Treasure Chest of Thoughts

So far this Spring Break, I have written two of four book reviews for my latest good reads.

1. Night by Elie Weisel ~ a horrific glimpse into his Holocaust experience:  may we never forget.  A required read by all juniors at our school.
2. A Question of Honor  by Dana Huff ~ a journey to another country, another time.  Very enjoyable!  May click here to purchase.

I would appreciate reading more by both authors (read comments in my book reviews linked above). 

If you have not read these, please consider going on the adventure that each provides!

Received my book Rethinking Rubricsby Maja Wilson in the mail a few days ago.  Had to sneak a peak before the official book study begins on English Companion Ning on April 1.

Based on the introduction, I may once again fall within what I call the “old school.”  Yes, looks like my current thoughts are about to be challenged by this high school English teacher from Michigan!   Looking forward to the challenge…and maybe a new way of helping my students.

Last summer I was a part of an online study with author Penny Kittle and her book Write Beside Them (all writing teachers should own this book!), and because of that experience, I highly encourage online book studies as a means of tremendous personal professional development.

Not joined the book club yet?  Please do…please consider yourself invited!

Yesterday (during day two of Spring Break), I spent some time with a former neighbor canning a recipe passed down from some of her family, a recipe symbolic of the survival of the fittest during the Great Depression.

While creating great aromas, she shared with me her concerns for our future and her fears that her grandchildren and great-children will not know how to care for themselves for so much of the “old” ways are nearly non-existent.

She shared also how during the Great Depression they were given stamps for one pair of shoes per year, stamps for gas, for sugar, for meat.  I hardly knew how to respond, for my mind was a tumble with the abundance with which I am now blessed…as I mentally viewed my shelves holding just the basics.  Imagining only one pair of shoes.  Someone, writing this post, is totally spoiled!

Then she proudly told me about the education she obtained despite these obstacles.  “I walked to school three and a half miles one way…seven miles a day…to obtain a tenth grade education.”  I just wish you could have heard her say those words, for they were definitely filled with pride, and I was even more proud to know her.

Then she spent thirty years working in a shoe factory, raising a family, and caring for those around her…like myself when I became her neighbor about fifteen years ago.

I just could not help but think of myself, of my peers, and of my students today and wonder what percentage of them would even be capable of such resiliency.

I just finished writing a book review of Night on my book review blog and wondered with author Elie Weisel “…I could not believe that human beings were being burned in our times; the world would never tolerate such crimes…”  How did such atrocities occur…and are still occurring (for instance, the horrific abuse of women in Africa).

Did we not learn from the Great Depression?  I fear we did not.

While I have the opportunity, I am going to wrack this survivor-of-the-Depression’s brain! She is going to teach me how to use a pressure-cooker this summer and can all these vegetables my husband and I are growing (shhhh…I have a secret fear of pressure-cookers…of the pressure part, you know?)

In her words, “I need to share this with someone, need to pass it along.”  Glad I am the chosen one!  Glad I am also the one who now also gets to enjoy that canned tomatoe ketchup…made 12 pints during that conversation with my friend and mentor.  Yum yum!

It’s beginning to look a lot like a kindergarten class…at least, in room 16!

I have to confess:  I am a project-based learning teacher at heart.  Not a master of this method, by no means, but a definite wanna-be.

Pictured here is the work (in progress) of my English classes.  Journey with me, please, as we peruse this recent work by my students.

On the left bulletin board are the masks created by each student upon completion of our initial discussion of the terms utopia vs. dystopia, a reading of Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s “I Wear the Mask,” and the writing of an essay which revealed to the reader why each student is who he/she is…digging into the “why” behind each selected personal characteristic.  The mask displays to the world (our class, of course!) the colors that best represents each student…no words or symbols were allowed! 

They loved this assignment!  “We want to color more!”

This assignment was the prelude to our reading Anthemby Ayn Rand and writing and submitting an essay for the contest on this novel.  Now, that after Spring Break, we will continue the discussion of our thematic unit Utopia vs. Dystopia with the reading of Animal Farm.

The bulletin board on the right is a display of Wordles of the students’ initial thoughts on the Holocaust in a multi-genre unit entitled The Courage to Be Responsible.  Again, they appreciated the creativity and, of course, the use of technology.  Following this activity, each student selected a sub-topic on the Holocaust on which to write an essay requiring one primary and two secondary sources.  In essence, the class as a whole is writing a research paper; each student is just in charge of one component (or one Roman numeral).  Before reading Night, each will present his/her topic to the rest of the class, using PowerPoint with embedded links (and maybe video).

Next time?  Pictures of the butterflies created to commemorate the children in the Terezin Concentration Camp.  Have seen two of them so far (they are due tomorrow)…wonderful (and colorful) tributes to such a horrific time.

They loved this assignment!  “This is so much better than taking the End-of-Level Exam!”

Yes, there is definitely time for creativity.

My juniors spent three-fourths of their day on Tues./Wed. taking the Arkansas End-of-Level Literacy Exam.  Lots of reading, reflecting, and writing.

When given the opportunity to reflect on the exam the day following the test’s administration, one student sums up her thoughts in this Wordle graphic display.

The first word that jumped out at me was easy. 

