tom kim

I just came back from Wittenberg, a play by David Davalos being premiered at the Arden Theater.

This is the marketing synopsis of the play:

Set during late October of 1517, this smart, sprightly and audacious battle of wits features university colleagues Dr. Faustus (a man of appetites), Martin Luther (a man of faith), and their student Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark (a youth struggling not only with his beliefs but also with his tennis game). Playwright David Davalos brings us the story behind the stories in a highly entertaining and accessible exploration of reason versus faith, starring Scott Greer as Faustus and Greg Wood as Luther.

It looked interesting enough for me to go, but I didn’t have particularly high expectations for it. I’ve had bad experiences with first-run productions, and despite the play being billed as a comedy, I was afraid it might be a little high-falutin’ and staid.

Boy was I wrong. It’s an extremely clever and smartly funny piece of work. If anything, it can come off as a little too clever and precious at times, wink-winking every five seconds or so. Nevertheless, I had a really great time and never felt even slightly drowsy over the two hour period.

I was also impressed because I had naturally assumed the playwright had a pretty good understanding of Hamlet and Dr. Faustus, but I was skeptical how deep a knowledge he had of Martin Luther and his theology. I’d have to say, however, that his portrayal of Luther’s apologetics was very fair. I’d encourage all of my friends, both sinners and saints, to go see it and, one might hope, discuss it with one another.

I feel like things are at Defcon 3 right now. Maybe Defcon 4. I’m sick and don’t really feel like doing anything but vegging and sleeping right now. My house is crowded with guests, one of whom smokes like a chimney. Every time I get within 10 feet of him I feel like my throat is singeing.

The end of the trimester is around the corner, and I’m allowing my grading inbox to pile up when I should really be aggressively whittling it down. I feel anxious that I’m not giving certain families enough of a heads up how their child is or is not progressing in my class.

My email is also going unread, and I’m not make the preparations I need to for major projects coming ahead.

I feel like I’m struggling not to run this ship into the ground.

Last week my neighbors invited me to join them in listening to a guest speaker at their child’s school. As I walked into the gymnasium where he was speaking, I knew I had heard his spiel once before, as a faculty message at my own school.

Michael Thompson is known for his books on child psychology and development, including Raising Cain and The Pressured Child. Indeed, his talk was about the Pressured Child and how parents needed to step out of their careerist schema of school to consider how their children saw and approached school. He gave some very effective illustrations on how mind-numbing and oppressive the school schedule is (“Would you accept a job that doubled your salary but required you to sit through six meetings led by other people every day?”) and how most kids don’t bother competing academically (“After a couple of years, it becomes clear to everyone which two or three people in the class have a chance at becoming valedictorian at the end.”)

He argues that what kids are interested in is development — growing up. As Seinfeld has said in one of his stand-up routines, kids are all about “up.” They want to get bigger, faster, more independent, more cool, more popular, more respected. Makes sense to me — and it’s something that I probably ought to keep in mind as I consider how I can corral my students’ attentions.

Thompson compared school to a long hike — like the Appalachian Trail — something that any able-bodied person is able to do, though at varying speeds, wills, and temperaments. Only a few relish the experience; they have, as he puts it, good fitting shoes. What parents need to know, he stressed, was that they could never fully understand what that experience is like for their children — that the most they could hope is to stand a quarter-step behind their kids along the journey.

He ended his talk by suggesting that parents should gauge whether their children are receiving three things from somewhere in their school: connection, recognition, and a sense of mastery. Beyond advocating for those, he argues, parents can’t, and shouldn’t, do much more.

What’s interesting is just before my neighbors called me up to invite me over to Michael Thompson’s lecture, I was looking at the following trailer for the documentary, Two Million Minutes:

And now you have the strongly persuasive message that our children are not pressured enough, that Michael Thompson’s position is a luxurious one from a position of isolated privilege — a position that seems more and more delusional as the rest of the world claws its way faster and faster to overtake America’s first-world status.

This is a very real tension that I constantly face, both as a teacher, and as a new parent. One side holds up in empathy the interior experience of the individual. It argues for an ecumenical valuation of skills and strengths that defies clear-cut standards of achievement. It prioritizes, instead, holistic well-being and happiness.

The other side holds up the consequences of social expectations and marketplace competitions. It stresses the conformity needed to practically convert private assets to public value. It acknowledges the obeisance one must give to political reality, and prioritizes strategic mobility within that reality.

Overemphasize one side, and one is in danger of coddling children past granularities of meaning and fostering resignation or entitlement to their station in life. Overemphasize the other, and one risks a soulless oppression that encourages cynical ambition.

Framing this dilemma as a tension between two sides makes it sound like what is needed is balance, a compromise. Make sure our schools don’t neglect standards and a commitment to excellence. At the same time, make sure they remain flexible and empathetic to individual student needs. That sort of thing.

Upon reflection, though, I don’t think that’s right. What we have here is not so much a spectrum, but a prism — these two positions are different facets of the same problem. Consider how they both express an anxiety about “the other”. One position ignores it, distancing itself from the systemic inequality and suffering that it is ultimately the beneficiary of. The other position fears it and actively works to maintain that very system. Both are working from a position of self-interest and self-absorption — or, more kindly, self-preservation. One can see why illegal immigration is such a thorny issue in America right now.

As the son of immigrants I remember constantly being goaded to work harder, study more, get better grades. I was pressured to go to the right college and get into the right profession. I remember thinking that my parents just didn’t get America — at least the America I was observing and experiencing. I could see for myself that success wasn’t necessarily achieved in one dogmatic dimension. I got the notion that one might achieve more success simply by following one’s bliss, that with a little luck and hustle everyone ends up all right. I wonder now if we both missed the point. What do I tell my own child?

What I’m most thankful for this Thanksgiving: Elijah Jae-Duk Kim, my firstborn, and Dana, my wife.

MON: Parent-Teacher Conferences; Pop Quiz;

The week began with parent-teacher conferences which took up the entire morning on Monday. I feel very fortunate that all of my conferences went very smoothly.

Because of the conferences, all the class periods were effectively halved. The 7th graders had just enough time for a pop quiz and for me to hand out and explain a homework assignment in which they interview their parents about their feelings about arranged marriages.

I gave the 8th graders new seating assignments and we had a brief discussion of The Secret Life of Bees revolving around — what else? — the essential questions.

TUE: QALI DRAWINGS

My school is hosting a juried art show all week long and the upper school art teacher who is organizing it has invited all the middle school English classes to come take a look. Therefore, all week long I’ve devoted half of my hour-block classes to visit the art show. I didn’t have anything terribly creative or relevant planned for these classes as they perused for half an hour, but it was a welcome respite for all to just get out of the classroom and see something different.

I only had my 7th graders today. Thinking of the juried art show, I gave them an assignment where they were sketch out their own qalis, rugs that represented who they were and where they came from. A little busy-worky, but the kids seemed to like doing something personal and artistic.

WED: QUOTES ON BLOGS; MEMOIRS PROJECT INTRO

Today I decided to give all my classes a heads-up about my paternity leave absence and what they should expect for the first half of the next trimester. I told them that I expected them to take turns writing once a week on their blogs and to comment on their classmates’ blogs when it wasn’t their turn to write. I also gave them some blog homework to practice that routine.

For my 7th graders, I had one person on their table pick a quote from the night’s reading. The rest of their table had to discuss the importance/significance of that quote. We also reviewed for the vocabulary quiz that they were going to take tomorrow.

For my 8th graders, I formally introduced the memoirs project and discussed the in-class essay that was going to wrap up The Secret Life of Bees.

THUR: VOCAB QUIZ; LETTER TO SELF

The 7th graders took their vocab quiz today. After their quiz, I gave them a quick tutorial on how to sign up for and subscribe to blogs using an RSS reader.

