Thursday, November 6, 2008

In French, we went to Sugar Rush for fun, food, and fellowship. We enjoyed smoothies, lattes, eclairs, cookies, and brownies. C'etait tres bon!

College Senior English
Mrs. Cauley urged students to get involved with our tutorial program after school. We need students to mentor and guide the younger ones, especially in math and English. I presented a lesson on persuasive techniques, covering logical, ethical, and emotional appeals and rebuttals. We read a sample essay in class and "dissected" it. I have a handout to give them tomorrow that will cover methods of persuasion and fallacies of logic.
I shared our wikispaces address, and students began developing their pages.

English 12
We continued our study of poems.
Thomas Gray: "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
Memorable lines: "The paths of glory lead but to the grave" and "Far from the madding crowd's ignoble stife"
Robert Burns: "Auld Lang Syne," which means "old long ago"
William Shakespeare: Sonnets 116, 130, and 73
I love the line, "Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."
John Donne: "Death, Be Not Proud" and "Meditation 17"
Donne is one of my very avorite poets.
Memorable lines from "Meditation 17" include "No man is an island" and the famous passage: "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell toll; it tolls for thee."
These lines remind me of the African word "ubuntu" that my former student Johnny Croft told me about. Ubuntu basically means that a person is a person through other people. Johnny is living in Malawi for two years, serving in the Peace Corps.

Wordsworth Rap

My former student, Sara Catherine, sent me this link. She's studying to be an English teacher, too. I'm so proud of her.



Hey Mrs. Thompson!Here is the Wordsworth rap that I was telling you about. Prepare yourself to laugh. The split screen dance sequences are especially entertaining :) I'm sure your students will get a kick out of this... Hope you're having a great week!~Sara Catherinehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXbrSALG684
mc nuts - william wordsworth rap
Source: www.youtube.com

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

English 12
Below are the poems that we have covered this week, thus far.
William Blake's "A Poison Tree," "The Lamb," and "The Tyger"
William Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much with Us," "My Heart Leaps Up"
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
Students are writing their research papers on English poets; therefore, we're trying to cover at least one poem per poet this week. It's not the way I want to teach poetry, but it's a start. We discussed characteristics of Romantic poetry.

College Senior English 102
Students shared their favorite carpe diem quotations that they found from the Internet. We read and discussed Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" and Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress." Then, we went to the library where students finished taking notes.

French I
Today was a whirlwind of activity in francais. Students worked independently on various projects. Several put the finishing touches on their Eiffel Tower replicas. One group made an edible model, which we all enjoyed eating. Students finished their dialogues and menus, which we will use tomorrow during our field trip to Sugar Rush, a cafe downtown.

I hope my students will start posting comments to my daily blogs. Extra credit, anyone??
P.S. I'm threatening to design a line of clothing called "Access Denied" due to the frustrations of censorship.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Today, my English 12 students used their laptops for the entire class block. They worked independently on their research papers on English poets from the 17th and 18th centuries. They used templates to create a 21st century resume for their poets. The results were quite humorous. For example, who knew that Wordsworth could blog! They also used templates to write their sentence outlines and continued taking notes. They will create wiki pages for their digital presentations.I was most impressed with the students' hard work. They really made good use of their time.

Students in my dual enrollment English 12/101/102 class did not use any technology in class. today. In fact, they went back in time, writing in-class essays on the theme of family love in Frankenstein. Students had to write about two characters from the book and themselves. I look forward to reading these essays. Students had to research and copy ten carpe diem quotations. They must also turn in their second set of notes for their research papers.

In French we began by checking our ePals. Students had new letters waiting for them from their pals in Belgium. They will write letters for me to approve and send to their pals. We're also using the site Lang-8 to practice writing. Students are studying food and restaurant vocabulary. We read sample dialogues in French to help students write their own. The dialogues will be set in a French cafe and make menus. We will go to Sugar Rush on Thursday to record videos and enjoy cafe and eclairs. Students are finishing their Eiffel Tower projects that they created with a geometry class. They are beginning a new project: creating a French magazine.

All three classes have been really busy. We are incorporating digital technology and project-based learning in many ways.

