A new TLLP grant

My teaching partner in crime, Daniella, and I applied for another Teacher Learning and Leadership Program Grant for the 2013-2014 school year and our project was accepted.  Our project is called "Comics Aren't Just For Kids: Graphic Texts in the High School Classroom".  We are going to develop lessons and assessments centered around graphic texts, both paper and digital. 

The project is in its infancy but we are attending the kick off conference in May and are already looking at what graphic texts we will use.  I have a number of volunteers from my first semester Studies in Literature class who are helping us choose our texts.  They are called the "Dork Knights" (a hilarious play on the Holy Names Knights, the Dark Knight and our own "dorkiness").  Daniella is less dorky so I hope she will lend some much needed legitimacy to the project. We are also hoping to get a local comic book store involved.

One of the really exciting aspects of the project is the purchase of 25 iPad Mini's to use.  The TLLP team at the Ministry of Education suggested I look into the work of Dr. Ruben Puentedura and his SAMR model.  The SAMR model talks about the use of technology in the classroom.  I am looking forward to exploring his ideas and using technology as a way to redefine both our instruction through this project and also redefine our assessment and evaluation of the project using the iPads.

I have started to collect ideas for the technology aspect of the project on my TLLP Pinterest Page.

So, apply for a grant.  We have gotten 2 in the last 3 years and our first project, Equal is Not the Same: DI & the Middle Learner was a great learning experience. It is true that Teacher-Directed Professional Development is the way to go.

We will be using both a website and a blog to document our progress.

The Misplaced Metaphor

Who first started using the word "piece" in education?  Did some well known speaker use a puzzle metaphor and the puzzle part got lost?  Two years ago, I counted the number of times the word was used at a conference and it was in the triple digits.  It has found its way into just about every educator's speech.  I thought it would lose popularity but instead, it is gaining fast.

I really hate it.

Guided Journals and Literacy

I was "exploring the blogosphere" this summer when I came across the website GraceisOverrated.com.  Blogger Christine Zimmer has a great site where she posts ADORABLE hand lettered journaling pages that you can fill in and colour.

http://www.graceisoverrated.com/

I loved the site and ordered a pocket journal from her Etsy shop for me and my friend and partner in Education related crime (and actual crime if you count the time I called 911 on a boy I saw manhandling his girlfriend in a field a few years ago), Daniella Czudner.

http://www.graceisoverrated.com/

Now, Daniella is much more of a people person than I am and she e-mailed Christine to tell her how much we loved the journals.  Then, like every teacher, we started to talk about how great it would be to do an activity like this in the classroom.  With the support of our Principal and our Parent's Council, we are hosting Christine in a few weeks to do both student and teacher workshops on Guided Journaling.

I can't tell you how excited Daniella and I are.  You have to check out Christine's site; it is amazing.

I will be sure to post some pictures from the workshops.

Using Pinterest

I cannot overstate the number of ideas I have found on Pinterest that I am using in my classroom.  My teacher candidate Sarah and I have been pinning ideas back and forth.

Our latest idea was inspired by a free lesson by Tracee Orman called "Using Twitter to Make Connections".  She has some great resources on her Pinterest site or her classroom website.  We also found a few pins about using Twitter in the classroom.

Here are a few pictures that are inspiring us right now.

This picture is from http://mesmrswhitesclass.blogspot.ca/2012/08/my-twitter-door.html

http://mesmrswhitesclass.blogspot.ca/2012/08/my-twitter-door.html

This one is from http://artfor1170.blogspot.ca/2012/01/twitter.html

http://artfor1170.blogspot.ca/2012/01/twitter.html

I will update this post when we get our own Twitter board up.

Why Differentiate?

I feel this way about the OSSLT sometimes as well.  Students who have learning disabilities will struggle as much on the Literacy Test as that fish will trying to get up that tree.

Using Tagxedo

My smart teacher candidate found a neat website that is an alternative to Wordle.  It is called Tagxedo (www.tagxedo.com). You can enter text and the website puts it into a shape.  We are going to try it with The Hunger Games.  Students will find adjectives that describe a character and put them into a Tagxedo shape.

Here is my exemplar.  I just cut and pasted a portion of text from Part 1 of the book so they can see what it will look like.

Thanks for the idea, Sarah!

I love looking at other teachers' classrooms

My favourite teacher blog posts are the ones where I get to see into other people's classrooms.  So, I am going to post a few pictures of mine today.  I have a few shots of my classroom after a day of classes.  I have a couple of Grade 12 classes and one Grade 10 class.  I need to do a good cleaning and reorganizing but this it, mess and all.

This is the front of the room.  We still have old blackboards so I put up a white board at the front with velcro.  We also still use TV/VCR sometimes.  Don't laugh.  There is also a projector next to my podium so I am not a dinosaur. I teach from the front and have my desk at the back.

This is the side view of the room.  I am luck to have a bank of cabinets.

This is the back corner.  The shelves come from our now defunct library (that is another story).  The old Mac was generously donated by my sister.  Thanks, Melanie!

This is a view of the back of my room, including my Smart board and my teacher desk.







I also have some close ups of two of my movable white boards at the front.

Here is my Objectives Board (for Learning Goals and Success Criteria)

It is a small dry erase Board I got from Home Depot.  I used some American Crafts stickers I had lying around for the titles.  My latest project connects Reading Strategies to the Objectives Board.  I will be trying it out tomorrow.














Here is my other white board, "Ticket to Freedom".  It is my exit card board. I use it primarily with my ENG 2P1 class.