"I'd take a grenade for you"

There is NEVER a dull moment when teaching sophomores. Unfortunately, the latest incident in room 121 occurred while I was out for the day. Last Friday I received a text message from the teacher who is across the hall from my room. Her text read "Call me ASAP!" Because I was out and had a substitute, (this is a weekly occurrence because of tennis) I figured that the sub was having some minor difficulties with my students. What an understatement. I called Ms. K and she proceeded to inform me that one of my lovely students had brought a fake grenade to school and put it on his desk. Yes, it was fake but apparently very realistic looking and the substitute called for an administrator (she was very discreet, the students didn't even know she had notified them). There was then a fire drill and all students were escorted outside (at lunch, in the rain, 40 degree weather). The sheriffs office came out and arrested the student in front of everyone. Once he was taken away, the students were then taken to the middle school gyms so the bomb squad could search the entire school. The school was on lock-down for 4 hours.
My phone has never gone off so many times in one day! I had teachers contacting me, people in town calling me, friends who had seen on the news and facebook texting me. It was crazy. And so typical for my group of students. It happened during 4th period---the class that I have 35 students and 2 student aid. On any given day in that class there are 38 people in the room. Of course when I got back to school on Monday for staff development I was given so much grief for not even being here. I'm so thankful I wasn't because I do not know how I would have handled that situation but the sub did wonderfully. I think she deserves a bonus because I know when I was a sub, bombs were one of my worse nightmares. Bombs are still a nightmare but at least I go through training and drills before and during school! My students definitely know how to keep life interesting!

News article about MV bomb threat

To Kill a Mockingbird

Final Project

As we've been reading this book in class they've been falling apart. Pages are coming out, covers are coming off, etc. It's getting to be a little ridiculous so the department is ordering new books. Since we would just throw them away I decided to turn it into a project. Instead of a test, the students will have to identify and label figurative language throughout the novel. They also have to create a collage based on a theme in the book, draw a map on one of the pages, choose a character to analyze, write about a character they relate to, choose four quotes that are meaningful and significant and explain why and write a reader response to the book. All of this will be done in a copy of the novel. I'm really excited about this and some of the students are too. They are really excited about writing in the books. Here are some pictures of the example I made to show them.

The cover and the ribbons are to mark the pages I found/wrote things on

One of the quotes I chose... the explanation is on a post-it on the next page.

I chose Calpurnia to analyze. Adjectives to describe her are on the apron with quotes as evidence written around her.

 

 

 

 

Map of Maycomb, Alabama

To Kill a Mockingbird

I am teaching my favorite book. This caused me some worries when I first started, mainly because I was concerned that having to read this book a total of 6 times a day would make me not enjoy it as much. Also, it's tough to teach a book that I love because I get really frustrated when students complain about it. So we have a rule: No complaints until we have completed the entire book. I tell them, yes it may be boring in the beginning, a little slow in the middle, or just overall not interesting, but you can't say the book "sucks" until you've read the whole thing. After we're finished they can diss it as much as they want. This rule seems to be working well for my students and even better, many are really enjoying the book! On this upcoming Tuesday we're reading Chapter 15 which is when Dill comes up with the plan to lure Boo out with lemon drops, so I'm giving the kids lemon drops on Tuesday. I hope they appreciate the little things!

The one cool thing that I wasn't expecting is that my students have started a lot of discussions about the food. A lot of the scenes dealing with food are also teaching Scout about manners and proper behavior. We also talk about how in the book lunch is referred to as dinner and we talk about how our grandparents say the same thing. My students don't know this yet but I have talked to the local chicken places and they are going to donate enough chicken so that we can have a true Southern Style dinner when we finish the book. We'll have fried chicken, beans, sweet tea, lane cake and some other sides. I'm so excited and I hope that even if they hate the book, they can look back on this year and think they had a pretty cool teacher who tried to get them to be enthusiastic about reading!

Student... Teacher... Nobody knows!

Then- 2005

Now- 2010

I have gotten my fair share of questions and looks from teachers in the hallways. They may ask for a pass, ask where my ID is, tell me to take my sunglasses off, or just tell me that they thought I was a student but I have never had 3 of these incidences in 1 week.

1. Last Friday I was feeling a little sick so I went to the nurse's office to get some throat spray. When I walked in she said, "Where is your pass from your teacher?" I said," Nurse Brast, I didn't think I needed to write myself one!" She apologized and gave me throat spray!

