Today we wrote and shared our 25/25 prompt: 25 things to accomplish by the age of 25 (click to read the description I shared with students). Of course mine was the 25/50 list, so I have 13 years to get a lot done... Here is my list:
1. Have (or adopt) one or two children
2. Live in a ski town in a foreign country for at least a year
3. Have a dining room table that seats at least 10
4. Be able to do the second series of Ashtanga yoga
5. Learn another language (probably Portuguese)
6. Learn more about computer programming
7. Go to an Ashram
8. Become a better skier
9. Get my PhD
10. Eat vegan for a year
11. Not drive for a year
12. Do a month long backpacking trip in the West
13. Visit India
14. Speak at a convention
15. Write a book
16. Publish a book
17. Build a green house (or a green addition to ours, perhaps to accomodate a dining room table that seats 10!)
18. (Still) be in love with my wonderful husband
I am not quite finished with my list...
This was a really great activity to get our class rolling!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Mythology
I'm still trying to figure out what my big essential question is for my unit in mythology and The Odyssey. Here are a few ideas from my writing group: How does myth surround us? How does myth inform our culture? What makes a story worth repeating?
October is count your hours month!
I was thinking the other day about how many hours I spend working a week, and I started to wonder about how many hours teachers spend outside of their classrooms. As our mentor Wilhelm says, we need to professionalize our profession, and I think one way to do that would be to publicize how many hours teachers spend working outside of the classroom. I was wondering what would happen if we all took the time to track the hours spent working. Not only when we arrive at school and when we leave, but all those other hours... the hours we spend grading at home; the hours we spend reading about education; the hours we spend lesson planning, or surfing the Web looking for ideas...
So how about it? October is count your hours month. Make it easy: jot down the hours you work in your daily planner. Make a note what you are doing (lesson planning, grading, etc...). At the end of the month, let's post our hours to this blog and talk about it!
So how about it? October is count your hours month. Make it easy: jot down the hours you work in your daily planner. Make a note what you are doing (lesson planning, grading, etc...). At the end of the month, let's post our hours to this blog and talk about it!
I love my writing group!
Saturday, September 18
Eric's house... cozy on the porch, music from Eric's PC, lamp from the light all cozy like. We just had a great dinner and companionship, how lucky am I to be included in the incredible circle of people? I love my writing group. BSWP rocks! I am so grateful that I was included in that amazing circle.
Big on my mind is first period: Spanish for Heritage Speakers. I need to put in some time and really plan an inquiry unit, to get them fired up about the class. Right now they are fired up about the fact that the teacher is cool, that they get to be in a class with their friends, that they can speak Spanish and be themselves. I am sure it is incredibly liberating... but they aren't taking it seriously yet. They seem to understand that it is important for them to improve their reading and writing in Spanish, but they haven't quite caught on to the whole work ethic part.
And of course I am fully aware that that is my fault! As a teacher I should know better than to think that students will walk into my classroom being fully motivated to learn. Why should they be? After so many industrial classroom settings, where they have been discouraged, bored, beaten down, told they were stupid, confused, lost, etc... Of course they have had good experiences, too, that stood out. But those teachers had to set themselves apart, make their class a safe, nurturing place to learn. I have done that, sort of, but the problem is that my students are TOO comfortable!
We were having a heated (and not very polite) discussion the other day about racism. It started from the reading, Cajas de Carton, but then we took off into real world. After an exciting discussion about Vanessa's Panda Express altercation with racist white folks, one of my students said “Who cares?!?” She then when on to wonder whether it mattered to talk about racism.
Good question. Sounds like a job for Inquiry Woman!... but I am not sure how to go about this.
I know we need to:
--have a Socratic seminar to learn the mechanics of a good discussion
share writing
--understand more why we write in a daily journal, the how and why of exploring language
--figure out where we are going with this unit
--start to work towards an understanding of why it is important to tell our stories
So what is a good inquiry question to delve into this topic of racism and how it effects my students personally in their lives? Why is it important? The context is the book Cajas de Carton, the story of a migrant farm worker child and his family in California in the 70s who has gone on to be a renowned writer and university professor. Our culminating project is to write a memoir or autobiography that talks about the importance of Spanish in our lives.
