Prezi Philosophy

I’ve been playing around with a new internet tool that I’d like to use in my classroom called Prezi. I made my first one tonight–it’s a basic introduction to my classroom expectations for myself and my students. I’ll be sharing it with my new classes next week. It’s a very interesting, non-linear way of creating presentations. I hope to learn more and get better and better at such things. Enjoy! Then, go to Prezi.com and make your own!

Teachers as Writers: My Five Weeks with the Writing Project

This summer, I had the most transformative professional development experience of my career. My work with the Writing Project was intense, engrossing, and very productive. Five weeks spending each weekday working closely with 22 other colleagues to develop our own writing repertoire and our teaching practices turned me into a thinking writer-teacher machine. It lifted me out of my unemployment murk and up into the world of ideas. I remembered why I love writing and why I love teaching. It’s all about creating and studying and making a change in this world. It’s also about scholarly inquiry and research. I did plenty of each.

The Writing Project gave me the opportunity to really consider my own practice as an English educator, to reflect on what works and why. It also gave me countless pathways to discover how I can make my teaching more engaging, effective, and fitting for the 21^st century learner. It made me recommit to conducting a classroom that acknowledges social justice concerns. I learned about dozens of new technology tools and applications. I gained a powerhouse arsenal of teaching resources as each new day brought new things to discover.

The greatest resource of all, though, were my fellow teacher consultants. Each participant had to present a 90-minute teaching inquiry workshop, in which he or she would present the origins and process of research, findings, and practical classroom applications through a hands-on workshop. Through these presentations, I learned fresh new ideas about a wide variety of topics: how the writing process differs between individuals, teaching grammar in new ways, using spoken language in writing instruction, gender differences in writing instruction, use of non-standard dialects, creating rubrics, writing workshop, teaching self-revision, infusing writing with imagery, bookmaking, writing conferences, and blogging just to name a few!  Being able to present in front of the cohort was also one of many leadership opportunities that affiliation with the writing project can provide.

Meanwhile, we were also working tirelessly on our own independent writing products. The final portfolio included 3-4 original pieces in different genres and a polished piece of professional writing in addition to the research document and bibliography for the teacher inquiry workshop. We wrote like fiends for five straight weeks—starting, reworking, abandoning, twisting language in ways that were scintillating, serpentine, or surprising. The sheer joy that I got out of this luxurious time to write freely was one of the biggest payoffs of all the hard work. The supportive network I had of other teacher-writers (not just here but also around the country via the Internet) was also instrumental in creating my original written pieces.

I am certain that my brain gained an additional fold during the five weeks of the Writing Project. My deepest thanks to the facilitators and all the teacher consultants who made my summer into something that will improve my teaching and writing all year long.

Writing Project Work-  My best accomplishments from the summer experience are detailed below. Please comment if you are interested in any of the detailed pieces, and I’ll be happy to speak with you about sharing them with a wider audience.

Teacher Inquiry Workshop

Writing With a Camera: Teaching Student Authors to Compose Both in Words and Images

This hands-on workshop leads participants to investigate parallels between composing photographs and composing the written word. Explore the world of 21^st century texts and come away with ideas for utilizing images and words side by side during writing instruction. This presentation honors the complexities of the technology-savvy student writers that make up our classrooms.

Professional Writing

“Take Compassion out of the Closet.” This social justice activist piece was submitted for consideration to the “Speaking my Mind” section of NCTE’s English Journal.

“Social Justice Teaching: Everything we have Power to Do.”  I collaborated with my reading group to create this color trifold pamphlet on what teachers can do to promote socially just pedagogy. It is a resource ready to distribute.

Original Writing in Four Genres

“Threshold.” This short fiction piece explores the concept of the inner world and what risks we take to find it, ignore it, or embrace it. As the natural and psychological landscapes converge, a misunderstood woman comes face to face with her own unrealized power.

“Grand.” A piece about sibling love and opposition, this personal narrative shows a humorous but profound snapshot of a summer vacation mishap with my younger brother.

