An unexpected snow day. I could have worked on lesson plans or graded papers. I could have read the book waiting for me on the coffee table.

Instead. I watched four episodes of Battlestar Galactica. In a row. In front of a fire. So good.

The beginning of the year means a new semester for me.

And more than ever, I want to move away from the traditional approach I’ve used in the classroom for way too many years. My literature is set by the department, but the way I approach it is flexible. So here is what I left on my class blog for the students:

Can you believe it’s time for school again? I missed you all and can’t wait to get started. We’ll be focusing on these essential questions for about 7 weeks:

• Does/should society determine rules for its citizens? (Sound familiar??) What happens when people don’t follow society’s rules? Should they have free will?
• Is love at first sight possible? In what way does love or hate affect a person’s rational thought?
• What is the effect of a long-term conflict between groups and between individuals within the groups?
• What is the effect of misunderstandings in communication? How important is clear communication?

Our work will include:

• Researching and writing our results up on a wiki (more time to work on citing sources)
  
• Reading Romeo and Juiet aloud in groups
• Presenting the play to sixth- and seventh-graders
  
• Writing essays about our essential questions
• Reading one independent book about or from the time period (1400-1700, being very flexible here!) See the stack in my room to get you started…
  

And more.

See you Monday.
scm

The questions tie to literature and discussions we had first semester, so I hope to see them make connections to that as well as what they are studying in history. Their writings will focus on the questions as they relate to the play.

As I was finishing up my plans, a friend (the history teacher referred to as HT from now on) walked in the room, saying she had found a book I might want to use. Do I?? Wow. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz is a perfect way to introduce this time period to the students. I stretch the Renaissance to begin with the Middle Ages, trying to give them a sense of the changes and cultural shifts. This book offers poems, plays, and short readings for middle school students. And I plan to start each class period with a reading either by me or one of the students. Thanks HT.

Between that and having costumes available to the kids to throw on while reading aloud, I hope to make them feel they are living the time period. We’ll also have a ning, where they will talk in character. The unit will culminate in a Renaissance Day with students in costume, presenting their research to the other middle school students.

Though I am sorry to see the break end, I am excited to see the kids and get back to work.

Huzzah!!

“Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.” Josef Albers

Day after day, one of my eighth-graders walks into my room near tears.

“I can’t take it,” she’ll say. “I can’t do this anymore.”

What she is referring to is life–studying, playing sports, pleasing the parents, getting along with friends. You name it, there’s stress involved. Though I have noticed the change, I haven’t been able to determine the cause.

But Georgetown University, who is sponsoring sessions in meditating for its students, has a take on it:

“These students have been conditioned since kindergarten to evaluate their performance. Anything they do, they’re comparing to their friends and even competing with their friends,” Svoboda said. “When you come in here, you don’t have to do that.”

Read more here.

Image: ‘Raindrops on calm water’
flickr.com/photos/16074747@N00/2342570786

I just tried Google Search using the voice search-easy and fast!

ICTAC MEMO iPhone Apps for Education

This morning, I watched a friend run a local half-marathon in the cold, pouring rain, and then drove her back here for a hot shower before heading over to Amy’s for a stack of pancakes.

She took off for Bethesda, and I’ve spent nearly the entire day sitting on the couch in front of the fire. Lovely.

At one point, I fell asleep with Beau curled up next to me. David had a Hall and Oates concert playing on the TV, and I awoke to songs that brought back memories from years right after college. Driving around Boston. Working in Maryland. Finding my way to Virginia.

I read a few more pages of The Fiction Class by Susan Green and then made ginger sugar cookies.

I love when I’ve planned my grading so well, I get a free weekend to relax, think, read, and rest. Tomorrow exam week starts, and for the first time in in a long while, I’m looking forward to seeing what my kids do with their essays.  I have a feeling some sparks of brilliance will emerge.

Today,though, the fire helped tend my soul.

Image: Original image: ‘Fuoco!‘ 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10204934@N03/2167941955

Sometimes I wonder if I can’t sleep because my mind won’t turn off. Or if my mind won’t turn off because I can’t sleep.

Doesn’t matter, actually. I find nuggets of wonderfulness when I awake in the middle of the night and check my RSS feed. This morning, it’s a poem from Jim Burke that I want to share with my own students:

The Journey

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice –

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

“Mend my life!”

each voice cried.

But you didn’t stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do –

determined to save

the only life you could save.

––By Mary Oliver

Ted Sizer came to mind as I watched our eighth-graders present their mock Congressional hearings yesterday and today on the Constitution, political philosophers, how our government works, and much more:

When the students forget the explicit contents of today’s lesson – and we know that they will – what is left? Anything? What happens after they forget the difference between atomic number and atomic mass? What is left after they forget the difference between the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? After they forget the rhyme and scheme and meter of a Shakespearean Sonnet or between sin, cos and tan? ~Ted Sizer

But what happens when they “own” that learning?  They will not quickly forget when they research and present like they did today. I was so impressed with how prepared they were to answer our questions as we pushed them to think deeper, defend fully, and articulate clearly.

What “is left” after work like this is the meaningful learning. These experiences will stay with them as they navigate their own civic responsibilities  with an understanding of what and who came before them. A thoughtful history teacher provided opportunities for real life learning that will carry them into the future.

Such a cool day.

The papers are finished. I’ve just marked the last few character essays on A Tale of Two Cities. Though many students nailed the assignment, others struggled to find the organizational structure needed to make the essays work. Others organized well, but then failed to move beyond the obvious.
I didn’t want to grade them. Oh, I know what you’re thinking. But it’s not that I didn’t want to read them.
No, what I always agonize over is putting a letter or number grade on the papers, even when I have relied on a rubric to guide my thoughts. Writing, learning to write, is hard work. It takes time. And I’m not sure my evaluations are all that accurate, anyway. I can’t tell you how many times I have graded an essay only to take a second look the next day and questioned why I had marked it that way.

So. I am trying something new next semester. I am going to have students write and conference with me as they work. Then, when they are finished, I will meet with them again, sharing the strengths and weaknesses of the essay. If they want to re-do, they may. In fact, they may re-write until they get the grade they want, as many times as they want.
I wonder how many students will take me up on this. I wonder if having on-going conversations about their writing will serve as a better approach than simply writing comments in the margins that I am not even sure they read or understand. I wonder if I’ll be overwhelmed with writing conferences during those rare free moments of the day.

It’s worth a try.