February Vacation!

Well, it took a long time for me to get back to blogging, but here I am.

There are a lot of teaching ideas on my mind during this vacation.  While so much of the year is over, there's still a lot of time left for progress.  And only 16 schools days left until MCAS (March 18)!  I teach four classes of tenth grade, so it's always on my mind.  We're going to finish strong with Antigone and The Catcher in the Rye!

Three topics I am thinking of: 1) close reading (since I am presenting at MRA in April), 2) class participation/discussion (one of my SMART goals for ed. eval), and 3) modeling writing.  Let's take the last topic first.

I am always playing with the best way to present writing assignments: rubric, model, pre-write, drafting, revising, real-world relevance, structure, etc.  What do students have to know to get started?  At my current placement, I always provide a model, but that is backfiring on me because my students tend to copy the model word for word.

Seriously.  They copy everything on the model--if I wrote seven paragraphs, they write seven paragraphs.  If I underline ten vocabulary words within my model, they do the same thing (twisting their content to meet the words I picked).  My intro and conclusion sound exactly like theirs.

I am working on what to do about this problem.  Do I stress that their paper does not have to look exactly like mine?  Do I give points on the rubric for writing "outside the box"?  Do I avoid providing a model at all?

So, this is a problem I am working on.  And now I am off to read dozens of papers that sound exactly like mine . . .

I'll get back to the others topics later this week!

The Department that Grades Together Stays Together

I am a new teacher at Malden High School this year, so it's a year to continue lessons and ideas that have worked for me in the past and try entirely new routines and systems.

I am finding that our department shares ideas and works together to achieve more: shared rubrics, shared diagnostics and midterms, shared grading categories and terminology, everyone prepares their students for the Poetry Out Loud contest, etc.

As an older teacher, I didn't know how I would feel about it, but I love that so many good decisions have already been made for me.  It's so great to have a whole group of people I can turn to for advice and materials.

Another aspect of our work is independent reading.  We schedule time every week for silent reading time.  I've been trying to expand my classroom library, so today I took a trip to a local Used Book Superstore.  Awesome!  So many books for cheap.  The excellent organization helped me find some of my kids' favorites.

http://www.usedbooksuperstore.com/

Hope everyone is enjoying the new year!

Happy New Year!

Hello, all.  Happy 2014!  I am struggling to prepare for tomorrow's first day back to school (while also keeping my fingers crossed for snow days!), but I am also quite excited to get back.  It was a wonderful break, though.  Lots of reading, sleep, and good times with friends and family.

Classroom resolutions: keep more on top of grading, try to plan as far ahead as I can, and cut myself some slack--although I've been teaching a long time, the first year at a new school is tough!  I'm trying to develop some better systems for next year as well, in terms of writing and vocabulary instruction.

While I read a few grown up books over break, I also got to tear through these excellent, engaging YA novels.  A handful of my kids have read them, but now I have a few more copies to pass along to them.

Enjoy the rest of term 2, everyone!

#nerdlution 2014

Hello, folks.  I am very, very behind on my blogging, but I've made a #nerdlution to get back to it once a week (on Mondays, ideally). 

A #nerdlution is a nerdy resolution, as explained by Christopher Lehman in this great post.  Search for that hashtag (#) on Twitter to see what other nerds are up to!

I just finished "The Circle" by Dave Eggers--amazing!  It has been recommended to me for months, and I'm so glad I remembered to read it.  I am fantasizing about writing a senior elective on technology--how it has both improved our lives and changed us forever.  I am shocked by how different my students' minds work than my own.  I'm not that old, but they are totally different in the ways they process information and the ways they execute their engagement. 

I am still spinning from NCTE because I loved it so much but have barely had time to process all I got out of it.  I bought great books, saw friends from the past 12 years of teaching, and embarrassed myself in front of literary celebrities (I met M.T. Anderson!).

I went to a great presentation sponsored by the National Forensics League on using classroom discussion (my Ed. Eval. focus for the year).  One great piece they mentioned was a poem called "Touchscreen" by Marshall Soulful Jones (lyrics and video).  My kids LOVED this poem--they literally cheered. It made for a perfect transition between our technology unit and Poetry Out Loud.

In 2014, I'm going to try swapping conferencing for professional reading (to save money and days out of the classroom).  I own a ton of professional books, but I rarely make the time to read and absorb them.  I have started this spreadsheet to inventory what I have.  The list is about half done, but you get the idea.  If you see something you want to borrow, let me know, and I can get it to you!  I am hoping to convince some colleagues to read a book each and do a sharing afternoon.

Next up on the presentation schedule for me is April 10th at the MRA conference in Quincy.  I'll be presenting with a friend (her blog) on close reading from the elementary (her) and secondary (me) perspective. 

Happy nerdy new year, everyone!

Looking forward to Summer PD (it's really cold in Boston today)

I'm still decompressing from NCTE (heading to an all-day workshop in a few minutes--excited!), but I wanted to pass this along while I remember to.

The NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) has these summer opportunities for teachers.  I haven't done one yet, but I hope to.  If you can travel over the summer, there are so many cool ideas here.  Deadlines are in March, which will come quickly . . .

How to find NCTE 2013 materials

Thanks to everyone who attended my presentation with Dr. Liz Gonsalves at NCTE!  We had a terrific time.  If you're new to this blog, welcome!

If you are looking for the materials on the NCTE web site, here's how to find them.  

Visit http://ncte.connectedcommunity.org/2013Annual and search for "Abbey" in the search box.  To find Liz's stuff, search "Gonsalves."  

Of course, if you can't find them, email me at abbeydick1@gmail.com.  Thanks again!  This conference has been an excellent weekend for me--lots of reunions with old friends and new strategies to try in the classroom next week (or maybe after Thanksgiving!).

Green Flags/Red Flags for Common Core Implementation

I've been too busy with school, life, and NCTE-prep to do much blogging lately, but I'm trying to get back on track.

Here's a document I find really useful and return to regularly:
http://misiciowa.org/uploads/BHK8-Literacy_Green_Flag_Red_Flag.pdf

It helps me ask myself, "Am I doing this right?"  Using just a few of the strategies is changing my practice and the way I think about my work.

Hopefully I'll run into some of you at NCTE.  Happy conferencing!