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Summer Reading

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Jackie
English: Bell Hooks

English: Bell Hooks (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While I’m not doing any formal workshops this summer, I’m still developing a lengthy list of summer projects for myself, which range from formalizing a list of classroom policies for my fall students to developing assignments for the new elective I’ll be teaching next spring. In addition to these kinds of practical matters, I try to always assign myself summer reading that will help me think about some bigger-picture aspects of my profession as well. Some of my favorite past choices included Teach Like a Champion, Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary Elements and I Read It But I Don’t Get It. Each of these books has informed my teaching in different and concrete ways.

This summer, the front-runners seem to be Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom by bell hooks and Imagine: How Creativity Works, which touch on two critical areas that are more abstract as far as pedagogy, but no less important.

I’m thinking I may also go back and revisit some of my past choices, as I’m making some bigger changes to my ninth grade curriculum and shuffling the books into a new sequence, in addition to this new elective. I’ve got a few lessons and assignments I need to rework, and a few new ideas I want to map out for myself in preparation for executing them next year for the first time. I’ve also got some books to review that I’ll be teaching next spring.

I’m looking forward to digging into this kind of reflective work, free from the daily grind of grading and meetings and all the necessary mechanics of making a school run. While it’s lovely to be able to work on my own schedule (and even poolside, if I choose to), it’s also mentally refreshing to be able to step back and think deeper about what I do, why I do it, and how I could do it better.

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Why I Teach

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Jackie

“At the beginning of this year, English was the class I was most afraid of, and now at the end of the year, I think it’s the only class that hasn’t given me a panic attack. Thanks for watching out for the dyslexics and making everyone feel safe in your classroom.”

“My mom read over a paper of mine I wrote for my theater class, and when she was finished, she said, ‘Wow, Ms. Regales must be a really good teacher, because you have made so much progress in writing this year.’”

“Ms. Regales, the only word I can think of to describe you is SUNSHINE! If you have ever had a bad day, your students never knew it, and you always seemed so excited to see us and teach us this year.”

“This class was challenging and exciting; I never felt drowsy once, which cannot be said for all my classes.”

“You are a hard grader but that pushes us to the next level”

“You helped me see how hard I have to work to succeed”

“You care about our success and made me feel like you really wanted me to do well”

These are all statements my students have either said to me in the past two weeks, or have written on their end-of-year course evaluation. This year’s crop of freshmen is an especially sweet one, I think, but also, their words really made me think and smile and feel appreciated. What more could a busy teacher ask for, as the school year winds to a satisfying close?

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Citrus Cake and Appreciation

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Jackie
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week 2006

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week 2006 (Photo credit: angegreene)

This weekend I had a fit of cooking and baking energy and made fudge krinkle cookies, applesauce banana bread, and a three-cheese pasta al forno for dinner on Sunday with homemade garlic bread. I finished with a citrus cake, baked in a tube pan and topped with a lemon-flavored powdered sugar glaze.

It’s the cake that stands out to me, though, because I baked it for the annual Teacher Appreciation Luncheon the PTA at my girls’ school holds each year, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. This year, the luncheon was held a little early because the school’s annual spring festival is on May 12. I’ve participated in both of these events for the past five years, but since my girls are changing school in the fall, this will be the last time I participate in either.

On the one hand, my life will be easier next year, logistically, and I’m looking forward to this big change for our family. On the other hand, however, my children have had excellent teachers at their current school, and we’ve found a wonderful community of parents and families there. We have tried to show our appreciation of the teachers in different ways throughout our time there, by volunteering in the classroom, sending in donations of supplies from paper towels to posterboard to pencils, and by purchasing books for all my girls’ teachers, current and former, at the Scholastic Book Fair each year. We try to show our appreciation of the community by volunteering at events like movie nights, field days, bake sales and book fairs.

While I have an array of fears about next year, one recent fear is that my girls’ current and former teachers and school community will think we are leaving because we are pissed off about public schools. My kids have had great teachers, and I hope they know how much we have appreciated them over the years. We are not leaving for any reason having to do with teachers, employees, or the treatment my children have received, and we are definitely open to returning to the public school system at some point in the future, if that turns out to be best for our girls.

There are certainly valid reasons to be pissed off with schools, and there are systemic and pervasive problems in many of our school systems, as well as how we think (and spend) nationally about education.The number of students in the average public school classroom, for example, is a big philosophical problem for me. But at the same time, there are thousands of teachers, employees and administrators who are doing their best to work within flawed systems for the good of the students they interact with every day. Are there bad apples in the bunch? Of course. Are there employees who take advantage of the flaws in the system? Sadly, of course. But that should not distract our attention away from the employees who are dedicating their lives to our kids, or from the systems that need to be reformed.

