<![CDATA[gingersnapping

<![CDATA[gingersnapping - Blog]]>Mon, 14 May 2012 08:39:47 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Canterbury Tales, Part Two]]>Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:41:42 -0800http://gingersnapping.weebly.com/2/post/2011/10/canterbury-tales-part-two.htmlWe only got through 2/3 of the Canterbury Tales presentations (oops... there goes THAT calendar...) but of the ones we've seen, I had (keep in mind they had TWELVE DAYS to work on this):

three very nice but very boring PowerPoint presentations (keep in mind that my third most important instruction was, "These are not boring stories. Do NOT make boring presentations!")
four pairs who just stood at the front of the room and told us the story without any visual aids (second most important instruction was, "Do not just stand there and talk! You will not get a good grade!")
one pair who stood at the front of the room and read their story's SparksNotes page off of a borrowed smartphone
two pairs who just flat-out skipped
two kids who skipped, leaving their partners high and dry and without any of their materials...
the partners of the aforementioned, both of whom claimed not to remember their story at all
several hilarious narrated slideshows
a first-grade "flannel board" storytime, using a big white board and paper dolls
the Yeoman's Tale re-enacted as a photoessay, in a "Real House Husbands of Canterbury" theme complete with theme music
two puppet shows

]]><![CDATA[And here I thought "waldorf" was just a weird sort of salad]]>Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:56:11 -0800http://gingersnapping.weebly.com/2/post/2011/10/and-here-i-thought-waldorf-was-just-a-weird-sort-of-salad.htmlYesterday, I read a very interesting news article about schools in the Silicon Valley that were using the Waldorf Method of education. It's a good article, but if you don't have time to read it, here's the gist. Waldorf schools reject the idea that more technology = better education, and take the opposite tack. No computers. No electronics. No smartboards or smartphones or document cameras or iPads. These Silicon Valley tech moguls, sensing that their children face an oversaturation of technology, pay about $24,000 a year to send their kids to a school where gadgets are nonexistent. We're talking chalkboards, not even whiteboards. Pencils and paper, not laptops. Books, not movies. They include knitting, woodworking, eurythmy, and music as an integral part of the curriculum.

According to the article, "those who endorse this approach say computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans...the push to equip classrooms with computers is unwarranted because studies do not clearly show that this leads to better test scores or other measurable gains."

This article is sticking in my head like a great novel or an unsettling dream.

On the one hand, I love my technology. I'm not the highest-tech teacher out there (I have neither smartboard nor -phone, for example) but I love my LCD projector, my computerized gradebook, my class website. I love being able to pull up YouTube videos to illustrate or enrich a point. I love having typed papers turned in, or being able to have papers submitted digitally.

But on the other hand... I can't help but believe, as the Waldorf school patrons do, that technology is doing less to help education than it is to undermine it. Reliance on spell check and grammar check has rendered many students unable (through laziness and "why should I-ism") to spell or use correct grammar on their own. The use of computers to generate papers has negated the need for legible handwriting. Cheating is not only easy in the age of SparkNotes, Wikipedia, and paper mills - it has gained an aura of acceptability as well. Students have learned not to strain themselves to figure something out; after all, they can just ask Yahoo Answers or Facebook, and are happy to accept the answer without further verification.

That's just surface stuff, though, things that have changed education but maybe not ruined it.

More worrisome are the students who can't focus in class because they're so distracted waiting for their cell phone to vibrate, or because they're so intent on texting under their desk or hiding their headphones behind their hair. MUCH more worrisome are the students who can't stay awake in class, or who are falling into a pit of depression, as a result of playing video games late into the night. If you ever want to have a real eye-opener, look up articles about the correlations between inadequate sleep and teen depression, between video game addiction, endorphin desensitization, and school performance....

Waldorf schools "frown on" the use of electronics outside of school as well. Imagine what your classroom would be like, if none of your kids played video games or had a cell phone. Imagine what it would be like if the only TV they were allowed to watch was educational or news programs. Imagine what it would be like if they turned to books and physical activity for entertainment.

But, you say, part of education is preparing students for the real world - and if you graduate a student without any knowledge of technology, they'll be crippled!

Supporters of this method argue that modern tech is deliberately SO easy to learn how to use - in order to reach as many customers as possible - that their kids will be able to pick it all up very quickly. They'll have a leg up in that they actually have background knowledge and self-driven work ethic, which they can use to make the most of the tech once they adopt it. Additionally, after 8th grade, Waldorf students are gradually given "rights" to use limited technology, and so begin building those skills before graduation.

I looked it up. The only Waldorf school in my state is a good eight and a half hours away from here. It looks like they tried to start up one in my town ten years ago, but it has long since faded away.

I could totally teach this way. I mean, I'd have to have a whiteboard. I can't STAND chalk. :) But just imagine... all the books... all the opportunity to really dig in and learn how to think and how to work...