I did another memoir vignette exercise with my 8th graders today: the letter to your future self. I gave each student a piece of paper and an envelope. They were to write a letter to themselves that they would read and respond to at the end of the year. I assured them that I myself would not read their letters and that they could write whatever they wanted to themselves. I gave them these possible suggestions, though:

• A set of goals and resolutions
• A reflection on their time in middle school
• Advice to follow for the year
• A description of their current situation and state of mind at the beginning of the year

The 8th graders responded really positively and enthusiastically to this assignment. I followed it up with a homework assignment designed to begin our review of The Secret Life of Bees: I assigned pairs of students chapters to review. For their chapter they were to, on the wiki, copy the bee quote that prefaced the chapter and summarize the major plot points of that chapter.

FRI: Riddle Contest; Personal Symbols

We ended the week in 7th grade with a riddle-exchange with the other 7th grade classes. The day before I e-mailed my co-worker five of the best riddles from each class and got back, in return, five riddles from each of her classes. I presented her classes’ riddles to my classes, and we spent the class period trying to guess them.

In addition to their reading homework for the weekend, I asked my 7th graders to finish their qali drawings.

I collected signatures from my 8th grade classes regarding the memoirs project. We then reviewed the wiki, and I tried to show how the bee quotes reflected the major plot turns in each chapter. This turned into an involved discussion of the personal symbols used throughout the book: mothers, bees, and the Virgin Mary.

One thing I forgot to mention in Week 8: On Friday, I set up a table on the wiki for the 8th graders to come sign up and meet with me for a personal conference on their Williamsburg paper. Not everyone did, but I guess that’s okay.

MON: Etymology of words & Secret Life of Bees, Ch. 3-4

My 7th grade classes got a titillating lecture on etymology. I started off talking about what etymology means and briefly looking at the etymology of the word “etymology” itself. I then took a look at the etymology of the word “musk”. I explained that musk is a substance that has a distinctive smell that used to be very common in perfumes. In contemporary usage it refers to similar substances or similar smells (I mentioned Tag and Axe body colognes as examples they could relate to). I showed them how they could use a collegiate or unabridged dictionary to get a detailed etymology of the word and then showed them how they could also use online dictionaries such as Answer.com or Merriam-Webster Online.

I showed them how “musk” came into English usage in the late 14th century and how it had a history of derivation starting from Middle English all the way back to Old Persian. I discussed how we could infer the spread of the word through history by looking at these derivations. We took a more detailed look at the etymology using Etymonline, a really great online reference. It seems that the Persian word meant “testicles” (giggles) and that it was related to their word for “mouse” because that’s what they thought testicles resembled (guffaws). Yes, it was low-brow and gross but the students quickly agreed when I said that understanding a word’s etymology not only provided an interesting history lesson but also an aid to remembering the meaning of a word.

I then assigned each student one or few words to look up the definition and etymology to as homework. They were to post their findings on their blog. They, of course, also had two chapters of reading: 12-13.

My 8th graders began class with a pop quiz. I then passed back a number of assignments I had been holding. We then talked about how the novel refers to historical events such as the Birmingham Bombing. We talked about the use of bees, mothers, and the virgin mary as symbols throughout the book. We talked about how Lily both yearned for a place to belong but also seemed to resist it as she lied to August about her situation. I don’t know if it’s me or the class in general, but there’s a general malaise that’s infecting the class. I’m being very testy and the class is being very uppity.

I assigned them chapter 5 to read for homework.

TUE: Vocabulary, Cont. & In-class reading

I gave out a sheet of paper that had all the vocabulary words on it to my 7th graders. It had a column for each word’s part of speech, definition, original language, and original definition. The students had to collaborate with their classmates to fill in the sheet completely.

While they were doing that I started calling over each student one by one and asking them to give me their blog addresses so that I had a list of every student’s blog. I finished class by announcing they had three more chapters to read for homework: 14-16.

My 8th grade class got another pop quiz. I’m starting to dread this class. Dana, my wife, is noting that I seemed happier last year. I don’t think it’s the class itself per se — there’s a lot of personal stuff going on that I’m shoving under the rug — but this class is bringing out the worst in me. I threatened to keep giving them pop quizzes until they shaped up.

They had two chapters to read for homework (6-7). To ease their burden, I gave them the hour block to read in class while I took down their blog addresses as I did with my 7th grade classes. Of course, there was a lot of chit chatting going on, and I got fed up. I threatened those who were talking with a written homework assignment: three paragraphs describing the three Boatwright sisters, respectively.

The problem with threats is that they’re often all bark, no bite. You wave a stick and hope you don’t have to use it. God knows the last thing I need is a bunch more papers to grade. But I knew I had to bite today, let the class know that I’m crabby enough to be mean — that I wanted a different tone in the classroom — if not more respectful then at least more fearful. At the end of class about five students ended up getting the homework assignment. They weren’t happy, and I wasn’t happy, but it came to that.

WED: Vocabulary; Personal Symbol Assignment

I spent the 7th grade periods going over the classwork assignment from the day before. Most of the students did the work, but I thought it was worth everybody having consistent, accurate information that they could study from for their vocabulary quiz.

My Block 1 class, which had a drop block yesterday, complained that they didn’t know that I expected them to stick to the reading schedule even when there wasn’t any class. Given that it was Halloween, I didn’t assign any more reading for homework.

My 8th grade class was a little more sober today. We started with a pop quiz and then discussed a writing assignment that my co-worker came up with. I kind of regret resorting to that assignment in class. The timing is off; I don’t want to bring up any writing while the students’ Williamsburg paper is still hanging over their heads. But I didn’t think and went with it. I had them brainstorm a symbol that represented themselves. I didn’t assign any reading, but had them post a picture of their symbol on their blog. Eventually they’ll start a memoir vignette based on that symbol, but I might hold off on that until later.

THUR: Anahita’s Suitors; SLOB Discussion

The 7th grade classes started with a pop quiz. It seems to make sense with Anahita’s Woven Riddle that they get pop quizzes after every section of the book since there’s several such sections and each one seems to have a theme of some sort. These pop quizzes not only enable me to check that everyone’s reading but also gives me an opportunity to use the quiz to review several chapters worth of reading.

The class discussion revolved around Anahita’s suitors and how they might represent different traits or aspects of her culture. We ended with a quick animated debate over who would end up winning Anahita’s hand in marriage. They were then assigned chapters 17-18 to read for homework.

I didn’t give my 8th graders a pop quiz to reward them for their behavior the day before. Instead we started class with a brainstorming of descriptive properties of their personal symbol. I really wish I hadn’t brought up this assignment when I did. I might just silently kill it and bring it up again later.

We had another class discussion about the novel. The essential questions are a good framework for structuring these discussions, but I’m starting to feel like I’m using them too much as a crutch. The discussions seem lifeless; I feel like I’m going through the motions. I really need to be reading the book along with my students. I need more time!

I assigned them chapter 8 to read for homework

FRI: RSS Feeds; Group Notes

I spent my 7th grade classes showing them how to subscribe to RSS feeds on Bloglines and Google Reader. I re-emphasized the distinction between doing things the “official” way and the “un-official” way — something my 8th graders don’t seem to get.

The 7th graders seem to follow along okay, but I think I really should keep putting tech tutorials on video — students really seem to utilize them to go through the process step-by-step.

I told my 8th grade classes that I worried that no one was taking notes. As a result, I gave each table group a poster-sized piece of paper and some colored markers. I then assigned each table group one of the essential questions. They were to write as many notes on that question as they could. Later on, as the activity started to wane, I directed each person in each table group to find a unique quote relevant to their question and add it onto their paper.

It was a good exercise. Students were involved (my classes are getting too passive and I’m talking too much) and some valuable review got accomplished.

We started the week with an extended weekend to write mid-tri comments.

MON: Day off (Mid-tri comments)

TUE: Riddles

I started Anahita’s Woven Riddle with a pop quiz. I used to give a lot more of these pop quizzes earlier on in the school year last year, but I guess I was too wrapped up in the tech stuff this year to do so. What’s great about giving a number of these pop quizzes, though, is that it definitely motivates kids to keep up with the reading schedule, and it immediately singles out the kids early on that are not reading.

After the quiz we parsed the riddle Anahita poses to her father in the first chapter and came up with a simple formula to make a similar riddle: give an obvious clue (about a property of the answer), a not-so-obvious clue, and a metaphorical clue (based on a metaphorical view of the answer).

