I could not be more excited for next week. It is the culmination of a design project from my classes this week. Yes, I’m an English Teacher, but language isn’t all about books, and a lot can be learned from taking a chance. My favorite conference in recent years has been Constructing Modern Knowledge in…
Category: Activities
Classroom activities
Trying Something New With Something Old
My seventh grade class is studying Romeo and Juliet, and we are reading the play aloud in class. This allows me to preview scenes, stop and start to think about what is happening, attitudes, emotions, word play, allusions…. but there is no homework involved with this. I want them to come away with an appreciation…
My year with iPads – part 3
Blogging and the Daily Edit Two on-going assignments in seventh grade are the independent reading blog and the Daily Edit. I have this crazy idea that if I wants kids to value reading and to find books that they like, I need to make room in my curriculum for independent reading. So every other Monday…
My year with iPads – part 2
With Romeo and Juliet, we went pretty iPad lite. I had introduced GoodReader, so I did email a PDF synopsis of each act as we went along. We read the play in class, and yes, I know we could use an e-text of the play, and I may do that, but the Folger Library edition…
My year with iPads – part 1
Forgive me if I’m feeling a bit defensive. This past academic year we piloted a 1:1 iPad program with the seventh grade, and it was generally successful. Actually, considering the scrutiny that we were under, the general lack of professional development, and the fact that we were not allowed to fail, we did spectacularly. I…
Warrant, rapier, nuptial – words in class
This week we were still reading Romeo and Juliet. I don’t really want my students to go home and try and read it themselves (would like them to not get completely frustrated), so I decided to look at vocabulary – words that might still be in every day use but that they might not know….
**And then a miracle occurs**
I’m reading student short stories. Yes, I am aware that I had two weeks to read these, but I will say that if I don’t assign homework for my little dumplings, then I should get a bit of a pass as well. And here I am, reading narratives that my students have written. Exposition They…
Mastery
I have been sewing lately. My niece was recently married and her bridal party was quite large. Traditionally in our family we make the dresses for a girl child’s wedding – starting with my cousin’s wedding in Texas in 1983 or ’84 when the bridesmaids made their dresses. When my sister married, I made my…
Trust Your Ideas
“I’m worried. Can you read this?” As a measure of how little students trust themselves and their ideas, this is the question that I got today from a thoughtful student. This summer I wrote about fear in the seventh grade classroom. Yesterday I heard that fear in the room, I heard my voice rising in…
Three Ms
So I’ve started the project, hoping to get my classes to think about working together in new ways and to have new problem solving strategies. (Thank you, CMK10)! Yesterday I put on the board the three M’s that, along with Gary Stager‘s one classroom rule (Don’t be a jerk.) will be the centerpiece of how…
You Never Can Tell With Bees…
When I prepared to spend the week at Mansfield College talking about Shakespeare in history, I hadn’t really thought too much about Edward Bear, also known as Winnie the Pooh. I love Pooh. The A. A. Milne stories have been favorites of mine as a child, as a parent and as a teacher. Milne’s poetry…
What’s cookin’
Over the past few days a new way of thinking about my classroom has emerged for me. I have been thinking about how to be a co-student in my classroom, mentoring and learning along side the rest of the people in the room. After my week at Constructing Modern Knowledge (CMK10) I want so much…
Living on the Lip of Insanity 