HEALIGAN'S SECOND HOME

CRAZY TEACHER LADY SURVEYS THE EVIDENCE

2012-01-22T17:18:00.001-05:00

I just tallied the student writing I have read since school broke for Christmas holidays. In the last 29 days, I have read

AP Lit Hamlet essays=25

revised AP Lit Hamlet essays=10

4 reading journal posts from 122 juniors=288 journal entries

4 blog posts from 25 AP Lit students,
plus 2 comments by each student=150 posts

2 3-paragraph essays from each of my 58 Honors midterms (juniors)=116 essays

2 long essays from each of my AP students' midterms=50 essays

1 long essay from each of my 64 pre-AP midterms (juniors)=64 essays

2 detailed annotations/explications from pre-AP midterms (juniors)=128 annotations

~ 700 pieces of significant writing, not counting the annotations.
This does not include AP multiple choice sections on the midterm or the lengthy short answer sections on the juniors midterms (because I am not finished with those yet). They have been wonderful to read, full of original reflection and some creative nonfiction (I love teens). But I see this list and realize that the teacher needs to learn her lesson too. Everyone makes mistakes, and planning for their growth but not my own survival is a biggie. Making the list is just step 1 in my personal plan for a less insane second semester, to be implemented in the next week or so. Unless I go blind before then...

KING LEAR: MUSIC TO WATCH A KINGDOM CRUMBLE BY

2012-01-09T22:30:00.000-05:00

I have finally finished compiling the playlists that my juniors created for King Lear. They are amazing! I made a list of the most important or intriguing characters: King Lear, Gloucester, Edmund, Edgar, Poor Tom, the Fool, Oswald, Cordelia and Kent. In groups the students discussed what music their character would appreciate. Each student in the group contributed at least one song to their list and defended it. I knew it was good when I saw that the Fool listened to Queen right after Black Veil Bride. Below is the link to the master list of all songs on playlist.com. I also compiled a document with the mini-lists by character, which actually more clearly represents the accuracy of each character and music.

Why did I like this project so much? We had fun! There was lively argument throughout and also respect for each other. The mixtapes are fun to hear and represent the characters--you know so much about someone when you hear their music, don't you? Music can be as revealing as a personal reading list, I think. I got to know my students better because of that. They also practiced their skills at close reading and style of characterization. We also learned the difference between which music represented OUR impressions and which tunes were the songs the character would have chosen themselves. This last piece seemed to tap into the performance aspect of drama: we got into the heads of these people, I think. Now I want to create some playlists of us: what was the last song you heard as you arrived at school today?

Complete project info and support:

MUSIC TO WATCH A KINGDOM CRUMBLE BY...KING LEAR 2011 @ ST MARK'S

SHAKESPEARE CLEAN UP

2012-01-01T15:40:00.000-05:00

We have reached the denouement in our study of Shakespeare with some loose ends to be tied up: tableau vivant for Hamlet happens next week, and the Macbeth test is on the horizon, but most of us have decided on our assessment of the Bard. Me, I'm in heaven. I loved teaching all three plays at once, and did not start quoting the wrong play in the wrong class. AP Lit indulged me in discussion of thematic and symbolic similarities once or twice, but it was for their own good (I told them this. I am sure they believe me). And I got better in steering my young friends' observations and reactions.

The outstanding part for learner Healigan was my deeper emotional connection with each of the plays. I know that I FEEL them better. I started the month knowing that Hamlet was the best of the three, but I ended knowing that it was poetry alone that gave Ham the edge over Lear. Lear shocked me with its wildness and the tremendous sorrow I felt reading it. Maybe it is my age--those children could have been mine, at least age-wise. And Macbeth is so great to teach: the arc of character and plot are in total sync. The ending leaves no ambiguity--I think that is a good thing for 16-year-olds, whose lives are so rife with ambiguity and equivocation. Good conquers evil, justice is served and all is right with the world. We share so much more with the Elizabethans and their great chain of being than we want to admit.

Did you notice I have not mentioned the project or resolution for Lear? That's is because it gets its own post tomorrow--I am still grinning about how my Lear class rocked the playlist project LIKE A BOSS.

First year AP teacher comes up for air: DELIBERATE PRACTICE

2011-11-20T15:12:00.004-05:00

I have not posted much this year because I am busy with two new classes and a senior seminar. But this week, I am getting close to the zone finally, and had a chance to reflect, albeit for about 10 minutes, on what I have been doing in my stream-of-consciousness teaching this fall.

All my students have been doing DELIBERATE PRACTICE this week. My honors juniors practiced interactive note taking, my AP juniors worked on sonnet annotations from three different poets, and my AP Lit class addressed reader response in their practice essays. To be honest, I think this perfect storm of parallel lessons happened because I have been embroiled in deliberate practice as a learner myself: I am teaching Macbeth, King Lear and Hamlet simultaneously in all of my classes. It may never happen this way again, but it has been a wonder-full month of thoughtful rereading, focused research and reflection on the essentials for me. I believe that my first year of AP Lit is reminding me what it means to be a good teacher this year: I must also keep that learner cap firmly on my head.

I had been ready, I thought, to teach AP Lit for a couple of years. It would be easy to teach students with a love of reading, good study skills and commitment to school. And it is. But the best part of this has been the ability to let my mind race ahead, to respond to their ideas as they happen, to consider every day if Shakespeare really is as relevant as I always say that he is. In other words, I am returning to my student days just as I am approaching teaching with new focus and delight. I must be a better learner in all my classes if I am to meet my own expectations as a teacher.

And I am also feel vindicated as a teacher in this first year in AP. Three years ago, when I started a Masters in Secondary Teaching to complement my MA in English Lit, I realized that I was not perhaps going to enjoy this second degree as much as the first. My prof announced the first night that he hated high school teachers because all they cared about was content! And here I was thinking the stories I loved were what inspired me to start my (third) career as a teacher. Now I stand in the center of a room with young people-my seniors, and all my juniors too-who are as genuine in their experience of reading as I still am. I am practicing my reading and my writing every single day. Healigan the teacher is loving being Healigan the learner as well. Well, done, my young friends. Once again I am in your debt.

CROWDSOURCING THE CANTERBURY TALES

2011-10-06T20:36:00.010-04:00

Still careening through each day, but today? We crowdsourced the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. They are looking to become expert on the pilgrims, and will be assessing their colleagues as communicators and close readers. I want to build a community of discriminating readers who can 1) notice thematic patterns, motifs and devices in Chaucer's writing, and 2) use this data set to break down the Wife and the Pardoner together next week. Amazing the learning that happens when we share the power and the responsibility. Can't wait for presos tomorrow.

UPDATE 10.15.11: The presos were a mixed bag...most have a better handle on direct and indirect characterization now, but they still need prompting to make inferences about their characters. Though we had the computer carts in the room the entire time, few availed themselves of the resource to expand their understanding, even when I asked them questions I knew they could only answer with a bit of information gathering. The best students in all classes got there, but that might be because they already possessed the skills or knowledge that inspired their effort and results (in other words, it had nothing to do with my lesson). They assessed success with a googleform "rubric" and the results were the same: many gave everyone else all 4s. No real judgment, which was my goal.

I continue to bump up against this wall: my curiosity has always been my internal motivator, but I cannot expect every student to have this same power generator. More thinking, reading necessary on this problem.

This may not have been as good as idea as I thought it was...regardless of my instructions, the students read notes instead of presented, and missed neon signs along the way in the text. Few judged the information they received honestly (even though their assessment did not affect their colleagues' grade). My short term solution to the problem may be to move a crowdsourcing project later in the year, after they have had more close reading (healigan-style) practice.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1edC93S15qOvUCKeySymgh3kl89lE_GUmSVQolAiDG4A/edit?hl=en_US

DIGITAL DOSSIER: Your Life on the Net, Part 3

2011-09-25T10:34:00.005-04:00

I am still wading through the beginning of my year: new courses, new students, new clubs, new committees...no time to reflect yet. But I find time to nurture and revise my DIGITAL DOSSIER project, even if it may not fit into my classes this year. Though I have not added changes noting the advent of Google+ and the interminable list of Facebook changes, the project still works. It is critical for students to develop critical stance on themselves, not just a critical perspective on what they study. It is our job to facilitate the process. So if you can use this, or want to comment on improvements, have at it. Imagine how much better this unit will be with the input of others. Thanks. Promise to self: I will post soon. I reflect always.

http://healigan1011.wikispaces.com/DIGITAL+DOSSIER

http://lhealey7604.blogspot.com/2010/06/digital-dossiers-part-2.html

http://lhealey7604.blogspot.com/2010/06/digital-dossier-your-life-on-net-part.html

WHY WOULD A TEACHER WANT TO DIVE INTO THE DIGITAL WORLD?

2011-08-22T16:57:00.004-04:00

I attended a workshop yesterday, and the title of this post was an actual question from a horrifed teacher after she heard a litany of the legal pitfalls inherent when teachers invite the internet into their classrooms. It reminded me of my learning over the past 3 years, and I realized how daunting it was to me when I began. As this blog has documented, there is no going back for Healigan. So I put together a quick list of what I'm reading now that might convince someone to try it. You'll like it.
These links and publications accessed in August 2011 speak to the essential nature of social media and the Internet for our children's success. Careful, competent management of personal online skills and identity is not a choice for our children. Not a choice. I would recommend the list below if I were starting from scratch at my school (thank God I am not). This list is not comprehensive, but I found myself making it as I cruised my Google Reader and Flipboard. I imagined it as a good start for someone who was intimidated by the size and chaotic world in the cloud. I used to be that person...

How do we prepare our children for the future? from Mind Shift August 2011

http://ow.ly/68xeb

The digital youth research project. from UC Berkeley

"Education needs a digital upgrade" There are no more jobs for docs & lawyers! from the NYT August 2011

The learning changes that occur when a child dives into the digital world in school and out. Schools need to use this info as they plan curriculum:

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/02/how-technology-wires-the-learning-brain/

Spotlight on digital Media and learning. MacArthur Foundation Site

10 Things You Don't Know about Teens and Social Networking:

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/10-things-you-dont-know-about-teens-and-social-networking-2527367

Dept of Education about Blocking Sites in Schools:

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/04/straight-from-the-doe-facts-about-blocking-sites-in-schools/

50 Reasons to invite Facebook into your school. You may not agree, but you need to see this:

http://ow.ly/5P2lX

And what Edutopia has to say about social media and our schools:
http://tinyurl.com/3fqwofg

Have you thought what it really means to go paperless? Because CoolCatTeacher has:

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2011/08/tales-from-paperless-as-possible.html

A little older, but full of information and wisdom:

BOOK: Hanging out, Messing Around and Geeking Out MIT Press

BOOK: Unmasking the Digital Truth Wesley Fryer

CONTENT FARMS AND STUDENT WEB RESEARCH

2011-08-21T15:10:00.004-04:00

Nurturing good student research skills have become a personal quest for me the last few years. My students are smart, and arrive with some web skills, but when it comes to research, we seem to start from scratch every year (as do the others teachers in my department). Lisa Gold, the research maven, recently wrote up results from yet another study about our digital natives' non-skills here. I am even reminded of Eli Pariser's filter bubble concept, which suggests that personalization of web search results on Google and social media are preventing us from seeing our world as it is. Certainly a filter bubble of personalization would significantly impact my research and what results I achieve. I have used webquests and internet scavenger hunts, among other things, to reveal the gap between quality research and "just googling" a topic. We have even researched Wikipedia pages to uncover the work inherent in a GOOD wikipedia page (they always seem to recognize the good pages, but can't list the hints they used to identify the good pages).
There are a couple of reasons for this:

a disconnect: they do not see the connection between personal surfing skills and school research skills.
motivation: the internet changes constantly, 24/7. No one can keep up without spending serious time.
conflicting goals: students strive to be efficient, while teachers want students to be thorough.

Until I read this NYT article about Google's crusade to rid its search results of garbage sites, I did not know that it was often CONTENT FARMS that I had been battling with my students for a couple of years. I plan to attack this problem with a few strategies

direct hit: Identify content farms with them--ask.com is a good example--and set up a wiki webquest which will require that they track the source of every piece of information they discover. A colleague of mine once commented that she was frustrated with the attitude that kids thought "looking something up was the same as researching it." This project may reveal the difference.
Project design: Increase the number of primary sources I require on research projects. I started this last year, and though there was much whining, the end results were clearly superior--we could all see the truth of it.
Supplementary reinforcement: Suggest a concrete approach to this problem in our freshman library orientation projects (jointly planned by the library and English departments).

Below are some links to further information I found while "researching" this problem:
http://www.jongales.com/blog/2011/02/14/list-of-content-farms/
http://www.seo-theory.com/2011/01/21/what-is-a-content-farm/
http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/13/the-end-of-hand-crafted-content/
And a link from earlier post re: the filter bubble:
http://lhealey7604.blogspot.com/2011/06/10-minutes-on-internet-lesson-gold.html

IPAD APPS ENGLISH TEACHERS HAVE TO SEE...

2011-08-15T17:40:00.003-04:00

I have had my iPad for 4 months, and much of that time has been spent bonding with “her” and finding the essential apps for my life. I also wanted to decide for myself if the iPad and other tablets really are something new. These 5 apps helped me decide that the iPad is, indeed, a tool that we have not seen before: original, spare, strange (homage to Hopkins).
My PLN on twitter, the EC Ning, and my own Google Reader have supplied some really great suggestions for what to do with the iPad. But this is also my first year teaching pre-AP British lit as well as AP Lit, so much of my research has to do with my raised expectations for my new crew.

British Library: http://www.bibliolabs.com/projects/
So many primary research and literary sources online in their entirety: the Library of Congress for the Brits. Easy to navigate, with a scholarly appearance. Great for research skills. So many novels, so little time.
Biblion: http://www.nypl.org/biblion
a brand new iPad app from the New York Public Library. Gathers all the photos, news, media regarding the 1939-1940 World's Fair. It did not hurt that I am in the middle of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, set in the same period. Luscious photos, diagrams, magazine stories, news articles, reviews. Cannot wait until they expand this app to other events & periods. Another great resource for research skills lessons, and just FUN. The presentation is dazzling--touch is intergrated fully. This is not the reference room at your local library
World History Maps: http://seungbin.wordpress.com/historymaps-of-world/
I learned about this one at an iPad workshop for teachers. Wish I had had this last year in World Lit. The app includes maps of every continent, all eras. Also includes maps from different sources for each time period. You could teach an entire history class from this app. I spent a couple of hours lost, while I found my way.
TS Eliot’s The Wasteland: http://touchpress.com/titles/thewasteland
If you have not heard of this app, then go NOW to the app store. It will change how you read poetry, and how you teach it. Beautifully conceived and executed. My app budget usually tops out at $2.99, but this was worth every penny ($12.99 I think). I do not want to spoil the surprise, but those who do not understand or believe that eReaders will change reading, need to see this app. I want one of these for every Shakespeare play, every modernist work, Beowulf, Chaucer........everything.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore: http://morrislessmore.com/
Since we are in the subject of new reading, take a look at this book written to be read on the iPad. It is a children's book, but one of the first I have seen that is actually post-print. And it is marvelous, engaging, well written and a great story. My 8 year old niece went nuts. I did too.

2011-07-22T09:01:00.002-04:00

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

This quote, attributed to Dorothy Parker, sums up my summer. I was born curious. Most of the time it is an asset. Other times, like this summer, it obstructs my progress. I have to follow a lead, answer the question, trip down the yellow brick road, reread Harry Potter, even when I am supposed to be preparing two new courses, recovering from surgery, reading the classics I missed, reorganizing my closets. Instead, I have become oddly fascinated with The Real Housewives of New York (definitely not real), knitting baby blankets, starting another blog and playing with my iPad. Somehow, I will twist this into learning for September, but now I have to watch the Big Bang Theory on my DVR. Happy summer.

MR. A and ST. MARK'S

2011-07-20T11:06:00.003-04:00

I tell everyone who asks that my school is a great school. Last week, I had cause to reflect on why I felt that way, and how I knew it. What makes any school a great school? The students, the leadership, the teachers, the computers, the activities?? All those go into it, for sure, but this week I was reminded in the most definite way what makes my school great when St. Mark's lost Mr. A. I was finding it hard to explain to people why I was so upset when Mr. A died earlier this month. Even my family had not heard me speak of him often. “He was a good man” just did not seem to express the loss I feel. I probably had two short "walking the hall" meetings, with him in my five years here. I’m a short timer when you compare my time to his 40 years at St. Mark’s.

Those two short encounters were enough to influence my thinking about my school, even on the first day, when he greeted me by name in the hall. I had no idea who he was, but he knew me! I knew he had the secret to what makes St. Mark’s a great school, though I could not have told you that yet.

And there is the core of it. He knew what was important and it guided every move he made. I felt important every time I saw him. I never had to wonder if he recognized me, knew what I taught, or which student he helped me with (even a year later).

A speaker at his funeral last week said it, and all of a sudden, I knew how to express his power: He had his own compass, and he never strayed from TRUE NORTH. Many people know the right thing to do, but Gene never strayed from his own compass. And every single person who met him, could feel that from the first moment he spoke. Honesty, faith, integrity, consideration, wisdom, yes. But most of all, he walked a righteous path. And every moment I walked with him down a hallway, I felt sure of my path as well. This teacher, any teacher, needs to walk his or her path, that’s how we connect and pass on what the students need. Doesn’t matter what subject is taught. I knew how to do my part to be a great teacher, to make my school a great school. Just because he is not physically here anymore, does not lessen the influence of a righteous man. Lucky for us.

REVIEW: THE GEEKS SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH by Alexandra Robbins

2011-07-17T16:02:00.007-04:00

I enjoyed Alexandra Robbins’ latest book, The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School. Since I was and am a nerd (though I do not remember the word being in vogue in high school, a thousand years ago), I appreciated her perspective on high school. I find myself telling some of my students “it is only 4 years” often. I especially liked the profiles of Blue, Danielle, Joy and Noah. As a teacher, I appreciated the inside view of how the social scene plays out in the halls and cafeteria. I have observed most of these scenarios were happening daily at school, but my age and job preclude my direct involvement most of the time. I am often uncomfortable with my younger colleagues’ more enthusiastic immersion in the social lives of the students: I do not let anyone disrespect anyone else in my class or in my earshot, but I would not be able to teach if I spent my time trying to figure out what is occurring as they put themselves into workgroups or encounter each other in the halls. If you are doing your job as a teacher, some of what you do is refocus their attention away from the insane level of drama and self-absorption that hormones dictate. And that is the way it should stay: I trust my relationship with my students, and hope that it will provide them with the support that it is appropriate for me to provide.

But Robbins’ research and judgments seem sloppy at times: she quotes certain social scientists, like Daniel Goleman, Dan Merten or Solomon Asch, but only to support her points. I wish I were sure that she had done all her research homework. She coins the term “quirk theory” to describe her observation that what makes someone an outcast in high school often makes them successful later. It is not really a theory, and a little glib for me—and not supported by this year long “study.” I also question the addition of a teacher into the mix. How am I supposed to judge Robbins’ observations about a teacher, when the subject is students? I also found it disturbing that I could not tell Regan was a teacher until it is revealed halfway through the book. Admittedly, I work in a parochial high school, so the social milieu is somewhat different than some of the schools in the book, but I have never experienced the pervasive petty “high school” behavior of the teachers she chronicles. Regan is too naïve to be real, especially if she has spent 24 years as a gay individual in America. Asking Regan to put herself into the limelight as a gay teacher just proved to be another distraction from the task at hand: TEACHING. My personal life is not the subject I teach. The challenges designed by Robbins for each subject could have been dangerous: she seemed to think them up off the top of her head. Is that responsible? I’m not sure.

I found myself wondering if the author sees herself as a kind of Malcolm Gladwell for the social community of high school. Gladwell’s books are quirky and pointed in their analyses, but you know what you are in for when you open any of his books. I am not sure whether this is supposed to be journalism, creative nonfiction or social experiment. I found myself skimming the sections in between the anecdotes from each student, and then savoring the progress or setbacks of each teen through out the year. So I enjoyed reading this book, but wished it contained more substance.

2.5 out of 5 stars

YA AUTHOR JOHN GREEN: STORYTELLER, MUSE

2011-07-08T17:17:00.003-04:00

http://thefaultinourstarscovers.tumblr.com/

Here is a link to some fan mockups of a cover for John Green's new YA novel The Fault in Our Stars, due to be published Summer 2012. If you have not read Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines,WillGraysonWillGrayson, or my favorite, Paper Towns, you should. They are well-written, great fun and offer astute observations of high school life. Green did not solicit these covers, but the excitement surrounding the book has inspired his readers, the self-named "nerdfighters," to create their own works of art. This is why I promote YA in my classroom, even as I teach primarily British Literature. John Green writes great fiction that goes beyond my major complaint about most YA fiction, that it is all plot. This is what great writing does, it prompts readers to take the story one step further, to create the next chapter, to write his/her own story. Did I preorder The Fault in Our Stars? Yes, I did--I want my signed copy too.
This would be a great project that could replace a traditional essay assignment, but still provide practice for analysis and argumentation. I am adding it to my list, perhaps with the Art Department for my BritLit class next year. More later.

http://nerdfighters.ning.com/

My Life as a Reader, Teen Edition

2011-06-25T11:48:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Dana Huff for her nostalgic look at her own teen reading habits on her blog today. We both read some wild stuff as teens. Though I as already a reader by then, it was high school that cemented my identity as a lifelong devotee of reading, and in considering my choices so many years ago, I realize that reader-me was my first proof that teacher-me was spot on about my commitment to independent reading with my British Lit students. MY choices, MY reading, MY judgments: that's the progression I followed that led me to my very happy life as a reader today. I do not want to eliminate reading as a class, ever, for there is much learning to do together. But if I do not enrich whole class reading with independent reading, my students will not have the tools to choose good books, make self conscious judgements, about them, or (and here's the life skill I teach to) solve problems--book related and not--throughout their lives. I provide my response to Dana below, where I remembered what was so delicious about the books I chose for myself. I read all the time, and so did my friends. It was fun.