I gave them chapters 3-4 for reading homework.

The 8th graders had a drop block today.

WED: Essential Questions

I started the 7th grade classes by having each table group come up with a riddle based on yesterday’s formulation. As they came to an agreement about their riddle, I had them write the riddles on the board and then had the entire class try to guess at the riddles. The formula we came up with actually held up pretty well, and I was surprised at how good some of these riddles were.

We then took a moment to review the characters we’ve encountered so far in the book. We also took a look at the essential questions for the book. Using the general essential questions for the year, I try to tailor more specific ones for each book we read. The idea is to give these questions ahead of time so that students know what in particular to pay attention to as they read. It gives some guidance for active reading and some clues as to how I’ll frame essay questions later on. A good idea might be to give students bookmarks with the questions printed on them.

I’m a bit of a dilemma about how helpful I should be in helping my students organize their knowledge about the books we read. On the one hand, I could follow my instincts from the beginning of the year and have my students form an extensive reference on the wiki, outlining each character and plot point. I suppose that could be a good model of the kind of notes they should be taking as they read, but it also could be a good excuse not to read at all. I kind of dropped the wiki idea for now.

For homework, I had the students read chapters 5-6 and post a riddle of their creation on their blogs.

As for my eighth grade classes, we also went over the essential questions for their new book, The Secret Life of Bees. The first chapter of the book, which they should have read, is a long one and stages the rest of the book, so it was good to cover the essential questions when we did. We also did a vocabulary refresher to help them prepare for their vocabulary quiz tomorrow.

THUR: Suitor Portraits; Vocab Quiz #2

We did a fun art activity in the 7th grade classes today. The past several chapters in Anahita’s Woven Riddle has been devoted to profiling each of Anahita’s potential suitors, so I assigned each table group one of the suitors (one of the tables did Anahita herself) and had them:

1. find descriptions and characteristics of that suitor in their respective chapter and
2. draw the suitor on a large poster-sized paper.

For homework they have to read three more chapters: 7-9.

My 8th graders had a vocabulary quiz today. After the quiz we went over the five major sentence patterns, and I hinted that we would learn how to diagram sentences later on in the school year. The sentence patterns we went over are found at http://www.io.com/~hcexres/textbook/twsent.html:

1. S + V
2. S + LV + Subject-Complement
3. S + V + DO
4. S + V + IO + DO
5. S + V + DO + Object-Complement

For homework, I had them read the next chapter (2) in The Secret Life of Bees. Last year I had a less intense reading schedule for my 8th graders, but I’m looking over the amount of time we have before the end of the trimester, and it looks like it’s going to have to be pretty much a chapter a night if we’re going to finish the book in time.

FRI: The Dating Game; 8th Grade Blog Feeds

Picking up from yesterday’s activity, our class role-played the Dating Game using Anahita and her suitors. It was a fun activity, but it reminded me again how great it would be if I did some effective improv drama activities with my classes.

We had a relatively forgettable discussion, and then I assigned chapters 10-11 to read for homework.

My 8th graders went back to the computer lab to learn how to subscribe to RSS feeds using Bloglines. More chaos and frustration. I’m starting to hear a lot of bitching and moaning about the blogs. Hmmmm.

Doesn’t help that we’re plowing through the reading while they’re deep in the throes of their Williamsburg project. Must remember to do a less involving book during this time period next year. They had to read chapters 3-4 over the weekend (chapter 3 is short).

I announced on the blog over the weekend that I was going to accept the final drafts of the 8th grade Alchemist paper on Wednesday, not Monday. A couple of students still turned their papers in on Monday, but most seemed to appreciate the extra time.

MON: Of Mice and Men Skits; Paolo Coelho article

Monday and Tuesday were devoted to videotaping the 7th grade skits for Of Mice and Men. I was a little disappointed in the results; most of the kids read their scripts in a monotone, only perfunctory attempts at costumes and props were made, many of the scenes went on much too long. Part of the problem seemed to be that the kids sensed that this was a half-baked idea which only warranted a quick and dirty effort. Part of the problem seemed to be that kids were simply not used to performing. I really need to get my act together and put together some improv exercises for students to do.

Over the weekend I finally borrowed A Universal History of Infamy by Jorge Luis Borges and xeroxed the “Tale of Two Dreamers” — the short story that inspired Coelho to write The Alchemist. I also xeroxed a New Yorker profile on Paolo Coelho to read in class.

I guess I was thinking that I was going to make one more effort to communicate my problems with The Alchemist by showing how Coelho differed from Borges’ original story and by showing how Coelho himself is troublingly egocentric. Instead, I ended up boring, if not confusing, my students to tears.

TUE: Class Essay Discussion; Blogs

My co-worker came up with this idea of a class essay. She wanted to do some expository writing for Of Mice and Men and decided one way to ease into it was by writing the essay together as a class. Inspired by a recent faculty meeting, she seemed to have some success with having the class make major decisions about the essay using a discussion in the style of a Quaker Meeting for Business. So I spent Tuesday and Wednesday trying to do the same. I talked about the difference between consensus and clerking the spirit of the meeting. I discussed the prompt for the essay (comparing a contemporary marginalized group with a marginalized character within the novel) and then opened the floor to ideas about what direction to take the essay.

It was not pretty. I noted later that several patterns of behavior were evident. A few people got up to speak multiple times and dominated the conversation. Others never bothered to speak at all. Several times when the conversation seemed to be narrowing in one particular direction, someone would speak up and suggest a completely new avenue of inquiry. Sometimes two camps of thought would emerge and the conversation would turn into a debate about the merits and demerits of either side.

It’s becoming clear to me that one of the most important things I can teach — but don’t know how to teach — is how to go with the flow. How to tune into the groove of a larger community. How to go with the sense of the larger conversation.

As for the 8th grade, the tech support teacher for the Middle School came in with the mobile laptop cart and taught them the school-endorsed way to set up blogs. The blog server, I expected it to, acted very idiosyncratically, causing mass confusion and frustration among the students. We decided to schedule another session for the next day.

WED: Class Essay Paragraphs; Blogs Redux

I divided up the 7th grade classes into small groups to work on individual paragraphs for the class essay. I set up a separate wiki page for these essays and asked the 7th grade to post up their individual paragraphs within the proper order for homework.

Given the chaos of the instruction of the day before, I agreed to bring my 8th grade class into the computer lab to re-do the blog tutorials. Still some frustration and confusion but the overall affect was better.

THUR: Class Essay Revision; Vocabulary

All the 7th graders came into class today griping about lost work on the wiki. Apparently there were some problems as the time on the wiki got handed from user to user. Definitely some of the luster and novelty of technology is dulling in all of my classes.

Nevertheless it was good to have the entire essay there on the wiki to read together. We discussed the need for more coherence, flow, and transitions between each of these paragraphs. Students could definitely see for themselves how the essay as a whole wasn’t working and could immediately tell the revisions they needed to work on their individual paragraphs.

My 8th grade classes worked through the next chapter in the vocabulary books. We talked about how knowing the part of speech of a word can be a valuable consideration in trying to answer the fill-in-the-blank sentences they encounter in quizzes.

FRI: Of Mice and Men movie; Essay Introductions and Conclusions

I ended the week in my 7th grade classes by showing them scenes from the Of Mice and Men movie directed by Gary Sinise. I assigned them the first two chapters of Anahita’s Woven Riddle for weekend homework.

I gave a lecture on writing introductions and conclusions for expository essays in my 8th grade class. We talked about how the introduction starts with a hook and narrows into a thesis statement and how the conclusion repeats the paper’s argument and expands into a consideration of larger implications. The students seemed to appreciate being shown specific rhetorical moves and techniques they could make in their writing.

The eighth grade was gone all week long. Monday was Columbus Day, Tuesday was a drop block, and Wednesday on the 8th graders were on their Williamsburg trip.

MON: Columbus Day

TUE: Of Mice and Men: Characters

Another reason why these skits were a bad idea: there was a test to study for! We spent most of the class reviewing the book by going over the characters. We also briefly touched on animals and nature as a motif in Of Mice and Men.

