Treasure Chest of Thoughts

The more I learn…the less I know!  As I begin thinking about how to organize my classes for this fall, my brain literally begins to spin.

Writer’s Notebooks?  Grammar Time?  Lit. Circles?  Genres?   Multi-Genre?  Self-Selected Texts?  Vocabulary?  Frameworks?

Then there’s technology.

In the online book discussion of Penny Kittle’s Write Beside Them, I do agree with this statement:

     I’ve made choices in my work in order to dedicate myself to the
     achievement of writing.  You will have to make choices, too. (pg.15)

Which choices are the right ones, though?  Not to belittle what I read in my “personal professional development,” but to remember that we…okay, I…bring seventeen years of experience to my classroom is also a definite positive. 

So here goes…

If I only taught a writing class, I would focus solely on writing techniques; likewise, if I taught some sort of reading survey class, I would choose the best reading stratigies.  But I do not.  I teach non-”special” classes.  I teach English 11 and Pre-AP English 10 (at least according to the last schecule I saw!); therefore, I am responsible to my state’s Framworks, which includes both writing and reading…and several other important strands.

Thus, I would like to begin a series of posts organized around the thematic multi-genre units that I will teach this fall.  Within these posts, I also hope to choose which strategies that I might use to best meet Frameworks and the various learning strategies within each class.

Thus…I want to continue to learn and then use the strategies with which I am most comfortable, for with those that I have the most passion, then the more my students will learn.  And the higher they will score on all their assessments!

For a dose of history…visit Washington, DC.  Moving. Memorable. Magnificient.

It’s my privilege to bring three winners to this part of the United States, first, to attend National History Day (we’ve met people from Hawaii and Guam!), then on to National Beta Club Convention.

My three friends…and students…touring the monuments.

Holly and I…standing in exactly the center of Washington!

Tour Guide Dan has been great…thanks, Dan!

Now, we are off to see the sites in the evening!

Today I felt that spark for the first time since before school ever let out.  I was so burned out that I just wasn’t sure when I would feel even the hint of any academic warmth again…but it’s back!

First, I took what I am referring to as a “fiction vacation” with James Patterson’s character Alex Cross…read five of his books in a week!  Need to let Mr. Cross work alone for a while! I can only take so many serial killers in one week!  Good read, though, if you enjoy suspense…and I do!

My students also enjoy Patterson’s teen read featuring his part-bird character Maximum Ride…guess, I have a little kid in me…I have completed books one thru three and have book four sitting beside me now!

Now, I’m “reading for work,” as described by my husband.  Penny Kittle’s book Write Beside Them is an intellectually stimulating way to begin my personal professional development for this summer with a group of teachers from all across the United States.  Check out the wiki for this project at Learners4Life.

The above book seems to hit on the writing aspect of my job, so for the other areas of teaching English, I am also reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor and Understanding by Design.

Why all these professional books?  I need a change.  Professionally, last year was a “slump year” for me…mainly because I was on survival to just to keep myself just a half-step ahead of my next deadline!

Okay, it was not a total slump or I would not be writing in this very format right now!

Just purchased another summer read recommended by a friend and peer Ms. Margo who encountered a book review of this book while at cheer camp this week.  If you are Harry Potter fan, sounds like this is a new series for we fantasy supporters!  Trenton Lee Stewart…is he the next J.K. Rowling?  He’s from my native state…Arkansas!  Stewart’s new fantasy world in The Benedict Society does sound interesting!  He’s published two and is writing his third in this series.

What are you reading?