Getting Published

This week both I and one of my students had our pieces of commentary published in our local paper, the Times Union.  I am looking forward to the coming weeks and finding out who else will see their byline in print.  I will add to this post as those become available.

Writing is power, which is a message that is not given to students via the Common Core or standardized testing.  That is what this unit is about and why I love teaching writing.

My commentary:  'Nazi' task was clearly wrong

Lily's commentary:  State tests can't figure qualities of teachers

Evan's commentary:  Cover Up!

Taniya's commentary:  I Think You Got The Wrong Words

Charles' commentary:  Oi Vey Iz Mir Gewalt

Rachel's commentary:  Tan or No Tan?

Fathima's commentary:  Smoking Life or ... Death

Alex's commentary:  Sleepy Time 

Skye's commentary:  R U Texting a Little 2 Much?

Student Inspiration

In these last days of April, I wanted to acknowledge the yin and yang that this month represents for my discipline.  April is National Poetry Month, but it is also the time of year when students in grades 3-8 take their ELA and math New York State exams.  The irony of this is not lost on us English teachers.  This is my attempt to intertwine the two.

Courage

I see the courage
I see the courage in each of you
I see the courage in the challenges you all face
I see the courage in the choice you can't erase

You choose to sit
With arms folded
With only your name 
No A, B, C or D
Blank lines stare back at you
Your courage is in your choice to refuse
To not allow these booklets to define
To not allow a number eat away
At the confidence you otherwise display
When not given a time limit

I see the courage
I see the courage in each of you
I see the courage in the challenges you all face
I see the courage in the choice you can't erase

You choose to sit
Pencil in hand
Skimming and guessing
Racing to the word STOP
While you have chosen to play the game
The end result does not matter
For no matter how hard you work
You know in this game the odds are never in your favor

I see the courage
I see the courage in each of you
I see the courage in the challenges you all face
I see the courage in the choice you can't erase

You choose to sit
And work until the end
Determination written all over your face
You know what is at stake
The gauntlet thrown is one you take up proudly
They tell you it won't be easy
Chances are it will reveal more weaknesses than strengths
But you sit to prove them wrong
You bubble in to defend your teacher
To show that you don't need what they are selling
You know better than them
 
I see the courage
I see the courage in each of you
I see the courage in the challenges you all face
I see the courage in the choice you can't erase

And I am inspired

'Tis the Season

This has been a holiday season like no other. While the final week of school leading to vacation is always frenzied, this one was tinged with fear and worry. The tragedy in Newtown, CT, lead to fear and anxiety all over the country for students, parents and educators. It was a long week that culminated in those who chose to prey upon people's fears and spread rumors to further disrupt what is normally an exciting time of year. How anyone can see what the community in Newtown is going through and use that as an opportunity to amuse themselves is beyond me. I know for me and my students we tried to focus on what we could do to help.

During Tutorial, I and my social studies teacher shared with students how a call had been put out to help to transform the new building that will house Sandy Hook Elementary when students return from the holiday break. While psychologists are recommending that the classrooms of this former middle school be made to resemble student's classrooms as much as possible (even down to where markers or a water bottle was left), they are decorating the halls to look like a winter wonderland. They have requested for anyone who would like to help to send unique and creative snowflakes to create a fun space for these children that have been through too much.

Our students rose to the challenge and worked together to create the most amazing and wonderful snowflakes you have ever seen. It was a fantastic way to put their nervous energy to a purpose that will do some good in the world.

Students also gave in a different way this season. In lieu of presents for their team teachers, we asked students and their families to contribute to Heifer International. This organization allows you to gift farm animals to struggling farmers all over the world. As our collection came to a close on Wednesday, we were astounded when the grand total of donations by students, parents and teachers came to $1708! Students who participated (over 70) voted for which animals we would purchase. They chose:  1 cow, 1 llama, 1 sheep, 1 goat, 1 pig, 1 fish farm, 1 water buffalo, 3 rabbits, 1 bee hive, a flock of chicks, a flock of geese, and a flock of ducks. This fundraiser was an amazing success due to the overwhelming generosity of our team of students, parents and teachers.