The rest of the class was devoted to practicing the skits. I set the following guidelines for the skits:

• A script was allowed, but I wanted acting, not mere reading aloud.
• No video cuts. The skit was to be performed in one take.
• The skit needed to be rehearsed. That meant working out blocking ahead of time.
• There needed to be some effort to establish setting. (Props, backgrounds, costumes)

Small groups vied for which chapter they got to do. Within that chapter, they needed to pick a critical scene to work on. Next year (if I do this next year), I need to set a time limit on the scene.

WED: Of Mice and Men: Poem and Essential Questions

Continuing our review for Of Mice and Men, we read and discussed “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns. I played a professional reading of the poem by a true Scotsman and then explained the poem stanza by stanza.

We talked about why Steinbeck would choose to name his novel from a line out of this poem and debated who might be the mouse in the book.

I also quickly reviewed the essential questions for the book and discussed how I expected the students to explain the quotes in the test (by addressing the essential questions)

I suggested that the best way to study for the test was by looking over the wiki, the blog, highlighted passages from the book, the essential questions, and class notes.

THUR: Of Mice and Men Test

Today I gave the unit test for Of Mice and Men. I made one minor change: next to each quotation I put in a hint as to how I wanted the student to tie in their explanation of the quote to one of the essential questions. Students still had a hard time explaining the quotations, though. I think more scaffolded instruction is needed in answering such open-ended questions. Maybe something that can be done on the blogs.

FRI: Of Mice and Men Skits

I gave the period over in order for the small groups to rehearse their skits. Some of the wind seemed to have left their sails now that they just took their unit test.

After the camping trip I received an e-mail from the technology coordinator of the middle school. Apparently my substitute showed her the DVD of the video tutorials I made, and she had a lot of questions regarding my use of technology. Namely, why wasn’t I keeping her in the loop and why was I using outside web services (e.g., gmail vs the school mail server)? It was apparent the email had also been forwarded to a number of other parties, including my department head, the director of the middle school, and other administrators. The tone of the email scared me.

Needless to say, I couldn’t concentrate all weekend. On Saturday, Dana and I went to a 7 hour childbirth preparation class. On Sunday, I attended a 5 hour workshop/forum on exploring class. I feel burnt to a crisp right now. Thank God the Phillies had that amazing game on Sunday.

MON: Of Mice and Men, Ch 4 and The Alchemist Paper

Because of the hiatus away from regular instruction, I began each class with a review of the reading we had done so far. I asked my 7th graders who George and Lennie were and what events have happened on the ranch so far.

We then began reading ahead into the next chapter. I felt that students had been out of practice reading this kind of literature for a little while now, and so it would help to acclimate them back into the groove of the class if we read the book aloud together. As we read, I stopped to have brief discussions about what the setting tells us about the character of Crooks and ask about Crooks’ reaction to Lennie’s visit.

When we got to the question of why there wasn’t anyone around at camp, I saw an opportunity to raise some of the issues encountered at the Exploring Class workshop I took on Sunday. I talked about my experience having to scrimp and save as a family, how my parents squirreled away all their money for the future. I then talked about my experience later on in life when I lived in a neighborhood that celebrated the first of the month with raucous parties and profligate spending. We brainstormed on why this neighborhood might feel compelled to spend and not save. Most classes touched on a lack of education, the need for escapism, and the level of daily stress. I proffered, in addition, the possibility of the dearth of credible institutions, the high level of crime, the low expectation (even of survival) of the future. I could’ve gone on, but the kids got the point.

I then did an exercise that I learned from another seminar (led by the same organization, Class Action) where each student sat on their desk. Each student represented an even proportion of the population and each desk represented an even proportion of the wealth. I then designated one cluster of students, about one third of the population, as the affluent class and started taking desks away from other students to give to them. They ended up with about two-thirds of the wealth and everybody else had to squeeze into the remaining third of the desks.

We then discussed how people behaved and felt being in their respective situations. We noted how those who were affluent seemed at ease, nice, generous, smug. Everybody else seemed stressed, competitive, mean, unwilling to yield. Some gave up looking for a space. Others celebrated what little space they had and refused to give it up. All in all, it was a great exercise that really seemed to hit home how those who are marginalized have to develop a different mentality that one should not be so quick to judge.

I spent my eighth grade class introducing the expository essay they needed to write for me for The Alchemist. We went over the different options of topics, and I urged them to start culling textual support for the option they wanted to go with.

We ended the eighth grade class going over the grammar assessment they took while I was gone. It was apparent the usual suspects were giving students trouble: adjectives vs adverbs, linking and helping verbs, prepositions. Unfortunately, Dana who helped me grade these grammar assessments over the weekend, must have felt particularly pregnant for there were a number of irregularities that I needed to apologize for. Thank God it was not graded.

Of course I also had to deal with the fall out of my technology outing all day. I met one-on-one with the technology coordinator and had conferences with the director of the middle school twice. I also had to schedule a meeting with the head of my department. To my relief, the general tone of these meetings was of reassurance, support, and curiosity along with scrutiny and concern. I had to demonstrate the technology I was using and justify my decisions. There were some arched eyebrows and uncomfortable pauses, but the overall sense was not punitive. I ended up stammering a lot about why I didn’t involve more people into my process, and then repeating over and over that I would change my ways.

Now, would I prefer to circumvent all this nervousness and red tape? You betcha. But I’m resolved to think now that the more important lesson for me as an educator may not be to break barriers in my classroom, but to gently provoke the rest of my community. At the end of the day it may have felt like I was taking five steps back, but I’m going ahead to try to see it, instead, as a step forward.

TUE: Of Mice and Men, Ch 4 Revisited and Substitute: Vocab Review

One of my seventh grade blocks was dropped today, so we went back to further discussing chapter 4. We read the passage where Curley’s wife intrudes upon Candy, Lennie, and Crooks’ pow-wow. We talked about how Candy suddenly gets more gumption to stand up to her, but is then later put in his place. The students were intrigued/confused about Crooks, who is one of the most complex characters in the book. His tough exterior hides a sensitivity and desperate need for belonging. I made sure we also touched on The American Dream and how that bucks up these characters just as it might be out of their reach.

We discussed John Steinbeck’s mascot (the Pigasus) and his motto — Ad Astra Per Alia Porci (To the stars on the wings of pigs). I mentioned how nearly all of Steinbeck’s novels deal with the subject of the marginalized working class in America. We discussed possible interpretations of that motto, that fulfillment is nigh impossible for the poor, that society can only reach its ideals by giving its marginalized the chance to soar, that we must consider the gap between the transcendental and mundane reality.

Finally, I ended the 7th grade classes sharing the vocabulary story I picked for the Answers.com contest. I had to make sure the day before that I posted the stories on the class blog and then formally submitted them to the contest.

I had to make sure I begged students not to finish the book prematurely.

I took a half-day today, and so I didn’t get a chance to teach my eighth grade class. Instead I instructed my substitute to review the assigned reading by giving each table cluster a large sheet of easel paper and then have them each go over a different aspect of the book (Plot, Character, etc.) They were then to share their discussions as a class.

Unfortunately, my 8th grade class had an hour block, so I also instructed the substitute to go over the vocabulary quiz that the class took the week before and then, with the remaining time, show the class the video I made of their creative project presentations.

WED: Grammar and Nearing the End of OMM & Stages, Omens, and Obstacles

I started my seventh grade classes with a grammar assessment. While most students seemed enthusiastic about keeping track of which answers they got right, it was fairly clear that nearly everyone had a lot of confusion about the different parts of speech. Adverbs, possessive adjectives, and prepositions in general seemed to generate a lot of wrong answers.

We moved on to a discussion of the penultimate chapter of Of Mice and Men, discussing how Curley’s wife ended up on the ranch and what her dream was. And, of course, we speculated on what would happen in the last chapter, which we agreed to read together the next day.

My eighth grade class began class grouping into which option they wanted to pursue for their Alchemist paper. We discussed the previous night’s reading from the framework of the different papers: What stage is Santiago in now? What omens has he seen? What obstacles has he encountered?

I gave them the reading assignment for the night and then discussed due dates for the paper, which were pushed back in agreement with my colleagues.

