Headed Down East

We are headed off for five glorious days of relaxation in Bar Harbor! I'll post more about our trip when we get back.

It's been a long time....

I'm sorry about that. Really. But life got the best of me for about 6 months. Now though, things are back to normal. In fact, today, things are wonderful. Why? Because my great-niece, Sophia Elizabeth, was born! Welcome to the world, Sophie!

Catching up...

So things are slowly returning to "normal" after two months of definitely not normal. Dave's last physical therapy session is tomorrow, I am back in school full time, I am almost totally caught up on grading (although I am going to have a little slosh over...mostly to allow the kids time to remediate their essays), and my new grad school class has started. Last night was the first night that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel...and not think that it was an oncoming train.

Maybe that is why I got sick. Sore, scratchy throat, aches, chills...thankfully it's pretty mild right now, and I can still go in to school, but I'm really dragging. I should have never let my guard down!

Beauty in the Winter

We have had a small herd of 7 or 8 deer hanging out by our bird feeders for the past few days.

Winter must be harsh, as they are eating right out of the bird feeders and in the middle of the day. We have put out some dried corn along with carrots, apples and celery and they have loved it. I have loved being able to watch them.


Herd behavior is fascinating. One stands sentry while the others eat. They are young, you can tell that several are yearlings, and they are healthy looking. Dave says that I could eventually get them to eat out of my hand, but I don't want them to get that used to humans. I'll just continue to put out the food and watch them from my window.

Blast from the past

I have been having fun converting old slides to digital images. I am going to put them all together on a DVD for my parents. While going through the slides, I came across this one of me, my sister Susan and our dog, Bootsie. I'm the one reading. Things have not changed that much in the past 38 years. I love this picture. It's so me. I wish I knew what book I was reading so intently. It was probably about horses. Maybe Misty of Chincoteague or maybe The Black Stallion. It could have been a book of fairy tales. Whatever it was, I loved it. And I still do today. It makes me sad that some (or most) of my students don't have this love. And I am hopeful that I might eventually instill some of that love of reading in my students.

The Christmas Picture

Merry Christmas, everyone!
Merry is sitting on Dave's lap, and Pippin is on my lap.

Final Collaboration Reflection

In the end, it worked out well. That is not to say that there were not some bugs and glitches along the way, for there surely were. However, by the end of the unit, most of the students said that they saw a connection between English and Social Studies, so I felt good about that.

My partner Chris also liked having students who had read and understood "Sinners in the hands of an Angry God" while they were working on the First Great Awakening in Social Studies. Requiring the students to include an historical element in each chapter of the graphic novel was another way to forge the connection between English and Social Studies and the students came through with flying colors. Occasionally they needed a little assistance, but for the most part they made the connections easily and on their own.

Chris and I checked in with each other during the unit, but we were not in lockstep with each other. We both trusted that the other would be able to use and build on the schema learned in each class.

A side benefit was that I ended up collaborating with another Social Studies teacher, also named Chris. Most students who take Pre-AP English also take Pre-AP US History, but some don't. However, Chris 2 was also teaching Puritanism at the same time Chris 1 and I were, so it worked out great. He thanked me for teaching that, and said that his kids were getting some of the same benefits that the Pre-AP USH students were getting from the collaboration.

All in all, I feel it was a successful collaboration.

And so, it begins...

Dave heads into CMMC for surgery at 5:45 tomorrow morning. If you have some spare time during the day, send healing thoughts our way. Thank God that Dr. Candia is doing the surgery. He was the surgeon on call 6 years ago when Dave had his brain hemorrhage and we have complete trust and faith in that man and his skills. I'm more anxious than Dave is...he just wants to "git-r-done" in the immortal words of Larry the Cable Guy.

Good News/Bad News

Here's the good news:
Yesterday I got to meet my great-nephew for the first time. His name is Luke. Isn't he cute? He was a very good baby all day, especially when you take into consideration that he was surrounded by 9 people whom he did not know...and my family can be a bit...exuberant. But I got to see him and hold him and talk to him and it was a really nice day.