“Memory as Time Travel.” This piece is an intellectual essay questioning the influence, origin, and reality of our own memories. What purpose does memory serve in a world of data instantly catalogued by machines?

“Juxtaposition.” Inspired by side-by-side images of a nebula and a couple’s initials on a piece of wood, this poem compares the infinity of the universe to the depth of the human heart.

Nodes and Birds

As I begin my work with the 2010 UW-Milwaukee Writing Project, I am dumbfounded by the amount of things I am learning, creating, and considering each day. It’s intense and priceless, and I hope to share some of my reflections on the experience soon. For right now, I just have time to quickly share two extremely cool resources that I learned about on Day Two: Spicy Nodes and Storybird.

Spicy Nodes are interactive graphic organizers that you can create online. They are really neat due to their animated, limitless nature. You start with a main topic and some surrounding subtopics. Then, by clicking on a subtopic, you get more infomation which can then be complicated even further by clicking and clicking your way through the information. Hard to explain, but easy to see: check out SpicyNodes.org. I can imagine many applications for showing and making these in the classroom, especially when it comes to exploring topics with many complex facets.

Storybird is a fantastic website where users can quickly and easily create their own storybook by pairing words with work submitted by professional artists. A Storybird can be completed individually or collaboratively, by emailing the unfinished piece to a new author, who can then add to or edit the story as they see fit. Books can then be published on the website, visible to everyone or just a few, depending on your preference. Go to Storybird.com to try it out. This would be a perfect option for a project where older students create something for younger ones, or even with the younger ones.

Here’s a page from one of my Storybird books:

Stay tuned for more cool resources and tales from the Writing Project. I love learning!

ENSJ Anti-Bias, Anti-Racist Conference 2010

On Saturday, March 6th, I attended the Annual Anti-Bias, Anti-Racist Conference hosted by the Educators’ Network for Social Justice. It really stirred up some intense feelings and provided some serious food for thought.

The keynote speaker, Sonia Nieto, is a noted author, speaker, and Professor Emerita in the field of multicultural education. She spoke about her research for a new book, in which she focuses on teachers who are thriving in an environment of diverse learners (linguistically, racially, and socioeconomically). One of my favorite concepts that she brought up was this: Successful teachers have a sense of mission, in that they feel that they are doing something vital and meaningful by being in the classroom. However, it is a mission not in the sense of “sacrificing for these ‘poor’ students” but rather a mission in the sense that teacher and students follow a communal calling to pursue and reach their classroom goals. This really resonated with me. Often when I say that I teach in an urban school, I get the, “Oh, you’re a saint” reaction. But that’s simply not the case–I don’t see my work as a “sacrifice”. I do, however, feel compelled to give of myself everyday, knowing that my students are giving of themselves, too, to keep our class going. The everyday work of counteracting prejudice, poverty, and other social hurdles is a mission we all must recognize and buy into.

Sonia Nieto was incredible, and left me hungry for more knowledge in the breakout sessions. What I wanted most was practical strategies that I could implement in my classroom the next day. Strategies that would help me to understand my own position of privilege, and that would encourage greater respect, tolerance, and interaction between my diverse students. Lately, I had been struggling to keep my seniors from taunting each other with racial slurs and making comments about a homeless student’s odor. I was dying for something beyond my everyday messages of respect, professionalism, and compassion that would help us work on this problem. Unfortunately, I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for in the first two sessions I attended. I picked what looked like the most relevant titles in the program, but I was disappointed in the “historical overview” type of presentation that I found. It was important, urgent information that was presented, but it was information that I (and I’d argue any informed teacher) already knew. I know about the issues. I want someone to tell me how to better help fix the issues! Luckily, the third session was presented by one of my former mentor professors; I guessed that she would deliver, and she did. She modeled an activity for exploring bias and assumptions about authors based on their names and countries of origin. It was what I was looking for–an activity and rationale that I could immediately put into action in my classroom. Thank you, Donna!

