A Sonnet for the Class of 2016

Sonnet 2016

Your life is a book filled with memories,

ones to celebrate and ones to forget.

The high school chapter is a summary

of hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

Before the second chapter is written,

make every opportunity count.

Always remember these words of wisdom.

Making the right choices is paramount.

Life is like music with slow and fast beats.

Find your rhythm in life and dance away.

Long, short, staccato, or just a repeat

Focus on mind, body, and soul each day.

The road you want to travel may not be

 the one path you end up on traveling.

There will be obstacles that you won't see.

If one path doesn't work, do more planning.

Now, it's time to take the book and write

the next chapters about your future life.


I wrote this poem with help from Mrs. Wallace and Mrs. Delong.

May the Fourth Be with You!

May 4, 2016

In a classroom along time ago,

      I wore a Star Wars t-shirt to school; it was May the fourth Be with You! I am a Star Wars fan just like my husband; we even have a Star Wars room filled with the action figures and the books written about the movies.  I thought about the other famous quotes said in the movies and how I could apply them to teaching.
     I'll start with Yoda's quote from Star Wars,  "Do or do not; there is not try." I either accomplish the task or fail it; just trying to do something will not bring any results. I wouldn't be able to reflect and make improvements. For example, I am already planning my curriculum for next year. I want to incorporate more formal speaking practice in each unit. The units will revolve around the senior paper and project. I want to push my students to go beyond just giving a speech about what they learned; I want them to create or do something with it by putting the idea into action!
     In the new Movie, Star Wars, the Force Awakens, Finn helped Poe escape Kylo Ren. Poe asked Finn why he was doing this, and Finn replied, "because it's the right thing to do." In education, I have to make choices and decisions that affect my students. Helping students find which path to take is the right thing to do in education. If that means throwing away the traditional approaches and implementing new ideas, I see no problems with it. Offering college classes in high school, having students make portfolios, and requiring students to read and write across the curriculum are just a few ideas. Helping students the right thing is to do.
     Also, in this movie, Finn and Rey say at the same time while they are trying to fix the Millinneim Falcon, "I can do this." I want my students to be independent learners who take risks and never give up. The senior speeches started this week, and I have made a few observations. A lot of the students do not like talking in front of a group, but when they accomplish this feat, they gain more self-confidence. I want them to believe that "they can do this." I want them to understand that failing is a part of learning, and that they must practice and practice to get something correct.
     I want to leave the last quote to you, the Oklahoma teachers, who have survived the negative remarks and insults about this profession.  "May the Force Be with You." Never lose the spirit, the energy, and the purpose of why you are a teacher. One teacher can change a student's life, but a group of teachers can change the world.

The Testing Season

February 13 & 14, & April 9, 2016

Days 230 & 231 as an Oklahoma Teacher

The testing season is almost finished. These tests are supposed  to show if teachers actually taught their students valuable information, and if the students retained the information from the class. I only played the testing game for a couple of years, and that was enough for me. These tests cost too much money. Here are some problems with the testing season.

Problem 1:
The tests take too much time, four to six weeks out of the second semester. Once the test is over
for that subject area, the students think that school is over, and it is difficult to get them to focus on
something else. Also, I have students in my AP class who don't like to have test preparation. Their attitudes change if I have them practice for the AP test. I equate this change in behavior to all the tests they have taken throughout the years. In my opinion, the AP test is the most important besides the ACT.

Problem 2:
I believe that the quality of writing has gone down because the writing part of the EOI limits the creativity and the knowledge of the students. For students, writing is only important for a test score, not for the love of expressing ideas. The purpose of writing has been lost; they don't understand the power of words, what writers say, and what people do with it.

Problem 3:
This one comes from one of my students who wrote his senior paper about testing. He said that more important concepts are left out of lesson plans. In my opinion, he is saying that tests limit the learning of students because some teachers only teach what will be on the test. If a class has higher-level students, does the teacher go beyond what is on the test to help the students? Students become bored with education and lose the reasons why learning is important.


Problem 4:
This student also said that students don't take the tests seriously anymore. They know that colleges look at the ACT scores, not the EOI scores. After students pass their required number of tests, they do not care about the other two they have to take. When testing became a way to evaluate teachers, then the integrity of the tests was lost. Maybe, we should evaluate teachers and schools on how successful students are at the college and career levels.

Problem 5:
Students should be applying what they know to create and to innovate new ideas. Sitting in from of a computer screen for a couple of hours to take a multiple-choice test only shows what students remember. We need students to apply the skills that they have learned to solve a problem. Why are we testing? What do we want students to be able to do? Will these tests help students prepare for college? These are questions to be pondered and answered.