"I was older than you, so it was Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt for me. Clever, rebellious heroine sheds the shackles of gender and class to begin the adventure of her life. There was always a romance, but usually the best part of the story was the setting: sometimes historical era, sometimes location. From Mary Stewart, I remember Nine Coaches Waiting, My Brother Michael, The Moon-Spinners, Airs Above the Ground, This Rough Magic, and The Gabriel Hounds. It did not hurt that she also fed my nascent addiction for King Arthur with her Crystal Cave series about Merlin. But The Gabriel Hounds was my all-time fave, for it was set in the Middle East (this was the 1960s!), so it was exotic and dangerous. I was a 14-year-old girl with a vivid imagination going to an all-girl catholic high school. I needed exotic. I recently found a hardback copy of the book in a flea market, and brought it home to reread. Still great. My daughters shook their heads. What is most significant now that I look back on my adolescent obsession with mystery, romance and period pieces? I made my first metacognitive judgment as a reader in deciding that Mary Stewart was a better writer than Victoria Holt. I did not ask my English teacher, whom I adored, if I was right. It did not occur to me. I had the confidence to decide, and I did. Gotta go read...

NERD GIRLS by Alan Lawrence Sitomer, available July 2011

2011-06-23T14:07:00.002-04:00

Nerd Girls: The Rise of the Dorkasaurus by Alan Lawrence Sitomer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

REVIEW: NERD GIRLS by Alan Lawrence Sitomer ***

I loved 8th grade: there is your first sign I was a nerd. So I was prepared to like NERD GIRLS by Alan Lawrence Sitomer. I was surprised by why I liked it, though. Maureen is a poster girl for nerds in this delightful quest for 8th grade acceptance: baked potato-shaped (her words), socially awkward and way too smart to have fun in middle school. She is even hard to like sometimes, especially when she tries to push away the only two girls, Alice and Beanpole, who do not laugh at her after 1000,000 people have viewed her humiliating mango banana peanut butter sandwich stuffing extravaganza on YouTube, posted by the ThreePees-pretty, popular, perfect. These three nerd girls plan to survive the ThreePee girls who make their lives miserable. Like most YA fiction, plot drives this smoothly written novel, but the author goes one step further. Sitomer’s characters are exaggerated, suffering every single indignity that middle school has to offer. But they are also authentic, and that makes all the difference. Somehow Maureen’s prickly nature is overcome by the determination of her two new friends to make her cop to what is cool about her life—and isn’t that what you need friends for? Older brothers stink, and so does Maureen’s, until he decides that he can torture her, but no one else better try it. And all three girls have families who care about them, but are sometimes clueless. And the conclusion? Well, it may not end the way your mom thinks it should, but any 8th grader will tell you, this is as good as it gets. And a teacher could do wonders with a whole class reading of this great read, using themes, character development, or setting for starters. Kudos to Alan Sitomer for writing another fun, purposeful novel AND for giving every kid hope for surviving middle school.

View all my reviews

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY: GOODBYE 2010-2011

2011-06-13T17:39:00.001-04:00

The end of school: digital dossiers from seniors, baccalaureate mass, graduation practices (an experience in itself), awards assemblies and dinners, retirement parties, 100,000 junior research projects(almost), PECHAKUCHA, classroom visits by supervisors, performance evaluation, crafting new reading lists, last meeting of all my clubs, planning new clubs, writing notes to my seniors, Senior Prom, GRADUATION, final exam writing, final exam taking, final exam grading, closing out the year on Studywiz, my wiki, my blogs, yearend politicking and WHEN WILL I KNOW WHAT I AM TEACHING NEXT YEAR....

The last two weeks of school went reeling by...I felt out of balance because so much was happening so quickly, that it was hard to reflect or even enjoy it. It is the nature of teaching that if you commit to the "on stage" quality of it, then you also have to deal with the firecracker speed of the good, the bad, and the ugly too. One day you stand in the middle of your room welcoming in your young friends, just like every other day, and then you are reduced to delight at seeing a single twitter post during senior week. This is the way it is supposed to go, the day we have all been waiting for since spring break (so late this year, that this is true).
I know that I need the time to reflect, recharge and enjoy my life. It is part of what makes me a good teacher. And this is what I have been thinking about in my first week off:
We need to separate: I revere our relationship of student and teacher. I am not a Facebook friend--I am old enough to consider it suspect that I am someone's friend just because I click them into my life. It seems to me that some of my students don't have a clear idea of how useful the boundaries between people can be, that "sharing" is not the only way to go. It is not as if they can never find me again-there is email, our blog, this blog, my wikis, goodreads, twitter: they know how to find me if they need me. I cherish them in a way that I do not cherish anyone else in my life, and to alter that unique connection just feels wrong to me. Do I miss them? Yes, I do. But mostly I feel excited and proud to know they are moving onto the next, best part of their lives. And I got to watch it happen for four years.
No real "ugly" in that.

10 MINUTES on the INTERNET: LESSON GOLD!

2011-06-02T10:52:00.002-04:00

I am in the middle of finals, so I cannot post anything lengthy right now. But I cannot let this go by: the perfect rhetoric lesson is playing out on the net this spring with the publication of Eli Pariser's FILTER BUBBLE. We talked about the Filter Bubble as they worked on their digital dossiers two weeks ago. Next fall, we can start with this:

First my students can watch Pariser's TED talk introducing the filter bubble:
TED talk Eli Pariser

Next, we will read his OpEd piece in the NYT to compare written vs spoken rhetoric: OpED 5.23.11

I just found Snarkmarket's analysis of the OpEd piece today: Tim Carmody of Snarkmarket on the Filter Bubble. We'll probably take a look at Snarkmarket's style as well while we're there.

Moving through my Google Reader feeds, I happened upon this Sociological Images post on Google Maps and the disappearing Native American Reservations: SocImages

10 minutes on the Internet, and I've got a great lesson plan and a great issue to discuss. Can't wait.

MY LIFE AS A READER, END OF SCHOOL EDITION

2011-05-29T09:26:00.004-04:00

This is an update of a 5.2.10 post.

   I have loved this "Year of Reading" with my Junior BritLit classes. We finished our PechaKucha presos on their independent reading last week (more to come on that in a later post), and many of them feel the same way. It reminded them what they liked about reading, and gave them permission to enjoy school, at least little bit. It did the same for me! I do love my books: not only their beauty and power, but also how they have painted the world in living color for me, always. I have not traveled much, to my great regret. Many of the reasons have been beyond my control. But books always filled in the blanks for me, helped me never to lose that desire to know more, to meet others, to ask questions, to thrill at the unfamiliar. So it is still a mystery to me that some of my seniors 1) no longer enjoy reading and 2) don't believe me, the avid reader whom they respect, when I say "try it, you'll like it."
   And maybe my mystification comes from being educated in the latter half of the 20th century. During my school days, teachers knew "it" and they gave "it" to us. We did what we were told, because our teachers knew. We worked alone. Studying paid off. If you got an "A," it meant you were smart. Everything was measurable. Working hard had its rewards. Owning a book or learning facts was achievement. Reading the book, living the unknown secrets the author hid between its leaves, ploughing through the book even when it was hard, have become the foundation for my fondest memories of school and childhood.
And then all of a sudden it is the 21st century, and knowing where to find information has become achievement instead. Reading about Jane Eyre is enough. Knowing the story will get you what you need. Information. Not the tingle of love, epiphany of self-discovery, the thrill of not knowing, hate that you could taste in your throat, grief for which there (still) are no words, edge of the seat suspense, madness that made you step back in fear: that is why Jane Eyre is still one of my favorite books. I suppose that I read it at the moment I needed it, when I felt the female looming in me, but did not know yet what it was. If you tell someone the plot of Jane Eyre, their eyes glaze over. They have heard it before (I know, it is THIS plot that has been copied, but they do not know that). I still yearn for every moment stolen in a story read late at night with a flashlight under my covers.
   Jump to the present: we finished our final lit project in my World Lit classes: world poet wikis. I am reading their finals now (and don't worry, guys, you did fine) and am struck by the resistance of some to let go and just tell me what they truly think about that poet they just spent a solid week reading as they built the wiki page. I pick the poets carefully, because I want to tap into the limitless possibilities that seniors can feel at this point in their lives. The world is theirs, all they can see is the blue sky and endless road ahead. I remember feeling that way, and my heart still jumps at the joy of it. It is how I manage my middle aged sadness every year when I lose them to their futures. Magical thinking is the last thing I can give them. They leave with their heads full of women with stars in their eyes and men who live forever. They never forget Federico Garcia Lorca or Charles Baudelaire. Students always return later to visit, wiser, and tell me they understand "Get Drunk" now--seriously, Healigan, I do.

   I do not want to get lost here. I can imagine comments sternly reminding me that they discover these joys themselves now, that the new ways of teaching are better for their needs, and I get it. I really do. And I teach accordingly. But the reality is, they are just learning facts, listing plot points when they choose to read sparknotes and wikipedia, just like I did when I memorized the names of all the Victorian authors. But what I remember most about English in high school is deciding on a Trollope summer after my 11th grade English teacher went nuts about him (who? we all thought) in one of her numerous digressions while we read Great Expectations. It was exhilarating and wild. I still remember feeling as if reading all that Trollope changed me. It did. I laughed out loud more than once, and it was my secret. I still recommend him to anyone who will listen.
   My students, who know so much, are not often internalizing the experience of reading--poetry, novels, essays. So much of our learning throughout life is unconscious, experiential, random. Every time they wrote an essay this year, I found myself naturally sorting the essays by who read and who didn't, because there was sometimes a paucity, an emptiness in the writing of the non-readers as they struggled to express their often superior intellect and adult emotion without the tools. Those who did not read were starving for the experience of reading; of easy, sure expression of one soul communicating across centuries, genders, lands, races, languages, to touch one other soul. Reading is personal, intense, thrilling and creative. It informs your thoughts, feelings, relationships, values, clothes, music, tastes, and decisions. Literature is the final and most critical character education (am I using the PC term?) that we have at our disposal........and building that wiki page or posting 140 characters on Twitter (follow me, I'm @1healigan) is just not doing the same job.

whirlwind changes to come...

2011-04-30T11:45:00.003-04:00

I may not have the vocabulary to express what is happening to my thinking as I read Cory Doctorow's MAKERS, "a novel of the whirlwind changes to come" starting...today. It is a novel about making, collaboration, open culture, creativity, mashups, random acts of art and engineering, the New World commerce model as it might actually already exist.....and so much more. It is not new that someone has written a novel of ideas, but when the ideas are new, really new, the strategies used to investigate the concepts have to be new too. So I am reading a novel with random plot twists that twist in on each other over and over again, imagery that does not instantly create a parallel image in my brain because I have no frame of reference for it, characters who do not follow traditional models (the heroes make me wince on every page, the villains accidentally foment positive change), and the marriage of art, science and social media on every page is beyond my first-reading comprehension. So I am not sure whether it is a good book yet, but I can't stop reading.

What does this have to do with someone who teaches Shakespeare, Rumi and wiki design on the same day in the same week? Everything. My students have grown up in a world that is random, or at least seems that way to me some days. It will be years before they reach critical mass of experience and knowledge, and then years after before they may elect to superimpose an organizational principle on that experience and knowledge. I remember that I needed to feel some measure of real control by the time I was 17. They sometimes revel in the lack of life control they exhibit every day. (If you don't believe that, just read a teen's Twitter feed some time.) Maybe it isn't because they have no "discipline" (I often hear this from some of my colleagues): maybe it is because a certain level of discipline, or the historical level of discipline that teachers like, is not necessary--or may actually inhibit their open learning.

Let me explain. Every day, some of my most gifted students opt out of what we are gathered to experience. Some would say it is my job to make them "opt in," but I am not so sure anymore. Every single one of them is always learning, ALWAYS. They have an agenda, and sometimes their agenda isn't mine. That is not to say that they shouldn't opt in, but I believe that they are never blank slates to be written on, that they are writing on their own slate everyday. Sometimes they write what I expect, and other times, it is relevant to a learning thread I don't even know exists. Would it better for all of us if they opted in? I often think so (but I graduated with a MA in the late 70s). But they are not growing up in the 20th century. I think they may need to embrace the diversity, the unpredictability of the open world. They will not wake up one day and say "It is time for me to care about my privacy on the internet" or "I need to stop multitasking so that I can learn." They can't, they won't.

And what does this do to a teacher of 1500-year-old texts? Though I spent most of this blog post worrying about the punctuation I was using because my traditional models didn't do the job...I also know that I am more committed than ever to offering my feed to them, but how I do it? That's going to keep evolving. Stay tuned. I have to go finish MAKERS.

http://boingboing.net/2009/10/28/makers-my-new-novel.html What Cory Doctorow says about MAKERS

QUOTE FOR A LIT LOVER'S SATURDAY

2011-04-30T11:09:00.003-04:00

Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which humanity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sign to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

– Percy Bysshe Shelley

from "on the human" blog

MY WORD OF THE DAY: HIEROPHANT
from OED:

a person, especially a priest in ancient Greece, who interprets sacred mysteries or esoteric principles

3D questions in a 2D world: LEARNER MOTIVATION, EDUCON 2.3

2011-04-30T10:42:00.001-04:00

I know it is May, but I have to talk about my session 3 experience at January's Educon 2.3 at SLA. Chris Craft discussed motivation and a new model for framing it. I chose this conversation because I am frequently befuddled by the lack of motivation of even my highest level students. Chris posited the expectancy value theory: level of learner motivation is directly related to anticipated value of completion of a learning task.

So...students want to please you--but not enough to do whatever you ask, if it seems to run counter to what THEY see as value. They opt in when it fits their own agenda. The teacher must have a good relationship to start with, though. Do I think this will work? I must think about their actions differently, I must think about THEIR goals, not mine.

Chris also talked attribution--"are you going to do well?" Why or why not--if why not, then let's work on this attribution (Eccles & Wakefield). Since I teach mostly seniors, this is a critical question. Some of my most gifted students have been making this question part of their learning strategy for years. Some of them are just realizing that is is theirs to ask. I can help with this.

So in my Honors class, instead of asking "what do you contribute" (their only prompted blog post this year), I might have asked "what would this experience (year of World Lit) include that you make you feel like you had created a success for yourself?" OR what would you list as VALUE from this class? Chris commented that we must move beyond flat plane: internal and external consideration of our students, so where will I go next? These are 3D questions from Chris in my 2D world. My challenge: craft 3D world learning in my essential questions.

Is there a place for the unconscious in expectancy value? Of course--my experience and history play into the interactions I have with my students. Their experience and history play a huge role in what they offer to me--they tell me that every day. How do I use these two facts to inform my teaching?In one on one conversations with students, I will guide my comments to alter their self-judgment of value and expectancy. In whole class mode, it should change my essential questions:

1. why do you think what you think? I must ask them.

2. ask them to set goals on micro level--as my essay test reviews do

3. be vigilant with my young people--be care-ful. ALWAYS

PECHA KUCHA FOR TEENS Part 2

2011-04-27T14:32:00.001-04:00

Today was our first day back after Spring Break, so I presented my mini-PechaKucha to my juniors. They will be presenting a book review of their favorite independent reading book this year, and I promised to show them how it is done. I chose one of my favorite books,Things Fall Apart, since many of them will be reading it next year with me in World Lit. I edited the traditional PechaKucha structure to fit their age and the time I could allot so close to the end of the year, so they are presenting with 10 slides, 15 seconds per slide.

It went well, and I learned what it takes to do a great timed preso. I practiced my delivery 9 times so that it flowed. With only 15 seconds per slide, I could not waste time flipping through notes. I chose slides weeks ago, but it was not until my 5th time through that I could judge one of the slides boring. So I changed it last night. I am glad I elected not to include music. It would have distracted me and the audience. Editing, editing, editing: a good review convinces someone else to read the book. I could only include those factors that might convince a reader.

What will they learn from this project? It will provide great practice in decision making, develop editing skills that are sometimes difficult to practice when writing, and further cement the presentation skills we have been talking about all year. I can't wait.
ORIGINAL POST

ORIGINAL PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS

READICIDE: Review

2011-04-22T15:12:00.000-04:00

Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It by Kelly Gallagher

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well, this certainly confirmed my instincts about the Year of Reading I imposed on my junior classes. Instead of using the 26 minutes per cycle I have been allotted for SAT review this year(!?!), I decided that my honors students and I would be reading, all year, for no grade, whatever we chose(1 out of 6 days). Kelly Gallagher wrote a book that delineated all my reasons, and surprise, surprise, my results have been exactly as he predicted. Their reading skills in assigned readings have improved, their vocab and writing is smoother and more precise, and we have become a team because of the shared experience of reading every week. I plan on using this book as evidence when I am questioned about my unique take on SAT. Thank you, Mr. Gallagher.

View all my reviews

HEDDA GABLER & SENIORS: SOCIAL DRAMA

2011-04-14T22:33:00.003-04:00

One of our essential questions as we began Hedda Gabler in World Lit a week ago involved Ibsen's purpose in staging the play: is it a play about ideas or a play about people? I always save Hedda until the end of the year to take advantage of the seniors' maturity level and their volubility as they round the last turn in the race to graduation. The drama stands up well to the passage of time. Though the topic of infidelity is confusing in a high school setting, if offers opportunity to discuss betrayal, friendship, social responsibility, morality and ethics with a group of young adults who are about to have cause to refer to their own value system on a daily basis during the first year of college.

But what really dazzled me this year was their approach to that question of whether or not we are to take the characters at face value. Each class approached the question differently. One group directed the class to complete surveys judging the motivation of each individual character. Another group created a Venn diagram on the whiteboard to classify the actions of major characters as realistic or emblematic, and the third group crafted mega-postits to create categories for each of the emotionally charged situations in the play. They did not all word it the same way, but the most astute observations came as they realized how many of the male characters exhibited motivations that we understood (as fellow human beings) and acted in a "logical" manner.
Then everyone (at least during this part of the project) complained about Hedda's stilted, illogical, symbolic actions. Once we realized that Thea also felt two dimensional, that she was just a "typical" woman, it clicked. Maybe Ibsen needed the female characters to be flat in order to make his point about Hedda and the lack of options she had to BE three dimensional. Did I agree that Hedda was just an idea and not a real woman? Not necessarily--but then again, I might have agreed when I was 17. You can only judge with the experience and time you've got. I am proud of them. This "gradual release of responsibility" plan feels right.

my questions inspired by: http://www.shmoop.com/hedda-gabler/questions.html

DON'T DO WHAT I SAY, DO WHAT I DO

2011-04-10T12:23:00.001-04:00

Yes, you read that right. I am making my own PechaKucha so I can track the difficulties and process my juniors might have in completing their own PechaKucha-mini projects. At the same time, I am blogging a parallel project that I have assigned my seniors.
This quarter, they are blogging on a topic of their choice, as always, but I have charged them to investigate ONE topic in depth for their 4 required postings. It seemed like a good idea, but I really did not think about what a good series of posts on the same topic might look like. What was the real challenge I was throwing them? Preliminary results have shown that some of them are not really considering the challenge critically, so I had better. I have already posted once on PechaKucha, so my area of interest for my 4 thematically linked blogs this quarter will be presentation.
I have always considered presentation skills as critical for my students: they marry critical thinking with critical expression as efficiently as writing about literature does. Students who do not always succeed at writing often succeed at speaking, so it serves my entire group. This year we did Poetry Out Loud 2nd quarter, a tableau vivant 3rd quarter (Macbeth) and now PechaKucha 4th quarter. Next year, I plan on adding a first quarter preso of some kind.

PECHA KUCHA for TEENS

2011-04-05T16:14:00.002-04:00

I saw a PECHA KUCHA variant at Educon 2.3 this winter and immediately thought of my SAT prep juniors. I am teaching all Honors sections this year, so we have set up SAT prep time a little differently than usual. Since most of them already possess some skill in strategic test-taking, I decided that SSR was a good adjunct to the writing practice that we are now doing. It has been a great year: their blogging is better, their vocabulary is more in tune with the ideas they want to discuss, and their reading of our assigned texts is more regular. They will rock the SAT essay in May. So what to do with all the books they have been reading? PECHA KUCHA!

Our fourth quarter oral project will require readers to sell the book they liked the most over this year of reading with a 2.5 minute, 10 slide preso for everyone in the class. I will present the project with a PECHA KUCHA of my own, to be completed this weekend. The link to the project plan is below. Wish us luck.
http://bit.ly/e1JHjc

MY FAVORITE TEACHER: hope everyone had one

2011-03-30T12:20:00.000-04:00

In response to Dana Huff's post of 3.12.11:
Oh, I still remember Mrs. Geuting's deep, scratchy voice and very large front teeth. She was imposing with wavy gray hair and no makeup, very practical shoes, and the same type of outfit every day. (this was a big deal, because in a parochial school, we expected our non-nuns to dress like normal ladies) Now I know that she had "strong" features, but at the time I remember thinking she did not look at all like any other lady I had ever met, but somehow it just made her more magical.
My 6th grade English teacher read aloud to us often and it was wonderful. I had started to consider myself a bookworm, so it added a real dimension to appreciate someone who could read aloud. It made me love stories. I remember she asked questions, instead of telling us facts, and that also stuck with me. She also laughed, very loud and long, which made me realize that a teacher might also be a person. She did not really have anything to do with me becoming a teacher--but she tipped the scales in favor of book love. Once I got to college, it was a quick journey to "hey, I could talk about books all day long." Though she never touched or hugged me, I felt as if we shared something mystical and sacred. Even a 6th grader realizes when to go with it! Thanks, Mrs. Geuting.

