Short review of today's guest speaker

The guest speaker was awesome. Kids learned a lot.

What she did:

1. Rose Maxson monologue in two different ways / ensuing discussion about how actors use tone, speed, gestures, props, etc, to create meaning

2. Queen Margaret monologue in two different ways / similar discussion

3. Discussion of Shakespeare and Language and how to construct meaning

4. Shakespeare in a Can

Guest Speaker

I am really running around like a madman lately, but hopefully it will be all worth it.

I organized and chaperoned a field trip with 50 ninth grader alone on Friday. On Saturday, still exhausted from Friday, I got up at 5am to make the trek with 155 students down to Virginia Beach to canvass for Barack Obama on both weekend days. Last night, I got home at around 12:30 after dropping the last student - a huge basketball player from Carver who I met the moment I offered him a ride home because it was pretty clear that I could get home much quicker that way than waiting for his guardian to come pick him up (he had called them, literally, 30 times, and it was now nearly an hour after everyone else had left). This young man was very courteous, and I enjoyed our discussion of Nelly's latest shoe song and Kanye West's awesome new single on the way to his house, but he had just moved to his new place and wasn't exactly sure where it was. A west sider his whole life, he was now an unfamiliar east sider, but it seemed like from his description that his house was near mine. We just sort of drove around until he recognized something familiar. It wasn't that bad, but still a late night.

Today, I sleepwalked through the day. I got more sleep than most of my fellow chaperones on Saturday night, because we jetted off and got a hotel room, but the lack of a weekend and overally lack of sleep since around Wednesday, along with the drives, still kicked my butt pretty good. There wasn't room for us on the nice big busses, so we climbed into my colleague's little Sentra for the trek down to Virginia Beach and back. The rides were long and the weekend was hard.

But, as exhausting as it was, I'm so glad that I did it. That we did it. I think the kids will remember it forever and, on November 6th, it will all seem worth it. I'm praying.

Adding to my huge flux of activity right now is a guest speaker that is coming to speak to my classes tomorrow. A professor from American University who I worked with at the Folger Library during the Teaching Shakespeare Institute this past summer, Caleen Jennings is a dynamic and passionate teacher that I think my kids will both really enjoy and learn a lot from. She will be running a 1:45 workshop that brings Fences and August Wilson together with Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet. She planned the whole workshop, and I just finished my parts of it just now. I'm really nervous about it, because I've never quite done anything like this before, and I'm really hoping it goes well.

To handle the logistics of it all, I combined my classes together, which means that my 1st period is staying an extra period, and my 2nd period is reporting to my 1st period and staying through their period. It took lots of handouts and mountain moving to make this occur, and, mostly, I hope that none of the kids forget about it.

I'm picking her up from the train station at 7:16 tomorrow morning. She's coming up totally on her own. I hope everything goes well.

Canvassing with Kids

8 chaperones, 155 kids, lots of disorganization, several hours driving, but plenty of canvassing done for Obama in Republican country in Virginia Beach. If Virginia Beach goes blue, then Virginia almost certainly goes blue, and it's almost mathematically impossible for Obama to lose if he gets Virginia.

The weather was mostly beautiful and the canvassing was fun. I paired myself with a 9th grade boy both days. As we walked around beautiful subdivisions on lake drives through Virginia, we were quite the odd couple. But we kept track of undecided folks we felt like we made a difference with. Most people were cordial, even if they were Republicans and didn't want to take our survey. A few slammed doors and all, but that's to be expected. I think we swayed some folks. We registered others to vote.

We did good work. I'm so proud of our students, who put up with several particularly rude campaign staffers and who were so much more respectful than the kids who came from the richest county in the state. All came down and lived through pretty harsh conditions (slept on a crowded dirty hard church floor) for this cause they believed in. They worked hard. I left feeling inspired about America. But no weekend and little sleep will make for a tough week, that's for sure.

Long Friday, longer weekend

I took 50 ninth graders on a field trip today, to see Cedric Jennings speak. They were not very good. It was all capped off by a student who asked the question, "So, I was wondering, did you like how the book turned out, because you kind of came off like a jerk sometimes?". It was a valid question, one that I think has some truth to it. But, wow, he sure asked it poorly. The entire auditorium booed, and the woman running the event snatched the microphone from him and said, "Well, we'll end this on a positive note." Pretty crazy. Overall, the kids didn't behave that well otherwise, and it was a long, stressful day.

