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!