MY JUNIOR ROMANTICS ROCK

2011-03-15T21:48:00.002-04:00

Just finished reading my BritLit Romantic poetry tests. I hesitate to call it a test, because really they wrote about Romantic poetry. I am so delighted by what happened. For instance, one of the prompts asked them to choose a poem which exemplified the iconoclastic tendencies of the Romantics and explain their choice. So many chose poems I never would not have chosen, but they really convinced me. What makes me smile the biggest? Almost every single essay showed a strong point of view and followed through. Great unit, great kids: this bodes well for 4th quarter British folklore/myth/legend research essays.
This year I focused on the link between the poetic devices and the feeling/idea the poet wanted to convey. If we could not connect the strategy to the ultimate purpose, we ignored it. The farther we got, the less they wanted to let a device go: so their poetry illuminations were great, the blog posts were authentic, and they had the tools to argue their personal choices. And they wrote concise, sharp essays. I hope they feel as good as I do about it.

IF YOU GIVE A TEACHER A COOKIE.......

2011-03-12T09:48:00.004-05:00

   I am a good example of what happens when you give a mouse a cookie. The mouse, of course, wants a glass of milk. The teacher, however, wants more tech. Once the teacher sees that technology informs her teaching, and provides a new set of choices and strategies, she becomes greedy. English teachers sweat this stuff all the time: we hear how irrelevant we are from our students, from their parents, and yes, sometimes, even from teachers in other disciplines. I stopped arguing for Shakespeare long ago; he speaks for himself. So technology tools seem to offer this magic cookie & milk snack that will link literature with utility immediately. No one will ever doubt my subject again. Insert smirk here.
   What's actually happened to me in the four years since I started my first class blog? Lots of learning--both for me and my kids. Fun: I admit that my MacBook is my favorite toy. I write more now--there are three personal blogs, two class blogs, a messy but fabulous wiki, and 10 student blogs that inspire me every day. I have a rep now at school, too, which exposes a strange juxtaposition: I 'm the teacher who reads EVERYTHING she sees (old school?) as well as the teacher who always has a suggestion for those on the journey to tech nirvana.
   But what has really happened for me with that cookie & milk?
   If someone took my treat away tomorrow, I would still teach differently than I did when I walked into my school five years ago and they handed me a MacBook. That's right, people, I have reached the promised land, the magical Willy Wonka factory of teaching. It is not about the tools, it is about the shift in my thinking. Without my iTouches or tech lab, without the wikiwork or the blogs, I would still be asking the essential questions that my students need to be happy, successful people in 2011. They would be writing in groups. We would be still reading together, books WE chose. They would decide the questions that needed answering, not necessarily me. They would be making text visible, they would be networking throughout our building and our community. They would be building flat classrooms. I can't teach to the 20th century anymore. I can't learn 20th century anymore. The killer app is a good teacher (with a cookie and a glass of milk).

HOW TO GET AN "A" FROM ME

2011-03-09T23:04:00.005-05:00

We are hitting the home stretch on our research essays in my World Lit classes. It is a long haul for my seniors, writing that 4th research masterpiece in as many years. They drag their feet, hoping against hope that I will tell them what to do: and I do, really. We discuss the process, plan deadlines together and then even research for a couple of days in the Tech Lab. But it always seems that it comes down to at least half of the class attempting to write a significant essay overnight. So this is my first attempt at voicing what leads up to an A paper.

So how do you get an "A" from me?

THE BASICS:
Pass it in on time.
Do the easy stuff right--MLA, cite your sources appropriately, include the pieces I request in your final submission, follow directions on the original assignment sheet.
Don't distract me with typos, mechanical errors, format inconsistencies.

THE REAL DEAL:
Write me a real essay: so what did you really think about everything you have learned about your topic? Think before you write. Please.
You have a job to do: Use that thesis to guide your writing.
Aim for full paragraphs with authentic topic sentences, illustrate through example, use your resources in a logical fashion. Mostly I want to hear what YOU think, not what your sources told you.
Strategize your writing. Give me some variety in your paragraphing and sentence structure, try to interest me. Will I want to read what's next?
Don't worry about how many paragraphs it is. Worry about telling me the story of your topic.

ICING ON THE CAKE:
Consider me, the reader. In a better world, I would not be the only reader, but for now, regard your essay as communication. The words are not flying aimlessly into the ozone, they are flying to me. Will I want to read it?
Catch my interest. Set me up in the intro. Vie for my attention.

I'm sorry that this is not a concrete list of the steps to writing nirvana. It is not even close to my own best writing when I am inspired. But remember, you have never written a more informed, sophisticated piece of prose. You have been doing the school thing for 12 years: you are in charge.

What I Consume...

2011-02-27T09:40:00.006-05:00

“Sometimes I sensed that the books I read in rapid succession had set up some sort of murmur among themselves, transforming my head in to an orchestra pit where different musical instruments sounded out, and I would realize that I could endure this life because of these musicales going on in my head. " Orhan Parmuk

The upside of yet another snow day: I get to think about what I do, about my particular brand of teaching. I also read for many different reasons: teaching strategy, reflection, new info, news, learning, modeling, background, context, fun, grading, escape (from grading), confidence, a little bit of beauty ever day (it’s a rule), nourishment of the spirit……….
All of these inform every move I make in my classroom, I am convinced of it. My love of my content (literature, reading) “crowdsources” my teaching. I need to work on the fly, have many paths available. You never know where kids are going to go with a poem, or a story about the history or a reaction to a particularly feisty comment by a classmate (or this teacher, for that matter). I DO know that my stream of consciousness—the one that students see, not the one that drives my personal machine—adds up over time, affects their stream of consciousness, kind of like all of the learning that a person does one day inspires an action, or series of actions, that becomes their trademark, that becomes the engine that drives every decision they make, every change they adapt to, every experience they have. That becomes who they are. I LOVE being part of it. Every minute I am with them works on that feed, and my reading is a principal component. So on the last snow day I consumed:

Better Living Through Beowulf Potential is a Muscle Bibliodyssey Snarkmarket Remote Access M Antoinette’s Gossip Guide BoingBoing PLANET Myths Retold Koream	AP BBC NPR Guardian Twitter news: NickKristoff, acarvin, Sultan Al Qassemi, various other feeds Twitter: PLN check-ins
Goodreads Ozymandias Personal Diigo list on Romantics GILEAD (m. robinson) March 2011 Wired Spin 2.18.11 POEM FLOW (phone)	Student blogs: one about author John Green 47 posts about "no man is an island" !!! EC NING

(This did not include music, TV or my Kindle. It does include print media, phone apps, some Google Reader content and social bookmarking research)

STUDENT SELF ASSESSMENT: BLOGGING

2011-02-22T12:15:00.000-05:00

This quarter's blogging assignment for my Honors World Lit class was to increase readership. We discussed a few strategies in class, but I left a lot unsaid because I wanted them to solve this one on their own. Some of them jumped in without looking and were swimming like fish in minutes. Others have had to ruminate on this task and work through their own databanks carefully, to decide what they were willing to do. My only directions were to post once a week and to comment at least once during the quarter on a post from every other person in the class.
Already, some have adapted my directions to fit their personal styles. You might consider this a positive spin on who is posting on a regular basis and who is watching other people write. I only noted a schedule for posting to make sure they were thinking about this every week. It worked, even if some have posted 7 (!) times and some have posted twice. Every single student is doing it their own way, regardless of my instructions. WIN.
I agonized over the assessment: should I tell them what to judge, should I have them write up an assessment of their own? I went for the Middle Way. Below is the link to the questions I am providing them as they review their personal stats (thank you Blogger for adding stats to the Dashboard this year). Considering that I am a verbose writer and speaker, did I say too much? Will a handout like this cramp their style? What do you think? Thanks.

http://bit.ly/iecruz

High School juniors 1, Coleridge 0

2011-02-18T18:20:00.000-05:00

photo © 2010 Stephanie | more info (via: Wylio)
Some days, you just have to go where they lead you, and you cross your fingers that it is a road that leads them to identify your purpose with theirs. As part of the British Romantics unit, I'm teaching "Kubla Khan" this year, trying to make up lost snow time by skipping the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." One of the pitfalls of "Kubla Khan" is that they don't always get how exotic the poem is, that eating honeydew and listening to an Ethiopian play a dulcimer would not have been in the realm of Coleridge's experience when he wrote the poem. They, of course, don't think it is all that big a deal. And then there is the inevitable fixation on Coleridge's opium habit. If you are not careful, the discussion can wind its way to heroin production in Afghanistan--and they tried it today.
But then magic time started when one student protested that she did not know what was going on in the poem, that yeah the imagery was great, but nothing happened in the poem fragment. And suddenly there was a poll on the whiteboard to judge whether it was a bad, good or great poem. "Good" won. The discussion moved to each person's criteria for judging the poem, and most of those who voted "good" decided the vivid imagery made it good, but it could not be great because it was only a fragment. They felt the poet's purpose was missing, and therefore, the reader's satisfaction would be limited. The person who hated it said it made no sense. We all had to agree to that one too. And finally, I asked, should this poem even be in the book at all? And they answered pragmatically, as only teens can: only if it means we get to skip the longer poem. They crack me up! Have a great weekend.

So Was Blogging to the World Her Only Option?

2011-02-17T20:04:00.000-05:00

The controversy over the Pennsylvania teacher blogging about her students this week has unfortunately highlighted a weak minority in the teaching profession. I am not sure this should even be a controversy--this teacher represents a group of people who will probably quit teaching because the stresses soon outweigh the rewards. Teaching is not a job for the faint of heart: it is never easy if done well. It is exhilarating when it works. And I feel almost as strongly for my students some days as I do about my own children. I belong to them; I serve them. I wish that teaching programs made this clear, that it is is not a 9-month year, that if you do it right, your reflection is daily and the new creative approaches happen in the summer when you have had time to digest the wins and losses. The missteps always become clear right away, but it is sometimes the middle of July before I see what worked and the seeds of the best year ever in those little victories.

So this teacher who felt the frustrations of teaching so keenly and exhibited such poor judgment handling that stress wrote of her emotional defeat instead of the myriad of other choices she could have made. She could have made her blog private. She could have looked for another school. She could have changed careers. For the perception that she and I are the same, I am angry. She did not speak for me. I am a professional teacher, but more important, I have a vocation to teach.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/02/16/technology-us-teacher-suspended-blog_8310984.html
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7961932

GREAT SAT REVIEW, DIGITAL STYLE

2011-02-11T22:29:00.001-05:00

OVERALL REVIEW BY HEALIGAN'S CLASSES: 4 of 5 stars
Today I got the chance to get some input from students on an iTouch app for SAT grammar review.My classes were small today as a result of a Junior PE trip. So it was my first chance to do a small, informal sample of their reactions to a different way to review. After trying out several apps, I chose ALLEN SAT Grammar. The app contains three sections of questions: Identifying Sentence Errors, Correcting Sentence Errors and Improving Paragraphs. The free version contained a limited number of questions and lots of ads, so school chipped in 9.99 to buy the app. We loaded the app on all 10 iTouches for the single purchase.The paid version has more questions in each section than any student could ever want to finish. They are formatted like actual test questions.
The settings enabled the player to decide on difficult questions or least used questions. We were also able to customize how long (30, 60, 90 seconds) you got to complete each question. You may return to a question to review it after reading the rationale (especially if you got it wrong). Since I am using this with multiple classes, I appreciated the ability to reset the stats after each student. You can also have the students share their results with you by email.

We spent some time working through questions in each section. Overall, the vote was unanimous: the students liked the digital review mode, and appreciated the explanations after each question--whether you got it right or wrong. You could check your stats whenever you wanted. It did take some time to get used to the touch mode in test taking, but everyone did better as we went along. The questions did pop up randomly on each device, so we were not always able to discuss questions as a group. The only criticism of the app was that the Improving Paragraph section was more difficult because the reading selections were sometimes long and time was lost scrolling back and forth through them. Also, all questions for one reading were not necessarily sequential. Not sure why. Of course, after one passage, they had all figured out to go directly to the questions and just skim the passage for answers...smarter than me.
This is definitely going to become a permanent part of my review course.

SITA SINGS THE BLUES, BUT RAMA DOES NOT

2011-02-03T18:55:00.004-05:00

I have not written before about my "experimental" lesson in World Lit, pairing the Ramayana and 2008's Sita Sings the Blues. This is my third year teaching the unit, and each year I have tried to add more Ramayana to the mix. It is a hard read for my classes, so often we read a detailed summary and discuss themes, symbols, archetypes, etc. Then we watch Sita, which is NY artist Nina Paley's re-imagination of the Ramayana from Sita's perspective. I devised the lesson because when I first saw Sita Sings the Blues, I was dazzled by its artistry, and compelled by the juxtaposition of Paley's love of the Ramayana and her arrogance in claiming it for her own, using American values and music. I admit it, I just wanted them to see it.

What great discussions we would have! I could use two cultures to discuss one epic and the contrasting values! And what exposure to an unfamiliar art form! (The movie is entirely animated, using four different styles of animation and a mix of 1920's jazz and modern Indian techno pop). But...Paley's version showcases her own values, and changes the end of the original epic,and in doing so, changes the message and sacred power of the epic. Would I be able to play this properly? And would they lose respect for the Ramayana, the last thing I wanted? For two years, I agonized over it. I always spoke privately with my Indian students before I decided to include it. One year, we blogged about the two works, and another year we reviewed the movie. We also wrote a comparison/contrast. It met my standards.

But I could not get out of my mind that though Paley made the movie partly as a homage to the epic, she also wanted to work through personal issues, as well as revel in one of her favorite musical artists, Annette Hanshaw. And after the movie hit the internet, it became a cause celebre for Free Culture. That's a lot of intent for 17-year-olds to wade through.
This year, my Indian student was enthusiastic until she saw the movie. She felt it was disrespectful to her culture, and as a result, she wrote a GREAT review of the movie. And the best part was that everyone wanted to hear what she had to say, so it was a learning experience that both she and they needed.

So what to do next year? I had decided to skip the movie...but then the student evaluation of the unit was overwhelmingly positive about the experience, even from the Indian student. So was it worth it to see the Ramayana critiqued negatively by an artist from another culture just so we could sample some music, animation and story telling? Do I need Sita to introduce my Free Culture discussion later in the year? What would you do?

CONFUSED TEACHER BEGS FOR ROUTINE

2011-02-03T16:26:00.002-05:00

   I found myself today telling a colleague that the poor kids needed a routine again. With all the days off, late starts and early dismissals over the past three weeks, I have have racked up maybe three full days of teaching. Three. I also counted how many iterations of our schedule we have used over this period of time, and was horrified to find that we have used the regular 26-period, 6 day cycle; the one-hour late start; the two-hour late start; the early dismissal; the morning assembly schedule (first class 60 minutes, all others 26); and the noon dismissal schedules. This means that I do not see ANY student on a regular basis, and the length of class varies with each new schedule (41 minutes, 31 minutes, 60 minutes and 26 minutes. Maybe).
   Also, this week, for those not in the know about parochial school life, is Catholic Schools Week. We celebrate our particular focus on educating the minds and nurturing the souls of our children, which is pretty cool. At the high school level, the activities change every day. The bishop visits, we pray together (which always gets to me). The dress code changes every day, the number of children out to visit other catholic schools varies every day, and of course, the athletic schedule keeps rolling. Today we had a really nice teacher appreciation luncheon which included "Win It in A Minute" games, new to me. Thank God I did not have to run across the cafeteria with a cotton ball on my nose. My hold on my dignity is vicarious, at best. That might have destroyed me forever. By the time we reach Friday, we are delirious from the bonding and the confusion. I think there is an assembly tomorrow; I will need ear plugs to survive it.I don't know how long it will be or how that will affect my class times. I must remember to take the ear plugs out when I teach.
   So back to my thesis: my poor kids need a routine again. No they don't. I need my routine again. Wish me luck.

Educon 2.3, My Tribe

2011-02-02T06:43:00.000-05:00

photo © 2011 Kevin Jarrett | more info (via: Wylio)
Thank God for snow days when you are trying to reflect on action-packed weekends with your "tribe." And that's what Educon 2.3 felt like for me. It was my first educon, and I came away with some big ideas, but just as many new relationships. I am the outlier at my school. Spending two days sitting with 10 windows open on my laptop with my phone next to me while I tweeted, reflected, listened, and participated felt so natural. I belonged. I was powering through those days like the LEARNER that I love to be. At school, letting my learner hang out sometimes just marks me as different. So thanks to everyone for that.
There are few things that I don't want to forget before I get a chance to use them. Here they are:
1. Kathleen Cushman money quote Sunday AM: "If you want to know what it takes to get good at something, ask one of your students." I'm doing just that today with my senior seminar students who are far behind on their projects. Maybe I need to hear what they need, instead of telling them what they need TO DO.
2. Every conversation seemed to get around to relationships--every one. The one that stuck with me was during Chris Craft's conversation on motivation. The demand that every task should contain value that motivates a student to complete it-golden. The observations from my teammates that so often their own spark was started in a relationship with a family member, a teacher, a friend=PRICELESS. Gotta start multiplying those moments with my kids.
A close second was watching the chemistry between Jen Laufenberg, Zac Chase and Rosalind Echols as they described the collaborative Building History project. Good design, for sure, but the experience and ability to appreciate each other's strengths in those relationships was what drove that project and enabled the students to excel.
3. The discussion on Why Johnny Can't Read? with David Jakes and Laura Deisley was as analytical and focused discussion I have ever had on the topic. I worry about what is lost as our children substitute other activities for deep reading. So to work a huge room of teachers around to understanding that we are still needed to drive students towards making the decisions and choices that are critical for their success as literate people was a better way for me to view the changes that I can see with my own eyes every day. And it gave me a chance to laugh at myself: I spend every day as a metacognitive reader and learner, and I sure do point to my "GOOD READERS" poster often. But I need to go further and apprise THEM of their goal: to be metacognitive about all the information they take in. The poster will be redone as the front page on our wiki and our blogs by the weekend.

And lastly, who could not be dazzled by those kids at SLA? Hard working, smart, funny, self-confident and creative. Chris Lehmann: It's all working. Bravo.

P.S. But what's with the logo??????

Educon 2.3, your post is coming

2011-01-30T19:21:00.000-05:00

I am still on info overload after two days of authentic, fun, intense conversations about the things that matter to me every single hour in school, so for now, all I can do is post David Warlick's Educon Wordle:

EVERY CHILD NEEDS...

2011-01-20T22:45:00.001-05:00

The teaching went great today. What's not to like about Shakespeare's sonnets (juniors) and T'ao Chien (seniors)? But it was a tough day all the same. One of those days that reminds you how desperately fragile teenager-hood is. A day that reminds me that every one of them deserves my full attention, deserves to be looked at with wonder. Somebody needs to consider that child to be the most important, beautiful thing they have ever seen for at least a minute. I looked around my classroom today and saw too many faces sad, overwhelmed, distracted, hopeless. I can see that they do not know how seriously cool they are. No one has told them how cool they are. It was too much.
Each of them is one of kind, so perfect: but they label themselves, and we label them too (I've done it, I know). I heard too many comments from other adults in the building judging kids instead of celebrating them. I don't care if he talks too loud in social situations or she does not wear the right makeup or he doesn't do "enough activities" or the uniform is a bit shabby. Most of my kids are just trying to get through the day. Shouldn't our job be to help? For my students: I am honored to witness your grit, your beauty, your imagination, your self-reliance, your sweetness, your brains, your laugh, your humility, your love for your friends, your heart and your soul. Even if I don't say it.

#notetaking!

2011-01-09T11:17:00.000-05:00

In response to Langwitches' tweet.......here is one of my most successful ways to teach notetaking to my honors junior British Literature students. (To be fair, I attack notetaking throughout the year and introduce different methods to mesh with different learning styles. This one, used late in the year, seems to have an impact across the all the learning styles). I use a powerpoint that is filled with text on the Romantics introduction--it's an awful powerpoint, but perfect for the notetaking practice. As I put on each slide, I announce that there are a certain number of critical facts on the slide, and that they should jot those facts down in a limited time frame. If there are 3 facts they need to know, then they have one minute. It changes with each slide. Some of the slides have graphics or music as well--which they need to absorb as well.
By the end of the ppt, the "facts" are more observations on possible themes and motifs present in Romantic poetry. It makes these higher level students focus, read carefully, and make decisions quickly. The conversation after becomes the centerpiece of what is always one of their favorite units, since we are already arguing about what is most important about the Romantics. Each of them then approaches the poetry with a point of view, which makes for great class discussion. And of course, we always discuss the pros and cons of powerpoint as a presentation tool. ( I am not a big fan, though they do not realize it when they make their judgments.)

Here's what I hate about blogging

2011-01-04T21:31:00.000-05:00

If I write a post and publish it the same day, there are sure to be at least 4 typos or sentences that make no sense. How do I know this? Because I just did it. ARGH. How do so many teachers blog weekly, no, daily, and still post error-free writing? It just can't happen for me. Most of my blogs are written weeks after the project or problem that inspired them. It takes me that long to think it through and then write it. 2011 resolution: no more rushing to make my self-imposed quota of blogging. It gets done when it gets done. I guess that's why they call it reflection.

