The Buzz of Teaching

Today marks the half-way point of the trimester. It also marks a turning point for my ninth graders to improve their behavior, organization, and attitude. At the end of last week, students were supposed to turn in their final research papers. I got maybe half of them. The other half - the students who didn't care to do the work for the past week - just sat and talked, laughed, and messed around with their friends. Their purposeful choice to be oblivious irritated me. I sent about 40 emails home that day. Today, I decided I needed to turn a new leaf with my students. I needed to be honest, show my frustrations, and objectively demonstrate why my students were making me feel sad, downtrodden and irate all at the same time. So, during my prep period, I sat and did some math, created some visual aids, and put together a PowerPoint Presentation detailing my frustrations, their shortcomings, and my plan for their future. As I went through my main points, and delivered my evidence, ...

One area I want to improve in my classroom is visual learning. I feel I have many creative assignments but I don't ask my students (or myself) to spend a lot of time carefully making something artistic. This week, I purposefully chose a few activities that required my students and me to spend time drafting and creating visual representations of our learning. Here are my results for this week: Claim-Support "Anchor" Chart My 9th graders were writing Research Reports this week, so I wanted a quick and easy visual guide for how they can properly cite their sources. I think I spent too much time on the design and not the information, but that's okay. It added some color to my classroom and became a conversation piece, if nothing else. Choose Your Own Adventure My Honors 10th graders were assigned a group project in which they drew a random Modern Literary Movement and had to research it to produce three things: a Google Drawing representing their E...

Photo Credit: https://barbenglish.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/understanding-by-design/ I remember reading Understanding by Design  in my undergraduate classes, but looking back at it now - several years later - I realize I only comprehended a small portion of w hat it means to implement Backwards Design. Chapter 3 of Understanding by Design  helped elucidate some of the larger themes concerning this method of planning. In order to share my learning and reflection, I've used a graphic organizer titled "Final Countdown" to organize some of my thoughts. 3 Important Things to Remember about Backwards Design 1. Backwards Design is "goal-oriented". This means teachers' planning and curriculum is directed at having their students aim and achieve specific  results. This keeps the teacher and student focused on a larger goal, connecting many of the dots within units. 2. Our curriculum is not  our end goal. Our end goal is "intellectual competence...

This Community Leader Roundtable may be a little late, but it's with good reason. I was considering who I wanted to interview for this little project, but I couldn't settle on just one name. I kept flopping back and forth from one person to the next because I was curious about everyone's possible answers. Finally, I decided to take a page out of Well-Balanced Teacher  and perform a small group interview - a roundtable - with some of my favorite colleagues. So tonight, in a crowded bar with slower-than-average service and a meat raffle cage whirring in the background, my colleagues and friends Mary, Cathie, and Katie sat down with me to discuss some aspects of their lives as community leaders.  First, here's some background on each of my interviewees. Mary Mary has been teaching for over twenty years. She has taught everything Language Arts as well as lead the school newspaper and yearbook committee. She has an intense love for history and is passionate abou...