0 ABC Review

It's finals and Regents time! What ways are you helping your students review for their final? Believe it or not I've finished regular instruction in both of classes and started reviewing for the final. This was one fun way that I reviewed the literature we read in class this year. It is called ABC review. 

Students were put into groups of 5. I gave them each a piece of large white butcher paper. The students write the entire alphabet down the left side of the paper (grouping XYZ together). Students had to think something for every letter of the alphabet from any of the pieces of literature we've read this year (characters, literary elements, titles, themes, authors, etc).

Student Example

A section of the ABC review

           When they were done, each group shared their poster.

This can be adapted to any grade level or subject! Great for general, fun review. You could even have each group do a different piece of literature exclusively; then have the groups jigsaw. What other ideas could you use the ABC activity for? Post below! 

0 Greek Gods Facebook/Resume Project

Most of my students are on Facebook...or at least know what it is. It is important to me to find ways to connect to my students and find ways to motivate them. Technology is definitely something that is ingrained in students' lives....and mine! I'll be the first to admit I'm not capable of putting down my cell phone any more than my students can. Using technology is sometimes limited in my district, so I do what I can. This project was something I adapted from various ideas I've heard and seen on the internet and from other colleagues.

This project began our unit on The Odyssey (a unit I initially dreaded). It turns out learning about the various gods and goddesses and reading and teaching the myths was very interesting! I started the kids with a Prezi presentation on the Greek gods. Students were given a packet with descriptions of various gods and goddesses that were important to the narrative of The Odyssey. Students had to choose one of the characters and complete a Facebook page or a formal resume for that character. I gave them examples of each and time in class to complete the project. I limited the amount of time given to work on the project in class...I've been noticing students like to waste time when given time in class to do work.....so....I stopped giving them so much time. Students did really well right off the bat with the project! They already knew the parts of the Facebook page (wall, friends, info, photos, etc) and they used the resume template to complete the resume. Students had to be creative to think of a character's email address, contact information like phone number and address, and skills and abilities. Students who chose the Facebook option had fun creating the 'wall' with conversations with the other gods and goddesses.


I think they did well with this because it was something that they could relate to. Even students who normally don't complete work got right into this. The project could literally be adapted to any book and any character....or even people in history. Here are some student samples:

Medusa's Facebook Profile

Resume for Hera

Rubric for the project was :

Creativity/Neatness: 5 points

Effort/Participation: 5 points

Amount of info given: 5 points

Accuracy of info given: 5 points

There are also actual websites that allow you to make a mock Facebook profile. I didn't have access to computers for the class, so I just had them draw the profile out. But if you can get your class to a computer, I'm sure they would love these tools too!

My Fake Wall

Fakebook

0 A Time to Kill & To Kil a Mockingbird

Everyone loves Samuel L Jackson! 

So one weekend while I was watching TV and A Time to Kill came on I couldn't help noticing the parallels between it and To Kill a Mockingbird. 

A Time to Kill and To Kill a Mockingbird have similar themes/events:

  
Similar                                      Different

• A white lawyer defending a             ATTK is set in the (80's)?
  

 black man.                                TKAM is set in the 1930's.

• Involves a rape (alleged one           IN ATTK, there actually is
  

in TKAM)                                   evidence a crime was

• Both men are tried with an             committed.
  

all white jury.                            In ATTK, Carl Lee gets found

• The white lawyer is terrorized         not guilty; Tom Robinson
  

by the community.                           is found guilty. 


All in all, they have parallels that are worth studying. 

I didn't think I would have time to watch it in class, but then decided to tie it in with one of the Common Core writing prompts we have been doing all year. The writing prompt for the fourth marking period is an informative. My original idea was to have them to a compare and contrast paper on both works, but then decided it was too easy for 10th graders. Then I decided since all semester we have had sort of a 'court' theme (12 Angry Men, To Kill a Mockingbird), we would watch A Time to Kill in conjunction with reading an article about the court system, then I would have students write an informative paper on how a criminal trial was run and the important parts of the justice system. 

 
Here is the prompt:

Informative Essay Writing Prompt

Name:_______________________________________

Write a response of at least 1.5 pages and referring to at least one outside print source:

How does a criminal trial work? What are the different roles in the courtroom?

