Anti-Bullying Campaign

In September, the suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer brought the serious issue of school bullying to the national spotlight. Not only did his name and story become associated with the popular NoH8 movement, but it even inspired Lady Gaga to dedicate a song to Jamey, who was a self-proclaimed "Gaga Monster." These events hit my school especially hard since we are located only a few miles from Jamey's hometown.

To help combat bullying, yesterday was proclaimed Anti-Bullying Day in our school. Students wore blue clothing to support the victims of bullying, and hundreds of kids signed an anti-bullying pledge inspired by Dr. Phil. To help spread our passionate message against bullying, some of my students worked together to create anti-bullying public service announcements. In the first 24 hours, they have received hundreds of hits on Youtube, and were even featured on the local evening news.

Please take a moment to view the results of their hard work, and if bullying is something your school finds to be an important issue, feel free to share the links. Our goal is to promote the message that bullying cannot be tolerated. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

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Making Connections with Blogging

Something strange has been going on around here lately. I noticed the other night that blog subscriptions through Feedburner have risen nearly 30% since the beginning of September, and the number of folks following the site has also been increasing in small increments. About a week ago, @timholt2007 posted a video he created that was inspired by one of my previous blog posts. Tonight, I was even greeted by four new comments to various blog posts when I logged in to the Blogger dashboard.

It's hard for me to describe how humbling it is when someone tells me that what I'm doing in my classroom and then sharing via my blog or Twitter feed has value to them. It's quite motivating, actually.

This is what blogging is all about - making connections, finding (and sharing) resources, and developing collegiality that extends far beyond the physical boundaries of geographical location. There is so much value in reading and writing blogs - it's a shame that more teachers don't take advantage.

Below is the video post created by Tim Holt. Watch it, enjoy it, then feel free to take a look around his blog too. And to everyone who wilfully listens to my ideas and tolerates my ramblings - thank you.

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A Story About My Dad

This is a story I've been wanting to share on here for some time now. It's about my dad.

My dad was a band director at a rural junior/senior high school located outside of Batavia, NY. Although the school was small and the pay was meager, he loved it. During the 26 years of his career, he had become part of the community. He knew everyone, and everyone knew him. I remember watching him lead the marching band during the annual town Labor Day festival. He couldn't move three strides without someone emerging from the crowd to shake his hand and join him in the walk down the parade route. Simply put, he was completely invested in his school, his students, and his community.

In the summer of 2008, with just four years until retirement, my dad passed away from a sudden and completely unexpected heart attack. He was only 51 years old.

During calling hours, it became clear that our sudden loss had not only shocked our family but the families of all my Dad's students – both former and present. After the two days of calling hours our funeral director informed us that more than a thousand people had come to pay their respects. Many of those were teenagers.

To accommodate the large volume of people, my immediate family formed something of a receiving line near my dad so people could speak with us in some semblance of order. It was incredibly difficult to talk with his students, but it revealed a part of Dad's life that we never totally understood until that point. It seemed that each student had a story about a time when Dad had gone out of his way to do something for one of his students. These stories obviously meant a lot to these kids, but my dad never said a word about his good deeds at home. I think that just shows how genuine he was – he never looked for a pat on the back.

But this is the part of the story that I wish I could share with every teacher beginning a new school year...

As the line of mourners progressed, a young girl – no older than 15 – came up to shake my mom's hand. The girl had tears streaking her face, so in an attempt to comfort her my mom thanked her for coming and then asked her what instrument she played in my dad's orchestra. The girl just looked at my mom and said, “I was never in band, but your husband smiled and said hello to me every morning when I passed him in the hallway.”

As a teacher, I just hope I can make a difference in these kids' lives like Dad did.

I love you, Dad.

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Professional Development VS. Personal Development

Last year I made the New Year's resolution to learn how to play piano. I found a quaint music shop that offers lessons, and every Wednesday I wait along with the other students (most being about half my age) in the lobby with lesson books in hand. I don't teach music, but the experience has reminded me what it's like to be the one whose job it is to learn, not to teach.

It's important to always be learning something new. If we forget what it's like to learn, then how can we expect others to learn from us? We hear all the time about professional development, but I'd hope that we are aware of personal development as well.

