Reflection: 2008

2008 was a good year for me as a teacher. The following are things I can look back at and be proud of:

1. Getting a Masters Degree from Towson University. The program was not a perfect program, but it did allow me a lot of autonomy of what I wanted my projects and my readings to be, and, thus, I learned a lot. I really enjoyed completing my final project, which was a re-writing of the 9th grade English curriculum at my school. I've used it a lot. I've also established at least one relationship with a professor who I think I will stay in touch with for as long as I'm in the area. The Masters has given me a nice little raise, a raise of nearly $600/month that goes a long way in explaining why I've spent a lot of the last seven years broke when my friends (who all have Masters degrees) seem fine. A house seems in the realm of possibility now when it never really did before.

2. Completing the NEA/Folger Teaching Shakespeare Institute over the summer: This year, I finally found something useful to do with my summers. Summers have always been an annoyance to me, a 2-month time with no paycheck (no, there's no option in BCPSS to have your pay spread across 12 months, so you have to set up a separate account at the bank, and, well, I still think that kind of sucks) where I didn't have much to do except wait tables and wait around for school to start. This year, I applied for a NEA grant to attend a Teaching Shakespeare Institute at the Folger Library. It was four weeks of intense Shakespeare study with 24 educators from around the country. The four weeks was envigorating and eye-opening, and I am using a lot of the ideas I learned in my classroom all the time.

3. Continuing to work on teaching freshmen and juniors: When the school year started, I found myself teaching 9th and 11th graders again. It's the schedule I requested, and the second year in a row teaching the same schedule. I would prefer less than four of any one class (130 essays all at once is a burden), but the schedule couldn't be better otherwise - I love the bright eyes of the 9th graders and the rigor of the 11th grade class.

4. Renewing certification: In the fall, I also completed a couple of terrible certification courses, a complete nadir in my pursuits of higher education. Coppin State University should be embarrassed to be associated with these classes. However, I'm glad I took the classes, as now, I believe, I am set and certified for at least the next six years or so.

5. Starting National Board Certification: I also decided to take on the challenge of National Board Certification. Only two teachers in Baltimore City attained the certification this year, including one of my good friends. In my department, there are three total National Board certificate holders; in the past, two mentors I have taught with also held the certificate and pushed me to do the same. Currently, three of us are pursuing it in our department. Perhaps, two years from now, you will see my name on that list. It's a pretty intense and rigorous process (taping, writing, testing) and haven't dove in with as much as I've wanted to so far, but I will soon.

6. Leading baseball team to third round of playoffs: I work very hard on my coaching - the planning, the preparation, the management. I really love it. This year was our most successful year in my five years as coach at least in terms of winning, as we actually beat a county team, a team with a great baseball facility and some real solid talent. We still have lots of hurdles to get over, but it was a good year.

7. Starting up the BMoreTeach Blog: I go through a lot of stages with blogging, and a lot of questioning about why I do it. I do know that I love writing and using writing as a tool to figure things out, and that, hopefully, will never change. I've been at it since April 2000, when I was in college. This year, I finally discovered that a lot of my students are probably reading, and I finally decided to separate my professional and my personal blogs partially for that reason. I know the administration at my school knows about BMoreTeach, and I've often wondered what they think about it - but I've never used it as a tool to grouse about the management at my school, nor about anything else I think is unprofessional. I'm not sure what my goals are for it, but, ideally, I'd like to create something along the lines of what Dana Huff has - a tool for my own teaching reflection, plus a resource for other teachers. I also want to add the element of allowing people, even non-educators, to get a window into the world of teaching in a city. Hopefully I've started that this year with this blog.

8. Integrating Technology into my Classroom: TSI was a lot about technology, and I finally buckled down and bought myself both a laptop and an LCD Projector for my classroom this year. I've loved using them, and am trying to do other things, especially student blogging. It's hard in a school without much resources in terms of technology, but I'm doing my best.

9. Continuing to attend conferences: If memory serves, I attended three professional conferences this year. Two were for coaching - the Cherry Hill Baseball Coaching Conference in Philadelphia and the Mid-Atlantic Baseball Coaching Conference in Bethesda. I also attended IB MYP Training this year in Baltimore. I couldn't afford NCTE this year, but am definitely going to be there next year.

10. Quitting my 2nd job: It's definitely made my professional career a stronger priority, given me more time to do the things I want to do with my teaching - returning papers quicker, planning more cohesively, and reflecting more.

Wow

Today was a pretty amazing day, so full of great conversations about education and really practical applications for my classroom practice.

We are halfway done and I'm already both dreading and anticipating the end of the program. The Monday the Institute ends, I'll be back in front of a room of students. It's sort of unbelievable. I'm going to have to hold myself back from teaching some Shakespeare.

