Worth a Listen

I have read lots of articles about the pros and cons of Common Core. The radio show linked below, shows both. 

The idea that Common Core is horrible is a problem for me. I think the basics of Common Core and the benchmarks offered are valid and fair. I think the roll out of Common Core was the problem. I feel like Common Core was rushed with little support and great expectations placed on teachers as they were learning the new way of instruction. I think the idea that a few could be trained and bring the information back to the school was not the best way to provide professional development.  After all, IF the information was shared, it was not "first hand" information any longer. It was filtered through a rushed understanding of the training and the bias of the teacher bringing the information back to the schools. 

I think if the Common Core tests are used punitively in the schools, it could be a problem. This adds a layer of fear in the teaching of the standards. It makes it difficult to try these "new" ways of teaching when worried that making an error or allowing students to find the answers will lead to poor scores that will adversely affect a teacher's livelihood.  Also, Common Core was not meant to keep the focus narrowed on math and reading. It was meant to allow arts, sciences, and social sciences to have equal footing with math and reading. We will see if this is the case.

Anyway, this is worth the listen:

http://www.americanradioworks.org/documentaries/greater-expectations/

Ah. It has been too many days. I guess I didn't make the 100 posts in 100 days. It is okay though.  My portable hard drive is dead, dead, dead. No redemption. I have tried all. I guess I will have start over, but it is okay.  I usually start over every year anyway.  :)   My graphics are gone. My pictures are gone. Those I worry about, but it is still okay. Starting over is good.

I do have some pages, if anyone would like. You can add lettering, change colors, whatever floats your boat. :)

The last one is transparent, in case I want to print it on colored or patterned paper.

Smiles,
Trish

A couple days

It has been a couple days since I posted last.  I have been trying to finish up my classes for the summer early so I can work specifically in my classroom and on classroom stuff over the next two weeks. I still need to open and try to salvage my external. I have many helpful shareables on it, if I can get it open.

Smiles,
Trish

First day and Before

I may be getting ahead of myself, but as I am planning, ideas come to the forefront and I have to write them down or lose them forever!  One idea I am going to try this year (STOLEN IDEA FROM MIDDLEWEB) is a homework assignment for parents. It will be a piece of paper with one sentence at the top: In a million words or less, tell me about your child.  I will not grade them, only read them, to get to know my kids better.

So far on day one:
1. Million words or less parent homework
2. Student survey (Adapted from http://firstday.wikispaces.com/General)

Feel free to snag, if you like. The original was free, so this one is too. :)

I am working on my own binders for classroom information.  I will upload items as I finish them.

Smiles,
Trish

Bad news....

Well, my terabyte external hard drive died.  Tried replacing the power supply, as that does tend to wear out. No go. Next, I will break if out of its shell and try direct loading it in a computer.  If that doesn't work, I will have lost pictures for the last five years. I will have lost graphics for the last five years. I will have lost lesson plans/ideas/masters/etc. for the last five years.  Truly, the only things I am worried about having lost are my pictures and my master forms I've made and tweaked to my needs over the last five years.  Cross your fingers, and hope I can get them back.

Smiles,
Trish

Another day...

Well, I was working on homework all day. I didn't get a chance to work on school stuff. So, not much to post.

OH...I suppose I should do the prompt of the day for June 23: What project are you working on?

I am working on getting my classroom ready for the new year.  I will be going to pick up a few things from my classroom tomorrow. I am going to update my sub folder, my planning folder, and student information folder.  Of course, my student information folder will only be the master copy for students to fill out in August. I will have it ready to put the completed forms in when they are returned.  (I will attach this year's form after I update, if anyone wants to use it or adapt it.)

Smiles,
Trish

Wow

Well, I have skipped quite a few days posting. I will say I had a ton of classwork to do! That was most important. I am working on something for my classroom though. I will share as I finish the pieces. :)

Smiles,
Trish

Working on Next Year!

I have been getting my binder ready for next year.  (I will take pics when I finish!) I started this last year, and I didn't do as much with it as I thought I would. It worked for the amount of time that I used it. I have will be changing my bags for next year too. I have a 31 bag that has a hanging file folder thingee in it. It worked well, but I want to combine most things into my binder. I think I will be able keep using my 31 bag, if I take the hanging folders out. Then again, I bought a cute bag from the band last year. It would work better, I think. :)

As for my classes, I have several things due tomorrow....all of which are complete, but need to be uploaded. :)  I am working on the items due the following week.

I guess that is all for now!

Smiles,
Trish

Busy Weekend!

We had a busy weekend. I like Gary  having Fridays off. We ramble and roam about. Saturday was class day for me. I am enjoying case study research. Yesterday our beautiful boy came home from school.  He spent the day with us. It was really nice. I miss seeing him everyday, but I love the young man he is now. :)  He graduates (hopefully) next May. He is at the point that it all depends on when classes are offered. Then into the big wide world he will go (or maybe back into academia, if he goes for his Master's right away).

