The Impending End of My Internship

Well, tomorrow's my last day at Mount Dora High. I feel very sad :(

Tomorrow I'm going to write more when I get home from school about this whole experience... I'll probably definitely cry.

I'm anxiously awaiting the start of my new job at East Ridge High School-- Monday will probably be my first day. This blog is about to change from "Ambitious English Intern" to "Ambitious First Year Teacher"! Scary!

BOOOO YOOUUU, FCAT!!

Ahh, FCAT… how I for real loathe you. The FCAT Reading is for sophomores and it’s at the beginning of the day. That means, when it’s over and 1^st period is supposed to start, I have about 5 juniors in my class and the rest trickle in over the next hour. If I can be there on time for 1^st period, so can you. It’s annoying that I can’t continue with group work when whole groups are missing because juniors want to sleep in. Awesome for you, I slept in too—but I live 40 minutes away and I still made it on time… what’s your excuse? Walking into first period when there’s 5 minutes left and asking ON TUESDAY to take a midterm you missed FROM THURSDAY really doesn’t make me a happy teacher. More kids show up in second period that first, but some kids are still under the impression that FCAT days for sophomores mean skip days for juniors and seniors and that isn’t true.

Because of scheduling, lunch is in second period instead of third. The administration told us 65498412518 times that the students are to report to the classrooms and go to the lunch that the teacher is scheduled for, NOT THE LUNCH THEY NORMALLY TAKE. Think about it: if the kids went to the lunch they normally had, the teacher would only have half of their class in there. Students couldn’t figure this out. Then some of them come in, Monday and Tuesday, griping about how they normally eat first lunch and they JUST CAN’T MAKE IT to second lunch because they may die. You’ll be fine—sit down. Then, I get asked 65 times “Ms. Baker, what lunch are we again?” Really?  : l  Stop.

Then, fourth period rolls around. It’s not RIGHT after lunch anymore, but it’s still post-lunch, so one of two things happens on FCAT days: they’re either SUPER off the walls because FCAT made them go stir-crazy OR they sit in silence for an hour at their desks like their brain is frozen. In my fourth period, I had more of the former. Since I do feel (almost) bad for them because of this stupid test, I tried not to do anything too intense because I’m obviously awesome.

Last Wednesday and Friday, we did our midterms in the computer lab. I love using technology and I LOVE www.wordle.net so I figured that’d be the best idea since I had to spring a midterm on them so last minute. Here are a few of the ones that are printed out in color. Also, if you’re a teacher person and you want the instructions/rubric, let me know :)

Since I didn’t blog yesterday, today will be Awkward & Awesome Tuesday!

Awkward:

- Student asks me for gum while I’m chewing some and when I tell him “You can’t haaandle gum”, it falls out of my mouth…

- “Ms. Baker, if I’m quiet all period tomorrow, I mean ALL period, can I have your sister’s number?”

- Students drawing pictures of me…

- “Ms. Baker, how do you pronounce this word?” “Uh…?”

- Spilling water all down my face and my shirt when I forget that I’m drinking and try to talk at the same time…

Awesome:
- Breakfast with sissy :)

- “Ms. Baker, PLEASE don’t go.”

- Being nominated for a “You Did It” Award from a veteran teacher because I’m a “breath of fresh air”

- “Ms. Baker, I did that extra credit”

- The amazing women (and Mr. Archer) that I eat lunch with

- My homeroom babies leaving me random love notes around the classroom

- The Front Office has officially recognized me as a legit teacher, as seen on this late pass

Peace, Love, Wordle midterms, and OXFORD COMMAS J

Fo' Rizzle, My Rain Drizzle :)

So, my kids may not like me anymore. For the past month or so, I haven’t gotten any respect. For real, my kids step all over me and I thought I had it under control, but I really deserve more. This is how they make me feel

Every threat I’ve ever made has been empty and I believe that my students are starting to catch on. So, today I made a final warning concerning cell phones and iPods—if I see them once more, I’m taking them and their parents can get it. I mean, that’s what other teachers do, so Ms. Baker is joining in. Also, I think I wrote 4 detentions in first period alone. I am NOT playing around anymore about talking. That’s all they do all period long (aka 85 minutes) and I’m super over it. I was very strict today and I told my students that their behavior caused it. I told them that if they improve their behavior, we can consider going back to being friendly and joking all the time, but it’s fine with me if we stay like this for my last 11 days.

