What I Learned This Week

1.  It's Time for a Vacation

Students.  Teachers.  Administration.  We all need a break from one another.  For as much time as we had off in February, March is always a tough month.  No days off and the weather stinks, it is a hard month to slog through.  Lately, people are on edge.  I have noticed an increase in irritable students, sickness and just overall "blah"-ness.  Not to mention, this week, having days of clouds and rain have not helped to do us any favors.  Vacation is a week away and cannot come soon enough.

2.  Expect the Unexpected

My students are finishing up To Kill a Mockingbird, so I gave them a summative assessment on the end of the book Monday.  Typical for my sophomores, about 2/3 of them read the text.  But the ones that did seemed to love it.  After the assessment, we had small group discussions followed by a larger class discussion using the questions from the assessment as our guide.  Those who read were totally engrossed.  One girl made a wonderful observation/question, asking if Boo Radley could have potentially had autism or something to that effect.  It sparked a whole slew of others to jump in with "I was thinking that too."  Made for a great, impromptu look back at the text to see if we could find any clues to see if perhaps he did.

Although, many did not understand that it was Boo who killed Bob Ewell.  You win some, you lose some.

3.  Last Minute Pity

I try to have high, reasonable standards.  But with the last week of the quarter and grades looming, I have had the desperation come out this week.  It is both incredibly frustrating, but somewhat unexpected.  I had one student who is misplaced in the wrong level (which I have made clear since he joined my class in October) come and ask "what can I do to pass?"  When he then told me he did not read To Kill a Mockingbird (the frustrating part), I finally just asked him what did he expect.  Here is where he did the unexpected; he agreed with me that he didn't know what to do and that I really shouldn't do anything.  It was nice to see him take responsibility for his actions.  But now I am left with what to do.  On the one hand, he has done super little in my class.  On the other, he seems to show remorse and recognition of a job not done.  The plights of being a teacher....

What did you learn this week?

What I Learned from School This Week

1.  Be prepared.

We had MCAS this week which meant that I did not have my 4th period class.  So, naturally, I planned nothing for that class.  Well, Wednesday, admin decided to release the students back to class because so many of them finished.  What period did they come back?  4th.  I am always impressed by my improv skills because I tap danced my way through that 45 minutes.

2.  What happens in your classroom...never remains in your classroom.

Just be careful when giving advice to students.  When you say, "keep this between you and me," they hear, "Thanks for the advice.  I'll spread the word to everyone I know until someone inevitably hear the wrong thing and pisses them off and then they come to speak to you about something you never said. Have a good one, Mr. H!"

3.  Mini-lessons can be the best!

I did a lesson this week on developing claims from factoids.  I modified this lesson from my friend, Kelly Gallagher.  I provide the students with a factoid and they develop claims based on that fact.  For example, "The year the first woman was elected to the Senate: 1922."  Students would then try to infer from that piece of evidence and write claims based off of that.  Honestly, I did not think much of it.  Man, the kids had a great time doing it.  We'll see how it translates to their research projects.

Here's to the long weekend!

How to Find Good Professional Development

For those out there who have yet to enter the teaching field, let me tell you; there is no date more worse on your calendar than Professional Development.  They are my least favorite days of the year.  Why?  My district does a deplorable job of offering teachers useful, honest time to collaborate or to see a speaker and truly develop professionally.  To give you an idea of what ours have been this year, here is a quick rundown (its all from memory, so forgive any lapses):

1. How to create an email group
2. Setting up our online gradebook because they updated servers
3. How to handle the over-anxious student

That was about it folks.

Now, to be fair, my district is particularly bad at funding and holding these development sessions, but I know of others that are better.  But in case you are not in one of those places, here are a few tips on how to develop professionally as a teacher.

-- Attend conferences, specifically the NCTE and NEATE Conference

I go to the NEATE Conference in Mansfield every year.  It is a two day event (I usually can only afford 1 day) that has multiple workshops with a keynote speech during lunch.  It is awesome to sit in with active teachers sharing what they do on a regular basis.  I first discovered Google Docs here as well as the literary debates I hold in my classroom every year.  I knew and understood much of the Common Core before my colleagues from attending a few workshops the year it was the theme.  And I heard from Carol Jago and Eric Palmer, two very influential people in the field during the keynote speech.  I was unable to attend the larger NCTE Conference the year it was in Boston, but plan on going when it is in a drivable distance.

