silver

here are two things that made me happy today:

We were reading a poem called "Silver". I asked why they thought the word "silver" was repeated multiple times throughout the poem. No one had an answer. I asked what might happen if we replaced the word "silver" with "grey". "Icks" and "yucks" and other groans spread around the room. I think they really got it.

Kiddos loved cutting up magazines today. And no one gawked or made innapropriate jokes at the National Geographic photos. Every single one of them was engaged! If alliteration is a test question, they better get it.

I First Found Freedom

I am rather proud of the model I created for the alliterative poetry project I am introducing tomorrow. Hopefully the kiddos will like it and scissors and magazines won't be means for total disaster.

Crazy English Teacher Epiphany of Sorts

I just had a sort of realization. I'm sitting here editing my First Benchmark for my MA and I am re-analyzing some of the baseline reading logs. I realized that many students were giving opinions without stating what caused that opinion - they weren't giving any textual evidence. As I told them they need to push their thinking further, I realized that not only am I trying to improve their reading comprehension in that they need to explain opinions, make predictions, explain predictions, ask questions, attempt to answer questions, etc., they are also working on Literary Response and Analysis!!!

The other day I was talking with a coworker, who said she was having trouble getting her students to cite evidence in their essays. They were making opinions but weren't backing them up with evidence. As I was talking with her, I was thinking that I hadn't really been working on that and I was really doing a diservice to my students. Well, I've suddenly realized that when my students do their independent reading and fill out their text logs, they are responding to literature and are giving their opinions and backing them up with textual evidence. When they write, "I think that Mary is really snobby because of the way she is treating her friends. If I were her friend, and she ignored me at the mall, I would smack her," they are making a claim about a character, backing it up with textual evidence and are even relating to the book. I feel a little better about my teaching now that I've realized this. What they are doing is practicing analysis skills that they will use in writing essays and even in discussing literature when we read a book aloud or in their high school futures.

Now, what I need to do is (1) make my students aware of what they are doing and (2) connect this with a Response to Literature essay. Ahhh, I feel a tiny bit better.

Embarrassment and Stupidity

This poem was written by one of my most talented and creative students. It reads (errors unchanged):

Carelessly, you took the dare.
Now your hearing firetrucks everywhere.
You stuck your tounge to the pole.
Hopefully it comes off as a whole.
Jumping over bags you tripped.
Mad and hurt you ran and slipped.
Forgot to check on your way back to class.
Everyone smiles, but it's not your project on grass.
Because now you know you cry boo hoo.
You have toilet paper stuck to your shoe.
Trying to be funny you tell a joke.
A pause goes by and you start to choke.
The joke wasn't a hit because no one laughed but you.
Walking away you act like you have the flu.
Embarrasment and stupidity is something you can't deny.
It happens over and over as the time flys by.

This was written by the same girl who decorated a pair of jeans for her book project on The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I often feel like I'm not teaching my students anything (see spelling errors in poem above), but at least some are comfortable enough to express themselves in my classroom. I think I have created a respectful, friendly environment where my students don't fear persecution from peers or me. However, on the technical side I'm weak. Another student's poem read:

All we do in Language Arts is read and write
I don't know if I even spelled that right

I know middle school is all about feeling accepted and loved, but I feel like I'm letting my students down academically. I feel like they want to learn more and I'm not providing it. I went to dinner with a student's parent last night who is also a teacher at my school. She asked me what standards were taught in 8th grade Language Arts and I couldn't help but feel like she was accusing me of not teaching anything to her daughter. I think it was all in my head and she had no harmful or accusatory intentions, but it just got me wondering about what I'm really trying to accomplish. I had difficulty answering her question because there isn't anything specific I am teaching. Language Arts is full of layers and the teaching of analysis and abstract thinking. How is that a concept you have a unit on and test at the end? Still, I think that with all the extra hours of prep time I'm putting in, I should feel as though my kids are learning something. The only thing I'm proud of is the sense of community I've created. I suppose that's a pretty big achievement for my first year teaching, especially 8th grade.

I think that at the root of all this worry is the knowledge that my students have to take the writing test and the CST soon, and I'm going to have to start teaching to the test. I really don't want to do this. I should be teaching kids to love reading and to express themselves with words, not to know how to analyze a test question. People don't retain information that they don't repeatedly use. I've always been horrible at remembering things. Which is why I think I'm not a very good teacher. How can I teach the importance of things I don't even know myself? But I do like to read and I do like to write and I especially like to read words that I can identify with. Connectivity is important and I don't think I even know how to teach that. At least I can be satisfied that I'm a decent role model and some of my students feel comfortable enough in my classroom to take risks.

I wish

First day of school, first blog post. I am going to try to keep this teacher blog up.