In language arts as we made our way to the holiday break, students were working in small groups to make a difference in the world by producing public service announcement videos (PSAs).  We began by discussing how our world is not a utopia but rather is complicated with big and small problems.  We watched an episode of 60 Minutes that featured a man who began fighting the injustices of child labor in the world as a seventh grader.  He runs a large charitable organization called Free the Children that not only continues the fight but inspires and empowers young people to find their own cause to make a difference with.  Hia 7A's PSA videos will air on our FMS TV Morning News program in the hopes to raise awareness among the student body with the problems that each small group chose to research.  We will be having a PSA film festival on January 25 at 2:15, where family will be invited in to join as we watch each video.

My final keepsake from the last day of 2012 that I spent with my students is an image of what I like to call the Christmashawk. When people shake their heads in dismay when I tell them I teach 7th grade, it's moments like these for why I truly love this age!

So as we begin the new year in the hopes of leaving behind the things that we would rather forget, I will hold on to these final moments of 2012 and relish the community that is Hiawatha 7A.  I feel very lucky to be a part of this team.

A Magical Night

I love that moment when sitting in a movie theater, the lights dim, voices go silent and the glow from the screen envelopes the room.  And while you are sitting among strangers, you share something in the darkness for a couple of hours.  I love going to the movies.

Each year I try to recreate this feeling in my classroom as students invite family and friends to room 356 for the evening to premier their digital memoirs.  They have worked for weeks on this project that is more than just demonstrating their skills as a writer.  This first unit of the year is one that builds our classroom community and allows us all to get to know each other a bit better.  Students explore in their writer's notebooks personal topics to find that just-right subject to share something significant from their lives as they examine who they are and why.

While I have done this unit with my 7th graders for many years, I have never followed the same lesson plans.  Each year I rethink, re-tweak, and revise the way that the students in front of me might best come to accomplish this project.  This year, I added a few new memoir examples, or mentor texts, for my students to study.  Three of the seven that we read were written by former students of mine.  Students who had sat where my current students are sitting.  And while these texts might not fall under the category of "rigorous" as deemed by the new Common Core Learning Standards, they were the most important texts that we read this year.  My students were truly inspired by reading the work of other students.  Each year, we have always read examples by published authors, which we did as well this year, but the substitutions I made with writers who my students knew had to struggle with the same task as them made all the difference.

Upon reading my students' first drafts, I was amazed at the quality of work that I received.  I was able to give each of my 114 writers feedback via Google Docs in order to let them know what was working and what they needed to work on.  These first drafts were unlike any other year I had previously though.  While I do have some very talented writers, it was more than that.  It was as if through reading the examples of my former students, my 7th graders felt a greater confidence when writing about their own experiences.  I could hear them through looking at their drafts announcing, Hey, if they can do this, I can too. 

Since we had read these student texts, we were then able to view their digital versions to gain an understanding of how one takes a piece of writing and then creates a movie of it.  This was an experience I had never been able to give my students before.  While we always had watched digital versions in years past (usually my own that I had created in graduate school), we had never read a draft and then had seen it come to life on the screen.  This too I think was extremely valuable to my students as they set off to gather images and photos to accompany their words in order to bring their pieces to life on the big screen.

So as the audience settled back with a treat from those that generously brought something to share and the lights were dimmed, I felt that moment of happiness of sharing time in the darkness watching stories on a screen.  But this night, of course, is more magical than your average night at the movies.  This night is populated with friends, family, my students and my colleagues.  It doesn't get more magical than that.

*This photo is courtesy of Lisa Michaels.

Testing Technology

Below is the statement I presented to my Board of Education on Tuesday, October 23, 2012.

Working in Guilderland is something I am proud of.  Traveling in various educational circles, I came quickly to learn that my district had a reputation as a leader.  For years we hosted the Summer Writing Institute and helped to enrich the writing instruction of not only our faculty but of our colleagues across the Capital Region.  I always knew that I worked in a district that was forward thinking because I was nourished and supported to teach in a way that showed me to how to be a reflective educator and also encouraged me to strive to use methods that didn’t just follow the standards but asked kids to read and write for real purposes.  Instilling in them the idea that it is a life-long process and not something you have to simply do for school.

Now I realize that the world we live in is one of reform and mandates that are, sadly, out of our control.  But I believe like in any situation where one may feel powerless, there is always a way to stay true to who you are and try to enact change.  In adopting the NWEAs, I feel we have stepped off our original path.  This is not the trail we once blazed.  Rather it feels we chose to fall in line with what other districts had selected despite the less restrictive options offered to us. We could have chosen, like our colleagues in Bethlehem did, to create our own local assessments.  We even had the option of utilizing our New York state exam data and creating student learning objectives to meet what was required of us.  Here, students would have only to take one standardized exam and saved us hours of lost instructional time, not to mention money.