-- Join groups like NCTE and NEATE

Being a member of NEATE, I receive regular emails inviting me to workshops and events, many of which are free.  This past weekend, I spent my Saturday morning at Cambridge Ringe and Latin with Renee Shea and John Golden working on how to develop and teach synthesis to 9th and 10th grade students.  This time is invaluable and worth it, so make it.

-- Follow teachers on Twitter and pay attention for  chat sessions

Each week, AP Language teachers do a #APLangChat on Twitter.  A topic is provided and teachers discuss best practices.  Such a great resource and ways to make connections.

-- Become an AP teacher

I know what this looks like, but it is true.  The training I have received at the AP sessions has transformed my teaching.  Much of it has leaked into the rest of my classes.  Our school has been part of an AP grant for the last few years, so all of it has been paid for.  But if you are given the opportunity to become an AP teacher, take it.  You will not regret giving up a week in the summer for a lifetime of good development.

So those are some of my best ways to receive professional development when you do not get it in your own district.  What are some of your ways you develop professionally?  Leave some comments below.

Top 3 Educational Books

Forgive me Blogger, for I have sinned.  It has been 1 month since my last post...

After what can only be described as the month from Hell, I am trying desperately to get myself back on track.  Grading Crucible essay can only help, right?

Today, I thought I would give my Top 3 Educational Book all teachers (current and future) should take a gander at.  These have greatly affected the way I teach for the better.



1.  Readicide by Kelly Gallagher

Simply put, Gallagher is awesome!  He is such an inspiration as a teacher, and who I hope to eventually become like.  In Readicide, he writes on the systematic killing of reading done in public schools and how simple changes can be made to help bring that love back.  His ideas on Articles of the Week, Books of the Month are easy additions to anyone's class that can help foster reading importance in the classroom.  In addition, his thoughts on overteaching and underteaching were quite eye-opening.  A great read if you are currently a teacher.  My department read it this year and many enjoyed it.

2.  Teaching Argument Writing by George Hillocks Jr

A little dry, but great for starting the thoughts on how to teach writing to middle and high school students.  In particular, his mini-lessons are fun and really start the kids thinking about how to build arguments.  There is nothing like completing a murder mystery with a bunch of freshmen to get the morning going.  Really well done book by Hillocks.

3.  They Say.  I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein
Again, another must have for writing.  There use of templates are fantastic and very user friendly to students and teachers alike.  They really help the students on how to "enter the conversation" and become part of a greater discourse.  The later editions have some great mentor texts for students to read in conjunction with lessons using their templates.  Helping students with writing is one of the hardest parts of teaching.  Graff and Birkenstein ease that burden with this book.

So there you have it.  Let me know what your favorite educational books are or if you want me to write on any others.

PS.  Just finished Kelly Gallagher's new book.  Will review soon.

Grading - The Bane of My Existance

To all you young teachers out there, you will learn very quickly that grading isn't fun.  I love seeing what my students do and how they accomplish their purpose, but the entire institution of assigning a numerical score to that is tough.

What really is the difference between an A and an A-?  90 or 91?

And what is worse is students have determined that those numbers and letters are all that matters.  They are nothing more than a score.

As someone who never went to undergraduate school to become a teacher and did well throughout his years in education, the task of grading seemed, on the surface, to be easy.  The best would do well and the worst wouldn't.  But as the years go by and I get older, I am starting to see the arbitrariness of these scores, but how strongly they weigh on the students and their feelings of adequacy.

Before we left for vacation, most of my classes were working on an essay.  My freshmen were arguing whether or not O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a successful adaptation of The Odyssey (and surprisingly, many thought it wasn't!?!) and my AP students were reflecting on a satirical piece they wrote for the "Teen Onion" (for which I am editor-in-chief).  At the same time, in Digital Writing, we were discussing Crowdsource Grading for our Concept in 60 projects.  So, I decided to ask them what they should be graded on.  We discussed the requirements of the project, and the areas that should have been focused on.  My freshmen came up with the following:

• Thesis
• Effectiveness of argument
• Logic of argument
• Grammar
• Examples/Evidence
• Discussion of examples/evidence (connections)
• Conclusion 

I thought it was a pretty good list.  

