Houston, We Have a Problem

On Sunday I was working on a paper for my literacy course and stumbled upon an interesting one about preparing students to navigate the digital world.  While my friend Kelli is a digital literacy genius, I have some ways to go. I want to expose students to more digital materials, but after reading the article and teaching yesterday, I realize that there is so much we literally have to teach our students about navigating the digital world.

We were doing a simple webquest.  I usually like to make my own webquests because a lot of people misunderstand how to design them...I didn't have time to make one for "Othello" (sorry, but no way am I teaching "Romeo and Juliet" again.) but found a well-made one on zunal. Unfortunately, I made the assumption that because my students are so technologically advanced, they would be able to navigate it without much support from me. Insert me falling on my face and pulling my hair out.

"Go where?"
"I don't get it."
"What do you mean click on new tab?"
"What's a hyperlink?"
"How do I change the font size?"
"What's a URL?"
"How do I put a picture on Word?"

Oh my gracious. OK, so in all fairness, there were about four kids who were not helpless hand raisers, but the rest I was like WHAT is going on. It was a good teachable moment for me and my students.

Karchmer-Klein & Shinas (2012) state " along with technology adoption comes the critical responsibility of preparing students to use the tools effectively to support their learning". How is it possible that I used this quote in my paper, yet didn't apply it on Monday? Assumptions, dear Watson. So here are some suggestions for preparing students to navigate digital literacy:

1. If possible, model the process for students
2. Go over techie terms with students prior to using the web
3. Explicitly teach students how to navigate nonlinear texts (the internet)
4. Teach students how to determine if what they are reading on the internet is a trusted source (anyone and everyone can publish these days!)
5. Help students to understand how to use images, fonts, and layouts to achieve desired results
6. Assess students before, during, and after
7. Don't stop learning!

One of my favorite online tools: Glogster!

Summer Lovin'

Today is the halfway mark of summer school. Unfortunately, I'm not there today due to my body being ridiculous. Or maybe my body is being ridiculous because it's been pushed too much lately? Possible.

However, teaching summer school has been awesome. Did I just say that? It has, though! Granted going from 7:15-1:00 without a lunch break or anything longer than 15 minutes is intense, I'm also having a lot of fun. I wasn't sure what it would be like to try to teach three-four weeks of material in one week, but I've managed to make it work. We just WORK. We also have fun. I also plan more stuff than I ever thought I could. I've tried new things, done the tried and true, and had some pretty solid results.

Most of the students in my class are going to be juniors and seniors who for whatever reason failed 9th grade English back in the day. I'm still trying to figure out how some of them failed it because they're pretty damn smart. I'm guessing they didn't find it necessary to go to school or do work. Thankfully, the majority of them have seen the error of their ways. When I have time I'm going to type some of their poems on here. Blew me away.

We started our novel unit, and I decided to teach Sold, which is my passion. It is quickly becoming theirs. I know some of them were like what is this when we first started reading. The beginning is deep but I think the depth is sometimes lost on teenagers. Yesterday, we hit the city. We hit the Happiness House, which is anything but happy. They were hooked. One girl even finished the book!

The past week and a half has been good for me. It rekindled my passion to teach (it kind of burns out at the end of the year) and brought some self-confidence back. It also made me realize how much more difficult it is to teach 9th graders. 9th graders are something else, so it's been refreshing to teache upperclassmen.

I am also ready for summer. I need it.

Moving Forward

So, I haven't blogged in quite awhile. Mainly because I picked up boys track for three weeks (what was I thinking?!) and the research course that kicked my ass. Sadly, I had so much I could have blogged about, but alas, sometimes life just gets in the way.

It was an interesting month at school. Washington and the SBCSC seemed to be everywhere in the news. Not exactly a great way to boost morale when you're already exhausted. However, we will learn from these experiences, and hopefully move on to a better place.

I became department head about two weeks ago. It's a privilege and I have some huge shoes to fill. I'm already thinking ahead to how I can be a positive and instructional leader in the department. I work with so many great people, and I want to find a way for us to truly learn from each other. I also want us to be the most bad ass department in the school and community. Wicked.

So, as I prepare to teach summer school next week, here are some ideas I want to work on:

Teaching my students to be independent (next year, I am spending the first trimester modeling, practicing, talking about expectations until I'm blue in the face, and not moving forward until we nail it).

Finding meaningful ways to engage students who already hate and failed English (daunting, I know).

Setting up a true classroom library (display, everything). It will be smaller in summer school, and easier to manage.

Teaching reading strategies until I'm blue in the face (get it).

Playing with flipped classrooms (if I have computers, you can bet I'm going to do this in summer school).

Doing better at keeping the anger out of me when I react to asinine behavior that makes me want to punch something.

Helping kids know where they are and where they need to be (I have some ideas)

Rigor and relevance :)