What will we accomplish with our blogs this quarter?

2011-01-04T20:47:00.009-05:00

We are starting the second quarter of "personal" blogging with my honors seniors. So far, three of the ten students seem to have found a real voice, and I am ecstatic.Today we discussed where to go next. I am trying not to teacher this to death, but it is hard. They talked about their problems, and I suggested some answers. Some questions still remain. So...here is our list for January-March.
*Blog for quality and followers this quarter. Aim for once a week. We'll keep talking more strategies to add readers. Let's start by adding a counter....

*Curb appeal strategies: add graphics, video or music to your posts. review your theme & design--clean it up.

*Add at least three blogs of personal interest, besides the people you follow in the class, to your blogroll.
*Complete your profiles—follow the steps provided by Blogger. Maybe link to your other online presences?

*Consider thematic focus for Q3—as John and Mark have done. Why are some of blogs easier to respond to than others? Consider the unique appeal of each person's blog--what's yours?

*Respond to everyone else at least once this quarter. I will as well.
Now comes the hard part. I have to sit and watch.

I've got chills: Macbeth and the iPad

2010-12-29T10:07:00.000-05:00

About three weeks ago, a student in my study hall arrived with his brand new iPad. For me, part of the excitement was that he had saved up the money from his job so he could buy it himself. Since my school is personal electronica-free in the classroom, he asked if he could get it out and read his homework assignment. OF COURSE!!! So the next half hour was a wonder for all of us. Those 30 kids spent the entire study hall playing with Macbeth--highlighting, making notes, looking up words, and in general having a great time. There was a short hiatus for the artist in the class to draw (Macbeth?) for about 5 minutes. I cannot emphasize enough that we were looking at Macbeth for that half hour. Someone started reading aloud from the tablet. I got chills.
We have two computer labs with 60 computers, a library with another 30 computers, and at least 5 mobile classrooms with 15 laptops apiece at my school. We have a set of Flip cameras and iTouches, among other tools. I use them all with my classes. But nothing prepared me for the instant reaction to the iPad. Just as I grew to love the touch of paper and the smell of a book as a kid, I watched 30 children fall under the spell of the touchscreen, the color, the personality of that iPad--all while loving what they were reading. I do not want my school or my students (parochial school) to spend another dime on a textbook that they do not read. I want a tablet in the hands of every bright, open mind in my room. How long will it take?

KINDLE vs NOOK

2010-12-28T15:42:00.003-05:00

I love gadgets, electronica, devices. I want them all. Now. Thousands of ideas for my classes pop into my head every time I see an iPad ad, watch my students geek out on our iTouch Words with Friends tournaments, or give the student with the iPad the floor, as he shows everyone else how easy it is to "get" Macbeth while I stand by superfluous, for once. And I have always been an input junkie. What could be better than more ways to read and digest the world?
So I am lucky that my husband has a calmer head and works through the pro/con list very time I see a bright shiny toy and cry "now!" He decided on a Kindle for Christmas and I love it. I bounced over to my sister's house to show it off, but was met by TWO nieces (8 and 14 years) with their brand new Nooks, even more sparkly than my Kindle. So I spent the evening working through the Nook details with the 8-year-old while inwardly comparing her toy to mine. I am still pleased with husband's choice for me, but am also dazzled by the power that the Nook already exhibits over the girls' reading patterns.
1. Readability: I have weak eyes, so as a reader, there is no comparison; the Kindle wins. The e-paper is much easier on the eyes, so I can read longer. The Nook sights like my MacBook, and I felt the eyestrain just as quickly. I will miss the physical experience of a book with the Kindle. I have always loved the feel of the page in my hand, and still identify the smell of a book as a great selling point. I still remember the first time my grandmother let me touch her small red leatherbound Gold Bug by Poe that had goldleafed page edges. I have that book now, and it is one of my prized possessions. So neither reader can come close to that sense experience.
2. Color & Touchscreen: The Nook color is great, high resolution, and the touchscreen is almost as good as an iPad or iPhone. It is hard to look away, great for the second grader. If you are getting a reader only to read, then the color is not that important. But both nieces were mesmerized. They needed very little help to navigate the first time. They read for a while, but then started setting up their "desktops." That personalization is a big plus for kids. The Kindle can't do much of that in comparison.
3. New Reading Skill Development: Watching my niece read the Magic Tree House Christmas in Camelot (good choice for her first book, sis) with all the illustrations intact, and the potential for live links to other King Arthur resources, made me see the advantages for new readers. I look forward to teaching Macbeth to kids with the choice of clicking on videos of the Olivier or MacLellan performances of the scene we're reading right in the middle of class. And for the first time, my second grade niece sat for an hour with no prompting to read. The 14-year-old mastered the highlighting and dictionary functions right away, so we know that the Nook will be a great school aid as well as fun toy.

4. WiFi vs 3G: I have WiFi only on my Kindle. The techy side of me wants 3G, but I think I will forgo it for now. I don't need it to read, and it may just be another distraction. The girls have unmonitored internet access on their Nooks, and though that is an opportunity for the 14-year-old to learn web management skills, we are all thinking about the usefulness of that feature for a 8-year-old's incipient reading habits. I did notice that the Pandora feature on the Nook caught both girls up--for the 14-year-old, reading and listening to music at the same time seemed natural. I'm not sure if that is a great idea for the second grader. And my sister is considering the wisdom of her daughter listening to whatever Pandora thinks is appropriate. It is a valid point.

Overall, I am pleased as an obsessive reader to have the Kindle. As a teacher , the Nook offers an intoxicating look at the future of teaching reading strategies. The metacognitive strategy poster in my classroom is already changing as I write this. And I still want an iPad. Now.

I AM IN SMS SO STEPPED...

2010-12-02T16:48:00.005-05:00

Reading this article highlighted for me some of the problems I am encountering daily in my junior Macbeth classes. The standards of courteous behavior are changing so quickly in all aspects of our culture that my head is spinning. It is no longer impolite to check your phone while conversing in person, or let the door slam in the face of the person behind you. And my students do not seem to know how to enter and exit elevators without creating a tangle of backpacks and arms and legs that slows everyone down. I also cannot expect that they understand the convenience of one person speaking at a time; this simple lesson has become a week one routine for me over the past 5 years. But the change that has become most confusing, exhilarating and irritating all at the same time is texting.
Three years ago, there was never any reason to accept texting as polite behavior in the copy of others. But in those three years, texting has exploded across all strata of our culture. I see people fingering their phones as they walk down city streets, drive their cars, converse with others, worship in church, read to their children, sleep, and eat. My own children felt that it was always rude not to return a text immediately, even as I demanded that phones be left behind as we ate dinner or they went upstairs to sleep. And that is what makes the nonstop communication by SMS so difficult to manage in a classroom: not only do my students feel it is rude not to return a text, but there are often real social consequences for them if they do not maintain a constant stream of conversation with their friends all day long. And I have caught more than one student answering a text from a parent, who must also know that their child is sitting in a classroom?????? Whose interest does that parent have in mind?
It also creates an adversarial relationship with me, their teacher. I want to use their devices in class, and hopefully that will become possible at my school someday soon. But now I am supposed to be on the lookout for texting, and then confiscate the offender's phone and write a demerit, all while I am teaching, or facilitating group work, or listening to their poems aloud. I cannot do all this efficiently. And even some students admit that when they are engaged in texting, they have no idea what is going on in class--though there are those that can do it. (I know, I did it as a kid. I read a book on my lap, while listening to what was going on with one ear. ) So what do I do?
Shakespeare is hard--at least at first. You have to concentrate to begin to enjoy it. He is NOT boring. I am NOT boring. It is NOT irrelevant. Attention must be paid. Critical thinking skills cannot be developed in a social context 100% of the time. Close reading of literature requires a single mindedness that becomes easier and enjoyable with time, but it must be practiced. But what are we to do when they risk social suicide by engaging in class instead of texting their anxiety away?

CAREFUL: STUDENTS IN CHARGE!

2010-11-21T14:26:00.003-05:00

I have felt choked lately: so much to say, no place to say it. So much rising up in my throat that maybe should not be said, if only because the emphasis that blogging would give it is not useful. Partly this is because I am not at NCTE right now. I stopped looking at Twitter yesterday, cause I just feel left out, like I did in middle school. I am left out, but just accidentally: not that big a deal. There is always another conference, and it is not like I have nothing to fill my time. Another part of my frustration leads back to my isolation. I just taught The Allegory of the Cave to the seniors, and I feel that same confusion and pain when confronted with a new world...we want what we had, and are afraid of losing the old in favor of the new. Can't forget what you know, though, so I am back to what I can write...what I am finding exciting these days. How can I use my altered sense of my purpose with the tools at hand? Does it really matter that I can't talk about new ideas with my colleagues? No, it doesn't change a thing about what I will do with my kids.
Once again, I find myself torn between the plans I have made for my classes, and the plans that arise when I let myself relinquish control to my students. It requires so much more time and confidence...but I am discovering that I cannot just do things the same ways I used to, when confronted with the power and purity of their ideas, their youth, their openness. So when I tossed off a quick extra credit blog entry about music, I did not think through what I would do with their responses.....and they gift me with a list of songs that speaks eloquently in its simplicity to their beliefs, hopes, ambitions and anxieties. So I posted their self-created, self-creating playlist, and there must be a second chapter! It has to fit into something we're doing in class, so Macbeth it is. Could they compose a playlist for Macbeth? What would he play to get pumped to murder his friend and lord? What would Banquo's playlist sound like after that first meeting with the witches? I do not WANT to imagine Lady Macbeth's playlist once the murder is done.......Gotta go. Let's put their plan into place.
UPDATE: lesson plan for Macbeth's playlist
UPDATE: blog post with all the students' choices

I'm LEARNING! I'm LEARNING!

2010-11-02T18:55:00.004-04:00

I am fascinated by the move to include gaming in mainstream curriculum. My Delicious tag is getting out of control. There are several TED talks that explain it even for the uninitiated. While I am not exactly sure how I would use it in a high school literature class, I can see that my students arrive every September with deep skills and enthusiasms that I cannot even fathom when I hear them talk about their games. It does seem to matter which games they play, and I have tried a few on their recommendations--like Assassin's Creed, which unfortunately had much less to do with the Crusades than the boys led me to believe (guess that depended on what prior knowledge you bring to the table, mine vs theirs). So far, I have not seen anything in the Halo series or Grand Theft Auto type games which would develop skills I need them to practice. But World of Warcraft roleplay for a creative writing assignment--WOW! Look at some of the topics on the "All the World's a Stage" page: writing what you know, characterization, oh the drama!, adding flesh to your character, joining the right circle, roleplaying with class, the inside layer...it goes on and on. I have no idea how I would ever develop enough skill to work this in my class, but this last week or so, I have begun to FEEL what power this could have. And the first time I saw Inanimate Alice, I was speechless--I wanted to play NOW.
I am a dilettante, for sure, but I am also addicted to Snood, Angry Birds (which is teaching me about physics and gravity) and most recently, Plants vs Zombies. My kids tell me these are "mom" games, but I do not care. With each new level of Plants vs Zombies, I find myself becoming more methodical about my approach to the zombies and which tools I will use. I have an abstract random style, so my learning is not as fast as it might be. I do reach critical mass of knowledge, though, and I am reducing my moves to code, almost. I experiment until I conquer a level, and then use those skills to get a good start on the next level. So, I want to start thinking about my teaching style as a gaming style. I'd like to label my style by the end of the next quarter. I'll keep reading dean groom's blog to see how the edges of the envelope are being pushed--or ripped. So far, I have ID'ed two kids in my classes who I could tap as my experts. Are you thinking about gaming?

BRIT LIT REMIXED

2010-10-23T15:12:00.004-04:00

The first year teaching BritLit is ROUGH. Nothing is written "in English" for the first half of the year, and the pop references to Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare are so culturally pervasive that it is hard to convince students that they are actually reading the original references. (If I was really good, I'd use this to teach allusion.) Today I was thinking about one of my colleagues teaching her first year of BritLit and realizing that if she doesn't get through Macbeth by Christmas, she'll never get to the 20th century by 4th quarter. How do I know this? Because it took me three years to get to the 20th century in BritLit. I myself am mired in Canterbury right now and am looking longingly at the unit on Shakespeare, if only to get myself out of the quicksand that Chaucer can be with a class who is resolute in their hatred of all things medieval.

Some years I feel like Victor Frankenstein, trying to invent a way to stave off the pain and anguish all human beings suffer. Of course, Victor's misunderstanding of human nature was the real problem in his sad story: we are not human if we don't hurt. But it's not my job to teach that, is it?
It's all good, though, cause the pressure of the kids saying "really, Ms. Healey?" is when the good ideas come. What if I skipped the Prologue next year and just read the Wife of Bath's Tale with them? She's funny and likeable, and she's got a good story. Then my love of all things Arthurian and chivalric would be satisfied for once, and they would still learn about the Middle Ages and start spouting what they already knew from movies. AND they'll remember the name of the Father of English Poetry, and I could probably talk about the Green Man for once. And we could build a wiki about medieval coolness instead of the Black Death (though I do love a good plague now and then).
But of course, that still does not solve the 20th century. Last year, we did Literature Circles for short fiction (Conrad, Joyce, Mansfield, Greene, etc). It was successful--but they agreed as a group that no one should ever have to read The Rocking Horse Winner again. I agreed--I had forgotten how odd and creepy it was. I love DH Lawrence, but there has to be a better example. So what to read instead? Does it have to be him? (I miss teaching Greene's The Tenth Man, which is out of print. Love it, too long anyway) And why I am always researching the same problems over and over again? I'm not the one suffering through BritLit for the first time, remember?

Because I forget my greatest resource--my kids. I happen to teach some of the students who panned Rocking Horse Winner last year in my senior World Lit classes. Time for extra credit second quarter, people. Research contemporary British short fiction, already judged worthy by history, and find me a new story for the juniors. Write me an argument for the story you choose. Hey, maybe they could work in Lit circles again to handle this job for me. BWWWAAAHHHH! Dr. Frankenstein finally gets it right.

OUT OF SYNC?

2010-10-20T21:26:00.003-04:00

   It is Year 6 for me, Year 5 at this school, my only high school. I LOVE teaching teens, I LOVE my school. I LOVE my tech. But I have hit a wall. I have completed two years of the Technology Immersion Program (TIP) program at school, working one on one with a coach to integrate technology tools into my teaching. And that has been great--I have learned many tools, chosen some favorites, and am able to add new ones without much drama. I believe I am a better teacher/learner, and my students are not only learning new ways to create and learn, but also how to teach and mentor each other. The balance between us has shifted, and I like it. Since I do not have a single "tech instinct" in my body, I consider all this a great accomplishment.
   But something unexpected has come along with all these new tools: the new tools have brought an entirely new attitude as well. It is not about tools for me anymore. My thinking about teaching and learning has changed, and I do not want to go back to the old way of learning about students, reading, writing, teaching, all of it. Everyone seems pleased by my work, but no one has read my lessons, or looked at the wikis my classes have built, or even checked out the wordle galleries or video podcasts. I am naive, I know: I am fascinated by my how colleagues' students interpret their lessons, and the English Department is always noisy with our conversations about how we do what we do, ideas we offer each other for those problem texts, and sharing what really worked. Aren't other teachers looking to get ideas from me as well?And let's not forget, teens are remarkable in their drama, their creativity, their humor, their vulnerability and their outrageousness. What's not to love about this whole set-up?
   So this year, I find myself investigating new methods rather than new tools. I know that this has been the master plan of my Tech Director all along, but I am dying to talk to someone (besides her) about gaming, to throw out ways to create stories maybe with augmented reality for World Lit, to get better at using the collaborative spaces on our wiki. But the reality is that there is no one who wants to wade through this kind of stuff with me. The environment at school is cautious and concerned more with protecting children than teaching them to protect themselves. It is not a bad approach, I just feel like it is a wall between me and my students now. I know there is twitter, and the EC ning, and all the teachers whose blogs I read, and who read mine, but that is not the same as my community here, who all know my kids and teach them too. I feel out of sync with them now, and am wondering if I am reinventing the wheel.

THOSE WHO CAN, TEACH

2010-10-10T14:39:00.002-04:00

   I am not perfect: and today, I mean specifically the teacher-me is not perfect. There are so many things that I should do, that I don't. One of the traits of many good teachers is our need to tweak our lessons, to reflect on the little details that made it work, to always assume that we can do it better next time. And I sure could spend more time organizing and adminstrating myself! But my career began in marketing and public relations, not teaching, so I also see so many paths for myself as a teacher. I could use Twitter more efficiently as a tool to bring readers to my blog. I could blog topics that I know are hot buttons for my tweeps and colleagues. I could use my blog to outline chapters on the book I should be writing about about my teaching adventures. The list goes on and on.
   And then I just read Richard Byrnes' article in the School Library Journal (saw it on twitter) and it was great. I LOVE to see these young teachers synthesize all they learn so quickly and use it for their students and then give it to us as well. And there go the " I SHOULDs" again. I know my strengths in the classroom, and I have seen my enthusiasm spark my colleagues (some of the time. Most of the time they wonder why I care about all this "tech" stuff). So I could feel guilty, trying not to grab my phone and tweet my improvements as I drive home (I don't do this, but I think about doing it EVERY DAY. It never gets easier). I could be using my ever racing mind to write the stream of consciousness novel in my head, though as time goes on I am not sure it is a novel; I think it might be some genre without a name yet.
   BUT...then I remember that all the time reading Twitter and retweeting things I should have said myself (or did), or reading someone else's blog, or cruising that never-ending thread on the EC Ning about books that English teachers love to hate (quite enjoyable, really), means that I am forgetting for a moment my own genius. And it is genius.
   To sit in a circle with 10 young people who think they know exactly what you think they should think, and to throw out an idea that stops them short, THAT rocks. Because you're a teacher, and you know that in the next breath, they are all going to start talking and throwing it right back at you, and it will be better than you imagined and those light bulbs showing up over their heads sends chills down your spine--not because they have figured you out, but because they have figured themselves out. Sometimes they won't tell you, but you can see it happen anyway. And all the followers on a blog or direct responses to a tweet cannot compare to how good that feels. It even feels good to bring someone down a notch, gently, so they can get out of their own way. And that has already happened this year too. Kids sign up for my classes when they get the choice because I read and I love it, and I teach and I love it. My genius? I make sure they know that loving books and loving them is as good as anybody ever gets it.

My multitasking drive just broke!

2010-09-24T20:35:00.000-04:00

I recently participated in my first Twitter #engchat (using the term euphemistically here) and my brain exploded within 5 minutes. Too many ideas, too many people, too much too fast. Good to see your own limits, I think.

Archetypal session of Archetypes

2010-09-22T20:10:00.004-04:00

Archetypes are easy to spot, hard to describe. My Honors World Lit class was not getting it, so today I went old school and wrote types of archetypes across the top of the whiteboard. I warned them about the difference between generic archetypes (gunslinger) and icons (Clint Eastwood) and then let them have at it. It was great! the mistakes worked as well as the ones that hit the target. And we had fun. They finally gelled as a class and we are ready to talk archetypes first in Things Fall Apart and next Gilgamesh. They are set for the year, I think. Sigh. I love my kids.

Final notes on on the session:
https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=14TbxOqYIkOlLev2gHa_qqX2i03LgzX-sUqx6EJVnVyk&hl=en#

BritLit Reading Journals: ePortfolios chapter 1

2010-09-22T19:56:00.002-04:00

I'll use any tool that works to get my kids writing and reflecting. Since I am committed to preparing them for this century, not the last, the right tool takes time. It does not always show up right away. And I also have to work within the parameters set by school. Weeks of prep to implement my Year of Reading were finally tested today. The kids were fabulous: today we started our reading journals in BritLit. The entries are great! I have been trying to come up with a medium that will please me plus please my school. The school platform for tech work is Studywiz Spark, out of New Zealand. Studywiz is comprehensive--I can do anything on styudywiz-blog, chat, online writing, collaborative writing, video uploads, posting projects, link lists, RSS feeds, stc. BUT it is a secure environment, so the kids miss the chance to learn to live on the internet safely. All the security slows down the process and adds many, many steps. Setting up a simple blog or in-class assignment is a multistep process sometimes complicated by things as simple as terminology (today we realized that to upload a photo from our desktop we needed the "repository" separate from the process to upload an image from the internet). Last year, I used Studywiz voraciously, but got no sleep because of the inconvenience of trying to actually set up the projects and forums and then to assess the work. It was so tempting to use Blogger and Wikispaces exclusively, since there were so few steps to get stuff done in those platforms.

Since Studywiz allows students to perform many different functions in a secure environment, it cannot consider the mechanics on the teacher end. I needed something simple for them and something manageable for me (60 kids in my two junior classes). This year, Studywiz added an ePortfolio function, so today we started our portfolios, wrote personal profiles and then drafted our first of five journals for the quarter.
My juniors write five journals entries over the quarter and I grade their best two (they choose them). This year I am requiring three journal entries about class reading (so today I got a fair number on Beowulf) or the independent reading we do as part of SAT prep. I wish I could show you their journals, but I can't, because Studywiz won't let me. So while this is a triumph for my classes, we still have a long way to go to join the 21st century community. Most importantly, many have come to my class without ever doing any blogging, online writing or wiki work. They have already learned to blog and enter their journals. The wiki is next!

Who Do They See As Heroes?