Then I noticed the word thought.  This makes the teacher feel better!  For weeks, I had been doing by absolute best to persuade my students to just try…”if you will just try, you will score proficient on this test.”  This equates to checking and re-checking their work and just taking the test seriously.

Then I noticed the word proficient.  Yes! 

Now we wait to mid-summer for the results…with the confidence of knowing they scored proficient!

The test is over!  School is back in session!

Today my juniors played…and had fun.

1. First they drafted in their Writer’s Notebook about two topics.
2. Next they posted these thoughts on their individual blogs.
3. Then copy/pasted this content into Wordle.

I had hoped to get to #4…printing and publishing for the rest of the school to see.  Unfortunately, we had some difficulties staying connected with Blogger.  (Note to self:  contact tech people to inquire about this.)

Despite this setback, excitement was in the air!

We also began discussing the Holocaust as I assigned each student a poem written by a child in the Terezin Concentration Camp.  With only this poem to use as a means of getting to know their very young person, each student will create a memorial to this child by creating a butterfly to hang in my room.  This project was inspired by Dr. Pezz at The Doc Is In.

Not one single moan.  Not one!

In one of my English classes, a student was lamenting not being able to type and print her paper due to her computer’s hard drive being reformatted.

I commented,  “Don’t forget; you can use Google Docs.”

A true light bulb moment! Her face lit up. ”I forgot about that,” she said.

Problem solved.  Oh, if all problems were so easily resolved!

March 12…the first day of school.  The first day since I entered near panic-mode about our End-of-Level Literacy Exam scheduled for March 10-11.

Yes, I know that this exam really tests what they have learned since grade 9, but about a month ago, the entire weight of this test felt as if it had fallen upon my shoulders, and we went into review-overdrive!  The kids and I are so ready for this test to be over!

Then I became a cheerleader…my nine-year-old cheerleading daughter would be so proud.  I have cheered and praised and encouraged and bribed rewarded, for I do believe that if my students will just try…and try again…that they can only score proficient.

To encourage our students to just try, our school offers those who score proficient one-half extra personal day during their senior year…and no remediation class!

To encourage my students to just try, I offer my students food (today, they planned their menu!) and two test grades (one for each day) if I am convinced they “just tried.”  (This second part was the deal I made with my students after reading them Mr. Teacher’s “The Million Dollar Test” from Learn Me Good.)

To encourage his students to just try, our principal has created the “Lucky 7″ checklist, and for just trying, each student who receives the seven checkmarks obtains two passes to leave campus for lunch in town on two Fridays.

Are we doing the right thing by offering so much?  Maybe?  I just know that the food, grades, and passes for an off-campus lunch has now made this test “real” to them.  It’s not about the scores printed in the newspaper or placed on their transcripts nor the numbers reported to the Department of Education; it’s the ownership, their commitment to “just try” because I became what I should have been all year:  a cheerleader.

So on Thursday, March 12, I will work to maintain this energy.  On March 12, I will be a cheerful teacher as we can now go back to have real school…and the weight of that test is gone!

Tony Wagner in The Global Achievement Gap reports that schools are doing what I have been doing the last few weeks…”teaching to the test”…and while I completely agree with his sentiments…

They’re a lot more worried about their school or district making what’s called “adequate yearly progress” so they’re not stigmatized as “failing” (p 13).

I am a little concerned that Mr. Wagner may not truly understand the teacher’s perspective, for the weight of the test is mighty, bigger than what I can possibly control; therefore, I succumb to its weight for a short while and teach to the test, not for survival but for comfort.  You see…I have to be able to lay down at night and know that I have at least attempted to “adequately” prepare my students for all this testing that we force upon our students. 

Life is about tests.  I have experienced, lived my fair share of them, and now I so look forward to March 12 when I can go back to better preparing my students for the real world, for how to deal with life’s real tests, which is what Tony Wagner then discusses in his newest release.

Now, maybe, I will have more time to read his book!

I finally am a-Twitter…along with a lot of the rest of the world.  There is probably a pschological reason why I am so slow to get on board anything new…even such things as purse and clothing styles.  I always give in, just have to slowly ease these newbies into my very comfortable comfort zone!

Thus, after reading how so many of those to whom I subscribe through my Google Reader have a Twitter account, I decided to try out this tech tool.  You may find me at tgillmore!

My initial thoughts?  I could waste spend a lot of time here!  Therefore, for this to work most effectively for me, I will only “follow” those who contribute to my professional growth.  I find myself appreciating those Twitter accounts that

1. have links embedded (got to learn how to do this!), for if I want to be effective, I should model excellent techniques.
2. make me think, which is a good thing when critical thinking skills have are a must (now reading Schooling by Design, The Global Achievemnet Gap, and The World Is Flat…probably a pychological reason for a person reading three such books at one time!  That I’ll have to analyze later!)

Please check out these blog posts that persuaded me to go Twitter-ing:

• Twitter: Cranking up the “Idea Machine” by Jim Burke at English Companion
• Experience The Power of Twitter While Sharing Your Gr8Tweets! by Sue Waters at The Edublogger
• #Gr8t Tweets by Wili Richardson at Weblogg-ed

Is Twitter for you?