Learning, Laughter, and Love in Middle School English

I can’t lie. It’s been a challenging year so far. Tech Decks are back with a vengeance. Kids are ripping soap dispensers off the bathroom walls (thanks, TikTok). There’s also a lovely new game called foot tag where the objective is to step on the other person’s shoes.URGH! Those are just some of the highlights of the year so far! Gotta love middle school! Despite a rough start, kids do seem to be settling down a bit, and I am actually starting to look forward to going to school each day again! One of my favorite teachers on social media is Laura Randazzo. Not only is she brilliant, she is adorable and hilarious. I have followed her for years, and over the summer I decided to adopt one of her practices which has worked beautifully--table groups! I decided to use dogs as my theme--I mean, who doesn’t love dogs? I decided on nine dog breeds, found a picture of each one, and laminator to work. Then I used packing tape to attach the pictures to each table. I keep students in the same...

The last few weeks can be challenging. Keeping students engaged and learning is my mission! When I stumbled upon a post about hexagonal thinking, I knew I had to try it with my students. I am SO glad I did. Although this activity can be done digitally or on paper, I insisted that my students in class do it old school. My goal was for my students to have thoughtful discussions about what we read this year. Here's how it works! First, I came up with a list of key characters and ideas from The Giver, Animal Farm, and The Children's Story. I found this awesome generator on line where I could just type in my words, and it put them in the hexagons for me. Then I printed out the pages (there were three) for each group. I did a copious amount of research before embarking on this activity, and I was shocked by the number of teachers who cut the hexagons out for their students. That would have taken me HOURS. I simply gave each group scissors, and they were done in five minute...

In case you don't know, I love teaching. However, when most people describe why they love it they often explain how much the love watching the "light bulb" go off for their students. That is not what I love about teaching (not that I don't enjoy watching students "get it"), No, for me there are far more wonderful aspects of this job . 1) Watching students learn to advocate for themselves and communicate. I have received very few emails from parents this year. Instead, students are emailing me themselves. They are asking questions about assignments, requesting retakes, and requesting my feedback. They are the ones telling me they will be missing class for two days or that their internet will be down on Friday. This thrills me because I know how hard it is for them, but I know this is one of the most important skills they will learn.This is why my first lesson of the year was email etiquette. By the way, my students are TWELVE! They are amazing! ...

I have started to write a new blog post many times, but stopped because I could not think of anything I have to say that is different than any other teacher in America right now. Yes, some of the kids won't turn on their cameras. Yes, some of the kids are struggling. Yes, it is hard. But really, in some ways, it isn't that different than what we struggle with when teaching in person. There are always kids who rarely speak, kids who struggle, and it's always hard. As teachers, we are always working to connect with our students and build a sense community. We reach out to those who struggle. That is our job! One of my big concerns with teaching online was whether or not I would "bond" with my students. How would I get to know them? I definitely feel as though I have bonded with them. I LOVE my students this year and feel that I have gotten to know most of them pretty well. Like many of my wonderful colleagues, I put some effort in to make this happen. It started ...

 I worked all summer preparing.  I created countless hyper doc slideshows for my students, watched  tons of videos on YouTube about a variety of tech tools, and planned for the unknown.   Although we were not even told whether we were going back or not, I had a feeling.  I knew we would not be given curriculum. I knew we would have to fend for ourselves; I was right.  To our district's credit, they did offer to pay us for six hours of professional development the week before we normally go back. However, I will tell you that six hours is not enough. Sixty would be more like it...maybe even 600. Anyhow, I went to Walmart and bought a white sheet to hang on my wall, bought some twinkle lights, and went to school and took some of my inspirational plaques off my classroom wall. This became my teaching background for distance learning.  Then, after doing some reading, I decided that I must have an additional monitor for my Google Meets.Otherwise, when ...

Last week on Twitter a teacher lamented over the fact that she had 19 students in her last class of the day and spent "90% of [her] instructional time walking around and redirecting kids to work". I took a screenshot of the tweet and sent it to my department chairs.  I was FURIOUS.  NINETEEN students?  On what planet?  Where?  How? When I first started teaching, I had five English classes.  Four of them were English 12, and I had between 35-39 students per class.  This was also the time of class-size reduction for certain grade levels.  I had one tenth-grade class of 20.  I was lucky to get that because suddenly, every teacher wanted to teach tenth-grade.  This year I have three seventh-grade English classes and two of them are over 33.  Some of our eighth-grade teachers have 39. Yes, you read that right 39.   Thirty-nine hormonal, quirky, energy-filled, needy eighth-graders in one room...with one teacher. Some...

