View from Room 308

Test Score Article

2011-08-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

This article is a clear reasoned response to people who do not understand what AYP means and/or how AYP is reached.

To be even more telling, the Ledger-Enquirer, on FaceBook, shared this article and asked their readers "Are you considering switching from public to private schools due to recent AYP discussions?"

As private schools are exempt from AYP requirements, isn't that an awful lot like asking whether they prefer apples or grapefruit?

I'm Baaaaaaaaack!

2011-06-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

If anyone ever says that they keep their personal life completely separate from their teaching, tell them they are full of crap. Well, maybe not out loud, but think it really hard. A major confluence of my professional life and my personal life ganged up on me and really did a number on me.

As (I hope) you noticed, I have not posted to this blog for about year. I mean I went and changed the name again, Room 308 now, but nothing else since the tech post last year. There are several reasons for this.

I was transferred, at my request, from teaching at the high school to teaching seventh graders again. I was widely seen to be insane, but I actually like seventh graders. When they act crazy, there is a reason. Their hormones are jumping around almost uncontrollably, their brains are rewiring, they are starting to realize they don’t really have to do everything every random adult tells them to do (or believe what every random adult tells them to believe). So I was happy to make the change. I knew it would be an adjustment, but I was rarin’ to go.

I was, of course, swamped the first quarter as I was adjusting to the new school, the new students, the other teachers on my team (more on team teachers in another post). I was able to keep afloat, but with 30-40 more students than I had had the previous five years, it was a lot to do.

As I was starting to get in the swing and get my feet under me, my personal life went BANG! My wife decided she was ready to move out and be on her own. That it hit me completely out of left field is probably an indication of real problems there. But hit me out of left field it did. I was sort of a wreck for the next several months. I was trying to teach, work out custody arrangements, figure out what happened and if it could be put back together. I really didn’t have the energy to write here then. And if I had, it probably wouldn’t have been much worth reading.

So between the professional upheaval (which I sought out) and the personal upheaval (which I didn’t), this blog has lain fallow. But, like any good field that has done so, I am hoping that now I intend to till it again, it will be even more fruitful and worthwhile.

I have had several ideas for writing posts during the year and now that I am in a position to work on them, I intend to start posting again. So, here we go again folks. Wish me luck.

Web2.0 Resources

2010-06-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

These are some web2.0 sites. Many are interactive and all can be used by teachers of any subject at any level (with one exception). I encourage you to check them out and see if you can make use of any of them in your class. I advise starting with one you really see a way to get creative with and getting good with that one. Then, as you begin to master that one, try another.

The Machine is Us/ing Us is a little video that shows how much writing and reading are changing. It also highlights the need for educators to keep up.

A Vision of Students Today is another video. College students let us know a little about how much they use technology.

Blabberize allows the user to upload a picture and then record something to make it talk.

Bubbl.Us is an online way to create clusters/idea webs.

Classtools.net has different useful tools. I like to use the countdown clock.

Common Craft has a number of three minute videos that cleverly explain a variety of web2.0 tools, as well as a few other needed explanations (anyone see zombies?).

Dabble Board is an online white board.

Definr is the fastest definition finder on the Internet. It says so right on the page.

Delicious is a social bookmarking site. You can save websites you like, tag them, and share them with others. It is an online tool, so you can use it from any computer hooked up to the Internet.

Free Rice is a game site, but with a difference. For every correct answer to the different online quizzes, ten grains of rice are donated to alleviate world hunger. It allows players to start at their own level and then gets easier or harder based on the answers the player gives.

Gallery of Writing was set up by the NCTE to showcase writing from around the country. They have open submissions and encourage participation.

Glogster is a kind of poster that is fully designed by the user. Users can incorporate text, images, music and video into their work.

Live Binders is a way to collect and present webpages on related subjects.

Make Belief Comix is another comics creator.

Prezi is a new online presentation tool that is a step beyond PowerPoints. It incorporates motion and zooming to make presentations more dynamic.

Slide Boom allows you to upload PowerPoint presentations to the web. After that, you can embed them in blogs, wikkis, websites, etc.

ToonDoo is a comics creation website. Users can make a short comic strip.

Virtual Literary Worlds is a series of links to online virtual worlds based on famous literature.

Voice Thread is a multimedia collaboration tool.

Wall Wisher is a virtual classroom bulletin board.

Wordle allows you generate text clouds.

Zamzar is a file converter. You send one type of medium to Zamzar, like a YouTube video, and convert it to another, like a Quicktime file. This is one way to get around blocks to YouTube and show your students those interesting videos you find.

Random End of Year Short Poems

2010-05-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

If I am going to encourage and insist that my students write, it is only fair that I do as well. I like shorter verse quite often: haiku, tanka, senryu, kwansaba. Here are a few I have written (mainly during lunch duty) in the past week or two.

where they hear music
all i can perceive is noise--
generation gap

©2010-Art Belliveau

the saddest fact is
i just cannot reach them all--
but i have to try

©2010-Art Belliveau

greeting his friends while
moving from table to table--
lunchtime is busy

©2010-Art Belliveau

outside the classroom
flying free from branch to branch
the joyful bird sings

©2010-Art Belliveau

The end of the school year comes,
at times seeming glacial in its pace.
Other times it flashes forward. It seems
as though I am living my life
as part of a cosmic traffic jam.
Moving in fits and starts, but aching
to find open road and cruise away.

©2010-Art Belliveau

Limerick 05/03/10

2010-05-03T07:39:00.001-07:00

There once was a student in school,
Who never would follow a rule.
He'd sleep at his desk,
And make a big mess,
As he covered the whole thing in drool.

©2010-Art Belliveau

Swimming with Sharks 04/30/10

2010-05-02T18:26:00.000-07:00

a darkened classroom
after school
on a Friday afternoon

the echoes of
the students’ voices
silently resound
in my head
as i sit here

papers are getting graded
grades are being entered
and yet...

i feel
(as i so often do)
that i am swimming
against the tide

being pulled away
from what i find important

being pulled under
by this rip tide current
of red tape
and record keeping

when all i want to do
is swim free
and play in the waves
of words
and books
and poems
and the creativity
of my students

©2010-Art Belliveau

senryu 04/29/10

2010-04-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

as the year winds down
the students are "summer ready"--
the teachers more so

©2010-Art Belliveau

Nothing to See?

2010-04-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

I should be grading papers and entering grades into the computer, but instead...

Well, I was looking at a post from the webcartoon xkcd. And after seeing it again, I made an education connection to it. Here's the cartoon.

Well, actually, I think there might be more than one connection. Let me go with the first one I thought of: my students. I try very hard to have much for them to do and think about. While I am the first to admit I am not always successful and class is sometimes (perish the thought) boring, I make an effort. So do most of the other teachers I know.

When students are not ready, not willing, and/or not able to go beneath the surface and immerse themselves in a lesson or a subject, they will be bored. They will see nothing but flat ocean all around them, never even guessing at the wonders that await them if they would simply give it a chance.

It is also a connection I have made with my students before about studying a book or poem. Most of what goes on is beneath the surface. Sure, sometimes all you wanna do is water-ski on top, but sometimes snorkeling or scuba diving is much more fun.

And now to a connection that has occurred to me regarding testing and the way the public at large has been encouraged to look at schools. Test scores are the surface. I hope that I teach my students much more richly than simply to prepare them for a test--and usually a multiple choice test at that. I don't know about you, but life rarely throws a multiple choice test at me. I am given live ammo exercises on a daily basis.

The depth of knowledge that my teachers in grade school, high school, college, and grad school--let me not forget the lessons taught by my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents as well--have helped me to be prepared for them. If all I had been prepped for was multiple choice tests, my life would be a much duller and less successful place.

I like the idea that there is so much going on all around us that we rarely see. It gives me incentive to try to see more. It gives me incentive to try to teach my students and my daughter that there is more to see. And to try to give them some of the tools they will need in order to see it.

remember me?

2010-04-13T21:06:00.001-07:00

there are times
as a teacher
i feel pride and shame
simultaneously:

i am in the local B&N
wandering through the
new books section
just chilling out
when it happens
that former student
comes up to me and asks
"Didn't you used to teach 7th grade?"
i admit it
they remember
my name and
tell me theirs
they remember
my class
they remember
that time i listened to them
when no one else would
the time i helped them find that book
that led them to love reading
the time i praised a poem or essay or story
that led them to love writing

they thank me
as i stammer and blush
embarrassed by
their obvious enthusiasm
and affection
and they say
"I just wanted you to know."

and they walk away
never knowing
i have no memory of them
at all
no idea
who they are
even though i wish i did

and i feel the shame

©2010-Art Belliveau

teacher's lament

2010-04-01T08:36:00.001-07:00

when i hold out my hand
it gets batted away
but still i keep trying
gotta find a way
a way to reach them
so they will believe
i'm trying to help them
i'm not the enemy
but i keep getting cast
as the heavy--the villain
and i'm here to tell you
that part ain't so thrillin'
but when i ease up
try to give them a break
too many see weakness
& go insane till i take
control back real harshly
& then they get mad
"he's always yellin' and mean"
it's so sad
but my job is not
to make them my friends
my job is to teach them
and it just never ends

©2010-Art Belliveau

First Let's Fire All the Teachers

2010-03-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

Under the Orwellianly named NCLB law, all public schools across the country will be required to have all their students, 100%, at grade level by 2014. By 2014, unless something changes, we will have a nation full of “failing” schools.

While striving to teach 100% of the students to grade level or beyond is a cherished ideal, it is ludicrous to penalize and deem failing schools that do not reach that goal. But in my school, my wife’s school, at the schools of every teacher I know across the country, we are trying to meet it. We are working our butts off to get the impossible done.

I’ve been teaching since 1987. In that time I have heard teachers lauded over and over again in the press and by politicians as being members of a “noble profession.” That is, when the press and politicians weren’t busy using teachers as scapegoats for all of the educational problems on the country. But it does rest pretty squarely on our shoulders to be the ones to help make the goal. Without teachers, the goal is so far past impossible, the light from impossible would take thousands of years to reach it. And so, of course, all of us teachers are rewarded with respect and the acknowledgement of just how important it is for us to keep working hard.

But, if that is true, if teachers are so important to quality education, why are so many teachers being fired?

In California 23,000 teachers and other educational personnel got pink slips. That is on top of 16,000 teachers and 10,000 other education employees fired there last year. Let’s see, 16 + 23 = 39. So in two years almost 40, 000 teachers are fired in that one state. But the goal to improve the standardized test scores each year took no notice of that. The teachers left are expected to do better somehow.

It is not just California. In Illinois they are looking at a possible 17,000 teachers lost. In New York City (not state, city) they are looking at laying off 8,500 teachers. Almost 50,000 teachers gone this year from just those three places. And, again, NCLB does not take that into account.

And the hits just keep on coming. Googling teachers fired, teacher layoffs, teacher firings, yield far too many hits. We are decimating the teaching profession in this country. And we are expecting teachers left to reach Olympian heights.

Am I the only one here who sees the disconnect? How in the name of all that is sane and rational are we going to have the slightest chance of reaching that goal without the teachers to do the teaching? How can there be no provisions in the law to take this gigantic collapse of public funding into account? How many more teachers will be fired?

I tried to get mad about this. I tried to get all indignant and righteous. Instead the most I could manage was weariness and despondency. I guess all I can do is enjoy the descent in this glorified handbasket that American education has become.

Metaphor Collage Follow-up

2010-03-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

I recently put in a post about the metaphor collages I got my students to do. As a follow up, I had them write metaphor poems. They were to take the ideas and images in their collage and create a poem making a metaphor or metaphors based on the word they chose. Here's the one I came up with for my example:

Freedom Is...

A fast car on an empty highway
traveling wherever it wants to go
A butterfly
flitting where it will
A loose balloon
floating untethered into the sky
An angel
blessing me

©2010-Art Belliveau

I have collected up their publication drafts. As soon as I can get them posted, I will link to them. I think this idea worked out pretty well.

Ah, Memories...

2010-03-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

Back in 2003, a few months after my daughter was born, I went to San Francisco for NCTE and NWP national conferences. It was the one time at a convention I got to talk to really famous people. I talked a little with Naomi Shihab Nye--and she IS wonderful as a person as well as a poet. I got a book autographed by Gary Paulsen. The highlight for me, though, was to get to meet and talk to Paula Danziger.

When I was in high school I read many of her books. I started with The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, and went on to read most of her other young adult novels. I think my favorite may have been Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice? As my own parents had divorced when I was in seventh grade, I felt a connection to this.

Her young adult books deal with real issues. Her characters are realistic. And she almost always managed to inject some quirky humor into her writing.

She autographed one of her Amber Brown books to my daughter, Molly. And Molly is just now getting old enough to read the book on her own. I am very excited about this. I ran across the photo above in one of my thumb-nail drives, and it brought this rush of memories.

Thanks, Paula! You really helped me a lot when I was an adolescent.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief -- Book Review

2010-03-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

If you are looking for a book to add to your classroom library, this is one to consider. It incorporates classical Greek mythology in ways that do not totally destroy and distort the myths themselves.

In this universe, Greek myths were not just stories to explain natural phenomena. Greek myths were real. Are real. And, as in the past, Greek gods still occasionally have affairs with mortals, resulting often in demigods.

Percy Jackson is a sixth grader with a troubled past. He has yet to attend the same school two years in a row due to the trouble he always finds--or that finds him. With dyslexia and ADHD, Percy is certain he is stupid and will never amount to anything.

Soon he is launched into an adventure that takes him from one side of America to the other. Percy must face challenges beyond anything he had ever imagined. With his best friends, Grover and Annabeth, he battle gods and monsters as he attempts to find the master bolt, prototype for all lightning and the most destructive weapon ever created, and return it to Zeus before the gods of Olympus go to war.

It is fast-paced and weaves the fantastic elements in well with the more believable aspects of the modern day. Percy and his friends are easy to identify with and their adventures are epic. Literally.

There are enough major differences between the book and the movie just released that it will be obvious whether your students have really read the book, or tried the inevitable shortcut. This book seems aimed at a middle school audience. It would be especially appropriate for those young men who grow bored easily with the books they read. With one action scene after another, there is little letup in the adventure.

I enjoyed the book a good deal and am looking forward to reading the sequels.

Anti-Test Poems

2010-03-03T11:11:00.000-08:00

I tend to rant and rave quite a bit during test week. This year, though, so far my rants have been taking the form of poetry. I thought, as the halfway point of the week is here, it would be a good time to share what I have come up with so far.

soul crushing boredom
mixed with stark anxiety
AHSGE*

©2010-Art Belliveau

*Alabama High School Graduation Exam

Blind Spots

I am more
than just a score
more than
a number
this is what you
never see

You do not see
the hours I work
to bring home money
to pay for food
to pay for rent
because my father ignores
his child support

You do not see
my infant son
up crying all night
no one to comfort him
but me

You do not see
the empty stomach
which I could not fill
at home
and was too late to fill
at school

You do not see
me at home
speaking my native language
at home with my parents
who know no other
you see only my struggles and flaws
with this new one
I am learning

You do not see
their expectations
weighing me down
tying my stomach in knots
flooding my brain with panic
desperately afraid
I won't measure up

You do not see
because I hide them
in shame
bruises on my body
from last night's beating

You do not see
my hopelessness
my anger
my boredom
my fear
or maybe you do
and just don’t care

You keep your numbers
Don’t label me
with them
for there is more to me
than all your tests
will ever be able
to see

©2010-Art Belliveau

Sick

When I woke up for school today,
I just knew that I was sick.
My throat was full of coughing,
And my tummy full of ick.

I told mommy I had a fever,
She reached down and felt my head.
Then she looked real close at me,
and said, “Get out of bed.”

I think I know what’s caused this,
But you don’t need a day of rest.
You need to go to school today,
You have to take that test.”

And so I went to school today.
I took the test.
(I got an A!)

©2010-Art Belliveau

as if

it is as if
they believe--
truly BELIEVE--
that the answers
on this multiple choice test
will be the same as
the answers to life’s questions
about me and my future

if only it were so

©2010-Art Belliveau

Metaphor Collages

2010-02-26T13:37:00.001-08:00

I am trying to help my students understand the concept of metaphors. As they are tenth graders, I am relatively sure I could ask them to define the word and have more of them able to do it than not. I am also relatively sure that parroting back the age-old definition does almost nothing to help deepen their understanding—or even to see if there is any understanding of it there to begin with. So when I read about an idea called metaphor collages in Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind, I decided that might be something to help my students. At the very least, it could be—dum-dum-DUM—fun.

They would work to create collages of visual metaphors for a word of their own choosing. It took a while to remind them of the idea that metaphors are comparisons between two completely different things. To help remind them I showed them Eve Merriam’s “Metaphor” and Billy Collins’s “Introduction to Poetry.” I also showed them Merriam’s “Simile: Willow and Ginkgo” as a refresher on similes.

We talked about what the metaphors meant. With “Introduction to Poetry” we even got to the point where we decided getting complete understanding of every metaphor in the poem was not necessary to understand the poem as a whole. The initial images of fun and unexpected images contrasted with the torture image at the end were obvious enough to make an impression with even a partial understanding.

Then I took us into the idea by Pink. I had each of my students pick a word and then cut out images from magazines that were metaphors for the word they chose. I found out for myself that using an abstract word worked better than using a concrete word. When I tried to make one for coffee, I got stuck after about three images. When I switched to freedom it went much better.

I did mine on a PowerPoint so I could project it on the screen at the front of the room. I pointed out how each picture was a metaphor for freedom. Then I set them loose.

Note to self: never set them loose without written instructions for how to proceed.

Additional note to self: Especially when it is the first time you are trying a lesson to see how well it works.

The students were into cutting pictures out of the magazines. Well, most of them. Some were busily looking in the magazines for words to cut out. Why were they trying to cut out words? I dunno. They must have somehow thought that was the assignment. Some of them were looking through the magazines to find a word to make metaphors from. Why? I dunno. I guess they thought that was the assignment. Some were just into chatting with their neighbors, doing nothing, and reducing their number of daily participation points. I corrected the misperceptions as I went around and checked on their progress.

Walking around the classroom is always an interesting experience. The way the bubble of hushed tones seems to follow me is always a little amusing. Then there are the young ladies who just have no volume control whatsoever. They aren’t trying to be loud; it just sort of happens. Ah, the joys of teaching.

The one large problem I noticed were the number of students who were not looking for metaphors, but rather for examples: the person who chose happy searching out nothing but smiling faces; the person who chose sadness and just cut out pictures of sad-looking people. I had to repeat over and over in each of my three blocks—almost to each individual—that they were not looking for examples, but for comparisons—for things their word could BE.

