One Grade - One Book Update #4

The book project was a well received by the Roehm 8th grade students and their families.  I appreciated the fact that so many families were willing to participate in the reading of Touching Spirit Bear, and work through the packet to support and check their understanding of the novel.  Below are a couple of links from one of the 8th grade families reading time.

Family Reads #1

Family Reads #2

Once the book had been read we readied as a school to welcome author of Touching Spirit Bear, Ben Mikaelsen.  Mr. Mikaelsen talked to our students about becoming the author of their lives, and how to develop characters and be descriptive in their writing, during two writing workshop presentations. His author presentation talked about how he was bullied throughout his life and as a result became a bullying himself.  However, he described in detail for us what saved him from a life of bullying and harassment, both as a bully and target, his writing and his love for animals.  Overall, 300+ students had the opportunity to listen to and meet Mr. Mikaelsen.  He ended his day with us by signing the students copies of Touching Spirit Bear.  It was most certainly an exciting day for our students and staff. 

One Grade - One Book Update #3

We're past the half way point of our family literacy component for the One Grade, One Book project.  It's been a pleasure getting to know the families through the "Check Your Understanding" comprehension questions that the students turn in every week.  For example, one student went so far in one answer to record how each family member responded.  I appreciate the fact that the entire family is a part of this project, including the student, his mother and father, and his older brother.  What a great time spent together as a family.

As we approach the end of the family piece, we are beginning the classroom one.  Our students have been introduced to several databases to use for their research paper, and will begin researching early next week.  The final pieces to our project will come after testing week and will include a visit from the author of Touching Spirit Bear, Ben Mikaelsen; the creation of anti-bullying public service announcements; participating in "Challenge Day"; sponsoring a "PINK OUT"/anti-bullying pledge signing day; and creating a new committee at Roehm to make sure the progress they started will continue into the 2011-2012 school year.

Before spring break, the students packed a souvenir bag for Ellen DeGeneres, and WKYC, education reporter, Kim Wheeler and mailed them.  We are still waiting to hear back from them. 

Here are some pictures from our project.

Packing the souvenir bags

 Packing the bags #2

 The bag sent to Ellen

One Grade, One Book... Project Update #2

The 8th grade is less than a week away from kicking off our, One Grade, One Book Family Literacy/Project Based Learning Project.  It's hard to believe something that began in August, with the writing of a grant, is about to officially launch on March 14th.

The past couple of months have been spent securing the souvenir bags and its contents through the ordering of various commemorative items.  The bags will be stuffed with a personal copy of the novel, Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen, a silicon bracelet with the project based learning project motto - "we're not gonna take it", and a packet of helpful notes and questions to guide the students and their families through the reading process.  There is an active Moodle page, devoted to this project for students and their families, and a Facebook group.  A couple of sample t-shirts for our "PINK OUT" culminating activity, have been ordered and delivered.

Finally, we present our project in its entirety to our 8th grade parents/guardians on Thursday, March 10 @ 7:00PM.  There is a sense of excitement amongst the staff as we work together to give our 8th grade students a memorable last year at Frederick Roehm Middle School.

One Grade - One Book Update #1

When I set out to begin blogging - I thought no problem I can put a couple new posts out a week and keep everyone in the loop about the happenings in Room 210.  HA - what a fool I was!  It's been a couple of months since my last post.  I guess it's not that easy once the school year picks up and shifts into high gear. 

I'm happy to report the year is flying by and as an 8th grade we are approaching some pretty exciting times.  The students turned in their high school course selection sheets on Friday.  Today we began our third week of the second semester, and the 8th grade is about to embark on a project based learning adventure.  Our 8th grade PBL includes a family literacy component, and multiple mini-research projects on a very important topic - bullying.  The ultimate goal/objective of this project is to have our current 8th grade students leave a little gift to next year's Roehm Raptors in the form of a board of education approved anti-bullying policy. 

Next year, Frederick Roehm Middle School will be a 5-8 building.  In order to ease the minds of parents/guardians who will be sending their child/children to Roehm, we have decided to take a proactive, hands-on approach to make sure our building is a welcoming environment where children can "achieve dreams they never imagined possible."

The first of several project presentations was given this morning to the 8th grade E/LA department, and Roehm's leadership team.  Tomorrow evening the project will be presented to Roehm's PTA, and Wednesday morning to the rest of the 8th grade team.  By the end of this week I hope all major participants are on board with this important and unique opportunity.  It is my plan to use this blog as place to post updates on the projects progress.  This will be a major learning opportunity for all participants.