When I suggested to them that we should narrow down this list to 4 or 5, they immediately opted grammar out.  And I was strangely okay with that.  I was more interested in them creating an effective argument, so I thought it was a nice choice.  They seemed a lot more comfortable with discussing the criteria for grading before.  However, I think I need to structure it a bit more.  I am a big fan of Kelly Gallagher, and he does something similar when grading papers, but he has some things in mind and works with the students to model what is an example of an A, B, C, etc.  That is something I think I need to consider when doing this again.  

For the AP classes, things got far more interesting.  They decided that they did not want the assignment to be graded.  Since the purpose of writing the satirical piece was to get them working with satirical techniques, they thought the reflection should explain that and then talk about what they will do moving forward.  Many of the students could not comprehend how that should be graded.  Again, I do not think I gave enough lead-time for students to think about it, so I am okay with them not being graded on this assignment.  One class, however, got a conversation going about the fact that if it doesn't "count," they won't put in a good effort.  I asked them what it means to "count?"  We never quite got an answer.

This idea of including students in coming up with grading criteria is important, and something, going forward, I need to work on.  I think this will also help with focusing my lessons on specific areas of improvement.  Hopefully, this will take the mystique out of grading for them.  

Do you have any thoughts on how grades should be assigned?  Feel free to comment below.

Teacher: "Needs Improvement"

I know this is not the most uplifting first post to make, but it fits my purpose.  My goal in creating and writing this blog is to have a no nonsense, straight from the horse's mouth, [insert another dead, cliched metaphor] perspective on the life of a full-time teacher.  And sometimes it's a lot tougher than any grad class or after school special will tell you.  Tonight is one of those nights.

In this snow-ridden month of February (we have had exactly 6.5 days of school out of a possible 12), I had my freshmen watch the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? as a final assessment to our unit on the Odyssey.  Now, you have to understand that we have been studying this epic poem since Thanksgiving, so I, much like Odysseus, just want to get on with it.  However, I find showing them this film is a great finale to the unit, demonstrating that this poem still has lingering inspirations and affect on our modern culture.  Unlike past years where I have simple used this as a discussion, I changed our final writing assignment to incorporate the film.  I gave the students a graphic organizer to compare some elements found in the film to the ones in the poem, and then the prompt was, I assumed, simple enough: How effective is the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? as a contemporized retelling of The Odyssey?  I then proceeded to give my students a day to discuss in their groups different approaches, and a few nights to right the first draft.  I assumed that everything was clear and were all on the same page.

But I forgot the old saying about assuming.  And now I am sitting here, a big ol' ass.

It's clear to me that my assignment was not calibrated right, that there was something lost in translation.  Perhaps too, the assignment just didn't resonate with them.  Even though I showed a more modern film, they just didn't connect.  It wasn't good enough.

And that is the feeling, as a teacher, that's hard to shake.  I wake up each morning with this constant want to do better and to give more of myself to my students.  I am constantly trying new things and planning, re-planning, and planning some more.  I read, regularly, different techniques, pedagogical (god, I hate that word) approaches to developing my craft.  But even then, on nights like tonight, it's just not good enough.

I've always been a perfectionist.  It has served me well throughout my life.  (Although, my therapy bill may say otherwise).  But I have learned over the years that his quality does not serve my students well.  I am not saying that I don't give my best or that I don't expend an obscene amount of energy for my kids, but perfection is an unrealistic, unattainable reality.  To stress over it is simply rocking in a chair when you trying to get to the store.

I've heard people say that as a teacher, we must be the "sage on the stage" and I am telling you all out there, it's crap.  The best thing you can be to your students is imperfect, needs improvement.  Because if they see you for that and not some unreachable person, it humanizes you.  And that means something to them.

So, we are heading back to the drawing board with this essay.  And just like that damn Greek who had to hit rock bottom before becoming a more human figure, I guess I'll do the same tomorrow.