I kept going back to my own example on the board. I kept trying to point out how the pictures were not examples of freedom, but were instead metaphors for freedom. Sigh.

Last night I when I went home I decided I had to write up an instruction sheet that they could refer back to. I did it on Google Docs, so I could access it anywhere I might need it. You can check it out if you want: Metaphor Collage.

So today I give them a little something of a refresher page on similes and metaphors for a bell ringer. Then I went through my cards and gave out extra credit for answering the questions. Have I explained my card system yet? If not, ask about it and I will.

After that back to the collages. For the students who were here. I had students absent, in ISS, at the ALC, on field trips, playing in the state Final Four basketball tournament, excused from school to go to said tournament, were out driving with their driver’s ed instructor, and just plain skipping. That’s normal though. Except that the proportions were higher today. My third block class had literally half the students out. Fourteen out of twenty-eight. Geesh!

Next week we will be delving into the wonderful world of standardized testing. It is again time for the Graduation Exams. I will post a rant on that next week.

And then this afternoon I ran a Google search for metaphor collages and found this one, that is a much better way to do it than mine. Next time maybe I’ll check first and not reinvent the wheel.

Ten Rules for Writing Fiction

2010-02-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

As I was looking through my friends' posts on Face Book today, I found a link to this: Ten Rules for Writing Fiction.

Anyone want to share a rule you have for writing? It does not necessarily need to be about fiction.

With all due respect to Newton, here's mine:

A pencil at rest tends to stay at rest; a pencil in motion tends to stay in motion.

The Overload Cycle

2010-02-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

Example the First:

Tina is a new teacher. She has just started her first year. The principal or assistant principal comes to her and tells her that the cheerleading sponsor has had to drop that activity for personal reasons; s/he follows up by asking Tina if she would be willing to take that assignment. She’s new and untenured, doesn’t want to be seen as not cooperative, so she says yes. A few days later she is asked to help with the prom. She had fun doing that when she was in high school, so she agrees. After all, that’s way in the middle of the second semester. She should know what she is doing by then. Then she is asked to do a third activity and a fourth. Even though she is getting stretched very thin, she keeps agreeing. To paraphrase Ado Annie from Oklahoma!, she’s just a girl who cain’t say no.

Example the Second:

Joe is an experienced teacher. He has put together a remedial course to help students who have not yet passed the graduation exam. The first year these classes were kept to about twenty students each. That way there was a low enough student/teacher ratio that he could work individually with students. The program was very successful. About 90% of the students he taught in that course showed significant improvement on the exam. The administration is so thrilled with that increase, that they put 25 students in each of his remedial courses the next year. The year after that, 30. And so on...

Sound familiar? This is what I think of as the Overload Cycle. A fancy way of saying that if someone is doing something positive, they keep getting asked to do more and more until success is practically impossible.

This has been endemic in my experience teaching. I hate seeing good teachers with the inability to say no walked all over. I hate it more when, if it ever does happen that the person finally does say no to something, they get extra guilt trips. “Well, then, I guess we will just have to do without a literary magazine this year since you can’t do it.” It is a shame when a successful program is run into the ground, a victim of its own success. But it happens all the time.

Why? Why do so many teachers let themselves get put in this position? Could it be the same impulse to public service that leads so many to becoming teachers in the first place? The vast majority of teachers I have worked with over the past 22 years have been dedicated professionals. For that matter, I am a dedicated professional; yet, I am not willing to say yes to everything I’m asked to do, or to volunteer for everything. Does that mean I am not being the best educator I can be? Maybe. But, if I gave 110% to teaching, what would I have left over for my family? I have a wife and a child that need me and my time.

And who says that being a good teacher means that kind of self sacrifice?

Glenn Holland. Charlie Moore. Gabe Kotter. Okay, they are all imaginary. But, to a degree, so is the portrayal of real life teachers such as LouAnne Johnson, Jaime Escalante, and Erin Gruwell. I admire them all (fictional and nonfictional alike) a great deal, but it is not as easy as it looks in a movie or a TV show. And they (the nonfictional ones) say as much. Unfortunately, that is not something most of the public hears. They just see the selfless and dedicated teacher getting miraculous results, and wonder why the teachers in their children’s school are not like that.

One way to fix the problem is to adequately fund education. Not just in the rich or upper middle class neighborhoods, but all schools in all neighborhoods. Hire enough teachers to keep student/teacher ratios manageable. But that would necessitate building new schools for all these teachers and students. Then add in more principals, more custodians, more utility cost, more school buses, more school bus drivers, more lunchroom personnel, so on and so forth, ad nauseum. Congress can’t even get together the funds necessary to correct infrastructure problems at existing schools.

As long as schools are not funded adequately there will be teachers, inspired by memories of the selflessness of certain teachers before them and the popular cultural myth of single-mindedly dedicated educators who put their one class of students above EVERYTHING else in their lives, who will let themselves get burned out and used up. And that is a real waste of a precious natural resource.

Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies--Review

2010-02-16T17:45:00.000-08:00

Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies by June Casagrande

This book is an anomaly: a grammar book this is fast-paced, fun to read, and chock full of information. The humorous tone of the book is at odds with the overly serious and somber tone of most grammar books. Casagrande goes out of her way to make her examples relevant and attention catching.

She tries to put her readers, those who have been abused by Grammar Snobs, at ease. She asserts the best reason to learn these rules is to put those Grammar Snobs in their place when they try to spring those picky little rules on you. And, to turn the tables on them by correcting them when they try to put you down with a rule that really isn’t grammatical.

For English teachers and for students who hate grammar, this is a book to take a look at. I am considering trying to get several copies to put into my classroom.

A Whole New Mind--Review

2010-02-13T21:51:00.000-08:00

As a teacher, one of the things I wish I had been required to study when I was getting my degrees, was brain science. I think it only makes sense that teachers have some idea how the brain works. After all, that is the organ we are charged with helping to develop. If we don’t know how it works, it makes it that much harder to do our jobs.

I recently finished a book by Daniel H. Pink titled A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. It was a terrific read. He makes the point, cogently, that both halves of the brain are required to get through life. He talks about how for the last hundred and fifty years or so, the left-brain dominant functions of the brain have been the ones to accentuate and develop in order to succeed. The right-brain functions were there and used, but in a subordinate position.

Because of the factors he calls the Three A’s--Abundance, Asia, and Automation--the left-brain dominant skills that have been the keys to success in the recent past will take a back seat to right-brain skills. We will need to focus on creating new things and in combining information in new and innovative ways. These are the keys to success in the near future.

Pink discusses six skill sets that will be essential in the future: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. In the detailed discussion of each, replete with examples and quotes, he lays out the necessity of each one. He shows how the skills are already being used and ways to strengthen each skill set. In fact, I think the end of each section, where he gives ideas how to strengthen your own skills within each set, are of particular value to teachers.

As a right-brainer myself, I especially enjoyed this book. I recommend this book to all educators. It is easy to read and full of interesting and helpful ideas.

Here is a video of Oprah Winfrey discussing the book with Pink. When she gave the commencement speech at Stanford, she bought a copy for each member of the graduating class.

Mess of a Desk

2010-02-09T11:34:00.000-08:00

After school on Friday, this was my desk.

For over twenty years I have referred to whatever desk I am using as "the landfill." As an inverate piler, I have often driven my wife to distraction with the mess of my home office area. I just seem to work well in this kind of environment.

Also for over twenty years I have had this sign somewhere near my classroom desk:

Dr. Michio Kaku recently posted some pictures of Einstein's desk as it looked shortly after he died.

Seems like I was right. Einstein and I have at least our "landfills" in common.

Order in the Classroom

2010-02-03T13:21:00.000-08:00

I have started with my students this week. Tomorrow is day four with them and some classes are a little on the wild child side. Or would be if I let them. I created the following PowerPoint this afternoon to show them tomorrow. I am thinking if I make my procedures very explicit, they might follow them more readily. At the same time, I do not want to come off like some kind of strutting martinet. I hope these don't cross that line.

Classroom Procedures

View more presentations or Upload your own.

Rebooting the Blog

2010-01-28T08:36:00.000-08:00

I started last semester with every intention of keeping up with my blog. I got busy and noticed I wasn't getting anything down, so I put it on my to do list. Then after a while I realized that box wasn't getting crossed off. Pretty soon I decided it was too late to start.

Now, here I am. The second semester is getting started and if I don't get back to writing here, I may as well just quit. I'd rather not just quit.

There have been some interesting changes going on this year. My high school is now pretty much for grades 10-12. The freshmen have their own, brand-spanking-new building that is adjoined to ours via a walkway. In the high school that means the halls are less crowded, lunches are less crowded, and it is possible to get up and down the stairs with much less risk to life and limb.

Originally the new building was going to be part of the high school. But, after examining the way schools get funded around here, it was discovered more bucks could come to us if it was indeed a separate school. The superintendant and the school board decided to make it so. But, while the whole "it's part of the high school" phase was going on, all the classrooms in the main building were renumbered. That is why the title of the blog had to change. I am no longer in Room 125. Well, actually I am, but the number outside my door is now different.

The computers in my classroom were slowly but surely going the way of disintegration. They were older models, at least ten years or more. The best they could run was Windows 98. And getting replacement parts for normal wear and tear became increasingly difficult. I had been told before that I was on the list to get noew computers in my room. It never happened. I was told again at the beginning of the year that I was still on that list and it should be done sometime during the first semester. I did not hold my breath.

You see, Alabama, like all the rest of the states, is having money problems. Since we can't (legally) just print up more money and have to actually balance our budget, that meant cuts. We took a good hit from statewide proration. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it means that the budget is written to give each part of the government enough to run on. In Alabama there is a separate education budget. Proration is when the governor says that there is not enough money and we have to do without whatever percent of the amount written into the budget it takes to make ends meet. I think it was five percent. Then we got hit with additional seven percent. So, we are hurting. Then again, so is everyone else.

That being the case, I was resigned to not getting the computers and making do with what I had. It's sort of like that quote from Mother Theresa. Imagine my surprise when, in the latter part of November, the new computers arrived and were installed over one weekend. It was awesome.

Nothing worth having, is without troubles though. A bunch of the computers were not able to get on the Internet, and none of them had the Deep Freeze program installed. That program locks out any changes to the hard drive, keeping viruses and other such vexations out of the system. Every time the computer is turned off, the memory is totally wiped. With a room full of intelligent and rambunctious tenth graders, that program is sort of necessary.

The students were very rambunctious. It took all I had to keep up with them, and I fell asleep exhausted every night. While I was able to keep up with the poetry blog, this one sort of fell by the wayside. I was a little encouraged that me last post kept getting responses. Then I really looked at thema nd found they were, for the most part, spam leading to essay paper sites and other such nonsense. I went back and deleted all those. Took my comments for that from 14 to 2. Oh well, easy come--easy go.

I am sort of back on track at the moment. I have been wanting to write here, but after a while I got more and more nervous about it. Does anyone still read it? Will there be any responses? Am I writing anything here that is actually worth others reading? What if I forgot how to spell or use sytax correctly?

You know, the normal worries.

But today I decided the heck with it. I make no promises about the frequency of my posting in the future, but I will almost definitely do better than I did first semester. There are some issues and changes still going on that I want to write about. Some new resources and ideas to put out on the Interwebs. Some books I have read and am reading to share. Poems on teaching and education I've written and want an audience for. So, here's crossing my fingers (hrd 2 tyep thsi wya). Okay, uncrossing the fingers so I can finish up.

If you made it this far, thank you. If you were wondering what the heck happened, I hope I answered those questions. If you have any questions, anything you want to hear me blather on about, feel free to suggest something in the comments section.

Omens and Portents?

2009-07-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

I am not sure that I believe in omens, but if I did today might not have been the best beginning for the school year for me.

I went back a little early to start setting up my room. I am scheduled to report back to work on Monday, but will be on--Jury Duty! Isn’t that fun? It was postponed from the end of school last year, for some reason. As it is now occurring during the week of meetings, I am not too heartbroken. But it does necessitate a little early work.

I got to my classroom during a nice steady downpour. It took a while to find a place to park where I could unload the supplies I bought for the classroom. Yup. That’s right. I spend my own money on classroom supplies. This year it was “found money.” I got an extra check for travel expenses that I had not expected.

Anyway, I got to my room and decided to set up the lights and computers. I don’t use the fluorescents during the year. I use incandescent lighting. I like it better and it doesn’t seem to set off ADHD behaviors as much as those harsh, white fluorescents do. But, to see what I was doing, I needed the overhead lights to get it set up. I was literally halfway through that when the lights started blinking on and off randomly and repeatedly.

As I poked around the building a bit I discovered that some classes had no power, some had full power, and some had intermittent power. I tried to get the rest of the class set up; apparently the sockets in the walls were working in my room. At least somewhat. I got the incandescent lights on and set up the rest of the room with those.

As I could not use the elevator, I had to go out and move my car to a back entrance on the bottom floor to unload my supplies. And, returning to the room from that, I found that some of the bulbs had blown out. Or at least stopped working.

At that point I gave in for the day. I put up the stuff I bought and headed for home and lunch.

If the chaos of the first day is an indicator of things to come, I really don’t wanna know about it. I’ll try to finish tomorrow.

Poems from Homeroom--Review

2009-07-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

I am always on the lookout for books that I can use in the classroom. Sometimes novels or nonfiction. Sometimes poetry. Poetry written specifically for teenagers, poetry they would pay attention to, takes special skill. It requires that the poet connect or reconnect with a lot of adolescent emotions that most grown-ups would love to forget.

With Poems from Homeroom: A Writer’s Place to Start, Kathi Appelt has done a laudable job of delving into those feelings. She writes in the introduction that, with the exception of the opening poem, each is based on an individual person from her life, someone special she had in mind to make the poem work for her on an emotional level. In itself, not bad advice to an aspiring poet. Appelt mixes free verse with more structured forms, such as acrostics, haiku, and a sestina.

The acrostics in particular are good models. This form of poetry is often used as an ice-breaker in classrooms--a quick this-is-who-I-am assignment. Unfortunately, in my experience, many of these poems lack any depth or originality. They skim the surface of the student/poet or just consist of the quickest, easiest words that came to mind (or could be found in a dictionary). In her book Appelt writes seven acrostics, each about a dead rock legend. In each she tried to incorporate something of that legend's voice. These are powerful examples to share. Deep and insightful. Thoughtful.

The haiku is another of the most assigned and least understood forms of poetry. Too many teachers get in the 5-7-5 mindset and look for nothing more than syllable count. This misses the true power and beauty of traditional haiku, which juxtapose some small, intimate descriptive image with a larger idea. In Japanese each haiku uses a kigo, or season word, to let the reader know which of the four seasons that haiku represents.

Unfortunately, Appelt also seems to fall into this trap. Although she uses haiku in a clever way, interlocking several to create one completed idea, she missed a couple of nuances. Namely, she wrote senryu--not haiku. Senryu has the same 5-7-5 count but is not locked into nature. It is more often used to look at humans and our foibles. Also, tradionally, each haiku/senryu should stand by itself, a complete idea, although a haiku sequence such as she has here is not unheard of.

The sestina is one of the harder forms to write. The need to repeat key words in a different sequence in each of the stanzas is exacting and effortful. Making it seem effortless is even harder. Appelt’s “Research Paper Sestina” was fun to read and a fresh example to share with your students: one on a topic (research papers) that they can easily relate to.

And all this is only the first half of the book.

After the last poem comes the second section, where she writes about the inspiration for each poem and has several questions to get young poets (or even older ones like me) thinking. These are excellent jumping off points into writing original poems.

This was an accidental find in the public library. I am glad I decided to peruse the poetry shelves as this book is going to be valuable to me in the future. After I get my own copy, of course.

Because Writing Matters--Review and Discussion Questions

2009-07-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

To be honest, I got roped into reading this one. There was a kerfluffle having to do with two different workshops my writing project site was hosting this summer. One was an online book discussion group and one was based on the NWP publication Because Writing Matters. In the turn of events the book discussion group wound up reading this also.

I started the book with a great deal of reluctance. I expected it to be dry and dense. It was neither. The NWP and Carl Nagin did an excellent job of making the case for why there should be writing at all grade levels and in across the curriculum. He used case studies of real teachers and schools that used writing to improve their students academic achievement. Often these improvements were was about as subtle as news coverage of Michael Jackson’s funeral.

To help make the case to administrators and central office personnel, he focused some chapters on what they, by virtue of their jobs and the current political climate, must focus on: test scores. He also made sure that all the facts in the book were products of and backed up by research--not just the anecdotal evidence of a few classrooms. This is also mandatory today, as it should be. If teachers don’t use research to inform their instruction, they are doomed to Santayana’s vicious circle.

In reading the book I was reminded of practices that I need to promote more in my classroom and was constantly stopping the reading to either make notes about changes to my classroom site (or just going ahead and making the changes I wanted to see in my online world).

While the information here is nothing that an NWP member would not expect, it is still an excellent summation of the current research as well as a powerful argument for the need to make the teaching of writing all-pervasive in our schools, at all levels.

It would make excellent reading for staff development, especially via the format of professional reading groups. And, with that in mind, I would like to offer some of the pre-reading, reading, and post-reading questions that we developed in my book study group.

PREREADING QUESTIONS

1. Describe your view of the teacher's role in the teaching of writing.

2. Describe your view of the student's role in the teaching of writing.

3. Describe your view of the administrator’s role in the teaching of writing.

4. How would you rate the importance of writing in education in general, and your subject in particular?

(These would also make excellent post-reading questions. The participants could compare their original answers with those they hold after reading the book.)

QUESTIONS AFTER READING THE INTRODUCTION

1. Should there be a required course for all teachers on writing pedagogy?

2. How could it be "sold" to the students as being important in their particular discipline?

3. Should there be a stronger composition requirement for Language Arts majors? It seems that the stereotype of an English teacher has been someone who loves the literature so much they want to re-experience it and share it with others. Would a stronger writing component, maybe requiring courses in writing from the English department as well as literature, help?

4. What book on writing pedagogy has most influenced your instruction of writing in the classroom? I would be interested in more than the title and author, but also in the hows and whys of this book's importance to you. For the purposes of the question limit yourself to one (or at most two) books.

QUESTIONS AFTER READING CHAPTER ONE

1. If writing is a subject that can never truly be completely mastered, what should our goals as writing instructors be?

2. How do you deal with the ambiguity in writing instruction--the idea that there is no guaranteed formula for success every paper? How do you get students to deal with it without becoming so frustrated they quit writing?

3. How can we teach, maybe just can we teach, students to write “powerful, memorable, provocative, [and/] or moving” papers?

