December musings

"The Wasteland" came and enveloped my students this week. My goal was not to critically analyze this poem. That is really beyond them at this point. However, I wanted them to attach to it, to see that poetry can invade you and settle into the deep recesses of your person. Sometimes, in A.P. Lit, we are so focused on what the test asks us to do, we entirely miss the love of the language. Anyway, one of my bright colleagues came across an app for The Wasteland. It was $20 but so worth it. It isn't really for students, although it could be, but it is for teachers to share. We looked at what notable people had to say about the poem, Seamus Heaney told us how to experience Elliot the first time, how he felt like a deer in the headlights when he first read it.-Anyway lots of good comments from poets, actors, musicians- then we looked at some of the annotations. I wanted them to see what it was like to truely break this poem down, the allusions especially. But the best in this app is Fiona Shaw acting the poem. The kids were glued. It was the moment we as teachers wait for; success, something reached them. They realized that poetry has to be heard and felt. We then applied this to a creative activity which also helped me to assess what they had learned. I used Padlet again. This time with less problems. The kids picked a line from the poem that struck them, then attached a photo to express that feeling and then a comment. Take a look at the results. I think if you read them all you will realize as I did that teaching is sometimes a miracle. Also for fans of flipping, as I am, check out flipgrid, I will post the results of the questions I posed to our group soon, kids would love this for discussion-almost as good as in person-

tragedy and success!!!

Yesterday I learned something I already knew but had forgotten. It's best to try a new thing with a sample student before you take it to class. I was using Padlet to explore the theme of isolation as an intro to Ethan Frome. Great tool, great idea, except a few problems-make sure you know how to get the kids in and make sure you have given them permission to edit(so they can add their content) I did wing it and we did explore the idea but it was not as I had wanted. But..... the next period I had those bugs figured out, not only was it a great experience, the kids loved adding their comments and seeing it immediately on the screen. Technology is only as good as the user, bummer. But take a look at what we did. Really nice, goal: creation, not gathering of facts:

Created with Padlet

socrative

we had a great review quiz, I used it as a way to go over the reading of some criticism of Turn of the Screw. I didn't grade it, really I used it to spur discussion, which it did well. I had some short answer, but the kids loved the multiple choice because it shows a graph immediately. I hadn't used this last year much but will really implement it this year. The kids loved it, were in engaged and as I observed I could assess their reading. They really loved that as soon as they came in I said get your phones out! 11/5 we are reading the Yellow Wallpaper. Instead of just projecting it, I put it in subtext then will project so I can model annotation. I may use the i-pads if they are available so they can put their annotations on and then they could display-we'll see, not necessary but it may be a way to see if reading on subtext is a way to coerce annotation-

November loomings

Of course I am reminded of the "dark drizzly November of my soul"(Melville)-always a let down when I finish teaching that novel. However, the good news is that I have been working with Subtext and Edmodo and my students are really enjoying the trial. I also love that I can load in several critical essays for students to read and comment which frees up class time(think flip). A major fun revelation that I discovered was that I could customize the badges and that you can share them with other teachers. I am waiting to see when they discover them! I will try to do a Socrative quiz Thursday.

New Stuff 10/23

Edmodo continues to amaze me, so much potential-now they have a subtext app, this allows teacher to have an ipad but students can just access through any device-if you aren't familiar with subtext check it out -you can put books in your library and share with students, but you can also put documents in there. Basically what I like is the ability to annotate the text and then share notes and discuss. They both have great support people which will really stay with you until issue is solved. I even connected with turnitin to see if Edmodo could coordinate with them. I then sent their e-mail to Edmodo and they are passing it on to their app team. Hoping to present at our inservice on both these with Sonja. Also three new apps to try for creative use: idea sketch(free), pic collage(free) and Brainstormer(1.99)

School Starts

This year my goal is too use Edmodo to take over my classroom management. I will eventually put everything there. I love the format but had an issue this year with some students not being able to use it. After back and forth with their great help line, the answer was never really found, but I added my dog as a student and now I test everything with her. I put her picture in as well -the kids like it. I have loved using youtube and podcasts and letting students comment on this. It's a version of a flipped classroom, but with English they already have lots of reading and then they come in ready to discuss, so it's a natural flip. Even with the issues, I'm determined to make it work. Currently subtext is able to open in Edmodo and I have two students I am going to practice with. It is a great way if teacher has ipad but students have multiple devices. Parents and students have reported positive impact. Also this year I tried Inspiration Maps, I love it but to save and send you have to buy it. That doesn't work for students although they did screen shots and sent them to themselves, a great work around. I encourage any teacher that likes to use brainstorming as an activity to look into it. My students reported that it really helped them with a difficult essay they had to write. I was using it to identify quotes/ideas and then move those bubbles around to where they related. It's like your brain on mapping. There are other applications of this same idea on -line and some students tried it with their phones, not as great but still worked. Student engagement was measured by student comments and ontask behaviors. This assignment was "very engaged".