Thursday, April 22, 2010
Yes, I love technology...always and forever.
I created an account for students to log into, and they saved their creations to this account. I wrote out detailed directions and expectations for students since I was not able to project my computer screen for my students to see. I asked students to choose an image that inspired them or that they connected with. Then they either used the drag 'n' drop or the freestyle option to create their own poem. After they were finished I asked students to save their piclit and then make a quality comment on one of their classmate's poems, in which they pick out something connected with, a poetic device, or strong words.
I was blown away by my students' creations. Like, seriously, after reading most of them my jaw dropped, my eyes filled with tears, or I laughed uncontrollably. My students really got to the nature of poetry in that it "gets to feelings fast". I had so much fun "grading" my students' work. I love being a teacher.
Piclits helped some of my less engaged students express themselves. I allowed some of my students not to initial their creations and to remain anonymous as long as they showed me which one was their's. The power of poetry came through in these students' poems about real life and humanity. I am still struck by the way they manipulated the English language in order to affect their reader. Students also responded well to one another's poems. I have a feeling many of my students left the room feeling empowered.
One of the best experiences so far in my teaching career: I called a student to express how impressed I was with his writing and gift for literary expression. Next day he wrote in his journal: "I am grateful for my new gift in poetry that I didn't know I had." Makes me weep right now...I'm out.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
passion.
BUT then, my mentor teacher allowed me to plan the poetry unit and my passion came back again. Hw fun is it to design a unit that could possibly ignite students' creativity and curiosity? Man, there's power in it. But not the type of power that lords over people, but rather the power to motivate, to encourage, to engage.
So far, the plans for my classes have worked and not worked, which is great, yet humbling to witness. I am thankful that I get to try out my ideas in the classroom because I will be more prepared for next year.
One activity that went very well centered around the concept of literary devices. I had students building things with K'Nex and Legos to connect with how a poet may use certain tools to construct poem. Then students broke off into groups. Each group was given a sheet with three sets of lyrics on it, all three sets exhibiting the same literary device. Students had to "discover" and construct a definition of the literary device demonstrated by their sets of lyrics. After they had constructed their definition, teams were split up to teach people from the other teams. I assessed student learning based on the definitions they wrote down along with how they were able to apply their definitions to another poem. It was fantastic! I saw students collaborating and teaching themselves the definitions of literary devices. I struggled somewhat with certain devices and students not being able to see the common theme among lyrics. I always am motivated to learn more questioning techniques so that I am not just tempted to tell the students the answer. But all in all, I was impressed with my students. And I found a lot of great music while picking out lyrics. My favorite: On to the Next One by Jay-Z. Check it out.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
good question.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
dealin' in the D.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Ohhh, the things we learn in tech class...
Thursday, September 24, 2009
blog it up.
My methods instructor began our class on Tuesday with journal prompts. I needed to tae the quote below and explain what it had to do with teaching English; since I have been mulling over the purpose of teaching English as a high school subject I picked this prompt and the words overflowed:
“To speak of mere words is much like speaking of mere dynamite.”
Neither exists, mere words nor mere dynamite. (They could exist merely but they would not be worth much, if anything.) Dynamite is nothing except for its power, and the same goes with words. When we teach English, we teach students the power of words—their power to communicate, to bring forth emotion, to encourage, to wound, to inspire, to defeat, to manipulate, to relate to or with people, to connect, to ruin. As teachers, we do not merely teach words or the order of words or the interpretation of words, but how to use them to the benefit or harm of people, to the growth or atrophy of society.
Would kids be as disengaged as I have witnessed if this is what we communicated as the goal/philosophy/adventure/purpose of teaching and learning English?