I gave out progress reports today and I really wasn’t happy with 2^nd period’s grades, and they weren’t either. They ALL (except 2) begged me for something to do to help their grades. And, being the super nice person I am, I came up with an assignment to replace a project that didn’t go exactly how I wanted it to. I think (hopeee) that they’ll all take it seriously so I can bring up some of their grades!

That’s really all for today! Yay J

Awkward & Awesome Monday :)

Herrooo party people J

Today, aside from the humidity, was definitely awkward and awesome. In English 3, we began reading A Raisin in the Sun. I think once my kids get over the language barrier (which, thank goodness, isn’t as intense as The Crucible), they’re going to get a lot out of this play, and that makes me happy. Each day after we read, I write on the board what they should finish in their packets by the end of the period. For example, we read about 25 pages in 1^st period and I gave them the last 20 minutes of class to do the character map, the physical and personality traits for the first 4 characters (as much as they could for just a brief intro to the characters), and the first 5 study questions in the back of the packet. I told them it was independent, silent work, but once they were done, they could talk quietly—that turned out to be a huge motivator for them to get their work done. 2^nd period didn’t get nearly as far as first period and that’s frustrating to me, but I realize that my 2^nd period kids are WAY different from my 1^st period.

In English 2, I had to have a little chat with my kids about respect. They come in after lunch like a herd of elephants and I find it annoying and ridiculous that I have to spend the first 15 minutes (no exaggeration) getting them to sit down, put their seatbelts on, STOP TALKINGGGGGG, stop touching each other, and begin reading. They were SO noisy and I’m really not in the mood for them to walk all over me anymore. A student walked in and ran his fingers through my agenda that I wrote on the board and I had to rewrite it—I was NOT happy. As I was writing on the board, I said “by the time I turn around, I want everyone in their seat and SILENT” and as soon as I said it, and I know they heard it because about 3 different people mocked me, I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I turned around about 45 seconds later and there was a girl scratching a boy, a girl sticking her tongue in a boy’s ear, a piggy-back ride, and every single student was flapping their jaws. I stood there, looking at my watch, and it took them 2 minutes to stop talking and sit down. Me= less than pleased. I stood there in silence for about a minute and told them, very sternly might I add, that I was over the disrespect. I worked really hard in college and I have worked my butt off for them and I won’t tolerate their disrespect, or their attitudes, for one more minute. By the time I was done saying that, I was shaking a little—I think they got the point. No one spoke for the rest of the period, unless they raised their hands or I asked them a question directly. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

Awkward:

- My kids snickering at everything they read and making it sexual. The awkward part? Do you know how hard it is to try to discontinue that behavior when it makes me chuckle, too? I haven’t let them see me laugh, but I have to take a couple seconds to refrain from laughing out loud.

- I took homeroom outside to read today since it was so nice, but I forgot about the humidity. I could literally hear my hair frizzing. You guessed it- the sweet hair swoop was back.

- My kids are very loud when I take them out of the classroom. I need to talk to them about our location transitions, or we won’t be able to leave the classroom anymore.

- I just got my new glasses and I’m still getting used to the new prescription. I bumped into things all weekend and it didn’t stop this morning. I told first period if they laughed at me one more time, I’d give them a homework assignment.

Awesome:

- I have amazing support from the other English teachers, most specifically my CT. The faculty at MDHS is superior.

- 2 different teachers at MDHS have told me how they’re using the tools I presented last week. The drafting teacher uses Glogster for a review of terms and the band teacher is using Wordle for their concert programs J

- I applied for my first big girl job today. Really weird. Reaaaallly awesome.

- I GRADUATE IN 26 DAYS!!