4. How would your faculty respond to a mandatory inservice (or series of inservices) on writing pedagogy? Can you think of any ways to promote more of a “buy in” by faculty members who are not specifically responsible for writing scores?

5. What are your assumptions about writing?

QUESTIONS AFTER READING CHAPTER TWO

1. Were you taught writing as a process or as a product? How did this influence your development as a writer?

2. How do you see the reading-writing connection as it relates to what you reach? How can you use this connection to improve your teaching?

3. Can technology improve the teaching of writing in your classroom? If so, how--if not, why not?

4. How can we help students who lack knowledge of “Standard English” to become better at that without making them so frustrated with writing that they rebel?

QUESTIONS AFTER READING CHAPTER THREE

1. Think of a writing assignment that you gave that maybe didn't go as well as you had hoped. Using the information in this chapter, what could you do to improve that lesson before you teach it again?

2. If you don’t have any lessons that include a writing component, pick a lesson that you could use writing with. How would you include writing in teaching that lesson?

QUESTIONS AFTER READING CHAPTER FOUR

1. How do we get our fellow teachers to buy into ongoing professional development on writing? What objections could you foresee to such a professional development plan? How can these objections be overcome?

2. How can school districts make it easier for teachers to do this kind of professional development? I know they could just order us to, but that produces attendance--not results. What can administrators and central office personnel do to help create acceptance of professional development for writing?

QUESTIONS AFTER READING CHAPTER FIVE

1. What is the impact of mandatory writing assessments in your classroom? In your school? In your district?

2. Beyond essay questions and research papers, how can you use writing in your classroom to assess student progress in your subject area?

3. How useful are rubrics? Should they be absolute or more flexible?

4. Should holistic assessments be more focused on content or correctness?

QUESTIONS AFTER READING CHAPTER SIX

1. What do you think about the concept of assigning writing vs teaching writing? Do you find the criteria valid? Using these criteria, which would you say you do in your classroom?

2. What lessons do you draw from the two case studies? Do you think they could (or should) be adapted for your school?

3. How can we get administrators and central office personnel to understand the importance of teaching writing across the curriculum at all grade levels?

POST READING QUESTIONS

These questions were posed on pages three and four of the book. They are good questions to keep in mind as you read and make excellent post reading discussion questions.

Why does writing matter?
What does research say about the teaching of writing?
What do we mean by “writing processes"?
What are some features of an effective writing classroom?
How can writing be used to develop critical thinking?
How does writing fit into learning across the disciplines?
What kind of professional development prepares teachers to teach and use writing?
What does a school wide writing program look like?
What are fair ways to assess writing?

Writer's Book of Wisdom--Review

2009-07-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

Every summer I go on a reading orgy. I read lots of books that are what I call brain candy. They are quick, fun, and not in any way taxing on my brain. I tend to read of lot of urban fantasy--fantasy novels set in the contemporary world.

But, eventually, I start to think that, for some reason, I really ought to read some professional books. I love to read books about writing. I can read books on pedagogy and theory, but I am frankly not as patient with them. I like to get to the nuts and the bolts. So, after reading ten or twelve fantasies (and some graphic novels, too--almost forgot those), I pulled out a book I purchased in May with a birthday book card I received and began to read it.

And a few days ago I finished reading The Writer’s Book of Wisdom: 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft by Steven Taylor Goldsberry. It is set up as a list of rules. The author himself acknowledges at the end that some of the “rules” contradict each other. That is okay. Different people need different guidance. There is something in here for just about everyone. With each rule lasting only a page or two long, the book reads quickly. That is, if all you do is read it.

It is intended to be more than a quick read. It is intended to be inspirational--get the reader energized to trade reading for writing. As I usually find in these books it tends to slant heavily to narrative fiction. That is somewhat useful to me professionally, as I need to teach narrative writing. It is not as useful to me as a writer. I tend to write poetry and nonfiction. There were some ideas that I found useful for those genres as well.

Some of the rules are gems that I am going to use with my writing classes next year. They will be easy to build mini-lessons around. For instance, in discussion of dialogue, Goldsberry breaks that topic into three of his rules. It reminded me that, as a teacher I need to break down the processes more for my students. It also, by its very structure, exhibits and promotes the idea of strategic writing. Have a plan going in. Know what you want to accomplish. Think of your audience to help figure out the best way to accomplish the goal you set yourself.

I am working on getting a list of nonfiction writing titles together for inclusion in a classroom library. While I would not put this book in the same league as Writing Down the Bones or Writing Toward Home, it is in some ways more accessible to beginning writers, I think. It is informative, interesting, casual in tone, and well worth the time.

Hemingway Stole a Urinal

2009-06-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted here for a while. Since this poem is about Hemingway, and I am an English teacher, I think I can justify posting this here. It comes from a story I heard when I was recently in Key West. It is purportedly true.

Hemingway Stole a Urinal

Hemingway stole a urinal,
That’s how the story goes.
Hemingway stole a urinal,
While helping move Sloppy Joe’s.

Joe decided to move his bar,
To save a buck a month in rent.
He figured a way to make the move,
Without costing him one red cent.

He closed the bar at two o’clock
(That’s early for Key West)
And offered free booze to everyone
Who honored one request:

Help him move all his stuff,
Half a block to the new location,
And he would make sure that all who helped
Would be rewarded with inebriation.

And so the patrons of the bar,
Picked up every table and chair,
And balanced their drinks as they moved the stuff,
Through the humid Florida air.

In order to get another free drink
They had to back for another load,
And carry it down half a block
To the new site across the road.

Joe opened the bar at nine the next morn
And kept his business in the groove.
But there was at least one accoutrement
That didn’t make the move.

Young Ernest went into the john
To recycle some of Joe’s beer.
And as he stood there he was struck by an urge
To make the urinal disappear.

After all it was only fair,
Reasoned his semi-pickled brain,
After all he’d paid for that urinal
With all the profits he’d sent down the drain.

And he reached out a drunken hand
And tore it from the wall.
Then he left the party
And headed home with his haul.

He put in the front yard
Not caring if he appeared the fool.
He was getting back at his wife,
Who secretly put in a pool.

She tried to to make him take it out,
But she never won that fight.
And so she tried to dress it up,
With a fountain and tiles bright.

And that stolen urinal
Still sits there to this day.
And that’s the tale of the urinal
Stolen by Ernest Hemingway.

©2009-Art Belliveau

For Louise M. Rosenblatt

2009-05-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

For Louise M. Rosenblatt

Together in class

We read a story

It is the same story

Printed in every copy
Of every book
In the classroom

Yet—and this is what

I love about reading—

It is a slightly different tale

Inside every head

As the words on the page

Collide and combine
With the life experience
Of each person
Reading the story

So Much for Planning

2009-05-01T05:40:00.000-07:00

So Much for Planning

I was going to give a test today
On Greek and Latin roots
I was going to ask for final drafts
Of my students’ movie reviews
I was going to accomplish things
But my plans, reality outstrips
All my plans are junked today
Because of five field trips
This class now is half empty
The next two look much the same
But I’ll just bend like a reed in the wind
I know how to play the game
Those here today will have the chance
To make up work they’ve missed
Or maybe even to get ahead
With me here to assist
The end of the year is coming fast
(It’s in three weeks—right to the day)
And here we are just kicking back
Another wasted day

©2009-Art Belliveau

The Home Stretch

2009-04-27T20:13:00.001-07:00

The Home Stretch

Looking at the calander.
Looking at the clock.
Looking out the window.
Looking down the block.

Waiting for the summer.
Waiting for the end.
Waiting for the last school day;
It’s right around the bend.

Less than four weeks left now.
It’s shorter every day.
The students are excited--
Want to leave without delay.

The students all are restless.
That you can’t ignore.
They are ready for vacation--
We teachers are ready more!

©2009-Art Belliveau

Talking

2009-04-23T05:29:00.000-07:00

as the other students in the class
chat in quiet amiability while
working on their writing project
these young ladies just sat and talked
their volume rising slowly
almost imperceptibly
but steadily nonetheless

if they are going to refuse to work
why can't they at least do it quietly
like the ones who sleep so soundly
through the class every single day

but no
they insist on sitting there
publicly emoting to each other
the dramas of their lives
and their day at school

(and
to be honest
some of them do indeed
live through a great deal of real drama
too much to contend with
at their young age)

i wrestle with myself
as i observe them
heat slowly rising
in my face
in lockstep with
their increasing volume

i could do something
proactive
to make them quiet down
i could get up
and just sit near them
make them nervous
tenth graders detest
a teacher's propinquity

but my stomach is roiling
and jumping inside me
feels like i've been
repeatedly gut-punched
should have stayed home
but felt obligated
to come and teach them

most students are working
or at least appearing to
knowing that negative attention
lowers their grades
just these four loud talkers
inconsiderately interfering
with everyone's thought processes

so i reach to my left
and grab for the stack
of preprinted forms
ones i have prepared for
just such an occasion
and fill out detentions
for my chatty friends

see you all soon

©2009-Art Belliveau

15 Sentence Portrait

2009-04-23T05:21:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite writing exercises is one that I was introduced to about ten years ago. The 15-Sentnece Portrait was developed by the late Wendy Bishop. It is an extremely guided writing exercise. Each of the 15 sentences in the writing assignment has an instruction on what to include in that sentence. It could be a color, a wish, a body part, a specific number of words, etc.

In the abstract, it sounds like a straight jacket, but I have seen it produce some really excellent writing from my students over the years. And this year is no exception. I have an instruction page for it on my class website and even created a step-by-step PowerPoint to guide my students through writing one.

15 Sentence Step by Step Instructions

View more presentations or Upload your own.

I have shared this idea with others, and have had reports of similar good results. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

The Empty Classroom

2009-04-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

The Empty Classroom

It waits in darkness
Empty
Purposeless
Silent

Soon enough it will again be
A lively, raucous place
Filled with life
Filled with sound
Filled with direction

Once the break is over
And school begins again

©2009-Art Belliveau

National Poetry Month and My Students Are Publishing

2009-04-03T08:25:00.000-07:00

In honor of National Poetry Month I am featuring quotes by poets on my Almost Daily Quote blog. I am also going to do my best to write a poem a day for National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). I will keep these on my poetry blog. Any feedback is always welcome.

I am not the only one publishing this month. My students are at that point as well. Last week I got them to start typing up some of their assignments on Google Documents. Even with my prior rant on Google Docs, I still find the service to be very valuable. After my students write up their assignments I require them to add me as a collaborator so I can help them edit their work.

Then, this week, I had them join wikispaces.com. My class website is located there. After they join wikispaces, I have them join my class wiki so they can add their own content to it. Each student is provided with their own webpage. On that page, so far, I have had them write a brief intro (this was freestyle--no explicit instruction past no last names used). Then they were to type in "Table of Contents," "Portrait Poem," and "Memory Paper."

Then we went back to Google Docs. I showed them how to publish their documents as webpages and had them copy the URL. Then back to wikispaces, where I showed them how to link from their webpages to their documents.

Most of them have at least made a start on doing this and are at various stages of completion. But, if anyone is interested in taking a look and leaving a comment, please feel free. Please try to keep comments constructive, these are beginning writers.

Happy National Poetry Month!

03/18/09

2009-03-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

Inspired teachers... cannot be ordered by the gross from the factory. They must be discovered one by one, and brought home from the woods and swamps like orchids. They must be placed in a conservatory, not in a carpenter shop; and they must be honored and trusted. -John Jay Chapman

Google Sometime Sucks

2009-03-17T11:17:00.000-07:00

Maybe they have gotten just too $!&$*# big for their own $%^$#^ good.

I am trying, really trying hard, to sign my students up to Google so we can use Google Docs in my classes. Google, in a measure of corporate responsibility, has set up a program that if too many addresses are being set up from the same IP address too quickly, then no more can be added for about 24 hours. Ten seems to be the limit. I can live with that. I can use several different computers with several different IP addresses.

However, as a way to just annoy the @$#%$^& out of me, there is also something that makes me reenter info for a student anywhere from 3-20 times before accepting it. This is maddening. I recopy the passwords and type in the capcha word. Then I do it over and over and over and over and over and over and over... ad nauseum.

There is no number to call. There is no address to email. Google remains totally aloof from the problems its users encounter. It is not even slightly amusing. It is frustrating and aggravating. I doubt that anyone at Google will give a flying flip about the problems I am having, but wouldn't the universe be better place if they did.

Annual Standardized Test Rant

2009-03-13T13:02:00.000-07:00

I hate standardized testing. Truly. Deeply. Passionately. And this week that hatred is reinforced.

Testing in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. (Although I do like Tom Bodett’s take on the different emphasis on testing that school and life give.) I give tests in class now and again, but I prefer other means of assessment. I almost never give multiple choice tests that require a scantron sheet to be bubbled in. These kinds of tests just don’t seem to measure what I am interested in knowing: whether or not the students can apply the knowledge they learned in my class.

Standardized testing, however, is another kettle of fish altogether. Especially when it is school wide testing like the Alabama High School Graduation Exam (AHSGE). Especially because during the week of testing virtually all education in the school comes to a screaming halt. I am relatively sure that is not the intention, but as with all things in life the Law of Unanticipated Consequences takes a strong hold of it.

There are five tests in the series: math, reading, language, social studies, and biology. Virtually all of the tenth graders in the school take all the tests, as do any juniors or seniors who have not passed them. Seniors who have not previously passed the old science portion of the test have to take that, also. All of the tests are multiple choice, fill-in-the-bubble.

In Alabama the tests are untimed. The students have as long as they need to complete them. So we start in the morning and let those who are not finished by a certain time move to either the library or the auditorium in order to finish the test. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

We were originally given a schedule that called for the first part of testing to be over by about 9:45. Technically that is a little over two hours after we get started. But that did not count in the time for the teachers to collect and tag all cell phones in the classroom, to go and collect up the exact number of tests and answer sheets that are being used, to recount them for accuracy, and to sign for them. As the tests have become higher and higher stakes, the security precautions for them have correspondingly tightened.

The first day also neglected to take into account the time necessary for the students to bubble in all their demographic information and write the test booklet number on a piece of paper issued for this purpose. During the test, these are collected and all the test booklet numbers are kept on a daily tally sheet issued for that purpose.

Once all of the housekeeping tasks are accomplished (did I mention passing out the answer sheets, pencils, scratch paper, and test booklets? oh, and for Monday, the calculators for the math test--also numbered and recorded twice), the students get to start the test. Then the true agony of boredom sets in for those teachers who are test administrators and proctors (a second teacher in the room). Again, since the tests have become so high stakes, the teachers can no longer read, write, grade papers, etc. The teachers get to circle and watch the students test. Eating, drinking, and sitting are also forbidden activities for the teachers at this time.

Oh, one more wrinkle to this testiness--we started it the Monday after Daylight Saving Time started. So, basically, we were all starting the testing at 6:30 according to our bodies' internal clocks. The window to the outside showed a pitch black view. Could have been the middle of the night. It sure enough felt like it to me.

The first day I had eleven students who needed to go to "extended testing." The time when the students who haven't finished yet get to go to the school library or auditorium to complete the test. All those answer sheets and test books need to be collected. All the students' names, book numbers, and calculator numbers recorded on yet another sheet of paper so that the teachers in the extended testing center can sign them, like a receipt. The testing materials for the students who are already done get returned, recounted and resigned for. This pushed the first day past the scheduled time. By that afternoon we had amended schedules we sent out with the students.

The students who are not testing do not have to come to school until ten or so. When they get here, they are made to sit in the gym and wait for testing to end. There are a few teachers in there to try to manage the group. But it is basically a great big party for the nontesters.

After testing ends, we go to first block. That lasts two hours because we serve lunch during this time. The classes might or might not be up to half empty due to extended testing. The other three blocks meet after lunch for 20-30 minutes depending on how much we went over the test time when setting up extended testing.

The students are totally brainfried. There is no testing of any other kind this week, even for students who are not taking the AHSGE. There is absolutely no homework of any kind given during this week. All learning basically comes to a stop. While there is one class meeting the usual amount of time, it is often half or more empty. The other three classes lack the time to get anything accomplished.

Here is where I see the Law of Unintended Consequences taking hold. I will be optimistic and suppose for the sake of argument that the people who came up with these ideas for testing, legislators in Washington, D.C. and (in my case) Montgomery, AL, never intended for a week of learning to stop cold. I bet they would be upset about it and use the idea to condemn the "lazy teachers." Hey, if all learning stops, it must be our fault, right?

Next week we start a return to normality. The last quarter of school is going on. Prom is in a couple of weeks. Spring Break in the last half of April (totally different rant about that). The students and teachers are all much more relaxed. The build up in tension and aggravation building to the climax of AHSGE testing is done for another year. Now we just have to get through the denouement.

Bowling Writing Thinking

2009-02-26T08:22:00.000-08:00

While working on a writing project in class yesterday, my students and I were discussing different prewriting techniques to help them prepare to write the first draft. In class previously we had worked with listing, clustering, and freewriting. To be honest, I was sort of hoping that these techniques would be the ones they told me as I asked them how to prepare in this stage. While I eventually did get those answers across (either by getting them to tell me or, as a last resort, reminding them of we have been learning), in each class at least one student answered they would prepare for the writing by "thinking about it."

While I am all in favor of thinking, I see this answer as a cop out. What my students have predominantly meant by this over the years was that they would sit in their seat and do nothing physically while they pondered the topic. I am trying to get them to a point where they prepare for a writing task by picking up a pen or pencil. "Just thinking" about something is not the most effective way to prepare--unless it is coupled with the physical activity of writing the thoughts down.

I tried to come up with a way to get across to my students that thinking about something is not the same as doing something. I went bowling last week (this will connect, I promise). It occurred to me that I might be able to link up the way I bowl with "just thinking" about writing something.

When I bowl and it is my turn to fling the ball down the lane, I always try to take a moment or two. I stand there on the lane and think through my approach. Where is the best place to stand? What should I aim for? Where should I put the ball down to make it go where I want? I think through the proper form and the way to take the three steps and let loose.

After I told them this (to much rolling of eyes and irreverent bowling comments) I asked them if doing all that was bowling. The majority of my students yelled out no. They told me that just standing there thinking about bowling was not, in fact, the same thing as bowling.

I agreed with them and then pointed out that just as standing there thinking about throwing the ball was not bowling (and how much less when I am seated, waiting my turn, and thinking about how to improve my swing), sitting there thinking about what they wanted to write was not writing. Even if they were holding the pen in their hands.

The only way to bowl is to fling that ball at the pins. The only way to write is to put words on paper. Once either is done, then the work of improving it can truly begin.