Can the personal and professional merge? They better, or else you may be in the wrong profession. Take, for example, my most current New Year's resolution. I've always wanted to learn how to create Flash applications, and with the help of my Instructional Technology department I now have a fresh copy of Adobe Flash CS4 Professional installed on my teacher workstation. While – and I'm aware that this is an awfully nerdy thing to admit – learning this is mostly grounded in recreational purposes, I can see Flash-based web apps, games, quizzes, and even iPod Touch apps to be something that could be integrated into my daily class activities. How cool would it be to create my own iPhone app and then host it as a free download to students through iTunes?!

I'm not there yet, but I'm learning. Here is my first Flash project - It's a pickle navigating through a maze. Okay, maybe it's lacking in educational value.

But hey, we all have to start somewhere.

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Real World Example of Plagiarism

I occasionally mark posts on here with the tag “practice what you preach” because we must lead by example – as adults, as role models, as professionals. Unfortunately, not everyone follows that simple, time-tested mantra.

Here is a review for the inspirational movie “The Blind Side” published by Erica Yunghans for Dunkirk NY’s daily paper, the Observer on November 28th, 2009.

And here is another review for the same movie published about two weeks earlier by Associated Press writer Glenn Whipp.

Notice any similarities?

There are two things about this that shock me. First, that a professional writer (I’m assuming Yunghans has a degree in journalism) would have the audacity to plagiarize in the first place, and secondly that the Observer has not yet reprimanded one of their editors for committing such a blatant crime. As a professional daily publication, I would hope the Observer is conscience of its credibility and reputation.

I wanted to share these two links so that they can be passed on to your students. Use this as a real world example of plagiarism. Let the lesson be that while it’s very, very easy to steal another’s work from the Internet, it’s even easier to get caught doing so.

If you’d like to contact Erica Yunghans, she can be reached at eyunghans@observertoday.com.

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3 Reasons Why Teachers Should Blog

A blog is better than a resume


I’ve been chosen several times to sit on a hiring committee for my school. After each applicant leaves the formal interview, the informal one begins. I Google his/her name, email address, former place of employment – anything that may bring up something that will help us make the best possible decision for our students. Most times I find a password-protected Facebook account (at least they know how to stay discreet), but occasionally I find some comments on a message board, or even a blog.

These things give us a better picture of who the candidate is. The formal interview shows us that they know how to dress nicely and can (hopefully) proofread their resume, but a blog tells the whole story. You want to know a teacher’s educational philosophy? Have them write a dozen or so posts, and it will naturally emerge. The results will be more insightful than any pre-practiced interview question response.

Practice what you preach

Teachers not writing regularly is the same as a child being scolded to eat his vegetables while his mother dumps hers into the garbage disposal.

But there’s more to it than just the obligation to write.

Ideally, every student graduating from high school with have the ability to write. They learn how to write opinion pieces, compare/contrast expositions, research papers. We teach them the skills, but we don’t make them enjoy using them. They learn writing, but rarely feel writing. Shouldn’t teachers model the idea of writing for personal enjoyment rather than how to write to a rubric or complete a graphic organizer?

Reflection

Much of the teaching experience happens after the lesson. For most, it’s during the car ride home from work when we think about what went on in our classes – what went well, what flopped, what can be done better next time, how we can build on the experience. Putting these ideas into a blog makes them more substantial.

Take, for example, this blog post right now. I’m sitting here sifting through all the reasons why I enjoy keeping a blog. By doing so, I’m getting more out of the experience than if I were to just be thinking about it to myself. Meta-reflecting, I suppose. By putting it into my blog, I am responsible for it – and responsible for holding myself to whatever conclusion I arrive at.

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Am I a Selfish Blogger?

I read a post on CopyBlogger today titled "The 3 Fatal Diseases that Kill Good Blogs." I don't know if my blog constitutes as good but I have learned a lot since I started posting to it nearly 7 months ago. I keep an eye on the guest counter so I know at least some people are visiting, and it just tickles me when one of my blog posts gets retweeted. That's why I was eager to make sure I wasn't leaving myself open to a blog-fatal infection.

The first two diseases focused on folks looking to make their blog into a profession, so that simply didn't apply to me. The third in the list made me think, however.

Here's how the post described it:

The Selfish: These bloggers just don’t see the point in networking or in spreading goodwill. They certainly don’t take the time to foster relationships that can help them reach the next level, including creating a solid relationship with their audience.

Am I guilty of being a selfish blogger? I didn't think so at first. I'm pretty active on Twitter both in tweeting my own posts, and retweeting others, but does that count as spreading goodwill? I almost always respond to comments left on my blog and I try to comment of blog posts of others that I find interesting. That counts a fostering relationships, right?

