Mrs. W's Room

The last few weeks with the seniors have been a busy blur. They spent last week preparing their presentations, and we all generally freaked out at how quickly this day arrived. I wish I had them for at least another week, but alas, they would like to graduate and move on with their lives. During the final week of the project, we had some issues figuring out audio compatibility, and I realized that, although Chromebooks are extremely handy, we can't do everything on them. Technology, in general, was a source of frustration, but I definitely know how to fix these issues next year. We also learned that transcribing oral history, or transcribing anything for that matter, is harder than it seems. Do you type what they've said verbatim? Do you leave out the laughter? The uhs?  Mary Tyson at the Community Library sent some guides that helped clear up those questions.  I realize now that transcribing takes a long time. One group's transcription is nearly 30 pages in len

A student recently asked me why I decided to do my blog challenge, and I answered by saying I wanted to challenge myself to do what I ask my students to do. Then, he followed up with another question: “What do you get when you write all 25?” That question is a little tougher to answer. Below,  are the lessons I picked up, and also how those lessons can be transferred to teaching writing. Beware....it's a long post.

If a picture can sum up a life, I think the picture below does a sufficient job. In my sassy floral pants and my hair curled by these burn-inducing nightmares , I am proudly displaying my Principal's Award upside down. Story. Of. My. Life. This photo has been a huge source of family entertainment for years, but I want to know why the person taking my picture didn't notice this, or maybe they did, and they decided to let it happen for posterity. Anyways, the reason I thought of this picture was because the year's end is nigh (too much Hamlet ). I've been thinking about the ways we celebrate student success as a school and in our classrooms. There are athletic and academic award ceremonies, field trips, dances, class parties, graduations, and more. I love it all. I love how we look back at the end with a sentimentality that doesn't exist at the beginning. I love to see kids get recognized for greatness. I can't continue without saying that if you've n

After this year, I've realized that my Mythology class needs some more work. For one thing, I spent way too much time on Greek mythology. I also failed to remember how many times the class got interrupted last year by testing, track, drama, etc...all that along with the fact that it is already difficult to keep students rolling the last few months of school. Because I didn't remember that, I ended up frustrated by the same interruptions and things took much longer than needed.  For next year, I think I'll work on developing smaller units of study based around themes (love, war, pride, etc.) with more project-based activities. I also need to find more visual media to interweave with the plays and short stories we read (which is tricky since mythology is scandalous enough on paper), although I did integrate more art this year. There also needs to be more cultural/historical context included with the mythologies that we study. For instance, I think there are benefits to

Teaching seniors is hard. Teaching seniors during the last month before graduation and attempting to instill some kind of appreciation and enthusiasm for Hamlet is reckless behavior. Yet, that's exactly what I am doing. Kelly Gallagher describes it best: "I have done many difficult things in my life. I have run a marathon. I have eaten escargot to impress a date. I have sat in the middle seat of a cross-country flight, wedged between a snorer and a person in desperate need of Gas-X. Worse, I have sat through an episode of  Sex and the City. But all of these pale in comparison to the hardest thing I have ever done: stand in front of thirty-seven teenagers with the expressed purpose of teaching Hamlet. "  He defends this seemingly impossible task by saying that if we help students see the reward of the hard work it takes to tackle a complex text, they will surprise you and work hard. I'm not sure how successful I've been at doing that this year. I'm trying, b

One of these days, in my free time, I'd love to track down some of my most influential teachers and thank them. Until then, I'd like to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week by taking some time to thank some of my teachers for some important lessons they taught. They are sort of in chronological order, and there are probably 20 more teachers I could thank. After writing these, I think it's amazing how much these teachers show up in the work I do now--their strategies, personalities, and styles sometimes creep into my own. I try to remember how their words impacted the way I defined myself whenever I'm talking to my own students (although I could definitely get better at this).  What would you thank your teachers for? Mrs. Campbell: Thank you for not ratting me out that time I lied about having a retainer (which was actually just a paperclip) after it fell out on the playground. Mrs. Hugues: Thank you for putting my earrings back in, and thank you for not putting