Students read an article I found online then filled out a graphic organizer:

 

Guided Notes: Juries and Trials- Fill out and use this sheet for your informative paper.

Five Facts: About juries/how a jury works	Five Facts: Roles in the courtroom

Students filled out these guided notes which later helped them fill out a template to complete the informative paper. They used the article as well as the visual of the movie to write about the parts of the court system, how a jury is picked, and how a criminal trial proceeds. Students then had to cite the article in their informative paper.

 All the students love the movie! As do I.....if you've never seen it.... do it now! Here's the trailer:

0 Graphic Novels

I had a crazy idea back in December when I was out for surgery that I wanted to do something fun during Romeo and Juliet. Reading Romeo and Juliet would definitely present some challenges for my ninth graders, and I had planned on photocopying some acts from the Spark Notes graphic novel version. A graphic novel is basically like a comic strip format with character dialogue and pictures. It made it way easier for students to understand the story.

To introduce Romeo and Juliet, I had students study different types of love. I then decided that they would create their own graphic novel based on one of the types of love- unrequited love- since Romeo and Juliet had unrequited love. Originally I wanted to make the groups myself, but I figured this project really needed students to open up and share ideas and I wasn't sure if they would participate as much as if I let them make their own groups. I also thought if I grouped on heterogeneous behavior and ability I'd have one or two people in each group doing the whole project while everyone else just sort of 'hitchhiked' along.  So......I allowed them to make their own groups for the project. It worked out fine. Obviously there were some issues, but for the most part students cooperated. I had one group in one class that didn't complete the project...not bad.

Going along with new common core standards, students had to create a narrative with all parts of a fictional narrative plot (setting, characters, conflict, climax, resolution) in which two people couldn't be together for SOME reason. Students were allowed to be creative with WHY the two people couldn't be together. I allowed probably about three half-class periods for them to work. At the end, they had to do a group evaluation to grade each group member's participation and effort. I thought it was a fun project that the students actually enjoyed. Here are some samples....

 The above story was about two characters who were going to different colleges after high school....but then in the end they ended up together again!

This one was about two people who couldn't be together because their parents wouldn't let them....similar to R&J.

My favorite one, which was too long to take pictures of, was about a girl who fell in love with an illegal alien from Canada. He got caught in Minnesota without a Visa and was taken to jail. In the end he learned his lesson not to sneak into the U.S illegally. And she was happily in love with her 17 cats.

I don't know if I'll do this project again. I don't think it was rigorous enough for all the time it took. It was fun, of course, but I'll have to brainstorm different ways to make it more challenging. I was thinking of replacing the narrative in the beginning of the year with a project like this while we're doing short stories. Or maybe making it an individual project. I thought overall the project was a success. I really just want to find different ways for students to enjoy my class and be motivated.

0 My Vacation

I am dancing around the idea of changing the theme of my blog to more than just teaching. I'll start by sharing a day in the exciting life of a teacher on mid-winter vacation.

It's Sunday night and I'm procrastinating making my lesson for tomorrow morning....grades might be due this week...I'll deal with that tomorrow. I didn't even so much as look at my school bag over vacation! Should I feel guilty? I kind of do- however- it's supposed to be vacation, right? Which means no work. I did however do some work in the kitchen.

I started out my vacation by a lovely, three hour drive to Olean, which is always fun. And for those of you who think there's nothing to do in Camden haven't been to Olean.  There's the park in the summer but I didn't want to go hiking in February. The most interesting town near Olean is called Elicottville, which we traveled to on Monday. There's a fancy brewery.

Not as good as Hoop Duerr's of course.....

On the way back we visited the Salamanca Casino. Me and Hasky aren't really the best gamblers. Were both extremely cautious with money so I suggest if you want to have a good time at the casino to not go with us. I toyed with the idea of playing a couple of rounds of roulette but in the end it's not worth it. Hasky won $13.00 on the slot machines. lol .

Since I had free time during the day while Hasky was at work...of course I was trolling around on Pintrest and found this healthy dessert blog, Chocolate Covered Katie. I went shopping for baking supplies and experimented with a couple of different healthy desserts. First I made chocolate chip cookies but only had white flour.