I then discussed a theoretical paper and showed how I wanted each supporting paragraph to have textual support based on character, plot, and quotation. I wasn’t entirely sure whether I wanted students to turn in the kind of outline I did in class and so some confusion ensued about my expectations. Any amount of confusion escalates very quickly within my 8th grade class, so I think I’ll have to put out some fires and hold some hands the next day.

In other news, I had a meeting with the head of my department today. He was frank about his trepidation about the use of technology and how it exposes the publication of student work to the wide world. He’s a reasonable guy, though, and understands that some of his fears may be unfounded. The other issue he brought up is the priority of instruction in an English class — that we not sacrifice our core competency in critical reading and writing for other things, be it technology or research. He wanted to make sure, in other words, that my English class didn’t turn into a computer or history class in following interdisciplinary paths.

This meeting clarified for me the three major obstacles I’m encountering:

1. That my class is transforming into something radically different from the other classes and is losing its place within the general program of the school.
2. That the technology is steering us into gray zones of safety, security, and legality that tests issues of accountability and liability.
3. That relinquishing complete control over technology services and infrastructure means losing the ability to track and enforce student accountability.

THUR: Of Mice and Men, Ch. 6 & Alchemist Paper Outlines

All week long I’ve been begging my seventh graders not to read ahead, not to peek at how Of Mice and Men ends. Today I give my best dramatic reading of the entire last chapter. It’s all worth it when I hear some faint gasps as I get to the end.

Afterwards, we talked about:

• Why did Slim tell George, “You hadda do it?”
• Why are the images coming out of Lennie’s head that of Aunt Clara and a giant rabbit?
• Is George a good friend of Lennie?
• Why does the chapter begin with the description of the heron and the snakes?

In order to help my eighth graders out with their Alchemist papers, I gave out a graphic organizer that made clear that for each supporting paragraph, they needed a direct quote and textual evidence regarding plot and character. It’s mechanical, but I suppose it forces students who tend to skimp out on textual evidence to find some.

I spent a good chunk of time lecturing on the importance of having a good thesis statement — one that wasn’t superficial. I emphasized that the thesis needed to tie in all the supporting paragraphs and had to give some real insight about the book. Students seemed to understand better when I restated this last point to say that the thesis had to say something new about what the book had to say about life.

Later I saw on an upper-school poster that a good thesis needed to be debatable — that it shouldn’t be obvious. I need to remember that one.

The thesis really gave some students trouble. Next year, it might be better to give the students the thesis outright and let them worry just about the supporting paragraphs.

FRI: Of Mice and Men Skit & Alchemist Climax

I treated the seventh grade to a video done as a class project by two students at another school and posted on Google Video. The kids loved it, and so I thought it would be a great idea to have them, in small groups, act out critical scenes from the book and film it on video.

In hindsight, it was a bad idea:

1. Although my co-worker didn’t mind my project, it still sent my classes off in a different direction than hers.
2. I had already planned (but forgotten) to spend the next week showing the movie version of the book. Now I no longer have the time to do that.
3. I now have one more thing to grade — that I don’t even know how to grade, really.
4. It was a half-baked idea.

Ah well.

As for my 8th graders, flush from the success of my Of Mice and Men readings from yesterday, I read aloud the climactic moment of The Alchemist. Okay, but not earth-shattering.

The passage mystified the students. Big surprise — it mystified me when I first read it. Now I realize it’s really at the heart of why I don’t like this book, but I had a hard time conveying that without resorting to a personal rant. In the end, I’m unsatisfied that I’ve taught this book so vaguely.

A weird week since half of it was spent on the 7th grade camping trip.

MON: Of Mice and Men, Ch. 3 and Alchemy

We began my seventh grade classes by reading the scene where Candy’s dog gets shot. This led to a discussion about the ruthless cruelty of the ranch. I asked students to note which of the survival strategies they brainstormed on Friday were being used by different characters in the novel.

I then read the description of Slim from the previous chapter and suggested that he might be a kind of symbol of some sort.

We then read the scene where Lennie crushes Curley’s hand. We discussed how Curley, who’s a bully, is himself bullied by the buckers in a moment of weakness.

Finally, we read the scene where Candy joins in on George and Lennie’s dream of a ranch. We discussed the concept of the American Dream and the need for hope in such dismal circumstances.

I closed class by introducing the Answers.com Creative Writing challenge. I asked students to look up the definitions of the words for homework and come prepared with story ideas.

The Answers.com contest came to my attention the previous week, by someone who ran across this blog right here and e-mailed me with this opportunity. It came just in the nick of time, too, as I was starting to fret over a vocabulary assignment for the 7th grade. Thanks blogosphere!

Speaking of vocabulary, I began my eighth grade class by reviewing the vocabulary homework assigned over the weekend. I answered questions about the upcoming vocabulary quiz and then moved on to The Alchemist.

We compared Santiago to some of the other characters in the book, namely the crystal merchant and the Englishman. We also had a discussion of what alchemy is and the connection between alchemy and transformation. This led to a fruitful discussion about why alchemy might be central to the book even as it has not really made much of an appearance in the plot thus far.

This was going to be the last class I would have with my eighth graders for the week. I assigned them to finish the vocabulary exercises in their book and forbade them to read ahead in The Alchemist without me.

TUE: Vocab Story

I only had my seventh graders today. We began class discussing the words given for the Answers.com challenge. I sounded like a spokesman for Answers.com, pointing out how looking up the words on their web site leads not only to dictionary definitions but pronunciation sound files, thesaurus and specialized dictionary entries, wikipedia entries, and so on. I forgot to mention Googling a word can take you directly to the Answers.com entry for that word.

I was a little disappointed that a number of my seventh graders did not do the homework. I’ve been falling behind in grading, and so I’ve been loathe to add more to my grading pile. The result, however, has been that homework seems to have diminished in significance to my students.

I gave the students 15 minutes of writing time to get started on the contest. I didn’t want them to have too much homework the night before their camping trip. I also didn’t want them to think too much about Of Mice and Men over the camping trip, either. Having this vocabulary break ended up being a nice transition.

With the remaining minutes of class, I treated my seventh graders to a spontaneous showing of The Potter Puppet Pals.

WED: Camp Victory and Vocab Review

I joined the 7th graders on their camping trip to Camp Victory near Bloomsburg, PA. Camp Victory normally houses programs for children with physical disabilities, but has allowed our school to rent their facilities for our camping trips for several years now. Most of the activities of the camp are run by Quest, an outdoor adventure and recreation program run out of Bloomsburg University. They do an awesome job and started us off on a variety of team-building activities. Later on in the evening the students put together some skits. Umm, let’s just leave it at that.

Meanwhile, I had left the following instructions for my eighth grade class:

1. Play a tutorial (that I burned on DVD) showing how to control other email addresses through Gmail
2. Go over the vocabulary exercises I assigned

THUR: Camp Victory and Vocab Quiz

The second day of camp was jam-packed with rotating activities. Every student got to go on a climbing wall, speed down a zip-line, share at a conflict resolution workshop, and explore Bloomsburg University. Thankfully it didn’t rain until the evening (Quaker) Meeting for Worship; I actually liked listening to the thunder and rain in a relatively silent, reflective meeting.

As for my eighth graders:

1. They took the vocabulary quiz
2. They watched my tutorial on subscribing to feeds using Google Reader — which was apparently too confusing for many

FRI: Heading Home and a Grammar Quiz

Quest created a final team-challenge olympics for our final day. We cleaned our cabins, said our goodbyes, and headed on back for home.

The eighth graders:

1. Took a non-graded grammar assessment that I’m going to use to just take stock of where we need to focus future grammar instruction.
2. Watched my tutorial on creating blogs using learnerblogs.org

Week 3:

All last week I’ve been harassing students to do the technology stuff and do it right. I had to go in to the class wiki and remove all of the students’ last names in order to protect their security and privacy. I also spent the weekend looking over the learning survey results and making seating and small group decisions.

