Ice Breaker Idea

Over at Two Writing Teachers there is a post about a new book called Artists, Writers, Thinkers, Dreamers: Portraits of 50 Famous Folks & All Their Weird Stuff. TWT thought it would be a great way for students to introduce themselves, and I have to agree. It would be an excellent way to value all the cultural capital that the students bring with them into our classroom.

Helping Students Learn From Mistakes

Subscribing to Edutopia on Facebook is probably the most helpful thing I've done lately -- they often have articles that make me think and help direct my teaching. Often I already know the information, and they just remind me about good pedagogy. That was the case with this recent article about "Teaching Students to Embrace Mistakes." Check it out!

Vocabulary Book Review

As an ELD teacher, I am teaching way more vocabulary than I ever have before. I have found this book to be an invaluable resource. It combines vocabulary with writing skills, creativity and presentation -- a win, win, win for any ELD classroom. I can't recommend it enough!!

So far I have tried the selling a word (persuasion) strategy and the news story strategy (who, when, what, where, why), and both of them worked very well. Remember that these are students who don't like to write -- but they were able to do this and do it well enough to teach their classmates. Their retention was very good based on a quick assessment the next class period. The nice thing about it is that I let their peers assess how they've done -- if they know what the word is, they pass, but if the students can't tell me what the word meant, the authors go back and make their definition better -- real world instant feedback.

Sentence Combining

I think I will use this with my level 4 ELD class tomorrow:

Sentence Combining from Emily Kissner

Utah Beehive Book Awards 2013-2014

As far as the YAL category goes, I've read the following and here is my input:

Shadow and Bone: Felt like I'd been there, done that. I am very tired of whiny teenagers taking leadership over a group of adults or other teenagers just because they have some super power and not for any particle of leadership ability. I didn't like this well enough to seek out the sequels.

The Lions of Little Rock: I loved this book. I particularly liked the relationship between the mother and the daughter; because I could really relate. Readers who enjoy historical fiction should eat this up.

The Fault in Our Stars: Dare I say that I've had this on my Kindle for months (along with Code Name Verity) but I've yet to read it? I know both of them are good, it's just that I tend to give all my attention to the books I have out from the library.

Cinder: I liked this one well enough to check out the sequel, Scarlett, and I actually liked that one the best. This one was pretty good even if it felt a little formulaic. I'm a sucker for Byronic heroes, and the main squeeze from number two is definitely a Byronic kind of guy...

Code Name Verity: See above.

Legend: I found this one to be fairly interesting. I thought the author's comments that she based this on Les Miserables and the scenes with Marius and Eponine were telling. What would happen if the detective and the fugitive hooked up? Hmmm.... I liked this one well enough to pick up the next in the series, Prodigy, but I just got it on hold from the library yesterday, so I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

The Scorpio Races: I thought that the characterization was very interesting in this book, but I couldn't really get into the whole water horse thing. The author didn't sell me on why in the world anyone would do such a thing. If you are a fan of great character writing, you'll like this. I also liked the double perspective between Kate and Sean. I'm not sure why I don't rate this book higher than I do -- I think it's because as stated above, I just didn't buy into the mythology.

Ungifted: I haven't read this one yet because it's never in the stacks, which means it's probably a pretty good read.

The False Prince: Ditto Ungifted. I just started working my way through these last month, so this one will be next on my list.

Welcome Caller, This is Chloe: Honestly, I may or may not get to this one as it is not really my cup of tea. I'm just judging from the cover on this, which tells you how important a cover really is.

Rot & Ruin: I liked this one well enough to read all the sequels that are available. It may be my current craze with The Walking Dead, but I liked it. It's more about relationships (and good versus evil) than Zombies, really.

Wrapped: Although this book was completely unbelievable, I did like it enough to read it all the way to the end. I won't be picking up any sequels, as the characters were just slightly off kilter for me.

How was I able to read this many books in about three weeks? Well, my new teaching assignment leads to a lot less time spent at home grading. I used to spend tons of time creating and tweaking curriculum and then added a ton of grading on top. With ELD the curriculum is set, so I just spend time tweaking. Most of my feedback is instant right there in the classroom, so the grading load is very light. If it wasn't for most of my students hating to read and write, this would be a perfect job.

My New Room -- Yikes!!!!

So after the district finally approved my hire yesterday (the people at the school kept telling me it was not approved, but then the VP remembered that he had sent the request using another email--turns out it was approved immediately the day I was hired), I finally got to look at my room. In a word -- scary.
The teacher who quit suddenly last week left a bit of a mess. Understatement of the day. Here's what I have to work with:

Yes, that is a laptop cart (the laptops are scattered all over the room), and I have an overhead projector and an ELMO and a really nice stand for large paper pads. There are also all kinds of strange things in the room - a step ladder, a music stand, two fans, a space heater, and...boxes and boxes of curling irons, hairspray, and nail polish (I guess the former teacher did hair and nails as as a flex (student chosen reward) time activity)? I also have so much junk piled everywhere that I'm a little afraid of what to do with it. It's not entirely her fault as the custodians have dumped this room in and out this year. Supposedly the former teacher is coming at 3 o'clock today to take out her stuff -- whatever of all this stuff her stuff is. One thing that I don't like is that she has covered some of the walls with large strips of paper, which is torn and looks pretty tacky. That will have to come down ASAP -- so that step ladder will come in handy.
On a more positive note, I had a mostly good experience with the faculty meeting yesterday. It turns out that I am not a member of the ELA team,  but instead I team with the foreign language department. The old ESL teacher never met with anyone because she had a class to teach at the high school, so...I will see how this goes. Wish me luck!!

A Whole New World

I haven't posted anything about this yet, but I wasn't hired back at UCAS at the end of the year. I was teaching part-time there, and they kind of rearranged the schedule so that I wasn't on it anymore. It was a bittersweet parting. I had a lot of good experiences and fun there -- loved the students and staff -- but it wasn't handled very well.
I've spent an entire stressful summer looking for a new job. I even briefly accepted a position in SLC, but I came to my senses before I signed the contract -- that 50 minute commute would have killed me. I gave up a very nice contract, but I figured I would get another offer. Well, two months and many interviews later and only a week before school starts, I had despaired of getting a job this year. I confided this to the BHW last week, mentioning what a hit this has taken on my self esteem, and he said, "I'm pretty sure that you'll have a position sooner than you think."
So...on Tuesday I went for an interview at Lakeridge Junior High for an ESL teacher. I haven't taught junior high since I student taught, and I don't have an ESL endorsement. During the interview, I was talking about some of the ways I've tried to create a sense of community and rapport in the classroom, and one the of interviewers said, "When you talk about your students, your face just lights up." I guess that means that they thought I had what they wanted, because they called today to offer me the job. I am beyond stoked. I am thrilled, humbled, and feel very blessed. I am going to work like crazy for those kids!!
This will be a challenge for me, but I think I am up for it. I am excited for the new change and for the chance to work for the local school district. I will have access to a lot more professional development resources, etc., than I ever had working for a charter school.
Well, enough about me. I immediately went on the EC Ning and started looking for resources, and found this site: Larry Ferlazzo's Website of the Day. He has a book on Amazon, too, which I ended up ordering after emailing him back and forth for a bit.