BYEBYEBYEBYEBYE <3

My Super Sweet Internship Update

I guess I’ve been in a super awesome mood since Wednesday, when I did my presentation at “Best Sessions” at MDHS. Thursday rained like no other, and Friday was just SUPER. Mrs. Campbell, my University Supervisor, came to do observation #2 on me during 2^nd period and just like I feared, they were TERRIBLE. I mean, the behavioral issues were intense. But I’m glad that she got to see them like that and see how I handled them. Here’s how 2^nd period went:

They read for 10-ish minutes, they responded to the GTL quote while listening to light music (read:”Friday” by Rebecca Black), they got into their vocabulary groups and worked for 10 minutes and presentations took about 5. During vocab presentations, a student dropped an f-bomb RIGHT in front of Mrs. Campbell- I about died. Then, they stretched and put their chairs and dictionaries back. I passed out an index card and asked them to write down, in 5 words or less, one of their dreams—then I had to clarify that I wanted a goal type of dream, not a nighttime creepy dream. We shared those and talked about what would happen if their dreams were crushed. I passed their packets back out and we went through the 22-page packet I made them to go along with the play A Raisin in the Sun as I told them exactly what each page in the packet is. Then, I asked them to fill in the concept map about dreams. We shared those and moved on to assigning reading roles. I had 2 kids jumping out of their seats to be able to read the main roles J I read the introduction to them and gave them the last 90 seconds or so to themselves. The whole class period, I had kids touching each other, talking, up walking around, texting, eating, for real trying EVERYTHING they could to ruin my pristine lesson/observation. But they didn’t win and I corrected the behavior each time—Mrs. Campbell even made a note of it, saying I did an awesome job.

After the observation, I had planning so Mrs. Campbell and I got a chance to talk. She gave me some really amazing compliments, including that she thinks I’ll be Teacher of the Year in the next 5 years; I legitimately almost died right there. After she left, I was on cloud 9. I went and ate lunch with the B lunch teachers in the Hurricane Café and had an AMAZING salad made by a girl in my 2^nd period. Mr. Archer and I decided that we were going to take our 4^th period outside to read. We did a FCAT practice, then I gave them 2 sticky tabs and told them to mark the start page and the stop page. Once I saw that they all followed directions, we lined up at the door. Once we got downstairs, I told them the area they couldn’t leave (or they would get a referral and I wasn't close to joking) and they were able to lay in the sun or shade and read the novel silently or with their friends. It went WAY better than I thought it would.

I have been having SUCH a good time teaching during my internship, and I’m REALLY sad that it’s almost over. However, I’m really excited to get my own classroom. My kids mean so much to me and I really spend my entire weekend thinking about them and how I can make the classroom fun, while still providing them with the knowledge they need to succeed. Please hear my heart when I say that this isn’t just a career for me; I am so in love with this profession and I couldn’t be happier with the choices I’ve made to get here.

The End of the WORLD!

I’ve always been convinced that the world is going to end in 2012, and when I saw the rain this morning, I knew that it started today. I was supposed to have my 2^nd observation from my University Supervisor today, but she would have been travelling in the awful weather, so she called as I was walking in this morning to move our date to tomorrow. After I shook off (visual: like a wet dog), I headed to the Principal’s office to ask her to fill out a recommendation for me for the John Simmons Award that I was nominated for. Upon hearing that the bells were turned off, me and one of the Assistant Principals started to move kids toward their classrooms. It was SERIOUSLY pouring this morning and the lightning was so intense, so I was a little baffled that the students would have rather hugged and kissed all on each other in the rain than in the dry hallways. Kids… also, I have a student in 1^st period with hair longer than mine, and his was perfectly straight. Mine? Yep, the lovely side swoop returned.

Today, the FCAT math retakes paired with the WORLD ENDING definitely did ruin my plans. I had 8 kids in 1^st period. I really wanted to assign reading roles and being reading A Raisin in the Sun today, but I don’t have enough books to issue to 50 kids so the ones who weren’t there could catch up, so Mr. Archer suggested we have the kids play Apples to Apples (“for vocabulary purposes”)—I LOOOVEEEEE this game so I was all about it. And since my observation isn’t until tomorrow now, I didn’t really mind. I had fun with my 8 kids in first and my 15 in second period; plus, I think it was a little bit of a reward for those who did pass the FCAT the first time. In between classes, I herded more kids to class. Seriously, THE WORLD IS ENDING OUT HERE PEOPLE, go be lovey-dovey INSIDE. Also, eww.

