of it. But, of course, it was not.

I asked them to be quiet while I was passing out their homework, but, of course, they were not. They kept talking, and I had to tell them to quiet down three more times before they finally did. I reprimanded them, asking them why they were talking when other students were talking. Why they were talking when I was talking. I told them that it was disrespectful and that I was their teacher, even when Mrs. W was not in the room (because I tend to get left alone with that class more than any other). I told them that I should not have to raise my voice to have them listen to me. I should not have to tell them to be quiet twice, let alone three times.

I am starting to dread teaching that class when I love teaching the others. How am I supposed to take over completely – teaching all day every day – when they won’t even listen to me and I’m not sure how to get them to listen without having to raise me voice like that?

Making the Shift

Last week was my first full week as the 7th graders' teacher.


I now deal with not only teaching and lesson planning...but managing the class as a whole as well. I have to say that it has been an interesting experience and something that I have had to adjust to.


The good news is that the adjustment has been fairly smooth. As strange as it seemed, I noticed that the students were having a more difficult time adjusting than I was. It seemed as though they were unsure as to how they should see me or act around me. I could tell that a few of the students almost felt uncomfortable talking to me the first couple of days.


I can't say that I blame them. Imagine being a 7th grader and being told that this one woman is your teacher and then two weeks later being told that wasn't the case and that you had a new woman there...who was your teacher...but she wasn't really a teacher yet? Wait...what? I get it.


I struggled with how to get my students comfortable with the idea of my being their teacher. I realized that all I needed to do be the best teacher I could be and let them see on their own that I wasn't going to bite them.


That's exactly what I did. I've made it a personal mission to know all of my students' names and greet them at the door each morning. I make sure I talk with them and hear about the different things going on at school and in their lives. Now, I no longer feel like an outsider at the middle school, and my students no longer se me as the strange lady in Mrs. Porter's classroom. I am Ms. Albert, their English teacher.


I have to say that the best part of teaching that I have experienced thus far has been getting to know my students (my wonderful, exciting, and very talkative students) and getting to hear them refer to me as their English teacher. The shift doesn't have to be so hard.

How Did I Get Here?

Thinking about how I got to where I am today is actually a little terrifying. Not because of how hard I had to work to get here, but because I know I could have ended up in a place I didn't really want to be.

My freshman year of college at UACCB was exciting, at first. I was going to be a physical therapist and make a lot of money while I was at it. After all, why else would I go into the medical profession? I had never enjoyed a single science class in my life. In fact, I hated science, but I could suffer through a few years of terrible classes to make that kind of money.

As it turns out, I couldn't. My grades were in the toilet. They didn't suffer because of my lack of ability to get the job done, and they certainly didn't suffer because of the lack of support from my family. My grades were in the toilet because I allowed them to be. I didn't care what my grades were in my science classes because, to be honest, they just didn't matter to me.

I remember the very first semester I had without a single English class. It was ALL science. I was a sophomore, and up until that point, I had at least a literature class, something to keep me entertained. Classes like that always kept me entertained. I was the only senior in my high school AP English class to not only complete her final paper, but do so by exceeding the page requirement by ten pages and have a blast doing it. I can remember watching my English teacher everyday and thinking that she must be one happy lady. She had the best job in the world. She got read some of the coolest stuff and teach it to us...FOR A LIVING!! However, that wasn't for me. No.I was going to bring home the bacon, hopefully working in a clinic where I could make six figures.

That first semester of my sophomore year was brutal. I was bored stiff, and I had two very unhappy parents when it was time for grades to come out. Needless to say, there were a lot of tears. I can remember thinking that if I had classes I enjoyed, such as a literature class or a class where I could at least write a paper, my grades would be outstanding. I told this to my very loving boyfriend, and I remember him saying to me, "Well then why don't you just take them?" This seemed simple enough, but no way. I couldn't do that. There was no room and certainly no time to change my major. The medical field was where I wanted to be.

Wait a second...no it wasn't. The path I had chosen was not chosen because of my passion for biology or calling to help those who are in need of my medical expertise. I chose that path because I wanted to make a lot of money and have things that all of my friends would be jealous of, completely ignoring my passion for knowledge, literature, and the desire to prepare young ones for their future, just as my English teacher did for me when she showed me the difficult tasks I was able to accomplish. I wanted to do that for someone.

I woke up. I realized that continuing on the path I was on meant being in a place I didn't truly want to be, and suddenly, making all of the money in the world didn't matter anymore. Telling my parents was the hardest part. I feared they would be disappointed in my decision, but I guess that in my haze I had forgotten how loving and supporting my family really is.

The day I decided to change my major was the day I decided to tour Lyon College. I had previously had my eyes set on ASU, but I knew that Lyon College was the better place to get an English degree. After touring and talking to a few professors, there was no question. I wanted to be a Lyon graduate, and though it has been a long road filled with sleepless nights, thousands of papers, and hundreds of lesson plans, I'm only nine months from being just that.        

The Journey to Me

I'm really looking forward to this class! As for how I got here...well, that's a question I've asked myself rather often over the last three years. You see, had you told me during high school that in four years I would be interning at Batesville Junior High, I would have looked at you like you were crazy.