As it turns out, I could rely on a few key indicators to help me decide upon small groups. Only a few students specified that they “liked to take charge and lead the group.” I made sure they were split among different groups. Most students rated themselves moderately between “Let me work on my part of the project” to “It’d be cool if we do this all together” — those students who rated themselves at the extreme were generally grouped together. It was then a matter of eyeballing general personality profiles and skill sets to form the rest of the groups. I tried to achieve general uniformity when it came to group behavior and general diversity when it came to learning styles and skill sets. Of course, I also used my intuition and judgment about students based on classroom observations.

I ended up with four or five 3- to 4-person small groups that I arranged around table clusters in the room. These were going to be my assigned seats for each class.

MON: Tests

I gave out the unit tests for The Water is Wide and A Separate Peace today. One of my colleagues pulled these tests from her archives and submitted them for our review. I was too frazzled to argue and too busy catching up to make tests of my own. I regret that now.

I need to be a bit of a control freak around assessments. Tests are a test of teachers — they reveal characteristics of care, knowledge, fairness, organization, relevance and depth of instruction. Ideally tests should be:

1. As easy to grade as possible
2. Accurate
3. Unambiguous
4. Clear in instruction and design
5. Appropriately broad
6. Appropriately deep
7. Appropriately difficult given classroom expectations

I’m not sure if the tests I gave today meets all these criteria, and that really bothers me.

TUE & WED: 7th and 8th Grade Creative Projects

Creative project presentations. Thankfully, I didn’t see too many generic posters, and I was quite pleased with the level of creativity and care given to some of these projects.

I liked documenting the creative project presentations. I took pictures of my 7th graders and videotaped my 8th graders. Not only did it give me something to decorate the wall outside my classroom with — and something to show the parents — but it also helped jog my memory about each student’s presentation.

Oh, and Tuesday night was Back-to-School Night

I also used the brief respite I had from full-on instruction to update the class wiki to make new pages for our upcoming new units. For each new text I made a modified list of essential questions, a reading schedule, and a blank table similar to the one we took notes on for our summer reading books. This last table was going to be the basis of the active reading homework assignments I was going to assign along with the readings. The X-axis headers specified columns for Plot, Character, Quotes, and Setting. The Y-axis headers specified rows for each night’s reading assignment.

I also created a vocabulary page on the wiki for my 8th grade class.

WED: Introduction to the Alchemist

Assigned seats! Of course, nobody was too thrilled about this new development in the class, but I didn’t really hear any genuine venom. I might very well re-evaluate these seats after each trimester just for variety’s sake.

I had my eighth graders write another journal entry, this time on a true story of pursuing a personal calling. Once again, I left it up to them to interpret the prompt as they saw fit.

As a class we then wrote out the MLA bibliographic citation for our new text, The Alchemist. One of my goals this year is spread out the research instruction more evenly throughout the year.

I didn’t know with this rambunctious group how long it would take to explain the homework assignment, so I made sure I explained it early on. In addition to the assigned reading of The Alchemist, they were to go to the wiki page for The Alchemist and add in notes from the reading. I assigned each corner of every 4-desk table cluster a number. Number 1’s had Plot, 2’s had Character, 3’s had Quotes, and 4’s had Vocabulary. These roles would rotate with each new night’s reading. For one’s role, each student had to go to the appropriate cell on the table on the wiki and add in an appropriate note. You couldn’t repeat content, however, so if you arrived later than other students at the wiki, you would have to look harder to add something new.

I made sure we discussed proper wiki etiquette and accountability — how I was notified of changes and how, therefore, it didn’t make any sense to maliciously change another student’s contribution to the wiki. We discussed how each student needed to place their initials by their contribution and how those students finding quotes needed to cite the page numbers of the quotes. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised how well students understood their homework.

I was therefore able to move on to talk about some of the content of the introduction of the book, which specified what Coelho perceived to be universal obstacles to pursuing one’s Personal Legend.

THUR: Of Mice and Men, Ch. 1 and Santiago at the Beginning

I covered with my seventh graders a lot of the same ground as what I discussed with my eighth graders the day before. Once again, I was pleased how most students clearly understood what the homework assignment entailed.

We then had a good discussion on George and Lennie as characters and on the nature of their friendship. Students were pretty perceptive about what George and Lennie were running from and why Lennie’s personality presented problems for them.

I was also able, with my seventh graders, to go over some background information of Of Mice and Men. We discussed the 1930s, the Great Depression, the migration to California, the Salinas Valley, and — at least with one class — the concept of the American Dream. I also made sure to mention how Steinbeck generally structured the book as a 6-act play; each chapter begins with a description of a fixed setting and all the action within the chapter takes place on that stage.

My eighth grade class started with another journal prompt. I gave them the option to either continue with the prompt from the day before or to respond to a startling picture of a flock of sheep. While they wrote, I expressed my deep admiration that everyone in the class did the homework and did it correctly and rewarded everyone with a Munchkin from Dunkin Donuts.

We then reviewed last night’s reading using everyone’s recent contributions on the wiki as a guide. I then assigned new roles for tonight’s reading.

I then directed everyone’s attention to the specific essential questions for The Alchemist and ran through them quickly. I also made sure to mention the vocabulary quiz that I was going to give them the following week.

FRI: Of Mice and Men, Ch. 2 and Following Your Personal Legend

Following up on my observation on the theatrical nature of Of Mice and Men, I began each seventh grade class with a reading from last night’s homework. I read the narrator prose, and I assigned students to read dialogue. It occurs to me now that it might have served us all well to go over dialogue punctuation conventions; it might have helped students to realize when their lines ended and another student’s had begun. At any rate, we read the scene where Curley first confronts Lennie and George in the bunkhouse.

We discussed the living conditions George and Lennie had to endure. We then moved to discuss the different characters on the ranch, since they all make an appearance in this chapter. We discussed what the mentality and working conditions of the ranch was, and I made an exaggerated analogy to the school from hell. I then asked each class to come up with what strategies they could use to survive under such conditions.

One thing we did not get to discuss much was the contrast between the settings of the first and second chapter. The valley of the first chapter seems idyllic while the ranch of the second chapter seems grueling and depressing.

As for the eighth grade, I began the class by collectively filling out one of the exercise units in their vocabulary books. This led to a discussion of the vocabulary quiz I was to give them next week. Part of their homework for the night was to do another exercise section of the vocabulary book.

As with the seventh grade classes, the eighth grade class was dominated by discussions on the previous night’s reading. I liked how I could use the wiki homework assignment to prompt and guide those discussions. This is especially helpful for The Alchemist since this is a completely new unit that I’ve never taught before. It’s full of soundbite quotes, so I used these to provoke discussion and then later switched to a consideration of some of the essential questions we had discussed prior.

As one might expect, I asked students to continue with the wiki active reading homework assignments.

One of the consequences of having a fun-packed weekend after the first week of school was the lack of time to prepare for the next week. I suffered because of it — causing a lot of confusion because of my lack of planning.

MON: The World of the Map / Designing a Memory

The confusion began right away with my first real lecture. I began class with a provocative journal prompt, write a story on the topic “Living the Map” (7th grade) or “Designing a Memory” (8th grade), however, you choose to interpret that phrase. We shared a little of our stories.

I then emphasized that they were NOT to throw away these half-formed stories, but to keep them and store them for later. They would be the fodder for some of our first blog entries, once we got there. I suggested that students reserve a notebook or a section of their folders to keep these ideas and drafts on file — the way rappers and writers always carry around a little spiral-bound notepad.

My seventh grade classes then discussed how stories were like maps and then how stories were like places. We discussed how stories were a kind of visual guide with symbols and conventions. Students mentioned how maps were often used with a specific agenda or purpose in mind. We then talked about how stories were also immersive experiences that had the ability to transport us to another realm.

I then talked briefly about my experiences with Make Philly over the weekend, how the eye only really processes a few focal areas and how the brain mentally fills in the rest of the picture. I talked about how we understand the world in the same way, that we extrapolate a way of seeing the world based on a few indicators, that this is also the trick that stories use to create a mental map and a virtual world for us. You can begin to see how this was beginning to get confusing for the kids. My seventh graders were intrigued, but didn’t quite know how to process all of this information.