2010-09-16T13:40:00.004-04:00

Every year, each of my classes chooses a "team name" to represent themselves in Healigan's world. Most teachers name their classes by color, but I hate to give up a teachable moment.I only require that the name avoid insulting anyone, represent some heroic traits, and promote class bonding. It is an agonizing process for me, since we begin the year with very different concepts of what makes a hero. Some years they live with a name that fits them less and less as they learn more about heroes, good and evil, and archetypes. The year of the Jokers was tough: we discussed everything in terms of anti-heroes and villains. They were a oppositional group, and had chosen the right name. But it was not much fun.

So today I was so pleased to see one group arrive and three members immediately bring up the name they had chosen, the GoodFellas. They wanted to know more about the GoodFellas, so I showed them the movie trailer. Much consternation ensued, after many realized they had given their vote away on the word of other classmates. What a great lesson about the political process! So I agreed to reconsider if they discussed amongst themselves and decided they would like a run off election Monday. I'm hoping for the Watchmen (one of the better choices). no hope for Beowulf.

Year of Reading Part 2

2010-09-12T17:53:00.002-04:00

   If I was at all unsure of the wisdom of spending class time on SSR, my summer reading test proved that the idea is sound. I am not a huge fan of summer reading tests, but I am required to assess somehow. Usually my assessment consists of an essay on each assigned reading with a prompt that will not allow them to summarize. I already know they can use sparknotes, and do! So the prompt allows them to focus on their reactions to the reading and how they might connect that to their LQ (lit quotient, what they know of analyzing lit after 11 years). What I found were some great thesis statements and then jumbles of half connected thoughts and support--as if they knew what they thought but were unable to express it. They were using 6th grade words to discuss the Picture of Dorian Gray and Taming of the Shrew. That won't work. They are not thinking 6th grade anymore, but their stash of words and constructions failed them.
   Then I also reviewed the index cards they fill out on the first day. The front side contains their first name (for the first week while I learn all 150 names)and the reverse has their LAST favorite book. Bingo. In a class of 27, there were 6 Harry Potters, 4 Twilights, a couple of Catcher in the Ryes/Great Gatsbys from last year's American Lit and other miscellaneous middle school books--Holes, The Outsiders, Francesca Lia Block, Nicholas Sparks, etc. These are all good choices, but it means most of them had not read a book they liked or remembered since middle school.
   I had spent last year tracking the writing problems in my junior classes, and even in the Honors classes, I noticed that their grammar, punctuation and even their paragraphing was fine. The biggest problems seemed to be a lack of vocabulary to express their thoughts accurately, and an inability to string the words together in a coherent way. Misuse or inaccurate use of articles, adjectives, adverbs, even the confused relationship between dependent and independent clauses were obscuring what might have been fine observations. I attribute this to the lack of reading outside school. Am I right?
   We shall see. I am using some of my SAT prep time (added to my schedule in August. Surprise!) to do this SSR and I hope I am right. Their brains should be absorbing the smooth flow of language unconsciously while on the SAT prep days we'll be teaching to the test. Wish me luck.

YEAR of READING, YEAR of WAITING

2010-09-03T14:37:00.004-04:00

I announced the Year of Reading to my juniors yesterday. We are doing SSR at least one day a cycle. Because my school is a "no social media" school, I am not sure where this will go--for instance, the first time someone asks me if they can do their SSR on a kindle, nook, or their phone, I think I have to say no. (it even hurts to type it!) I cannot fault administration for putting safety first, but am growing confused with the vagueness of the term "social media." It seems to mean different things to different people, and am not sure how far it goes. Most teachers in my school are assuming it just means no facebook friending of students. I get that. I never friended them anyway. I am not their friend, I am their teacher, and want to stay in their memory that way--with the learning they experienced in my class. But I would have liked to start a private facebook page for my courses, which would create a central place for homework and project updates. And they might actually chat with each other about Beowulf!!!! Some of my other tools I would like to introduce to my colleagues include:

wallwisher

screenjelly, jing

diigo, delicious, digg, stumble upon, reddit

glogster, prezi

google docs; google scholar, evernote

aviary, audacity, garage band

reader, bloglines, RSS reader, feedburner

librivox, google books, Project Gutenberg, scribd

wikispaces or PBWiki

blogger or tumblr, edublogs

voicethread

garage band

wordle, quizlet

http://labs.google.com/sets

All of these promote reading and writing, creativity and collaboration. They support some of the fundamental ways that kids' learning is changing. And yes, most of them are social. I have used many of them with the blessing of my school. But the line between useful, essential and dangerous is getting blurrier by the minute. I am not sure where it is anymore.

So this year's challenge for me is shaping up to be about social media. How do we define it at my school? What is our mission as we prepare students for their world? I think I need to step lightly, but continue the journey started when I first encountered a blog four years ago and saw the potential for my kids.

This will also be the year I begin to market to my colleagues (not just the poor English department, who hears about it constantly) more aggressively the essential changes that are happening in our students, in our culture and to our futures. I am starting with a diigo group for the English Department at my school. If we teachers bow out of the process that is evolving all around us, we have made ourselves obsolete. They will not need us to learn and we will not be able to teach them anyway. This year's challenge is to take the long view, and know that it will just take a little longer than I planned to lead my students to their futures.

UPDATE: Just saw this: speaks to the question at hand!

Beowulf may have to wait: taking care of our kids

2010-08-22T23:49:00.001-04:00

I have spent the last few weeks preparing for my new students, working through what they will ask the first day, dreaming about the chemistry of each class, redesigning my classroom and their reactions to it. And just when I think I have exactly what they need the very first day, something happens to remind me of my real role in their lives.
One of my colleagues, one of the students' favorite teachers, died unexpectedly at the end of last week. It is hard for me to picture the school without her, to be honest. So I am preparing for her funeral tomorrow instead of the first day of school. I did not know her well: we taught different subjects, and she was a coach-type person, while I am a club-type person. She taught here for 20 years, while I am still a newbie with only four years. But all I can think about are the students we share, and I have been thinking of them and how this is so much harder for them to understand than it is for me. And how some of them will need a hug, but others may want to talk. And still others are going to make the connection immediately that she and I were close in age. So, they will not just miss her, but they will have an early reminder that nothing is for sure, it could all change tomorrow. This generation is certainly more savvy about the transience of life and experience than mine was, but when it comes to a tragedy like this, they are still children who deserve to be nurtured and loved. So my first few days of school will be about listening to them, letting them see my feelings and still providing some foundation for absorbing the sadness and remembering a much beloved teacher, colleague and coach. This is the hard stuff, the most important stuff. Beowulf may have to wait. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

SOMETHING LEFT TO CHANCE: to burn in hell or not?

2010-08-16T15:22:00.002-04:00

Today I tackled my syllabi: it is time to make a stand and decide what I'm really going to teach each year. I always leave this task until last because it is the impossible task, at least for me. My school provides my mission and I can look at other teachers' plans from earlier years. Jeez, I have already taught each of these classes at least once before. But every year, I get a little agita because I cannot finalize my choices. And if I charge ahead and print out the syllabus with final choices, I invariably cross off numerous texts on the list as I start the year. So what is it that makes it impossible to choose? A teacher should be in charge of her content, shouldn't she? I have been doing this for years, I should know how to choose.

This year, the sticking point is Dante's Inferno. I know there is no time to read the entire Divine Comedy, but the last time I read the Inferno with my Honors Senior World Lit class, they loved it--and we referenced it throughout the year. And, let's face it, Hell is defined by Dante, and in a parochial school, we like our discussions of the ultimate evil. But I have devoted myself to including more modern and contemporary works in my World Lit syllabus--I don't have too many restrictions as to what I teach, and students always seems to think that modern is good (though there are some who have informed me that modern means "written in my lifetime" and then they want to watch a movie from the 80s, and I've got them!) So, I believe that the Inferno is one of those "things we all oughta know, " but at the expense of something more "modern," say--Saramago's Blindness or Gaiman's American Gods? I think I will fall back on the best counselors I have--my students. I will leave room in the syllabus, and learn my students' personalities and interests. Some choices will have to wait for my class.

TEACHING IS A CONTACT SPORT

2010-08-13T08:23:00.005-04:00

I have been quiet on Twitter the past three weeks, have only skimmed my Reader files, stopped most posting to my delicious and diigo accounts, even forgot to check facebook (!) One week of that was vacation, so I was doing much more interesting stuff, but for the other two weeks I needed the noise in my head to go away as I hold my breath before school starts. And I am about to write a post for me, without bullitts and and way too long.
I don't know a teacher anywhere who doesn't hold his/her breath in those last days before the onslaught: I live inside my head more than most people (my family tells me so), so once school starts, I will spend some of the next nine months missing the time to think, savor, reflect, READ, make connections, explore any flights of fantasy that appear as I tackle each new text for the umpteenth time, and generally, let my abstract random learning style take my mind where it wants to go without considering the practical aspects of the time I am spending on non-school work. I am not going to write a book that will make it all clear for every single teacher who ever walks into a classroom. Don't want to. Can't: it has become clear to me that it will take my whole career for me to develop the wisdom to teach anyone other than my students. And though this is certainly not the attitude I "should" have in this collaborative learning age: I know things my students need to know.
   For all of history, learned people have passed knowledge to the young. Methods have differed, but there it is. I have read anything I could get my hands on for 45 years, and this experience makes me invaluable to the kids I am about to meet. My enthusiasm for what I do makes me invaluable. We had a good laugh during one class last year, when someone asked if I slept. Surprised, I said "well, yeah, but not much--I can sleep when I'm dead." (They did not get the Warren Zevon allusion. Point to Healigan) They all laughed uproariously, and I realized that they wanted to know how I taught them, had three teens of my own, read books they would never read, stood at the movie theatre in line for both movies they wanted to see and the boring old stuff, liked both the Roots and Mozart, cared about punk art and knitted two of the hangings on my wall, noticed the weather change before they even saw it in the window, watched TV (though they do understand my lack of interest in Jersey Shore) and played video games, went to church every Sunday but admired Islam, etc. We stopped for a minute and I reminded them not to believe everything they saw on TV: regardless of the fact that I was getting older and I was living with wrinkles (horrors) and had to color my hair (toss of the head), the truth was, experience and age made people smarter, and THAT feels good. Class got more interesting for all of us after that. Sometimes kids just want to, need to, listen.
   SO.....though I have spent much of the summer getting great new ideas and techniques from my PLN on twitter and the EC Ning and a Way to Teach, and practicing how to manage a social life on the internet (not too good at it. Still a fan of face to face), I'm done now. Teaching is a contact sport, and summer is for reflection, but September is for playing the game.
   Now is for realizing
1) what can really be accomplished in the next nine months, and
2) the power that my particular school environment will have on what I can do with my
    new group of personalities,
3) it does not have to be new to work, and
4) we all have to have fun AND work hard. Oh, and that as of September, I will have to
     avoid mixing my metaphors.
The best part is that I concentrate on them day to day, that the roller coaster ride that is teaching teens just has to be enjoyed. It is a Zen thing: be in the moment, Leslie. Be mindful of this second and love it, no matter what happens.

2010-07-27T18:16:00.001-04:00

Testing, testing. Hey, I can blog from my phone, if I can stand the mini keyboard

Teens and Music...could I make that Teens and Books?

2010-07-27T09:44:00.000-04:00

Since my last post about movies and kids, I found this blog post about the style rookie's obsession with Hole. Hole is (was?) Courtney Love's band. I'm not a huge fan, but the style rookie is, and that is what is important. Style Rookie is a blog written by Tavi, a 14 year old girl obsessed by fashion and in possession of unique talent and aptitude for fashion-and self analysis. I read it for fun--and it is fun, ranging from complaints directed at Seventeen's addiction to appearance, to explaining her love of certain music, to her favorite shoes (miu mius at present), etc. Tavi's videos and photos show real talent. But this post is about the power that music wields over all of us, all our lives. It starts before we realize it, but I became aware of its influence at about Tavi's age. We all laid on our beds for days listening to whatever touched our hearts, unconcerned that our parents could hear it too. It never occurred to me that my mom might learn something about me that I did not want her to know. I don't think she did, because she was mostly upset at how loud it was. She did protest "Dead Babies" by Alice Cooper, so I played it louder. I would have tortured her with "Cop Killer" if I was a little younger.

So...knowing all that, I felt tears rise in my throat reading her recent post about Hole and getting through 8th grade. For me, it was a mixture of Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, and Simon & Garfunkel. OK, that was embarrassing, but true. I swore that I would have "Bridge Over Troubled Water" played at my wedding because it was so romantic. Even my best friend asked, really (little dark)? By the time I did get married, I was much more likely to play Bowie, Talking Heads or the Tubes, but that is another story. "I'm 18, and I don't know what I want...I've got a baby's brain and an old man's heart" explained exactly how I felt then, and for Tavi it is Hole:
At some point during the second half of 8th grade, I became sadder and angrier; to this I do not credit teenagerdom, or angst or any hormonal whatever, just learning, and not the kind that I was supposed to be getting from school. This is when it became necessary for me to talk my way into the computer room during art class to listen to “Northern Star” instead of researching whatever I said I would research and to bring my cassette player to gym class so I could silently confide in Live Through This...

So I want to remember Tavi's post when the school year begins, and they walk in with a song in their head, sure that what I have to show them could never deserve their time or attention. It does, but it will be competing with some important "teenagerdom" muses........

BOONDOCK SAINTS VS BEOWULF

2010-07-19T14:27:00.005-04:00

As I prepare to start a new year with Beowulf as my headliner, I am struck my some of the incongruous ideas that my students and I will share regarding heroes. Beowulf can be a hard sell in 2010, but I usually manage to make them remember it. They will agree that many of the ideas they hold about true heroes probably do come from this 1500-year-old adventure story, without much change once it was written down. But does Beowulf still represent any kind of hero they would recognize today?

Many of my male students are great fans of the 1999 cult movie BOONDOCK SAINTS. I must admit, it has a certain appeal for me as well. The heroes are Boston twins who decide that the justice system--nor their religion-- cannot handle the sins of the truly evil anymore, and God tells them to handle it themselves. At the end of the movie, the twin "saints" invade the courtroom where a mafia boss is about to be acquitted of his crimes and take justice into their own hands-violently and irrevocably earning the title "boondock saints" in the neighborhood. This is their pronouncement as they prepare to kill the defendant:

"Now you will receive us.

We do not ask for your poor or your hungry. We do not want your tired and sick. It is your corrupt we claim. It is your evil that will be sought by us. With every breath, we shall hunt them down. Each day we will spill their blood til it rains down from the skies.

Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal, these are principles which every man of every faith can embrace. These are not polite suggestions — these are codes of behavior. And those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost.

There are varying degrees of evil, we urge you lesser forms of filth not to push the bounds and cross over into true corruption, into our domain. But if you do, one day you will look behind you and you will see we three and on that day you will reap it. And we will send you to which ever god you wish.

And shepherds we shall be, for thee my Lord for thee, power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command. We shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti."

These sound like the words of righteous men, but are they? Our children have grown up in an American world in which it probably seems that justice is not often served--the unethical practices of Wall Street, dueling political parties who deal in the lowest common denominator when serving their constituents, religious leaders who have betrayed, hurt those they are meant to protect, ridiculous people becoming famous celebrities while true heroes struggle in anonymity, school bullies implementing new, more humiliating ways to denigrate the innocent--so it is no wonder that this kind of "saint" becomes heroic.

Sometimes it feels as though I am swimming upstream all day long, just to stay in place, with my discussions of good vs evil or blog prompts that attempt to connect their lives with the novels and poetry we read. And then I wonder if the Boondock Saints have just returned the justice system to its Anglo-Saxon days, where the evil are destroyed.
http://homepage.mac.com/mseffie/assignments/beowulf/beowulf.html

THE QUEST FOR THE PERFECT COLLEGE ESSAY: SENIORS 2010

2010-07-18T10:25:00.009-04:00

I wrote the following post last August as I planned for a senior class which blended Honors Seniors and AP level seniors. The AP level seniors elected not to take AP Lit, so they came to me. I figured that if they were willing to do a little extra work (1 mini project a quarter), then they deserved the extra quality points. We would design how that happened as we went along.

Unfortunately, I was taught by their unremitting insistence upon resting on their AP laurels that sometimes things do not go as expected. I dragged them kicking and screaming through some innovative (my judgment) mini projects that I will assign to my Honors students this year, because they could have been fun. But one project will remain the same--the college essay. I had been reviewing college essays from first semester seniors since I began teaching at my school, and was always upset at the gap between what I knew about the students and how little of that showed up in their college essays. Having AP students in my class last year, I decided that there was an opportunity to use their superior writing skills to lead the entire class to a superior group of essays sure to make all of my kids make it to the top of the pile in the Admissions offices of their chosen colleges.

To no one's surprise but my own, the best essays came from the students who were not afraid to think about themselves and their futures "outside the box." We listened to a few of NPR's This I Believe segments, and used that prompt as a way to start. The higher level students had a tough time letting go of their As being the defining trait of their personalities, but we got through it. This I Believe confounded most of them at the beginning. It is, to an extent, about how well you did in school, but the best essays came from the interesting kids, no matter the level.

And my only job in this assignment? I told them to write about themselves and what THEY judged to be most significant about their experiences. I told them: Write about yourself, remembering what you believe. This year, we will be sharing our essays with each other, after the trauma of college admissions letters arriving February through April. Revisiting their September essays in April will be a good exercise in self-reflection: another critical skill for a successful adult.

From August 2009:

First essay this year is going to be the college essay: I review so many that are BAD, and it happens primarily because they do not know what to write about themselves. I think I will start by having them make a shortlist of the most important ideas in life. They can all tell me what they want to OWN in 10 years, or what they want to be DRIVING, or what JOB they should score, but few of them are able to identify what lies at their own core--maybe I should do a kind of "this I believe" (NPR)thing--they could podcast it, and then they could create an essay from that--the podcast will eliminate some of the conversational smoke they all blow in the written version. Now I have to come up with some models.

UPDATE February 2011: This project went great this year: different kids, different experience. I have the privilege of teaching 10 AP level seniors which includes an Asian and a Hispanic student, two musicians and two artists in addition to my more "traditionally" gifted students. (this is pretty diverse in a religious school.) Wow. What a difference a year makes. They each made a personal blog, and they keep me honest. And we are all having fun and learning.

see high school bits

Why I Love Summer

2010-07-16T23:39:00.002-04:00

OK, I have used Wordle for years. Below is last year's summer wordle I made for my long-suffering family, who don't see me much during the school year. I thought I would update it for this year, and try as I might, it will not create a wordle that contains the name of either my husband or my oldest daughter. The first one was of course dazzling, including all the flowers in my garden, all the books I am reading, my favorite summer songs, my summer knitting projects and numerous references to the best family on earth. It's late, so I am figuring my best bet is to post both so no one is slighted. Tom and Sam, your names were as large as everyone else's. I swear. Wordle, it's summer. You should chill out.

Today's bit of beauty....

2010-07-13T23:09:00.000-04:00

Most beautiful thing I have seen today. Commercial, still art. What a strange world we inhabit!

http://www.alexandermcqueen.com/int/en/corporate/specialprojects_pumafiverings.aspx

Wonder Woman: 2010 version please!

2010-07-12T22:39:00.005-04:00

I have the great fortune to live with three fabulous "wonder" women, my daughters, who don't let me get lost in my teacher-mind. Yesterday I discussed female comic book heroes with my youngest, who has been less than impressed with the female images in comic books and graphic novels: even less so after seeing Wonder Woman's new costume (left) and watching a recent History channel special on comic books. So here is her take on how she would draw/write a female hero:
1) flat shoes or boots. duh, gotta be able to run.
2) always a low unobtrusive ponytail, so there would be one less thing to grab, and no hair in her face.
3) some makeup, but not enough to look like a model, cause she's not. She's too busy to live for clothes and makeup.
4) and she could have glasses, and still be hot.
5) always dark colors--need to blend in. Also, black is never wrong. This ain't Miami Vice, mom.
6) NO skirts regardless of length, but yes, spandex for ease of movement. My daughter is a black belt in tang soo do, and still doesn't get the big loose clothing she always had to wear. Bike shorts would be optimal. Short porn star skirts (her term is not printable) are not practical, and not the look her hero is going for. Women are stronger kickers than punchers, so those legs have got to be free!
7) And the hotness of the hero should be generated by the "kick-ass" internal engine of the female hero, not what she wore, anyway.

This conversation made me think the female comic book heroes who are drawn "sexy" (albeit in a 1940-1950s weird bondage, stripper way) to express how cool they are inside. But we are still working on the transition to creating more than one way for the female to be sexy. So Superman has huge muscles because that is recognizable as a sign of power, cause men are the stronger physical specimens. Brawn works. And men can be big and strong and smart. But women are still drawn as sex symbols--ready for bed--not ready to defeat the bad guys. Admittedly, it is changing, but we did not turn up much when we googled comic book artists who drew contemporary female heroes. I mostly read graphic novels, so I only know Marjane Satrapi or Lynda Barry, not quite what she's looking for. And we did not discuss this, but I wondered how young men are supposed to recognize real life female heroes, if they do not dress like Lara Croft or Zelda???
photo:http://www.newsarama.com/comics/new-wonder-woman-costume-100629.html

UPDATE: here's an article from NPR about female super heroes: some good candidates! Can't get behind Angelina Jolie, though. Is that jealousy? http://n.pr/cMv1I2 Most of these are not comic book heroes, but video game or film versions. Maybe the comic medium just missed us.

WIKI WORK: Grades and Learning-friends or foe?

