When I was young and wild…

When I was young and wild, Nancy Regan ruined it all for me.

Yes, when I was young and wild, the world seemed like a friendly and wondrous place just waiting to be enjoyed and explored.

He isn’t particularly old in human years but there seems to be a part of him that aged in monkey years.

I seem to be just the most conservative person-a wife, mother, teacher-but my mind is liberal: I’m a bra-burning feminist, maybe because I never really needed one.

I just miss having professional friends people who care

about me and I them.

I thought sluts were awesome. “Here I am world”, they’d shout, “and I’m making my own rules!” Oh, how I longed to be a slut; yet my inner slut is quite shy and awkward.

I loved to be somewhere where all the people who wanted something of me couldn’t find me, even for just a little while.

My friend Pat convinced me that Adidas was pronounced “Odd-e-dos.” I really didn’t believe him, but he finally convinced me to at least ask a sales clerk if he had any. . .

I was shy and awkward. Sometimes, my friends that were shy like me weren’t that interesting because we never said much to each other.

When I was young and wild it seems it was always warm outside. Wild times are not for cold weather. You can’t blast Poison or Aerosmith, cruising through town to chase boys with the windows up.

I didn’t know what to expect- except that everyone must love to learn as much as I did. I expected fewer tears and more proud moments.

I believed that every waking moment needed to be filled with an activity. My parents even said to me that I didn’t wait for one activity to end before I was asking what the next one would be.

Boyfriends? My mom said you should concentrate on your studying. So, bang goes boys…

You’re looking at a bona fide goody-two-shoes . . . I couldn’t possibly do all that wild stuff; What if my mom found out?

Old tame teacher’s rooms just have tadpole tanks with Christmas decorations in them.

I just took a pain pill….

If I’m ever at a point where my inner child cannot be accessed quickly when needed-if it is unavailable, let it be known right here and now- I don’t want to live.

I thought I was so smart!

I wonder when the I can turned into maybe I can, or even worse, the I can’t.

Creative and, I might add, naive, I wondered silently “What kid wouldn’t want to enter the doors of my classroom? Who can resist the Almighty, All-Powerful Hunt?”

Youth seemed an eternity and wild was going barefoot in the gutter water after a summer cloud bust.

I am grateful as I chat around with those at diner tonight.

I have fallen in with a bunch that shares my ideals.

When I was young and wild, I would imagine a world of Romeos who would come and rescue me from the poor ratchet discourage life of dismay.

I have never been young and wild, but I have been young and stupid.

Ha Ha Ha! As I am writing this I am thinking of how inhibited my dearest mother must be setting beside me with this assignment but, back to the bars of Olongapo.

I hope my mother never finds out even though she probably knows.

I was never young or wild… I was the student in school that every teacher said would make a great adult the unspoken part of that was that I wasnt good at being a kid.

When I was young and wild, I was going to get multiple wild hairs and create new and experimental assignments and if the ship was sinking, we’d all go down together.

When I was young and wild I dreamed of being an old maid English teacher in Alaska who flew planes, faced bears, cooked great meals, and of course taught and inspired students to love reading and writing and to do both exceptionally well.

Who knew how that would turn out-I certainly didn’t. I learned.

]]> http://threebridges.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/when-i-was-young-and-wild/feed/ 1 iannolte http://threebridges.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/upcoming-events/ http://threebridges.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/upcoming-events/#comments Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:54:14 +0000 threebridges http://threebridges.wordpress.com/?p=179 Continue reading →]]> March 13th Day of Writing (9-1)

March 14th Summer Institute Planning Meeting (10-12)

April 1-3 Spring Meeting Washington DC

April 4th Summer Institute Interviews (10-11:30)

April 24-25th  Summer Institute Kick Off (5-7) (9-3)

May 16th Reading/Technology Day

June 17-July 10th Summer Institute

CLICK ON PICTURE TO READ ARTICLE.

At the end of each year I ask my students to reflect on their journals and how their writing or attitudes about writing have changed.  I have found it difficult to get my students to engage in this activity.  They write final journals that says things like, “I can write more” or “I can write faster” there is no true reflection in their comments.  During Summer Institute we created a found poem by taking a phrase from each participants reading.  The found poem turned out to be an interesting snapshot of how the participant’s ideas and feelings intersected and diverged.  It dawned on me one day that I could use the same technique to have my students engage in a reflective activity with their journals.  I ask them to re-read each of their journals highlighting the best phrase or sentence from every journal.  Then they took those phrases and create a found poem.  Generally, they place the phrases in the order in which they appeared in their journal but they are allowed to move them around if they wish. 