3^rd period is my planning period and since both lunches are during this time, it makes all of 3^rd period about 2 hours long. I love Thursdays and Fridays during lunch time- the Hurricane Café, our student-run café, is open for teachers and it’s GOOOOOD.

Again, I wasn’t missing anyone from 4^th period (English 2) and so we were able to continue on with our plans. We did some more FCAT reading practice and read some more of our Tears of a Tiger novel. My kids really love this book and they don’t ever want to put it down. Whenever I tell them that we’re done reading for the day, they’re less than happy and they always voice it. I love them. Then, for the last 15 minutes, we went to the library so they could check out and return books. They were a little loud in the beginning, but they weren’t bad. The librarians were kind of mad at me- one even yelled at me. Wah L
Peace, love, Oxford Commas, and SUNSHINE TOMORROW, MAYBE?

What a MARVELOUS day!

Wellllll, I had every intention of posting yesterday, but I didn’t get around to it before my bedtime. Yesterday, in English 3, we talked about 1950 America to get ready for reading “A Raisin in the Sun”. We also did more of the “100 Words…” and talked about the anticipation guides we did on Monday. In English 2, we did some more FCAT reading and we started our word trees! Here are a few of the best…

 When I got home from school, I was COMPLETELY exhausted (as usual) so I had my typical nap- however it was shorter than the others. Me, dad, and Kelli met mom at the movie theatre to see “The 5^th Quarter”. Oh my God, you have to see this movie. It’s about a family’s loss and struggle dealing with teen driving and organ donation, and the mom in the movie (played by Andie MacDowell) is based on a Phi Mu from my mom’s years. VERY touching- we pretty much wept the first 20 minutes and the last 5. Oh man.

Today, I learned something about myself as a teacher- I’m pretty good at adapting. The FCAT retakes tried to ruin my day but I was able to change my plans around, so YAY. There’s more retakes tomorrow, and while I won’t be missing as many students tomorrow as I did today, I’m not sure if we’ll be able to begin reading “A Raisin in the Sun”. But I sure hope we can start it, at least in 2^nd period, because I have my 2^nd observation from my University Supervisor!!! Eek!

So, today was FREAKIN’ AMAZING AND I SUPER LOVE MY LIFE RIGHT NOW.

Reasons why I’m so happy:

1. Even though the FCAT retakes stole half of my students, the ones I had left were on their best behavior

2. We got to use crayons in every class and I LOVE that smell

3. My presentation at our “Best Sessions” went very well, even though I thought I was going to drown in my nerves beforehand

4. My perfume AND GRADUATION ANNOUNCEMENTS came in the mail today. HOLLA J

5. I got an email from Dr. Witte telling me that I have been nominated for a teaching award from FSU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Awkward & Awesome Monday :)

Maybe it’s because I haven’t officially started my professional career, but I don’t hate Mondays (yet). The realization that Spring Break is legit over was very heartbreaking, but I pressed forward; I missed my babies and I was excited to see my department and the other faculty members, too.

So today in English 3, we went over “The Crucible” final test that they took before the break. I made very few mistakes while grading and I rectified them all, so yay J We did more “100 Words…” vocabulary and did the anticipation guides n the SUPER SWEET packet I made for “A Raisin in the Sun”.

In English 2, we went over some old work and then moved right along to FCAT reading. We were going to do word trees with prefixes today, except they don’t know how to behave, so I let Mr. Archer torture them with FCAT information. We’ll reattempt the word trees tomorrow. Generally, when I mention crayons and markers, they behave so they can play. That wasn’t the case today. Here are the instructions:

Now, this part I have seen this on a few of my friends’ blogs, and I want to give it a try. So, introducing “Awkward and Awesome Monday”!!

Awesome:

-          Student: “Hi, Ms. Baker! I missed you so much- can I hug you?”

-          I was able to take a nap AND blog today. Hopefully I can keep this sweetness up!

-          I only have like 17 days left with my kiddies. That’s not the awesome part, though- GRADUATION IS IN 33 DAYS!!!!!!!!

-          Student: “’A Raisin in the Sun’?! I’ve wanted to read this for so long!”

-          I intercepted a note between two students in 4^th period. The note was 85% about how cool I am and how these two students love me

Awkward:

-          Student: “I got tased in the butt on Daytona Beach!!”