Bad news?
2009: The Year of Surgery continues. This time it's Dave. He needs surgery on a herniated disc in his neck. (A piece of good news in the bad news is the surgeon who did his brain surgery during and after his stroke will be doing this surgery!) So I will be out of school for about two weeks because Dave will need someone home with him as he recovers. Someone who can drive and get him things. And that would be me.

However, we are playing around with technology and I will be Skyping into my classes to conduct discussions and check in on my students. I have set up a Skype buddy in each class, and I will be projected on the big screen via the LCD projector. Pretty darn cool, huh? My kids and I are excited about it. Even my principal thinks it's a cool idea. We'll see how it works! I'm looking forward to the experiment, but not the cause.

Student Projects!

My student projects are completed and the kids did even better than I had hoped they would! Some of the pages (like the one above by Cam, Ayla and Alex) are extraordinary. Most kids enjoyed the project and said that it helped them better understand Scarlet Letter. Most also said that they enjoyed learning how to use a new program like ComicLife. However, because of delays in getting our laptops, this unit took longer than I thought it would. I hope to be able to catch up since we have a lot more curriculum to get through!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

I love Dory (from the Disney/Pixar movie Finding Nemo). She is my role model for this year. I have a poster of her near my desk, reminding me to "just keep swimming." No matter what is going on this year, I just need to keep moving forward.

I have taken on a lot this year: I am department head, I am teaching 6 courses (for the first time in 19 years of teaching), of those courses, three are new, I am continuing my grad school work (which is frustrating because I am having trouble collecting data), and I am trying to still have a personal life and spend time with Dave and my family.

So when I feel overwhelmed (which is pretty much all the time right now), I remind myself of Dory and I "just keep swimming." Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't, but I just keep moving on.

Reading...is it really that hard?

I had my senior writing students read "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe. I read this when I was in 7th or 8th grade. I didn't think twice about it, really, but the kids complained that it was hard to understand. These are all kids who are planning on going to college! I was shocked. Poe is not that difficult, and "Cask," though it does feature an unreliable narrator, is not hard to understand. I have no idea what they would do if I threw "The Yellow Wallpaper" at them, so now I am looking around for some simpler short stories.

Am I wrong though? I am questioning a few things.
First, is the writing of Poe that obtuse? Perhaps I need an objective viewpoint on this.
Secondly, shouldn't I be challenging these kids with more difficult readings, since they will soon be faced with far more trying assignments in college?
I would really love some feedback!

Blogs and Senior Writing

I've just been inspired to have my senior writing students create blogs which would be used much like an online journal. I'll have them use the blogs for free-writes and also for quick write topics that I give them. I'll keep a few "starter topics" on hand for kids who "don't know what to write about." I just have to wait until they all get their computers, but that should be soon. Since I only have 9 kids in that class, it should be easy to keep on top of the blogging. Now I need a blog grading rubric! Anyone know of one?

Today, I love technology!

Finally, success! I have a very small Mythology class (only 5 kids) and three of them were absent today. Fortunately, I had just finished setting up their wikispace (with Amity's help) and I had a project ready to roll. Both of the students in the class had their laptops (hurrah!) and they were able to sign on to the wiki and get to work. And it went great! Both of them were totally engaged with looking up their gods and goddesses and putting information on the wiki. Now, if only my sophomores would get their laptops...

Here's a link to their wiki. Reminder that it's a work in progress!

Tech-frustration

So, I go to show my wordle today to my sophomores and what happens? The applet won't load. I can see other wordles, but I can't show mine. I try to quickly make a new one. Same problem. I use Safari instead of Firefox. Same problem. So, like any good teacher, I had to drop that idea and go quickly to something different. Something non-technology based.

Also, our students don't have their laptops yet and probably won't until October. That's not too far away, but much of what I want to do, I can't do, because I don't have the technology. This also has a bearing on my grad school project, since much of it was developed with using technology in mind.

