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

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!

   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

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...............

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?

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

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

"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.

• Continue Reading

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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.

see high school bits

CELLPHONES IN MY CLASS

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

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...

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

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

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

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.......

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