 They were fluffy and absolutely delicious. But I didn't really feel like they were healthy. The recipe said 23 calories but I didn't see how this was possible. I still ate a few. Then I went to the store to buy wheat flour. These ones were still good yet more grainy since made with whole wheat. But I was more confident in their healthfulness which allowed me to eat more of them.

So I had all this wheat flour left over and tried to experiment with different things over the weekend. All were delicious. Friday night we had home made whole wheat pizza.

Home Made Dough

Ready to go into the oven!

Finished product- yum!

Then Saturday morning I made whole wheat flax waffles with chocolate chips. So delicious! I bought this whole big bag of flax and was googling different recipes to use it in.... and I wanted to try more with the wheat flour so this was perfect. They were so good! And so much more filling than regular waffles. I ate one with some agave syrup and was full. The agave syrup only has 60 cal per table spoon as opposed to regular syrup that has 200. 

 

 A lot of these recipes I found on Pintrest- which is amazing! I am addicted to it. It's turning out to be really handy for finding and saving recipes.

That was the exciting life of a teacher on vacation! Now it's back to school

0 My new job should be motivational speaking

I set out to create a Prezi (presentation tool) about goal setting for my students because we had this speaker come to our school yesterday, and one of the things she said is that our students literally don't know how to set a goal and achieve it (which is true). It kind of turned into more or less a rant about students making excuses for not doing work. I'm sick of complaining about students being 'lazy' and not doing work. I'm sick of looking at all the zeroes in my grade book and sighing. I'm sick of coming off as mean to my students when I lecture them about turning in homework. If I'm just complaining and making excuses without at least trying to fix the problem I'm just as bad. And I hate being negative. They just look at me with blank stares and probably think I'm crazy.

So I began a Prezi about how to cut up the reading assignments for the novel we just started ,To Kill A Mockingbird , so the students could actually consider reading the book a do-able activity. To us it is an amazing, Pulitzer Prize winning, timeless piece of American literature. But most students looked at the book as I was handing it out, realized they had to read it on their own and said "Miss I ain't readin' this".

But they have to read it!!!!!! So I decided to attempt the goal setting lesson as this lady taught us at the workshop. What started as a presentation on goal setting with passing the third MP as the goal in mind ended as sort of a rant/lecture/motivational presentation on achieving goals in life and making excuses. Most students will probably just think I'm crazy again and not care, but I want to at least try to instill a goal setting mindset that I had when I was their age. Students of poverty just don't have the same social norms and ideas about setting goals in life and achieving them as I did when I was growing up. It's a whole different mindset and world they live in. I understand that their world is probably more scary and difficult than mine, but I do believe in doing everything I can to help them succeed in spite of (and more importantly because of) their home lives. Doing the same thing over and over again is insanity. I can try different things until something works. Here's the presentation:

Prezi

0 Types of Love Jigsaw

 

In order to introduce Romeo and Juliet, I wanted to go with a love theme and have students explore different types of love. I designed this lesson when I was down and out after tonsil surgery. My 9th grade classes were put into groups of 5. Each group was given an article on a different type (or counterfeit) of love. Their job was to read the article, make a poster that taught the class what their type of love was, and teach it to the class.
Some of the articles can be found here:
 http://lifeteen.com/5-counterfeits-of-love-and-why-people-accept-them-part-i-lust/
 

Here are some student posters:

  I don't know why my computer won't let me turn the pictures around.....

While groups were presenting, students had to fill out a graphic organizer as a jigsaw activity. This forced them to listen to the other groups quietly and really made it obvious if a certain group did a bad job teaching. Students were allowed to ask the group questions if they had trouble filling out the sheet. Overall the lesson worked well and students cooperated and enjoyed it. This was the worksheet students had to fill out. It was collected and graded.

Types of Love Jigsaw Activity

There are different types of love and different ways that the media (movies, TV, music) portray what love is. Each group will study a ‘type’ of love and present their findings to the group by making a poster. Each group will take notes on the type of love as the other groups are presenting. You do not have to take notes on your own group’s section.

Type of Love	Notes- what is it?	Is it true love? Why?
Obsession
Infatuation
Romantic Love & Marriage
Abuse and Manipulation
Co-Dependence
Unrequited Love