As far as course work is concerned, I am being buried under all the reading.  As I am studying educational theory in my other class, there are some changes I would like to make in my classroom where discourse is concerned.  I think I may record several classes  next year, and analyze my classroom discourse.  I want to make sure all my kids have a voice in my class. I use talking sticks to make sure everyone gets a chance to vocalize their opinions, but maybe that isn't the way to go. I am learning new things; I will have to wait and see.

As far as school is concerned, sometime this week (by the weekend for sure), I will be able to post some of the organizational things I am working on.

I guess that is it for now.

Smiles,
Trish

I have worked on some charts for my record keeping. Feel free to use them, if you like. I updated the original. Added lines for whole numbers and months, as well as lighter line for the 50s.  It will make it easier for me to use with accuracy.

Smiles,
Trish

Course Work

Today I finished my first paper for BER630.  I hope it is what was wanted.  It is submitted at any rate.

As for school work, I did find out that my room will be ready for me to work in in about a week.  The floors are being stripped and waxed, then I am ready to go! :)  I have so many things I want to do. As I finish them up, I will post here. Free to use, as always. :)

Smiles,
Trish

Not feeling it today

I have done course work and school work every day since the summer semester began. I am ahead n most thing. I think I am going to take a day off. No course work. No school work..... well, okay, I will probably look through pinterest. :)

Short post today, but it is all good.

Smiles,
Trish

Update: I ended up being wrong.  I did course work. I truly love taking classes and expanding my knowledge. I also did some school work. :)  lol  I just needed that little break I guess.

As for the optometry appointment, I will be wearing readers. :)

Smiles,
Trish

Enforced break day

I was working on homework, when the storms began to thunder.  I really didn't think anything about it, as it has been storming here nearly every day for the last week. This time the power went out. It went out for about four hours, so I had an enforced break from doing course work.  No worries, I am ahead. :)  A day away from course work will probably work in my favor anyway.

Tomorrow I have an eye appointment. I am pretty sure I will need glasses, at least for reading. Working from computer, to book, to writing, and back is starting to be a problem. It takes time to focus when I switch mediums. We shall see.

Smiles,
Trish

Argh! LOL

I think I have mentioned that I am watching clips of a show called The Wire. I just finished transcribing a five minute clip. Whew! Three pages! I already know one is due in a week or so, I will be watching and transcribing forever. :)  lol

I am also watching the movie Freedom Writers for another class. I am glad that many clips are on YouTube to watch. I haven't bought movies in I don't know how long. I view them through Amazon Prime.  I wouldn't know how to save a scene from Amazon Prime, if I had to. :)

As far as my classroom is concerned: I have many ideas, and I have written some jots, but nothing on paper yet. That will probably start sometime this week.

Smiles,
Trish

Pinterest Addiction?

I spent several hours on Pinterest and other sites pinning to Pinterest last night. I found all kinds of ideas for bulletin boards. When I started teaching in 2002, I had four bulletin boards. Two of those bulletin boards did not change, other than updating or adding information. One I changed every month, and the other was changed every quarter. Now, I have five bulletin boards, and I don't change them often. The one in the hall is updated maybe quarterly.  I think I am going to change that next year. I liked changing my boards. The kids liked my boards changing. How often do you change your bulletin boards?

On another note, I have been watching clips of a show called The Wire for a class I am taking this summer. It is an interesting show about a school in CA.  The only thing I don't like about it is the language. WOW! I may have to see if it is on Amazon Prime, if I can get past the foul language!

Hmmm....other than that, nothing much going on today.

Smiles,
Trish

Ooops

Well, I missed a day. That is okay though. We went to Hunstville to see Spiderman 2 and have dinner with my son and his girlfriend. :)  It was a wonderful day. 

Planning for the new year

I don't know how others plan for the year, but I plan by reviewing my course of study. Yes, I know. I know it. I work closely with it all year. I reflect on the lessons and assessments I use to make sure mastery is achieved according to the standards in that course of study. (In Alabama we use the Alabama College and Career Readiness standards. These standards are basically Common Core States Standards with Alabama additions.) I reread and unpack the standards again.  My interpretation may have changed as PD was performed over the year. I want the best for my students!

Next, I read other teachers' plans that are published in blogs and Pinterest. I tie all my thoughts together with a theme for the year.  My system has a yearly plan. I use it for my general planning. It is basically a 2x2 square grid with one square for each quarter. I fill in what I plan which standards I plan to cover each quarter. This keeps me somewhat on track for the year. From there, I plan each week on a weekly form my district used to publish (seven squares in a line). It may look something like this:

• Daily - Strand: 
• Poetry 180 - Strand:
• Independent reading - Strand:
• Grammar lesson (or writing lesson) - Strand:
• Literature lesson (or speaking lesson)- Strand:

I try to tie each piece together so they are fluid lessons, flowing one into the other.