I know it will get better eventually. My problem is I want eventually to be RIGHT NOW!

What I did on my summer vacation...

These are some of the many YA Lit books I read this summer. What an enjoyable course! Basically, I got to sit around on my couch reading all summer. And what better way to spend a mostly rainy summer? I was introduced to the concept of booktalks and my final project was a unit plan (planned with UbD!) for The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I simply can't wait to teach this during this coming school year!

Because it's funny and I had to....

see more dog and puppy pictures

So will our students start using this as an excuse now?

A legacy

Dave and I have no children. That was a choice and we do not regret it. However, I have about 75 to 100 "kids" a year. Many of them are trying at times, but I love working with them. Some of them, though, become very special to me.

A case in point is the young woman in the picture above. I had her in one or another of my classes for four years. I directed her in plays. We became close. So close that she once inadvertently called me "mama." I loved that.

She became an English teacher, and just this week got her Master's degree (with honors) from the City College of New York. She wrote the following to me after I sent her my congratulations and told her how proud I was of her. "Thank You Ms. Doughty! I had an amazing time :) And thanks for being the best English teacher ever and inspiring me to be a pretty darn good one myself :)"

That's a pretty good legacy, if I do say so myself.

The Leadership Role

I don't often think of myself as a leader. In fact, I generally prefer to be the "power behind the throne" as it were. If I lived in the past, I might be a court adviser, but I would never be the ruler. So I find myself in an odd position when it comes to the leadership role.

I prefer to lead by example. I do not want to push change on people, but when I see an option for using technology to "work smarter," I mention it. For example, our family and consumer sciences teacher was doing a unit called "From Steer to Steak." She had typed out and photocopied a collection of links for students to use while researching this subject. I happened to run into her in the teacher's room and I asked her about it. I said, "You know, you could put all these links on a wikispace and then the student's could just sign on and click the links." She was immediately intrigued and we made a date for me to come down and show her how to set up a wikispace. Some teachers have been receptive to this, others have not.

In addition, I have found that, come the fall, I will be the Department Head for the English Department at MVHS. I'm a little nervous. I know that I will be able to keep things organized and on track for the most part. I love to plan and organize. However, I will now be in the vanguard, no hiding behind others. It's a little nervewracking for me. But this is another examle of "working smarter." I love our current department head, but he will be the first one to admit that he is a bit...scattered. I love to organize and plan, so I think that I will be able to do a better job about keeping the department informed about what I call "administrivia." I also want to keep pushing technology. During this course, I have found so many wonderful sites that help teachers "work smarter, not harder." I hope my department members may find them useful.

Stage 3--Collaboration

I met with Chris to discuss stage 3 and I showed him all of my stage 3 work. He was impressed with the variety of assessments that I was planning on using. Much of our conversation centered around trying to access all varieties of learning styles in one assessment.

I explained what Dr. Grace had said about the different learning styles and I also mentioned how I found myself thinking more creatively about assessments when I had to utilize and incorporate all the different learning styles in a single assessment piece.

Chris is more of a lecture/Socratic seminar kind of guy, but he also devises many activities and assessments that contain different projects that the students can choose. We spent some time discussing this and I emphasized that this student choice was a great thing as students could play to their strengths and choose projects that were of interest to them.

We also discussed the fact that, when given choice, many students tend to still choose the traditional paper and pencil (or in this day and age, word processing) kind of assessments. I gave him an example of my recent Lord of the Flies assessment. Students could choose to have their assessment be an essay, poster, PowerPoint, iMovie or other product. However, 99% chose to do a traditional essay. We talked about why that might be, and how we might encourage our students to think outside the box.

I left the templates for Chris, after I explained how to use them. We worked together on filling out the first one, and he, when he had some more free time, was going to work on the rest. This is a very busy time of year for Chris, since he is also, in addition to his many other duties, Senior class advisor. I did not want to overburden him.