This is what I brainstormed with my group:
--Socratic seminar to create the inquiry questions!
--Let the kids come up with the questions.
--The discussion can stem from the reading: Hillock's hierarchy used to create levels of questions.
Sunday, September 19
Next morning: after an incredible breakfast at Eric's, we are all working hard at our computers and bouncing ideas off of each other.
First thing: thanks to out conversation last night, I realize that beginning of class journals need to be thought provoking and fun. Think opening moment. They don't need to relate to the content; they need to engage kids' minds. Think of how great the bell ringer activity is going in Spanish; instead of doing boring grammar driven prompts, we are having fun with inquiry and idioms. Those few minutes spent guessing do so much to engage the students, and I am still doing (more) work on teaching them a language then I am in doing these grammar or content heavy exercies! So now for English, instead of boring, content driven grammar prompts, I got the book Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, and we will do inspiring writing and sharing each day. Hopefully this will wake my 4th period up a bit!...
In Spanish for Spanish speakers this week, this is what I have come up with:
First thing: make the writing prompt more fun! Share writing. Before we get started, finish reading the second chapter from Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. Talk about why we journal.
Next, read one of the stories about migrant kids out loud. Compare/contrast their experiences to Francisco's from Cajas de Carton. Ven Diagram: similarities/differences. Make a triple circle: Francisco, the kid in the story, my kids. What are some things that all three share?
From here: Hillock's hierarchy, asking questions. Try to ask questions that relate to all three circles!
Next we will get ready for a Socratic seminar. Personalize the observation grid for them, and stress what they need to work on: listening, not interruptng, not heckling, not yelling. Students will generate a list of questions using Hillock's hierarchy, and then we will vote on our top three.
Hooray, thanks writing group!!!
Eric's house... cozy on the porch, music from Eric's PC, lamp from the light all cozy like. We just had a great dinner and companionship, how lucky am I to be included in the incredible circle of people? I love my writing group. BSWP rocks! I am so grateful that I was included in that amazing circle.
Big on my mind is first period: Spanish for Heritage Speakers. I need to put in some time and really plan an inquiry unit, to get them fired up about the class. Right now they are fired up about the fact that the teacher is cool, that they get to be in a class with their friends, that they can speak Spanish and be themselves. I am sure it is incredibly liberating... but they aren't taking it seriously yet. They seem to understand that it is important for them to improve their reading and writing in Spanish, but they haven't quite caught on to the whole work ethic part.
And of course I am fully aware that that is my fault! As a teacher I should know better than to think that students will walk into my classroom being fully motivated to learn. Why should they be? After so many industrial classroom settings, where they have been discouraged, bored, beaten down, told they were stupid, confused, lost, etc... Of course they have had good experiences, too, that stood out. But those teachers had to set themselves apart, make their class a safe, nurturing place to learn. I have done that, sort of, but the problem is that my students are TOO comfortable!
We were having a heated (and not very polite) discussion the other day about racism. It started from the reading, Cajas de Carton, but then we took off into real world. After an exciting discussion about Vanessa's Panda Express altercation with racist white folks, one of my students said “Who cares?!?” She then when on to wonder whether it mattered to talk about racism.
Good question. Sounds like a job for Inquiry Woman!... but I am not sure how to go about this.
I know we need to:
--have a Socratic seminar to learn the mechanics of a good discussion
share writing
--understand more why we write in a daily journal, the how and why of exploring language
--figure out where we are going with this unit
--start to work towards an understanding of why it is important to tell our stories
So what is a good inquiry question to delve into this topic of racism and how it effects my students personally in their lives? Why is it important? The context is the book Cajas de Carton, the story of a migrant farm worker child and his family in California in the 70s who has gone on to be a renowned writer and university professor. Our culminating project is to write a memoir or autobiography that talks about the importance of Spanish in our lives.
