What am I doing to start the year?

Kimberly — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 06:16:17 +0000

This is a great and important question. One I ask myself all the time : )

I started the year with a lot of short, structured writing assignments. We wrote almost every day for the first four weeks of class. We wrote literary letters, quotation responses, college application essays and Anglo-Saxon boasts.

Some of my goals:

to learn about the students and their writing
to establish a writing environment in and for the class
to suggest that the integration of personal anecotes is a form of intelligence
to establish expectations for formal and informal writing
to get some brainstorming done before we start writers’ workshop

The writing had to be short, for general sanity.

The writing also had to be structured. The students like structure (format, number of words, pen color, deadlines) in English class. The fear of failure is rampent. No matter how many times I tell the students that there is not always a wrong answer, they have anxiety about their work being “good enough.” Is it mean to tell them that ”good enough never is”? Maybe I am missing something.

I don’t always like structure, but I’m working on that. Giving clear expectations, albeit superficial ones, makes it easier for me to give students positive credit. And they are very concerned with credit. It also protects me. As a writing teacher, I was/am worried that my first marginal impressions will expose cultural assumptions and implications that I am not aware of yet. It is difficult to nurture thinkers and writers that I know little about.

I think the best way to discover and work out cultural differences is to write along with the student. So, I do. We share stories and thoughts. We laugh a lot.

Here is part of my boast: Hail to the Senior Class!!!

Kimber walks,      wit-wrangling and weary,
from a milky      limestone lair
to a scholar’s home     sur, in Sula.
I bring brain-broadners       to board minds abroad.
I face this fuerza-inter   with academic armor aimed
to nurture empathy    in English and Earthsense!

PS. As far as reading goes…English 12 started with Beowulf. I won’t start with this text again, at least not the text book version. I thought a chronological approach was a good plan. I’m rethinking that, not boasting about it. AP Literature started with “What is the Use of Art, Anyway?” by Coomaraswamy. I’ll stick with this one and recommend it.

First Impressions

Kimberly — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:59:54 +0000

How did the students start the year?
.

The first day of school started early. Parents and students showed up at the gate at the same time we did. There was an all school assembly to welcome the students and remind them that it really wasn’t summer anymore. All of the new teachers (half of the staff) were introduced. I waved at a sea of blue collared shirts and wondered which faces would soon be familiar. After the assembly, the students gathered their schedules and went to their first period class. I went to my classroom and waited. No seniors.
.

Around 8:30 all of the high school students and staff gathered in the C courtyard and stared at the parking lot. I wandered over, hoping to find someone who could tell me why I didn’t have any students yet. One of the teachers who arrived last year filled me in, “the seniors are on their way.” On their way? Ok. They’re not here yet.
.

The “Senior Entrance” is a tradition at EIS. The students stay up all night partying and parade to school around 3^rd period. This year the students were escorted by men in uniforms. They had swords too. (Hmmmm. I wonder if they can just pay the government to play along?) After these official looking gentlemen were in place, the seniors entered the gates. They were circling the drive in and on vans, semis and 4-wheelers. There were trucks full of speakers. Confetti was flying around. The underclassmen were cheering. These seniors were in control.

I didn’t know what to do. Should I stand where they can all see me? Should I stay out of sight? I was mostly confused, because this wasn’t really bothering me. It finally hit me when the parents paraded in after the seniors. They were all teary-eyed behind their cameras. After everything the other teachers had told me, I was sure that these parents (and their money) had more power than our administration and, possibly, the law. The parents bothered me. What were the students expecting me to say, “Cool parade…I got you some breakfast and Gatorade…You can nap for the rest of the period?”

How did I start the year?

I couldn’t ignore the “senior entrance” or the bags under their eyes. We talked about it. I didn’t have breakfast or Gadorade.The teacher who had the classroom before me left a student project behind. It was a Styrofoam structure of some kind. It was poorly painted and full of spider webs. I gave a little lecture about transitions and leaving things that we don’t need behind us. I cut a hole in the top of that hideous project and asked students to write down something that they wanted to leave behind. They put their notes inside the project. I didn’t read them.

I handed out info cards and asked them to fill in their names etc. On the back of the card, I asked them to write some words of wisdom. What are you going to take with you? I read these. I put a different one in a picture frame on my desk everyday.

A New Ecology » Firsts

What am I doing to start the year?

First Impressions