Acuity is a state-imposed program that predicts how you're going to do on ISTEP. What's happening, though, is they are wanting us to teach to Acuity so that our students score well on it. Instead of addressing concepts in class to improve scores, they want us to make practice tests on Acuity to "teach" the students.
I don't like it.
"She is 15 and has assburgers"
During Accelerated Language Arts, I make my students leave during the passing period to go mingle with their peers (I have them for a block of 2 periods). This year, so many of my students went out in the hall to read instead of talk that I had to allow them to stay in the room.
Amazing.
Hey everyone!
I haven't written much on here this year, but I figured I'd drop a line about what I am reading. I am currently reading 3 books.
1. World War Z by Max Brook
2. Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie
3. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
World War Z is great! I will write more soon. I have to teach summer school for 4 more days! Someone rescue me :)
-Justin
If only our students spoke this way…
"I presume you've prepared new insults for today." -young Spock
"Affirmative." -other student
-Star Trek
Malapropism:
Answers:
When do scholars believe King Arthur lived if he existed?
the 1970s
Responses to Emily Dickinson's poem "I am Nobody"
1. How does the speaker feel about poetry?
good2.
How do you know?
read the poem
What the worst part of living in The Community in The Giver is…
"They don't even know where the babies come from, even if the babies are ugly they have to deal with it and suck it up"
Spellings:
(account deleted) 12 Mar 2009 13:30
I have one student who is incredibly kind and polite. But he constantly struggles in English. At first he was hesitant to participate in class. I've been talking with his case manager (correct title?) and parents to try to help him out. There was a chance we'd move him to Basic English, but he wants to stay where he's at. He's been coming in during study halls to read through the Odyssey with me, and with some accomodations, he's working really hard. Furthermore, he has become more outgoing in class and jokes with me more regularly. I know a lot of students have a hard time in English because reading and writing isn't their strong point. Rather than get frustrated, he's working hard to do his best. He's only 14 and it's great to see someone that young with dedication in a difficult subject.
I have a number of students who do not turn in work on time. These students are freshmen, and it seems to be a problem throughout this school. At some point last semester the principal pulled all the freshmen down to the auditorium about the matter. So, I'm intimately aware of these issues and have had similar ones myself. I handout grading policies early in the semster, and typically stick to them except for emergency situations. As soon as I get wind of a problem with a student I call home, call a councelor and talk to the principal. If they have advice on the situation I can always use it. Furthermore, these actions leave me with backup for if a parent does contact me or the principal. I explain my grading policies, my pedagogy and how we can work together to get the student's homework in. I always provide a history of the students habits, which has always assuaged parents anger that comes from potentially less-than-honest stories from the student. I'm sure what I'm doing won't work all the time, but I'm attempting to show students and parents that these issues are important and won't be left unnoticed.
*A student of my stole a lot of candy out of the podium and couldn't comprehend why he got written up for it. "But you wouldn't get arrested for stealing candy out of a store." Really? I mean, really? That's his rationalization for theft?
*During a class activity that required leaving the classroom, a student of mine continually misbehaved in the hallways. After about 15 minutes of telling him making loud and weird noises in the hallway and asking him to walk instead of run or crawl or jump, I turn around and he's swinging from a doorway. He could not comprehend why his behavior warranted a write-up. Really?
*Sometimes the amount of times I have to repeat things is INFURIATING! Wait… I mean all the time.
*Sometimes the literal inability to retain anything in the middle school mind is INFURIATING!
[HVD]
I have had a few similar experiences to this so far this year, but nothing so dramatic as the changes your student went through, Sarah. Instead of my students exhibiting grand changes, I guess I am just getting a better idea about WHY some of them act the way they do, or why some of them come to school looking exhausted or without their homework. (Oh, you didn't do your homework because you got evicted last night and had to move? I see.) Aside from less-than-ideal home lives, I am beginning to see that many of my students have medical issues that are not being addressed because of lack of funds, or lack of true understanding on the part of their parents. Some days they still make me want to rip my hair out, but I think I have a greater understanding of where they are in their lives outside of school.
At the beginning of the semester, I had major issues with this one student. She had a huge chip on her shoulder, hated school, and hated me. She cussed me out in class one day, refused to do any work, would interrupt me constantly… the list goes on and on. I emailed her counselor and we hauled her in for a meeting. Things improved for about two days, then she started slipping back into her bad attitude and disrespect. Then, life was peaceful for a week. (She was absent.) I got an email from her counselor saying she would be coming back to class and that her parents had taken her to many doctors and they diagnosed her with many things, among them depression and anxiety issues. I was blown away when she returned! She was quickly making up all of the work she missed, asking questions in class, even telling other students to "shut up" when I was talking!! Long story short, the last week before break we were doing a lot of poetry. She was turning in some amazing work, full of emotion, so I wrote her a little note praising her and telling her to start keeping a poetry book. The day of the final exam, she brought a stack of printer paper, binded together with ribbon. She told me she had made a poetry book for me! When I got home, I opened it up and on the first page it read "I dedicate this book to my 11th grade English teacher, who opened my eyes and showed me the passion I have for writing. Thank you Mrs. Reed" That is why I became a teacher!!!