30 - 31 - 32...36!? Student Class

My last post discussed my 2010-2011 classroom goals - go paperless, accelerate student achievement, and encourage students to become published writers.  I read an interesting article about class size from the latest issue of NCTE Inbox, and I'd like to talk about this as it relates to accelerating student achievement.

So, how many is too many?  According to the NCTE Class Size Guideline for secondary classrooms a maximum of 20 students per class and no more than 80 throughout the day.  I realize districts are up against a wall when it comes to class size, finances, and staffing, but as a teacher I ask the question, can I truly accelerate student achievement with a class of 36?   According to NCTE, no I cannot.  However, they address the fact that a reduced class size isn't a complete fix to boost student achievement, effective ongoing professional development is necessary, too.  I encourage anyone who reads this blog to take a look at the above link from NCTE.  The state of Florida class size rule is pushing students towards on-line courses, in order to fulfill high school graduation requirements.  Is that really the route we want to go?  I understand this is not a problem unique to me, or my classroom, but the guidelines provided from the National Council of Teachers of English are a great starting point to begin to address this serious, but sometimes overlooked issue.

In closing, I could certainly handle those above recommedations quite nicely, and while I'm blogging, could I get a block of time (80-90 minutes) to teach English/Language Arts?  I just thought I'd ask.

Technology and Room 210, a Love-Hate Relationship

So, week two of the school year is under my belt and I must say it has been a great start.  I've enjoyed getting to know my students and beginning our journey to become literary and written scholars.  This school year I've set several goals for myself and my classroom:

1. Go paperless (as much as possible)
2. Accelerate student achievement (borrowed from district goals)
3. Provide opportunities and encourage my students to become published writers

In my next three posts, I will be discussing how each of these goals is going so far.  Goal #1 is to go paperless in my classroom.  So far, this is not going as smoothly as I had hoped.  My plan for the first few days of school was to set-up all of the accounts for the online resources we would be using.  In order to do that my students needed an email address.  I had this great idea to have students set-up a professional (or student) email account through Gmail to help with this.  Not only would this allow us to create the rest of our accounts, but it would also open the door to begin discussing digital responsibility and citizenship.  This discussion began with choosing appropriate user names for accounts that are tied to our places of work (in the case of my students - school).  However, for a couple of days Gmail didn't cooperate with us, and only one class was able to successfully create their email accounts.  Another day our network was down which caused me to have to resort to "Plan B".  I assigned the students homework to create the account at home and I am happy to report that many did  that and were successful.  I think come Tuesday, we will be ready to go with the other resources. 

Unfortunately, these technology issues caused me to have to make paper copies, which I am totally trying to avoid.  However, I am confident that once these accounts are set-up we will be able to move on to a "green" classroom, which excites all of us.

Technology is a wonderful thing, but it is also your worst enemy when it doesn't cooperate.  However, part of being a teacher is maintaining that sense of flexibility when things do not go as planned. 

Teachers and Students Friends Online

So, summer is just about over.  Many hours have been spent getting my classroom together.  Last night I met several of my students and their families at Open House and I'm gearing up for a new year.  In fact, I'm looking quite forward to the 2010-2011 school year.

Tuesday morning, before I leave for my first day of school with students, I'll post a status update wishing all of my Facebook friends, who are beginning high school and college, well.  Yes, you read that correctly, I have accepted "friend requests" on Facebook from former students.  I NEVER ask to be "a friend", but if a FORMER student does request my friendship on Facebook, I accept it.

There is a big debate out there as to whether or not this is appropriate behavior.  I recently read an article, (Should students 'friend' teachers online?) published in the August 10, 2010 issue of the Chicago Tribune, regarding this very issue.  It raises some very interesting questions and does a fine job of establishing both sides of the argument.  As a fan of technology, including all the hardware, software, and Web 2.0 tools, I support the "friending" of students, because ultimately I'm looking to extend the school day past the final bell.  If I can accomplish that goal by embracing technology/social networking, I'm going to do just that.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I'm entrusted to teach 100+ students each day for 180+ days - I'd like to think I can make good decisions when it comes to using these new tools in a safe,  appropriate, and instructional way.

I leave you with this final thought - a teacher could close the door to his/her classroom everyday of the school year, and I, you, we the public, would have no idea what was going on in there, and most likely we wouldn't question it, either.  However, today we live in a day and age where our teaching and learning can be transparent, we finally have a window into the classrooms.

Where do you want your son/daughter to be - a closed classroom door each day, or a room with a view?