To begin our poetry unit, each student finished the sentence "I wish..." I then put their lines together to form poems and these are what resulted:

Block 4’s Wishes

I wish I could do whatever I want to do.
I wish there was such a thing as a happy ending.
I wish we wouldn’t have to move to Texas too soon.
I wish I could have and drive a Ferrari Enzo right now at any speed I want.
I wish I could be rich so I could help people and myself for good things.
I wish I was rich.

I wish I could get better grades and get as many things as I want.
I wish there was no school.
I wish I could take a ride in a monster truck while it was doing its freestyle round in Monster Jam.
I wish that the world would not be so overwhelmingly black.
I wish I had super strength.
I wish I was super rich!

I wish, I wish I was a fish.
I wish that my family was in better condition than it is now.
I wish I could go home and not have homework and that I could watch movies and eat all the good food in my house.
I wish that my parents would let me make my own decisions and not treat me like a baby.
I wish that I could fly.
I wish I had $1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

I wish that all the people in the world that judge would stop stereotyping and making comments about other people.
I wish to meet someone that understands me.
I wish that school could be so much easier.
I wish I could have spent one more day with my grandpa before he died.
I wish I could fly really high in the sky.
I wish I had one million dollars.

I wish that there wouldn’t be any fake people in my life, that they would just be themselves.
I wish my life was perfect.
I wish we didn’t have to die.
I wish the darkness wouldn’t be so dark.
I wish everyone was nice to each other.
I wish one day I will be a successful woman.

Block 1’s Wishes

I wish we had no homework.
I wish that all my hopes, dreams, and this wish would come true.
I wish that people will love each other, no matter.
I wish I had powers.
I wish for a wii.
I wish school were shorter.
I wish that when I get older I will have a lot of money and build my own home.
I wish for equality.
I wish I could fly.
I wish that everyone was treated the same as everybody else.
I wish life wasn’t so hard.
I wish to have a nice house and to travel around the world.
I wish that all the channels on our TV weren’t locked.
I wish I were a marine biologist studying dolphins and fish in Hawaii on the smooth wet sand.
I wish I could run at superspeed.
I wish that I could go to Florida.
I wish I had a bigger house, a 2- or 3-story house.
I wish I could have a more positive attitude.
I wish it were the last day of school already.
I wish for an easier way to finish school because I have a fear of dropping out of high school.
I wish I had telepathic and invisible powers.
I wish what I want would come easy.
I wish I were a monkey.
I wish I could be happy all the time.
I wish for a fish that swims in a dish.
I wish I had straight A’s in all my classes.
I wish I didn’t have to write poetry.
I wish I were a bird so I could fly all over the world.
I wish I were a movie star.
I wish I could stay in my childhood forever.
I wish for love in my life, wealth in my life, health in my life and a perfect life.

Block 3’s Wishes

I wish I could change the world with just one voice.
I wish I didn’t have to leave my friends.
I wish my life had meaning, I wish all that had happened to me was burned, I wish I could go back in time and say sorry to my feelings that I left behind.
I wish I could have a dog.
I wish I could have longer hair and have good grades.
I wish my grandfather were still alive to be with his family at Christmas.
I wish I could fly and get invisible whenever I want.
I wish I had at least seen what my little sister looked like.
I wish people wouldn’t judge other people by their looks, nationality, religion, gender or if they are gay or bi.
I wish that even if my life isn’t good, for everyone I know to have a better life.
I wish everything would be better.
I wish I was rich.
I wish it could be summer.
I wish the war would end for peace and all the homeless people would not live in the streets.
I wish for a lifetime supply of wishes.
I wish I could see my grandpa one last time.
I wish that the war would end, for peace on earth and the end of world hunger.
I wish that life would be fair and that being sad wouldn’t be so overwhelming.
I wish my hair was not as frizzy but smoother.
I wish I could fly like a bird.
I wish I had a sloth.
I wish that I could have a lifetime supply of wishes, so I could help the world but also have some of my wishes for myself come true.
I wish it weren’t so, but life, love and happiness all end abruptly and painfully when we die.
I wish I had my own cell phone because I have had a lot of emergencies without my family being with me.
I wish the war in Iraq would stop so people could come home to their families.
I wish that I could fly.
I wish that the person I like feels the same way as I do.
I wish I had 500 billion dollars so I can be the richest person in the whole world.
I wish I had the courage to confront my friend about how she just threw our 7-year friendship down the garbage disposal.
I wish for no war because there are already 3,000 people dead!
I wish that one day when I get older I’ll be happy and have a nice family full of love.

You know, in case one forget that kids are real (I sometimes do), these poems are a powerful reminder of what's going on in our kiddos' lives.