As I watched them reread their journals I noticed they were sharing the sentences they highlighted with their neighbors.  They laughed at what they wrote and engaged in “do you remember when…” conversations with their friends.  They were truly engaged and having fun looking back and reading what they had written.  The found poems they create are amazing.  The students think that they will turn out completely random and uninteresting, but they are funny, often profound, and always a chronicle of their junior year experience.  After writing the found poems I ask my students to analyze the writing they have done during the year.  The answers I receive from my students are thoughtful and truly reflective of their journaling experience.    

            My class had just read the personal essay, “Man in the Water,” about Flight 90′s crash into the Washington, DC bridge and thus into the Potomac River.  The students never seem to get over the one man giving up his life to save four other people.  We were discussing this when I admitted if I’d been on that flight I’d probably been shoving old ladies out of my way and grabbing the life preserver for myself.  Students are always shocked when I admit I am so selfish.  So I tell them at least I’m honest about it.  During this discussion I just happened to ask if anyone in the room thinks they are they type of person who would give up the life preserver to others first.  Five of my students said they knew they would. 

            Before I knew it, we were finished reading and discussing the essay and still had seven minutes left in class.  Uh-oh!  It is my rule that I have my students working for the entire period.  The students saw me eyeballing the clock and groaned, “Can’t you just give us a break?  It’s only five minutes?!”  To which I answered, “Of course not!  And it’s seven minutes.  The citizens of Ironton have entrusted your English education to me.  It is my duty to educate you to the fullest!”  But I was stuck.  I could think of nothing to begin with now only six minutes left. 

            Survivor!  I’d heard of teachers playing this game when the tv show was at its peak of popularity.  But to what value would this game possibly be?  I decided I’d figure that out later.  Now, I drew a huge circle on the board and began, “We are all trapped on an island.  A lone helicopter has come along and can only save ten of us.  The rest of us will have to die.  We have to decide who gets to go and live and who stays to die.”  Students started making excuses as to how we all could survive.  “Nope,” I said, “no excuses.  Only ten of us can live.  If you can’t decide who, I will.  First, I think I should survive since I am a single mom and my son needs me.”  I wrote my name under the word “Survivors” on the board.  “Ok, who were the five who said they would give up the preserver?  You’ll be the first to stay and die.”  I began writing their names under the word “Casualties.”  This was all it took for students to begin defending why they should live above someone else.  The dilemma wasn’t solved when the bell rang. 

            My class was in the computer lab the following day.  By the time we were in class two days after the game, I figured the class would’ve forgotten all about it.  Instead students asked, “When do we finish Survivor?  I want to know who lives!”  Wow!  My students loved the game and were so engaged.  I told my fellow teachers, Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Webb, about it.  They responded, “You need to look at this and see what you can do with it.  I’ll bet there are quite a few standards you could meet using that.”   

            With their encouragement, I developed my lesson plan to go beyond the normal discussion and quiz for this essay.  I have to teach propaganda as part of my standards.  I also have to teach my students to present a persuasive speech as well as actively listen to arguments and identify modes of persuasion the author is using.  To accomplish this, my students are going to write a persuasive essay in which they must make three arguments as to why they should / should not be rescued.  The arguments must be from each of the three main types of propaganda.  Each student will present their essay to the class.  Based on each student’s essay, the class will vote for who ultimately survives our game.  

            I can’t wait to see how this turns out! 

MUWP Leadership Team Meeting

Embassy Suites

Charleston, WV

First, I must say that I am honored to be here with the leaders of MUWP. This is not only because this is my first year on this team, and what an impressive group it is, but because it is a group of teachers, who, if not already the best teachers they can be, are committed to striving for professional excellence. 

It will be wonderful to be part of Summer Institute 2009 and to help lead other teachers through the process that I now trust to help all of us be better writers, better human beings and better teachers.  I have decided that this is the correct order: better writers can explore themselves introspectively, and therefore become better people; which in turn, leads to our becoming better teachers. I loved every minute of planning the retreat at the cabin. My husband, Jack, volunteered to clean it, and he fixed the down spouts. If he hadn’t, we would have had an icy pond right in front of the porch steps.  Peggy, Jennifer and I planned the menu, and while I got most of the credit, Peggy, Jennifer, Ian and I all cooked and prepared the cabin for lunch. I hope everyone enjoyed the day and the weekend as much as I did.

