Last Wednesday a colleague and I presented at a MNHS conference in Bemidji. I see that a few of those must be reading this blog because nearly a hundred have visited since Friday. Again, I invite any to leave feedback.
Thursday and Friday I was at the MNHS conference held here in town. It was great. The first few presenters were dry - again we were on ‘sleep watch’ as one of our colleagues fought sleep off (why you would take part in a class where you find what is discussed so riveting you can barely stay awake is beyond me)- but things picked up after the morning session. One of my favorite activities was called a “Group Swap” where a chapter from a history textbooks were cut up and divided into small sections, each section devoted to one of the main industries in Minnesota (lumber, iron ore, railroads, and milling). In my group, the four of us had about ten minutes to read as many sections as we could, underlining and highlighting what we found interesting. The selections I read dealt mostly with the lumber industry. However, several of my group never even got to those articles. It was a very effective way for us to cover a lot of ground in a text quickly. For each of us filled the others in on what we had read. I want to try this.
Another session that was really interesting took place on the final day of the conference. It dealt with using graphic stories to teach students about the main industries. We visited the MNHS web site and found the short graphic stories. Not only was it a really interesting way to view the stories, but what was also very effective was that most of the graphic stories had little scrolls in the corner of the comic boxes. You could click on them and see the actual pictures from which the stories were drawn. What a great, great idea for making history come alive. I wish we could do this with some of our selections in English. I would love to see an act of “The Crucible” illustrated in comic book (or as I prefer - graphic novel - fashion). There would be several links to actual pictures of Salem, documents, and pictures of the monuments there now to those murdered.
Or better yet - if there were some program or application (Comic Life on my Mac is the closest thing I have) that would allow the students to create their own graphic novels and to make their own links to pictures and documents.
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Yesterday (Monday) I was swamped. Having a sub for three days is horrible. I was more than happy with the job my subs did; however, you can only expect the sub to do so much. I’m one of those people who tends to err on the side of caution with a sub and load the students up with plenty of work. When I used to sub, I often found the day to be ‘a make up day’ for students. There’s nothing a sub hates more than that. So I tend to leave a lot of worksheets and short essays for the students to work on. Keep them busy and engaged. However, that leaves A LOT of busy work for me correcting as much of that as I can. That was where yesterday went.
My English 11 students are about half way through the film version of “The Crucible,” which I think is quite good. After that they will take the final unit test and we’ll move on to “Young Goodman Brown” and discuss the fallout from the witch trails.
In English 12 we reviewed Jeopardy style for our Unit 3 test. I told them the winners would be exempt from the essay section of the test. And what do you know? There happened to be a tie after final Jeopardy. Oh well.
What I find interesting, though, is the odd little things the students remember about a unit. For this unit, on the Renaissance, what seems to stick with most of my students is that King Henry VIII had his own personal ass wiper (I guess if J-Lo can have her own personal nipple tweaker - I read that in Entertainment Weekly once, then I guess this really isn’t that far of a stretch . . .) It’s true. I was watching The History Channel and they were focusing on the Tudor Monarchs. One interesting fact was that Henry had a servant who followed him around and did the deed for him. They would set down a large wood ‘throne’ (and if you’ve ever seen any painting of Henry - it must have been huge. I hear his cod piece is quite exaggerated too). Then on the backside were some drapes that the servant would part and wipe Henry, I believe, with satin or velvet.
Maybe this is what inspired that Discover Channel show “The Dirtiest Jobs.” So I always remind students that if they loathe there jobs, they can always think, “Well, at least I don’t have to wipe . . .” Maybe that can cheer them up a little bit.
Side note - three years ago I was talking about this in Brit Lit when one girl raised her hand and declared that doing just that sort of thing was actually her job - she worked at a nursing home. I had never thought of that. “I wouldn’t have had a problem with helping old Henry out,” she had said. Ha.
Finally, in College Comp I introduced the schools of literary theory to the students. I prefaced the intro with the idea that you don’t need to rip something to shred - as theorists and English teachers love to do - to enjoy it. But it’s also valuable to see things from different perspectives, which is what theory is really all about. If they can look at the novels they’re reading from one or two new angles (say feminism or Marxism or historical) then I’m happy. I just want them to know that there are more ways to get into a text than the old standards - “I wonder what the author means here?” or - worse yet - “I wonder what the teacher wants me to get out of this?” Ish.
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I am finding an amazing new side to Kristie. She seems to like (I won’t say ‘love’ quite yet) old campy horror films. Over the past month we have watched the werewolf classics (you gotta love the search option on DirecTV) “The Beast Must Die,” “The Undying Monster,” “The Wolfman” (which was actually a disappointment), and “The Werewolf of London.” Now I absolutely love horror movies - the lower grade the better. Kristie usually dislikes them - too nasty of dreams (“The Descent” gave her nightmares). But still she endures these! Maybe I’m converting her like she converted me to “Devine Design,” “What Not to Wear,” and “Trading Spaces.”
I can’t wait for the horror movie marathons on the Sci Fi channel and the new Chiller channel for Halloween.
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Homecoming was its usual disruptive self. But I missed most of it anyway, so it didn't bother me. What I'm always torn over with homecoming is that yes students need these pep fests and activities and other things to forge memories. I totally concur. My only concern is that how many are really taking part and making memories. I've long feared that there is a growing population here - and in schools across the country - that are neither partaking nor contributing. These students worry me a great deal.
On the positive side, I thought our school parade was great. To top things off I was one of the judges for the tailgaiting contest at the football game. Talk about impressive. Yes, the senior parents had a large spread - given several of them own very profitable businesses. But the students really bowled me over. They had a grill out. A rootbeer keg. Madden 08 next to a camper. And about a dozen trucks backed up against the fence. When the game started and we scored, they were going to all rev their engines. They gave us a preview and it was deafening. Great stuff.
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T minus 16 pages and counting for my November 1st deadline. I hammered out three pages of the narrative Saturday morning. So if you count my works cited, and take into consideration the minimum page requirement (20), I'm almost there!
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