2010-07-10T08:11:00.000-04:00

Working on our class wiki, I instinctively know that the students are achieving authentic learning, but I am also still bound by more traditional assessment policies. So there is a constant struggle between wanting to roll with it, with the kids, and fitting the learning experience into a framework in which I can assign them grades. (I just read those two sentences, which prove how torturous the relationship of the learning and the grades are.) My latest attempt as a solution will place the focus of the grading on early stages of wiki creation, rather than their unique products. If they are to create quality content for our wiki, perhaps an initial mini-lesson about good vs great wikis would improve their evaluation of their own work. The steps in this mini-lesson might go like this:
1) critique two selected wikipedia pages together in class. I will choose these--a good one and a great one. After judging the pages, we will decide what makes the great one great.
2) students will work in small groups to develop a list of traits they see in a great wiki page, post the lists on our chat page in Studywiz.
3) homework that night: review and comment on at least two other lists. Comments will include comparison of items which show up repeatedly as well as items which you feel are not useful or are repetitive, with an eye to voting on the final list items next class
4) list of "Great Wiki Traits" finalized in class. NOW they develop a rubric for their own performance as we go into next phase of project. If needed, practice use of rubric or traits model in class on a wiki page from last year's wiki.
5) go to Tech Center and start with their rubric in their hands. I usually provide a wiki start page with some ground rules and links to get them started. The first wiki the seniors develop include various world mythology pages. They work in small groups formed by the preferences they noted on our mythology newsboard in the classroom.

I can assess their work on developing the "Great Wiki Traits" as well as their honest, purposeful evaluation of the other traits lists on the chat page. As they work on their own wiki, I can point out the aspects of the rubric that they must attend to. As always, we will stop and evaluate the plan as we go--once they get into the wiki construction, they may see flaws in the rubric and need to amend. I love that part. I am thinking that this may tighten up the project, while ensuring that control of the wiki does not rest entirely in my hands. Any suggestions, things I missed, always welcome

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: new theme for BritLit?

2010-07-02T14:03:00.010-04:00

I voraciously cruised twitter this week, grabbing every tweet about ISTE that I found. I was jealous of everyone there, while simultaneously astounded at their intensity only two weeks after school had ended. I need, really need, the summer weeks to recharge and de-tensify myself. It takes the entire 10 week period—I may be able to teach a course part time or do a ”camp” like last summer’s July PBWiki camp, but mostly I need to spend time sleeping till 8, going to the Y, taking care of my home, enjoying my family and randomly filling my head with books, knitting, hiking, vinho verde, my nieces, swimming and other quotidian ephemera, all of which somehow find their way into next year’s teaching. Random has turned out the operative word.

So, while I yearned for the excitement of hanging out with people who would not look suspiciously at me, English department geek, I also recognized my own style of firing up the muse. And only two weeks into my hiatus, ISTE tweets provided me with my first light bulb idea for the summer. SOMEONE (I was sure I favorited it, but now I cannot find it) noted that we teachers are still the best source of "character education" out there. I still hate the term, but I do acknowledge our power. Reminiscing about my own my path to inspiration and personal morality as a teen, when I fell in love with Anne Shirley and Sydney Carton I recognized that my entire value system, still working hand in hand with my more traditional religious practice today, was cemented sophomore year in college the first time I heard the line “Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all ye know and all ye need to know” read aloud. Still gives me chills.

That is still my number one commandment today. I need at little beauty in my life each day—how you choose what is beautiful, or how you define “truth,” well that is another subject for another post. BUT revisiting the concept of teacher as character educator, secondary English teachers are in a particularly useful position. For the past three years, my Brit Lit juniors have walked into a classroom the first day greeted by posters, quotes, and music extolling the myriad ways that the HERO is at the center of all Western culture. Of course we start with Beowulf and almost everything we read subsequently gets the once over from that first look at what makes someone heroic—either his deeds, the community that supports him, or the values he embodies. It works, and provides scaffolding for their eventual understanding of where we all come from—all of us share a piece of British culture, even in this country of immigrants. But what if I turned the hero archetype on its head and talked instead about what heroes inspire, rather than what they are made of? To introduce respect as a theme for the year and then analyze the topics, characters, values, community by what garnered respect, which inspired it, and what happened to a community-–or a story, or the dialogue, or even the devices used by a writer-- when respect is absent, could bring up some very interesting discussions.

Thanks, ISTE. Back to knitting and working through respect as an anchor for my juniors 2010-2011. I am going to ISTE Philly 2011 even if it uses up my book budget-I'll just record podcasts of all our texts!

Teacher first, Google addict second.

2010-06-25T19:17:00.001-04:00

I am a teacher first and a techie second, so I will never be the frontrunner with my tech teaching. But since the summer is for review and reflection, today's topic is Google. I certainly am not the most educated user of "the Google," but I do find myself expanding my tools regularly. Though my skeptical half worries that Google "is taking over the world," my getting-through-the-day side lives and breathes Google. I did not realize how useful the myriad Google tools are until my husband asked me about my iGoogle page. So started an hour of show and tell discussion about just the few tools I use. If you are a Google beginner, here's a quick overview of some of my Google favorites:
Blogger: my first tools were on Blogger. I now have three blogs, Healigan's Home, where my students write, Healigan's Second Home, the blog you are reading now about teaching in Healigan's world, and Movies at St Marks, a blog that I am trying to get going with my Film Club crew at school.
Blogger is free, easy to navigate, and though not as zoot as WordPress, does the job.
Reader: I just switched to Reader from Bloglines. Both are owned by Google, but Bloglines is no longer supported efficiently, so I switched all my RSS feeds to Reader.
Google Docs: just starting to use word processing in the cloud. My most recent project was taking notes and tracking links as I read American Gods with @1B1T2010. Cool. And since I think I am going to attempt the book with my Phase 5 (Honors x 2) World Lit seniors next year, I've already got a core source for my lessons. My colleague Mike D. just used Google Docs for his annual research essay with his juniors--start to finish. I 'm looking into that too.

GoogleBooks: no more do I have to worry about students who "lost" their book or left it at home. Not my problem. Any book no longer under copyright is being scanned into GoogleBooks faster than I can write this. Many books can be read online or downloaded for free. Nuff said.
GoogleScholar: this is a great source to start your students on a research project. A search engine that contain only articles, mostly actual research, on your topic. My students resist researching with tools other than Google, so Scholar offered a happy medium for my classes. I teach English, so take that with a grain of salt if you teach other subjects.
Gmail: I love the way it tiles conversations.
Google Calendar: I access my calendar from my iGoogle page. It tracks personal and professional calendars and I link it to the calendars from members of my family. Now that everyone is 18 +, our schedules are wild and not totally under my control, so this feature helps.
Google Translate: each year I teach several students for whom English is a second language. For some of them, using Translate for small blocks of text which are difficult is a real boon. One Chinese student survived Frankenstein this way last spring.
Google Earth: I first used Google Earth for Google Lit Trips to Macbeth's Scotland and the Odyssey. It gets better and better. It is just too cool to miss. Considering having one of my classes build a LitTrip next year--Oohh, that would be fun with American Gods!
Sites: I am investigating Sites this summer as a possible replacement for my wikispaces pages.
Picasa: I only keep blog photos on Picasa. Not a great lover.

So there is the minimal scoop. Enjoy.

DIGITAL DOSSIER: Your Life on the Net, Part One

2010-06-25T18:23:00.002-04:00

This April, we watched the Digital Natives YouTubes video in class before I assigned a Digital Dossier project to my seniors. We were approaching the end of the year, zero hour, and I thought I might hide the unit on World Poetry I introduced in APRIL ("you are one wild woman, Ms Healey," Ben told me. Really.) if I added this "fun" project too. What a laugh! The drama, the angst, the panic... I figured after a year with me, the Tech Center could hold no sway over their tender egos. I was wrong.
It appears that only two of my honors seniors had ever even considered their identities on the net--and those two are wannabe hackers (maybe real hackers, but it could just be panache). So the project became more important than the World Poetry Wiki . (scroll to the bottom of the wiki page to click on their individual wiki pages.) So we began with Facebook--how many friends do you have, how many of those friends have you actually met, photo tags, QUALITY of the photos in which are you are tagged, etc. While they were proud of the number of personal photos on Facebook, some admitted that they were not so happy with the prospect of me seeing them. SCORE. And so it went. Discussion, then work, then many questions in many emails at night.
The amount of time that they spend watching (not creeping though, they swear) others is astounding, unless you consider that in high school, what peers think and believe is truly more important for many than what they think themselves. I laid out some parameters for the project--letting them know up front that I was new to this too--and gave them a deadline. We moved the deadline as needed. I requested that they post their dossiers on our secure school site (Studywiz Spark--another post required later). And when they were completed, discussion began anew.
Not one student asked what I was going to do with all this personal info on the official school site. Not one. And every single one gave me some info and photos that they could not possibly have wanted me to see. SCORE. What are you doing, people, giving me all your personal info? AND posting on the school site, where any teacher or dean could access it? They did not know that I was not going to scan every photo or read every post, or that I would take it down the minute I reviewed that they had completed the work. (I know enough to realize that nothing is ever really gone, but really, there was nothing illegal or disgusting, just high school). Your life is yours. Time to start asking questions, people, with respect of course.
First rule in the digital world: no one will protect you unless you protect yourself.
Second rule: think before you post. Consider your audience--there are as many audiences as there are websites.
Third rule: You get to be who you want to be on the Net--maybe even more than one "you." But...make sure YOU decide who you become and don't let it just happen to you.
Another post below: what I learned about my students!

DIGITAL DOSSIERS PART 2

2010-06-19T09:18:00.002-04:00

The digital dossiers are gone because I copied them to a flash drive and then deleted them from the school website. I made sure to tell my students I did it, to model decision-making on the net. Teens seem to be sure that we are all watching them 24/7, so they got it. I doubt anyone at school was dying to see the digital CVs, except me. In fact, some of my colleagues thought it was just another one of my "techie" things.
But it wasn't "just" techie. It was one of the most important projects I did with my seniors this year. They are well read and had already written almost double the amount the school requires them to write each year (and none of them realized it). This was one last way for me to get them ready for the challenge of college. One last time to talk about WHO ARE YOU? This project will return for next year's seniors as well, because I learned so much! I will spend some time this summer ruminating over these facts and how they will influence my teaching next year:

1. Many of my students are entirely comfortable shopping online with credit cards, but not able to build an excel worksheet. ARGH!
2. The self-identified artists had done the most to create themselves online: deviantart.com, myspace, tumblr, youtube, etc.And those sites were wonderful, creative, intelligent.
3. Almost none of them is supervised, not even in a "how many hours have you been playing Halo 3?" or "What did you buy?" kind of way. (I am guessing many have their own credit cards)
4. The ones that did not have facebook accounts were too busy for facebook--many other things taking up their time, like volunteering, a job, close family (usually evidenced by their photo files).
5. They all visit youtube, but few had accounts. No one manages their viewing list on youtube. Few other video sources were noted, except the ones that I introduced like vimeo.
6. They visit many media sites but do not comment or register. (this makes their online lives easier for sure, but just by accident).
7. Some (three) protested "life on the net," and really had limited presence there. I can respect that, but advised that they keep track of what other people and organizations post about them.
8. The athletes were documented over and over, and could not believe how many places the same pics and stories were posted--and how far back they went (middle school, for some of them). That certainly led to a class discussion of whether newspapers were really dead or not.
9. The scholars were not documented anywhere near as often as the athletes, and most of them did not care. Scholar athletes noted the imbalance as well.
10. My students' perception of their online lives was baffling. Very few even noted our wiki or their blog postings on their dossiers! No collegeboard.com mentions. No COMMON APP, which I know 80% of them used as part of the college application process.
11. They did not note the brand new email addresses that most of them had received from their colleges. Teens as a rule do not use email unless it is with a teacher. We discussed how this would have to change, and soon.
12. Since I teach at a private school (albeit parochial), all have phones and many have smartphones. No one noted that that their phone apps constituted internet connections. This part seemed to upset them. Still not sure why. They did not seem to understand how texting worked either.
13. No one counted iTunes or another music source as an internet connection unless it was illegal. This is important to all of them, but they did not note it.

The last section of the assignment had them imagine what results would appear on a Google search of their name in 5-10 years. I read ALL of these and was delighted to see their dreams and their creativity. Some designed an updated Google page, and others noted their accomplishments. Most of them will be in the news (for good or bad), if their plans come to fruition. The last thing we discussed was how the internet would play a role in making their dreams come true. It was a great end to the year.

Let me break it down for you

2010-06-03T16:16:00.002-04:00

Revising my poetry devices sheet for the 850th time last night, I realized that they were not using it because they did not see how it could help them. We had just used the Romantic poets to choose common examples of all the traits of poetry for their final exam study sessions over and over again. But no one seems to have put it together. I am embarrassed to say that that I forced myself to relate it to math: "It's an equation, people, all these add up to the prize=meaning and delight."
"I know.....right? Ms Healey, does this worksheet count towards my grade?"

Tonight I am thinking it is all a matter of semantics, of word choice. Let me break it down for you.......
I am confounded by their immediate, powerful response when I read poetry to them and then their complete shutdown when I ask them why they feel so strongly. It sucks the fun and feeling out of it for them, and I do not know why. Should I turn my lesson on its head-make them take control of the inner workings of the poet's mind? And how shall I do that--more to follow.

NOTES: WHAT ARE WE DOING IN HIGH SCHOOL?

2010-05-31T11:49:00.007-04:00

WARNING: the yearend meltdown continues. Remember that I teach high school juniors and seniors. Paramount to my teaching is the knowledge that they are about to be released into the wild, and I do not want them to be eaten alive by other wild animals........
So many thoughts are roiling around in my mind as I grade research papers, and I realize that they prove my two overriding observations this year:
1) children need more practice in thinking critically and therefore writing critically and analytically because they do not read as much anymore, and
2) the emotional and moral youth of my students may prevent them from achieving what they so desperately desire-independence, integrity and happiness. Add to this the random (really?) ideas that come to me by way of students, other teachers, our student teacher, blogs I read, my kids--
** the move to retreat to young adult fiction for high school students that our student teacher is researching in her classes (not very happily either)
**the negative judgment of the classics as worthwhile (or the canon as I hear it now, though I am not sure what is on that list)
**the acceptance that new modes of writing are equal or superior in their significance and skill sets to the "old"--emails all of a sudden are "long" writing, blogs replace reviews, tweets are great creative tools, etc etc. Why can't we see them as new and not replacements?
**the expectation that everyone copies homework and that's not a big deal (for teachers either). For me, that means reading enotes is as good as reading the novel. Knowing about the book is the same as knowing the book. Really?
**that students cannot sit for long and should not have to.
**everything we teach should be fun and instantly engaging.
**grades are bad for kids. no grades are good.

The list goes on. I feel the need to react to these new "truths" in some way--no one wants to fail all the time (meaning me, not them). But everything in my heart cries out for the measured journey to achievement, surviving the bumps in the road, doing the hard stuff and being proud of yourself. Even the characters in the novels know this--Elizabeth Bennett suffers through her life until she knows what she feels. Holden Caulfield won't let go of what he instinctively knows to be true. We all suffered this year with Oedipus as he careens desperately towards truth and damnation in equal parts....... Kind of how life works, isn't it?
Is it true that they really do not need to read, to consider their own visceral reactions to something someone else wrote, anymore? I do know that I will not be teaching carmen figuratum to seniors in the future, because on the list of skills they must have, it is lower on the list than it used to be (a very long story, I assure you). But I would not understand my life today if I didn't know I exist in the myriad layers of human experience that now mark soft spring rainfall as a motif that a billion human beings still recognize as an archetype for cleansing. But are there skills and concepts that I feel are critical, that aren't anymore? Have I lost my instincts?

And maybe this only means that I need to stop focusing on the kids that take the short cuts or know that doing the minimum will be enough, and focus instead on the great kids, who GET what you read and want to learn with me.....more later. Got to read more papers, hoping that they are the authentic ones.

Healigan loses her heart......

2010-05-19T19:05:00.013-04:00

     Well, it has been a week since I got my iPhone. I will admit that I was anxious to get a phone with internet access--my feeling that my own children would communicate more often with me has proven true. I know, we texted before, but now I am getting pics and I am in their loop--just another person on the list every day. Yes!
     But... I find myself struggling to leave it in my desk, instead of checking that quote or looking up the word I need. I teach at a cellphone-free school, for better or worse, and though as a teacher, I am not restricted in my cellphone use, I have always tried to respect the students by avoiding my phone throughout the day. Whether or not I agree with the policy has been irrelevant. Not so anymore.
     First, I did not understand the strength of the addiction that they must feel all day long every day when they cannot answer texts or check facebook. After the first hour, I found myself thinking of the phone as "she." After one day, I wanted to name it. And I love the way it feels in my hand; it is beautiful, like the Movado watch in the MoMA. Third, there are changes in the way I work already. Using my StickyNotes app to assess student iMovie presentations Monday night, I found my iPhone notes to be succinct and more meaningful than the notes I made on my MacBook after the phone battery died. It forced me to get it done, and working did not feel like working. The more informal work pattern--in my hand instead of sitting with a flat surface for the laptop--was great.
    So today, after six days in AppleLand, I went to Tech and demanded that they load Words with Friends on the 10 iTouches the school owns so my seniors can play on their last day of classes (next Monday). The problem? They have to set up a network to work it out--and I'm impatient because I do not have to wait for ANYTHING with Mr. Job's little toy. I am not usually demanding and petulant, but I suddenly realized that I was being rude and impatient. I am not sure how I feel about myself with an iPhone......more to come later. I am stopping now to go read American Gods on my Kindle for iPhone.

In which the bookworm teacher misses reading........and her seniors

2010-05-02T22:17:00.018-04:00

Recently, I have been reading blogs from teachers linking children around the world, digitally collaborating to create knowledge, and developing methods and techniques to prepare our children for this new world. They inspire and motivate me to keep my mind and heart open to my children, to celebrate what they teach me every day. At the same time, I love my literature: not only its beauty, but also how it has painted the world for me throughout the life. I have not traveled much, to my great regret. Many of the reasons have been beyond my control. But books always filled in the blanks for me, helped me never to lose that desire to know more, to meet others, to ask questions, to thrill at the unfamiliar. So it is always a mystery to me that my students 1) no longer enjoy reading and 2) don't believe me, the avid reader whom they respect, when I say "try it, you'll like it."
And maybe my mystification comes from being educated in the latter half of the 20th century. During my school days, teachers knew "it" and they gave "it" to us. We did what we were told, because our teachers knew. We worked alone. Studying paid off. If you got an "A," you were smart. Everything was measurable. Working hard had its rewards. Owning information or a book was achievement. Reading the book, living the unknown secrets the author hid between its leaves, ploughing through the book even when it was hard, have become the foundation for my fondest memories of school and childhood.
And then all of a sudden it was 2000, and knowing where to find information became achievement instead. Reading about Jane Eyre was enough. Knowing the story got you what you needed. Information. Not the tingle of love, epiphany of self-discovery, the thrill of not knowing, hate that you could taste in your throat, grief for which there (still) are no words, edge of the seat suspense, madness that made you step back in fear: that is why Jane Eyre is still one of my favorite books. I suppose that I read it at the moment I needed it, when I felt the female becoming in me, but did not know yet what it was. If you tell someone the plot of Jane Eyre, their eyes glaze over. They have heard it before (I know, it is THIS plot that has been copied, but they do not know that). I still yearn for every moment stolen in a story read late at night with a flashlight under my covers.
Jump to the present: we just finished two critical projects in my World Lit classes: video podcasts on magical realist writers and personal digital dossiers. The podcasts are fabulous because at the end of high school, magical realism taps into the limitless possibilities that all my seniors can feel at this point in their lives. The world is theirs, all they can see is the blue sky and endless road ahead. I remember feeling that way, and my heart still jumps at the joy of it. It is how I manage my middle aged sadness every year when I lose them to their futures. Magical thinking is the last thing I can give them. They leave with their heads full of women with stars in their eyes and men who live forever. They never forget Federico Garcia Lorca or Charles Baudelaire. Students always return later, wiser, and tell me they understand "Get Drunk" now--seriously, Healigan, I do.

I'm getting lost here. I can imagine the comments sternly reminding me that they discover these joys themselves, that the new ways are better, and I get it. I really do. And I teach accordingly. But the reality is, they are just learning facts, listing plot points when they read sparknotes and wikipedia, just like I did when I memorized the names of all the Victorian authors. But what I remember most about English in high school is deciding on a Trollope summer after my 11th grade English teacher went nuts about him in one of her numerous digressions while we read Great Expectations. My students, who know so much, are not internalizing the experience of reading. So much of our learning throughout life is unconscious, experiential, random. Every time they wrote an essay this year, I find myself naturally sorting the essays by who reads and who doesn't, because their writing is starving for the experience of reading, of easy, sure expression of one soul communicating across centuries, genders, lands, races, languages, to touch one other soul. Reading is personal, intense, thrilling and creative. It informs their thoughts, feelings, relationships, values, clothes, music, driving, tastes, and decisions. Literature is the final and most critical character education (am I using the PC term?) that we have at our disposal........and posting 140 characters on Twitter (follow me, I'm @1healigan) is just not doing the same job.