This is what I brainstormed with my group:
--Socratic seminar to create the inquiry questions!
--Let the kids come up with the questions.
--The discussion can stem from the reading: Hillock's hierarchy used to create levels of questions.
Sunday, September 19
Next morning: after an incredible breakfast at Eric's, we are all working hard at our computers and bouncing ideas off of each other.
First thing: thanks to out conversation last night, I realize that beginning of class journals need to be thought provoking and fun. Think opening moment. They don't need to relate to the content; they need to engage kids' minds. Think of how great the bell ringer activity is going in Spanish; instead of doing boring grammar driven prompts, we are having fun with inquiry and idioms. Those few minutes spent guessing do so much to engage the students, and I am still doing (more) work on teaching them a language then I am in doing these grammar or content heavy exercies! So now for English, instead of boring, content driven grammar prompts, I got the book Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, and we will do inspiring writing and sharing each day. Hopefully this will wake my 4th period up a bit!...
In Spanish for Spanish speakers this week, this is what I have come up with:
First thing: make the writing prompt more fun! Share writing. Before we get started, finish reading the second chapter from Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones. Talk about why we journal.
Next, read one of the stories about migrant kids out loud. Compare/contrast their experiences to Francisco's from Cajas de Carton. Ven Diagram: similarities/differences. Make a triple circle: Francisco, the kid in the story, my kids. What are some things that all three share?
From here: Hillock's hierarchy, asking questions. Try to ask questions that relate to all three circles!
Next we will get ready for a Socratic seminar. Personalize the observation grid for them, and stress what they need to work on: listening, not interruptng, not heckling, not yelling. Students will generate a list of questions using Hillock's hierarchy, and then we will vote on our top three.
Hooray, thanks writing group!!!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Answergarden: What do you miss most about the summer institute?...
Check out this cool new website I found... answer the question and add to the AnswerGarden! This would be a fun way to practice vocabulary in class.
Answergarden: What do you miss most about the summer institute?...: "Answergarden: What do you miss most about the summer institute?..."
Answergarden: What do you miss most about the summer institute?...: "Answergarden: What do you miss most about the summer institute?..."
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
On schooling...
According to the old Webster's Shorter School Dictionary (1933) that has been passed down through my family, the definition for school can be a noun or a verb. As a noun, school is "a place for instruction." As a verb, to school is "To educate in a school." It is also "to discipline; train." I am interested in how the verb is commonly used today; according to SlangSite.com, to school is "To teach one a lesson. To beat one into submission." We've all heard school being used that way: "Dude, you just got totally schooled." I've been thinking about being schooled lately, and how school is so frequently a place where both students and teachers are schooled into submission. I vote we take back the word and use it in another sense, that as defined by Thesaurus.com: "a group of close friends, associates" with the synonyms of mafia, assembly, bunch, class, companions, club, group, intimates, party, posse, ring, set, society...
I have recently been schooled. I was lucky enough to be nominated and accepted into the Boise State Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project. For those unfamiliar with the basic principles of the NWP, they are:
- Teachers themselves should be the agents of reform;
- Writing should be taught at ever grade level. Professional development should support teachers across the grade levels and curricula in order to understand how to teach writing;
- Professional development should provide frequent and ongoing opportunities for teachers to write, study and practice;
- While there is not one correct approach in teaching writing, a reflective and informed community of practice is the best way to develop writing programs;
- Well-trained teacher leaders are the best trainers of other teachers.
I have been schooled: I have been accepted into an amazing group of teacher-leaders. As a 2010 fellow, I have just returned from a retreat in McCall, Idaho, where we assembled on the idyllic shores of Payette Lake, and were given leave to be creative, to reveal ourselves to each other, and to examine the possibilities of education. It was exhilarating, and I am still riding high from the experience. To laugh, to cry (often): to be moved to tears or euphoria by the words of my fellow teachers has reawakened in me the passion and power of teaching. That is the potential of schooling: to create a family of learners who embolden and encourage each other to learn. I have been schooled, and I can't wait to get back in August to school my colleagues and students.
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