Moving through the impossible to the possible

"The demands upon an English course are not small. It must develop both heart and mind; it must quicken the perception and broaden the sympathy; it must liven the powers of observation and emphasize the good in human nature; it must quicken the imagination and strengthen a love of honesty; it must awaken appreciation and give balance to judgment; it must give ease, force, sincerity to expression; in short, if it does not create the philanthropist, the genius, it must at least be a valuable asset in the evolution of such, from the Clara Bartons and Tennysons and Thhackerays down, or up, to the Edisons. By concentrated thought the scholar thinks his way through the impossible to the possible." Alta L. Stanton in Toward Cultivating Concentration

"As teachers you stand upon the highest peak of education, for what teaching can compare in priceless value and in far-reaching effect with that which deals with man as he was in the eternity of yesterday, as he is in the mortality of today, and as he will be in the forever of tomorrow. Not only time but eternity is your field." J. Reuben Clark Jr.

Photo from A Little Sussy

Teacher Gift

http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/

"Youth need fewer critics and more models." Thomas S. Monson

I love this 

Seen here

Teaching Chronicles: The Giggles

I wanted to show my students that not all non-fiction was boring; in that attempt, I gave them a passage full of words added to the dictionary in the last year.  The words were fun like "boo" and "chickapoo" and below that compendium was incidentally another list: "Things everyone should know about Chuck Norris."   It was not their intended reading but got copied on the last page.  One by one the most genuine and furtive giggle emerged from students.  Large boys were giggling and trying to keep it in.  At least five students at any given time had a finger to their mouth, aware they were in English and trying not to have fun.  It was probably the greatest sound ever.  Teenagers spontaneously giggling collectively by their own discovery.   

Teaching Chronicles - Inevitability

I have a class period that I don't totally jive with.  At all, really.  But that is a different story.  Today I made them stay after the bell for the amount of time I had to wait for them to settle down during the class.  I made them sit in total silence and just as they are on the edge of frustration - all their friends being out in the hall and total silence in the room - with their eyes boring into me as I keep an eye on the clock and straighten up, I trip over the overhead cord.  They all see it.  I don't fall but the overhead tips over and I catch it as it falls and I'm trying to keep my balance.  The odd thing is that they don't laugh because of their fear of staying longer.  So this odd tension spikes in the room.   I force the seconds to work double time and let them out.  As embarrassed as that leaves me, don't get me wrong, I sing my gratitude every night that I haven't tripped and fallen all the way to the ground in class.  

The teaching chronicles - Name changes

On the first day of class, there are always a few students who want to be called something other than what is on the roll. Most are expected - Samuel to Sam, Jennifer to Jen - but this year I had a student who requested he be called Ninja. I wrote it down, planning to use it on special occasions only, and continued around the room. Ten students after Ninja, a girl named Tiffani requested to be called Lilly. That seemed pretty normal and natural so I made a permanent change for her. A distracted girl, I had to call her name frequently to get her attention and for weeks I called her name and she never responded until someone tapped her. I discussed the possibility of a hearing problem and learning disabilities with the special education teachers and went to great lengths worrying about her until I went back to my original roll and realized her name is Tiffany and finally figured out that she said Lilly not because that is what she is really called, but for a fun change. A change she soon forgot about and never responded to.

like insect specimens

"...as he tries to discern his sister among the rows of preadolescents squirming in their chairs like insect specimens that weren't asphyxiated before being pinned."

In the space between teaching Sophocles and Shakespeare I have not found a lot of extra time to read for fun but every night I try to get to Bee Season for a couple of minutes. It is so delightful. The wording is brilliantly simple - she says everything you have been trying to say for years but never had the words. Like describing the way my students look in class - this is it!

Courage

I have a feeling that now that I have started adding teaching stories to this blog, most will be slightly pessimistic because, let's be honest, the funniest things usually have to do with student oddness and misbehavior. So I have to just give a nod today to a student I don't ever want to forget. She is attractive, smart, and well-spoken. She turns in all her work in time and is always on task. But that is not what impresses me. This student could pick any partner in the class to work with on projects but she always picks the struggling kid, the kid that gets made fun of, the kid that skips every-other class and smells like smoke, the kid who wears the same clothes every day, or the kid who has never seen an A or B in his life because he just doesn't get it. She seeks them out and supports and befriends them in this perfectly mild and unassuming way. I want to be just like that. I can still remember peers who could have used a friend during my school years and I just never had the courage.

Food Snatcher

Remember that teacher who had a student who left his jacket in her classroom and she sold it on ebay. I'm pretty sure she was charged with something. But beyond prison, how mortifying to be caught stealing from children. Well, I have a student who has started leaving his or her - I don't know who it is - lunch in my room. And I'm talking big brown bag full of goodies. For several days I have left it and it gets thrown away by the janitor. Well, yesterday I made a move. After school was sufficiently over - bus gone and returned, I peaked in the bag and grabbed a delicious bag of salsa flavored Sunchips and a chocolate peanut butter power bar. There is something satisfactory about not wasting but in this case the creepiness of the whole situation could not be overcome. As I sit here now, a lusciously full brown bag sits in the trash can next to me. What a shame.

Sometimes I feel like this

You know the kid, the one who sits in the back of the class because the teacher is trying to suppress his need for expression. The one who has been limited to one comment a day. The one who saves his comment with intensity for just the right moment when all can be derailed. The one who probably genuinely wants to learn but causes you to spend hours in downward facing dog trying to get his voice our of your head.

"You said the documentary was 10 minutes but it was only 9 minutes and 50 seconds."
"It's like when Pokemon attacks Picachu and the warriors all . . ."
"What are you wearing for Halloween"
"The word metacognition makes me think of being at a Mets game."

"You didn't call on me today."

The Teaching Chronicles

I am tough on electronics when it comes to my classroom.  I take cell phones every time I see them and  I snatch ipods.  Yesterday was the last day of their unit on short stories and literary elements and they were working on filling out a study guide for their test, and when one student asked if they could use an ipod I found myself in some odd state of generosity and said that today would be "ipod day" and that they could quietly listen and work.  Just as the are settling those pods into their ears and picking their playlist, the principal walks in.  The principal who has never seen be teach before because he is new and knows nothing of my organized and on-task classes, sees a class with kids that look like are doing whatever they want.  Oh, seriously!