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Taping My Teaching, and Thoughts on Evaluation

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Jackie

Evaluating student performance is a big part of teaching, but another complicated aspect is how we can evaluate our courses and our own performance in them. Teacher evaluation is a hot topic these days, as people talk about performance bonuses, teacher tenure and the impact good teachers can have on students, but how do we know what make a great teacher and also, how can we see how to improve ourselves?

One tool for teachers is having themselves taped while teaching, as Larry Ferlazzo writes about in this post. He was not only working with a consultant who taped him, but then proffered the footage to his students and conducting a discussion of what they think they saw and they think he should take away from that. I love the dual focus on what the teacher and students need to be doing for effective learning; in reading this description, it seems so powerful and so constructive, and almost guaranteed to help a motivated teacher like Ferlazzo improve his teaching. But I feel a shudder of fear at the idea myself–offering myself up to my students to critique so openly?

This idea of equity in vulnerability is one I’m familiar with from writing workshops, and one that Penny Kittle spoke about it in Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice, and Clarity in High School Writing, but while I’ve adapted my teaching in many ways based on books I’ve read over the past few years, this is one big area in which I’ve made little progress. I would guess I’m not alone in this; teaching is a full-body job where we are already constantly being judged by our students, and we are all aware of this. Recently on Facebook, a friend of mine wrote about the evaluations she got from her most recent students, who commented on her teaching style and course material, but also on her wardrobe, body type, general appearance and workout habits. This style of candor is less common at the high school level, but not because they aren’t thinking it! I’m sure asking students is valuable, but I think the taping would bring a valuable and constructive focus to their comments.

At a recent faculty meeting, we traded the evaluations we do in our courses and debated how best to structure them, when to offer them, and how many times during the year we evaluate our courses. It gave a lot to think about for my own evaluations, but taping myself? That would be a big leap in evaluating myself and my teaching, and I think it’s a worthy goal for my near future.

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All Ninth Grade, All The Time

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Jackie
education

education (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

This is my first year teaching only 9th graders all year, as in previous years, I’ve been teaching juniors or seniors during the same year as well. Since I’m also on the 9th grade advisory team, this means that I’ve been immersed in this particular freshman class, which luckily happens to be a really wonderful group of girls. Next year, I’ll have a senior course in addition to my freshmen, but this year has been really interesting to me in terms of teaching one prep for multiple sections, and what drawbacks and benefits there are.

As often happens, ProfHacker has come up with a practical pedagogical article that, while written by/for the professoriate, is thought-provoking for high school teachers. Billie Hara writes about teaching multiple sections of a literature survey class and how the different demographics and dynamics of the sections pose some challenges. One of her favorite methods is Think-Pair-Share, which is one of my favorites as well. It’s useful for when you have a group of students who don’t want to talk much, or to encourage reflection in a class where everyone shouts out, or when you have one student who dominates the class discourse. I also like to have students write down their thoughts first and then share, which can serve all of the same purposes, but is also encouraging informal writing, which can often make students more at ease with formal writing when done repeatedly.

Another dilemma she mentions is what to do with pacing when you have one class that is capable of moving faster than the other sections, but for various reasons, you can’t really let them. It would make class planning a lot harder if you have three sections all at different places in a novel, and at the high school level, I don’t want the girls telling each other what happens next or being able to prompt each other with “right” answers for discussions or assessments. The other difficulty is that since my classes are all “regular,” not designated honors classes, I wouldn’t want one section (or their parents) to start wondering why another group was chapters ahead of them, and then believing that there was some kind of invisible tracking going on. I address this most often by differentiating discussion among my sections, making sure that each class hits the key points, but offering more scaffolding to one group while encouraging the next group to push even deeper into analytical thinking.

All in all, I’ve enjoyed my all-9s year so far, as much as I’m looking forward to developing my senior elective on Latin American literature too. I talked on Parents Night this year about how much I love teaching ninth graders, and while I saw some disbelief on some parents’ faces, it’s completely true. I enjoy teaching the kind of compositional and comprehension skills that are ninth-grade appropriate, I get to teach some really great literature, but also, ninth graders are just so much fun. They are still closer to children than young adults, for the most part, so while they aren’t always the most organized group, they are enthusiastic and curious in a way that older students are sometimes careful to hide. The analogy that springs to my mind most often is puppies: they’re tricky to train and they don’t always go where they are supposed to, but they are curious and lovable, excited and affectionate, and it’s thoroughly fun to spend your day with them.