-          Rain made my hair do this sweet side-swoop thing, and I looked like a flippin’ Who from Whoville, minus the weird nose… Looked a little something like this:

-          Student: “I saw you topless in Daytona, Ms. Baker!”I actually heard this from about 3 students today. For the record, I WAS NOT in Daytona AT ALL over Spring Break- check my 365 if you don’t believe me. I didn’t leave Ocoee. Apparently I have a doppelganger.


Until tomorrow- peace, love, and Oxford Commas :)

Because I Know You're Dying For An Update

Hi darling friends that I’ve forsaken! I’m sorry that I haven’t posted in a blog time- I got super sidetracked. I divided this blog into sections so it’s easier to read. And, if you decide you don’t really care about a section based on its title (rude), you can skip it J I know, I’m awesome.

Reasons why I temporarily abandoned blogging:

1.       I take about a 2 hour nap every afternoon when I get home

2.       I’ve been superrrrrr busy

3.       Spring Break doesn’t require an update

4.       I semi-forgot  :/

5.       I’ve been in the routine of wake up, get dressed, drive to school, teach, read/grade, teach, plan, teach, drive home, nap, help with dinner, shower, bed, repeat and I don’t like change

NOT Reasons why I temporarily abandoned blogging:

1.       I lost interest in my internship/teaching

2.       I don’t think it’s exciting anymore

3.       It’s monotonous

4.       My kids smell and they’re dumb

5.       I turned out to be a horrible teacher

*All of these are completely opposite of the truth J I still flippin’ love teaching, it’s still exciting, it’s not monotonous, my kids don’t smell and they’re not dumb, and I’m pretty sure I’m not an awful teacher.

Things English 2 did in the classroom while I was neglecting blogging:

1.        “I AM” poems

2.       Soundtrack of My Life essays and presentations

3.       FCAT Glogster posters

4.       Successfully took the FCAT Writes!

5.       FCAT reading practice

6.       Began “Tears of a Tiger” by Sharon Draper (and they FOR REAL love it)

7.       Creative Writing

8.       Began completing a packet that goes along with “Tears of a Tiger”

9.       Turned in their 1^st round of GTL reflections for a grade

10.   Serious emotional conversations that go along with parts of the book

11.   Really cool letter assignment that goes along with our book

Things English 3 did in the classroom while I was neglecting blogging:

1.        “I AM” poems

2.       Soundtrack of My Life essay and presentations

3.       Began and completed “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller

4.       Chain of Events for each act of “The Crucible”

5.       Character Facebook profile pages for characters from “The Crucible”

6.       “The Crucible” Glogster posters

7.       Character Trading Cards for “The Crucible”

8.       KWL charts

9.       Letter writing assignment that goes along with “The Crucible”

10.   “The Crucible” final test

11.   Began “100 Words That Every High School Graduate Should Know”

Things we’re doing after Spring Break (aka Monday, March 28) in English 2:

1.       Finishing up “Tears of a Tiger” book and packet

2.       Word Trees!

3.       Working hard on FCAT reading

4.       Character Cubes

5.       Storyboards

6.       I’m really hoping that we can get through this story and move onto another book in the trilogy before my time is up with them

7.       Character & classroom (paper) Facebooks

Things we’re beginning after Spring Break (aka Monday, March 28) in English 3:

1.       Review “The Crucible” final test

2.       “A Raisin in the Sun” anticipation guide

3.       Really super sweet “A Raisin in the Sun” packet

4.       Concept maps

5.       Character webs

6.       I modified the character Facebook pages from last time and made it into one classroom (paper) Facebook that lasts the whole unit J

7.       Continue “100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know”

Professional Accomplishments:

1.       My University Supervisor came for her first  visit and said that I’m ready to be on my own right now J

2.       I got to present some of my ideas to a few teachers at “Fab Friday”- a professional development meeting J

3.       I’m presenting my “modern ideas” to the entire school on Wednesday at “Best Practice Sessions” after school J

4.       The Principal LOVED our Facebooks and Glogsters J

Things I have learned:

1.       More often than not, timing never works out. It’s too hard to predict the students (in general) to know that a play or novel can be read in a certain amount of time. One day in English 3, I was really excited to continue on with “The Crucible”. First period was swimming right along and when second period rolled around, there were less than half of the kids there. I had to adapt really quickly and give them an alternative assignment.