10,000 Hours

2009-01-21T11:18:00.000-08:00

In his newest book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell takes a long, hard, in-depth look at success. In the book he takes apart many of the American myths about success and looks at what it really takes.

One of the claims he makes in his book is that it takes a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice in order to become expert in doing something. If you want to be an expert in swimming, you need to spend 10,000 hours swimming. If you wish to be an expert teacher, you need to spend 10,000 hours teaching. If you want to be an expert writer, you need to spend 10,000 hours writing.

He even helpfully breaks this down a little more. 10,000 hours works out to be three hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, for ten years. I was talking about this with a friend and we figured that meant about five years to become an expert teacher. Then I rethought. Even if we double the number of teaching hours from three to six, most teaching contracts run a maximum of 180-185 days. So that again, in my revised thinking, works out to about ten years.

Then I look back at my teaching career. I still apologize to students I taught my first year when I run across them. I assure them that I have improved since then. By my fifth year, I was just becoming relatively confident. I had the basics down and was working on improving. It took me a little over a decade to really feel like I had mastered the job. And even that feeling fades on occasion.

When I add to that the thought that, according to statistics compilrd by the NEA, 50% of all new teachers quit within their first five years, I have a real problem. Why are so many of these new professionals leaving before they have the chance to acquire expertise? So I have known have run away hard after just one year.

I think the answer might be in the way teachers are prepared for the classroom. Most teachers have minimum exposure to students prior to getting their first job. They have probably interned, but that is such a short time. Also, there is always that safety net of the supervising teacher. Sometimes, more than a safety net.

For instance, my supervising teacher never left her classroom. She sat in the back of the room quietly doing paperwork. However, when the class would get too loud to suit her, she would raise her head up from that paperwork and look meaningfully around the room. Sure enough they would get quiet. And I would (the next fall) go into my teaching career with no real experience in managing classroom behavior. I survived, but it was a rough year.

Tossing new teachers into the deep end with nothing to cling to but an anchor might not be the most effective way to retain teachers and help them get to their 10,000 hours. Doctors do it with paid, years long internships. Lawyers do it with years of case file work. I think it would be exceedingly rare for a first year doctor to provide surgery unassisted, or a first year lawyer to argue a case in open court with no supervision. Yet teachers are required to this all the time.

Maybe some sort of paid, years long internship for teachers is needed. But the cost, some will cry out. It is too expensive. How expensive is it now to have rotating teachers? How expensive is it to future generations that the teachers they had were so very far from being an expert in their field? There will be up from costs, no doubt––but the pay off on the back end might well be incalculable.

Some Self Promotion

2008-12-05T19:41:00.000-08:00

In an effort to use my slanted sense of humor to help supplement my teacher's salary, I started a little shop on cafepress.com. Please feel free to come on in and look around. I have a couple of more ideas that I plan to add to the shop shortly.

And, as ever, I thank you for your support.

NWP National Conference 2008

2008-11-29T22:00:00.000-08:00

I started to write a blog entry about being at the NWP national conference in San Antonio several times. And, to be brutally honest, they all sucked. Big time.

I read and reread them trying to figure out why they sucked so much. Basically it came down to all of them being some variation of a report of my notes taken in various sessions. And those notes, in contrast to most of the sessions, were boring. I wanted a blog entry that was something more than a dry report of my sessions. That kind of recap will be done in a different forum.

I thought about writing about my time spent with friends from my writing project. Then I rethought that. We had a lot of intensely personal discussions that are not fodder for a public blog posting. I will say that we need to work on getting everyone to row in the same direction. Also, an end to the circular firing squads would be a positive step as well.

So, what to write about? I decided to go meta. I asked the big question to myself and now will try to work out the answer. The big question(s): Why do I come to these conferences? What do I get out of them?

Being a teacher can be a lonely job. I am surrounded by students all day and rarely get to interact with my peers on a professional level (Let’s face it, most school conversations quickly devolve into bitching sessions.). Being at these conferences lets me interact more professionally. I am seen as a valued, knowledgeable colleague and treated that way. I get to talk about deeper educational issues than I do at home. At this conference in particular, I was able to not just express my personal interest in social justice issues, but share with a tableful of people who all shared that common interest. And to discuss ways of integrating these ideals into a classroom setting.

Every year I get to meet with friends from previous years and friends from a listserv I am a member of. I get to socialize and be a grown-up, no mean trick if you are the father of a rambunctious five year old. I can have some time to try to concentrate for more than a few minutes.

I get a feeling of renewal attending these events. I feel a little more charged up, a little more optimistic, a little more eager to try different ideas and approaches in the classroom.

I also regain a deeper appreciation of my wife and daughter. I love them dearly, but sometimes get so absorbed in my teaching I take them for granted. Being away from them for several days reminds me on a visceral level now much they mean to me and how much their absence hurts.

So I get some professional insights, some site work done, some socializing, and a renewed appreciation of family right before Thanksgiving. Not a bad pay back for my attendance.

A Brief Digression

2008-11-05T12:22:00.000-08:00

I went all off my plans today. I had to. Most of the students I teach are African American. Last night, for the first time, an African American was elected President of the United States.

When I was five years old my mother sat me down in front of our tiny little black and white TV. Even though I wanted to out and play, she wouldn’t let me. She told me to sit there and watch what was going on. It was important; it was historic. That’s why I still have memories of seeing Neil Armstrong bouncing around up on the moon. My mother knew history was being made and wanted me to be a witness to it.

In 1990 I was up in the middle of the night aimlessly flipping through the channels when I stopped on CNN. They were reporting live about an unprovoked attack on a country named Kuwait by the dictator Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Even then I had a premonition of doom. This premonition was made reality a few months later as I was again watching CNN and watched the bombing of Baghdad. Listening to the three reporters in that hotel room I again knew that I was watching a history changing event.

It is so rare in our lives that we see something of truly historic importance. It is even more rare when we realize at the time it is occurring that the event is that huge and important. Last night, as I watched the election returns come in and Barack Obama make a steady march from three electoral votes to over 300 electoral votes, I again knew this was a reality changer. Our country had crossed a threshold it could never uncross. We had elected an African American to the highest office of our land.

So today I showed them the video of President-Elect Obama’s victory speech.

I talked about history and the importance of history. And I told my students to write what they thought about this event and how they felt about it. I let them know it was not going to be published. It was more personal than that. I gave them a chance to share in small groups or pairs if they wanted to. Two of my classes were noticeably quiet after that announcement.

After they had finished I gave each student an envelope. I told them to write their names and something about what was inside (Election 08, Obama Wins, etc.) and to put the letter inside the envelope. In each class several wanted to know if they were to lick the envelope. It was up to them. I finished by telling them to take it home and put it somewhere safe. That in 10 or 20 years it would be very meaningful to them. If they ever have kids or grandkids ask them about this historic day, they can pull out what they wrote today.

I thought this digression was well worth it.

My Inspiration

2008-10-27T05:11:00.000-07:00

I was asked recently about my inspiration to become a teacher. I had previously written a piece on that. So, here it is. The way I was inspired to teach...

I came to be a teacher from a different direction than a most educators I know. Most of my colleagues can point to an influential teacher who was so wonderful, so marvelous, that they were inspired to be like that person. Not me. (Okay, in later years I had many a teacher whose good example I sought to emulate--but this essay is going back to the first cause.)

It was not a particularly good teacher that inspired me to teach, but a particularly bad teacher. At least from my perspective. Mrs. Brown, my fifth grade teacher, seemed to me to be about 90 years older than God. She was petite, barely over five feet tall. And I was completely terrified of her. Her strong Southern accent was a novelty for me. Her hostile attitude was like nothing I had ever encountered before.

I remember one time near the end of the school year in particular. I was the most naive, gullible dupe. Several of the students in the class, who had been picking on me unmercifully for months, had decided on a new strategy to get to me. Throughout the day they fed me the story, over and over, that there was going to be a big racial fight after school. Different people mentioned it to me at different times. Some allowed me to overhear them talking with each other about it.

It was in South Florida in the 70s. It was possible, even in fifth grade I knew that. And I was scared. Scared for myself, especially after one girl, new to the school, told me with absolute sincerity that I was a target for the black kids (she used a racial epithet here). I was more scared for my brother, he was a kindergartner in the same school. By the end of the day, I was a wreck. I sat in my desk, sobbing with anxiety.

She asked me what was wrong and I told her about the fight to come. She laughed and told me that was ridiculous. There was no such thing gonna happen. Then she said, and I remember this clearly, “And now need the whole class to sit here laughin’ at you.” They complied. No empathy. No concern. No offer of any kind of understanding. That is the first time I can remember an adult being intentionally cruel to me.

She had her mind set on the way teaching and learning were supposed to happen and anything--or anyone--differing from that preconceived notion was wrong. I guess that made me wrong. For the first time I was not doing well in school. I was getting more quiet and withdrawn. I was called in to see the counselor, who gave me some tests. Being the good little schnook that I was, I took them without a thought as to why. I was “diagnosed” as being gifted. I say diagnosed because the school system seemed determined to cure me.

I was placed in a pull out program. Twice a week I was removed from Mrs. Brown's class to work with the special education, gifted and talented class. This seemed to infuriate Mrs. Brown. I think she felt highly insulted that she was not deemed to be “good enough” to teach me. As I was not making stellar grades in her class to begin with, she could not understand why I was being put in the special ed class. After all, if I was so “gifted,” shouldn’t I be passing her classes?

She failed me for the work I missed in her class. She would only grudgingly, if at all, help me catch up on the work I missed, after all, I was "gifted," right? I should be able to catch up without her help. She never missed a chance to scorn my work publicly and to hold up the work of other students not in the special ed program as examples of work as markedly superior to whatever I turned in.

The students in the class picked up on her attitude. They began to call me names. Poke me. My school supplies would disappear. I was cut off from their society. It was not enough that I was new to the school. Not enough that I was shy and bookish. The teacher was against me. As the year progressed, it got worse and worse right up to the racial fight hoax.

I do not think she could have failed to notice what was going on, but she never attempted to put a stop to it. I don’t know, maybe she thought she was toughening me up or something equally silly. As a teacher myself, I am appalled by her behavior.

When my parents complained about her to the principal, they were told, in essence, “It's her last year; we don't want to make any trouble for her.” Although not particularly surprised by it, I am even more appalled by this attitude on the part of the administration. Schools do not exist for teachers, but for students. Worrying about trouble for her was not what their focus should have been. Worrying about what she was doing to students should have been what they were most concerned about.

Their idea was to come up with a compromise, they offered to move me to another fifth grade classroom. For some reason, the decision was left by the administration to my parents, and by my parents to me. Remember, I was a fifth grader and they were adults. I have always been too stubborn for my own good. Apparently I was very persuasive when I elected to stay in her class. I was not moved. And after that I lost any recourse of going to the office, as I had rejected their solution. I felt even more isolated and cut off after that.

Why would I stay there, though? Why wouldn’t I get out when I could? For some time I felt it was because I was too stubborn to leave. If she didn't like me the worst thing I could do was stay there in her face. I think the more honest answer was that I had one really good friend in the school, from my perspective at the time one really good friend in the whole world, and Jack was in that class. I had always had trouble making friends. I was afraid that if I left I would never make another friend and that was scarier than anything the teacher could do to me.

Often as I sat there I thought that anyone could be a better teacher than she was, even me. There was my spark. As I progressed in school I had teachers who made a deeper positive impression in me, but it was Mrs. Brown in fifth grade who started me off on my current path. Without her I might have never been inspired to teach.

Less Than Heroic

2008-10-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

I am back from my wonderfully short, but still beloved, fall break. My school system takes a couple of days off after the first semester ends. This year it was Monday and Tuesday for the teachers and students, and Wednesday for the students—teachers had an inservice day. It is a nice break in the middle of the semester.

Usually.

It seems my body knows when I am about to get a chance to relax and sees that as an opportunity to break down. Sure enough I woke up Sunday with a raging headache and a feeling of extreme fatigue. This kept up all day. Monday I wasn’t any better. I got worse. At a clinic Monday night I almost passed out before being violently ill. I was given two IV bags of fluids, some meds, and told not to drive myself home.

Tuesday was much the same.

By yesterday I was almost feeling human and was able to eat and keep down some solid food. I did not make the inservice day.

I am not at 100% yet. I am able to show up at work and try to do my job. My students are going to be working on putting together a movie review in here today and tomorrow. Logically, then, it follows that they need to see a movie in order to do so. So we are watching Spider-Man. It is not the best use of class time, but I need to have them doing something that requires a minimal physical functioning from me.

Besides, it is a two day week. Not enough time to start anything heavy. And heck, they deserve a rest now and then, too.

Is this my proudest moment as a teacher? No, not really. Then why blog about this to the whole few people who read this? Because sometimes this is what happens in a classroom. Sometimes the teacher is not at 100%. That is a part of the way it is. And if I only blog about the things I do well, or the things going on that tick me off, I am not being as honest as I think I should be.

So, I hope to be back at a higher level by Monday. Until then…

Creating Fun Ways to Study Vocabulary

2008-10-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

I have found some cool new sites to help me get my students ready for the vocabulary I teach them. I go with the idea of teaching them Greek and Latin root words. And I start with numerical prefixes. A great big shout out to Ted Nellen for originating this idea and turning me on to it about ten years ago or so.

Classtools.net is the first site I like. I used it to create these two games.

Click here for full screen version

I also used Pro Profs to create this stack of flash cards to help my students study.

I have felt the need to give my students these kinds of tools in order to get them to study. I am hoping that if I make the studying a bit more fun they will focus more on it.

These are all on my website for the students.

What do you think of these games?

Theme Park Analogy

2008-09-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

In my third block class today one of my students, Dennis Vincent Long (he requested I publicize his name this exact way), came up with a good idea to help me explain the term theme to my students. I was going through my cards, asking them what a theme is and he popped out with, “Theme parks.”

I was initially inclined to blow this off and keep going. After a few seconds of thought, however, I realized that he was on to a good idea.

Think of the original Disney World, the park that is now called the Magic Kingdom. In that park there are four themed areas: Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Frontierland, and Adventureland. There is also Main Street, USA, Liberty Square, and Mickey's Toontown Fair.

Each one of these areas has one big, unifying idea behind it. In Fantasyland all the rides, shops, restaurants, etc. are related to the various pure fantasies that Disney puts out. [Digression—Is the It’s a Small World ride in Fantasyland because world peace and harmony is nothing but a dream?] In Tomorrowland everything relates to science fiction and/or the world of tomorrow. In Frontierland everything is related to the rugged frontiers of America’s past. Adventureland is themed to the different adventure shows Disney has created over the years.

As each one of those areas has everything relate to each other, so a theme in a book or a story would be the big, unifying idea that holds that work together. All the other aspects of the book need to relate to that theme.

So, thanks, Dennis! If not for your thought today, I probably would not have come up with that analogy. It makes the idea of theme clearer to me, anyway.

Causal Chain

2008-09-22T19:45:00.000-07:00

One of the types of essays to teach is the cause and effect essay. Why is this one to teach? Because it is tested in Alabama. Well, that's sort of a cop-out. It is important to be able to trace causes and effects. To be able to examine a situation analytically to determine how it came about. Right now, with the financial meltdown going on, wouldn't it be instructive to know what caused it, so that we could try to avoid those mistakes in the future? But I digress.

One of the types of cause and effect papers is the causal chain. A causes B which then causes C which then causes D... I like to find cool videos of dominoes for the causal chain visual. I just got this off Cosmic Variance. I like it. When we get to it, I think my students will like it too.

Obfuscate Clearly

2008-09-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

One of the lessons I really love to do with my kids is to work with them on clarity.

Introducing the concept of clarity is fun in and of itself. I begin by asking what they think clarity means. Of course, while I am asking, I have a webpage up on the board with a quick thumbnail definition.

Then we listen to Abbott and Costello doing their famous Who's on First? routine. I am always amazed by how many of them have not heard of this routine. It is a classic and needs to kept alive. Then we disect why there was a breakdown in communication. It is fun and I can direct them to Youtube for more Abbott and Costello routines.

Then I read from Running from Safety by Richard Bach. On pages 210-211 he describes what it was like to be a technical writer. During his time there, a plane crashed due to a mistaken word in a checklist. I feel it is a good real life example of why clarity is so important.

Then we move to the concept of pretentious/overblown language. I want them to get a feel for it--to see why it is counterproductive when trying for clarity. I follow that talk up by having them complete a worksheet titled "Rules to Live By" from the book Basic Skills/Reading Comprehension 6-8.

As they work on that individually, I wander around and help where I can. I do not answer questions the way they want: I don't tell them what to write. Instead I ask a lot of leading questions and try to lead the Socratically to the correct answer.

After we finish that up, I call on them randomly to translate for me. They are translating from overblown English to regular English. In fact, to ease them into it, this worksheet has the answers below and they just need to match them up.

Then on to the next segment. I pass out a handout with ten Obfuscated Proverbs on it. These are not mine. They have been floating around the Internet for years and years. I just use some of them as an object lesson. I start by taking them step-by-step through how to "translate" an obfuscated proverb. The PowerPoint I use for that is below.

I let them work together in pairs as I wander around again. Again I try to lead them Socratically to the correct answers.

I am told that the exercise is hard. It is too much. It makes their brains hurt.
I am asked why we need to do this in a writing class. And whined at occasionally that I expect too much from them.

I don't. I know the exercise is challenging for them. It is not a word for word translation, but a getting a sense of where a proverb is going and jumping to a guess. They hate to guess for the most part. They want something that they can figure out and prove to be the way it ought to be. But life isn't like that. Sometimes you have to figure things out. Sometimes you won't even have a partner to work with or a mentor/coach to ask for help.

They will finish with this tomorrow. I look forward to more of what I saw today: kids who "get it" lighting up as they realize they figured out something they thought was too hard.

Thanks, Nancy!

2008-09-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

One of the writing exercises I like to use to help me get to know my students is to have them write a 15-sentence self portrait, and idea inspired by Wendy Bishop. I shared this exercise with my friends on the English Teacher Talk List (you can join the list interversity.org) years ago.

The best thing about being on a listserv is that when you share, it gets returned to you in unexpected ways. Nancy Steen, a New Hampshire teacher and longtime listfriend, took the idea and added a terrific new twist to it. After having her students write their 15-sentence self portraits, she had them take them to wordle and turn them into artwork.

And that inspired me to dust off one of my 15-sentence portraits (not of myself alone, but a memory of my father) and try the same thing. You can see my results below.

If you are not part of an ongoing professional community, like a listserv or a writing project, I highly recommend finding one and joining. Doing so yeilds terrific results.

