Learning, Laughter, and Love in Middle School English

What a wonderful first week!  Although I am exhausted, I loved meeting my students.  They have the best attitudes.  In the past, I did ice breakers the first few days.  However, I read an article over the summer that made me rethink that practice.  Students (especially on the first day of middle school) are NERVOUS!  In fact, some are TERRIFIED.  They are likely just thinking about how they will survive each class and how they will find their way to the next class.  So, I am not going to lie,  the first few days of my class were probably pretty boring.  I spend a lot of time explaining our bell schedule to students. I tried my best not to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher or the teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off !  Anyone remember this scene? Anyone? Anyone? They were pretty overwhelmed.  All of the English teachers agreed to show a slide show explaining the ins and outs of Diegueno.  The kids had a lot of ques...

I feel so fortunate to work in a district that embraces growth and change! We are frequently provided with opportunities to attend workshops to up our game!  This week I spent four mornings at La Costa Canyon High School under the leadership of Kevin Fairchild, one of our Teachers on Special Assignment for Technology in the Classroom.  It was so invigorating to be surrounded by educators who are so dedicated and excited about what they do. I learned so much from my colleagues and can't wait to implement the tools I was shown! I have been a teacher for over twenty years, and I truly believe that this is the most exciting time in education. There are so many new ways of doing things.  Students are much more hands on than in years past and are given more freedom to be creative and take risks. When I was in high school: Of course nobody actually OWNED a cell phone in 1983! 1) There were no cell phones (well, maybe in a movie, but they required a large suitcase). ...

My youngest son leaves for  white water rafting camp tomorrow.  He will be gone for eight days.  In his eleven years, he's never been away from me for that long.  Last night we had a parent meeting at our church telling us all about the trip. My Baby  I think they waited until two nights before the trip to give us the details because they were afraid we'd change our minds if they told us ahead of time  First of all, they will be driving for two days to reach their destination which is somewhere near Sacramento.  Once they reach the camp, they will sleep OUTSIDE .  Outside as in ON THE GROUND !  I had no idea. I thought they were going to be in cabins!  I was worried enough about the actual rafting, but now I have to worry about bears.  Oh, and it's supposed to rain while they're there.  What if he gets all cold and wet?  And they're going on a hike.  Are there ticks?  What if he gets Lyme's disease?  Who...

About this time last summer, I realized something awful; I had quit reading for pleasure!  I blamed it on not having enough time, but that was a lie.  Instead of reading, I had fallen prey to mindless games on my ipad.  It started off with Angry Birds, Scrabble, and then Candy Crush.    This past year I made a commitment to myself-to start reading again!  I didn't realize how much I'd missed it.  Although I don't have a great deal of free time, I have found that I can get some reading in at the gym while on the elliptical or the bike.  I prefer reading on my ipad and love that I can highlight sentences to come back to later.  Of course, being able to tap a word and find its definition is also pretty awesome!  Just yesterday I learned how to spell facetious !  Although I knew what the word meant, I didn't know how to spell it.   I enjoy reading books about education, memoirs, and historical fiction.  I am currently r...

Now that the school year is over, I am already thinking about next year! How can I be a better teacher? I just purchased a book by Kelly Gallagher called In the Best Interest of Students .    . I have been teaching long enough to see how things "change" over time in the educational arena.  When I first started teaching, there were no standards.  I was given a list of novels to choose from and three writing types to teach; that was it!  Although it was nice having so much freedom, it was also frustrating at times.  I taught high school, and while some students knew the eight parts of speech, others did not.  While some students knew how to write an expository essay, others did not.  Then came the California State Standards.  It was an exhaustive list of standards, and most of these standards were simplistic in nature.  They really encouraged rote learning.  Now we have the Common Core Standards.  These standards are touted as be...

As the year comes to a close, I wanted to give my students a create way to reflect on their first year of middle school. Their assignment was to write a poem that captured their year. One requirement was that it be an extended metaphor. I showed them some examples, including a little piece from Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.” -Shakespeare’s As You Like It We also watched Katie Perry's "Firework" and looked at her use of an extended metaphor in the song. That's all the inspiration they needed. Below are some of the poems written by my students. These are first drafts, untouched by me. My 7th grade year was a jungle. I staggered through the vines, tripping at every turn. It became easier, but it was hard to adjust. Running, panicking, something was chasing me into the dark caverns of math class. Piles and ...

I just finished reading a book called Blended Learning by Catlin Tucker .   It was a great time to read this book because now I am even more fired up about the next school year!  I will be spending some of my summer looking for ways to implement what I learned in this book!  Tucker  discusses ways to use technology in a meaningful way with students.  This week I tried one of the recommendations in the book, using a platform called Schoology.   As a teacher, we all have those shy students in class.  These students seldom raise their hands, but of course, we know they have something valuable to say!  Schoology allows the teacher to post a discussion question online for students to answer.  Students post their responses.  However, they are unable to read the other student's responses until they have posted.  This forces everyone to participate and contribute something to the discussion.  In addition, they can reply to other s...