Next, I plan each lesson, in detail a month at a time, prior to the month. Those lessons are fully fleshed out to include:

• Specific standards
• Assessments for those standards - formative or summative as needed
• Titles of pieces and pages, if applicable
• Lists of items needed for students
• Lists of items I need for the lesson
• Anticipated time allotted for each part of the day
• Homework/Classwork assignments
• Accommodations that can be made for each lesson 
• Extensions for lesson

Lastly, prior to each week, I make tweaks to the lesson plans to reflect any changes, such as drills or other activities that may change our schedule. After the first week, I can start listing specific accommodations for spec ed and EL students, as well as specific extensions. 

I also look at my classroom management plan. I make changes, although most are slight, each year. 

After the basics of the year and management plan are laid out, I begin crafting my first day of school newsletter. I wish I could say I was really good at sending one out each week, or quarter, or semester, but I am not.  I do have a classroom facebook, and that seems to be the best way to keep in touch with parents. I post a link to my lesson plans and link any supplemental papers I can.

Smiles,
Trish

Getting Ready....Already!

School has been out of session since May 23. We had our summer professional development on May 27, so officially, we have been out of school school for a little over a week. Already I am planning. I should say now I am seriously planning the next school year.  I reflect and plan during the year.

As I mentioned in an early post (there's not many of them....lol), we started blocking 7th grade reading and language this past school year.  I believe we are doing that once again this year.  I loved it! I ran out of time each day, but I think some major changes are in store.

So far, I have uploaded the calendar into Google Calendars. I am currently updating my online lesson planner - Planbook, if you are interested. Other items on my list:

• Vocabulary: I have used various vocabulary workbooks and lessons. I just haven't found one that works well. I think perhaps the first part of the year will deal with Greek and Latin roots and affixes. 
• Poetry 180: I tried this at the end of the year, and many of the kids liked it. I think I will look for more middle school appropriate and community appropriate poems though.
• Close reading: I need to find a source for cheap, OR BETTER YET FREE, resources that the kids can mark up! Part of close reading is marking up the text, and I don't have books they can mark. Making copies is fine, but time consuming and eventually I run out of allotted copies. :)
• Daily Writing (or close to it): Last year our class wrote a lot (usually weekly), but not daily. I also need to allot time to revise and edit, more than once!
• Literature Circles: I haven't used lit circles in quite a while. I think this will be better than classroom novels.
• Independent reading: I do this every year, but I think I am going to assess independent reading a bit differently.
• Layered Curriculum: I am going to use this more on a regular basis, rather than on selected assignments.

There are many more ideas, but these are some that are being tossed about in my head and on paper. :)

Smiles,
Trish

Day 2 - Classwork shared

We had to write a poem inspired by George Ella Lyon, called "Where I'm From." Then we had to record it and upload it (I am working on this part) to our class VoiceThread.  I really liked this poem, so I thought I would share as my day two posting. (Only 98 to go. How many times to post in a row before it becomes habit?)

Where I’m From

(Inspired by George Ella Lyon)

I am from purple inked pens,

from journals and multicolored paper.

I am from the slobbery, wet kisses on the porch.

(Tramp kisses,

Wet and furry tickles.)

I am from the rose bushes

and the pecan tree

whose leaves whisper like wind

telling the secrets of the earth’s soul.

I’m from  gumdrops and computers,

from Linn, mother to me and the neighborhood.

I’m from safety

and open-mindedness.

I’m from Be yourself! and You are good enough!

I’m from seeing the face of God

in each living thing,

from the tiniest to the largest,

from the lost to the found.

I’m from Adrian with many footpaths

crossing the states to rest,

from prairie dogs to the Pacific,

from San Berdoo to the home of my heart.

Early travels creating wanderlust

with many trips to see

the grandeur of Paradise

on Earth.

Sent buzzing across the many miles

through fragile wires

pictures of family

connecting me to people

I have never known.

A rich past and present

weaving a tapestry for

my son’s future. 

by Trisha Bodine

3 June 2014

100 Day Challenge

Because I am not an online blogger...notice all the attempts prior to today...I am undertaking the 100 Day Challenge. The challenge is to blog daily.  I have a set (believe it or not) of various prompts, should I need help in writing.

Beside working on things for my classroom, I am also going to use this space for my classes. I am currently taking CSE 663: Improving English Instruction: Critical English Education in Secondary Education and BER 630: Case Study Research. :)  As I am working through my assignments, this may be a space to think aloud about some of the issues being covered. Who knows? This may even become a spot for dissertation tidbits! :)

Anyway, Day 1 completed. :)

Smiles,
Trish

Reflections and Looking Forward

Well, I did not keep up with this blog as I intended. I still enjoy writing in paper journals. Oh well. There is always next year.