The Man Who Planted Trees

2008-09-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

Note: I wrote this during and after school yesterday, but didn't get the chance to post it.

Today’s journal entry is a question: Can one person change the world? Explain your answer.

I am interested to see what my students think. Do they believe it is possible for one person to affect world change? I know already that I believe it is. And that the fact has been demonstrably proven with both positive and negatives effects.

Take Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as an example of changing the world in a negative way. He was the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attack on the US. That one man did change the world. Wars started. Prejudice and hatred increased. Terrorist attacks have risen. Tens of millions of the world’s poorest children starved to death as direct and indirect result of the economic upheavals that occurred.

On a more positive note, as one of my students pointed out, Gandhi was a person who affected a positive change upon the world. I elaborated by pointing out that the non-violent resistance was not only successful in India, but also in South Africa and the United States as well. Gandhi began his nonviolent resistance in South Africa and that legacy lasted. There was a change of government there that did not require civil war and millions upon millions dead. And Martin Luther King, Jr. adapted the lessons of Gandhi to the civil rights protests right here. Imagine the different way our society and the world would have reacted if the marchers in Birmingham had shot back at the police--or if the Freedom Riders came in armed and shooting.

Some students who are adamant that no one person can change the world, that doing that is up to God. Or that it was just plain impossible. It is a more than a little sad that their life experiences to date have trained them to nihilism. Some are very fatalistic. Some are full of anger. Some have already given up and are trying to live life without the benefit of hope.

Then I showed them the movie The Man Who Planted Trees, from the story by Jean Giono. It is an inspirational story of a man who plants trees, just because he felt the need to do so. And over the course of years he planted a forest. And very slowly and quietly, never seeking recognition, the forest grew. Most others thought that this was a miracle of nature.

To see the changes that this one man nurtured, through two world wars, is little short of miraculous. The animation of the film is breathtaking. It is simple yet profound, as befits the story it tells. I always find it to be an uplifting experience to watch this film.

Giono later wrote, after being asked many times, that the story was a work of fiction. But that should not deter us from believing the deeper message: one man can change the world. I point out the many thousands of people inspired by this story to plant trees. Millions of trees around the world have been planted by those who read the story. Or by others who were inspired by these people. One man, in this case Giono, has made a difference.

I love the power of writing.

More than One Way to Skin a Cat

2008-09-10T07:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had fun. It was Evil Fun. But, in doing so, I believe I made a point and turned a potential struggle for control in the classroom into a comedy show.

This is my first full, five-day week with my writing students (all of them, that is, except the ones out driving with the drivers' ed teacher). As such I am taking time each day to explain and practice with them writing to each of the different types of journal prompts I use in class.

To digress, at the beginning of class I have a PowerPoint presentation that automatically loops around and around to the five different prompts. The first slide is a quote, the second a picture of some sort, the third a story starter from The Writer's Book of Matches: 1,001 Prompts to Ignite Your Fiction by the staff of fresh boiles peanuts, a lterary journal, the fourth a question from the Book of Questions, and lastly a chance to write on whatever topic interests them that day.

So each day this week I am introducing them to a different kind of prompt, getting them to write to it. Writing to it myself. Yesterday we were writing to the picture prompt. It is an old one of some football player being tackled. I don't even remember where I got it. I told the class, after we talked about what kind of writing could come from the picture, that it was time to start and to get writing.

One young man, who I promised would remain nameless here, wasn't getting started. He was just sitting there. I stage whispered to him, "Nameless--it's time to get writing, man."

He looked up at me with a direct challenge in his eyes and said, "I don't want to write."

I looked at him in mock horror as I could feel the eyes of the rest of the class stealing over to the scene. They wanted to know how I would handle it. Would I yell at him, threaten him, ignore him and let him get a zero? Was this a path they wanted to follow him down?

I said in my best fake choked-up voice, "You don't want to write?"

Then I literally fell to my knees in front of his desk, clasped my hands together in supplication and began to wail in best theatrical voice, "Oh, Nameless, PLEASE write something! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!"

The rest of the class was silent for a moment. Whatever they expected, it sure wasn't this.

"Please, Nameless," I wailed, false sobs ripping from my chest, "Please write something during journal writing time!!!"

At this point he jumped up out of his desk and started backing away from me as the class dissolved into helpless laughter. I followed on my knees still begging him in my best theatrical manner to write.

He returned to his seat and picked up his pencil. The look in his eyes said he wasn't sure if he should be angry at me for the show I was putting on or scared that I really was a crazy man. I began to implore him. "Nameless, all you have to do to make me stop is to write something in your journal. Please writne one little thing in your journal so I can stop doing this!!"

He relented and began to write in the journal. As he finished his first word he looked up at me to see what effect it would have on my weird behavior.

Still on my knees I raised my hands into the air and shouted, "Halleluja! He's writing! Nameless is writing!!!" Still fake sobbing, now in joy, I rose to my feet, dusted off my knees, looked at the rest of the class and asked in my normal voice, "Is there anybody else who desn't want to write in their journal today?"

The room was silent except for the scribbling of pens and pencils on paper.

All in all, it was one of my better performances.

Fun How To Video

2008-09-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

In an unusual move, I am posting a second time today. If you have not seen any of the videos for the Common Craft Show you are missing a treat. They put together short videos that clearly explain some difficult concepts. What is prompting me to post about it is that on their blog today they have posted a "behind the scenes look" at how one of their videos is made.

I was thinking that as I go into working with the process analysis paper for expostiory writing, this would be a good example to use. I would start by showing the video then directing them to the blog entry, then watching the video again. They would have an excellent example of how to explain something step by step.

And maybe I could get them to watch another of the videos and analyze how it goes step by step in process analysis.

What's your view on this?

My Basic Assumptions

2008-09-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

I have started teaching for the next 14 weeks of the semester. A few years ago I heard a speaker who challenged us (a statewide group of teachers) to examine our basic assumptions about what we teach. I took that seriously and thought about my basic assumptions about writing and the teaching of writing. I came up with these:

Everyone has a need to communicate.
Everyone can write, maybe not as well as they would like, but they can do it.
Writing is a set of skills that can be taught.
Practice makes improvement (nobody's perfect).
Effort is required to improve.

These are the core beliefs I have about writing that I try to work from when I am teaching my students. I have even gone so far as to post them on the class website. In my introduction to the students today I went over these core beliefs with them. I received no major argumants or disagreements from anyone. And I have a feeling that the students I have right now would not be shy about disagreeing with me.

Anyway, I thought I would ask your views on this. What are your core beliefs, your basic assumptions about what you teach? Try to limit your time to a few minutes and go with your gut. I think it would be cool is something showed up on your list that you didn't realize was there.

Now What?

2008-08-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

When surfing the web, I come across some sites that are just too interesting not too pass along. One of them is garfield minus garfield. What this site does is to take away all the other characters from the Garfield cartoon strip, except Jon Arbuckle. It makes for some interesting strips. Like this one:

How many times have I taught a lesson that I thought had gone so well, only to meet that exact reaction from one or more of my students? It scares me. No matter how well prepared I am, no matter how stellar a job I do, there will always be some kids who just don’t get it.

I think that is something that is overlooked in assessing how students learn: the connection with the teacher and the connection with the subject. Both are important, but the teacher/student connection is the most important. More times than I can count I have gotten a student another teacher despaired of that worked just fine for me. And, vice versa. Some students who would not put forth the slightest effort for me moved to another teacher and did exemplary work.

While this is frustrating, it is also a reason not to expect all teachers to teach the same way. The scripted programs that have proliferated since NCLB was passed into law are insultingly called “teacher-proof.” While they may show some short term gains in standardized test scores, that is what they are designed to do—teach students to take standardized tests. And if one student is not doing well with one teacher and moves to another doing the same scripted material, will he or she be any better off?

Teachers need to reclaim our individualism. I don’t teach all children equally well. That happens. I still try. But sometimes it just won’t click. As long as there are other teachers out there, teaching in their own individual ways, there is a chance that student will be able to learn from them.

If we go the cookie-cutter approach, well, kids ain’t cookie dough

Brain Rules

2008-08-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

This summer I read several books on education. Why? Because I enjoy keeping current. At least that’s what I tell my wife when she asks me. And I do enjoy keeping current. I also just enjoy seeing classroom practice through someone else’s eyes. This professional reading for fun is a habit that started for me way back in 1989 when I attended my first summer invitational institute for the Sun Belt Writing Project. So much of what is good about my teaching comes from my almost 20 year association with Sun Belt.

This summer one of the books I read that just blew me away was Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina. At first it might seem an unlikely pick for an English teacher. After all, what do I know about neuroscience? What does the way the brain works have to do with me?

As a teacher, the way the brain works should have a lot to do with the way I teach. After all, as I learn better how the brain works, I can make adjustments to my teaching in order to take full advantage of the knowledge. Here are the 12 rules:

Rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power.
Rule #2: The human brain evolved, too.
Rule #3: Every brain is wired differently.
Rule #4: We don't pay attention to boring things.
Rule #5: Repeat to remember.
Rule #6: Remember to repeat.
Rule #7: Sleep well, think well.
Rule #8: Stressed brains don't learn the same way.
Rule #9: Stimulate more of the senses.
Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses.
Rule #11: Male and female brains are different.
Rule #12: We are powerful and natural explorers.

While some of the above rules may seem to be intuitive, each is treated with scientific rigor. He has had the time and the expertise to research these matters and come up with some evidence of their effectiveness. I usually fuzz out on specifics and can only remember that I heard it somewhere. Not the most convincing of arguments. At the same time, Medina does not claim to have all the answers and throughout the book sets up intriguing questions for further research.

Medina has turned Brain Rules into a multimedia experience. He has a website with short videos on the major concepts of the rules and a blog. I have subscribed to the blog and look at the videos and other extra info on the website frequently. I especially like the tutorials on each of the rules. They are entertaining as well as informative.

Whether or not I will make use of all the incredible information in the book is, of course, the question. In order to try I am trying to get a Professional Reading Group going this year. I have already received a preliminary okay on it from the school level. Now we are just waiting to hear from the central office level. The hitch to cover is that I am trying to get this group professional development credit for reading the book and discussing it.

Here’s hoping that the book will do me and, more importantly, my students, some good.

I am dictating this...

2008-08-21T14:27:00.001-07:00

I am dictating this over my cellphone via Jott.com. This is too cool. listen

Powered by Jott

This I Believe (About Teaching & Learning)

2008-08-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

Way back in April, Bill Ferriter of The Tempered Radical tagged me with a meme. Here's the post with his response to the meme. The idea to write a "This I Believe" essay had been rattling around in my head for a long time and this challenge, tying it to my teaching philosophy, gave it the focus it needed to get done. Alas April and May are months that I get so swamped with school work that little else ever gets done. And then came June and vacation time. Then July and the wonderful world of Sun Belt. I finally got it written during an extended workshop with Sun Belt. Then I let some people read it to help me focus it a bit. Then I let it marinate and reread it.

For better or for worse, here is my take on the idea.

I believe that tossing my students into the deep end of an assignment is—sometimes—the best way of getting them to succeed.

When I was four years old, my family moved to South Florida, and my grandparents bought a house with an in-ground pool. I had gotten into it many times, sitting and standing on the steps with my parents or grandparents there to watch over me. I would jump in to them, or pull myself along the wall to them. If I had an inflatable tube around me, I would “swim.” But I wasn’t really swimming and I knew it. I was just pretending. It was fun, yes, but I wanted more.

One day my father and I were out by the pool and I again expressed my desire to learn how to swim—probably for the thousandth time that day. A little exasperated, my father asked me, “Do you really want to learn how to swim?”

In a flash I thought about all the times I had seen him and the other adults in the pool having a good time. I had been in there, imitating them, wanting to do what they were doing. As much fun as they appeared to be having, it still looked a little scary to me, though. At four, the backyard pool was enormous. But I really wanted to, so I answered, “Yes!”

My father said, “Okay,” picked me up, and tossed me in the middle of the deep end of the pool. In seconds I was swimming and dogpaddled my way to the other side.

While that might seem a little harsh, it wasn’t. It was a safe environment; my family was all around. There was support if I needed it; my father was ready to jump in and make sure I wouldn’t drown. I had shown some beginning skill at being in the water, so my father had an idea of what I could do, but knew I had to get over the anxiety of my first try; so, he tossed me in and I got over it like that.

Often in my classes, there are students who are hesitant to start writing. Students who are not sure that they can get off the steps and give up the inflatable tube of worksheets and heavily structured writing assignments. When told to just write, for many of them, it is the equivalent of being thrown in the deep end of the pool.

Sure, it can be a little scary, but we work to create a supportive environment. I am there (as often are other class members) if anyone has real difficulties they need help with—so they don’t wind up drowning in their own thoughts. We start with some more guided assignments first, giving us all an idea of what we are capable of, so I know how to better help them.

And they “swim.” Some produce little “dogpaddles” for days or weeks; others are diving in on their own in no time. And, just as swimmers differ in the way they enter the water, some always content to jump right in others acclimating themselves to the water a bit at a time, students who have found they can write enter assignments differently. Sometime they jump right in, sometimes slowly work themselves into an assignment a bit at a time.

Just as I couldn’t learn how to swim correctly before being exposed to it, before getting a chance to try it out on my own, so my students won’t learn to write any better unless they get to read good examples, talk and write about them, and get a chance to write in a stress-free environment, like a journal.

Eventually I was taught that some of what I was doing in the water wasn’t as effective as it could be. I was shown ways to improve my kicks and taught different strokes. But I spent days and weeks of summer in pools by myself, swimming as I wanted and learning new and better ways on my own as well. Sometimes asking for help, sometimes not.

In the classroom mistakes can be dealt with and the writing can be improved. They learn and practice better usage, different types of writing, different ways of getting from here to there in the ocean of words. More importantly by writing they learn how to help themselves improve. Sometimes they ask for help, sometimes they don’t. They dive more deeply on their own. Swim more freely.

Sometimes they still need to be pushed a little to get them move to a deeper level they are capable of. Sometimes they need to see the strokes performed by one who knows how to do it—by someone who is in there swimming with them. And sometimes they just need to be set free to swim as they please and have a little fun. When they are doing that, they’ve learned the most important lesson I can teach them.

Now I will tag five people with the meme and see what they think:

Whit at both hands
Ted at CyberEnglish
Carla at The English Teacher Blog
Dawn at The Polliwog Journal
Andrew at “the Pierian spring” - ramblings of an English teacher

And, as always, I would be grateful to anyone who chooses to share what they think in the comments section.

Thoughts on Returning to Class

2008-08-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

As I prepare to return to the classroom, weeks after school has started, I always feel some trepidation. I know I am not the ideal teacher. I am not Mr. Chips or LouAnne Johnson—heck I am not even as grumpily and grudgingly good as Mr. Holland. I am just me. I come to work and try my best. I try to inspire my students to do their best. And I always end a semester feeling that I have not fulfilled my potential and often have not helped my students to fulfill their potentials, either. Granted, by the end of the semester I am exhausted and more likely to look at everything negatively. I must do better than I think as my students are often likely to stop me in the halls or the stores to say hi. The smiles and cheerful attitudes reassure me that I haven’t scarred them for life.

Today I was reading a post in blogessor and found that this appealed to me and gave me some insight and hope for the year:

Today, though, I came across an article called "The One Who Is Not Busy." In it, Zen Buddhist Norman Fischer talks about being "prisoners of the list" as we realize (again) that there aren't enough hours in the day to do all that we need or want to do. He says,

"But the point is not how many things we have done or will do in a given amount of time; the point is how we do what we do."

As I read that this morning, I substituted "taught/teach" for "done/do," as in:

"But the point is not how many things we have taught or will teach in a given amount of time; the point is how we teach what we teach."

"Learned/learn" works here. "Wrote/write" and "read/read" do, too.

As I move back into Eddy Hall this year, I know I'll be clobbered again by the temptation to become the prisoner of my lists. I know I'll want to be counting tomatoes rather than how many more projects are left in my stack of grading. I'm writing this entry to remind myself that I can't teach it all, no matter how ambitious my syllabi. In fact, maybe being less ambitious would let all of us learn more in the end.

Zigzag: A Life of Reading and Writing, Teaching and Learning

2008-07-23T08:50:00.000-07:00

In 1989, when I first attended the Sun Belt Writing Project’s summer institute, I was a lost puppy. After teaching for two years I was unsatisfied and knew I was not doing the kind of job I could be, should be, doing. As part of the institute I had to read several books, some of my own choosing. Clearing the Way, by Tom Romano was suggested to me as a good follow up to Nancie Atwell’s In the Middle. The director told me that since Romano was a high school teacher I might be able to get some good ideas from the book. And I did.

Now, almost 20 years later, I again am reading a new book by Tom Romano. This time it is a series of memoirs, short vignettes, that trace his development as a reader, a writer, a teacher, and (most importantly) as a person. Zigzag: A Life of Reading and Writing, Teaching and Learning should be required reading for anyone who wants to teach. Especially anyone who wants to teach English or language arts.

Divided into six sections, starting with his childhood and ending with his earning of a doctorate, he is honest and realistic. As most writers know that a piece of writing is a draft that can be revised and edited, Romano has shown by his own experiences that a life can also be revised and edited. He writes with humor and insight. It feels as though he is sitting across a table, telling stories from his past.

I found comfort that this acknowledged master teacher was no more interested in pursuing an education degree when he entered college than I was. He sort of fell into it, as did I. And it worked out for the best for him, even during periods of frustration. He ran into obstacles that all teachers face: uninspired students, outrageous workloads, unsympathetic administrators.

He at all points realistically points outs his weak spots as well as his strong spots. He sends a message that teaching is not some mystical profession that only a chosen few can accomplish. He gives hope to me as a teacher that I can continue on. He reminds me that ours is an important and sometimes misunderstood profession. He inspires me to carry on.

Disappointed

2008-04-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

Last week my ninth graders started getting ready to read To Kill a Mockingbird. They may not have been completely aware of it as my way of getting them ready was to do a webquest on the history of Jim Crow. I adapted this last year when I was teaching TKAM for the first time. Odd, it was my twentieth year of teaching, but my first time teaching that novel. I guess it isn’t really big in the seventh and eighth grades around here. Today I passed out index cards for them to write five things they learned about Jim Crow from the webquest. If the chatter I heard during class is any indication, this assignment didn’t go well.

They had a paper to write on what they had learned and I tried to take it up today. It was due yesterday, but I was absent and could not collect it. Discounting the absent students and those at the ALC, I had about 23 students Friday who received the assignment. I had seven turn in the paper. Two more claimed it was done, but not here due to computer problems. We shall see.