While I came away with many of the same questions I had going in, I feel like the conference just brought home the point that educators everywhere need to work harder at making their classes places that actively resist social injustice, and that many methods remain to be discovered! (I still maintain that the best place to find such things is Teaching Tolerance at Tolerance.org. Rethinking Schools also has excellent social justice teaching materials.)

All in all, one of the most remarkable things I took away from the conference was simply the physical experience of being at the Indian Community School in Franklin, WI. It is one of the most beautiful, serene, organic, and dynamic works of architecture I’ve ever seen. Take a look at some of the publicity photos from the architect (Antoine Predock) by clicking HERE. A private elementary school for the local American Indian population, this is a place that just captures the imagination and seems to have sprouted right out of the landscape. I felt so inspired just being in the building and thought to myself, “just think how much more comfortable and happy my students could be just by virtue of being in this building!” Every kid deserves a school like that. It reminded me, again, of the importance and impact of aesthetic environment on learning potential. While we don’t always have the financial means to build a show-stopping school, we can create a physical enviorment that stirs pride in our students. And we can–must–create an ideological environment where students act as one united human family. Let’s keep working on this, teachers!

West meets Midwest: A Collaboration Story

 Even with the huge variety of options that one has as an English teacher, it can still be hard to come up with ways of teaching that can shake adolescents out of their “I don’t care” coma. I mean, let’s be honest: most high school students are far more concerned with showing off and meeting new people than they are concerned about discussing literature. But wait! What if those two were one and the same? Now we’re getting somewhere.

This past October, at the WCTE State Convention, I attended a session that was given by two of my colleagues: “City Mouse Meets Country Mouse, or How Technology Brought our Classrooms Together.” The presentation gave highlights from a really unique collaboration between an urban teacher and a rural teacher in the same state. Both teachers had the same grade level, and one of the same texts. So, they decided to teach it together. They met ahead of time and “synched” their unit so that the same lessons would be taught on the same day to their respective classes. But the most important part of the unit was online book discussion, facilitated by the teachers through Goodreads.com, a social networking site built around books. With a private “room” just for these two schools, students from the city were able to offer their insights on the book, and the rural students could then respond, eventually branching out into full-blown, academic discussion between kids from totally different walks of life. I loved this idea for several reasons: (1) It was just plain cool, (2) It involved teacher collaboration, which I’ve wanted to learn more about, and (3) It gave the students exposure to some new faces, expanding not only their literary horizons, but their social ones as well. We all need to understand each other better, and it starts with common ground. When that common ground is a book, it breathes new life into the idea of  “required reading.”

I was dying to try this in my own classroom, but I wasn’t sure who to collaborate with. I really wanted to expose my students to another class outside of Milwaukee, somewhere that would expand their understanding of the world beyond their own backyard. Most of my friends teach in the city, so I tried to open my brain. Who did I know that taught somewhere… else? Then, it hit me. Of course! My cousin, about 7 years older than I, teaches English at a high school in rural Oregon. Now that’s  far away. I shot off an email, and, lo and behold, she teaches seniors, too. And she liked the collaboration idea.

Over winter break, after Grandma’s delicious Christmas dinner, Ms. W. and I were able to sit down on the couch together, face to face, and create an initial to-do list for a collaborative unit on Zora Neal-Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.  While we still have a couple months of preparation ahead, the cogs are turning and it’s looking like we’re going to be connecting kids not just between a rural setting and an urban one, but over whole regions of the country. I am so excited to give my students the opportunity to discuss a text with some new faces–ones that will seem different at first, but that will inevitably become familiar as they explore the text with other kids all the way across the nation. Wish us luck! You’ll hear more when the unit comes ’round.

Project: Screenplay

I just finished a successful, intriguing, enjoyable unit with my writing lab class, and I’m just busting to share a little bit about the experience, how and why we did it, and the results.