I entered Lyon College as a freshman intending to go on the pre-pharmacy track. I did well in my sciences and maths in high school, so I thought that pharmacy school would be perfect for me. After all, pharmacists made plenty of money, and I wanted to live comfortably. So they loaded me up with science and math classes -- Elementary Functions, Introduction to Chemistry, Principles of Biology -- and set me loose into the world. And I promptly sunk.

Well, maybe sunk isn't the best word for it. I made Cs and Bs in those classes, after all. Floundering might be better terminology. Or desperately flapping my arms as I tried to keep my head above water.

I went to a dark place that semester.

My perception of myself was severely challenged. I saw myself as an idiot. Why was I so bad at something I had excelled at before? No matter how hard I studied -- and, believe me, I studied constantly -- I never did much better. I hated myself for failing.

There was one good thing about that first semester, and that was my English Composition class. While I did poorly in my other three classes, I excelled in English Comp. What's more, I actually looked forward to that class. I learned how to properly cite texts. I wrote my first research paper (and I suppose it is telling that the subject was use of technology in the classroom). I loved that class. It was my saving grace.

What's more, it opened me up and showed me what it meant to truly be happy. I went to college thinking of it as a means to an end. I would get my degree, go to pharmacy school, and get a job in a pharmacy. I would buy a nice house and live comfortably. I went into my second semester of college knowing that I wanted knowledge for knowledge's sake.

That has been my guiding principle for all of my classes for the last three years. I take classes because I find them interesting. My sophomore year, I took a class of classic Greek mythology, and I loved it. I also took a class on Southern literature. As a junior, I took Shakespeare, a class on British poetry, and a class on creative writing. This semester I'm taking another Shakespeare class, and I'm taking Latin as well. And I have loved every experience. Each class opens me up to new knowledge that I not only comprehend, but I thoroughly enjoy. Had I stuck to my original plans to follow a pre-pharmacy path, I would be somewhere entirely different, but I can't say that I would be as happy as I am now.

As for why I decided on teaching...well, that is very closely linked to my decision to study English.

I decided to go into teaching halfway into my second semester of freshman year. The guiding factor was the Western Literature class taught by one Dr. Ronald Boling. The texts were fascinating to me. Though I had read The Odyssey and Hamlet in high school, I had not enjoyed them. That class breathed new life into those works for me. I understood them better than I had ever understood them, and it made me excited. I wanted to share my new knowledge with others. I wanted to share my new knowledge about everything with everyone.

The problem with that is that most people look at you like you are crazy if you suddenly start talking to them about the little things that fascinate you about the word play or the characters. The problem is that so many people are jaded about literature and school in general. They had bad experiences and simply write off what they don't care for, never to come back to it. I decided as a freshman that I needed to try to stop that. I needed to put myself out there to help students see just how amazing English and literature is.

So I started the secondary education track at Lyon during my sophomore year at Lyon. It hasn't been easy by any means, but I'm pushing through. And that also means that I've faced some issues of my own. Like many people write off English, I wrote off biology as something I simply can't do. I've had to learn about the biology side of development. It helps that it is coming from a viewpoint that I can understand, and I know it is helping me towards my goal as a teacher. I'm also a huge introvert, but I've been working through that as well.

That is where I am now. I have come a long way since I began three years ago, and I still have a long way to go. But I'm looking forward to every bit of it and to all the new things waiting for me.

The Beginning of the End

First, welcome to Secondary English Methods...the beginning of the end of this journey entitled undergraduate work!

This fall, we will learn together and, hopefully, better prepare you for the "real" world, the world of teaching, of stamping out ignorance in our particular curriculum area.  Today, we begin that journey as we stretch our minds a bit, readying for the various avenues that this job entails.

A blogger already?   Yay!  If not this is the first place we will explore.  Our first assignment requests we reflect on who inspired us to the point that you are setting in this class, viewing this document on this screen. In other words...Why Are You Who You Are?

Here are my thoughts on this question, drafted last fall....

Many people should be thanked for their assistance in my becoming who I am right now in my career, for as Hillary Clinton's book persuades...just as it takes a village to raise a child, so it takes a conglomerate of individuals to build a twenty-one year career.

First, to my high school English teacher Mrs. Smith, my heroine, absolutely without a doubt, I would not be an English teacher had it not been for the example she sat every day of every week.  She worked us, holding us to higher expectations than most of us wanted, yet she loved us, and we knew it.  

Second, to my college instructors Dr. Tebbetts and Dr. Wray...one being the extreme, energized, definitely a sage on the stage of my life, the other, solid, direct, forcing our writing styles to become what they were not. Because of them, I inherited a much more solid literary background, one recognized when I later attended grad school and was told that I must have graduated from Lyon (or some high quality program) because of the caliber of my work.  Yes, I stood a little taller!  Thank you, Dr. Tebbetts, Dr. Wray...and the late Dr. Oliver.

Third, to my peer Lisa Huff who shared her love of technology as a tool, which then began the big change in my presentation methods.  This blog (and several others) and multiple wikis are a testament to her. Professionally, I have grown and now freely assist my peers as they take baby steps, steps that, to them, feel like giant leaps at times, all in an endeavor to better prepare all our students for the "real" world or, as the latest jargon encourages, to be "college and career ready."

Many more names should be mentioned here, for I have many to thank for the gift of my career, for without them all, I would not be who I am today.