This is, unfortunately, not an isolated incident in the classes I teach. Assignments, whether to be done in class or at home, are viewed by many of my students as optional. Over half the ninth graders did not do a parts of speech project that was required of them (I was told by my department head I had to review the parts of speech with my students). Most took a 150 point zero. Why? It wasn’t that difficult, just involved enough that it would take them some time to do it well. And most opted not to. The grades they earned for it were not, on the whole, very good. They had a chance to revise it and turn it in for a higher grade. One student took me up on that.

It is not just this class. It is not just ninth graders. It is not just my school. My wife has similar problems in a tenth grade physical science class in a high school in Georgia. And her class is required for graduation! As is my ninth grade English class.

I guess the best I can do is not take it personally. It seems that this is not aimed specifically at me, but it is more of a growing problem. I am not a big homework giver, but when I do give it, I expect it to be done. Maybe I am just too unreasonable. I expect them to care about their educations. Maybe I should check up on my Maslow’s Hierarchy again.

The Inner City Mother Goose

2008-04-20T18:11:00.000-07:00

I have never thought of poet Eve Merriam as a controversial writer. The poetry I had read of hers was childlike in its wonder and had an innocent playfulness about it. Imagine then, my surprise when I checked out a copy of Inner City Mother Goose from my local library.

The introduction by Nikki Giovanni let me know that this wasn’t going to be the cute, sweet poems by Merriam, but rather a form of social commentary on some rather obvious societal inequities.

In her own introduction to the 1982 edition (it was originally published in the late 60’s) Merriam recounts the book’s being banned in several places, including colleges. She hints at a thirteen letter word she used in one of her modern nursery rhyme retellings. Apparently that one caused a great deal of trouble.

As with most social satire this is not always a comfortable book to read. There are some poems that made me squirm a bit. But it also fits in with a new awakening in me for more social justice.

The illustrations by David Diaz fit the poetry extremely well. They had a reality that spoke through them, as did the poems.

While I might not recommend it for the classroom, necessarily, I would recommend this book to be read by those who teach in inner city schools and/or by those who are interested in social justice issues.

Found Poem Variation

2008-04-14T17:28:00.001-07:00

On Friday I worked with a variation of found poetry that I developed for my classes several years ago. I have published my 2004 Sun Belt presentation on Google Docs, just in case anyone would like to take a look at it.

Poetry PPT and Website

2008-04-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

As part of National Poetry Month, I am focusing more on poetry in my classes. I took a look at the Tabloid Headline Poems that they turned in last week and noticed that a sizable portion of my students had no clue about line breaks--what they were or how to use them. So, I took an old handout I used to use with my students and turned it into a PowerPoint presentation that we worked through.

I also found a pretty cool website on the subject of interpreting poems.

SOYOUWANNA INTERPRET A POEM?

Two Views on Why Public Schools Suck

2008-04-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

Apparently my blog is a feast or famine thing. Currently we are in feast mode (a terrific way to avoid grading papers I desperately do not want to grade, while still feeling productive).

I have a bunch of subscriptions to science blogs. Why? I just do. Seems like I can always find something interesting in one of them. Well, as I was going through some back entries today a couple caught my eye and I thought I'd share them. Feel free to chime in with your comments. I know our schools have some troubles--exaggerated in some cases, underreported in others--but it just always pisses me off to hear the entire US school system constantly trashed.

Here's the first one--feminists beware! Women's Liberation Movement and Public Schools.

And here's one on our national disorganization: Nationalize Public Schools. Sorry. I am not currently in the mood to nationalize very much. At least not until we are under new management. And probably not then, either. Who knows what the next management shift might bring.

A Little Something for NaPoMo

2008-04-08T12:36:00.000-07:00

If you click on the menu button, you can find the code to embed this in your own blog or website. I would be flattered if you want to use it. If you do, please let me know. I'm interested in how useful this could be.

Elie Wiesel on NPR

2008-04-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

For those of you who teach Night (or those of you who are just a fan of the author), I heard something really interesting today. I was listening to All Things Considered on NPR and heard Elie Wiesel read his essay for "This I Believe." It is already on ATC's website. It will also be podcast soon and is on the site for "This I Believe." It is worth a listen to. He brings to life Santayana's quote: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Chutzpah

2008-04-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

You know, there are times when I just have to marvel at the sheer chutzpah some students exhibit. First a minor example, than a larger one. Brief note: I choose to view each of these as a major example of chutzpah and not stupidity.

I was showing a poetry video in class today, as it is National Poetry Month. It is the first video in the Language of Life Series by Bill Moyers. The featured poets are Sekou Sundiata, who recently passed away, and Naomi Shihab Nye. My students were to keep their heads up, their eyes open, and their mouths shut during the video. That was basically the assignment for them at the time: pay attention to the video. One several students were unable to do this to the point where they earned themselves detention notices. One of them had a novel defense: “I wasn’t talkin’, I was sleepin’!” As if that behavior was such an improvement.

The larger example actually comes from another teacher in my school. She was extremely upset last week as her cell phone had been stolen off her desk in the last ten minutes of the day. She knew from talking to the phone company that calls had been made since then, some obviously from inside the school. A couple of her female students knew who took it and stole it back from him to give to her, letting her know who took it. The student who originally took the phone still had it, at school, today. There were pictures in the phone’s memory of him at school. He had erased all the numbers she had in memory and replaced them with numbers he wanted to call. But he failed to erase the log of ingoing and outgoing calls.

Come on. If you are going to steal a teacher’s phone, and you know she is actively looking for it and the person who stole it, why keep bringing it back to school day after day?

I must be getting old, because I just can’t understand the thrill in that.

My IT Guys Rock!

2008-03-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

It was interesting on Thursday. The Internet connection here at the school went down for a little while. I wasn’t too alarmed, as it is not an unheard of occurrence. And besides, at some point I got an email explaining it was likely to happen (but after it did). Apparently there were some system wide upgrades to software being made. The kind of software that protects one from the dangers of the net.

I found that my access to my class website on wikispaces was blocked. As was access to my blogs. I was bummed. And when I found the connection to gmail, which I use with my students, also blocked when I got here today; it was not a good feeling. I left Thursday a little deflated. And I started today the same.

But then my access to wikispaces was restored. And later, when I checked again, the access to gmail was back. And, wonderful also, my access to my blogs is back! I missed my blogs.

The IT guys in my system rock! And they respond quickly to email and requests. It is so nice to work in a system like this.

Just had to brag on my IT guys.

Creativity

2008-03-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

I recommend that you grab a copy of the December 2007 issue of Writer's Digest. It was an issue that spotlighted creativity. Several of the articles are available online: "Meeting of the Minds," "Overcoming Too Many Ideas Syndrome," and "Falling Down the Rabbit Hole." There was also an interesting and informative article on mind mapping, complete with references to Gabriele Rico and Writing the Natural Way, which I first read in 1987 during my first Sun Belt Writing Project Invitational Summer Institute. Unfortunately that one isn't online.

I think that as a writing teacher this magazine is an extremely important resource. It helps me to remember to focus on the writing and to remember that it is not as easy as it sometimes seems to be. It takes a lot of work and dedication to create a worthwhile piece of writing. And that is why I am in the job I am: helping the students realize that good writing isn't a matter of luck, but a matter of craft.

Book Review: Fires in the Bathroom

2008-03-19T06:56:00.001-07:00

I recently read the book Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from High School Students which was edited by Kathleen Cushman and written with the help of the students in What Kids Can Do, Inc. I have to admit I put this book down after almost 100 pages and took a break from it. I was having a rough time with the students I was teaching and my attitude sucked. As such, every comment I read from the students was greeted in my mind by anger and resentment. Unnecessarily so.

The students who participated in writing this book were paid for their time and, for the most part, took the work seriously. Some had legitimate complaints, such as teachers who were teaching out of field and did not know the subject, or strings of inadequate substitutes. Several said that after attempting to learn in that environment they considered it waste of time and stopped going to that particular class.

Other discussions in the book centered on the need for consistency in attitude and discipline procedures from the teachers. The need for respect to be a two way street. The problems I had here was that the students seem to expect the teachers to treat them with the utmost of respect at all times no matter what the students do. While that goal is lofty, sometimes, it just isn’t in the picture. At least for me. There are times when students have just plain lost my respect. And, of course, vice versa.

When I went back to the book with fresh eyes, and a more pleasant rapport with a new semester’s group of students, I found I was not annoyed by their comments, but rather saw those comments as rawly honest. These students want to have good teachers. And that does mean teachers who never give homework or test easily. It means teachers who can and will teach them the subject matter they need to know in an environment where they can learn it. Even if it means the occasion, respectful, kick in the butt.

Overall, I would recommend this book, especially for beginning teachers. It is a good insight into the adolescents you will be teaching. For those who have been in the classroom a while, read it when you aren’t stressed out by the students you’re teaching. It gave me a few new ways to think about my students and what they are going through at this stage of their lives.

Web English Teacher Rules!

2008-03-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

I have been having some fun in my English classes lately teaching some short stories. But I wanted some more resources, so I started looking and found a lot of helpful information at webenglishteacher.com. I highly recommend this site; it is an excellent resource for language arts teachers of all levels. While I am at the recommending, let me also recommend the blog that the Web English Teacher keeps. I got to poking around in it yesterday and in the blink of an eye two hours of my life disappeared. It is well written and has many fascinating links. But do be warned that it is a time sink. A pleasurable one, but a time sink none the same. I blame W.E.T. for being such an extremely entertaining blogger.

Sick & Tired of Being Sick & Tired

2008-03-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

The last month and a half or so has been very rough for me. In that space of time I have had, in order: strep throat, the flu, bronchitis with an ear infection, and a mild case of food poisoning. And now my seasonal allergies have hit with a vengeance. If anyone in a northern climate reads this, there are already trees in bloom here in Alabama. And where there is pollen, there is my allergy to green things.

All of this has been hard on my teraching in a couple of ways. First, I have been out a quite a bit in a short period of time. God’s way of telling me my plan to miss no days this semester wasn’t gonna happen. So, I was not here for somme days of direct instruction. And I found out the hard way that at least one day (when I went out of my way to leave work), the sub showed my English class a movie instead. I also have the busy work I left for the students to do to plow through and evaluate somehow. And it has affected my rapport with my classes. The continuity that I wanted to establish has not been established. It is more than a little upsetting.

Then there is the fact that, even when I am here, I am not ALL here. I am not at anywhere near 100%. I feel lucky to be at 50% on some days. And it affcts how I teach, how I interact with my students, my patience, my temper, and all manner of other aspects of classroom life. I have been short tempered at times and slipped into sarcasm before I could control it. I have been better at controlling it this semeseter, and want to get back on track with that.

My brain has been so foggy that I have gotten behind in my grading. Even with the wasted week of testing I have not completely caught up on everything. And that also affects my performance in the classroom. I need to rev it up and get up to speed on this. All the medicines in my system aren’t really helping much either. I feel like I am going through the days like a semi-zombie.

On the bright side, I am healthy enough to work and I can do my job. I just need to get up off my butt a little and get it done better. That is always a worthwhile goal: doing the job better.

Drama Thursday

2008-02-16T07:37:00.000-08:00

Every now and then, taking a shortcut leads me to a big problem I didn’t really need to have. Thursday was a case in point.

I arrived, a little late as always, to my first block class. This is already stressful to me. I have to drop my daughter at school before work and can’t really get here by the time they want me to. Most of the year it isn’t a problem. I had first block planning last semester and no first block this semester until last week. The driving instructor waits in the class with them until I get there, usually about 5 minutes after class should have started.

I went to turn on the incandescent lights, as I hate the flourescents, and the whole row on the right side went out, and one of the bulbs blew as well. Since this happened before, I knew what to do. I turned on the left side lights and stepped outside my door to the breaker box. I reset the breaker and three out of the four lights came on. I replaced the burned out bulb with one I had in my closet and then was able to kill the flourescents. In a way, I think I actually impressed the group by not panicking and fixing it immediately. It was about as impressive as I was going to get for quite a while.

The room was still warm, even though it was in the twenties outside, very unusual in Alabama. It is an internal room with no outside walls, so the heat from the almost thirty students does a lot to warm it up quickly. The air conditioner stopped working a few days ago, making the room uncomfortable. Especially to many of the students who seem to be unable to remove their coats for some reason.

I had turned the air off yesterday morning in case the condenser had frozen over. Again, not the first time that problem has arisen. Sometime during second block I got the opportunity to try turning it on again and it seemed to work most of the day.

But these were just preludes to the stress I was about to encounter. I went to my computer and attempted to log in. I say again, I attempted to log in. It was an unsuccessful attempt. So were the next several, subsequent attempts. I didn’t think it was the computer, as the other teacher had logged in under his name, but in order to make sure, I restarted the darn thing, muttering darkly to myself the entire time.

I also set up my laptop in order to try to get the journal PowerPoint up. Trouble was, I didn’t have the current version of the PowerPoints on the laptop. I felt like the weight of the top floor had fallen in on me. The students were behaving well, thanks to God for that! But I felt distinctly negligent in my responsibilities to them. Mainly because I was being distinctly negligent in my responsibilities to them.

I tried to log in to the desktop once more and had a thought. I used the official log in I was supposed to have been using for the past year and a half instead of the unofficial one I had been using instead. I logged on. Finally! All my desktop settings were gone, though, as I had set them up under the other log in. Not to worry, I just had to access the school server to get to my teacher files and all would be well.

I couldn’t access the school server and the teacher files. It was still set up to the old filename, as I had never updated this one. I went to the media specialists to get some help and was given the filename to look for and instructions on how to load it in. Also a short lecture on going in under the login I had been using and how that was something I shouldn’t have been doing, etc., etc.

Of course, I couldn’t get it to work in anything like immediacy. More like it took me several tries over a stretch of time to get it done. Which eventually I did. I got to my files and had the journal prompt up for the next class when they came in, but I wasn’t in a lot better shape mentally or emotionally. By this time I was hot and sweaty. I also had a severe headache--even for me.

After second block got busy catching up on any work they were behind on and working on the computers for those who were caught up, I ducked out a minute to the media specialists again to ask about the possibility of getting the info I had in the My Documents folder and desktop of the old login. At this point the other media specialist twigged as to what I had been doing and I got the long version of the lecture on how I shouldn’t have been doing that.

I was in the wrong. I know that. There was no way to argue about it. After she finished she let me know she’d call the IT guys and when they had a chance they could try to get the info for me. I went back to the room and to work. Within fifteen minutes the IT guy showed up and in less than three minutes had my info on the new desktop login for me.

From that point all I had to do was set up the programs and taskbar to the way I had them. Get the background back to a picture of my darling daughter. And try to deal with all the adrenaline that had been pumping into my system for the past couple of hours.

All in all, it was not a pleasant morning.

And here is the really galling part for me. None of this drama with the computer was necessary. If I had not been so lazy and avoided setting things up under the official login as I had been told to do, I never would have noticed anything different. But I took the easy way and it eventually caught up to me. Maybe I’ll learn a lesson from this. Or, maybe I’ll be like Peter Griffin, star of Family Guy. At the end of one episode after doing something stupid and winding up in the hospital his wife said that at least he must have learned a lesson from this. Proudly he looked at her and said, “Nope!”

Poking My Head Out

2008-02-08T12:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I never finished writing about my trip to New York. And I have successfully used that as an excuse to not write in here for a while. But, heck, I figure it has been long enough I can poke my head up in here again. I have been keeping up with the quote blog and with the poetry blog, but I just haven't gotten back to talking about teaching yet.

In part that is because I have been busy doing the teaching thing. I have a new crop of ninth graders for English. I just started this week with my two tenth grade writing classes. And so far it is going well. I have been working on the class website. I have been trying to think of ways to make the grammar I am required to reteach not so deadly boring.

Seriously, how is it that in the ninth grade, the ninth grade, that I have to teach about plural and singular nouns? They have heard it every year since first or second grade. By now they pretty much either get it or they don't. Just for the documentation that we did it, I had them all do a workbook page on it after we had a PowerPoint I found on the web and one of my students asked why we didn't do this stuff all the time. "I'd be making an A in here if we did this all the time." I replied that I was sure he would, and that most of the class would as well, but that it wasn't really making him any smarter.

So, why am I doing it at all? I guess I am still just covering my butt. Forty-five percent of the Alabama High School Graduation Exam is grammar. My own theory on that is because grammar is the easiest aspect of high school English to grade via a multiple guess test. That being the case I have a list from the Alabama State Department of Education of the 19 Language objectives I need to at least review. Some of them make a lot of sense to me. I can see that the students should be able to figure out subject/verb agreement. But I can cover that in their writing. Parts of speech and forms of nouns and verbs are not so easily embedded. At least not by me.

I do manage to keep them busy, though. They are doing SSR daily. They are looking up Greek and Latin root words for their vocabulary. They are writing a weekly Critical Reading Log on their reading. I am, all in all, swamped with work and not minding it a bit. And that last is, actually (and a surprise to me), not hyperbole. I am enjoying my time with these students. I am, so far, keeping a pretty good rapport going with them. And I want that rapport to grow and deepen.

What I really want is for them to become better communicators so that they can more ably pursue any interest they want to in life. I wish I could just be a bell to beller sometimes: come in 5 minutes before the first bell, leave five minutes after tha last bell. But I can't. There is too much I want to accomplish with them. To much I want to enable them to accomplish on their own.

NWP at NYC: Day Two

2007-11-28T21:22:00.000-08:00

My second day in the City did start with something of a sense of urgency. The hotel somehow didn’t get me my wakeup call, so I overslept by about a half an hour or so. I had to walk about five blocks up to the Javits Center. Before nine. I had missed the Sun Belt first-morning-at-the-conference breakfast; the hotel it was at was in an inconvenient direction. They knew I wasn’t going to be there, so I felt a distinct lack of guilt about it.

About a block or so from the Javits Center I got my first cell phone call asking where I was. I told them and continued. In side the Javits Center it was another long walk to get to the opposite end. The first person I saw wasn’t a Sun Belter, but someone we all know and respect, Sherry Swain of the Mississippi Writing/Thinking Institute. She was talking with several Sun Belters. John, Cathy and Alyson were there, and also Whitney and Susan. Whit looked so happy to be in NYC and superexcited about being at the conference, her first. We made lunch plans then went to our morning sessions. I grabbed me a bagel on the way, so I wouldn’t starve.

I went to one on planning an online presence. As it was a three-hour long workshop, I was hoping for something good. And I was not disappointed. The facilitators started us off writing and discussing with people at our tables. The interaction with other Tech Liaisons (for most of the people there were) was, as always, refreshing. We are in tune and know the challenges the position entails. I am taking back to the group three very important questions. I want to discuss these with the leadership teams and with the site fellows in general. Here are the questions:

How would I describe the identity of Sun Belt?

