An archived stack of papers: October 2008
Treats
In a stack of papers called Unorganized.
- Oct
- 31
- 2008
More and more students in my Support class are firmly in my camp, getting as frustrated as I am with the behavior of a shrinking number. I’m able to use that student support to get others quiet quickly. I’m working on using that to get students staying on task longer.
A certain student in the Support class handed her phone over to me today with minimal cajoling. Another one I... read more
Quick PPT
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Oct
- 30
- 2008
Instead of drawing pictures to help make your points, find images that show what you want to draw. Arrange them in PowerPoint, using a black or white background on the slides. Do not use one of PowerPoint’s templates for this.
... read more
Why Another PW?
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Oct
- 25
- 2008
The Support kids wrote one picture write already. Though that week did not go off without incident, it did work fairly well. We’re doing it again next week. One half of the class will work on the picture write notes, the other half on their video. We’ll switch jobs halfway through. The entire class working on videos is too... read more
B&N Studio
In a stack of papers called Reading.
- Oct
- 23
- 2008
Why wasn’t I informed that Barnes & Noble started to put together cool videos about books? Given that my English 3 class is all about Why Read? right now, it would be a shame if I didn’t show at least one video.
Reading from ... read more
Unit #2: Why Read?
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Oct
- 22
- 2008
For the last few years, around this time, right after we’ve finished a fun and seemingly simple unit, I hit the juniors with the Why Read? unit. Emerson and Bloom are tough and students can’t even begin to parse what the two guys have to say. With tons of hand holding (likely too much that I need to step even further back from next year), we make it through. I put together an Emerson... read more
Two In One
In a stack of papers called Unorganized.
- Oct
- 21
- 2008
Referrals are not my preferred method. I’ve written maybe twenty referrals in my entire teaching career. I feel like it’s a cop out, like I’m passing the buck for discipline that I should really be the one to take care of. I wrote out two referrals today, an action that just doubled the amount of referrals I’ve written so far this year (and the third I’ve written... read more
Results
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Oct
- 14
- 2008
The votes are in and they picked a caption for yesterday’s photo. It was among the best and, after we edited it a bit, I think it’ll be one of the strongest sentences in the finished script. It’s a shame the author was absent today ’cause I’m sure she would have gotten a kick out of it and it couldn’t have hurt my cred with her (or her cousin). ... read more
We’ve Begun
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Oct
- 13
- 2008
My Support class… What can I say? I’m nervous about what they are doing to me. I’m worried about what I’m doing to them. I’m afraid of what they’ll do to a sub in my absence. But I can’t let any of those things stop me from doing what needs to be done. So, after only the briefest conversation about this with my friend and (what I consider) a failed attempt to... read more
Preparation
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Oct
- 08
- 2008
We just finished our zombie writing in English 3, so this is the start of another unit. For this one, we’re writing about writing, reading, and thinking. It’s pretty tough for teenagers to spell metacognition, let alone actually perform it. Starting with a discussion of these ideas is smart, but it can’t be a class discussion because there are two sides to teenage opinion on books and... read more
What A Mess?
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Oct
- 04
- 2008
Monday – We wrapped up some apostrophe work from the previous week. We then talked about the Picture Write and verbally started a sample. Students threw out some interesting turns of phrase, but... read more