It all began near the end of the persuasive essay unit, when I was glancing ahead to see what else I had scheduled for my writing lab kids. As I perused the syllabus, my eyes swept over the answer: expository writing. I groaned a little inside. We were just wrapping up a research-heavy, academic jargon-heavy, crisp logic-heavy writing project. The thought of assigning some boring, report-like paper about facts seemed just a little too dull for this particular group. [Background: My writing lab kids are my absolute favorite class. They're a mixture of English fail-outs, aspiring authors, English language learners, and "I just took this class for the heck of it" misfits. Coming from grades 10-12, they are a peaceful, curious group who will follow me pretty much wherever I ask them to go as writers. And many of them have major talent. I knew something else was in order.]

So, I created a Writer-Interest Survey with loads of different options for them to pick from for their next unit. We discussed, debated, voted, and debated some more. In the end, screenplay writing (you know, writing scripts for movies) was the clear winner. They really wanted to write their own short film scripts. So I said, “Ok. On Monday, we’ll start learning how to write screenplays.”  Having absolutely no idea how to teach screenplay writing, I knew I had a weekend of research ahead of me. I was blessed enough to stumble upon three fantastic teaching resources for screenplay writing. Using them as my scaffold, I went to town on planning a five-week screenplay unit.

RESOURCE ONE: Good ol’ Google. As it turns out, if you simply type the title of your favorite major motion picture along with the word “screenplay” after it, you can find the full script for most movies out there. [My search query was "Jurassic Park screenplay.] There are many online databases devoted wholly to collecting and making available screenplays that have seen success. Of course, you have to wade through these to find quality samples, since many of these screenplays are reproduced by amateurs. However, when you find a good one, it’s an invaluable resource, especially if you can pair it with the actual film clip.

RESOURCE TWO: Script Frenzy Young Writer’s Program. I discovered something wonderful in my quest for screenplay tips, and that’s Script Frenzy. Apparently, this program is open to all who wish to participate–it’s a challenge to write a complete, 100 page screenplay in the month of April. This is a challenge for adults (more specifically, crazy adults), but there also happens to be a modified program for students that’s accessible all year round, including a complete workbook with really nice teaching supplements. I can’t say enough about how awesome this completely free resource is. Here are two links to get you started:

Click for SCREENPLAY FORMATTING

Click for SCREENPLAY WORKBOOK (HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL)

RESOURCE THREE: Make your own Movie Poster! I also happened upon a fantastic movie poster generator on the web that allowed my kids to create super-cool, authentic looking promotional posters for their screenplays. You have to fiddle around a little bit to get the best results, and only .jpg files can be loaded as the main image, but once those two things are out of the way, students can come up with amazing results. Particularly when they take their own photo with a digital camera or scan in original artwork, the final result looks great. Here’s a sample poster I’ve made for your viewing pleasure… Click on the image for full-view.

Cool, huh? Try it by clicking HERE for the movie poster generator.

As the unit went on, we did all kinds of cool things: character development, realistic dialogue, avoiding cliches, identifying and blending genres, using media skills, applying a specific formatting style, how to construct a satisfying plot, time management, mimicking masters, finding inspiration, and action writing. And the students loved it. Whether they were penning comedies or psychological thrillers, they were all quite “into” their stories. Last weekend I had literally an armful of pages to take home–almost every student had met my daunting ten-page requirement. One boy even made a full-length, amazingly artistic trailer for his film. Some of my favorite film concepts were:

*A crochety old man, denied a discount at McDonald’s, seeks revenge by patronizing other various fast food establishments.

*An imprisoned man develops a close relationship with a fellow inmate as they attempt to make a jailbreak.

*The ghost of a teenager tries to come back to the living world, but only one friend can see him.

*A man struggling with mental illness decides to live his life through the identity of a deceased friend from childhood.

*An exchange student simply can’t handle the irritating antics of his host family.