But something about the last part of the selfish blogger description left me feeling a bit guilty. I keep a list of blogs saved to my favorites, but I don't make them public. I don't have a blogroll on my blog.

I know how excited I get when I spot my blog listed on someone's site. I should give credit where credit it due to the blogs that I enjoy reading.So I've decided to add a blogroll.

Maybe I have been a little selfish.

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How to Get Students Reading Silently and Independently

Our teaching contract requires us to teach five classes, and supervise one duty. Being an ELA teacher, my duty usually ends up being SSR, or Silent Sustained Reading in the half period opposite my students’ lunch. On paper, this is a 20 minute period of time where students choose a book to read while relaxing with their full bellies. The reality is that it is a holding tank for children hopped up on the social gossip spilled during lunch SSR is the time during the day where students are asked to do something that many of them do not particularly love to do, and where there is no consequence, punitive or grade-based, for their performance.

Some teachers concede quickly to SSR, turning it into a study hall. Others play dumb – ignoring students who habitually grab a different book from the shelf each day, or dangle carrots like “free Friday” for silent compliance during the week.

I’ve tried group read-alouds, small book clubs, high interest selections – all with some success. Some kids embrace it while others visit my desk daily with legs bent and knees touching proclaiming inevitable bladder infection unless I turn them loose to visit the bathroom and then roam the halls. At best I would estimate 80% of my group to be engaged in meaningful reading. Better than the SSR classes that abandoned reading altogether, but not great. I resigned myself to this being the best possible model for an unstructured activity with a group of middle schoolers. Until, that is, I found the one missing component to a successful reading group. Me.

I’ve been a big fan of practice what you preach (here’s an earlier post on that same topic), and I realized I hadn’t been doing that during SSR. Typically after handing out books, and clearing the line of children with near-exploding bladders, I would hunker down at my desk and use the time to catch up on some of my own work.

My example was the wrong one. No wonder some SSR groups transform into a study hall. I had done it myself without even noticing. With the start of a new school year, and two SSR groups, I promised myself that I would set myself as an example. We are only into the second week of school, but perched in front of a silent group of readers with my book open in my lap, I have already noticed significant changes.

Once we begin reading, I open my book and get comfy in the front of the room. Amazingly, only twice have I been interrupted by a student asking to leave the room. I’d like to think that seeing my with a book caused an epiphany with my students on the importance and value of reading, causing them to immerse themselves in their own books. In reality, they are probably intimidated by the idea of interrupting the teacher while he is doing something. Either way, they are reading more during SSR. Everyone. I have 100% participation.

And best of all, I get a few minutes during my hectic day to read.

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Rationalizing Student Behavior

When I was in sixth grade, my English teacher started each week with a spelling pretest. At some point during the week the words would be used in class or as part of a homework assignment, and then the final test was on Friday. This routine was followed every week. By about June, I finally figured it out.

Every class has that kid who wanders in the door only to gasp, “There's a test today?!” I was that kid. And it wasn't because I was trying to be funny; I truly couldn't see the big picture.

It's easy to forget that our students are just kids, especially at the middle school level. They aren't going to be able to conceptualize ideas (or in my case, sequence of events!), and they aren't going to have very good follow-through. It's just the nature of the beast.

It's easy to say this right now because I don't have a bumbling student standing in front of me trying to explain his erratic behavior. But the next time I do, I hope I can think back to myself in sixth grade. Teachers should have high expectations of their students, but let's never forget that at the end of the day, they're just kids.

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Why I Blog

I was reading MsJWeir's first post in her newly created blog, and it got me thinking about my own experiences (follow her on Twitter @msjweir).

In education, blogging is the best of all worlds. It provides a universal audience, feedback, revision, purpose – it's like the perfect writing assignment. I am always on the hunt for the latest and greatest technological something-or-other that I can use in my class, and blogs certainly fall into that category. But that's not the only reason why I keep a blog.

I think one goal of English Language Arts is to create independent readers and writers. Wouldn't it be hypocritical for me to request this of my students if I don't practice what I preach? My students don't know the address to my blog but they know it exists, and they know I try to post often.

It's the same reason I try to read my own book while my students read theirs during SSR (silent sustained reading). Teachers spend too much time telling kids that reading and writing is important, when we should be telling them it's valuable.

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