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Famous Speeches, Beowulf Boasts, and English Teacher Math


We read a plethora of text types in 7th grade English from news articles, Greek myths, and poems.  I met with students one-on-one to talk about where they think their strengths and weakness were in the narratives they wrote. It is incredibly tricky to get students to revise their writing once they've decided they are “done”. Conferences sometimes help with that. They created covers for their narratives; now if I could just find the time to publish all of their stories in a book!
Students used Google Draw to create a unique cover for their narratives.
In Speech, we took a break from delivering speeches to analyze some famous speeches. The students did a great job selecting some modern and historically significant speeches. They looked at speeches by Emma Watson, Sir Ken Robinson, John F. Kennedy, Kevin Durant, and several more. We most recently started brainstorming ideas for the next speech--an informative speech. I tried a different approach when introducing this speech this time around. Instead of asking students to speak on something they want to inform the class about, I tried activating their imaginations first by asking them what they have always wondered about. The result was a list of topic proposals that were much more intriguing.
Great student analysis on delivery.
I’ve spent the last couple weeks working the 12th grade English class like we’re running a marathon.  I get them first and third trimesters, so I know we better “carpe the diem” early in the game. We read Beowulf in reading groups using the reciprocal teaching strategy. Then they completed a timed, argumentative essay for a midterm performance assessment.  It was a teacher's dream come true seeing the determination on their faces as they tackled such a difficult task.  I just might ease up on them a little next week…maybe.
Reciprocal teaching; questioner role.

I think I might have a sticky note addiction.  Theme analysis for Beowulf.
We created Google Spreadsheets this week in the Google Apps class. Well, to be more accurate, we used Google Maps, math, and spreadsheets. Together, we created a list of places we would like to visit, used Maps to find the distance and time. Then, we figured out the formulas for sum and average, and calculated cost of fuel per mile. This was no easy task for an English teacher, but I managed thanks to our math teacher, Ms. Young. My two years as a middle school math tutor also came in handy. Now, we are taking a break from Google Apps to research new and innovative technology.

That’s it for this week. Midterm crept up on me quickly!  I always worry about whether I’m doing enough to help my students learn. Writing these blogs is definitely helping me reflect and improve.

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