Are You Done?

For about five years now, I have had to wear reading glasses. It's gotten progressively worse and during my last eye appt., I decided to try contact lenses. Last night was horrendous trying to get the invisible, clear disk out of my eye and I finally had to have my daughter operate. I resolved to never wear contacts again, but this morning with my memory of clear-up-close vision, not having to pull out my glasses to read everything, that simple pleasure will drive me to try contacts again.

Here is the most amusing part and the place where I will try to drive the topic of this post: When I went to school yesterday, (the first time in my up-close contacts) I noticed that my adorable, little ninth graders had acne and facial hair.

I'm glad I spent the year seeing them through my softened lenses. Acne and pubescent hair begging for a razor is not.....................that pleasant.

So the point is, we must look at our students through clear eyes-- we must see their potential, their weaknesses, their need for discipline, love, and appropriate challenges, but is it such a bad thing to see them a little better, sweeter, cuter, than they really are? Isn't that how we want to be seen?

I hope you had a great year and I hope you will post your reflective experiences, both good and bad on this blog so we can all learn from each others' triumphs and mistakes. Please?

Technology Find

A colleague at my school recently introduced our department to a great website called Edmodo. It's very Facebook-esque, but designed for school use. The basics:

1.You create a class group, which your students then join. This is great because they can't really wander to any other pages because you can only see groups you are invited to join (which a teacher is administrator over).

2. You can post assignments, links, polls, etc. to the group page. The students can turn things in via the website (and it notifies you ever so conveniently), or you can have conversations through the note feature.

I've used it with my 10th and 12th grade classes and they have loved it! Other teachers who have used it have also had a lot of success. One immediate perk is that they enjoy the familar layout- the assignment stays the same, but it seems so much cooler now. Also, the turn-in rate went up a lot for assignments that could be handed in via the website.

I'm by no means an expert on the site, but it's been a lot of fun and very helpful. We also created a department page which is a nice place to share ideas or just talk :)

An Accidental, Wonderful Discovery

An elementary teacher/friend told me that she held poetry cafe on Fridays. She read poetry, students read poetry... I decided to incorporate poetry cafe on Fridays and let students bring food. They loved it. Then after two weeks of working on a "This I Believe" essay, I implemented essay cafe. I really had no idea how it was going to pan out. Then the magical consequences took effect. The students worked really hard on their essays because they had an audience that they cared about. Each other. They were attentive, respectful and listened because I expected them to make comments about their peers' work.

We finished up a poetry writing unit today and I have to admit, I was surprised at how they worked on their poems, but then I remembered--poetry cafe on Friday! They will be reading their own poems to each other. Once again, they have an audience that matters. Because they are only allowed to make positive comments, they know the writing environment will be positive, supportive and encouraging. Exactly what a ninth grader needs.

I've been pondering this. We have set up this teacher/audience environment. For several years they've been writing for us and only us. Give them a real audience and the passion to write well is born.

At the beginning of the year, writing assignments were met with phrases you recognize all to well: "Mrs. Martinez, how long does this have to be? Do I have to do this?" I cannot remember one of these questions damaging my ears in the last few months.

Writing With the Class

When I assign a writing piece, I do the assignment too and show the class my drafts. It has created a whole new enthusiasm for writing. Students see my passion, they see that I can write bad stuff too, they see the need for several edits. It makes me vulnerable and more compassionate to the students.

For my next class, I will show my final draft of a personal narrative along with a color coded example of everything I wrote-red for all the cuts I made, green for additions to text, blue for the same text re-written or re-worked,yellow for student suggestions I took note of and implemented.

If anyone would like the color coded example just send me an email: pat.martinez@maeserprep.org

Object Lesson for Teaching Editing

I am currently focusing on writing in a writing workshop. Writer Tia Nevitt suggests a great way to understand the importance of cutting unnecessary words/paragraphs etc. from our work.
Bring in a favorite DVD that students love and know well. Go to the menu and show the deleted scenes option. Look for director commentary that illustrates the importance of cutting. Remind the students that they don't have to spend six figures in writing and cutting-allow students to interpret the clip toward their writing.

