Back To School Writing

One of my most successful writing activities is done at the beginning of the school year. My students and I make portfolios about ourselves, explaining our favorite things - food, restaurants, movies, books, people, pets - anything! "My Favorite" Back to School Writing Activity is a compilation of everything I use to implement this in my classroom.


I have finally aligned the project with common core standards and put it on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I hope others find it as rewarding to make with students as I do!

High School English Bulletin Board

Note: A further explanation of this bulletin board is on the language arts classroom, and more ideas for this board are there!

It seems the older the students, the less likely a teacher is to decorate a classroom, or at least change bulletin boards. True, students often focus on more personal issues the older they get, and a high school bulletin board may not be the top of the list. One way I combat this (student interest and my gumption to change those boards!) is by creating a board that students help make.

I've used student work before, as well as their brainstorming ideas, like on note cards or post-it-notes. This year I decided to make a literary term board:

Simple, and easy for students to add examples.

As we cover literary terms, I want students to see literary terms in their everyday lives, in everyday readings and advertisements. Our school gets the newspaper daily, and I often have them scan the pages finding a few examples. I also encourage them to find examples on the Internet. 'Allusion' seems to be the easiest found example, but they will find more along the way:

Allusions: The Catcher in the Rye and Fahrenheit 451. 

I think the students also like the breaks in class to find examples. I've thought about making a "grammar mistake" bulletin board, but I need to think that one through a bit more...

The Hunger Games

Hello Blog Readers!

I apologize that it has been four months since I posted. My teaching job this year is quite challenging, and I have focused most of my time on teaching. (I know you will all understand).

One of the challenges has been creating a unit for The Hunger Games Trilogy.  I love the books, and so do my students. I am trying to incorporate many language arts' aspects into the book and tap into the excitement my students have for it. One way I am doing this is by studying sentence structure, and grammar from Collins' writing. I am putting together a large grammar unit, but until I get it finalized and posted on Teachers Pay Teachers, here is the link for my free activity:

Enjoy!

Sub Plans

My children were both sick the other day, so I had to call into work at my new job for the first time. Luckily, I live close enough to this job that I am able to run up to my classroom and set up plans. They look so tidy:

I think it is also a nice summary of what I am teaching, from left to right:
(my red grade-book)
American Literature
British Literature
That Was Then, This Is Now
Killing Mr. Griffin 
Anne Frank

I also did my sub plans differently than in previous years. At this school (it is tiny - we have 5 teachers total) the teachers take turn covering the classes. I wrote directions on a piece of paper - one  piece of paper per class. It worked well and I hope it was less confusing than a long set of directions would be.

The Chocolate War: Review Day

I recently finished teaching The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. (This was my first time teaching it. I found it to be fabulous young adult literature, with strong anti-bullying themes. My students also liked it).

For fun on review day, this is what greeted my students:

Chocolates in "Trinity" boxes as well as homemade brownies. A sweet treat, for my sweet seniors.

To My Students

I will meet about 40 new students this week!

Dear Students,

I haven't met you yet, but I have prepared to teach you for years. I'm excited for this semester. I probably won't be able to sleep the night before we meet. I never can, 10 years after getting my teaching certificate.

My mind overflows with ideas for readings, activities, and discussions. I want to show you how literature connects the world; everything from societal ills to economic struggles, human triumph to engineering feats - stories hold history lessons, which can then be guides for the future. I want to examine how to manipulate the written word in writing and speech. I want to study the craft that is language arts.

I also want to learn fun and interesting intricacies about you. I want you to share your life with me through writing and connect it to literature. I promise to provide plenty of examples of how literature connects to me.

You will learn that I drink lots of coffee.

I never stop thinking about education and how to influence yours the best I can. The more I learn about teaching, leadership - the monster named education - the more I realize all these outside factors influence you, heavily. More than I can. More than you may want them to weigh on you. More than you may even know.

So I propose that we go into this school year together. I promise to teach you the best I can. I hope you promise to learn the best that you can. If you have those outside influences weighing on you, let me know. Maybe I can help, maybe I can find someone to help you. I will at least try to understand.

I hope that you leave my class believing you got a fair deal - that we worked, but that the workload and your treatment was fair. I will do the best that I can everyday, and I hope you do as well.

Sincerely,

Mrs. M.

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