I was even more ambitious with my poor eighth graders. In addition to my spiel about eye movements, I talked about the Rashomon effect and how our memories are not purely empirical recollections but cobbled together from our assumptions, beliefs, and expectations — our mental paradigms. Yes, I used the word paradigms and yes that was the term that broke the camel’s back. Students could follow my anecdote of how people perceived a car accident differently depending on how the question about it was framed, but they really had a hard time with the word “paradigm.”

What was the point of all this rambling? Well, I wanted my students to realize that in fully analyzing a text, they should look at three world/paradigms. I described them as the “World at the Beginning”, “World of the Map/Memory,” and “World at the End.” Also very confusing for students. Might have made more sense to frame it as the background of the book, or the world of the author, then the text itself, then the world of the reader.

Now, despite the fact that I muddled up what I was trying to communicate, I think my intentions were noble, and this is a lecture I might have to return to in the future. Literary analysis tends to be a mysterious process for students. They learn to trust their English teachers to guide them and feed them, but they’re not sure if they can do it on their own. It looks like some some sort of intuitive talent that some people have a knack for and others are simply blind to. I want to show students that there can be a kind of method to the madness, that though, yes, there is a kind of sensitivity that you have to develop, we can also methodically tease out certain areas of scrutiny.

I ended class with some comments on the creative project. I said that students need to try to keep these three worlds in mind when considering what they are to do with their creative project. This is where I really screwed up because: confusion + grade anxiety = confusion squared.

Needless to say, I was constantly approached in the hallway by nervous students who didn’t want to fail because they felt the class was already way over their heads. I did a lot of reassuring this week.

TUE: Themes & The Creative Project

My 8th grade class had a drop block. Only seventh grade today.

I began by playing the song “The Water is Wide” and projecting the lyrics onto the smart board. Students then journaled about what they thought the song was about and why Pat Conroy might have wanted to name his book after this song.

By this time, it was becoming fairly obvious that I’m going to have technical trouble with my Block 3 class all year long. I have Blocks 1 and 4 in my classroom, and I typically just plug in my laptop, put on a keynote slideshow and go. I have to appropriate another teacher’s classroom for my Block 3 class and I’m constantly running into technical issues. The projector needs a new lamp. The speakers don’t work. I can’t log in. I need a password to get out of the screensaver. Etc. Etc. Keeps me on my toes, I suppose.

After discussing the journal prompt, I tried to review the material from the day before in another way. I talked about the three worlds again, this time as “Author,” “Text,” and “You”. Under each world, I specified the sort of things you want to look for in each of these realms.

1. Author: History, Author’s Background, Author’s Interests and intentions
2. Text:
   A. Things to look for in active reading: Characters, Setting, Plot, Quotes
   B. Further analysis: Genre, Motifs, Literary Techniques
3. You: Gut Check, Parallels & Contrast between your world and the world of the author/text

I then told the students that the middle realm — the world of the text — was going to be the major focal point of the class. It’s what they would ultimately be assessed on.

The point of all this examination in all these realms is to tease out a theme, or several themes, from the book. Every year I constantly underestimate how difficult a concept theme is for students. This year was no exception. I said the theme should be able to be stated in a single sentence. I said that the theme is not a vague topic but a specific argument. I winced and said the theme was like the “moral” or lesson of the text. We talked about how one of the themes of Forrest Gump is that “Life is like a box of chocolates.” Students nod as if a light bulb has went off in their heads. Of course, I’ll find later that students still want to think of the theme as an enormous vague concept like “friendship.”

And now…more confusion. I threw the students a curve ball and said that another way to reach the theme in this class was through the use of our essential questions. We then did a class exercise where I gave each small group an essential question to answer about The Water is Wide. Five questions yielded five themes.

I then did a quick song and dance about how the essential questions should begin the creative project process. I did a demonstration using The Water is Wide: the essential question leads to a theme; I then consider how the theme is applicable to the three worlds (author, text, you); I then consider my own creative talents and communicate that theme as it applies to one of those worlds.

Confused? Oh yeah. For some reason it made sense to me when I was making it up. In the past, I just gave the students a menu of options when it came to the creative project — write a story, do a poster, etc. This year, I wanted my students to

1. show me what their creative interests/talents were outside of the classroom
2. apply the unit’s emphasis and essential questions to their summer reading
3. demonstrate a substantive understanding of what they’ve read

In hindsight, I should’ve started with the essential questions and left out the whole three realms of analysis until much much later. It was just too much to chew on at once.

Even the essential questions were confusing for the students — many confused the questions with the theme.

Several students asked to come in and see me individually to give them step-by-step advice to approaching their creative project. Not the most efficient way to teach.

WED: It’s Now the 8th Grade’s Turn to Be Confused

I did yesterday’s spiel with my 8th graders. Hysteria ensues. It was an hour block, and I had other things I wanted to do, though, so I just made some quick reassurances and moved on.

I put aside my slideshows and did a little preparatory review for the unit tests I was going to give my students on Monday. It might have been a little late in coming, but I got there.

As a class we went over to the wiki page on The Water is Wideand A Separate Peace. I had set up a table there for each class. Along the X-axis header, I had labeled columns for Plot, Characters, Setting, and Quotes. Along the Y-axis headers, we labeled rows for the 5 different themes we came up with using our 5 essential questions. As a class, then, we began filling in this table, finding various textual support for each of these themes.

Not only did all the students get to see how to use and modify the wiki, this exercise was a taste of the kind of active reading contribution I want students to engage in later with our next books, Of Mice and Men(7th grade) and The Alchemist (8th grade).

It’s also nice that students could use these wiki pages as reference when studying for the tests.

THUR: Notes on The Water is Wide and A Separate Peace

Heavy use of the smart board today. Using the wiki pages we made yesterday, we identified some of the major characters, plot points, and settings that kept creeping up in our textual support. Naturally, these were the elements of the novel that would be heavily emphasized on the tests. I was able to put on the smart board a rough outline of things to study for and then have a general discussion answering questions and going over key points of each novel.

I then exported the smart board slides as jpeg files, uploaded them to flickr, and posted them on the class blog (after class).

FRI: Weekend Wrapup

Block 4 dropped. Hopefully I covered enough Thursday so that they could study for the test independently.

I started class with a screencast on how to sign up for a gmail account. I argued that they needed a Google account for other things that I wanted to do in the class, and having Gmail was an added bonus, since they could control their other email through Gmail. They didn’t put up too much of a fight when I told them to sign up for Gmail and e-mail me their creative project themes over the weekend.

We then reviewed the smartboard notes from the day before and had a general discussion about the literature. In my hour block, I read a good chunk of the last chapter of The Water is Wide and realized that when Conroy asked “the river be good” to his children in the crossing, he’s talking about the rapidly changing world due to the civil rights movement. That gave me a chance to plug the relevance of technology as a way to anticipate the rapidly rising waters of our own world.

I used the last part of class to clear up any residue confusions about the creative project and announce that they had to present their creative projects with the other people who were doing the same book — which they could look up on the class wiki.

My students had to juggle several things over the weekend:

1. Sign up for a gmail account
2. Complete their creative project
3. Study for their unit test on The Water is Wide/A Separate Peace

All in all, I’d say that class moved along this week, even though I felt I made a hot mess of things at times. I made the creative project overly complex, and I’m pretty sure I could have done more preparation for the test. There were certain concepts that got muddled in my byzantine presentations. Given how I felt I scrambled all week, though, things turned out all right.

My school is requesting any recommendations of visiting artists (actors, authors, craftsmen, poets, dancers, visual artists, musicians) to host for the current academic year.

The Quaker principles are being highlighted this year with a special emphasis on stewardship, so you may want to consider how a visiting artist might support and enhance this theme or another aspect of your curriculum.

Recommendations are to be considered on a first-come, first-serve basis by an Arts Council committee.

Anyone want to throw a shout-out to someone you think might fit the criterion?

Last night was Back-to-School Night. I finished up some of my classroom decor to-do’s and tacked up some student work.

Usually I make a slideshow, but I only see each group of parents for 10 minutes at a time, and it occurred to me last year that I’m overwhelming them with fairly useless information (for them).