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Random Bullets of Grading Exams

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Jackie
  • Reason 14,950 I love teaching freshmen: they write me little notes in the margins of their exams, with exclamation points and smiley faces, and make little jokes about the questions and their answers
  • Quandary #1: if my students do very well, on average, on a section of their exam, is it because they studied effectively, I taught it effectively, or I mistakenly wrote the questions as to be too easy?
  • Related: one of the many aspects of teaching that is much harder than people realize is the art of writing a useful exam, one that is sufficiently rigorous but within a well-prepared student’s reach. I find writing essay topics much easier.
  • Quandary #2: is it fairest to put all students in the same type of testing environment–sitting in chairs at desks, no music, fluorescent lights, no snacks, in groups of 15-50 other test-takers–or would it be fairest to let them choose a few conditions they’d prefer to have during testing, and them group them in different locations accordingly?
  • Even though I am completely convinced that it would be incredibly ineffective for my particular subject, sometimes I still wish I could do my whole exam on Scantron.  This usually happens when I’m faced with a fresh stack of exams, oddly enough.
  • I’ve never been the kind of teacher who collects all the exams and then sits right down to grade them; I usually take a break after the stress of exam week and semester’s end. However, this year, the English exam was the last in the week’s schedule, so my grading window is uncomfortably short.
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Vocabulary Videos

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Jackie
Ideas are ...

Image by martymadrid via Flickr

As part of our midterm review, I’m revamping what I’ve done before; I’ve had students do review presentations before, but this year, I stepped up the requirements to make it more creative and interactive and truly substantial. I gave them a few examples and two class periods to work and then set them loose!

So far, I’ve got one group working on “Edge of Glory: Vocab Remix,” one group pounding oranges with a mallet, another group taking a camera out to the field, and another covering my whiteboard with a millefleur pattern. As fun as this all looks, there’s also sound pedagogical reasoning behind it, aligned with the idea of scaffolding and the gradual release model of shifting from teacher to student responsibility for learning. I also feel like this is appropriate 21st century, Teach Paperless learning, as they use their laptops, cell phones and flip cameras to produce their work, and I’m planning to make the materials from all three sections available on my website, which will provide the bulk of their grammar/vocab review for the midterm exam.

I often feel impatient when I read a good teaching article, and want to implement that idea right now! This gets overwhelming quickly and can be really discouraging as well, thinking of all the amazing things other (better) teachers are doing while you’re struggling through lessons that seem unimaginative at best. Too many ideas end up lingering in my files, never to be implemented. However, I’m finding that more often, I have to let an idea incubate over a period of time, until I can integrate it into my classes in the most effective way.

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2011: Year In Review

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Jackie

As 2011 draws to a close, I look over the year and see where I’ve been and how it affected me; getting to review my year this way is one of the reasons I keep blogging. The opportunity to reflect is so important to me, and blogging is one of my major tools to keep this focus in my life. Not to mention, my memory seems to get worse and worse every year!

In January, I became active on Twitter, fell in love with The King’s Speech, and finished up my first senior elective with a windows and mirrors project. I thought a lot about high pressure parenting and sustainable marriages, two concerns that are always close to my heart.  February brought cautionary tales for teachers and the very beginning of a big project for me in March, my March Madness poetry tournament. I also set myself a poetic challenge and met it, with great success. I also felt ambivalent about spring break balance, which haunts me every year, I think.

It’s become a tradition of mine to spend April doing as many poetry-related activities as possible, so it was fitting that I wrapped up my tournament and challenged myself again (though with less success this time). April is also a big month for me as a GSA advisor, and I was proud to see my club members create our most successful Day of Silence yet. In May, my girls turned nine and my grandmother died, so it was a month spent with family, and thinking about gratitude. I got a little discouraged about teaching ambition and resorted to bribery.

And then it was summer! For whatever reason, I spent a fair amount of June posting about teaching. I considered keeping a teaching journal and even bought one by the end of the summer, though I have since lost it (must check my desk at school). I reviewed my evaluations, watched my students graduate and received the perfect end-of-year gift. In July, I got a little clutter crazy and fell in love with Spotify, an affair that is still raging today. I also continued my teacher-blogging streak, posting reviews of helpful books and thinking about professional development.

In August, I finished my thirty-second year and turned 33, and spent my birthday exactly how I would have liked. I also made two resolutions, regarding organizing my wardrobe and focusing on fitness. Unfortunately, my fitness resolution has progressed more in fits and starts, but on the brighter side, my closet focus has really made my life easier. In September, I kept up my healthy momentum, reflected on priorities and had a tough disappointment in my own balancing act. But I also embraced my inner dictionary nerd and reviewed a book that continues to influence my teaching.