A Writing Project Moment in my Classroom

Kaffee Haus

For the first nine weeks exam in October, I decided to make this an event that would allow students to celebrate what they had learned. I wanted it to be relevant and enjoyable. I also wanted each student to think, write, revise and read their work aloud in their best German.  The biggest task and the most important was to convince students to love doing their best work. At some time between kindergarten and adulthood, many students become jaded with learning, and this is very sad. The teaching moments I am going to describe were a big hit with my German 1 – 4 students.

To do the Kaffee Haus, I used some good ideas that I learned from two SI fellows: from Amanda Hensley, the Coffehouse format, and from Julie _________’s Demo, teaching in the environment. I had also presented each student with a newsletter on the first day of school that described expectations for the year, including the Kaffee Haus, Oktoberfest and other events.

To set up the environment on the day of the final, I placed all of the student desks in groups of four, facing each other, and covered them with red tablecloths that I had purchased at the Dollar Tree. Some students had brought in lava lamps; I had clear Christmas lights around the front of the room; and I had attached a reading lamp to my lectern, so that we could turn out the overhead lights. There were real cut flowers in vases (just a few red and white carnations, but the students loved them).  We also had urns of hot water and a choice of hot chocolate, flavored coffees and various teas.  As students entered the classroom, they selected their beverage, and sat at their choice of tables.  Each student read his or her own original work in their best practiced German. My larger German 1 and 2 classes were only required to read a paragraph, not their whole papers, and my German 4 students read their own work, as well as their choice of work by a German poet. Four students did an interactive reading of Goethe’s “Der Erlkoenig, with each student reading one of the four characters’ lines. One student read a very touching contemporary poem about children that had us all nearly in tears, and another did a funny poem by Christian Morgenstern about a fork and knife. I, frankly, was amazed, because I felt they had not taken this seriously and would just stand up and improvise. If they did – they are good at it!

Now the day was a good one. The band director came in and set up a microphone, so that everyone was audible, and students got the experience of using a microphone. Many never had. I sat at my computer and immediately gave each student an oral grade, so I had my grades finished when the last student read.  Their reading on final exam day was only a few minutes, and they could just enjoy the other students during the rest of the class period.  They and I had done the real work over a period of weeks, writing and revising their papers. Every student was successful, because I had taken time to guide them into writing good papers. For example my German 1 students had begun by answering 30 questions about themselves, and choosing about 20 to include in their autobiographies. We first did whole group revision, then small group revision; then I conferred with each student. I made no corrections, but led them to see how to correct their errors. This required lots of time, and my classroom was noisy, but the results were satisfying to me and to them. Each student also received grades for their written papers.

I have done similar projects in the past. The difference, thanks to Writing Project is that I have the renewed enthusiasm to take the time to set up such an environment, and to expend the time and effort to change an ordinary experience into a memorable learning experience that led students to love learning and to enjoy presenting themselves and their knowledge. Every student learned to think, read, write and speak better in German, and each student developed more self confidence as part of this process.

A Writing Project Moment in my Classroom

Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest is the biggest folk festival in the world, with over 6,000,000 visitors to the Munich festival annually. My students want to celebrate, and I have done something every year, including reading a novella about it in German 3, watching a video, and letting students bring refreshments to class.

This year, thanks to Writing Project, and encouragement from Peggy and Jennifer, I made it much bigger and better. We had more ideas, but this is what I was able to do:

My German 1 and 2 classes all watched the video, which is lively and students like it. It also presents a slice of German culture. German 3 read the novella, a mystery. The six German 4 students each selected and researched different aspects of Oktoberfest. They were required to prepare a one page report in English to include on a poster that was colorful and represented their part of Oktoberfest artistically and invitingly. They placed these in the school cafeteria at eye level by the lunch lines. They and some of my other students decorated the whole cafeteria with purchased Oktoberfest decorations. From the Munich Oktoberfest website, I bought a CD with authentic music from the Oktoberfest, and students served as DJ’s for the lunch sections. My German club students brought cookies, baggies of pretzels, and a Black Forest Cherry Cake to sell.

With my principal’s support and encouragement, I asked our cafeteria manager if she would like to plan a German Oktoberfest menu. She and the other cooks were delighted to participate, and for the Oktoberfest prepared: bratwurst, sauerkraut and wieners, German potato salad, big soft pretzels, and German chocolate cake.

Thanks to Summer Institute and my Writing Project Experience, I have renewed enthusiasm. This Oktoberfest was a success on several levels. My students enjoyed being involved; the whole school was exposed to an aspect of German culture that included visual displays, food and music; and my principal was very pleased.