So You Think You Can Teach?

April 16, 2016

Another Day as an Oklahoma Teacher

Since the school year is about to end, it's time to reflect about what has happened.

1. Being a teacher means trying new ideas, so what is a successful idea that I have tried and what were the results? Here's my answer.

Over the years, I have tried the newest fads that have invaded education. However, this idea is one that I created. To practice questioning skills, using the ACE strategy, and working with a group, I had may students create a board game for The Odyssey. The students had to design the board using a setting from the poem, and the game had to include game pieces, 50 cards, rules, and had to contain at least four obstacles just like Odysseus had to encounter. Everyone played the different games and filled out comment cards.

2. What is an idea that I used that ended up being a complete failure?

One of the requirements for the senior paper was to keep a log of what was accomplished and what needed to be finished. A lot of students didn't like this idea; they would rather not set goals, just throw something together and that would be good enough. They are missing the idea of reflection which they will need at the college level. I graded the logs the first semester, but I didn't have them complete the logs the second semester. For the next school year, I am going to require the logs for both semesters, but the students will have options: snapchat stories, blogs, or voice recordings. 

3. What is a major issue in education?

The major issue has been the negative talk about public education. This talk led to the decrease in school funding, which led to the teacher shortage, and now is leading to schools having to consider consolidating or closing. All of these problems have been caused by manipulative people with other agendas. They have never liked public schools or teachers and would do anything to destroy public education. This manipulation is nothing new; the agenda has been pushed for at least five years. Saying that all schools are failing is just as ridiculous as me insinuating that only some students can be successful. Teachers have the solutions; we just need to be respected for our opinions.

4. What is one idea that should be implemented in schools?

I will be implementing this idea next year. Every student should have an educational map that documents what they have accomplished and what they need to do to be college and career ready. We have to get out of the mindset that all students will go to college; I have several students who have learned a trade and will just start working after graduation. There are students who are ahead of their peers in academics, and those students who next extra help. Creating this map would help me as a teacher to see the individual needs of the students and also let the students see the big picture. They need to see what it will take to reach their goals, their dreams, and their destinations.

5.  What advice would I give someone going into education?

First, don't believe the idea that teachers get the summers off. Most of us are attending several workshops, teaching summer school, or planning for next year. I moved into a different building and attended five workshops last summer. Next, be ready to learn something new and adjust your lesson plans. What you think you will teach may change. Always reflect about your teaching. What can you do better? What are some ways to make your classroom instruction relevant to real-world ideas? Finally, never give up! People will say negative words about education to push their agendas. Just be ready to stand up for our students.

Now, you can just read my questions and answers, create your own questions and answers, or use the ones I have. It's your choice.



       

Unit Lesson Plans for the Vague Standards!

March 27, 2016

Today, I listened to the Oklahoma Education Standards for Legislators. I heard many comments I disagreed with like historical documents should be included in the standards even though it was in the common core standards, exemplars should be included which were not used for PASS, and that the level of rigor is not across the grade bands. These plans are not common core compliant; these plans are college and career ready and focus on the interests of the students. Here is my curriculum for some of the standards, built into units, with rigor across grade bands.

9th-12th  Grade Career Pathways Research Papers

Speaking & Listening Standards:
Students will engage in collaborative discussions about appropriate topics and texts, expressing their own ideas by contributing to, building on, and questioning the ideas in pairs, diverse groups, and whole class settings.

Students will give formal and informal presentations in a group or individually, providing textual and visual evidence to support a main idea.

Reading and Writing Process Standards:
Students will summarize, paraphrase, and synthesize ideas, while maintaining meaning and logical sequence of events, within and between texts.

Students will plan and rewrite a first drafts as necessary.

Students will develop drafts by choosing an organizational structure and building on ideas in multi-paragraph essays.

Students will edit and revise multiple drafts for logical organization, enhanced transitions and coherence, sentence variety, and of tone and point of view through specific rhetorical devices to establish meaningful texts.

Research Standards:
Reading: Students will comprehend, evaluate, and synthesize resources to acquire and refine   knowledge.
Students will use their own viable research questions and well-developed thesis statements to find information about a specific topic.
Writing: Students will summarize and paragraphs, integrate evidence, and cite sources to create reports, projects, papers, texts, and presentations for multiple purposes.