*****

I'm waking up tomorrow at 5am and going with 60 students to Richmond Virginia Beach to register voters. The Obama campaign was funding it, but apparently the fund guy has disappeared, so now all the kids have to drop $10 to go and all the teachers $50. One teacher is fronting $2500 for the trip. It's going to be a long weekend of sleeping on YMCA floors and going door to door, but at least it's for a good cause.

A miniature Will Smith

I'm so thankful that my 10th period is such a nice class. Today, I got a message to send down a copy of my project assignment. I looked around at all the kids, busily working, barely paying me any mind at all because they were so involved in their group assignment. I just couldn't bear to interrupt them to ask one of them to run it down. So I did it myself. When I returned, not one student had moved; they just continued preparing their Fences group project and working steadily. I just stood by the door, listening to them. Finally, one boy finally noticed me, and he said, "Yo, Mr. ________, come over here and listen. I'm like a miniature Will Smith or something." I look him up and down, emphasizing his 4'11" height, and respond, "Emphasis on the miniature, right?" and listened to him for a bit. And, gosh darn it, he was Troy Maxson. Blue braces and all.

A great day overall. Students were busily preparing, and, tomorrow, they will be presenting. Somehow, though, I have a field trip in the middle of all that. I have so much going on right now, that I'll be shocked if I make it through to Wednesday without dropping something - a field trip tomorrow, a 48-hour trip with student to canvass for Obama from 5am Saturday to 10pm Sunday, a guest speaker on Tuesday that is making me combine classes and get other teachers' permission - it's all so much right now. I even missed the gym trip this morning.

Readin' and Writin'

I'm planning these big elaborate writing workshop lessons for my IB Juniors this week, whose first essay is due a week from Thursday. Today - thesis analysis. Tomorrow - how to break down quotations. Thursday - how to write introductions and conclusions. I have student models ready, and they're set to bring their own writing in to work with as we go.

Today, though, as I graded their most recent quiz, I'm finding that the majority aren't even doing the reading.

Screw writing. These kids got to read.

I think the first set of progress reports will be a wakeup call. It's expected that 9th graders need that wakeup call every year. But Juniors, especially advanced Juniors? Disappointing.

Burning the candle at both ends...

That's what it feels like.

So far, one of my favorite new teaching strategies is that the students must place their homework in the appropriate bin as they enter the classroom. I've tried variations on this before - sturdy folder with each class marked - but have never done something so solid. I would always misplace the folders or take them home and forget them, and that was that. In this new system, I've got a 12-slot (4 across, 3 down) wooden organizer (purchased from Target for $19.99), with each slot designated for a class. It's worked great so far.

As soon as the students put the papers in there, or shortly thereafter, I transfer them into my filing carry case. There are about 20 available slots, so theoretically I could keep it well organized, but so far, I haven't been successful. But, no matter. I take this carry-case with me wherever I go, along with my laptop, and can do my grading wherever.

That doesn't mean I'm staying on top of it, though. In fact, the carry case just gets heavier every day, and carrying it around is a tactile reminder of my workload. I know it's going to happen, that the work is going to pile up and I can't get to it like I'd like to with a student load of over 150. But, sometimes, assignments that are almost a month old get lost in the files, and I'm not giving my students quick enough feedback. So, I've got to figure out a slightly better system for my file folder. Still, I'm happy with the advent of the homework station. Baby steps, I guess.

In other news, I'm just flat out beat. Not much of a weekend last weekend, and in this coming weekend, I'm trucking down with 60 or so ninth graders to Virginia and Pennsylvania to help register voters. The Obama campaign set the whole thing up and just needs chaperones, and I'm not the contact person or anything - thank goodness - but I will be staying with students from 5am Saturday morning until 10pm Sunday night. And the week will be a beast - a field trip on Friday (hoisted on me last Friday... it's a good thing, a trip to meet Cedric Jennings, and free, but still a bunch of work) and progress reports due on Thursday. It will be a busy week, capped by no weekend. Good thing I love my job!