2.       Kids don’t care that you spent your entire weekend planning. I take all this time out of my social life (which only consists of 2 nights and 2 days now, instead of 24/7) to plan these lessons for my kids so they’ll have fun and the kids will want to learn and they’ll love me for it. But, kids are unpredictable and you never know when you’ll have to scrub the fun lessons you planned and give them boring ones because they don’t know how to behave.

3.       Kids are mean. Yes, I knew this when I was younger, but it’s so different seeing it from this side. And I’m not talking about “kick me” signs on someone’s back; I’m talking about a boy in my 1^st period beating up a boy in my 2^nd period because of his sexual preference. Then, every boy in 1^st period was talking about it the next day calling my boy in 2^nd period some really awful names. They put gum in each others’ seats and throw pencils at each other.  Mean little people.

4.       Girls have gotten cattier. Yes, it is possible. I never imagined that a 16 year old girl would want to argue with me every day just because she doesn’t like me. And boy, does she have a mouth on her. Good Lord! Okay, I’m only 6 years older, but honey- I GRADE YOUR PAPERS. Check yourself. And yes, as much as I hate to admit it, my feelings do get hurt. If you’re reading this and you were in my Methods class at FSU, no, I haven’t cried in front of them, although one day I came REALLY close.

5.       There is a direct correlation between parental involvement and student achievement. This one is kind of a no-brainer, but seeing it in action is really something else. I think this hit me the hardest during Open House. The kids who are doing REALLY well, always go above and far beyond, ask me for help before and after school, and should be in advanced classes and not my general classes; their parents are the ones who came to open house. Those parents push their children to work hard and be something. The kids who talk all throughout the period, don’t do homework, throw paper, text message, and get an attitude with me daily; their parents are the ones who just don’t care. I don’t blame the kids at all.

6.       I really, really want to do this. I can’t imagine, for the rest of my life, doing anything besides teaching English. I love literature, I love writing, I love reading, I love doing cool projects, I love students, I love teaching the students, and I just love being involved in their lives. I clearly didn’t choose this profession for the money; I chose it for the other kind of rewards I get. Like being an INTERN and being nominated for teacher of the month; having my students come to me at all hours of the day to ask for help or just to talk; being an INTERN and having parents come to Open House specifically to meet me; knowing that even the students that don’t like me still respect me; being an INTERN and presenting my ideas to the faculty; going home every day knowing that something I taught that day won’t ever be forgotten.

With all that said, and stepping off my soap-box, I will be updating almost daily. Even if no one ends up reading this besides my mom, it feels good to write it down. Plus, I’ll probably want to look back on this in 25 years when I can read it from my watch or something ridiculous like that.

Peace, Love, and Oxford Commas <3

I Know You Missed Me :)

Hiiiii people :)

 Sorry I’ve been such a slacker with blogging this past week. I’ll give you a quick run-down instead of a lengthy, long-winded post- you’re most welcome.

 On Monday, I assigned a project to English 3 and English 2- Soundtrack of Your Life. For those who haven’t heard of it, I think LitTunes came up with it, and I adapted it to fit the needs of my students. English 3 started Puritan Lit on Monday with “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet (they hated it and I had a haaard time making it fun and interesting). We started The Crucible on Tuesday. Yes, it’s unorthodox and really early in the semester to start it, but I’m using it to teach Puritan life and values. Later on, we’ll revisit it and examine McCarthyism as it relates to the 50’s. I’m using all of the 60 second recaps to hook the students on the play, and so far it has worked perfectly.

 They love the idea of these crazy girls that were their age and everyone, boys and girls, wanted to read the part of Abigail. In both English 3 classes, every student has a reading part and every student volunteered to read. We read the play in class on Tuesday and Thursday and spent Wednesday and Friday in the computer lab so the students could work on and type their essays for the soundtrack project. We also did 6 word memoirs on Thursday. I found out that one of my students is openly a drug dealer and a thief. So, I’ll have to keep an eye on that one.