Once again, I have had proven to me the fact that when students are doing something that they are interested in, they outperform even the highest expectations. During this unit, I wished I was in my own class so that I could do the project. It was so touching to watch them excitedly buzz around each other’s writing, asking “What are you gonna put next?” or “You know what I can picture here? Let me tell you…”  Next time I teach this unit, I might work in an actual film component as well. I highly, highly recommend trying out some screenplay writing. It may not be a very traditional thing to teach, but it makes reaching the state language arts standards as easy and light as a song.

P.s. If you’re in the Milwaukee area, Collaborative Cinema is another cool opportunity related to screenwriting. We had a guest speaker come in from this program, and he was great.

The Caring Classroom

Last week I had the privilege of attending a professional development workshop as part of the PEP grant at my school. I had gone to the first session of the series last year as a student teacher, and it felt good to be back. It was so nice to have a day away from school where I could reflect more completely on my practice and think about what I do that’s successful as well as my areas for improvement.

The workshop was held in the endlessly charming Milwaukee K-12 school Golda Meir–which is an unbelievably remarkable place with, no doubt, the cutest kids in the city. (But I digress). The presentation was led by Laurie Frank, author of the book Journey Toward the Caring Classroom: Using Adventure to Create Community. [You can view an extensive preview of Laurie's book by clicking here.]  I was impressed by her warmth and wisdom.

The seminar focused on techniques and strategies for creating active, brain-based learning using constructivist teaching methods. (Quick review: constructivist means that students and teacher are working together to construct understanding, beginning from what is known and familiar, moving to the generation of ideas and products, then revealing the underlying general concept, and eventually applying that knowledge in practice…)

Much of what we talked about included things I’ve heard of before, but I was newly reminded of how important it is to design instruction that accomplishes a few very important things that are so often overlooked in teachers’ efforts to “get through the content” or even “get through the day.” Some of these important things, which I know that I need to refine, reinforce, and newly commit to are:

*Consciously and transparently building compassion, trust, and open-mindedness into classroom instruction.

*Engaging the senses, including utilizing physical movement in instruction. Allowing a controlled goofiness to occur once in a while.

*Celebrating baby steps, and allowing students to attempt a new strategy multiple times before expecting it to run smoothly.

*Teaching, practicing, and assessing procedures as well as content.

*Reinforcing instruction with hands-on, interactive activities.

*Using brain-research to inform constructivist lessons.

*Realizing that the environment, both within and outside the classroom have a significant impact on student performance.

Talking about all these things set some new teaching ideas swimming about in my head, which was wonderful! But much more wonderful was the heightened sense of commitment I began to feel. Hearing stories from many other educators from the city, I noticed that the theme running through the discussions was that of a sincere devotion to teaching, and a fierce, almost protective, zeal for giving kids the best, safest, and most enjoyable education possible. It pumped me up to get back in the classroom and keep building that community that teachers and students create, piece by piece, hour by hour.

We’ve got a lot of work to do.  Let’s get crackin’!

Adopt-A-Classroom: Share the love!

I just wanted to write a brief note about an organization that I just registered with: Adopt-A-Classroom. It’s a nonprofit organization that allows both private donors and groups to contribute money to classrooms for needs that take a bit of financing. This is an awesome way for any teacher to raise that funding needed for field trip dues that your students can’t meet, a multicultural classroom library, a Smartboard, or anything else you can dream up. Donations are tax-deductible for the donors, and endlessly appreciated by teachers and students. You can pick a specific teacher to donate to (say, me, for instance… ha ha!), or just make a general, anonymous contribution. It’s a very direct way to see the results of your charity–teachers and students give feedback straight to you on how the funds have been spent!

If you’re a teacher, sign up now. If you’re a kind soul who wants to help schools, teachers, and kids, please consider donating either online or by mail. You can do this and learn much more at their website. Click the links below to get started:

Adopt-A-Classroom’s Homepage

Ms. H’s Adopt-A-Classroom Page   <- This one goes straight to me.

Thank you!