Grammar question

I can't even figure out how to look this one up, so of course I turn to your fabulous brains for help.

My husband just wrote the following sentence in a formal email:

"I've attached my resume in case either you or he needs a copy for reference."

Should that word in Italics be "needs" or "need?" (And did I put that question mark in the right place?) In other words, does a verb after nouns/pronouns joined by "or" agree with the first or second noun(/pronoun)?

I wait with baited breath on your brilliant responses. :) Thanks all, and hope you're having a great semester!

English Companion Ning

Love this site! Lots of great discussions and areas created by Jim Burke.

Young, High-Level Readers

Hey, all. I'm teaching 6th & 7th grade English at a charter school out near Tooele this year, & I've got a question for all of you: What books (/authors, /series, etc.) would you recommend to very young (mostly age 11), very high-level (12th grade +) readers? I've got about a dozen kids that fall into this category, and I'm having a very difficult time recommending texts that will challenge them reading-level wise (or at least not bore them) without having content that's inappropriate for kids that young. Every time I think I've got a good pick, I skim the book again and find that there's too much swearing, adult topics, intense violence, sexual innuendos, etc. It doesn't help that many of the parents of my kids are really sensitive to anything you could remotely call "inappropriate." My only fallback recommendation right now is Shakespeare, since I assume that the adult content will go way over the kids' heads and their parents won't remember it's there. :P Any ideas?

A Fun Writing Exercise

I was gifted the most unusual Christmas book ever: Red Ranger Came Calling by Berkely Breathed. It would absolutely ruin the book to tell you why it's so unique-finding out for yourself is definitely a part of the reading experience.

What I will say is that at the end of the book, the author uses a local landmark at the end of the book to explain the mystery of a Christmas gift.

I plan on using this picture book in class as a springboard writing assignment. Students will choose a natural or man-made landmark in their city or state and write a legend, story, urban legend about it, in the same way that the legend of Timpanogos was created to explain/enhance the sleeping princess shape of this mountain.

If you are familiar with the book or use it in your classroom, make sure you comment on this post so we can expand the book's use.

Aphorisms As a Writing Genre or Clever Students Like Tickle, Make Teacher Laugh

We are currently studying ancient Chinese history and the literature companion is the Analects of Confucius. In pondering how to teach the Analects, I remembered the old Charlie Chan movie series. CC uses many aphorisms or maxims, some of which are Confucius quotes. I showed the film Charlie Chan in Paris. Students had a worksheet with his aphorisms used in that movie and were required to listen for and check off the sayings and then create their own aphorisms. I didn't expect such great aphorisms from the students, but they were funny, sometimes profound and allowed students to explore another writing genre. And they loved Charlie Chan. I found a great website that has all the aphorisms listed from each movie. It also included ratings on each movie. I checked the movie out from the library. The website is:
The aphorisms were supposed to be original, so if you recognize one...oops! Still working on plagiarism. Here are a few:
"A turtle on ice can go fast." HH
"Time like brain-always ticking." TR
"Without balance man will fall." KR
"Entertainment is a want, not a need." EB
"Eventually you have to take your high heels off..." I read two of these, so I'm not sure if this is original.
"Using unclear words is like getting lost in a straight hallway." JN
"What is drama without girl/boy?" SV
"Nobody can force you to do anything except your mom." TH
"The wish is not always the star." IV
"There is no roof until there are walls." JW
"Cat have nine lives, dog one." JS
"Good ramen make happy tummy." MW
"Thoughts often grow like ivy." ML
"49 is the new 20."
"Right hands live longer than left hands." VH
"A man may only wear a speedo if he makes it look good." NB
"Lie is like tear. At first too small to see. Then it becomes visible as more lies form." DW
"A good question has many answers." JI
"Before you can touch the sky, you must gather many ladders."CB
"Even the biggest fires go out eventually." DG
"To kill two birds with one stone requires time and practice." CL