Animoto

Animoto is a great presentation tool!  There are many different ways students can share their work using this site.  Here is a haiku, written by one of my students, set to music and paired with pictures (compiled by me in Animoto).

The Bird in Flight

Web 2.0 Tools

It's becoming increasingly important for teachers to adapt to the ever-changing world around us.  The same old projects and activities from 20, or even 5 or 10, years ago just won't cut it anymore.  If our job is to motivate students to learn, we have to speak their language, so to speak.  And for most of them, their "language" is anything related to technology.  I'm keeping, and adding to, a list of Web 2.0 tools that I have experimented with and hope to incorporate in my classroom in the coming school year.  Check out my dynamic list list in the sidebar!

What's on your reading list?

I think every teacher looks forward to those two magic words: summer break.  I also think that every teacher (well, every dedicated teacher anyway) does much more work over summer break than he or she intends.  Call me crazy, but the thought of planning for a new school year with no other commitments (grading papers, sponsoring club meetings, calling parents, etc.) hanging over our heads is almost exciting.  This summer I plan to focus on two things:  incorporating more technology in the classroom and becoming a better teacher of writing.  I feel the coursework of this class has given me tons of great ideas for the former.  As for the latter, I plan on reading some professional books that will hopefully guide me toward strategies that will help me help my students hone their writing skills.

To that end, there are a few books I hope to read:

• Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts by Kelly Gallagher
• Writing Reminders by Jim Burke
• Teaching Argument Writing, Grades 6-12: Supporting Claims With Relevant Evidence and Clear Reasoning by George Hillocks, Jr.

Voki...A Unique Presentation Tool

A Voki is an animated avatar; Voki creators can provide their own voices or a computer-generated voice to narrate a presentation or include a voice on a blog or website.

I was first introduced to Voki a few semesters ago.  I took an online course, and one of the assignments was to write an article reflection, but post it online via Voki so my classmates could hear me explain my reflections of the article, not just read my words.  I forgot all about it until this semester.  This would be a fun way for students to present their reflections of novels, short stories, poetry or any other piece of literature.  The uses of Voki in the classroom are limitless!  This is definitely a tool I plan to share with not only my students, but also my colleagues, as Voki can be used in all of the content areas.  Check out my Voki in the sidebar!

www.voki.com

Edmodo

As the end of the school year nears, I find myself reflecting and thinking about what I will change, revise, omit or repeat the following year.  During the course of this semester, I have encountered numerous ideas about how to better my teaching and how to become a more efficient, effective instructor.  One tool I came across is Edmodo.  Edmodo is an online classroom, a place where teachers can assess student progress through student surveys and polls, create discussion topics for students to respond to, collect assignments, and so much more. 

The idea of students creating their own discussions as a way to extend the classroom discussion is very appealing to me.  Through Edmodo, students can achieve that in a private setting (blogs are public and thereby susceptible to potential inappropriate content).  Additionally, blogs are blocked in most school districts, but because Edmodo is designed specifically for educational purposes, it is readily available in schools.  Another benefit of Edmodo is that it allows the goings on of the classroom to be visible to parents, other teachers, and administrators, so it’s always clear to all involved what is happening in the classroom.  This allows students to get additional support not only in school, but also at home.

I am eager to explore this tool even more and to implement it in my classroom!

Replacing Shakespeare

I recently read an article in Time magazine titled "How I Replaced Shakespeare."  Naturally, I was intrigued.  The author, Joel Stein, writes about his realization that language arts teachers have begun to assign non-fiction texts in efforts to satisfy the new Common Core standards, as the reading and comprehension of non-fiction text has become a major focus in education.  Stein admits that he was astounded to find that teachers were assigning his work (he writes regularly for Time), and he "regularly get[s] emails from students asking about [his] use of anastrophe, metonymy, thesis statements and other things [he has] never heard of."

In his humorous, at times sarcastic essay, he argues that the best way to improve his writing is by reading something that makes him think, namely literature.  He quips, "teaching language through non-fiction is like teaching history by playing Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire'."  His point of view is an interesting one.  Yes, it's our job as educators to prepare our students to be productive citizens in the workplace, but are we doing them a disservice by guiding them away from great literature?  Stein argues that "school isn't merely training for work; it's training to communicate throughout our lives."  There is no question that kids need to enter the workforce knowing how to read and comprehend non-fiction text; but, it shouldn't come at the expense of the texts that teach us something about ourselves and the world around us.

Glogster...Creating Multimedia Posters

A "glog" is really just a multimedia poster.  On this platform, students can add pictures, text, backgrounds, and video clips, and use it to create a style and concept that will fit virtually any topic. 

I implemented a Glogster assignment in my one of my classes.  Ninth grade students enrolled in my Intensive Reading classes were assigned to choose a character from Romeo and Juliet (a text they are all reading in their English I class) and create a glog for that character.  Students were asked to incorporate pictures and quotations from the character and to decorate it using a theme and style appropriate and fitting for that character’s personality.  I believe this was an excellent way for students to not only reinforce their understanding of the character they chose, but also enhance their understanding of other characters through their viewing of their classmates’ glogs.    View a student sample.

