For the Daring

My former IT guru had her job changed from IT to Digital Coach.  You may have one of these individuals at your school.  You may be like me and have no real idea of what a digital coach does.  I had assumed it was for helping teachers who were not tech savvy to get through mandatory technology needed for the school year.  That's only partly it.

I asked her how it was going in the new job and she said that she likes it, but it is boring because once the school year gets going, teachers are so swamped with day to day planning and grading, that they are not making use of her abilities to help design lessons using the different tech resources the school had available.

I thought about that for a while.  I felt bad that she was in a place that she felt wasn't going where she wanted it to go.  So I approached her a day or two later and said, "OK.  I'm teaching ninth grade again after quite a few years of not teaching it.  I hate teaching Romeo and Juliet.  Wow me and show me something tech I can do with it."  She took the challenge.

A few days later, she had several ideas ready to go for me.  The thing that caught my eye was making use of the iPads and green screen in the school learning commons (that's Newspeak for 'library').  I had, many years ago, allowed a class of seniors to remake the end of Macbeth in the Lord of the Rings setting.  We were inspired by the (then) relatively new Star Wars Macbeth.  It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun.  They painted my back wall blue (yes, I was teaching before the invention of green screens).  The kids really got into it.  I had actually offered it to my honors class at the time, but they were not very interested.  When someone in my regular class heard, they asked if they could do it.  I was skeptical, but they really wanted to do it.  It was fantastic.

So I was excited to find out that we had a green screen.  My librarian showed me the program and where the green screen was.  I decided to make a video myself to introduce the students to the program, with the benefit of giving me the chance to figure the equipment out.  It came out OK, but there was still a lot of work to be done:

While it is far from perfect, it was a lot of fun to make.  How did the project work out?  It was a lot of fun.  Will I use this again with low level ninth graders?  No.   Too much down time for most of the group to handle.  However, there was a handful that really dove into the project, including a young man that is not very interested in any school assignments who went above and beyond editing his group's project.  I will be using this idea for my mythology class next year and maybe even let my seniors make a 2 minutes hate when we do 1984 again.

So what is the moral of this post?  Go to your librarian or digital coach.  Ask them to wow you with the technology they have available.  I'll bet you'll be surprised.  Be daring and try a project or two.  You'll make their day, your students' day, and probably even your own (even if you do find yourself in a homemade Wonder Woman wig...).

New Teacher? Read This!

If you know a new teacher or a student teacher, you may want to think about sharing this with them.  This is the perfect metaphor for a teacher's first year.

It follows the opening to the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, perhaps the finest movie ever made. Shakespeare would have been proud to produce this movie.

If you haven't seen it, take the time to watch it now:

Best. Movie. Ever.

Now, getting that elusive first job is akin to Indiana Jones getting the idol.  What we didn't see in that clip was all the booby traps that he had to by pass to get to the idol to begin with.  He's confident and a bit smug.  "I got this!"  That's the first week of school.

Then all hell breaks loose.

You noticed that the cave started to fall apart, so Indiana Jones quickly just decides to cut out of there, but he forgot about all the darts in the sides of the wall shooting at him, so he runs like heck.

Your first discipline problem.  But you'll survive it, just like he did.  That's when the betrayal hits.

By betrayal, I'm not meaning anything major, just the realization that not all teachers in that department or school agree and there are some bitter ones there that will resent your youthful idealization (mainly because it reminds them of better days when they had that youthful idealization - lesson to learn - do become like those guys).

You'll survive it, maybe even see them get theirs.  It is the mid course break and you think you have it mastered.  Indiana Jones did too.  That's when the ball started rolling.  He runs to keep ahead of the ball until he leaps out of the tomb just in time.

You'll feel that ball.  You'll feel that you are so busy grading and going to workshops that you can barely stay up with the planning.  You will do everything you can to stay one step ahead of the ball and at exam time, you'll be leaping through the exit.

After catching your breath, you'll be ready to try it again.  This time it will be easier.  By your fifth time, you won't even noticed the ball.  By your tenth time, you're doing it with your eyes shut.

This is not meant to scare a new teacher, but instead to give them peace of mind.  Too often that new teacher thinks that it's just them.  It is helpful to know that it happens to us all.  Remember, you are being put into a job as a first year teacher and expected to do the same job as a thirty-five year veteran.

IF YOU HAVE ANY HELPFUL NEW TEACHER ADVICE, POST IT AS A COMMENT.

Inference Using "Ordeal By Cheques"

We are doing the research paper, so I am strapped for time to update the blog right now, but here is an oldie that you might not have seen.

One of my son's middle school teachers gave this to him and I think it is absolutely brilliant.  I've used it ever since in my ninth grade short story unit.  Students who do not read well, can handle this one.  It is an excellent story to work inference skills.  I like to put it on the SmartBoard and do the discussion about what is really happening and who are the characters.  I do have to review a little bit about what are the components of a check, since these objects are becoming obsolete.