So my student's favorite thing to do lately is to attribute everything that I say to the fact that I am white…in any given class I may be the only white person in the room. It is actually pretty funny, because they don't mean it offensively, and say it in a joking way. In the past few weeks I have been told that I don't like energy drinks because i am white, I prefer Wendy's to McDonalds because I am white, and I like the story Alice in Wonderland because I am white (yeah, none of them had even heard of it before). Nevermind the fact that I grew up in a different state and have about a decade in age on them…oh, freshmen. You have to love them.
My freshman English class just finished doing their pro/con speeches. I had 12 out of 25 students give one. Most of these kids are in here for the second or third time, and they just decided to not give one. When it was their turn, they said, 'I am not giving one.' When I was in high school, no one in any of my classes would have even dreamed of just not doing something so significant. I have a junior in my freshman class, so this is his third time. He didn't give me a research paper or a speech, and he has a 32 percent in my class. He will be taking this class again as a senior if he doesn't drop out. Sometimes I wish that I could shake students. Maybe their missing assignments would rattle out of their brains.
Lisa
#1: Student walks in and hands Ms. V a note from her mother excusing her from the narrative project that was due that day. The note says, "We had a late night. She'll turn it in on Monday." Ms. V smirks and recalls the two weeks spent in class working on the project and tells the girl that she may turn it in on Monday for 60% of her score because that is the school's late work policy. The girl replies, "Just to let you know, you're going to get an angry call or e-mail from my mom about this."
#2: A seventh grader shows up to class and does not turn in a project that was assigned 3 weeks prior to that day. Said project was also mentioned every day in class after it was assigned. The student proceeds to throw a fit and throw things and slam doors and cry because he does not have the project completed despite the 3 weeks given to do the project and obviously this is somehow Ms. V's fault so clearly all this anger should be directed her way in the form of serious disrespect. Hmmm….
HVD
This title has nothing to do with this post……..
After not complying with classroom activities which included reading silently for an extended period of time and constantly being a disruption for other students, I reprimanded a student to get him back on track. He proceeded to stare me down. I asked him to step outside, after which I found he had written the word "kill" in big bold letters across his desk. Only a year and a 3 months in and I'm already getting death threats! HIIOOOH!
Needless to say, he was written up. The referral was taken to the discipline administrator. The administrator was shown the desk. And I saw that student in class the next day….. hmmm
Matt
Miss G:We are doing a four-level grammar analysis today.
Student:Grammar is wack.
Miss G-Okay, lets do that one "Grammar is wack"-look for nouns. Go
Sometimes I make myself laugh more than anything…
EAG
Beware: any type of technology grant your school receives could be more of a headache than the technology is worth! GHS has received two grants, one being the INAccess grant (through Indiana) and another one from the federal government. The INAccess grant is actually kind of nice because it allowed a window's operating system and decent computers. These, however, are not the ones I get in my classroom. We have the federal grant that required Acer computers with a Linux operating system. Oh yeah, and my desks are computer tables, so my students can stare at the screen (and play games) the entire hour. It's been a challenge for me, especially since students don't have to log on to get on the internet or play games. I think the biggest challenge is the fact that my computers never go away! Oh, and I'm the first teacher in the school to have an operating classroom with these computers… yay for being a first year teacher with completely new equipment.
Tracie
I mean why not, you are a teacher and don't put anytime in to teaching or grading papers, why not memorize their handwriting too?
I have some students that have been testing my patients lately. Nothing too out of the ordinary, they are "loners that like to be alone together" if that makes any sense. I don't plan to stereotype, but the goth or emo crowd. They just need some extra attention. I don't mind giving it to them, but sometimes they disrupt my class a bit too much. It is then that I bust out the paddle and say sit down shut up or I'm going old school. Just joshin on that last part, they really just get the look and a serious voice. [Paul D]
Student: Ms. V, here's my homework from last week.
Me: I'm sorry you know my late work policy. I don't take anything from that week until after Friday.
Student: That's not fair! I left my book in here. You should've gotten my homework from it.
Me: I have to take 10% off of this assignment because it's late now since you didn't put your name on it when you turned it in.
Student: You should just memorize all of our handwriting.
HVD
Our school really is focused on Quadrant D Lessons. I want to come up with some awesome ideas. Quadrant D has to to a bit with Blooms taxonomy but also making it real-world relevant? Any ideas? Anybody familiar with Quadrant D or "Gold Seal" lessons? -EAG