This is who I want to be on the great days:

2010-03-19T23:15:00.002-04:00

Found this quote on Andrew Sullivan's DAILY DISH: 11/1/09

To the extent that the Internet and the proliferation of long distance learning deprive us of being in the presence of charismatic, kind, scholarly people, it will be a tremendous loss. When a Hasid said that he traveled miles just to see how his master tied his shoes, he was expressing this beautiful idea. What we learn from a great teacher cannot be put into a book, because it is in a look, an inflection, a quirk of personality or a tossed off comment. The greatest human lessons are found in the power of presence. david wolpe

I have been doing it "old school" for the past three weeks. Somehow I just don't want to repackage myself and my subject right now. Though I am a great missionary for teachers to recognize that new methods are necessary to prepare new students for the new world, I can't help but feel that my subject matter deserves attention as well. My age tells me that the old ways do the job too. There are so many advantages to reading Chaucer, no disadvantages. It seems to me that my students will be correlating past, present and future on a moment to moment basis every single day as they live the next 80 years. The connections between the present, past and future are real, they are vibrant, and they are meaningful. It matters that students read, and that they read the unfamiliar and as well as the familiar. Multitasking is not only about doing many things at once, it is also about linking many tasks, many knowledges and many experiences. Some of that does not happen in 140 characters, or in 4 open windows or or in 4 genres flashing at once. I am thrilled with 17-year-old speed, spark, opinions. I am also appalled at the ignorance, their lack of curiosity, the dismissal of so many new things with so little experience.
"Old school" in an old school is right just now: trust Ms. Healey. Shakespeare IS your past, your present and your future.

CAUTION: smoking brain!

2010-03-16T15:41:00.002-04:00

   I have reached the portion of the year in which I question my skills, my purpose and my expectations. Third quarter is always tough, especially in British Literature (juniors). They have learned my tricks, as I have learned theirs, and it becomes difficult to engage those who resist it on principle. Frankenstein, so full of ideas and feeling, so modern, leaves some of them COLD. I always remember at this juncture advice from an old boss in another career long ago: she told me that my enthusiasm intimidated others, that toning it down a bit would earn me the good will of my team mates. Was this an awful thing to say to a 24-year-old out to change the world? Sure. But... was there some truth in it? Absolutely. My enthusiasm for my subject can be tiring, and I need to refocus on my kids.
   Here's what I have noticed during this Frankenstein cycle. Since many of them have not read on their own since middle school, they seem unable to recognize plot, characterization, metaphor, and themes of classic works or even contemporary adult novels. I have noticed that some are no longer doing my "Readers Write" extra credit projects for each quarter. I generally offer a short list of novels as extra credit opportunities each quarter. So for British Lit, they could read and review The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh or The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett, or even a William Monk mystery by Anne Perry. Should I be backing off to young adult books--maybe just for extra credit choices? I do not want to, but need to work through my purpose in offering extra credit projects--to spark reading. To be fair (to me), those who do participate usually like the book they choose. But they are a tiny group, this year.
   This generation of students is so isolated from general knowledge in some ways--for some kids in my parochial high school, their parents make enough to buy them cars, but don't have the time to teach them how to change a tire (really!). They can buy fundraiser T-shirts for $20, but can't do their own wash. They know all about the opposite sex, but little about themselves. Does this mean that this most technologically savvy, worldly generation of American teens is actually not mature enough to handle adult themes, though they partake of adult behavior?????????? I won't really give up treating them as if they are ready for my content, but the nagging question of whether or not I serve them as they need to be served will not go away. I think there is smoke coming out of my ears!

OLD BIO from PBWORKS Summer Camp

2010-02-07T14:18:00.006-05:00

LESLIE HEALEY: HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHER, NINJA.

English teacher, St. Mark's High School
British literature, World Literature, Film Club.
Part-time college instructor.

Here is my home page and a "representative" group of my students. They named themselves "the Flash" after the comic book hero. The hero is one of the motifs we follow throughout the year in my British Lit classes, and they name themselves to help me keep my sanity. This college prep junior class all had learning differences and were assigned Macbooks--we had FUN.
"Healigan" is a meld of my maiden and married names, and I first used it years ago to provide a more secure environment for my class blog. The name stuck, and now my students use it as a "password" into my room (and my good graces). I am a ninja only in spirit.

BIO: I have been teaching high school for 3 years. Before that, I taught middle school English and social studies for a year, and before that, I taught for 10 years at various colleges in my area: composition 1 & 2, remedial reading and writing, technical communications, writing & lit for design majors, and other stuff too. I worked as a writing center coach as well. In my other life, I was a stay at home mom and writer with my three daughters, one of whom presented special challenges (still does at age 21, but I'm used to it now). Two of my daughters came to us by way of South Korea, which inspired my interest first in Asian lit and art, and now of world literatures. I am lucky enough to teach it now!! Before that, I worked as marketing communications specialist in industry, and a fundraiser in several hospitals and university settings. GOSH, I SOUND OLD!! But I am not singing the blues, like Sita here. (a shameless plug for a great movie I taught this year.)

LESLIE & TECH: I have been blogging with my students for three years, and have just completed my first year with a wiki. I LOVED IT! I teach Phase 3, 4, and 5 juniors and seniors (that translated to college prep, honors, and pre-AP). The juniors did alot of blogging about British Lit and practiced SAT writing. The seniors blogged and then began to use the wiki in January 2008. First, we did projects like scavenger hunts and poetry posts, to get them used to it. Then my Phase 5 seniors constructed individual pages for world poets--6 of them. They worked in small groups and rotated through the pages over a period of 8 days. Each student worked with each poet, and they all practiced specific skills. They were uncomfortable, which was great, because they are all "good" at school, and needed to start taking charge of learning, instead of just getting As. When they finished, I had the Phase 4 seniors use the pages that the others had created. They did scavenger hunts of each page, and then chose a poet to analyse. Their end project was an explication of their favorite poem by their favorite poet. They, also, had to reach a bit--choosing their own poems, searching the pages and the links, etc.

I think I need to formalize my PLN...............

2010-01-25T19:49:00.007-05:00

A “working definition” by David Warlick says that a Personal or Professional Learning Network:

involves an individual’s topic oriented goal, a set of practices or techniques aimed at attracting or organizing a variety of relevant content sources, selected for their value, to help the owner accomplish a professional goal or personal interest.

My personal goal: to be an even better teacher, of course. But what, specifically, would do that? Here are the ideas that keep rolling around in my head:

1) I need to think more about how they learn when I choose what to teach. Some of this might have to do with technology, but some might not. I do believe that their learning paths are changing because of all the media, tech and visual input they have now. I need to take advantage of that. If more of it is going to be in their control, then what I choose to have them read is probably the most critical decision. More to think about here. PLN to adapt my teaching to facilitating??? Hard to let go of loving the content and letting them get a little when I can give them alot. If this was on a teacherblog that some of the biggies read, I would be taking a hit: but so what? I have already decided that my main focus is not networking but teaching my kids. That's where my creativity will go.
I don't want to change just for the sake of change. Maybe my age is part of this. A 26 year old teacher embracing new methods is not really changing so much. Me, I have done some work or used some techniques that are old school and still good, strong techniques. I am old enough to have figured out that I am not going to get rid of it just because something new has come along. That would be like throwing out the coral cashmere sweater my MIL gave me 25 years ago, after she owned it for 20. It is still more beautiful, soft and warm than any of the new ones I have. Plus, it reminds me of her, and I still miss her every day. Since teaching is an art, I can only hope that my teaching gets better as I add the layers of experience. New is not always better. Old is good. I am old. I am good!

2) I want to find my personal comfort level with change. I do not want to change what I am doing just because ..........everyone thinks we should. Reading expands your knowledge, your self image and your decision making skills. Not reading limits your confidence, problem solving and literacy. It probably does not matter so much what you read, but that you do, that's the common wisdom these days. I guess that's true, but I am so bored by the series mentality, the repetition of the same plots over and over, the inaccurate diction and barely adequate manipulation of the language. I think maybe part of my job is to help them develop discernment in their reading, info gathering, knowledge and wisdom development. SO... PLN to investigate how much do I want to absorb the new without losing the old?? Who would be in this network? Part of the reason I am blogging is the lack of colleagues who have time or interest in discussing these ideas.

3) another idea--how to organize the tools I do use--which tools (tech) for which classes? What order do I introduce? Which ones are best suited to which lesson? So far I have hit on things by instinct (one of my strengths) but that will add up (like my delicious tag for toolsforteachers) into chaos. Chaos is not good. Planning ahead is good. So how do I put together the big picture? The syllabi that the department uses are almost irrelevant for me now--it is all about what to teach them, not what they need to learn. For instance, BritLit now contains from Beowulf to Martin Amis, approx 1300 years lit. I am not sure that a chronological approach is useful or possible anymore! Back to tools--more thinking needed. This is one that Gina and I can work on for World Lit.

1/25/10:Learning is messy! Who is in my PLN already? Most often consulted: Barbara, Gina, Val, Andy. Also important: Fio, Katie, Anne, Geri T. I think I need people from other departments. Tech PLN: Donna, Holly, Dale, Linda, Fio, Michele A?, Barry, and my twitter list, EC Ning. This is a pretty weak list: they are not weak, but I need to fill in the gaps in experience and knowledge.
http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=755

More later..............

AACCKK!! Who can I talk to about this?

2010-01-25T19:45:00.003-05:00

2009-11-29T12:25:00.001-05:00

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions. g.k. chesterton

RE: the Nobel Prize, from Garrison Keillor in Salon.......

2009-10-31T23:17:00.002-04:00

"Some conservative pundit suggested that the president should've declined the prize, but it is not gracious to reject a compliment, one should accept it with becoming modesty, as Mr. Obama did, that's what your mother brought you up to do. The prize isn't about you, it's about Peace, or Literature, or Homecoming, or Champion Hog, or Male Vocalist of the Year, so walk up there and smile for the cameras, say thank you and sit down.

The wailing and gnashing of teeth that you hear among Republicans is 68 percent envy and 32 percent sour grapes. Here is an idealistic, articulate young president who is enormously popular everywhere in the world except in the states of the Confederacy, and here sit the 28 percent of the American people who still thought Mr. Bush was doing a heckuva job at the end, gnashing their teeth, hoping and praying for something horrible to happen such as an infestation of locusts or the disappearance of the sun, something to make the president look bad, which is not a good place for a political party to be, hoping for the country to slide into chaos. When you bet against America, you are choosing long odds"

I still don't get wishing the other guy would fail. It is un-American. We elect a man for four years, and then we live with it. Some of us are happy with the situation, some aren't. And in four years, it changes again. I think we should all be pleased that the rest of the world has stopped hating us for a few minutes.........and amybe think about why they think President Obama is such a big deal.

MONTY PYTHON.........sign of an intellect???????

2009-10-11T21:58:00.004-04:00

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/jeremy_clarkson/article6869288.ece

2009-10-11T10:35:00.003-04:00

OMG OMG OMG Neil Gaiman is doing a project on Journey to the West! I cannot wait to see what it is. Maybe then I can read it in a more authentic form, maybe I can see it, maybe I can teach it!!!! yes. Life is good. More to come as I find out what is happening.
from Gaiman's blog:
I'm madly trying to finish things before I head out to China for a few weeks, to wrap up the research on my Journey to the West project... http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/10/it-snowed-this-morning.html

2009-09-02T21:58:00.007-04:00

WHAT MY JOB IS.....

Editing should be, especially in the case of old writers, a counseling rather than a collaborating task. The tendency of the writer-editor to collaborate is natural, but he should say to himself, "How can I help this writer to say it better in his own style?" and avoid "How can I show him how I would write it, if it were my piece?"

That's James Thurber in a 1959 memo to The New Yorker.

Thanks to kottke.org for the reminder: it is great to be a good writer and an involved teacher, but sometimes the writer/collaborator has to sit in the back seat while the teacher takes over, especially when we are working on the blog or the wiki. If I were to focus exclusively on formal writing conventions, then the magic would POOF! They are writing more often and more clearly than I even hoped for before the blog. Last year, I saw them to begin monitoring themselves, as they needed new modes and styles to discuss more complex ideas and emotions. It is not always possible to see the line that I need to draw in the "blogger" sand, though. This year I am giving myself more detailed requirements for their self-reviews as well as my assessments, especially with my seniors. More or that as the year progresses.

update 9/20: first blog done last week. UCK! chapter 2 will be an assessment activity. Maybe have them read other posts and choose a good one--but I tell them how to decide what's good--1. mention of more than one device used by the artist, 2. some criteria directly mentioned by the writer of the post, 3. direct reference to work of the artist, 4. what criteria they mention--should have some connection to the artist as writer, creator, producer (I mean, come on, guys, this IS an english class, the 11th you've had already!) entirely too many people just noted the subject of the artist's songs. a few mentioned genre--incorrectly used by most mentions, etc
and then have them apply lit terms to music, duh! it works. maybe they will finally remember their terms--or more accurately, find them useful

WIKI TAG! YOU'RE IT!

2009-08-15T08:54:00.002-04:00

http://deangroom.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/how-to-play-wiki-tag/

Noticed this cool idea checking through my Langwitches links.......gotta think more about this on Monday. I can use this with the seniors this year, as I am planning to start wiki projects earlier in the year. I still want to do the Poetry Pages near the end of the year, since by then, it is all I can do to keep seniors awake. The year end iMovie project linked to the wiki project should help us survive the last three weeks of class.

plagiarism discussion/unit

2009-08-09T19:04:00.011-04:00

I am going to be doing a"unit" on plagiarism. This post from Lisa Gold's blog always gives me the right words:
http://lisagoldresearch.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/laziness-is-not-an-excuse-for-plagiarism/

http://lisagoldresearch.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/editors-and-fact-checkers-fix-sarah-palins-resignation-speech/ hahahaha. I wish I could use this in class, but it is not POLITICALLY correct.........I'll have to find a speech of my own to mutilate!

http://lisagoldresearch.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/never-assume-anything-tips-for-greater-accuracy/

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/01/what-plagiarism-look.html
http://search.creativecommons.org/
Vicki Davis has done it again: this Guitar Hero will be a great example for the students when I approach this topic:
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2009/09/i-see-dead-people-kurt-cobain-and.html
http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php?f=6
since I can't see the kurt cobain video anymore--this might help: http://news.aol.com/article/the-most-scandalous-misuses-of-dead/784210?icid=sphere_tmzcom_inline

9/21 idea from Dale: start with a prequiz testing what they know about intellectual property, their digital dossier, what is legal and what isn't..........i Movie as a product

FIRST SENIOR ESSAY 09-10

2009-08-03T23:55:00.005-04:00

CELLPHONES IN MY CLASS

2009-08-03T15:14:00.004-04:00

UPDATE:
http://ezinearticles.com/?iPhone-Education---4-Reasons-Why-Mobile-Devices-Will-Transform-How-Our-Kids-Learn&id=2662128

http://education.change.org/blog/view/dear_auntie_siobhan_my_students_wont_put_away_their_phones

This post on change.org inspired a great conversation about cellphone use in the schools. That is not going to happen anytime soon in my school, but we do have iPods,a and traveling computer labs. Last year, I taught a pilot class in which every student had a MacBook. It was exhilarating to put them in charge of their learning. But I won't have them this year, and now I am having to re-strategize how to do that without the the laptops. It can be done--I have done it for years--but I feel like I am walking backwards. So I am posting this comment below to remind me of where I want to be, so I don't forget how to talk about this with those who don't see it yet. Thanks, Siobhan and Ira Socol...
"Sorry, but my mobile is my computer, my note-taking platform, my reference guide, I often load my books onto it. It is my assistive technology in many ways as well, and you are not taking it away from me because you can not master contemporary classroom management.

All around the world - outside of North America - the modern mobile is being embraced as the greatest tool of education. Imagine, the world's greatest library in the palm of your hand, plus the perfect way to engage with the teacher, with classmates, to make the backchannel an essential part of the learning environment. A word processor - a voice dictation word processor if you'd like - a camera capable of converting text into speech - a GPS device - a calculator. Yes, what might any of that have to do with making school work for most students?

So, here are my mobile phone rules:

(1) Keep it out, on your desk. That way, if you've forgotten to silence the ring, we're not waiting for you to find it in your backpack.

(2) If you need to talk, go outside. No big deal.

(3) Have it on all the time - we'll be using it - polleverywhere, todaysmeet, SMS questions to people out of the classroom, sharing links, putting important notes in our calendars.

And with those simple rules, and engaged teaching - "look that up, would you?" "please share that?" "can you text your friend and ask?" "really? everyone knows? everyone text three friends and ask them." We have no problems.

The phone of today is the essential learning and communication "container" (to use Alan November's term). If we are not using it in schools, if we are not teaching best mobile practices to our students, we are failing them.

It is that simple.

http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2007/12/dont-hang-up-on-your-students-futures.html

http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2008/04/technology-and-equity.html

http://speedchange.blogspot.com/2008/11/bringing-back-channel-forward.html

http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/ "

New Notetaking Set-Up for Next Year

2009-05-29T21:56:00.007-04:00

I have wanted to set up a better notetaking system for juniors especially, and I really liked Eileen Young's system that I observed last fall at Brandywine High School. She had their "welcome" on the left and the notes they took during class on the right hand side.I think it would work with a spiral bound notebook or 3 ring binder--possible even a copybook, though the kids do not favor them anymore. I had not thought through all the details yet, and then I saw this wiki!!!http://interactive-notebooks.wikispaces.com/
Also note this webpage from Greece, New York schools--my old stomping grounds (outside of Rochester, NY):http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/reading/Reading%20Strategies/interactivenotebook.htm
More research to come this summer....it is definitely a go for my juniors.
http://pc40s.blogspot.com/ calculus notes/blogging!
ALSO: could this be part of the "welcome" (warm up)process? http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/big_list/

SOME LESSON IDEAS TO CONSIDER FOR NEXT YEAR...

2009-05-05T16:48:00.022-04:00

1. From Langwitches:
a tentative plan to address copyright issues directly with juniors and seniors. This could be a good place to start planning a unit on the issue:
http://langwitches.org/blog/2009/05/01/teaching-students-about-using-images-off-the-web/
This is already an issue in all of my classes. I tell them what is kosher and what isn't, but I don't think 1) I am doing enough, and 2) following through. Their personal experiences regarding legal downloading do not reinforce this issue as critical or relevant to them. And we all recognize their "if I don't get caught, then it isn't wrong" attitude.
This would also be effective when matched with my mini-lesson on the Free Culture movement as part of my unit on Sita Sings the Blues. See the blog assignment at http://healigan.blogspot.com/
http://mleddy.blogspot.com/2009/05/maureen-dowd-weaving-not-linking.html plagiarism
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/01/what-plagiarism-look.html more plagiarism examples for discussion. Could this copyright/plagiarism unit really work?. I think so!

more gooies from pbworks summer camp: FlickrCC or Compfight allow you to search Creative Commons licensed photos, then credit the photographer (using his/her name on Flickr)...check into this
2. http://pearlsandonions.edublogs.org/ Great blog--goes with JUST READ blog anyway--the kids evaluate other blogs, make a rubric as part of the project. Also, they are compiling a list of MUST READs for high school students using GoogleDocs.
3. http://wanderingink.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/how-to-prevent-another-leonardo-da-vinci/
4. http://justread.wordpress.com/
May 8 entry regrading tracking color in The Great Gatsby and then producing individual Voice Thread presentations...... "how to read literature like a professor" Thanks, Ms. Huff!
5. Regarding the teaching of two different phases of Brit Lit next year, LEslie: do not forget to consult the "England in Literature" book for the Phase 4s. It contains better writing in the chapter intros as well as more content in the contextual background sections--the writing in our present book is childish and skimpy. Also, especially when you reach the 20th century, SEVERAL of the iconic poems are missing in the present book. I admit that Wilfred Owen may not last as one of the greats, but not to include Dulce et Decorum Est??? and DO Not Go Gently into that Good Night. They always get those two, and they remember them. I still miss my purple book!!
5. http://beyond-school.org/2008/10/18/diigo-blogging-current-events/ from Clay Burell-making Critical Readers--try this with seniors. I think I could adapt it to fit World Lit. Use something contemporary, like (British) imagist poetry or Lorca, etc etc
6. gotta revamp the class blog for next year: "guest columnists," a rotating schedule of student postings, what?? make it a little more flexible, for sure, and thnk more about it after finals. here's one I found online that used regular student columns--it is grade school but the columnist idea seems to work www.theskinny.edublogs.org It might be time to redesign the blog and have the junior classes plan, design and implement it. great beginning of the year project. I will hate to say goodbye to the leafy greenness of healigan's home as it is, though.
7. how to get more visitors, if that is what I decide to do:
Attracting visitors:
* my students and I visit lots of other blogs and leave comments
* the name of the post is important for search engines to pick up, eg: Fighter jets
* making links in your posts to other blogs and websites
* having an interesting post that lots of people want to read and comment on
* making sure the class blog URL is attached to my avatar when I make a comment
* having an activity linked to the page, so the reader has something to comment on
Sorry, I forget where I got this!
We teach them how to remember, we never teach them how to grow.
8. http://guessthewordle.pbworks.com/
use the wordle as a clue to a new unit starting, or vocab, etc

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Tuning in to the Blind Spots of this Generation

2009-05-03T00:05:00.011-04:00

I have always thought that teaching was more than a job. Coolcatteacher says it best:

That being said -- Teaching is a noble calling and not for the faint at heart. It saddens me to see so many schools misunderstand the evolution of what teachers can and could be to make them fit into the industrial age heirarchical model of their own youth. My students teach me and I teach them, because see, I have some blind spots too. We're good for each other.Cool Cat Teacher Online, Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Tuning in to the Blind Spots of this Generation, May 2009

TECH OVERLOAD, part two of BLog BLock

2009-04-27T20:42:00.014-04:00

This chapter of BLog BLock is inspired by....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/25/ben-okri-poem-twitter I would love to present this Ben Okri (Nigeria/Britain) poem to them and challenge them to unlock it, and then do one of their own. But their inertia has infected me at this point in the year. And I am feeling impatient with them--they are too young to see and feel the power in this new medium, I think. Still entirely involved in the complexity of high school--so little of it has to do with academics. So....
I will not twitter, not because I wouldn't like it, though. I would like it. It would become yet another addiction: the challenge of 140 characters to write a poem or critique a book or send a recipe is tempting. And the drive to be "followed" would take over. But I want to stay married, and my family thinks this "tech problem" I have is endearing and quirky (so far). So I will not be using twitter.
I admit, and I am not sure if this is my age or my personality, that sometimes I want to slow down, limit my input, ruminate on what is most recently in the front of my brain. I actually just thought of three links that I could insert here on this topic, but I don't want to network or link right now. There is a limit to the usefulness of constant input, to the myriad feeds into the human brain. All this information at my disposal is great, but I need to sort and judge and enjoy it. Just USE it.
My students are still learning this skill. They want me to tell them what to think, what to read, what the connections are, why it is important. But, as I told some seniors today, I'm still doing all the work. Let yourself out of the cage today--why did I make you read Garden of the Forking Paths? How could one class include Dante's Inferno and Things Fall Apart? Is this whole class about me and my love of reading? No, of course not--they know that much. I try to give them what I have as a starting point for their own quest for themselves.
Am I working through the BLog BLock? Not sure yet...I wrote a post for the seniors about the Free Culture movement,which draws on their Sita Sings the Blues experience. Very few of the comments were good: they did not explore the information I provided. I guess I am back to the motivation question...what I found out in 5 minutes preparing the assignment they missed in 41! Have I reached the limits of what they can do at this age? Maybe. I am surprised by their lack of curiosity the most, I think.
I am, and have always been, eternally curious--maybe it is an uncommon personality trait. I can't believe that. I read teacher blogs every day which mull over this same problem, and I know that others in my school wonder about the same thing. How have all these smart kids survived on no curiosity?? And if I hear one more person say that school is sucking the life out of kids, I will scream. I am NOT sucking the life out of my students. School is not the culprit. The structure may be flawed, but the strength of the teachers who show up every day ready to engage the students is enough. I bring life every day, I feel it. Why isn't it infecting more of them? Too late to answer this tonight...but all ideas welcome!
Next topic: So I am constantly surprised by the number of people who are totally uninterested in new, really NEW, ways to experience books, people, school, students, art, poetry, shopping, politics, movies, food, driving, etc.

