Monthly Archives: September 2009

Proud and Pleased: My Secret Life of Bees Unit

Posted by Jackie in education, teaching

I think I may have figured out how to make my documents available to you all here, so I thought I’d write a quick post about a unit I just finished with my ninth graders that went really well.

This year, our ninth graders read a new summer reading book, Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, which the students really enjoyed. I was excited to try a unit with it incorporating some of the writing-to-learn strategies from my workshop at Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking.

So what did we do? Well, we began each class with a short informal “focused freewrite,” a Bard term I borrowed for all my classes this year. We ended a fair amount of classes with either another freewrite or with a “process write,” where the students either write about what they’ve already written or write about the way the author’s written. We also wove in discussion questions and a variety of charts to help students organize their notes. Here’s the document of homework prompts my students wrote. A fair amount of the topics came from the publisher’s guide (warning: PDF) which I found helpful.

At the end of the unit, the students made electronic character scrapbooks using Powerpoint, an assignment I adapted from this ReadWriteThink lesson. My students presented their scrapbooks today, and I was incredibly pleased to see what they had done. They incorporated different pieces from their in-class and homework writings and added visual effects, images, backgrounds, and some form of audio. Many of them added songs that played while they presented, others recording themselves reading journal entries they had written for the characters, and one student wrote a dialogue between two characters and recorded herself playing both parts. The projects did a great job of displaying their technical skills, but also each project was built around core pieces of writing and the student’s ability to be creative by adding images and sound. Our tech coordinator came to watch the presentations and hear any difficulties with tech, and she was impressed as well, which made me feel even prouder.

So today I’m feeling really happy: proud of my students, grateful for my school’s support, which allowed me to go to that workshop and have a tech coordinator, and pleased that I crafted a unit that integrated technology without feeling grafted on while also using this new way of teaching that is exciting me and inspiring me.

Three cheers for feeling good about your job!

Edited to Add: this post has gotten a fair amount of views in a short time, so I’d like to request that if you are a teacher and use these documents/ideas, could you please let me know? I’d love to hear from you!

Pacing Myself

Posted by Jackie in all about me, teaching

I don’t know when I’ve ever been so glad that September is almost over!

I think it’s partly due to my added responsibilities this year, and partly due to my close involvement with the college admission process this year–I’m helping our seniors work on their essays– but for whatever reason, this is one of the most hectic Septembers I can remember. Part of is also that September means a lot of stressors that only happen once a year– Parents Night as a teacher and a parent, getting back into the routine after long lazy summers, waking up so early again, stocking up on new shoes and clothes and pencils for everyone, and this year, the overnight “rustic” retreat I’m going on with the ninth grade class as an advisor. Mix all those elements together, and I guess it’s no wonder that I’m collapsing into bed every night exhausted and much closer to midnight than I’d like to be.

But I have to say it: this is all much easier because I truly do love everything that I’m doing. I’ve long believed that once you decide what it’s important to you, what you’re passionate about, and put those elements at the center of your life, everything else will fall into place. I am part of a great community here at work doing a job I truly love, and my girls are at a great school that has welcomed us into their community. Between those two communities alone, my life is fuller and richer every day. Education, volunteering, writing and literature, supporting and celebrating girls: as crazy as it’s making me, I’m writing this post to remind myself how amazing it is that I am neck-deep in all of these things, and how long I’ve waited for this.

Of course, I’m also trying to enjoy the fruits of my labors: dinner with old friends, cute corduroy shirtdresses, and treating my girls to a few new drawing books. And sometimes I do feel completely overwhelmed, drowning beneath the weight of everything I want to accomplish and how difficult it sometimes seems.

But what I need to remember the most is just how lucky I am, and how long I’ve been waiting to feel this overwhelmed and excited and satisfied by my life.

One of Those Moms

Posted by Jackie in all about me

It’s taken awhile, but this school year, I feel I have finally become one of those moms.

You know, the kind who have color-coded Outlook calendars at work and a color-coded wall calendar at home and still are sometimes late but also seem to be everywhere at once. The kind of mom who goes to Back-To-School night and sees so many familiar faces, the other moms who volunteer and pitch in and just plain show up over and over again. I’m the kind of mom who realizes at 4:30 that she hasn’t figured out what to do about dinner, but still bakes cookies on the weekends for the lunchboxes. I’m the mom at work in the perfectly coordinated Ann Taylor outfit who has piles of laundry at home on her bed, waiting to be put away.

I’m the mom signing her kids up for art classes and piano lessons, I’m the mom asking you if you want to buy some Girl Scout cookies ($3.50 a box, let me know). I’m the mom gathering pretzels and old magazines for the Environmental Club and dropping off children’s books for the donation box and asking the teacher what supplies I can send in for the classroom so no kid goes without a fresh pencil or box of crayons. I’m clipping coupons, I’m trading recipes, I’m filling up the gas tank in high heels, I’m having a moment of panic when the girls spike a fever on a Sunday morning and I have a nightmarish Monday that I might have to miss. I’m the mom juggling a million balls who still says yes, I’ll be on that committee, yes, I can cover that class, yes, I will write your teacher a note— yes, yes, yes.

I used to look at those moms and wonder how they did it. Now I am one, and I know that somehow, it just all gets done.

Click Click Click…..