Either of the latter options would have avoided the use of computers as tools of testing instead of tools for learning.  Faculty has been unable to utilize the computer labs while all of our students are cycled through to complete the NWEAs.  My students’ work on their memoir pieces has been interrupted, as we have to suspend our work and wait for the testing to end.  This unit culminates in students creating a movie of their written work.  A powerful example of how writing, music, images and voice can make what normally is just another writing piece into a lesson in multi-media literacy.  Sacrificing this aspect of the unit is simply not what is best for students, and so my students and I will wait for the testing to end.

In an effort to do what is right for our students, I am here to advocate for a different direction.  A road that we have laid in front of us.  It will require the leadership and vision of who we have always been as a district in order to move us forward.  I am referring to digital portfolio assessments.  Instead of asking students to sit twice a year for two hours in front of a computer answering multiple-choice questions, we could be showing them the power of technology and exposing them to skills that they truly need to be college and career ready. 

This is a trail we are, I believe, ready to blaze.  My colleagues and I are already taking the initial steps even though it isn’t mandated but because it echoes that Guilderland philosophy of offering the very best instruction to our students.  Last year we were given the tools to move our students further into the 21^st century skills that our district holds as the highest priority. 

With Demian’s leadership we launched the use of our secure Google cloud, which gives us access to a myriad of applications to enhance student learning.  I was able realize my own personal goal as students created their own digital portfolio websites.  They displayed and reflected on their work over the course of an entire year.  They had a place for their digital work products that simply never fit in to our current “Blue Folder” system.  With guidance, students were able to articulate their strengths, weaknesses and goals.  This allowed me to better individualize and differentiate their instruction.  Students utilized technology to demonstrate their entire learning process instead of just a one-time performance.  Portfolios create a space for students in assessment as they become more responsible for their learning rather than a passive test taker.  And in doing so, they found more motivation, more self-confidence and satisfaction in their performance that a number simply cannot produce.  Students began to compete with themselves rather than with each other.

Looking into the future to graduation, our students could walk out armed with true evidence of their learning.  Something to show at a college or job interview to demonstrate their skills, potential and personal goals.  The value of this portfolio simply can’t be compared to a list of test scores.

Portfolios are the kinds of learning opportunities that those who attend private schools are offered.  Private schools that are not shackled to the state and federal mandates.  Private schools like the ones our State Education Commissioner’s children attend instead of our local public schools.  Let’s lead our kids into the future, take advantage of the free tools we have at our finger tips and become once again a fearless leader in our area as we weather this educational storm.

Mud Bonding

On Tuesday, our team traveled to Voorheesville to lend a hand to the Patroon Land Farm, which provides produce for the Regional Food Bank.  This trip serves as our team bonding event in order to bring all 115 students together to socialize and give back to the community.  This trip was especially important this year since many of our students had to switch houses.  We hoped that this trip would help kids get to know one another in a shared experience.  And oh what an experience it was!

Upon our arrival, we gathered in the barn so that students could hear from one of the farmers as he explained the work we would be doing.  He also gave some important history about the land, farm and purpose of their work.  There were two important jobs that they needed our assistance with, so we divided up and got to work.

A third of the team entered the greenhouse, where they were picking peppers, boxing potatoes and, luckily for them, keeping warm.  The rest of us made our way out to the fields, where we were asked to harvest rainbow Swiss chard.  We had to break the stalks down low and gather them up into a bunch and bound them with a rubber band.  Seemed like a simple enough of a job.  Little did we know what awaited us...lots and lots of mud.

As one of the teachers who was helping and supervising, I assumed that upon hearing the directions from the farmer who accompanied us that we needed to avoid the muddy trenches and use the the ones on the outer rows that were more dry, that this was clearly understood.  It never occurred to me that students would actually want to trudge through the mud and the muck.  Oh how wrong I was!

One student after another blithely walked into the mud pits and looked up in astonishment as they discovered themselves submerged and stuck.  One student earnestly asked if this was "quick mud" and was that why people were getting stuck.  It quickly became apparent that some in our group had little to no experience with mud.  There were others though that, like the pigs we had to avoid on our drive in, reveled in the mud and the mess it made of them.

