That carrot is huge

So, that carrot I was talking about…it’s this: If you finish that essay by the end of the day, or if you bring it in, complete, at the beginning of class on Monday, I will let you erase one grade from my gradebook.
For many of my students, this is a great opportunity — they [...]

Sorry kids, I just made this too difficult. Let’s fix that.

It happens every once in a while — that monster you spring on the classroom is more frightening than you expected it to be. You planned on turning that monster into a cute, cuddly stuffed animal, and instead you accidentally added another set of fangs, a tail made of glass shards, and chainsaws for [...]

Worn Out Workshop — worries and wonders.

These past two weeks have definitely kept me busy, and I owe that to my favorite (and yet, least favorite) class activity — the workshop. The workshop is meant to keep the kids busy, keep them working, keep them learning new materials, and to get them to turn out a quality product on a [...]

Showing knowledge through peer editing

A few weeks back, Dana Huff wrote a post on Best Practices for Teaching Writing, and I’ve gotta say: I’m a sucker for teaching posts. This one is well worth the read, and I’ve definitely taken to heart the ideas she brought up in her post. And the best part is that she [...]

Lesson; Revision; Reflection

After spending a good deal of my weekend grading a series of papers form the students (compare and contrast papers on “The Ransom of Red Chief,” including the Venn-diagram outline, and the elements of literature worksheet they completed in preparation for this paper), I came to a few conclusions:
1. The kids can write more than [...]

So, how does this school really work?

After yesterday’s discussion about the Caste system in school, I whipped up a little handout to help the kids get their ideas flowing and in order about how the actual Caste systems that work in our schools.
Click the image below to download the handout, or click here to see the big picture.
See, the [...]

The Caste System in School

As much as I complain about my students, they really surprise me, and today we took that Marxism discussion even further as we compared the characters in three textx by talking about how their class levels influence their actions.
The first story is Born Worker, by Gary Soto, where we meet young Jose and his cousin [...]

Your Days in Sentences

Here’s the thirty-first installment of the Boil Your Day Down into One Sentence fun-tacular! Each week I’ll ask for these sentences and each week I’ll post them along with links to the authors’ blogs.
I don’t have much time this week to do more than post each teacher’s sentence. Please take the time to visit [...]

Compare and Contrast — What worked v. What didn’t

Ever had a lesson go wrong wrong wrongwrongwrong? Just awful. Just bad all around? how did you know it went bad? What were the tip-offs? What led you to understand you were teaching it incorrectly?
For me it was the fact that my kids spent the entire hour talking during the [...]

Your Days in Sentences

Here’s the thirtieth installment of the Boil Your Day Down into One Sentence fun-tacular! Each week I’ll ask for these sentences and each week I’ll post them along with links to the authors’ blogs.
Day in a Sentence can’t exist without you and your reflection on teaching. Please consider submitting your day in one [...]