Almost There...

Happy Memorial Day!  In the midst of the pools, the sun, the gardening, the laundry, and the grading, I'm also thinking about those who serve our country.  I'm so grateful to those who are willing to give their lives to save the rest of us, especially that of two of my grandfathers and an uncle who served in WWII, and my dad who served in Vietnam.  Thankfully, they all made it home safely and went on to productive lives in the private sector, but I am also troubled by those who have come home after having sacrificed their physical and mental health, and then received substandard or no care.  I'm thinking of those men and women today and praying that we make sure that all who give us everything they've got get everything they need in return.

As we move past this Memorial Day and toward the end of the school year, both my English 9 and English 11 continue to finish the year with interesting texts.  I hope they enjoy this last unit, and that we end on a strong note.

In English 11, we have begun the book Night, an autobiographical text about the Holocaust, and the model text we're using to write personal narratives.  The personal narratives are due this week and we will continue to read the book.  On Wednesday, I have a large group of students who will be gone for the ACT/MME reward day to Cedar Point.  We will watch a video relating to our book on that day so that those who are gone will not need to make up any reading.

In English 9 we are continuing to read The Odyssey.  We are finishing up the section on the Cyclops and are creating comic strips to demonstrate a complete understanding of what is happening in this poem.  This week we will continue to read sections of the poem.

Here are some pictures and video from the tableaux they created to show understanding of the introduction to the poem.  They were in groups of two to three people and had to read a section of lines about while creating statues to show the meaning of the content.  Sometimes the statues can move, which is seen in the video a little bit. I use Magisto for the video, and for some reason it shifted a couple of shots sideways, but I decided it wasn't worth paying for extra data on my phone in order to re-do the video.

 2nd Hour English 9

 6th Hour English 9

Seniors Last Day

I hope everyone has a great week.  At least it's a short one!

Almost There... by Laura Stubbs is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

June is Getting Closer!

This week is going to be short and sweet, since I do not have any videos or photos to share.  It's always exciting to come to the end of the year, but it's always difficult as well.  I am a huge proponent of field trips and extra-curricular activities to supplement learning, because I truly believe it makes students better learners, but the disruptions to what I'm trying to do in my classroom are always HUGE at this time of year.  So, that being said, here is what the majority of my kiddos have accomplished over the past week:

• English 9 students finished doing the preview work into our unit on The Odyssey.  They worked collaboratively as a group to find out information about a city state, create a digital presentation, learn about a Greek myth, and then present everything to the class.  I made sure that the grading criteria would hold students accountable for the work that they did, but also held them accountable for being there to present.  We worked around anybody who had A.P. testing or were on field trips, so the only students whose grades were affected were the ones who were absent due to their own individual behaviors. 
• English 11 students finished Frankenstein.  They have taken the test and turned in all of the work to go with it, though some are still working their way through the assessment due to the length of the test, or field trips.  I'm not having them do a large paper over this novel, so the test includes an essay which makes it go on a little bit longer.

Coming up, we still have some major work to do:

• English 9 students will be reading The Odyssey (or sections of it from the textbook) in class with me, so they will not have reading homework.  They will have a couple of writing assignments coming home, but most of our big projects are completed for the year.
• English 11 students are entering a unit on the Holocaust and Personal Narratives.  I will be handing out the assignment for their Personal Narrative early this week, along with a due date, and it will be their responsibility to complete it on their own.  In the meantime, we will focus on the autobiography Night by Elie Wiesel.  I think this is the quintessential book about the Holocaust, and details his experience in surviving Auschwitz.  It also won the Nobel Peace Prize.

So as you can see, while we're nearing the end of the school year, we still have much to go.  I hope everyone has a fabulous week and can get out and enjoy some beautiful weather.  It's that beautiful time of year!


June is Getting Closer! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

They're Getting Antsy!

We're now coming to the middle of May and everyone is definitely getting antsy!  It's taking all my energy to keep being an enthusiastic cheerleader, but luckily I love what I teach and I love who I teach, so I'm sure we're going to make it to June 17th!

This past week in English 11 we accomplished quite a bit.  Instead of having them do a traditional read of Frankenstein, I had them split up chapters 11-16 by groups and act them out for each other.  We then took notes on the details on a large piece of paper broken into eight boxes.  They liked breaking things up, and many group had fantastic presentations!  They're so creative!  We're now finishing the book and I expect to be testing them by next week.  Our final unit will revolve around personal narratives, and I'm working on a fun project.  When I get it all figured out I'll tell everyone about it.  Our model text will be Night by Elie Wiesel, and is his personal narrative of surviving the Holocaust.  This is one of my favorite books of all time and most students really like this unit.

In English 9 we finished Flowers for Algernon.  They wrote their Type 3 Analytical Essays and turned them in, and then we watched the movie I Am Sam and found the connections to the themes in the book.  At this point we're getting to read The Odyssey (or portions of it, at least).  Because most have very little knowledge of the Greeks and their mythology, I'm having them explore the culture.  Instead of me lecturing to them, they're split into groups and are researching particular city states and myths.  I'm hoping to have them present these by the end of next week.

The following pictures show how flexible my 9th graders are.  A.P. testing is going on in the library, so since we couldn't go to the computers, the computers came to us.  Finding enough electrical outlets is a challenge, but they're making it work:

2nd Hour Students

6th Hour Students

6th Hour Students

The energy level difference between 2nd Hour and 6th Hour is amazing, and I think these pictures reflect that.  When taking pictures 2nd Hour, they're so focused that they ask questions and listen to answers without looking up and noticing what I'm doing a whole lot.  In 6th Hour, they quite often mug for the camera.

I hope everyone has a great week and gets a chance to get out an enjoy this beautiful May weather in Michigan!  Ciao!

They're Getting Antsy! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

May Flowers Have Finally Sprung!

Here we are, back at it and working hard, but at least the weather is slowly taking a turn for the better. It definitely helps everybody's mood to brighten, although with the increased warmth comes increased squirreliness!  I'm trying very hard to strike the balance between understanding this fact, but needing them to keep working.  As a result, I continue to try to incorporate activities that will keep them engaged.  So here's what's happening:

In English 9, we are finishing our analytical essays.  We spent much of last week working on them and I did it all in class so that as they had questions they could ask.  They are hand-written and Type 3's; we will revise and edit them on Monday and make decisions about typing at that point.  After they are done writing, we will watch I Am Sam and compare and contrast it with Flowers for Algernon.  By the end of the week I hope to be introducing them to the Greek Mythology unit which will have a group project centered around technology and research.

Here is a picture of some of my English 9, 2nd Hour students writing their papers.  I didn't manage to get any pictures from 6th Hour because I was so busy helping them, so I'll try for next week with them.

In English 11, we are midway through reading Frankenstein.  I have broken them up into groups to tackle chapters 11-16, and they are preparing presentations to teach the class.  They are acting them out, and then we'll do some pen-and-paper activities to make sure we've all got it.  They are up, moving, and engaged, so I think this is working well.  After that, we will work on finishing the book.

Here are some pictures of English 11 students working on their chapters and presentations:

3rd Hour

1st Hour

5th Hour

In the meantime, I'm working on their papers.  Over the course of the past two weeks I have been consumed with trying to finish the course I've been taking on blended learning.  At this point I'm pretty much done, so I can turn all my attention back around to correcting papers.  If you're interested in what this course is all about, here is my final presentation about how I am bringing my classroom into the 21st century with blended learning:

My Blended Learning Environment

I hope everyone has a fabulous week!  Ciao!


May Flowers Have Finally Sprung! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.