In October, I was thinking and writing about social justice issues, about being a GLTBQ ally at school and in in families, and pondering my relationship with feminism. I reconnected with Hemingway and was pleasantly surprised at what I found, and in related news, reflected on my Kindle. In that same reflective mood, I thought about who I am, who I was, and what decisions led me here.

In November, I set myself a fun cooking challenge, made my first pizza crust, and spent some time in grading jail. I read a childhood favorite with my girls and got some great poetic news.  December saw us struggling with a very itchy foe, as I struggled with work overload and my girls learned some homework lessons. In gearing up for Christmas, I thought a lot about screen time and usage, and how I friend or don’t friend my students on Facebook.

Wrapping up the year in reflection, I have been so pleased with two ongoing projects of mine: my outfit journal and my gratitude journal, both of which have made my life easier and more peaceful. I also made some goals and resolutions for the upcoming year.

Thank you for coming along on this journey with me, and I hope you have a wonderful New Year.

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Teachers, Students and Facebook

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Jackie
Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

If you are my Facebook friend, you know that I am a frequent user of the site, checking in several times daily, posting pictures, commenting on statuses and syncing my music playlists through Spotify. I utilize all the site’s privacy features, but I definitely do a lot of communicating on Facebook. If you’ve been around long enough, you know that I even taught a university-level course on Facebook Culture for a few semesters, and that I am always looking for new ways to use teaching with technology. Finally, of course, I have been blogging for about eight years, presenting a (carefully curated) continuing portrait of my interests and personality.

All of this might lead you to believe that I have positive views on using Facebook to connect with my current students, and when I was teaching at the university level, I did set up a Facebook group for my courses and use it to communicate with students about course business. However, I was and am firmly opposed to connecting with my current high school students via Facebook, text messaging, or other non-school-related forms of communication.

For me, there are some key distinctions here: my high school students are still children, legally and emotionally, in ways that my college students were not. This means that inherently, there is a power dynamic present that any responsible adult should be very careful not to exploit. We often see this manifested as inappropriate sexual behavior, but what about the teacher who “friends” some students but not others, who sends chatty text messages to Janie but not Jenny? How does Jenny continue to feel fairly treated in that classroom? It also means that they still need us to be adults, to be safe adults in their lives and to draw boundaries for them about what is and is not acceptable and appropriate, including in matters of communication. Just like in parenting, we are not aiming to be our students’ “friends,” or our children’s “friends.” We are not their peers, and when we try too much to be, we erode our ability to continue to act as authority figures.

I feel like it’s important for me to clarify here that I don’t take this position because I’m embarrassed of anything my students would know about me if we were connected on Facebook; it’s categorically impossible for drunk photos of me to exist, for example, and I have no secret past as a sex worker.    Also, one work-around I have seen is for teachers to create separate FB accounts for their “teacher” persona, using the name of the high school as their middle name or simply naming themselves “Mr./Ms.” instead of their first name, so that they can still communicate with students on FB without linking their “real” accounts. If a teacher honestly felt that FB was the only effective way to reach their students, I can see this being useful.

It’s become an end-of-year tradition that once students at my school graduate, I see a rush of new requests and friendships popping up in my FB feed, for me and for my fellow teachers. This feels right and good; these students are moving into the adult world, and I’m glad to connect with them as they move forward. I learn about new music, see pictures of their happy faces in new cities, and ignore the mentions of drinking or the occasional swear. We trade links back and forth, and I love to see them when they come back to Baltimore. But for me, I can only really think of them as “friends,” FB or otherwise, once they are no longer my students, and that is as it should be.

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Homework Lessons

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Jackie

Overheard around my house recently:

“Wait, when is my project due? Is today the 17th?”

“Well, Lucy was straightening my binder for me, and she accidentally recycled my rough draft. Does that mean I have to write it over again?”

“Girls, why are we just realizing this now?! I’ve asked you every day this week how your projects are going, and you keep telling me they are fine!”

“I have to write about the Aztec Cheetah.” “There’s no such thing.” “Wait–the Asiatic cheetah? Is that a thing?”

“I’m only four pages into this book for my report, and already, five people have died of a terrible fever.”

“Where’s your assignment? I thought I told you to keep it on the fridge with a magnet, so it would be safe.”

“I can’t find my story organizer! It’s due tomorrow morning!”

“I lost my rough draft–do I have to write it all over again?!”

“I left all my cheetah research at school, and it’s due on Monday.”

“I thought my teachers were nice, but they are mean for giving me two projects at the same time.”

“Part of the lessons of these projects are to teach you organization and responsibility, which clearly, you are having trouble with, so can we try and learn a lesson from all this?!”

Tears. Sighs. Pouting. Crankiness.

Homework.

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