I will be honest that my patience quickly ran out as one more student became stuck, as another shoe was lost, as another pair of hands were dipped into the muddy pits.  I underestimated the lure of the mud to a 12 year-old.  Silly teacher!

But as I look back on that day, I think the mud helped to accomplish exactly what the purpose of the trip was:  team bonding.  Peers were going after each other to rescue them from their muddy fate regardless if it put themselves in the same peril.  And while it was the messiest field trip I have ever been on, it was also the one where students were the most dependent on each other.  And at the end of the day, we all learned a great deal about each other.

 Please visit our Hia7A All the Way website to view the entire photo album of our trip!

Bringing in the Professional

While I have only been blogging for a few weeks, I have learned so much.  I felt able to get the ball rolling with my students in guiding them as they make their entrance into the blogosphere.  I certainly do not pretend to know it all though and am only steps ahead of them on their journey.  I am lucky enough though to have my friend Sara Foss, a journalist and professional blogger, to help us all out.

I came to know Sara Foss through my husband, when he was a newspaper reporter at The Daily Gazette.   Sara is also a fellow New Englander, so even though they are no longer colleagues, we share a love of the Red Sox, the Pats and the Celtics.  Sara is a columnist for The Daily Gazette and writes her own blog called Rule of Thumb.

I knew that Sara would be a fantastic resource and guide for my students and I, so I asked if she could write some blogging tips for us to think about as we begin to blog.  She also graciously agreed to allow me to post her thoughts here on my blog.  I have shared this with my students already, and they truly appreciated Sara's advice.  We read, reflected and discussed her blogging tips, and I could hear a large sigh of relief as I sent them off with the task of writing their first blog post.  Thank you so very much, Sara!

Some Blogging Tips

By:  Sara Foss

Blogging can be a lot of fun, especially if you like the idea of writing for an audience. You can blog about just about any topic - entertainment, sports, movies, politics, parenthood, music, science and even yourself. So you should pick a focus that really interests you. If you really like bikes, you can write about bikes. If you like comic books, you can write about comic books. My blog is a little more wide-ranging - I write about a variety of interests, including movies and sports. For some people, a blog can function as a public online diary, where they share details and stories about their life. These personal blogs can be fun, but if you write one, you want to make sure you don't share information about yourself that you'd rather keep private.

Writing a blog is a little different from writing a paper for school, or a newspaper article. The blogs I like tend to be well-written and thoughtful, but they often lack the polish you might find in a magazine story or a book. Bloggers write quickly and frequently, often providing commentary about events and news soon after they happen. This is part of what's fun about blogging: It gives you a quick glimpse of people's thoughts. I find that my blog is a bit like a notebook - a place where I might tell a story or discuss an idea that I'm not ready to write about more formally. For example, I might write about a book I recently read and post those thoughts on my blog, and then discuss the book in my newspaper column. Basically, don't worry about making your blog perfect. Blogs can be a little messy.

A good blogger writes and updates regularly. Some people might worry about running out of things to say, and getting writer's block, but my feeling is that the best way to prevent writer's block is to write. If you're having trouble coming up with a topic, just pick something and start typing. (I find that surfing the web and seeing what people are talking about in blogs, online magazines and newspapers can help me start writing.) I've been amazed by the things I write when I'm short on ideas, and the reaction people have to them. I once wrote about a disastrous attempt to make an apple pie, and people thought it was hilarious. The only reason I wrote this blog was because I couldn't think of anything to write, and it came out pretty well.

Which brings us to one of the most important things about blogging: your writing style. Since blogging is informal, many bloggers have a more conversational writing style - my friends often tell me that when they read my blog, they can almost hear me talking. If you develop a good style, a topic that could be potentially boring - like making an apple pie - can become a humorous story about how bad you are in the kitchen. Some people think that writing about pets is lame, but if you can tell a good story about your pets, people will be entertained - even people who might think the topic is lame. Of course, some topics are serious - there's no need to try to be funny all of the time.

Bloggers often link to other websites and blogs to provide their readers with additional information and resources. For example, a blogger who writes about music might want to link to a YouTube video of the band they're writing about, or the band's website.

A good blog has personality, and this personality comes from the person who writes it. So when you blog, be yourself and say what you think.