Putting It Together:

English I:

Modes of Writing: Expository, Persuasive, Narrative, Argumentative, and Reflective

Length of Research Paper: 2-3 pages

Length of Essays: 1-2 pages

Number of Sources: 1-2

Description

At the 9th grade level, students should explore possible career choices, colleges that they might want to attend, understand what it takes to be a successful student and employee, and create an initial path to follow through high school. The research is ongoing throughout the school year, and the students write the different essays about ideas they learned. The reflective essay should be required at the end of both semesters, and the students add all of the essays into their portfolios.

For the finale, the students use one of their writing assignments to help them plan a presentation at the end of the second semester. The presentation should not be just a board with the information; we need to encourage them to incorporate various types of technology. The presentation should last between 5-10 minutes, and the audience should be students from other classes and teachers. The teachers will be assigned the task of scoring the presentations which will be averaged in with the teacher's grade.

English II:

Modes of Writing: Expository, Persuasive, Narrative, Argumentative, and Reflective

Length of Essays: 2-3 pages

Length of Research Paper: 4-5 pages

Number of Sources: 2-3

Description

At the sophomore level, students should reflect on what they accomplished in 9th grade, explore other career choices, research colleges and make a college visit if that is their path, interview college professors and employers, and learn how to fill out job applications and practice interviewing for jobs. As the students research the information, they write the different essays. The reflective essay should be required at the end of both semesters, and they will add all their information into their portfolios.

For the finale, the students present one of their writing assignments in a presentation which should be given at the end of the school year. The students should be encouraged to use various types of technology. The presentations should last 10-12 minutes, and the audience should be teachers, students, and administrators. Teachers will score the presentations, and the scores will be part of the overall grade for the presentations.

English III:

Modes of Writing: Expository, Narrative, Persuasive, Argumentative, and Reflective

Length of Essays: 2-3 pages

Length of Research Paper: 5-6  pages

Number of Sources: 2-3

Description

At the junior level, you have some students who attend college, several students who choose to attend career-tech, and many students who have jobs; therefore, the essays and research paper should reflect these ideas. Students should write about their experiences at career-tech, college, and a job, visit a college, reflect on what was learned, and make a plan of study for the college level, and prepare for the senior level of high school.

For the finale, the students reflect on their strengths/weaknesses, where they are, what they have accomplished, and where they need to go to complete their path. A committee of teachers, administrators, and retired teachers could be the audience. The committee could give the presentations a score, and then that score would be averaged in to make the final grade.

English IV:

Modes of Writing: Expository, Narrative, Persuasive, Argumentative, and Reflective

Length of Essays: 2-3 pages

Length of Research Paper: 6-7  pages

Number of Sources: 4-5

At the senior level, students are on different paths. They have to finish their portfolio, know the classes they have to take to receive a college degree, apply for scholarships, work jobs, and pay bills. All of these ideas should be the topics for their essays, but the research paper should go a different direction. During this year, they have to go out and do something with what they have learned, such as through a service project, a study, or an experiment. The research paper is based on the service project, and the students write a proposal letter, create an annotated bibliography, and use the MLA format for the research paper requirements.

For the finale, the students present their research paper in a 15-20 minute speech. The audience could be committee of teachers, administrators, college professors, and community leaders who score the presentations. The score will be averaged in with the teacher's grade.

Academic Vocabulary:

connotation, denotation, tone, word choices, thesis statement, topic sentences, supporting details, claims, counterclaims, works cited, ethos, logos, pathos, summary, print sources, web sources, paraphrase, prewriting, formal outline, composing, editing, revising, publishing, audience, purpose, editing marks, formal speech, sentence variety, and rules for colons and commas

Lifesaving Strategies:

Elevator Speeches, Commit and Toss, Four Corners, Paired Writing Discussions, Think, Pair, and Share, Think, Tweet, and Share, Socratic Circles, Scavenger Hunts,  ACE Questions,  Editing Islands, & Read & Tell

Artifacts:

Formative Assessments                                               

Formal Outline                                                           

Notecards/Source Cards

Socratic Circles

ACE Questions

Editing Islands

Read & Tell

Summative Assessments:

Proposal Letter

Annotated Bibliography

Multiple Drafts of Research Paper

Speech Formal Outline

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Google Slides, I-Movie, or a Demonstration

Speech

Teaching Outside the Box:

Make the speeches a competition, like a TedTalk. The students could win prizes for their speeches and their original ideas. Make this assignment interdisciplinary so that students can see the importance of reading and writing across the curriculum. Have students make advertisements promoting their ideas. They could even make 30-second commercials. 

Supporting the Standards!

March 17, 2016

from an Oklahoma Teacher on Spring Break

I have taught almost 25 years in Oklahoma, earned a Bachelor's Degree in English Education, a Master's Degree in Secondary Education, and a Master's Degree in Reading, and I believe that these are the best standards I have seen throughout my years in education. Here are the reasons why I like our standards and why the standards should be approved.

