The Bluzz

I thought I would be jumping for joy at this time of my life: June 9 is my retirement day.  But, instead, I find myself feeling like I am drowning and without any aid in sight.  It is a strange feeling and so I think I need to record it in my blog.  

Even though I still am totally resigned to the idea of retirement, I can’t seem to get a handle on it in my heart.  My psyche aches at the thoughts of leaving my students, my classroom, my school.  The best way I can describe it is like grieving.  And when I put it in those words, it really is like losing someone dear to you.  What are the 7 stages of grief?  

I just looked it up and I believe I am at stage 4: 

4. “DEPRESSION”, REFLECTION, LONELINESS-

“Just when your friends may think you should be getting on with your life, a long period of sad reflection will likely overtake you. This is a normal stage of grief, so do not be “talked out of it” by well-meaning outsiders. Encouragement from others is not helpful to you during this stage of grieving.

During this time, you finally realize the true magnitude of your loss, and it depresses you. You may isolate yourself on purpose, reflect on things you did with your lost one, and focus on memories of the past. You may sense feelings of emptiness or despair.” (See link for other stages). 

Now, don’t get me wrong; I still am retiring.  Some of you might think I should just stay if I am this miserable.  I know it is time to retire, but I never anticipated the process of retiring would be so difficult.  Fair warning to anyone who is getting ready for this move in their lives.  It is hard as well as exciting.  Here we go!

If you haven’t heard of Pinterest.com, you should.  It is a new waste of time, but it is very productive.  I know, sounds like an oxymoron.  I know everyone surfs the net and we find some pretty phenomenal stuff out there; but what do I do with it, in the chance that I will ever need any of it. This is the tool for you.  

Basically, you are saving pictures of websites that interest you.  It is called pinning.  You are saving them to boards that you have created ahead of time.  Then, you put a clever little icon on your toolbar, which aids in doing this.  So next time you are surfing and find an idea for use later, you “pin it.”  Pretty cool.  Check it out at http://pinterest.com/

DON’T WORRY. BE HAPPY

If you struggle with depression, thoughts of suicide, or enter a classroom begrudgingly every day, this video is for you.  The world needs you or you wouldn’t be here.  Mind created you, Spirit conceived you, and Soul is your identity.  It’s time to begin to realize just what you are.  This is a good way to begin!  

A cool new tool which allows you to grab stuff you like from the web and save it in storage, but not just a file of storage; this site categorizes your saved things into Boards that you Pin on and share with friends through Facebook and Twitter.  

Take a look at the site and see if you might have a use for this one.  You have to request permission to join, however.  I was granted permission in two days.  Enjoy Pinning with PINTEREST.  (Pin Interest: get it?!) 

Since this blog was originally started with the idea of documenting my last year of teaching, it is only fitting that I should post this reflection of the process.  

Please click on the link and visit my latest podcast for more on letting go of a good thing.  

http://buzziebeeteacher.podbean.com/

The last semester of my teaching career has blessed me with two AP English 12 classes and an Accelerated English 12 class.  God, how I love the seniors.  They are so excited about leaving the classroom, so eager of what lies ahead, and so willing to listen to this old lady’s wisdom-filled words.  It is this part of what I do that I will miss horribly.  

So this week the AP classes concluded the work on a collaborative writing assignment based on the short story of John Updike titled “A & P.”  Each group read the story, discussed it at length, wrote portions of an essay analyzing its literary merit, and then editing the parts into a cohesive whole.  After the essay was finished, they had to record it for the listening audience on my podbean show.  

Once I received all the files, I edited them into an MP3 using Audacity.  Give a listen or two to the finished products at the link on the bottom of this blog.  

Getting a high school senior to pick up a book and engage with it is more and more difficult these days. However,  I have found a wonderful project for doing just that. My students just turned in their end of the year Novel Projects and most of them blew me away.  Not only is the work of high quality, but I actually had one student tell me it made her read more deeply and think about the book in a different way than just merely reading it for entertainment.  What more could a teacher ask for than to have her students read deeply and appreciate what they read.  All of this was accomplished, mind, without spending one minute of class time.  

I assign the project the first week of school, remind them along the way that it takes time to accomplish this assignment, and trust that they are working on it at home.  Just before Christmas break I remind them again that it will be due 2 weeks after the break.  In fact, how propitious was this: January 13, Friday.  

Below is a link to the project particulars.  Most of the ideas come from readwritethink.org, but I have tweeked them just a bit. 

http://www.gettysburg.k12.pa.us/webpages/bkingsley/accelerated.cfm?subpage=1013621  Click on Novel Project and you will have all you need to understand how this works.  

Here’s an example of the CD cover created by one of my very talented seniors: Christina S.  Below is a page from inside this CD insert.  

No doubt, you are in awe at the quality of this work.  I was too.  Nice job seniors at Gettysburg Area High School.  

This weekend I dedicated to getting ready to teach my first graphic novel.  Thirty copies of  Frankenstein by Mary Shelley in sitting in a box in the closet waiting.  I just finished reading it myself and began to think about how I wanted to expand the text beyond the usual vocab tests, quizzes, and writing assessments.  After a brief visit with a colleague, ideas began to flow. 

Since this is my last year of teaching, I didn’t want to invest too much time in the process of making materials.  AND, since I have just come across a new approach to implementing technology in the classroom called SAGE (I’ll explain later), I decided to have my students create the materials.  Here’s how it works: 

• I visited the media specialist with a list of 7 categories for research
• She built a lib guide where the student groups will conduct all research for the final project
• Next, I put together lesson plans allowing for plenty of time to work on this extended project as we read the novel together
• I haven’t forgotten to include lots of discussion
• Then, I built a wiki so the students could house their projects on one site for ease in presentation
• The wiki has a link to the lib guide, give a look

http://gahsfrankenstein.wikispaces.com/

Now, let me address this idea called SAGE.  Even though we as teachers have just been coaxed out of the position as sage on the stage, this acronym works very well in remember this approach to technology in the classroom. 

S = student choice.  We as English teachers know how important it is for students to have a choice in novel selection, especially for the reluctant reader.  This can also be true with project choices.  I have given student groups the opportunity to select from a large variety their own method of presentation.  I only said NO to powerpoints.  I hate powerpoints. 

A = authentic context.  Students buy into projects that have authenticity.  They will not produce something of quality if it resembles a fake.  Make the products and the process something that adults might engage in creating in the real world.  

G = global significance. Your projects should throw a big net and capture all disciplines in the school.  Don’t limit them to your subject area alone. And make the issues of the project be global.

E = exhibition to an audience. Make sure the task provides the students with the opportunity to showcase their work to an audience beyond the classroom, the school, the state, or even the country.   

E = exhibition to an audience