Then again, I would probably have to learn how to make good bulletin boards. ]]><![CDATA[Welcome to the table...]]>Sun, 23 Oct 2011 21:30:34 -0800http://gingersnapping.weebly.com/2/post/2011/10/welcome-to-the-table.htmlWell, I'm about fifteen seconds away from posting a link to this site on Facebook - which is probably dreadful timing, given that most sane teachers have already gone to bed - but oh well. I can't help being a night owl.

The most recent post is all stats-y, and probably about as interesting as grading spelling tests, but there's a lot of good funny stuff as you scroll backwards in time. I imported several posts from my old teaching blog, and posted for the first time some that I wrote toward the end of last school year/at the beginning of this year. I hope you enjoy!

As you browse the site (check out the tabs in the green bar), please let me know if you have any suggestions or if you notice anything broken or inefficient. This is still very much a work in progress...
]]><![CDATA[One Quarter Down]]>Sun, 23 Oct 2011 21:09:40 -0800http://gingersnapping.weebly.com/2/post/2011/10/one-quarter-down.htmlLast Friday was the last day of the quarter - or rather, Thursday was, and Friday was the day we all sat down and frantically graded.

I'd been worrying. I'm teaching a lot of engineer-minded young men this year, and while they are undoubtedly brilliant, they're not too keen on that whole "turning stuff in" thing. Consequently, about a week ago I had a LOT of failing grades. So I did what I could. I griped at all of my classes. I printed off progress reports, highlighted every missing assignment, and - where it would make a difference - prioritized the work they ought to concentrate on first. Then I broke my cardinal rule of late work and told them I'd accept work right up until the deadline (Thursday at midnight).

I could go on for a while, recording for posterity all of the ridiculous ways that students took gross advantage of my generosity and tried to stretch the limits even further, but I'd rather let that fade into the past. Besides, it's not as if that won't happen again next time!

I'd actually like to take this moment to record how WELL my students did, against expectations! A full 40% of my students ended up with an A for first quarter, and only 20% failed. (Ten percent failed with what I'd call an F-, which I mark as anything lower than a 45%. The other 10% had between a 45% and a 59%.) And so I present: GRAPHS.

First up are seniors. You can see a pretty marked difference between 2A, which starts at about 9:15 AM, and 4A, which is the last class of the day. The earlier class is mostly populated with engineer-types and AP runaways; the later class is general population, with the wide range of abilities that comes with it.

Next we have juniors. The 1B and 4B classes have the engineer kids; 2B and 3B are quite large and are general population.

Finally we have my creative writing class - and that's, surprisingly, where I actually have some real disappointment. At this point in the class, everything has been check grades. Do it, turn it in, you've got an A. And I give them a TON of in-class work time. There's no reason in the world why every student shouldn't have an A in that class. And yet:

This does not bode well for November... Still, overall, I'm pretty pleased. Hopefully they will all keep up the good work!

]]><![CDATA[The "R" Word]]>Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0800http://gingersnapping.weebly.com/2/post/2011/10/the-r-word.htmlConfession: For the past half dozen years or so, I have been striving to rid myself of the habit of using the word "retarded." It's tough. I'm an old band kid; we've got inappropriate mouths. Still - unacceptable, particularly coming from someone who is so adamant about abolishing the use of "gay" to mean the same thing.

I'd thought I'd more or less conquered my inappropriate use of "the r-word," but then what do I go and do? I go to guest-speak in a colleague's classroom for five minutes yesterday, get flustered, and defend my topic of conversation by telling the room that "I know it sounds retarded, but..."

My mortification lasted all day. I kept mulling over that moment. Who did I offend? Did they tell on me when the teacher returned? Should I have apologized? Should I go back and apologize?

SO embarrassed.

On a moderately unrelated note, I later had the opportunity to grade one of my seniors' papers. Her entire analysis of a film she'd watched for class was that "it was pointless and retarted." After I got done fuming at her and giving her a zero on the paper, I had to laugh and remember what I'd read on Teenagers are Ridiculous about "retarted" having to do with making your pies over. Another possible definition: fixing yourself up all slutty because the first attempt at tarting it up didn't succeed?
]]><![CDATA[Teaching History and Science]]>Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:11:09 -0800http://gingersnapping.weebly.com/2/post/2011/10/teaching-history-and-science.htmlSaturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, which is usually nerdy and often profane but pretty much always hilarious, recently posted cartoons about the learning of history and the teaching of science. You're welcome. :) ]]><![CDATA[Canterbury Tales - Part One]]>Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:39:51 -0800http://gingersnapping.weebly.com/2/post/2011/10/canterbury-tales-part-one.htmlToday I'm going to talk about Chaucer. RIVETING, RIGHT?

Except that it is. I was so horrified that I would have to teach The Canterbury Tales this year, now that they’ve got me teaching juniors and seniors. I remembered “reading” them in high school myself and never wanting anything more to do with them. Blech.

But I’m actually completely falling in love with them (which, of course, is what I do with all of these pieces of literature that I failed to appreciate as a student). Before we began reading, we watched the hilarious (and fairly inappropriate, but hey – Chaucer) Canterbury Tales lecture by Mark Steel. Then we read the Prologue together, using a chart to track characterization for each of the people mentioned.