What stands out most vividly for me about Sun Belt?

What people, places, activities most define Sun Belt?

If any Sun Belters read this, please comment on these. I am eager to know what y’all think.

I have my answers to them, but want to get other perspectives. Maybe I could start a wiki where we could discuss this...

I got to talking with the TL from Winthrop Writing Project out of South Carolina. Brandon was very energetic. He told me a bit about their new teacher initiative and it sounds like that site has it going on. I am hoping to keep in touch with him now that real life has returned.

I met the Sun Belters for lunch. The only place open in the whole of the Javits Center was one pizza fast food place. We were in a food court surrounded by closed fast food places. It was weird. And as the weather was stormy, leaving the Center wasn’t really an option. There were twenty or so people ahead of us on the line. We got on while the getting was good. By the time we finished our lunch and took off, the line stretched for hundreds of people. Poor planning for that part of the conference.

The afternoon session was another three-hour one. This one was ostensibly about planning inservice workshops (on writing and reading) for teachers in all subject areas. Disappointingly, the first presenter talked for over an hour. No interactivity. She had some good ideas, but the sheer length of the presentation wore. The second speaker had multicolored handouts for us to focus on and that was more palatable, but still, almost no interactivity. All in all, I was disappointed.

If you were only interested in the professional portion of the day, you can stop reading here. For the rest of the day, read on.

Then we left. As they searched for a cab, I decided to walk back to my hotel to put up the laptop. I couldn’t see carrying that with me. I hung out in my room a bit and then left to find my friends for drinks before dinner.

I got a call from John that they were at a place called The Social. It was very loud, but they made a halfway decent whiskey sour. We tried to talk for a bit, but it was hard to hear ourselves think, never mind talk. So after John attacked me with a lit candle, spilling white wax on my dark blue shirt, we took off to wander around until it was time for dinner.

We found a little shop that was a mom and pop art place. I looked a lot, but restrained myself. I did buy vicariously. I pointed out a couple of different cards to Whitney, who loved and bought them. I can’t remember the name of the place, but it was pretty cool.
Then dinner. Cathy got us reservations at 44 South West Italian Continental Restaurant. We were joined by Jordan and his boss from JSU. Also Will and Jessica Henry (Jess is a TC from our site) found us and a couple of teachers from Opelika High School who I never really got to meet or talk to, unfortunately. The food was great. The company was better. It was a great time. And the whiskey sour was a little stronger than that at The Social.

Then we broke up, sadly enough, and started to wander back toward the hotels the others were staying at. I wanted to walk around more, and Susie also wanted to walk around. So we broke off from the group and wandered down to Fifth Avenue again. I found out that Susie was also a sci-fi geek. That was cool. Then I got hit over the head by the tired stick and Susie was still busy taking pictures of publishing houses, so we went our separate ways.

I got back to my hotel and slept really well.

NYC for the NWP National Conference

2007-11-16T13:24:00.000-08:00

When I got to NYC for the National Writing Project’s national conference, I got sort of a contact high from being in “the City.” I got to my hotel room, after a few minor hiccups caused my lack of attention to detail (Luckily I was not in any hurry and so I never felt like I was rushed. When there is no particular reason to hurry, why do so?). I got to my room and made the calls I needed to make to let people know I was here and safe. Then I had to get out and go walking. My hotel, The Americana Inn, is on 38th Street, just off of The Avenue of the Americas (6th Ave). That put me a few blocks from several NYC landmarks.

I walked toward Rockefeller Center, passing Bryant Park on the way. I had no idea where I was eventually going to wind up, and I didn’t care. I was walking around in NYC at night, and it felt totally safe. I don’t know why that surprises me. I felt safe in all the other big cities the NWP has visited in the past, but I was a little anxious before I got here.

I walked from 38th Street down to 47th and then farther. I passed by the Radio City Music Hall. I looked at the tree (not decorated, still scaffolded) at Rockefeller Center. Looking in, I saw that the ice skating rink there had been set up. Then I got to 5th Avenue and took a left. Soon I was passing by St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It is beautiful. I can’t imagine the amount of skill it took for the stone masons in the early 1800’s to build that.

I kept walking a while and pretty soon ended up at Central Park. Not feeling that I wanted to tempt fate, I didn’t actually enter the park. In fact within a couple of blocks I was turned around and headed back the way I came. By this time I was hungry and tried to spot some sort of a little diner to grab a nosh in. Two burger places I passed were already closed. But I did get to see the mass schedule at St. Patrick’s and decided to get there Sunday morning, if possible. I am not exactly sure when my plane is leaving. But with the first mass at 7:00, I ought to make it.

I passed by the NBC News building. Passed by Fox Noise, as well. Actually, the building doesn’t look evil from the outside. As I was headed back to my room, I saw a TGI Friday’s, and earlier I had passed a Mickey D’s, but I was damned if I was going to travel 1200 miles and somewhere I could at home. So I bought a hot dog, a pretzel, and a bottle of water from a street cart. I felt so New York.

Then it was back to the room, try to calm down and let the adrenaline rush level off. But when CSI: New York came on I was rejazzed. The main crime took place in Times Square, which is about a half mile or so from where I am staying.

I am not getting a wireless connection in the hotel, and I didn’t really expect one. I was annoyed that the phone won’t make outgoing calls without a $50 deposit. And then I’d be charged 85 cents a minute. No way! It took a couple of days, but I am now at a branch of the NY Public Library next to Bryant Park. And it was just a few blocks from my room.

I’ll write updates on my subsequent days soon. It has been packed.

ACTE Conference 2007

2007-10-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, before I forget too much about it, I would like to write a little about this year’s Alabama Council of Teachers of English conference. I was invited to submit a proposal for a workshop a long time ago and did so. This workshop is titled “Introducing Process Writing Using Legos.” I’ll get to that in a bit.

The day started off with a keynote speech by Carol Jago. She was lively and entertaining, as well as thought provoking. She posited that teachers are often not working in their students’ Zones of Proximal Development (ZPD) as proposed by Vygotsky. She thinks that a lot of teachers (and she did not exclude herself entirely) work in their students’ ZME: Zone of Minimal Effort.

She thinks that too often teachers make the work too easy for the students. She believes we should challenge our students more in the classroom. I have to say, she made some good points in her speech. She shared a lesson with us and got us talking to each other and sharing with each other. It was well done and thought provoking. A little while later I had a chance to meet her and talk to her a little one on one. She was friendly and interesting in person as well. She autographed a copy of her book Cohesive Writing for me. As soon as I finish Writing Brave and Free: Encouraging Words for People Who Want to Start Writing by Ted Kooser and Steve Cox I plan to read it.

The speaker at lunch was Watt Key, author of Alabama Moon. He was an entertaining speaker and kept the crowd of teachers laughing. He didn’t do a reading from his book, saying he always disliked going to readings of other authors (no matter how much he happened to like the author). Instead he told us stories about his time in college and his visit to New York after his book was accepted for publication.

My workshop came up after lunch. I started by defining an old definition of an expert--someone who travels more than 20 miles and provides handouts. It got the hoped for laugh and broke the ice. I then quickly explained the idea behind the activity, passing out bags of 25-30 Legos to groups of students who then build something with them. They also have to write specific instructions for another group to do the same. Then I take pics, the object gets deconstructed, and then another group (in a different class if possible) tries to recreate the original object following the directions.

It doesn’t take long to explain, even with a PowerPoint show of what my students created and what the next group created using the provided instructions. The meat of the workshop was actually breaking the teachers up into pairs (and one group of three due to the odd number) and letting them construct something, write instructions, deconstruct it and swap with another group. They all worked happily away while I wandered around the room and tried to keep out of their way.

I didn’t have my digital camera, as the battery is fried and will not hold a charge. I was a little at a loss until I though of my cell phone. I took pictures of the original objects with it and then emailed the pics to my myself. I was then able to open them up and show them to the group over the LCD projector hooked up to the classroom computer. It worked out pretty well. One of the participants told me that she appreciated the opportunity to actually do the activity. She said that if I had simply told them about it she would not have “gotten it.” But by letting them do it themselves she “got it.” I was pleased. I was also pleased that the extra handouts I had were mainly taken by the participants to share with other teachers at their schools.

I was going to try to go to another session after mine, but due t me heading for the wrong room, and staying there a while, I would have been unfashionably late. I was also a bit fatigued from the drive to Birmingham and the equally long search for a hotel room (apparently the Birmingham hotels were full with fans going to the Alabama/Tennessee football game the next day--serves m e right for not being a football fan). I decided to head for home.

Before I left, Cindy Adams, the president of the ACTE, and my friend, asked if I would like to be a Representative-at-Large for the ACTE, as there was no representation from my part of the state. I agreed. Now I will patiently wait for the other shoe to drop and find out what, exactly, I have signed on for. Whatever it is, I will do it the best I can. I am excited that Cindy is reviving the ACTE. It is a needed organization in the state.

I look forward to the next ACTE conference. I will try to have a new workshop set up for that one.

Tabloid Headline Poetry

2007-10-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

One of the most common complaints that I get from students is that writing is boring. They never have any fun. And my exhortations that what they write can be fun, and if they share that with others they share the fun, often fall on deaf ears. So today I did a "fun" lesson. It comes from "Tabloid Tone Exercise" by Lee Upton, found in The Practice of Poetry edited by Robin Behn and Chase Twichell. It was adapted by my friend and colleague John Pennisi, one of the co-director's of the Sun Belt Writing Project.

The idea as we use it is to take a headline from a tabloid (take your pick from any of the weirder ones), turn it into the title of a poem, and write a poem about it. I ask to treat it seriously, but my own poems almost always tend to come out tongue-in-cheek. Here are the three I wrote today. I do not vouch for their quality, but it did get me writing in the classroom with my students. Always a worthy goal.

LOST DOGGY TRAVELS 1000 MILES TO COME HOME

...to attack the owner who abandonded him!

Revenge of the Yappy Dog

"Taco killed him!" cried his wife
"That little chihuahua took Stan's life!
He told us that Taco had run away last week,
Now he's been killed by that little pipsqueak!"

Who knew that Taco, weighing only four pounds,
Could find his way home and bring his owner down?
The guy tried to ditch him in another state,
Driven crazy by the yap, yap, yapping, early and late.

Taco came home and snuck in through the back,
For once he was silent, waiting to attack.
As his owner passed by, in the middle of the night,
Taco took him down--and it served him right!

Leaving that little yappy dog allalone in the woods,
He should have known it would come to no good.
Now he is dead, hea has paid for his sin,
But Taco's escaped--and may strike again!

©2007-Art Belliveau

MAN'S HEAD EXPLODES DURING HAIRCUT

They always ask about the beard and the hair.
I don't know why they even care.
"Man, why's your hair in a ponytail?
Don't you know that style is stale?"

After 12 years of Catholic school,
Where short hair was always the rule,
I grew it long, so just back way off!
Least that's how I try to play it off.

But it's not the truth, at least not all,
So now I'll tell the whole truth to y'all.
It happened way back, 25 years ago,
Right before I decided to let it all grow.

I was at the barber's, waiting my turn,
When this one dude's new crew cut started to burn!
All of a sudden his went BOOM!!!
So took off running out of the room.

I'll take no chances, I decided then,
I'll just let it grow and avoid firemen
And the bomb squad--I know it is weird,
But that's why I've got this long hair and this beard.

©2007-Art Belliveau

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH FOUND IN NYC SUBWAY TOILET!

There are some things, I just don't wanna know.
Some facts that I don't need to learn.
Some places that I just don't wanna go,
For fear that I'll never return.

I do not care how old I get.
Or how many gray hairs I may grow.
I never would try it, no, not on a bet,
I could never win enough dough.

Apparently, though, someone has tried it,
Though I could puke at just the mere thought.
And the change that occured, well, he couldn't hide it.
He left the stall and was caught.

Some things in life just aren't worth it.
Some things I'd rather not be told.
I wish that they never did unearth it,
But, though they did, I would rather grow old!

©2007-Art Belliveau

A Couple of Writing Lessons

2007-10-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my classes and I did a little work on specificity with sensory images. I started with a writing assignment I pulled from Room to Write by Bonni Goldberg titled “Seasons.” Here is what they were supposed to have written the day before:

Today pick your favorite season. First, recall a personal moment during the season. Then focus on only the details that evoke that experience. Use texture, smell, and sound if appropriate. Be truer to your response to the moment than to its features. Notice whether you start with specific features and move to general ones, or the other way around.

So today I started by writing Sensory Images on the board and asking the class what the five senses were. Then I listed them and pointed out that in my experience with beginning writers, most of them put about 90% of their details on visual images, and 9% on auditory images. Ninety-nine percent of sensory details coming from 40% of the senses—a little on the overkill side.

Then I wrote Vague Words on the board and under that wrote delicious. I asked if they could figure out why that was a vague word. After a few guesses, some of the classes hit on not everyone likes the same foods. I illustrated the point with my own love of red cabbage, a treat that makes my Southern wife gag. Just saying it had a similar effect on most of the students in the class. I then pointed out that my wife loves collard greens, a food I wouldn’t eat for pay. Where we grew up and what our families considered normal made us grow to have some very different tastes in food (pardon the pun).

I also pointed out that I cannot make myself eat steak sauce. The students inquired as to why and I explained a traumatic childhood event when my father, to teach me a lesson about way overusing the steak sauce one night got a spoon and made me finish all the steak sauce left pooled on my plate. After about three hours at the table it was gone and I never ate steak sauce again.

After putting some other vague words the students love to use, good, pretty, and nice prominent among them, they started to get the idea. So I gave them highlighters and asked them to mark any word or phrase in their papers that was vague. Then they numbered the marks for future use.

I then made another apparent digression into the difference between Revision and Editing. Every class got what editing was right away. Not a single problem in figuring that out. Almost all of them were stumped by revision. We finally got to the point that we agreed it had to do with content, and that it involved organization, adding in details and deleting irrelevant details.

I told them to look at the highlighted words on their papers and then, either on the back or on a new sheet to write the number one. Then look at the vague term and try to come up with something more specific. I briefly explained clustering to get ideas rolling, and let them loose for a while. Now I can look forward to reading them and seeing what they think is vague. And I’ll add a different highlight of what I find to be vague. Should be fun.

They also had another writing assignment from Room to Write: “Stranger Than Fiction.” The idea here was to write about a recent story in the news. For this I did the first part of the “To Be or Not to Be” assignment I picked up at an idea swap at NCTE a long time ago. The original lesson was donated to the swap by Dr. Tracey Johnson of Clarion University.

The idea here is for the students to write a page or so and then swap it with another student who highlights all the “to be” verbs (be, being, been, is, are, was, were, am, the apostrophe m in I’m, and any apostrophe s that means is). Then I break from the original plan to talk to my students about Klingons. Yes, I am ubergeek enough to use Star Trek and Star Wars references in my classes.

Apparently the writers who originated the Klingon language for Star Trek had decided that the language would have no “to be” verbs in it as Klingons would define themselves by their actions. Ironically, the first thing they were asked to translate was Hamlet’s soliloquy. I am not sure how they did it, I didn’t hear that part of the story, but my best guess would be something like, “To live or to die—This I ask!”

This sets the stage for my students to revise their papers, changing the words without altering the basic message. They need to rewrite all the sentences with “to be” verbs in them so those verbs are eliminated from their papers.

I haven’t checked them yet, but I do have some high hopes.

Okay, ‘nuff said for today. More than enough. But after so long a silence, can I be blamed for my logorrhea?

Testing Follies

2007-09-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

A lot of people want to know what the problem with testing students is. After all, if teachers have done their jobs, the thinking goes, the students should be able to pass the test. While I do not necessarily see the correlation there, let’s proceed for a moment as if it were true. Then in order to pass the tests, the students would need a chance to learn the materials and the teachers a chance to teach them. Testing actually decreases the amount of time students have to learn and teachers have to teach.

We are undergoing the trials and tribulations of Alabama High School Graduation Exam (AHSGE) testing this week. The first thing we need in order to give the test is a place for the students to do so. An entire wing of our school, around nine classrooms, and the school library are being used for testing. This means that the teachers and classes that would usually meet in those classrooms cannot do so. It also means that for the week the library is closed most of the day. No research can get done there, no books checked out, no references referred to.

All of these classes are meeting in the cafeteria. ALL OF THE CLASSES. I can see why the open classroom plans of the 60’s and 70’s didn’t work out too well. I wasn’t informed my classroom would be needed until last Thursday afternoon, when I was informed via a call on my PA, which interrupted my teaching, that I would need to cover up all my posters or take them down as my room would be used for testing on Monday. That was news to me. In the memo we were emailed several days earlier, my room was not listed as one that would be used. Although I had expected it to be. Apparently my feelings of relief were premature.

I was never officially informed where I was to meet with the class that would be out of the room during testing. As I have first block planning, I was only dispossessed for one class period. Most of the other teachers in that wing are out for two periods. And I found out via an emailed memo that I would be covering another teacher’s class during my planning block on Monday. So much for having time to prepare a lesson or two to teach to my learners.

As added fun, the schedule Monday was further intruded upon as the testing in the classrooms ran late. As third block is the lunch period, holding classes in the cafeteria is not an option. So, all the teachers in that wing, and our students) sat outside the doors to the wing as the teachers in there got there students to the extended testing site. See, there is no time limit on the AHSGE. If the students want or need to work on it for six hours that is allowed.

So, how much time was lost from teaching this week? How many students didn’t learn as much as they could have if they were in a classroom? How many student hours were lost this week because testing is a state mandate and we do not have a choice about it?

When we have testing for the whole of the tenth grade, and all the eleventh and twelfth graders who need to retake it, in the spring, over half the school does not even arrive until third block. So many rooms are required, and so many teachers to administer and proctor the tests, that we can’t have school for the first two blocks each day for a week. How much time is lost from teaching and learning there?

Then there are the remediation classes. These are often test prep classes that students who fail part of the exam are required to take in place of other classes. So they go over and over the same material again and again until they can pass the test. But they lose out on other educational opportunities.

From what I am told by my wife, who teaches high school “across the river” in Georgia, it is much the same there. The details of what exactly is required and what tests and courses must be passed differ, but the overall picture is much the same--massive amounts of teaching/learning time wasted in the name of testing.

Has anyone else reading this noticed the same trend? Or am I seeing something that isn't there?

Update

2007-09-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

[For this post to make sense, you should read the previous post first. Sorry if that is a "duh."]