The standards support literacy: reading, writing, speaking, listening, and vocabulary skills. The only way to improve these five skills is to have students practice the skills together, not teach each 
skill as a separate entity. 

The standards provide opportunities for repetition of skills. For students to develop good habits, they need opportunities to repeat the skills they know while learning new ones. 

The standards promote curriculum alignment. My colleagues and I can align our curriculum so that we know what students should be able to do at each level.

The standards include independent reading and writing. For 11th and 12th grade students, accomplishing this standard would indicate that they are ready for college since college is all about independent reading and writing. 

The standards require research, using sources, and evidence. These skills are essential for college-level work. Click on this link for aligning research papers 9th-12th. Research Paper Proposals

The standards focus on the needs of the students not just for a test or an agenda.  Students have different strengths and weaknesses, and these standards don't represent the "one size fits all" idea that has been seen in common core states.

The standards focus on the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. The focus is not on recalling or identifying; it's on evaluating, synthesizing, comprehending, and applying.

The standards require students to go through the stages of the writing process and to write multiple drafts. We have to prepare students to revise, to edit, and to write multiple drafts of essays. With the influx of writing tests that are given, I think these steps have been overlooked.

The standards involve critical reading and writing. Students are not just reading for fun or reading to get a higher score on an AR test. Students should read to understand why that piece of literature was written, to relate ideas to real-world events or other books that have been read, and to argue about something in the book. All of these ideas relate to the critical writing standard.

The standards require students to have speaking and listening skills. Students need to articulate their thoughts using sentences and upper-level vocabulary. We want them to go beyond a 6th grade vocabulary when discussing ideas. Furthermore, if students can discuss about it, they can write about it.

These standards are perfect for unit lesson plans, give teachers a way to align the curriculum, and focus on the students. Approve without hesitation #ourstandards, so that we can prepare for next year.

As Katniss Everdeen said in the Hunger Games, "Thanks for the consideration!"

The Standards Inferno

March 17, 2016

An Oklahoma Teacher on Spring Break

In the beginning of Dante's Inferno, Dante says that "Midway on our life's journey, I found myself in dark woods, the right road lost." The road to approving the standards has been lost by all the suggestions that either relate to common core or are Much Ado about Nothing.

The suggestions that relate to common core are reading the founding documents, literary text examples for each grade level, test and writing exemplars, and that the standards are too vague.These suggestions should not be considered because if even one of these ideas is used, then some one is breaking the law. The example literary text suggestion caused a big commotion in the state when a book that will not be named was used as an example. Okay, I will mention this book title, but please forgive me for this sin. The Bluest Eye was used as an example text to show the reading difficulty needed for the CCSS. I don't need example literary text, and if a high school teacher has students read Dr. Seuss books for the reading standard, then that teacher should be fired.

 Narrative writing should not be used in the upper grades because it does not relate to  college and career.  Argument should be changed to opinion or persuasion.

I disagree with these suggestions. I know that my seniors who have taken concurrent enrollment at Cameron University had to write a narrative essay in Comp I, and in Comp II, they had to write an argumentative essay. This is nothing new; it's been going on for years. The types of informative essays that they have written include definition, compare/contrast, and rhetorical analysis along with a research paper. My curriculum this year has followed what Cameron requires because most of my students will attend Cameron or another state college. Informative writing is not just about giving the facts or regurgitating the material. If done correctly, it is critical writing.

Literary and informational critical reading standards

I am insulted with this assertion that English teachers have not been trained to teach informational text and that the informational text would relate to topics that belong to other subject areas. Furthermore, if English teachers don't understand what literary texts mean, they should not be teaching in our state. In Comp I and Comp II, students have to read informational text. It would be ignorant to read just literary text when at the college level, they have to read informational text. Furthermore, the literature textbooks contain informational text, AKA nonfiction.

 Include Oklahoma authors and their books

Well, this idea works for a unit lesson plan but not for a standard. What I have found out with senior students is that they have had enough of forced reading. If I let them choose or relate the books to career choices or their interests, then they will read it without complaining about it. I will use this as one of my unit lesson plans, but my students will have the final choice. By the way, students take an Oklahoma history class in the 8th or 9th grade, so maybe that's where the unit should go.

Standards are the parts that make up the curriculum map; standards are not the curriculum. In my opinion, I want vague standards because I can create curriculum that fits in the individual needs of my students; more precise standards would lead to a particular test, relate to common core, and present a "one size fits  all" curriculum. 

Now to blog about why I like #ourstandards.