The English Teacher's Companion: An Overview

As a project for my Methods in Teaching Language Arts class, I created this dynamic presentation using Prezi, an online presentation tool, highlighting what I believed to be the most important aspects of Burke's The English Teacher's Companion.  Also check out my Google site and click on "Professional Reading" to view an online newsletter containing my reflections on the book and important quotations.

Thinking from Different Perspectives

In this short video clip, Jim Burke, author of many professional books, such as The English Teacher's Companion, Tools for Thought, and Reading Reminders, discusses a specific strategy for teaching students to think about literature from different perspectives: the conversational round table.

This strategy, along with many others, are included in Burke's Tools for Thought.  In this book, he not only provides useful strategies for helping students comprehend and respond to literature, but he also includes student artifacts so readers may see the strategies from the students' perspective.

Teaching Writing

I must say that one of the biggest challenges I face as an English teacher is teaching writing.  Ninth grade students come to me in August with a vast range of abilities in all aspects, but writing is one of the most prominent areas of discrepancy.  Some students write like a college student (or beyond), while others can barely string together a coherent sentence.  Writing comes naturally to some students; to others, it is a chore, and because of that, they don't practice enough to get better.

In Jim Burke's English Teacher's Companion, he devotes an entire section to teaching writing.  Reading this chapter has helped me immensely, and I have gotten a great deal of inspiration on how to incorporate an effective writing curriculum in my classroom.  In his book, he explains what a good writing program should include, which involves giving students ample time and opportunity to practice writing and also expose them to other students' writing to help guide them.  He suggests teaching students how to write a meaningful and well-developed paragraph, which will make stringing multiple paragraphs together a bit more manageable.

A couple of innovative ideas Burke suggest include a group essay and having students write in response to various texts of their choice, both literary and visual.  Both of these ideas provide students with a fresh perspective about writing, making them more willing to both participate and become engaged in the activity.

Teaching writing, a once daunting challenge for me, is now something I have begun to look at with a fresh perspective.  The more excited and enthusiastic students are about writing, the more interesting and enjoyable their writing will be for me to read!

Thinking about teaching and learning

In the second chapter of Jim Burke's The English Teacher's Companion, he discusses four components of effective teaching and learning: construction, occupation, negotiation, and conversation.  Not only does he explain these four components, but he describes what each component "looks like in the English class," and gives examples of tasks and activities that encompass each of the four components.  For example, he defines construction as "not only making things but also studying how they are made and how they work."  He goes on to explain that construction can be exemplified by manipulating words to change their meaning and constructing, deconstructing, or reconstructing texts to better understand how they work and what they mean.

Burke has meaningful things to say about each of the four components, but the component that most appeals to me is negotiation.  In this component, teachers create an environment that allows students to think of the classroom as theirs.  There is a great deal of buy-in from the students, and they take ownership of their learning.  Burke states, "Negotiation challenges those teachers who see the class as 'their' class.  My students remind me that by inviting them to share and think about their lives, the English class necessarily becomes a communal space where the students assume control as they progress toward independence."  When I really thought about this particular quotation, it made me realize that English teachers have the unique ability to really get to know their students in a way that a math or science teacher doesn't.  In English class, we talk about how texts relate to our lives, and by that means, we have the opportunity to get to know our students as people, not just students.  Because of this, students have the opportunity to feel that they have control and choice, and it's up to us to foster that.

At the conclusion of this chapter, Burke suggests that readers view a movie about inspiring teachers: Dead Poet's Society, Freedom Writers, Stand and Deliver, and The First Year.  I have seen most of these films, but all before I became a teacher, and I think it would be interesting to view these movies through the eyes of a teacher.

The English Teacher's Companion...A Fitting Title

Why didn't I know about this book in 2006 when I started teaching?  One complaint I have with many professional books on education is that they are mostly theory with very little information that can be brought directly into the classroom.  I cannot make that complaint about Jim Burke's The English Teacher's Companion. He writes in a conversational tone, and I found myself relating to his comments and experiences from the very first chapter when he writes, "It's August when the dreams begin again, each one signaling summer's end and school's beginning."  He also refers to summer notes he's made as "hopeful notes of someone who believes that this year I will do it better, get it right."  When I read this, I thought "he understands me and how difficult our job can be!"  Instant credibility.

After scanning the remainder of the book, I discovered that Burke includes not only advice to new and veteran English teachers, but case studies in which he shows and explain exactly how that advice can be implemented, complete with student artifacts as evidence.  I think this book will definitely be exactly what it claims to be: a companion for English teachers.

New Semester, New Challenges, New Content

This semester, I am taking two additional courses, both of which will fuel the content of my posts over the next few months.  While my previous posts were dedicated mostly to young adult literature, posts over the next few months will be about methods of teaching secondary language arts, including posts about professional books and articles I will be reading.