 Also, Tuesday was an awful day. I had some serious discipline problems. My CT took 2 students to the office to write them referrals and while he was gone, I had another student have a physical temper tantrum and I had to have the basketball coach next door come help me remove him from the class. Then, 4 students were busted smoking marijuana before school in the woods and 3 of the 4 are my students. They got suspended for 10 days. Needless to say, I’m very disappointed.

 In English 2, we read “Porphyria’s Lover” , did 6 word memoirs, spent Wednesday and Friday in the computer lab, and did a creative writing assignment. I split them into 6 groups of 3 or 4 and gave them each a famous painting. They had to write a story telling what was happening in the picture. The story had to be a full page long and everyone in the group had to participate in the writing. After they read their stories to the class and I put the picture on the doc cam, we voted on 1^st place, 2^nd place, 3^rd place, etc. the 1^st place group got free lunches in the Hurricane Café and they got 32/30. 2^nd place got 30/30, 3^rd place got 28/30, and so on. They got a chance to be really creative and I enjoyed seeing them work as a team. I made a cameo in 3/6 stories and a student even rapped one of the stories.

 I promise I won’t slack anymore on keeping up with this blog. The week was just really busy but now I’m well rested and ready for our soundtrack presentations tomorrow! I have a lot of grading in my future.

 Peace, love, and Oxford Commas :)

The Lottery

Helloooo friends!

Today, after silent reading, I noted that tonight is Thursday night, Jersey Shore night, and to continue on that note… I said, “Let’s GTL”. I’ve really come to love that term :) The quote today was “You were born an original. Don’t die a copy” by John Mason. They write for the duration of a song, and today was “Solo” by Demi Lovato, “The Hot Disney Channel Girl” they called her.

Before reading “The Lottery”, I gave a short biography on Shirley Jackson and showed a picture of her on the projector. I’ve come to realize that the students love looking at the pictures of these authors because they can put a face to the story and the pictures are rarely flattering- all the authors look completely bonkers and they spend about 5 minutes talking trash about the famous authors and I stand at the screen saying things like “Oh noooo. Her frizz orb is cute. Who cares that she’s not wearing make up? No, that’s not a mustache…” But, it’s fun, we laugh. Ha ha, moving on.

Since they really like the reader response activity we did yesterday, I decided to continue on with that. I wrote “LOTTERY” on the board and we talked about all aspects of a lottery. Who plays it, what does it mean, why we think money, age requirements, desire to win, etc. Then I wrote “TRADITION” and we discussed some of their traditions, the reason behind them, how they rarely undergo big changes, and they noted that old people love tradition and young people hate it and are bored with it.

After having a student read the first paragraph, we talked about the setting and mood/atmosphere. Then, we made our way through the story, stopping at the end of each paragraph (and noting each vocabulary word). I pointed out that tradition is a very important theme, and I asked a ton of reading comprehension questions. At the end of the story, the students were surprised by the outcome of the lottery and a ton of them caught on before the end that it wasn’t the kind of lottery you’d want to win. They wanted to know why the village stoned a person every year. I told them that’s where the reader response came in—I wanted to know what they thought. I also asked what they would do if they were the person chosen to be stoned. They all said they’d run.

Since it takes a little more effort to get my sophomores to understand, I decided to act out the lottery with them. I was Mr. Summers, the lottery official, and I divided the class into households and designated the heads of households. When the heads of households drew in the story, the heads of households drew in the class. Once they opened their papers and saw who had the black dot, I collected their papers, refolded them, and put them back in the box. Then, when that family in the story drew, the “family” that was chosen in the class drew. We finished the story then I had the students in the “family” pen their papers. The other students wanted to know if they could ‘stone’, with pencils, the other kid who drew the paper with the black dot and obviously the answer to that was “absolutely not”.

They were confused about why the lottery happened, but they thought it was cool that their preconceived notion of lotteries changed, just like yesterday with the word ‘waltz’. Again, all of my students were engaged and participating and we’re still working on raising our hands instead of shouting answers out. It does make me happy, though, that so many of them wanted to read out loud, had opinions, and just wanted to see their thoughts on the board.

I ended today with the question “is anyone in here a poet?” Apparently no one is. But I told them tomorrow they will be :) We’re doing “I Am” poems tomorrow. Yaaay.