I got a strange idea and so went to one of the too few student computers in my class. I turned it on and, as I had hoped, the lack of updating the computers does not affect their ability to sign on to the Internet! So I can let my kiddies use the computers in the class. Somehow. If I can figure out how to get 30 kids onto 20 computers...

I have it!

They will have to take turns! And if they whine too much about that, they can just go ahead and write on paper!

Somehow I am feeling a little better about my upcoming teaching.

“And Then, Depression Set In...”

2007-09-06T07:46:00.000-07:00

The title, of course, is tongue-in-cheek, taken from that classic movie Stripes. But it is near to being true for me at this point. Okay, okay… so I am not so much depressed as a bit on the stressed-out side.

For the past month or so, I have been following various threads on a listserv I belong to (engteach-talk, you can join it at interversity.org). From about the last week of July to the present various members of the list have been checking on with their beginning of the year stories. I am in a strange position, as I have been for the past few years. My school system’s calendar starts 2 August for teachers and 9 August for students. However, I am not going to start with my students until this Friday, 7 September. Until such time as I am actively in my classroom I get to fill in as a sub whenever and wherever needed and this year I got to spend a delightful couple of weeks correcting and updating student information in STI (the software my school uses for student management).

When I changed to this school system it was to specifically teach a writing course to help prepare students for the state writing assessment. Every semester I split my students with a drivers’ education teacher. For the first four weeks the students are in class with that teacher, learning all they can about driving and safety. Then they get me for the remainder of the semester teaching them writing. Well, most of them.

Approximately three at a time they are pulled out of my class for six days to go out and do the driving portion of their coursework. That means at any one time about 10% of my students are not in class. That, of course, does not count the ones who miss for other reasons (absent, inschool suspension, out of school suspension, field trips, skipping...). To add even more to the fun, my first year at the school I floated. I was in a total of six different classrooms during the year (three the first semester and three different ones the second semester).

Also, that first year, the students were less than friendly for various reasons. Mainly the drivers’ ed class had previously been paired with a study hall and so they felt cheated that someone expected them to do real work. And then there is walking into the classroom after all the relations in the class have already formed. The group dynamics have mainly been sorted out, and there has been a connection with the teacher who is now out driving with them. Then I walk in and everything changes.

Last year I was given a classroom. Still have it this year. In the classroom are twenty computers. Took me a while to figure out how I wanted to use them, but in the second semester the classes really started to cook. I was in a good place mentally.

But... the assistant principal who worked most closely with me on this class is not here this year. He has been deployed to Iraq. The other assistant principal I worked with left to become a principal at another school. The new assistant principals are good people, but they do not have the interest in this class the previous two did.

So my classes, which should be capped at about 25 (as they are technically "test prep" even though we do more than that) all have 27-32 students. This is interesting as I have 25 desks and 20 computer stations. I usually only have tenth graders and returning ninth graders (who may get the required credits to be tenth graders in time to take the writing exam). This year I have eight juniors and one senior. They are not going to take the test. But they will be in the classes where I am trying to prepare others for the test. Luckily, in my experience juniors and seniors (especially seniors) do well in my class.

The computers I made such good use of second semester last year are all basically useless at the moment. The district upgraded the network to the point where Windows98 computers are no longer compatible with it. All mine are Windows98 and no one has come to upgrade them yet, even though there was a work order placed before school started. And, as I mentioned, I have a lot fewer computers than students this time around. There are some computers that are not being used, but for some unexplained reason they cannot be moved from the empty room where they are not being used to my room where that can be used (as soon as they get upgraded as well).

To be honest, I am not sure whether to post this or not. It seems like one giant complaint. But I think I can get to a deeper point.

I am willing to be held accountable for my teaching. But how accountable can I be when I am blocked from using the method I have come to see as the best one for my students and me? And it is not even blocked maliciously. No one set out to work me over. But I seem to be getting worked over from several different directions at once. Sort of the perfect storm of bureaucratic screwups that centered on me and my classes.

Movie Review

2007-08-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

Over the summer I took a class on technology and writing at Auburn University. One of the assignments was to create a wiki with several of the other students in the class. My group decided on a movie review wiki. Here is one of my reviews

Review of the movie Freedom Writers (IMDB).

Hillary Swank plays Erin Gruwell, a teacher who chose to work at Woodrow Wilson High School, a minority school. Set in 1994, just two years after the LA riots, Gruwell takes a class of mainly minority students and inspires them to excel beyond anyone’s expectations. Along the way Gruwell has to fight those higher up than she in the school and school district. She pours so much of herself and her time into her teaching that she loses her husband (Patrick Dempsey). She works two extra jobs to have the money to provide her students with the books and extras she believes they need.

I watched this movie fully prepared to hate it. As a genre I dislike films about teachers. Being one myself I see all the inconsistencies. As in all teacher movies, the teacher apparently has one class. I know that isn’t the case, most people in the audience know it isn’t the case, but for narrative purposes the film must focus on the relationship between the teacher and one class. Unfortunately this has the effect of setting up unconscious expectations in the audience. If she just has that one class, what exactly is her problem? These movies need to let the audiences see the overload teachers often work under.

Also, as in many (if not most) films about teachers, there is the subtext of white teacher goes to minority school and inspires the kids to work miracles. Apparently, after she had the students do one particular exercise where they had to go to a line in the middle of the room and she passed out the journals there were no more discipline problems in her classes. That is unrealistic. I can see the problems would be reduced, but not entirely eliminated.

Also there is the subtext of teacher as martyr. Gruwell works extra jobs, sacrifices her marriage, and becomes extremely unpopular with the other teachers. Again, this is a common theme in movies about teachers. While I believe that what Gruwell did was heroic, I do not believe that is what it takes to be a good teacher. Why are teachers expected to spend their own money and sacrifice their personal lives if they want to make a difference? Why not just have the school system provide the necessary materials so that level of sacrifice isn’t warranted.

I would also like to say a few words about the other teachers in the movie. Department Head Margaret Campbell (Imelda Staunton) was given the role of villain. As was English teacher Brian Gelford (John Benjamin Hickey). I have a harder time demonizing these teachers. True they were not open, true they were obstructions, but they had both been there a long time. They had seen the school they started in change virtually overnight when the voluntary integration started. I am willing to bet they had precious little to say about that or training in how to deal with the new students they received. Although they were wrong in many particulars, I can’t see them as the bad guys, but only as other people who had been ripped up by the system and were just trying to survive.

Overall, even with the flaws, it was a heart-tugger. And knowing it is based on a true story makes it even more interesting. Gruwell left the school when her classes did. She moved on to teach college. I don’t say this as an insult or slam, but to point out there is a reason that teachers cannot pour so much of themselves into their work. It leads to burn out. Maybe some type of happy medium between martyr and uncaring teacher (the only two types portrayed in the movie) might be the best road to travel.

Erin Gruwell comments on the movie. From YouTube.

I'm Back

2007-08-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

It has been way too long since I posted here. I could think of numerous excuses, but I won’t. I got a little lazy and then a little perfectionistic. I have found that if I put off writing something until I am certain it is going to be outstanding, I often do not have to write anything at all. I mean, why bother if it isn’t going to be great?

Oddly enough this is an excuse I have heard not just from myself, but from countless students over the last twenty years. I have rarely let them get away with this excuse. After all, writing is supposed be an exploration of the mind and an alternate definition for essay is to try. So I will essay to write something in here today, and I will not worry over it’s certain lack of perfection.

School started for me on 2 August. For the students at my school it started on 9 August. Five days of preplanning and, at least on paper, almost all of it taken up with meetings and workshops. While I do see a great deal of value in attending a good workshop, and we had several, I also see a positive value in free time being given for teachers to work on getting their classrooms ready and being able to sit down and do some preplanning for their teaching. Doesn’t seem like working that into the official schedule should be too tough, but it often is.

At my wife’s school (she is also a teacher), their preplanning week was similarly organized. The new, new principal did let all the teachers know that the school would be open until 9:00 every night and open certain hours on the weekend. Basically he expected that the teachers would volunteer their own time with their families to come and do the necessary work that his own schedule for preplanning did not permit them. Is it me, or does that seem wrong?

I have often confronted that attitude, though. The attitude that teachers should be willing--no, eager--to give up their own free time in order to spend more time at their job. And God forbid we ever complain about it. Then we are met with the “accusation” that we are only teaching for the money. Yeah, that’s right, I got into teaching in order to make my fortune. Somehow I feel I was misinformed.

Whenever I hear this, that teachers only work for the money, I always want to ask the person saying that why they go to work. After all, in our increasingly materialistic society, how much one is paid is a sign as to how important our society views that particular job. I find it distressing that such necessary jobs as police, firefighters, and teachers are not paid commensurate to the importance of our jobs. Somehow we are all expected to be grateful to have the opportunity to do this work and not complain about how more money would be nice.

I love teaching. I love being a teacher. I do not love that there always seems to be quite a bit of month left at the end of my money.

On the other hand, I knew going into this profession I would be on the low end of the professional pay scale. I have two degrees, several awards, and twenty years of experience. I make less that what corporate lawyers make their first year out of school. And yet I am expected to work as hard and give of my extra time as much as they do, if not more.

So why do I continue to do it? It is not entirely for the students. It is not entirely for the money. It is not entirely for the feeling of social usefulness I get doing this job. It is not entirely because I get to exercise my creativity on an almost daily basis. It is a combination of all these factors. The proportions differ from day to day, sometimes from class to class, but these are all component reasons to why I still do this.

And as long as I feel I can make a positive difference, make enough to live somewhat comfortably, feel useful, and creative--in whatever proportions come my way--I will continue to do this job. Even if I don’t always enter the door each morning with a bounce and a smile. I’m here and I am going to do my best. That’s about as good as it is going to get for me. And I just have to hope that that is good enough.

Sun Belt Summer 2007

2007-07-12T21:53:00.000-07:00

Since 1989 I have been a member of the Sun Belt Writing Project which is based at Auburn University in Alabama. I still remember my first summer institute. It was the summer after my second year of teaching and I was desperately looking for some way to become a better teacher. My first two years didn’t go well.

That summer I was introduced to the (then) new ideas of Nancie Atwell in her book In the Middle. I devoured Clearing the Way by Tom Romano, a book that showed me many practical applications of Atwell’s ideas. A book that is still relevant today. I was entranced by the simple advice of Natalie Goldberg to just write in Writing Down the Bones. This is another book that is a must read even still today.

I went back to my classroom and was determined to go with the workshop approach 100%. It was my tenure year, but I really didn’t care. That wasn’t bravery or zeal, I was young and figured if I lost that job I could always find another one. In fact, it might have been a motivator for me to move and go somewhere else.

We had new textbooks that year, replacing the books I had been furnished the first two (those books had been titled Modern English In Action—or was it--more aptly--Inaction?). I assigned the new books to my students. Had them write their names in them, in ink, as I was instructed to do. I then collected the books, put them in my closet and left them there the rest of the year. I had a 100% turn-in rate for books that year, not a single one was lost.

I was very lucky to work under a principal who trusted what I was doing and was strong enough in my district that I got tenure. He let me try the new method. All he wanted was for me to explain it to him so that he could explain it to the parents who called him with questions. Ah, the good old days.

I went back in 1991 as a senior fellow at my site. Basically, I wanted to hang around and they let me. I did it again in 1993 and 1995. I think I worked with the site again in 1997 or 1998, but I am a little hazy there. In 1999 I helped to keep the site alive when it hit a really low ebb. I have been there ever since. Somewhere along the way I started getting paid to do so. Now I am the Technical Liaison for my project. It means I like the techie stuff. Like blogs.

Some people, like my lovely wife, wonder why I do this every summer. Why do I make the drive to Auburn every day for four weeks (it was five until this year)? It is 40-45 minutes each way. And there is a time change involved, also. So I never really get to be on an even keel for the whole time I’m there.

I do it because it is a way for me to keep up with what is going on in the current research on writing and reading instruction. I do it because it is an opportunity to write. I do it because I have good friends there, the kind of friends that are more like family to me. And every summer I get to meet 10-15 incredible teachers. And this summer was no exception.

The amount of talent in the room was unbelievable. The conversations were zany at times and always interesting and informative. The teaching demonstrations were outstanding. The level of caring and commitment was off the charts. These people were the cream of the crop. And I am proud that I got to work with them and learn from them this summer.

But now it is over and the post-Sun Belt blues are kicking in. Tomorrow I will go and finish cleaning out the room. Then there is the report for the year. And then nothing.

As I live in a different city than almost all the participants of Sun Belt, I am now pretty much going to be cut off from all these wonderful people.

At least I am now in a school where I don’t have to be the lone stranger in the English department. In my old school no one ever wanted to go spend a summer at Sun Belt. Well, one person, but she went to a different school after her Sun Belt summer. Where I teach now there are several Sun Belt TC’s (Teacher Consultants). It makes the day a little less lonely.

But the TC’s from this summer are pretty much all Auburn folks. Except for one lady from Prattville and another from Guntersville. For those of you not familiar with Alabama geography, those places are a long way off from here. And I am back in Phenix City.

To any of the TC’s who may read this. Thanks for the great summer. I appreciate all the hard work you put in. And I really appreciate all the new ideas I get to take back to my classroom this year. Mostly I appreciate the warmth and good humor you all shared with me this summer. I hope that you all have your best year ever this year and every year after that, as well.

Book Review: The Garden at Night

2007-07-09T07:58:00.000-07:00

The Garden at Night: Burnout & Breakdown in the Teaching Life by Mary Rose O’Reilley

This book takes a look at the spiritual side of burnout and breakdown. As her experience is as a college teacher, this is where O’Reilley focuses her essays, but there are applicable lessons for teachers of all levels.

One of the strongest lessons is that everyone undergoes a “dark night of the soul.” It is not unusual, nor should it be unanticipated. Not that these facts make it any easier to endure, as she herself acknowledges. She does advise that we look for the lesson in these situations, to see what we can learn from them. And that, sometimes, that lesson is that it is time to find a different profession.

O’Reilley also emphasizes the need for teachers to take time to meditate or pray daily. She discusses the spiritual traditions of Christianity and Zen Buddhism. These are not mutually exclusive. Both ask that practitioners take that time out of their lives to focus on something besides the problems constantly besieging them. The importance of taking time for one’s self is an important part, perhaps the most important part, of avoiding a burnout—or at least putting it off.

This is an extremely interesting book that takes a look at burnout from a different perspective than others I have read. The practical applications are from a different direction. The philosophical stance is accessible and attainable. This is one I will need to reread to gain the full impact of, but it has already broadened my thinking on the topic of burnout.

Thoughts on the Fourth

2007-07-04T13:33:00.000-07:00

I know that this is going to sound a little weird, initially, as an Independence Day post, but I want to write a little today about a subject left out of the misnamed No Child Left Behind law that I feel is appropriately addressed on this day.

Independence Day is a celebration of our American ideals. The ideals that our country was founded on. As they are ideals, they are not always reached. Sometimes as a people we fall short. But, as we are all only human, it isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that after 231 years, we still, as a people, aspire to reach to these ideals. I am incredibly proud of that.

But what, you may rightly ask, has this got to do with NCLB?

Perhaps I am a little conspiracy-minded at times, but I am puzzled as to one subject that is quietly left out of NCLB. We all know it calls for math and reading tests. I will leave the questionable efficacy of this excessive testing for another post. I will leave the questionable methods advocated by many on the right for teaching reading to another post, as well. Math and reading were the initial subjects targeted by this law. Next science was to be added to the mix. And these three subjects would be what those who wrote the law wanted to see improved.

What’s missing? Social studies. The study of history. The study of government. Why would this subject be ignored by the law? Why would the study of our country’s history not be something that the people who wrote this law feel important enough to add to it? Why would they leave out the study of how are laws are made and how our government is supposed to work? After all, they say that they are testing for essential knowledge. Isn’t the knowledge of how our country is supposed to work essential?

I am seriously worried that schools will only emphasize subjects that are likely to get them the Holy Grail of Annual Yearly Progress. That the schools will emphasize test taking skills instead of independent thinking. That the subject that can enable our children to see themselves as a part of the decision-making process of our local, state, and national policies will be left to the wayside as it is not part of AYP.

I am worried our students will be left dependent on others to explain to them how the government works and be left with little choice but to take that other’s interpretation as truth. For they will not have had the opportunity to learn the truth for themselves. Maybe that other will be honest and have our kids’ best interests at heart.

Knowing, human nature, is it worth taking that kind of chance?

Please do not go away from this post with the misapprehension that I feel putting social studies into the law would bo an appropriate way to fix this. I think this law needs to be completely rewritten to address many problems. I just find it funny how the one subject left to pushed to the side is the one that would best help the students understand how laws are made and what government is about.

This law is currently up for reauthorization. I think, especially on this day, that it is incumbent upon us as citizens to demand our legislators craft a better law. One that gives our kids a better chance of taking part in the great debates that should be shaping our country’s future. One that does not make them dependent upon others to explain how our government works and that the power of that government derives from them.

Happy Independence Day.

Greetings

2007-06-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

The view from room 125 is at once limited and limitless. It is a basement room with no external windows to see what is going on outside. Simultaneously, it is filled with Windows-based computers, hooked up to the Internet, that allow us to see the entire world.

I have decided to start this blog because, after twenty years of teaching, I have some things I'd like to say and opinions I'd like to express. In this blog I will try to restrict myself to matters of education. The caveat to that is that education is part of the wider world, and so at times I will discuss matters that have only a tangential relationship to my main topic.

I started teaching in 1987 in a small, rural school in Russell County, AL. I taught seventh and eighth grades for my first 18 years. I also spent a few years as an adjunct English instructor at a local community college (1998-2005). For the last couple of years I have been teaching writing, mainly, to tenth graders, mainly. It has been interesting always, if not always enjoyable. But I think I turned a corner the last semester of last year. I am hopeful that it is the second wind that will give me enough energy to keep doing this for several more years at least.

I am also a fellow of the Sun Belt Writing Project, based at Auburn University, in Alabama. I did my first invitational summer institute in 1989 and they haven't been able to get rid of me since then. For the last several years I have been the technical liaison for our project. If you teach, especially (but not solely) language arts, I suggest you find a writing project in your area. There are over a hundred in spread out around the country. It can be a life-altering experience. Does that sound dramatic? Maybe so, but it doesn't make it any less true.

I am looking forward to writing this blog. I am an opinionated kind of guy, and it will be nice to have my own private little soapbox to be shouting into the void of the world wide web. Maybe some of what I write could even be illuminating--to myself if to no one else.

I am going to attempt to write in here at least once a week. I say attempt because once school gets going again, who knows where the time to do so will come from. Most likely it will come from the time I should allow for sleep.

Time to wrap this up for the moment. I look forward to expounding on the world as I see it.