Posted by Jackie in all about me, teaching

Dean Dad wrote a post recently about the week before school starts, comparing it to the sound a roller coaster makes when it is rising to the top of the first hill, right before you start the first exhilarating rush. I read it at the time and thought it was incredibly apt, and now I can’t get the metaphor out of my head.

Since school started, I’ve definitely been in the front row of that roller coaster, and I’m starting to feel like it will begin every Monday and whip me around and around and upside down until Friday…. for the rest of my life! Just kidding. No, really. But I’m definitely in the weeds these days, though I don’t think I’m as behind as I feel like I am, if that makes sense. And I do have that same feeling I remember from my waitressing days, when I am on my feet constantly, in five different locations in ten minutes, holding ten separate important items in my head at once while five different people talk to me and I listen to each one and respond appropriately. And somehow the buzzing energy comes from somewhere and keeps me going and I make it to the end of the shift and feel a boost of adrenaline at what I managed to accomplish. Then I go home, eat a huge meal late at night, and fall dead asleep. Then I do it all again for a double shift the next day.

So basically, so far this school year, I feel like I’m waiting tables on a moving rollercoaster.

How’s by you?

Traveling Circus and Medicine Show

Posted by Jackie in all about me, media mentions

The first confirmation that this show would be unlike anything we’d ever seen was when we arrived to our seats about 25 minutes early, looked down at the stage, and saw Adam Duritz and a guy with a guitar, doing a lovely acoustic cover of The Ghost in You while people shuffled around and found their seats. It made the setting (one of my favorite places to see shows) seem informal and intimate, definitely establishing the tone for the night.

They open the show with nineteen musicians on stage doing a wonderful cover of Van Morrison’s “Caravan” (you can see this song from earlier in the tour here), and you can just see how well they play together and what a good time they’re having. It was a nice historical note too, because in 1993, right before their first album, Counting Crows filled in last-minute for Van Morrison when he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and played this song. Other covers during the show included Simon & Garfunkel’s “Cecilia,” Rolling Stones and Peter Tosh’s Walk and Don’t Look Back and a few Bob Dylan covers, all featuring all three bands together. During one of their songs, Franti and Spearhead also mixed in a cover of Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love,” which the crowd loved.

Each band came out for what you could call “mini-sets”, where they played a few of their own tunes, but even during these, other members of the bands would be often be on stage, playing an instrument, singing back-up vocals or just bouncing around on stage, looking completely ecstatic. All night, the mood was joyful and inclusive: when Franti and Spearhead played their surprise Top 40 hit, “Say Hey,” they called for all the kids in crowd to come onstage and play, sing or just dance along while everyone in the crowd sang along. Also, each band would sometimes weave in songs from the others– while Augustana were playing their big single, “Boston,” the singer wove in lyrics from the Crows’ “Raining in Baltimore,” a well-timed nod to the location that set the crowd cheering. Unbeknownst to us, this was the last night of the tour, and all through the night various band members would talk about what a great experience it was, and how much fun they’d had, and how this was what all tours should be.

I’d never seen Franti & Spearhead live before and didn’t know their music as well as I know the Crows, but from their first song, I was on my feet dancing with thousands of others, and continued to dance for most of the show– it was impossible to resist! Michael Franti took time from the stage to thank teachers, veterans, and “everyone who helped us all become who we are today” and spoke a little about coming together in efforts of peace and community. Counting Crows have had a foundation for fifteen years and always partner with local groups everywhere they stop on tour, and it was a great feeling to think you could enjoy these bands and everything they stood for too. As the last song of the encore, all nineteen came together to play what Franti called “the most radical song of the past 80 years”: Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” and it was gorgeous. This is the third time I’ve seen Counting Crows, and every time they get better, and every time I’m so proud to be a fan of theirs.

As we walked toward our car, clutching our free tour poster, I thought about how amazing a show it was, and whether this would ever be possible for bands on major labels– the Crows left Geffen recently after 18 years, and Franti & Spearhead have long tussled with labels, major and minor alike. I don’t know how anyone could watch that show and not be convinced that artists who admire each other, who like each other, should be encouraged and supported to come together and make magic, on stage and in the studio, like what I saw tonight, even (and especially) if they come from what may seem like different backgrounds or genres. Duritz and Franti spoke from the stage about their 20-year friendship, and it made you wonder how long they’ve wanted to do something together and what obstacles might have been in their way. People keep talking about the Internet being the future or the demise of the record industry, but I think shows like this one are the future, and if the Internet can help us all get there, I’m all for it.

Personally, it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. My husband surprised me with the tickets for my birthday in mid-August, and after the hectic, overwhelming first week of school I had, during which I often felt like I was two minutes away from a mini-breakdown, this show was exactly what I needed. Three hours under the stars with my sweetheart and fantastic music that moved my feet, my heart and my soul– absolutely perfect.

Second Grade

Posted by Jackie in all about me

This year, they woke up early by themselves.

This year, they didn’t need anyone to hold their hands while they skipped toward the school.

This year, they greeted old friends–from when they were little kids, you know.

This year, they were a little embarrassed that I was taking so many pictures.

This year, their backpacks finally looked like the right size for their strong girl-shoulders.

This year, they marched into their classrooms with heads held high– no more clinging to my side.

This year, they waved goodbye– not smiling, not teary, just happy and ready to see what’s ahead.

This year, they came out full of stories and excitement, laughter and joy, no sign of any nerves or trepidation.

This year, they are in second grade. This year, they are so lovely, and I am so proud.