An archived stack of papers: 'handouts'
Skit Speech
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Dec
- 05
- 2008
We brainstormed, voted, and decided. I have lots of speech possibilities in my files, but with the end of the semester looming and a few failed projects lingering, I want to end strong by turning the decision over to the students. With only three weeks left in the school year, Speech is going to get through another two rounds of the Impromptu Speech, present a skit, and use a debate as the final... 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
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
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
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
Give A Little Bit
In a stack of papers called Writing.
- Sep
- 26
- 2008
I walk around the room and give one of two lines to struggling writers. We have five minutes to write each day (actually, ten minutes today) and some want to stall the whole time. Staring at the blank page that is even more intimidating than the actual assignment, “I’m thinking” being the excuse du jour for not writing, The Shrug meeting my questioning glance, these are the students... read more
About That Support Class…
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Sep
- 24
- 2008
I told a protesting kid today, in very brief passing down his aisle, “No, that is not a complete sentence. It doesn’t have a subject.” He fixed the error on his own by writing “Man gets out” instead of “Gets out.” While most contain things that need to be fixed in a re-write tomorrow, just about every student finished writing their paragraph (except the... read more
Mind That Gap
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Aug
- 06
- 2008
Watching some Ted videos several weeks back, I came across a Hans Rosling presentation. This guy is bristling with energy, obviously excited about his topic. That’s how I want to be every day in the classroom because that’s contagious. Gotta keep up the... read more
Fix, Create, Save, Think
In a stack of papers called Instruction.
- Jul
- 17
- 2008
Use this summer to fix things. That handout full of typos? That paper you typed up last year that uses a semicolon instead of a colon? That lesson plan that started strong and ended with a fizzle? Fix them.
That handout you wished you’d given before your lecture? That killer video/audio/comic intro to the first unit of study? Create them.
Those sample assignments you... read more