Fourth and Final Term Has Arrived!

Wow! Last week was frustrating, challenging, yet interesting...all at the same time!  I was so busy; you know that kind of busy where you feel like you're spinning in circles and getting nothing done?  Yet, quite a bit did get done, and I look back and actually feel semi-accomplished!

On Wednesday I attended the pre-conference of MACUL's big annual conference and learned a lot about my Chromebooks and what they can do.  I'm already putting much of what I learned in place, and we were able to enhance our use by late week and get more out of them.  The trade-off  of spending a day away at a conference, which is longer than normal, is the long lunch.  Since the conference was at Cobo Hall I was able to take a long walk on the Riverfront, a treat I haven't been able to enjoy in a long time.  I haven't been on the Riverfront in March since I was a kid, and what an improved setting!  I took some pictures and made a collage:

 

In addition, to my adventures on Wednesday, my English 9 group helped me figure out (sort of) how to do a Socratic Seminar.  They all seemed to enjoy the debates that ensued (their favorite topic was whether or not a baton could cut the tops off camelia bushes, or whether you would need hedge clippers), and I was able to get ideas for how to improve it for next time; things like - how to teach them debate techniques so it's not chaotic, and how to get them to ask questions deeper than plot.  In English 11 they used the Chromebooks all week to research, create thesis statements and outlines, create Works Cited on GoogleDrive and share it, and now they're drafting their papers.  While they did this, I tried to help anyone having trouble and I spent my time continuously checking them in as they got tasks accomplished.  All this was going on while they scheduled, choir participated in Festival on Tuesday, Youth in Government left to go on their big conference at the end of the week, and a huge track meet pulled a bunch of people out on Friday.  I swear it's a miracle I didn't lose anybody...or my mind.

 

I have spent most of my weekend planning for our brand new unit on Human Rights in English 11.  It's a challenge because we'll have four different books going at one time.  I also have done a lot of grading and entering grades.  Look for those on HAC.  I'm finalizing them because my 3rd Term grades are due by mid-week.  I also managed to take a long enough break to take my youngest to a UM Gymnastics meet.  One of the things I love about living in Southeast Michigan is that we have access to interesting university events, so my eldest went to an EMU Baseball game, and then my youngest and I attended Senior Night at UM.  It was amazing !!!The strength and stamina of those young men to complete those feats of skill is something else.  Here are a couple of collages from our night:

 

 







So here's what's coming up this week:

 

In English 9 we're now heading to the core of To Kill a Mockingbird .  We'll be reading about the trial of Tom Robinson and doing an argumentative essay.  We'll have vocabulary this week (quiz Friday), and we're going to try something fun with the Chromebooks:  a Kahoot.  I tried it out at my conference and I think it will be a great way to engage my students in a theme.

 

In English 11 we're going to finish drafting our papers, share them, edit and revise them, and then I'll set a due date for a final copy.  I need the printers loaded on the Chromebooks, but one way or another we'll finally print something out.  Digital is great, but I need a hard copy; I'm old-school like that.  We're also going to start reading the books.  To do this we'll basically be doing a combination of book club and reading workshop.  Every day we'll start with a mini-lesson where they'll be responsible for learning about a concept, they'll have reading time where they'll need to take notes and attempt to apply the concept, then we'll decompress with a mini-Socratic Seminar, and everyone will get a chance to be a leader.  On Fridays I want them to meet in mixed-groups to share what is going on in their books.  There will not be vocabulary quizzes for the next five weeks; we'll work on technical vocabulary in class through the mini-lessons.  I'm hoping that by the first week of May they can create group projects for their books to share with the class.

 

I think that's everything.  Whew!  As I feel the exhaustion coming on, I just keep remembering:  only two weeks to spring break!  Enjoy the week.  Ciao!

 

 

 
Fourth and Final Term Has Arrived! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.