2. That same Friday I went to the football game with my mom and my sister who was in from New Orleans. I let them use my season tickets because I can get in for free. The lady at the gate wasn't the usual one and she told me to go down to the student gate to get into the game. I had to really work hard to convince her I was a teacher/coach.

3. On Friday, September 9th, at the start of 6th period, I walked across the hall to ask the teacher a question. This is my conversation with one of her students:

Student: Why are you disrupting our class? (very rude tone)
Me: Excuse me?!
Student: Why are you coming in and asking her a question while she's trying to teach us?
Me: Excuse me?!
Student: Why don't you leave?
Me: Do you want to keep going?
Student: Yeah, where are we going?
Me: What's your name and ID number?
Student: (Eyes got huge) You're a teacher?

That's when I walked out. Apparently he was really scared I was going to write him up for talking back and giving attitude to a teacher. He came to my class a couple of minutes later to apologize. He thought I was a senior. Everyone in the class thought I was a student still. Sucks for them that I'll be their English teacher next year!

Quotes and Convos from the students in Room 121

#1 
Background: My students were correcting a sentence that was about purchasing Alaska for 2 cents an acre. 

Student: I don't think Alaska should be in the US. 
Me: Why?
Student: It took Texas' place as the biggest state and we FOUGHT for Texas... we only bought Alaska. 
Me: Well should we return it, exchange it, or sell it back?
Student: Yeah, let's sell it. I'll put an ad on Craigslist... "Slightly used state for sale."

#2
Background: There isn't any... this just proves how random 10th graders are.

Student: Hey Miss B, are you married?
Me: Nope.
Student: Why not?
Me: Um.... (I don't know how to answer this question)
Student: Do you got a boyfriend?
Me: Nope.
Student: Why not?
Me: I don't have time. I'm too busy with school and tennis.
Student: Miss that's lame. You gotta make time.


Sad but true :(


#3
Background: It rained! For a brief couple of minutes it rained at tennis practice and we had to end early. The next day we were talking about how nice it was.


Student: It didn't even rain enough for me to go mud boggin'!
(I didn't ask)


#4
Background: Reading a poem about fences and boundaries. I relate this to one of my class rules which is to NOT touch anything on Coach Berwick's desk. We talk about the fence that's around it. I say it is a very very tall privacy fence with coiled barbed wire on top and it's electric. 


Student: How do you get through it?
Me: I'm immune.
Student: You mean you're like Nemo?
Other students: WHAT?
Me: No it's ok... I get it!

#5
Background: I curled my hair. 


Student: You look pretty today Miss. 
Me: Thanks Miguel.
Student: Yeah, for an old person.

A Million Words or Less

This week I gave my first writing assignment. My students have to write me a letter using a million words or less telling me everything I should know about them. Because I would never make my students do something that I wouldn't do I wrote them a letter. I always feel really self conscious about this because I don't think I'm that great of a writer and I don't really know these kids yet but they were really awesome. They laughed in the right places and applauded me when I was done. Reading my letter to my class made me really excited to read theirs. The best part was that they asked a lot of questions after I was finished. It seemed like they were actually interested about my life!
I did this assignment last year and thought it was awesome because it is two-fold. I get to know my students and I get to see what we need to work on with their writing this year. I also give the kids an opportunity for extra credit by having their parents write me a letter about their child. These are my favorite letters to read because the parents have such awesome things to say about their kids and I get to know my students in a different way!
This year I added a little something new. I made a power point with photos of all the people that are in my life and were in my letter. The first picture they saw was this one of me when I was 1 year old. They loved it! I think all of this gave them a little more direction for their letters. This was such a great way to end the first week of school and I am so excited about getting their letters on Tuesday!

My future teaching self

I found this quote and decided this is how I'm going to teach this year.

I always teach books with the "ten year" goal in mind, asking myself what will this kid remember in ten years? I hope some of the themes—all about injustice, doing the right thing and growing up -- are part of their blueprint. And I want them reading. I want to run into them on the street and be able to talk to them about what's on their bookshelves, and what they're sharing with their children, because this is what I want them to take from my class: some sort of passion for reading, and the strategies that go along with being a critical reader. This is what gives us an educated populace necessary for a democracy.

The 10 Year Lesson Plan