USE THIS!! BRITLIT CONTEMPORARY...1984..WW1

2009-04-23T16:37:00.007-04:00

We are about to visit the 20th century, finally. We read 1984 as summer reading, and it is now time to revisit it. I want to use the book as a way to discuss the changes the hero we first characterized with Beowulf in September has endured. SO...the link below could be a good first look at the book as well as a link to today's events. I want them to see the connections! I really want them to read the news once in a while.
ROOM 101: relate to torture memos in the news, as well as our discussion of 1984 and its dystopian vie of THE HERO. http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/04/hbc-90004803

here is a really good page on modern brit lit which includes some good tv, movie and individual writer pages as wellhttp://www.k-state.edu/english/westmank/literary/contempbrit_resources.html

Amazing site with online study units--the WW1 unit is good, and you can personalize it, give it a unique URL, and send your kids there. Wish me luck!
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/education/tutorials

I HATE POWERPOINT! THERE I SAID IT.......

2009-04-18T12:12:00.014-04:00

I hate using powerpoint, though it is convenient, for these reasons.
1. The students concentrate on writing down everything on the slide. That means they are not exercising note-taking skills, nor are they listening to what I am saying.
2. Because they are not listening, they also avoid making connections and inferences about the topic. That means I have already failed them in two ways.
3. They assume that whatever is on the powerpoint provides the sum of what they need to know for assessment. WRONG!
4. They make lousy powerpoints for presentations, which was what first clued me into its weaknesses. If they could watch my well-constructed and designed powerpoints, and come up with the ones I was seeing, then something was not happening during the learning experience.
I teach juniors and seniors in high school. Practice using college skills is a major focus of each day, and since I started by teaching college, I know what students are missing when they arrive on campus. The lack of critical thinking inherent in the high school experience is terrifying for me, and I try to minimize the problem in my classes. I initially liked powerpoint, since I could cover a lot of material quickly, especially at the beginning of a unit (like "The Elizabethan Era"), but the reason to sit 30 16-year-olds in a dark room to learn escapes me. Perhaps the only accomplishment will be the large number of cellphones I acquire, since they do not realize that I can see the phones better in the dark. I am certain they are not texting about the Virgin Queen!
So thank you, Langwitches, for the following link. I feel vindicated. Now I will have to work on some of these suggestions:
http://www.nsdc.org/learningBlog/post.cfm/will-death-by-powerpoint-soon-be-a-thing-of-the-past
http://www.presentationzen.com/

UPDATE 4/28/09: My solution arrives! We will all learn to make an iMovie over the next two weeks. My Phase 5 class will be disrupted for the next two weeks, as many of the students will be waltzing in and out for AP tests. Apparently, this happens every year and somehow we just assume that they can absorb the chaos (and that I can too). So the iMovie is perfect--we will spend time on them this week all together and then they will punt next week....since this is assessing their magic realism "bottom line," I am going to let them work in pairs so that the tech part of this goes more smoothly.
UPDATE: To feed or to lead......
http://deangroom.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/to-feed-or-lead-class/

8/18/09
Even the British know!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8207849.stm

This is very funny: http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=6102&title=How_NOT_To_Use_PowerPoint

Just in case I am stuck: http://sharpjacqui.blogspot.com/2009/09/print-out-in-powerpoint.html

BLOG BLOCK!

2009-04-08T21:14:00.004-04:00

This has never happened before: it is SOOOOOO time for a new blog post on healigan's home, and I know it it will be about Frankenstein for the juniors and maybe Marquez for the seniors, but I can't write it! Here is the sticker: it is hard work to write a good blog post--and it should not be harder than writing an assignment, should it? But it is, because 1) I have been assigning writing the old way for a thousand years,so it is tempting to retreat into familiarity and 2) I am not asking them to report to me with a blog, I want them to consider an idea, live with it for a day or two, and then release it into the world. And they almost never want to do that for me. So I always feel like I am a circus performer, and I do not want the audience to leave for popcorn just before the best trick. And there is, of course, the fact that I am a writer who feels the same things they feel when I write....it is a scary, vulnerable jumble of emotions, and it never gets easier. They judge themselves by their grades, but I judge myself by their written responses and the look on their faces when they come into class to update me.
Well, Spring Break has started, so I am not in a time crunch, and as I reread this, I remind myself that I should not be doing all the work. Reframing the problem usually solves it. More to come as I work through this.

Magic Realism/Americas

2009-04-05T18:46:00.013-04:00

FYI Leslie--scribd copy of Labrythine. Contains many of Borges's stories and essays, with a good dose of philosphy, could be useful. What other story do I want them to read?http://www.scribd.com/doc/12898247/LABRYNTHCOLECTION-OF-SHORT-STORIES-BY-LOUIS-BORGES
http://www.themodernword.com/borges/
Excellent site with bios and some criticism: http://www.suite101.com/
Here is a quote from Paulo Coelho's blog (which I accessed through Goodreads.com). I think it should provoke some discussion and also provide another platform for their assessment of magic realism. I admit I am grasping at straws: I have 5 weeks left with these seniors and they have already moved to another channel!PAULO COELHO’S BLOG-can be accessed on Goodreads
April 10, 2009
Question from Manuel:In your writing, how do you cope with the relationship between reality and fantasy?Coelho’s response:
I don’t distinguish reality from fantasy because I think that reality encompasses emotion, faith, fears… All these things we carry in our soul are certainly invisible to the eye – but not the heart.
We all know when we are sad, happy, nostalgic or enthusiastic. This emotional input then touches all the material things we do. In our work for instance this is obvious. It is impossible to perform a good work when we are down – and the opposite is equally true.
Furthermore, fantasy is not made up of unsubstantial dreams, fruitless desires. Fantasy is what feeds the imagination, is what drives us beyond what others may consider to be the limits. Fantasy is then constantly feeding the real world and this is why I believe that reality is the greatest mystery.

www.paulocoelho.com

http://www.chatham.edu/PTI/Latin%20America%20&%20U.S.Pop%20culture/Golden_02.htm
good background on magical realism--maybe find some short stories to fit into 4th quarter
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/02/columbia-gabriel-garcia-marquez-books
http://www.uta.edu/english/wbfaris/MagicalRealism.html#toc

Marquez short story, bio info, source page for magical realism
don't forget to check short story book

http://fiction.eserver.org/short/eyes-of-a-blue-dog.html
http://www.lasculturas.com/lib/libMagicRealism.htm

http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/ncw/marquez.htm
http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/resourcebank/definitions/

SITA SINGS THE BLUES !!! LESSON PLAN

2009-04-03T17:54:00.013-04:00

Lesson Plan: Sita Sings the Blues/Ramayana by Valmiki
http://lhealey7604.blogspot.com/
http://healigan.blogspot.com/
http://healigan.wikispaces.com/SITA+SINGS+THE+BLUES
Please notify me if you plan to use all or part of this plan. Suggestions and comment
always welcome. As the students finsih their work, it will also be posted on the wiki.
Teacher: Leslie Healey Grade: 12
St. Mark’s High School Subject: World Literature
Wilmington, Delaware Honors Phase 4, 5
Date: April 2009
1. Description of Class and Students:
This lesson plan will serve 22 twelfth graders, ages 17-18. There are 12 boys and
10 girls. There is one Indian student and two Chinese students, all of whom are bilingual.
The students are honors level, Phase V.
2. Lesson Goals-Students’ Learning Objectives
*Students will recognize Valmiki’s relevance, his ability to capture universal human
behavior and impulses.
*Students will be able to identify culturally essential aspects of a contemporary
filmed version of the story: Sita Sings the Blues.
*Students will be able to a) write a critique on one of the social and cultural themes
and aspects of Sita Sings the Blues or b) write a movie critique evaluating the success
or failure of the film as a discrete work of art or c) deliver a four-minute presentation
on the social/cultural issues inherent in this re-imagination of the Ramayana.
*Students will use literary knowledge (Ramayana) as the basis for extending
understanding of themselves and their culture.
3. Goals are suitable for these students because…
The ability to compare and contrast is a critical thinking skill natural to the human
experience. Students in this age group are self-aware and thoughtful in how they
evaluate experience and make decisions regarding action. This is an important reason
why Sita Sings the Blues/Valmiki’s Ramayana appropriate for this age group. Adding
the secondary layer of cultural awareness will serve to emphasize the commonality of
human experience. This is the goal of the literary portion of a Language Arts class.
The compare/contrast technique is a concrete way to bridge the gap between what the
students can understand consciously and what they are close to understanding as they
mature. In addition, this lesson will reinforce cultural awareness and a sense of their
place in society and culture: that we are all both different and alike in our experience.
The students will also apply critical thinking skills to a critique of the film, both as a
representation of the original story and an artistic work on its own merits. A side
benefit will be an acknowledgement that literature is not irrelevant to their lives.
4. How do these goals support the district’s curriculum, state frameworks,
and/or content standards?
The following NCTE content standards are supported in this lesson:
Standard One-Using written and oral communication appropriately
Standard Two-Constructing and extending meaning of a literary text through reading,
listening and viewing.
Standard Four-Using literary knowledge through print and visual media to connect
self to society and culture.
5. How do these goals support broader curriculum standards in Language Arts
and/or other disciplines?
Since one recognized goal of most writers (certainly a goal of dramatists) is to
communicate common experience, adding an additional layer of meaning onto the
textual discussion of The Ramayana would enhance the lesson’s relevance by having
students focus on the cultural themes of Valmiki’s epic. It is supportive of Delaware
state standards that students be instructed in the multiple cultures present in 21st
century America: this particular lesson is well suited to this goal, for it exhibits the
ease with which subsequent generations have adopted the epic for their own time and
culture. As should always be a goal in a Language Arts curriculum, this lesson creates
a framework to discuss values and character by acknowledging the cultural aspects of
a classic story. Hopefully, the universal appeal of Shakespeare is reinforced for
students. In addition, it offers practice in written and oral media, and is particularly
strong in promoting visual literacy and self-awareness.
6. How does the teacher plan to engage students in the content? What will the
teacher do? What will the students do?
Background: Students will already be familiar with Valmiki’s Ramyana, having
recently finished a class reading and analysis of the story. An assessment of students’
comprehension of literary aspects of the epic is separate from the goals and
assessments of this lesson. The work was discussed with epic techniques, plot
development, and religious/cultural values in mind. So students will come to this
portion of the unit with understanding of the plot, the ability to identify particular
literary techniques used by Valmiki to represent cultural values, and a sense of epic as
a distinct genre from poetry, drama or fiction. The study of the cultural values was
particularly important as scaffolding for this next section: viewing and evaluating Sita
Sings the Blues, a 21th century interpretation or “reimagining” of Valmiki’s
masterpiece.
Instructor Strategies: The hook for the lesson is foolproof; watching a film (instead of
reading) is every student’s fond desire for English class. Comparison of the film and
the play will be done in discussion (whole group) and then instructor will assign a
choice of written or oral assessment.
Introduction/Warm-up (10 minutes): We have read the Ramayana. I know that we
have had some discussion regarding whether or not the epic represents values relevant
to today’s India. Indeed, if the Ramayana hold universal appeal for present readers,
does it also hold true that Sita Sings the Blues also presents universal appeal? Does
the filmmaker (Nina Paley) protect the original intent of the story, or has she changed
the story and themes? If so, to what end? This film adaptation presents the story of
the original Ramayana and adds a new layer of story—the filmmaker’s personal
story.
Transition: I am going to distribute a sheet noting particular elements of structure related
to the genre of film, as well as some particular styles of animation that will help you
navigate your first viewing of the film. You should jot down your impressions and
questions as we enjoy the movie.
Objectives/Goals: By the time this lesson is over, you will identify common themes and
language between the movie and epic. You will recognize Valmiki’s characters in their
(various) new incarnations in the film. You will be able to discuss what Sita Sings the
Blues tells us about culture as a determining feature of literature/cinema. How will I
know that you can do this? Because you will either blog your thoughts or present them
orally to the class when the movie is over.
WATCH MOVIE-should take 2 ½ class periods. 1 hour, 21 minutes
Whole Group Discussion (after movie):
Allow 12 minutes for general impressions. Then ask for any questions regarding the
tension between the two stories. Through questions, make sure the discussion turns to
discussion moves to themes-universal and contemporary.
Introduce Independent Assessment (8 minutes): The students will have a choice of
posting a response to a themed blog entry by the instructor OR presenting a four-minute
presentation comparing the two visions of the heroine. Students are already familiar with
the technique for compare/contrast. As it is essential for most critical thinking activities,
this will add to their experience with the style of composition. They are also familiar
with the rules of blogging for class, so a simple reminder will suffice.
7. What difficulties do students typically experience in this area, and how will I plan
to anticipate these difficulties?
First, their comparison/contrast skills are still developing, so I may have to monopolize
the first five minutes of the discussion after the film to answer questions. I may also
interrupt the film when indicated. The handout/worksheet will also direct their attention
to salient points in the movie.
Second, they have not formally studied the genre of cinema, so there will doubtless be
some questions regarding the movie’s construction and style. Third, I will be vigilant
regarding what they say during the discussion. I also take care to be sensitive to how the
Hindu/Sikh student(s) react(s). The students usually take care to respect each other, but
even as seniors in high school, they are sometimes embarrassed and ask their questions in
an immature way, so it is important that I model the proper tone, vocabulary and degree
of respect that I want them to show. I also expect some energetic commentary on the
Indian-style dress, paintings and puppets.
Fourth, some students are better at gathering information than expressing themselves
on sensitive issues. I will offer assessment choices to acknowledge this fact. These will
serve to support the success of the different strengths of the students.
8. What instructional materials or other resources, if any, will I use?
*The equipment necessary will be the movie (watched at
http://www.thirteen.org/sites/reel13/blog/watch-sita-sings-the-blues-online/347/) and the
projector. I understand a DVD of the film will be available for purchase soon, and an
episodic version is already up on YouTube.
*The handout will be copied for each of them. I will collect it as they finish the project.
*They have Valmiki’s Ramayana in their textbooks for backup. I will also post links to
relevant sites on Valmiki’s Ramayana and Sita Sings the Blues on our class wiki at
http://healigan.wikispaces.com/SITA+SINGS+THE+BLUES, which they can use to
reinforce their knowledge of the movie.
*I will use a rubric tailored to each assignment for assessment.
9. How did I plan to assess student achievement of the goals? What procedures will I
use?
I will assess understanding by classroom discussion after the film. I will also review
the worksheet they completed during the film. The formal assessment will be the writing
assignment or the presentation. Since this is a portion of a larger unit, I will have already
tested their understanding of the original text through a test and a short critical response
paper. This unit is the large part of the Asian unit, which takes an entire quarter to finish.
It is worth it!
10. How do I plan to use the results of the assessment?
The critical response essay and the Sita Sings the Blues project will together account
for 50% of the quarter’s grades. So for the cultural awareness part of the unit, the project
will serve as the total assessment.
Leslie Healey http://healigan.bogspot.com/
Wilmington Delaware http://healigan.wikispaces.com
April 3, 2009
RUBRIC: Blog/Movie Critique NAME______________________________
MS. HEALEY
APRIL 2009
ORGANIZATION 20
____
3 paragraphs? ____
topic evident in each para ____
Minimum 5 sentences per para ____
CONTENT 20
Strong obvious thesis? ____
Main points noted & supported with
specific examples from text ____
Strong conclusion ____
Logical progression of points made ____
MECHANICS/STYLE 10
Name of epic/film italicized ____
Tone appropriate/diction ____
Punctuation-minimal errors
(apostrophe, commas, sentence
endings, semicolon, quotation
marks) ____
Use of appropriate vocabulary
Grammar-minimal errors (s-v agree,
pronoun references,
verb forms, syntax, etc) ____
FOR PURPOSES OF THIS ASSIGNMENT, NO POINTS WILL BE DEDUCTED FOR
USE OF FIRST OR SECOND PERSON
World Lit 4, 5 Sita Presentation
Ms. Healey April 2009
Now that we have finished watching Sita Sings the Blues, it is time for
you to evaluate. We had some class discussion regarding the backstory
for Sita. I heard from you regarding Nina Paley’s interpretation of this
ancient archetypal story as well as your impressions of the importance of
cultural heritage in the development of an individual’s world-image. It is
important-and not just to the individual, but also to all of us. Bravo! I
would like you to prepare a four-minute research presentation about one
aspect of the techniques used in development of the film OR compare the
themes of the original epic to the themes highlighted in Paley’s version.
You may play a song or make a poster, create a video or shadow box, or
talk to us. You must consult at least three sources, all of which may be
online—be careful. Whatever media you use, I will need a list of your
sources, your poster or a copy of anything digital when you present. Be
ready to present on the 21st. Dazzle me just as Sita dazzled us!
RUBRIC: SITA PRESENTATION NAME______________________________
MS. HEALEY
APRIL 2009
CONTENT 20
Topic presented clearly & initially ____
Research quality & depth ____
Research quantity-sufficient ____
On point for topic ____
Familiarity with topic ____
Identify sources ____
DELIVERY 20
Clear speech, voice modulation ____
Minimum nervousness evident ____
Length appropriate ____
Use of appropriate vocabulary ____
Ability to answer questions ____
Memorized or near it ____
PRESENTATION 10
Quality of material preparation ____
Use your materials during pres? ____
Materials created if needed? ____
CRITIQUE: SITA SINGS THE BLUES St. Marks High
School
World Lit: Mrs. Healey Wilmington, DE
ANALYSE THE ELEMENTS OF THE FILM TO EVALUATE ITS
SUCCESS/FAILURE. USE THIS PAGE TO MAKE NOTES AS YOU
WATCH.
Premise of film-basic suppositions underlying film
Characterization-belief, voice, actions
Plot/Structure
Music/soundtrack
Setting/set decoration
Style-animation
Motif
Dialogue
Originality
Effects
Writing/script
Integration
*Identify movie, director, date, genre, one-paragraph synopsis
*Must comment/note references to other works, whether they inspired the
Film or were actually the source material.
*Check the wiki for links and additional web materials to support your writing.
*More information to come as I develop it or YOU find it on the web. Please add any
Good web sources on the wiki.
*Compare to other versions, plots, genres, etc.

FRANKENSTEIN/RESEARCH ESSAY Q4 JUNIORS

2009-03-17T21:43:00.021-04:00

http://frankensteintalk.blogspot.com/2005/08/study-questions.html
http://www.unl.edu/sbehrend/html/sbsite/StudyQuestions/Frankenstein.htm

http://web.quipo.it/frankenstein/
1931, Boris Karloff as Frankenstein. Interesting response to the Depression?!?!?!
IO would like to use these for vocab. How to fit in??
http://quizlet.com/

http://www.watershedonline.ca/literature/frankenstein/frankenstein.html
a webquest using literary criticism
http://campus.lakeforest.edu/~ragland/asamalyukhovskaya/Webquest.html
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/shelley.html good study ques if I need them

comprehensive Frank site
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/frankenstein/frankhome.html
http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/contents.html
Research units: 4what to cite, 1how to research online, 5intro borrowed materials, 3outlining, 6intro paragraph, 7MLA format, 2card format and content

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/p/Frankenstein%20in%20popular%20culture
http://education.llnl.gov/bep/english/11/tMock.html
another trial lesson plan

RESEARCH ESSAY

http://www.ccis.edu/departments/writingcenter/documents/quotations.html
http://www2.winthrop.edu/english/plagiarism.htm
http://www.utoronto.ca/ucwriting/quotations.html
http://www.csbsju.edu/writingcenters/handouts/using_borrowed_material.htm