This year is nearly over, a little over a month to go. I love where I work. It truly is a joy to go to school each day.  I am thankful for the dedicated teachers (as well as administrators and staff) at our school. As our campus contains two schools, this goes for all our teachers - elementary and high school.

I truly enjoyed this group of kids. They are bright, and they were prepared for seventh grade. They are outspoken and do not mind asking questions. I feel they will do well in the rest of their academic endeavors and life, in general.

Our English standards changed to a more rigorous set of standards, so I felt the stress to catch up and overcome the gap. I feel like all of our teachers (elementary and high school) felt this way. (The math curriculum changed last year, but I know there are still gaps between the old standards and the new that are being addressed. I can only speak from my subject area though!)

We also blocked reading and grammar for seventh and eighth grade this year. It was interesting, and I really did enjoy it. Besides teaching grammar, reading, writing, and research, I was able to add more speeches.  It was great to add more speeches this year. I think it will be beneficial to our students, and it is in the new curriculum as a major strand, rather than as merely one of many objectives to teach.

I also think that my parent communication was a bit lacking this year. Part of the reason for the "lacking" is my own educational pursuits this year. In addition, I got rid of my original classroom facebook and did not start a classroom group page until late in the year. I do like the group page better; I don't see all the other posts, but my information is out there.  Because I started the page so late, I was not in the habit of posting everyday. This needs to change.

This year I tried Remind101. It was great, except only about 5% of my parents signed up to receive messages. It is kind of disappointing, but perhaps the percentage will increase next year!

I am looking at an online lesson planner (for next school year) that has a setting that allows parents/students to see the basic lesson plans. I may use that next year. I will try it over the summer to see if I like it.

With some of the pedagogies we have spoken about in my classes, I may switch up some of the teaching strategies I used this year. I do tweak each year, but these classes have opened up a few new ways that I have not considered in while, if at all.

With regards to changes in lesson plans, I need to consider which novels I want to teach next year, as well as if the About Me project will be assigned. There a few snags this year. I may just tweak the project, and start assigning the parts earlier in the year, maybe one part a month.

Oh well. I will be working on more changes over the summer.

Grading Policies......

What are the grading policies where you teach?  Ours? No zeroes. Now I leave zeroes in place for the midterm progress report, but for the final report card, I replace the zeroes with a 50 as board policy dictates.

As for other grades:

• Homework/Classwork - Introduction to skill/rough drafts: This is where students practice new skills or get their thoughts on the paper.  Students should not be afraid of making mistakes. This is how any person learns, making mistakes and how to correct them. Most of the time students grade their own papers. On occasion, I mark the incorrect answers for students, rather than letting them grade their own. These are turned in for a participation grade. 
• Homework/Classwork - Review: These are graded for correctness. Most of time students have already been tested on this material. It is purely review. Students are also usually told the assignment will be graded for accuracy.
• Sub Work: These assignments are usually graded for accuracy. Most of the time they are critical thinking skills (i.e. puzzles, riddles, following direction word games, etc. that review skills already learned this year or previously) or review of skills already completed.
• Tests/Final Drafts/Projects: These are graded right/wrong or by rubric. If they are graded by rubric, the rubric is discussed with students prior to the assignment.
• Retake Tests: Any written test (not final drafts, projects, speeches) students are able to retake a test, if they show they have completed additional study. Since this was the first year I have tried this, it seemed to work well. The two test grades were averaged, and the higher grade replaced the lower grade. Many students took "retake" tests. 

One other topic with grading: if I notice that several students missed the same problem, I will usually add that number of points back into the grade OR drop that problem as an outlier and recalculate the percentage. For example, the word puzzles my students did with a sub last week. There were several that had the same answer for several of the problems. The answers were incorrect. I added those points back into the grades of every student. 

Perhaps in preparing students to be College and Career Ready, I should look at homework/classwork as most of my college classes did:

1. It needs to be completed, but no grade is assessed for the classwork/homework. Continue grading as participation OR
2. Every problem is graded right/wrong AND
3. No retake tests.

I am not sure. I guess I always assumed classwork/homework is practice, learning where the breakdown of skills may be or where skills are weak. This could even show strengths the students have with a particular skill.  I also know that many students will not do homework/classwork unless there is a grade associated with the assignment. 

.  

I am facing a conundrum. /sigh

EDIT: Board policy states that tests/assessments are 70% of the grade and classwork/homework is 30% of the grade. So, classwork/homework is not going away. It will be graded. The conundrum is whether to continue using as a participation grade or to grade for accuracy.