"Ordeal by Cheques" by Wuther Crue is a visual story that must have the entire plot inferred as we only get to see a series of checks written over a period of 28 years. The checks look like this:

Over the course of the story, little things change, such as the name that signs the check, the date, etc.  The students are left to figure out why these check are being written and who these people are that are having checks written to them.  Certain people get checks in the same amount while some checks are way too high for the time period.

Here is a copy of the story.  It is not long and if you teach inference skills or short stories, I encourage you to give it a shot in your class.  Let me know if you have any stories similar to this.

Norse Mythology

 If you have a chance to teach Norse mythology in your class, do your best to get your hands on a copy (or even class set!) of Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology.

It's Gaiman, so you know it is fantastically written.  Should you do this, you are welcome to use my Quizizz questions to give a story check up:

• Treasure of the Gods
• The Master Builder
• Freya's Unusual Wedding
• Thor's Journey in the Land of the Giants

Dally Not, Sirrah! Talk Like Shakespeare Day Is Upon Us!

Tomorrow is Shakespeare's birthday - and TALK LIKE SHAKESPEARE DAY!  Aye, a great day to annoy thy students, indeed!

Let them insult each other with Shakespearean insults. You probably already have a version of this pdf somewhere.

And for your own enjoyment, here is a comedian doing the Shakespeare version of Three Little Pigs:

New Quarter - New You!

 With the new quarter approaching, here is a tip to help keep struggling students focused:

SHOW THEM THE EXACT GRADE THEY NEED TO GET IN THIS QUARTER TO PASS.

The math on this is not hard (and is based on a semester-length class) - once they know what grade they want to get in the course (for some it is bare minimum passing, others it is a 70 or 80) and once they have the first quarter, all they need to do is to figure out how many points away from their desired grade and then add that (or subtract if they are ahead of the grade) to the desired grade.

Example 1:

Student A wants to pass with a 60.  He has a 47 currently.  That means he is 13 points away from passing (60 - 47 = 13), so he has to be 13 points ABOVE his desired grade (60 + 13 = 73).  If Student A does not get at least a 73 this quarter, he is not passing the course.  This is helpful to know because Student A may work harder and get a 65 and think he is doing much better, which he is, but he is not doing enough.

Example 2:

Student B wants an A in the class.  She already has a 94.  Since she is four points OVER her desired grade (90), she can afford to go as low as four points UNDER her desired grade (86) and still come out with an A for the course.

When you do this in class, you will find that many students have completely unrealistic understandings of how grades are factored.  I'll have a student with a 74 who wants to make an A for the course.  That's mathematically impossible.

You can use this chart to help you out or just google search grade calculators.

What about exams?

Well, exams have an impact, to be sure, but if you are operating on a grading scale of 1st quarter = 40%, 2nd quarter = 40%, exam/state test = 20% (or something similar), you'll find that the exam rarely does more than impact their grade five points or more.  Why?  Most students will score on their exam close to what they make for the two quarters averaged together.  An exam, using the 40/40/20 method, only moves the final grade 1 point for every 5 points it's away from the quarters average together.

Example:

Student C has a Q1 grade of 82 and a Q2 grade of 76.  His average is 79.  He would have to make an 84 on the exam to pull the final grade up 1 point to get a B (80).  Conversely, he cannot score so poorly on the exam to pull his 79 down below a passing grade of 60.  

Since most students are going to score within 15 points of their average grade, the impact is nearly as impressive as we often believe.

 A student who knows exactly what grade he/she needs to get is more likely to stay on target throughout the year, especially if you keep your online grade book up to date (which you really should, by the way).

New EET Store Product - Questions (and Answers) for Every Chapter of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

 

Hi guys!  I have a new product on the Extreme English Teachers Store - questions and answers for every chapter in Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.  The chapters are short (mostly) and that makes for very adaptable lesson plans, because let's face it - you can plan out the semester all you want, but between special assemblies, drills, inclement weather days, and just the differences in the speed of each class, those plans are usually off track sooner than later.  This book is great in meeting your needs on the fly.  

The chapter by chapter questions let you  mix and match to meet the speed of your class and can be used as review, reading questions, check up quizzes, or moved into an online quiz format like Quizizz or Blooket pretty easily.

These questions were written for struggling readers in mind, so most are plot level, with a few deeper thoughts.  Some are opinion questions and most are aimed at helping the students focus on what will be important later on in the book.  A favorite tactic for me to use is to ask my students why I asked that particular question.  Gets them thinking.

If you haven't taught Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, you should!  Read this post on why.

You may also be interested in this one: Before Reading - An Introduction Activity for Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I have plans for more activities for this novel to come out.  If only I wasn't so busy teaching, I could spend more time on this!  :)