Afterward, they split into pairs and chose stories. I provided them with a modern English verse translation, very true to the Middle English version, and asked them to read it together and annotate. I warned them that they would be presenting their stories to the class, and I warned them that they’d be having more fun reading than one might ordinarily expect from 14th century literature.

“Mrs. B,” said one of my favorite students – a brazen, fearless young lady – “I would just like you to know that I read out loud, and I just read, out loud, the phrase ‘He grabbed her by the twat.’ In class. To a group of boys.”

“Congratulations,” replied I.

“Uhm,” said a boy, flagging me down with an uncertain expression on his face, “Does this, uh, say what I think it says?”

“What do you think it says?”

“Uh…”. His face reddened.

I smiled. “Ah. I see. Probably.”

Today, I upped the ante (and hopefully their comprehension) by giving them another version of their stories. This proved to be A LOT of work for me. This summer I’d acquired Peter Ackroyd’s prose retelling of The Canterbury Tales from my local floundering Borders store. It’s profoundly readable. Or did I mean profanely readable? I’ll tell you what – I read paranormal romances, and this book still made me blush. Mostly because you just don’t expect to see quite that many f-bombs and c-words in fourteenth century literature. Anyway, I desperately wanted them to read the story in a more approachable format, but I certainly couldn’t hand them that, so last night I went through the entire book and ferreted out all of the Big Naughty Words. I used tiny rectangles of Post-It to censor the over-the-top language (yes, I know, I hate censorship too, but seriously, I could NOT hand out packets sprinkled with THAT word!), which involved about six hours of skimming/speed-reading, plus an hour of censoring. Then I came into work very early this morning and photocopied, ooohhhhhhh, the entire book. FAIR USE, beeches!

So to cut to the chase… today I handed out the stories and my kids are rolling in the aisles. The fart jokes, in particular, seem to appeal to their 18-year-old senses of humor. I haven’t seen the girl I mentioned earlier yet – she’s in my last period class – but I’m eagerly anticipating her exclamations of astonishment as she inevitably puzzles out what words I’ve cut out…. That class is the one that will really enjoy this version, I think, beyond the flatulence. The morning seniors are a more serious group of kiddos, and more innocent – they undoubtedly missed some of the worst of it. “Innocent” would not describe the afternoon seniors…

For Monday, they’ll be putting together approximately 5-minute long presentations to tell their tales. I’m imploring them to do something creative, funny, memorable – something that will keep the rest of the class engaged and entertained, as well as informed. So far, it sounds like I won’t be disappointed. I’m not entirely sure how the gorilla suit fits “The Manciple’s Tale,” but I’m eager to find out on Tuesday…

]]><![CDATA[Teacher Depression]]>Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0800http://gingersnapping.weebly.com/2/post/2011/10/teacher-depression.htmlFrom Matthew Ygesias's site, a chart tracking teacher layoffs since January 2009:

(Before you jump to blame the President... the Senate Republicans killed the American Jobs Act last week, and that Act might have impacted these figures. Congress is currently working on a bill that would direct federal funds toward reversing the above trend.)

Yglesias points out that the impact of teacher layoffs reaches far beyond the teachers themselves: "In the real world, unemployment is high and wages are flat so this [teachers getting hired in the private sector] doesn’t happen. Instead the teacher’s family just faces an immediate need to restrain spending. Defer any purchases of durable goods, stop eating at restaurants, don’t update the wardrobe this season, etc. So now there’s a drag on employment of cooks and waitresses, of clothing retailers, of truck drivers, of guys who install refrigerators, and so forth."

]]><![CDATA[Pro Tips]]>Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0800http://gingersnapping.weebly.com/2/post/2011/10/pro-tips.html

]]><![CDATA[Linguistics and Beowulf, According to Pop Quiz Responses]]>Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0800http://gingersnapping.weebly.com/2/post/2011/09/linguistics-and-beowulf-according-to-pop-quiz-responses.htmlI had intended to let TAs grade this quiz, but as I skimmed some of the short answers I found that I just had to read – and copy – them all. Me? Amuse myself at the expense of my students? Perish the thought!

Two of the groups who came to England and helped create our language were the Saxons and the Angels. Middle English is a combo of Scottish and Polish. Shield Shaftson is the first person to be killed by Grendel. He is a soldier and then he dies. Shield is Hrothgar's best friend who is killed by Grendel's mom. Hrothgar is a king who deals with Grendel's bullcrap. He builds a meatball which is kind of like a bunny ranch or cool house where people party every night in. It is a temple-like structure. Grendel is an ugly swamp beast or demond. He attacks Hrothgar's people because he is grumpy and they annoy him with their constant partying. Grendel attacks them because of what they did to his mom. Beowulf rips off Grendel's arm with his bear hands. He ends up getting his arm ripped off. Grendel kicks his head off, with no weapons. He kills Grendel's mom by swimming down to her layer and kills her by cutting her head with a sword blessed by the giants that he finds in the cave. He used a shine sword and cutts her kneck. Fifty years pasted. Beowulf needs the gold that is in the serpent den so he has to defeat a golden flamethrowing dragon. In his final battle Beowulf must defeat himself.

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