The Paper Tower Challenge If you've read my blog, you know that I am a huge believer in student feedback.  It is important to me that my students feel respected and valued and also enjoy the time they spend in my class. Of course, learning is important, but if students don't feel valued and respected or dread coming to my class, learning is not as likely to occur. That is why I use Google forms for students to share their thoughts with me.  I ask my students for input numerous times throughout the school year. I often make changes to my classroom practices based on what they say.  At the end of the year, I have students complete a lengthy survey.  They have the option of including their name or being anonymous. In one question, I asked them to state their favorite activity.  The paper tower challenge and writing groups were the two winners.  It just so happens that these were both new additions to my classroom this year.  The Paper Tower Chal...

I've mentioned before how Twitter has helped me grow as an educator.  Edutwitter is a valuable resource for book recommendations, new teaching methods, lessons, and articles.  One of my favorite educators to follow is Marissa Thompson, a high school teacher at Carlsbad High. This summer I read about her TQE(thoughts, questions, epiphanies) method for discussing literature.  I'd always longed for having discussions like the ones I had in my college literature courses, but when I try fishbowl or Socratic seminar with my students, the discussions felt forced, flat, and awkward. That changed today when I tried TQE for the first time.  Sharing homework in small groups Students writing their TQEs on the board When I listened to Marissa's podcast on Cult of Pedagogy ( check it out here ), I was intimidated. After all, her students are in high school and have a rock star teacher.  I think I read the transcript twenty times before finally trying it....

Sundays are shopping days at my house. After church, I hit Sprouts, Winco, and sometimes even Costco to stock up for the upcoming week. I usually ask my three boys to text me what they want for lunches and snacks.  Dried mangoes, yogurt, lemonade, oranges, and "those cookies with the frosting" are the usual requests.   Sunday nights I make a family dinner and dessert that all will enjoy. I pick up my son from school each day, and sometimes we stop and Mechie's for frozen yogurt. When he gets home he plays video games for a bit before starting his homework.  Some days I drive him to Mira Mesa to practice bowling.  My boys have always had rides to friends' houses, a dad who coached their teams, loving grandparents, birthday parties, and their own beds to sleep in. I am not saying any of this to brag or make myself look good.  Most of my friends and family members provide their children with the same. I assume most of my students also have the same. As a ...

I have been giving feedback on student writing for nearly 30 years!  Thousands of hours have been spent writing comments, asking questions, circling errors, and trying to grade each assignment objectively.  Of course, I always found it frustrating when students did not read the comments that I so painstakingly wrote.  Many just looked at the grade and continued on with their day.  Another challenge I faced was trying to give students feedback on how to improve without crushing their spirits!  How often have we said something in an email that didn't come off the way we intended?  I certainly don't want to hurt my students' feelings or make them feel they're horrible writers!  After reading posts by Catlin Tucker and Marissa Thompson, two of my Twitter mentors, I knew that writing conferences were something I had to try.  I would meet with every student, discuss their writing (in this case, a narrative) and with them, decide on a score for ea...

Students working on a Nearpod Lesson It's official.  I have made it through the first month of school with standards-based grading!  I must admit that I was nervous because I had only put formative assessments in the grade book as of Thursday. None of those count towards the student's grade, so I was expecting some concern from parents.  Obviously, they want to know how their child is doing!  Well, lucky for me, they did not complain (at least not to me). I am grateful for their support and made sure to explain my system through a letter, as well as at Back to School Night. As I pondered this new system over the summer, I grappled with wanting students to be able to practice and learn the standards while not being penalized for mistakes.  I decided to make all of the formative work worth 0% of the student's grade and make summative assessments worth 100%.  Of course, my biggest concern was how to get students to do this work if they weren't ...

I have written about grades before (January 2017).  Yet, I think it is a topic worth revisiting.  This summer I have been reading numerous books and articles about grading practices, and it has led me to want to revamp my practices even more than I already have.  Grades, in my opinion, should reflect a student's mastery of standards and skills.  They should not reflect compliance. They may or may not reflect effort.  However, with effort, all students should be able to be successful. So, what do I believe needs to happen? MY SUMMER READING 1) Allow students opportunities to redo, revise, and retake.  Yes, that includes tests.   Oh, and don't average the first test with the retake.  Give the student the highest score.  Some may argue that this isn't fair; the student should have studied harder the first time.  Well, some students don't learn in the same way or at the same pace as other students.  They are already havin...