So this year, I just focused on a one-page handout. One side had the year’s theme, essential questions and books. I spent about five minutes on that.

The other side had my e-mail address and the URLs of the class wiki and blog. I briefed the parents on how I intended to use those sites (class reference, regular updates and reminders) and how they might be useful to them (micro-manage their kids). I also stated my intention to incorporate technology into this year’s instruction (blogging, research, creating media).

Surprisingly, I didn’t get many anxious questions.

So I played them a little video I made using the promotional web site for Bob Dylan’s new greatest hits album. They really loved that. You can watch it yourself — it’s at the bottom of the home page of the class wiki.

So I already mentioned the great time I had at Make Philly. I was impressed with the Rube Goldberg challenge they came up with, which was both fun and impressive. It was described as a kind of exquisite corpse, where each team contributed one part of the final machine that was compatible with its adjacent parts. Six teams were each given wooden panels. One corner of the panel had a written “input” instruction, indicating how an object would be received by their part, and an “output” instruction, indicating how they were to then send something to the next part. The team I was in was at the head, so we didn’t have an input, but our output instruction indicated that we were to “throw” something to the next team. So we decided to launch a billiard ball down a ramp and up a little jump into the next panel.

All in all, it worked beautifully, and it was poetic how we started with a billiard ball and ended with a bowling ball. I had to leave before all the tweaks got completely worked out, but here’s a video of the final working run:

There are writing and visual art versions of the exquisite corpse game — something possibly to keep in mind.

Cool People I Met

• Joel Mark Witt
  • Maryland Zoo TV: Fun promotional videocast of the Maryland Zoo
  • Folk Media: Storytelling in new media
• Bre Pettis
  • BrePettis.com includes links to all his current videocasts, including Make Magazine’s Weekend Projects
  • Bre used to be a middle school teacher out in the Northwest: Room 132
• The blogs of Philadelphia public schools: Didn’t even realize they had a blog program
  • Robert Karl (rkarl at phila.k12.pa.us) is part of the Educational Tech Group of the Philadelphia public school system and seems like a good resource for ed tech issues
• Rand Bradbury
  • Can I just tell you that this guy, who’s a sound engineer for the Keswick Theater, is the best technical instructor I have ever encountered? Things that eluded me in books for years have now made perfect sense because of his brief explanations. Rand rocks.
  • Roadie Show: A podcast that mostly features interviews with roadies and other backstage audio folk.
• CC Chapman
  • CC Chapman’s site has links to a number of podcasts that he’s involved with, including Managing the Gray (a new media marketing podcast), Accident Hash, and U-Turn Cafe (podsafe music podcasts)
• Linda Mills
  • Podcast User Magazine
• Mark Blevis
  • Another of the growing crop of new media specialists, his site is an impressive testament to his connectedness and reach within the podcasting community
  • Just One More Book: podcast on children’s books
  • Electric Sky: Several NPR-like interviews and exploration podcast shows
• David Tamés
  • kino-eye: David’s a freelance videographer from Boston. His blog’s got some good technical ruminations on producing video.
• Jen Yuan
  • A Thousand Times No is an interview podcast focusing on people who underwent a significant change or overcame devastating failure. Jen’s local, too, and really nice.
• Russ Starke and Todd Marrone
  • Both contribute to Used Wigs Radio, a chat and music podcast that seems like a lot of fun. Todd’s also an amazing artist who made several art pieces for the podcamp off the cuff.
• Chris Penn
  • Helped start the podcamp conferences with Chris Brogan. He has a financial advice podcast at financialaidpodcast.com
• Steve Lubetkin
  • I met Steve at Blog Philadelphia, and he’s the one who let me know about Podcamp Philly. He has a company that creates professional podcasts for clients at ProfessionalPodcasts.com

Lessons Learned: Technical

• Audio is super important, even on video

  • Mics

    • Dynamic: non-powered, durable, more background noise, best for field work
      • Recommended: Shure-SM58
      • Have the speaker hold it 3-5 inches from the face, between the mouth and the adam’s apple
    • Compressed: delicate, need to be powered (phantom power off mixer), best for studio work
      • Recommended: MXL, Snowball
    • Mic setup for a classroom: 2 condensers, omnidirectional, up high

  • Mixer

    • firewire mixer (for multiple inputs)
      • Recommended: Alesis 4/8-channel mixer (Multimix)
    • master
    • channels
      • gain
        • start at 0, then slowly turn gain up until peak light just starts to light up and then back off a few clicks
      • EQs
        • start at straight up and down
        • adjust after gain (turn down if high pitch, ss’s)
        • generally leave mids alone
      • aux
        • for effects or monitors
  • Standard sample rate for podcasts: 44.1 kHz
  • CD standard bit-depth: 16
  • Put your notes in a plastic sleeve so that they don’t make a sound when you flip through them when recording
  • Always record 10 seconds of white noise
    • For ambient filler when you edit
  • Recommended store for audio gear: Musician’s Friend
  • Also recommended as a place to buy a low-end binaural stereo mic ($80): Core-Sound
  • skype
    • Turn everything else off
    • Record volume at 70 (3/4 of way up — never record at full input)
  • Recommended portable digital recorders
    • Edirol R-1, Edirol R-9, Zoom H4, M-Audio Microtrack 24/C
    • A lot of these are reviewed in the latest issue of Podcast User Magazine
    • Also seriously informed opinions can be found at the Tapers’ Section
    • What looks sweetest to me: the new Zoom H2
  • Other equipment you might need to record audio on the field
    • headphones
    • spare memory
    • spare batteries
      • rechargeable + charger
    • USB memory reader
    • case for recorder (Crumpler)
    • extra wind covers for mic
    • extra laptop battery
• Video considerations
  • Lighting
    • Basic setup: key light + soft fill
    • add hard background if you want to distinguish foreground and background
  • shoot subject more than once in two different locations
    • before the formal interview do a pre-interview
    • people are more natural when walking and talking in their own environment
  • Ask people not to wear white or black when filming them (especially without added lighting)
    • because the face comes first
  • Make sure you have visual elements that you can cut away to
    • B-roll
  • Make sure there’s a lot of overlap at the head and end of the cut
  • Shoot from multiple angles
    • use two cameras if you can
  • Look for color
    • strong contrasts
    • saturated, rich colors
  • Sound
    • keep microphone separate from camera
    • if you can use, use a boom
    • get a tram lavalier
  • What to buy first
    1. $400 camcorder w mic input, headphone output
    2. $200 shotgun mic + fan windsystem
    3. $150 lavelier mic
    4. $150 beachtek adapter
    5. $50 extra batteries
• Make everyone sign a standard release form for podcasting
• Garageband (comes as part of iLife) makes enhanced podcasts real easy
  • Profcast (commercial software) makes recording lectures even easier and more powerful

Lessons Learned: Non-Technical

• Don’t be afraid to get help from people
  • Podcasting community tends to be very helpful
  • Get someone to teach you
  • Or delegate to someone who has the passion, expertise
• Know your audience
  • Consider what audience you might already have
  • Involve them
  • Get face-to-face with them when you can
• Old-school storytelling techniques still apply
  • Go for anecdotes instead of just facts
  • Look for dramatic/cinematic moments
• Create a rhythm
  • Make sure you add variety, break the pattern at frequent intervals
• Plan to do multiple takes with students
  • Often the best, most natural takes are the “practice” ones
  • Tell the students to plan to make a mistake
• Interviews
  • Don’t be in a rush to fill silences; pauses can extend conversations
  • At the end ask for any afterthoughts
    • What haven’t I asked you?
• Contribute, don’t dictate, the conversation
• Make mistakes on purpose, or take a confrontational stance, to catalyze feedback
• Be a brand; sell a lifestyle
• Consider other distribution channels
  • Example: Maryland Zoo TV gets shown on cable
  • Mind TV is a Philly site that will show uploaded 5-minute video clips on cable.
• Apply for grants
  • Example: Best Buy > Community Relations > Grant (given once or twice a year)

Sites of Interest that Came Up

Red Lasso allows you to clip commercial media (news, entertainment, sports) and share and embed them without intellectual property violations. This seems like a great way to sha