Taking a DIP

Posted on July 12, 2008 on edublogs.org

How can our school produce graduates who have mastered the basic competencies of language, reading, mathematics, science, and social studies; developed an artistic sensibility, and utilized digital technology? How can we produce independent, lifelong learners who will be responsible, productive members of the global world? How can we make students accountable for their education? How can we teach students to know and do? How can we teach our students to analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and create?The answer: DIPThe Digital Immersion Project (DIP) is an innovative idea created by AHS teachers for our students and teachers. DIP will provide educational hardware, software, curriculum, assessment, professional development, and technical support to our school.After receiving $129,000 in grant money, we bought Tablet PC’s and LCD projectors for our core classrooms.

This year, teachers from the departments of language arts, mathematics, science, and social sciences will participate, using digital technology to incorporate project-based learning as a method of teaching our graduation exam objectives and state courses of study. In December and May we will host an open house/tech fair to showcase the projects to the parents and community. As we enter this brave new world, we will become participants and creators. We will embrace Daniel Pink’s notion of a “whole new mind,” incorporating design, story, play, meaning, empathy, and humor. We will break out of our bubbles and join the flat world of the future.This project is about more than technology, grants, and project-based learning. It’s about building relationships and hope. DIP will reach all students, grades 9-12, regardless of ability level or socio-economic background. As success in learning builds confidence and self esteem, we hope our students will have happy and prosperous futures.

NECC 2008

Posted in July 2008 on edublogs

Fourteen of us from AHS travelled to San Antonio for the National Education Computing Convention. In attendance we had our principal, five members from English/foreign languages; three, science; one, math; three, history; and one, career technology/counselor. All fourteen had an amazing experience. We attended seminars on wikis, podcasts, pen-based technology, grant writing, second life, electronic portfolios, project-based learning, and more. We brought back lots of free goodies, publications, and souvenirs.

I gained a greater understanding of these digital technologies, yet I still need to learn to how use them and, more importantly, how to teach my students how to use them. I’ve spent every day since we returned playing/working on the web. Creating this edublog has taken time and patience. I get so far, and then I hit a wall. Hey, it’s better than watching tv.

I think our teachers are somewhere in the middle of incorporating Web 2.0 into our classrooms. Yes, we are a few years behind. However, we do have a plan in place for creating 21st century classrooms. We have come a long way in one year. The most amazing thing is that we have all of our core teachers-young, old, new, and experienced- on board with this plan. Our biggest drawback will be a lack of equipment and funding. Hopefully, we will receive more grant funds to implement fully our plan.

As I’ve stated before, I’ve been teaching for 20 years. I’ve never had the opportunity to travel with thirteen of my colleagues. We had lots of great conversations and formed deeper friendships. None of us will ever forget our trip to San Antonio. I feel so blessed to be a part of the faculty at Andalusia High School. We’ve got an amazing year ahead of us.

Our slogan is “a proud tradition.” We can now take pride in our future.

Hot Stove Moments

First posted August 2008 on edublogs
We’ve become a nation of fear, which reminds me of one of Mark Twain’s quotes:
“We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdomthat is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on ahot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again—and that is well;but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore. “
We’re going to have some hot stove moments this year. Rather than letting fear stop us from creating 21st century classrooms, we need to anticipate problems so we’ll be ready. Last spring we met with members of the State Super Computing Authority. They will help us train two people on staff at our school to help with technical difficulties. We teachers must remember that these two people will still have their other duties, and we cannot call them with every little problem. Also, their knowledge will be limited. We must teach ourselves the basics so we don’t burden them.
Next, we need to anticipate student behavior problems. First, there’s the potential for vandalism. By using Airset we can monitor who blogs, comments, and edits. Of course, we must carefully monitor the sites our students visit. There’s another problem that will be more annoying than dangerous. As students start using laptops in the classroom, we will struggle with keeping them on task, not sending out funny e-mails, chatting, playing games, etc. Furthermore, we want our students to think about and discuss what they are learning, not just mindlessly taking notes. Sometimes, we get so involved with our notetaking that we don’t really listen and fully participate in the lesson.
Finally, we must limit what the students do with their laptops if they finish an assignment early. We did not spend grant money on this equipment for students to play solitaire or go shopping. If students finish an assignment early, perhaps they can go to Airset to blog or do another teacher’s assignment. (Of course, they can always read a book!) That will be up to the individual teacher.
In his book The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman urges us to “be good.” Our “electronic footprints” will follow us.
Let’s take one situation at a time. I certainly don’t want an entire class or the school to be punished by the actions of a few. This year will be challenging, but that’s part of the excitement.
Talking about preparation reminds me of another favorite quotation.
“Chance favors the prepared mind.” Louis Pasteur
Please add your comments about other potential problems.
No limits,
Dawn