I'll try to get more specific if I have any time to blog this weekend. After all, the Tigers are in town! (Not to mention the piling-up of work I have for the TSI.)

Much Ado About the TSI

Today, at the Folger Teaching Institute, we began our discussion and study of Much Ado About Nothing. I first read it a couple of weeks ago, and finished a re-read this morning on the train. While I'm still a bit non-plussed about Shakespearean comedies, I must say that I enjoyed it quite a bit more than Shrew. As someone in our Socratic seminar said today, in this one, at least one couple (Benedict and Beatrice) actually seem like they are in love, and, unlike in Taming, it is the man who is (slightly) tamed, and not the woman.

I also, for some reason, really enjoyed having a villian. I guess because it reminded me of Shakespearean tragedy, which I love. Even though the Bastard John is a pretty minor character, he reminded me a lot of Iago and a bit of Claudius; I love someone to root against. Because I don't know enough Shakespearean comedies, I don't know if having a comedic villian is a common entity, and it's something I hope we explore a bit throughout the week.

The line between tragedy and comedy is something that Jay Halio spoke of in his lecture that opened the week. I was especially intrigued by the connections between Much Ado and Romeo and Juliet - the Friar with that same plan of faking death, the use of masquing as a gateway to love, an important balcony scene, etc. - but Romeo flips from a comedy to a tragedy with the death of Mercutio. But Halio's point that Much Ado could have easily been a tragedy with just a little bit of tweaking (Hero's faked death could have gone wrong, for example) was an intriguing one.

Our discussion afterwards in small groups was really intriguing. Most memorable was the discussion of the title. "Nothing" works on its own, as in, people tend to make too much of a big deal out of nothing. However, "Thing" was pretty much a universal word for a woman's private part, so that adds a new meaning to the title. In addition, "Nothing" is a pun on the word "Knotting," which, during Shakespeare's time, at least in the play Othello, is a euphemism for sex. So, our moderator queried whether the play's title actually meant Much Ado About Fucking. We chuckled about that for a while.

We were also given a lot of time today to research. Because I was shocked in how poorly Lear was treated by his daughters - and partly because my own grandmother passed away a couple of years ago of Alzheimer's Disease, which sprung up from dimentia - I was interested the perceptions of old age by people during the time of Shakespeare. Therefore, I have been searching for primary sources in the Folger Library, and it's been pretty interesting. My research is taking me in the general direction of the four humors that people beleived in during this time, and their belief that growing old caused a buildup of melancholy. I'm not yet sure how I'm going to relate it back to Lear, but the paper isn't do for another week or so.

It was more acting in the afternoon, as our instructor divided the class into two and we banged out how we would play Hastings' death scene in Richard III. I played Hastings. Unfortunately, we ran out of time, but we got out on time at 5pm, meaning I made the 5:20 MARC train back to Baltimore and have had a productive evening with a trip to the gym and the grocery store.

What I'm doing for summer vacation: The Folger Institute

This summer, I will be participating in the Shakespeare Folger Summer Teachers Institute. It was a rather lengthy application process and involved getting a decent NEA grant (yes, I get paid for the participation), but somehow I was selected. Since then, my emotions have ran from trepidation to excitement.

Trepidation:

1. I will be commuting every day, and expected to be in DC fro 8-5. This is pretty intense for summer vacation. In addition, I've heard from a friend who did the program that it is grueling.

2. I'm worried everyone will know more about Shakespeare than me. Really. We're doing four plays - The Taming of the Shrew, King Lear, Richard III, and Much Ado About Nothing - and I've never really read any of them. I vaguely recall watching Richard III in my Film and Literature class in college, but think I barely read it. I saw a production of Shrew about ten years ago and sort of recall the plot. I saw a terrible production of Lear at Center Stage and left early. As for Much Ado, I know almost nothing about it. The program just mailed all the plays to us, and I've been reading Shrew, and am amazed by how slow I am getting through them, and how quickly I forget the characters' names and such. On one hand, I'm genuinely enjoying the play. On the other hand, I'm on Act I, Scene 2.

Excitement:

1. Four weeks of intense academia is probably just what the doctor ordered this summer.

2. I think I might pick one of these plays for my Junior IB class next year, and I'm quite sure it'll help me with some Romeo and Juliet lessons next year with the 9th graders. This year, with the 9th graders, I sort of feel like I bombed Romeo and Juliet a bit. I think the kids "got" the play and all, and we worked hard on it, but I didn't teach them very good reading strategies for trying to tackle it on their own; we mostly read it aloud in class. Reflecting back, this probably didn't offer many transferrable skills. I'm hoping the institute includes some items about how to offer Shakespeare to reluctant readers. Anything to be a better teacher, nahmean?

3. Despite the fact that I know it will be strenuous summer, I'm excited about getting to know DC better, and excited to commute on the Marc Train, and excited to rely less on my car.