Honors English Class Ideas

Honors English Class
(Joy & Cherise)

Background:
As our school grows in size, prominence and reputation, it is important that we offer courses and curriculum that can more appropriately meet the needs of our highest-level students, many of whom are eager for a challenge. We want to also be sure to prepare them academically so that they will be able to experience success wherever they may go after high school. To this end, it will expose students to canonized literature while also allowing them to discover postsecondary options.

If possible, the class may be offered as a 2-hour block class. If so, it will simultaneously explore topics around college-readiness, including: study skills, the college application process, varieties of colleges and civic responsibility.

Ideas for Curriculum:
-Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
-Othello by Shakespeare
-Savage Inequalities by Johnathan Kozol
-Slam Poetry (using Def Poetry, Youth Speaks and UC Berkeley's Poetry for the People)

Essential Questions:
(These are also referenced in the earlier post, entitled "Essentials for Motivating Students")
-What are the benefits of knowing how to write and speak for various audiences?
-How can the themes and ideas that we are studying be translated into valuable meaning for my life and worldview?
-How does the literature we are reading reflect elements in my life?

Statistics & the Prison Industrial Complex

(Group: Ramel, Hillary, Dawn)
Our group began creating a unit that merged social issues/justice/studies with statistics. Our essential questions are:
1. How are statistics constructed?
2. Who benefits from incarceration?

One of the ultimate objectives is for students to think critically about the system, and for this to be an avenue to understand statistics. Other objectives and assessments revolve around research, persuasive writing and debate.

Motivating Student

The most important thing is for our students here at B-Tech to know what we are trying to do for them that will make learning fun. It is my belief that they must come to school with the desire to want to succeed and to know that all of us are working together for their good.
(1) One must come with the necessary equipment to work with such as erasers, pencils, pens, rulers, notebook, calculators, scissors, and etc.
(2) One must want to learn and to put forth their best effort.
(3) One must understand that what they don't understand and be willing to write it down.
(4) One must be willing to do a task successful more than (7) seven times.
(5) One must understand that any example written on the learning board is for their continuous reference point of study.

Essentials for Motivating Students

As we try to motivate students, there are a number of things that I think are essential if we want to promote their growth and self-discovery:

1. We must provide clear directions and models for what we expect them to accomplish. I believe that if they can have a preview of what learning the day's lesson will allow them to do, we will have greater success with engaging them.
2. We must set high expectations and stick to them as best we can.
   
3. It is crucial for students to be able to answer some essential questions:
1. What are the strengths that I bring to this class that can enhance the learning experience for everyone?
   
2. What are the benefits of knowing how to write and speak for various audiences?
   
3. How can studying literature enhance my experience of life?
4. How does today's lesson relate to my life?
5. How can the things that I learned today be translated into valuable meaning for my life and worldview?
   

Motivating Students

Motivating students is challenging and laborious when we (the teachers) are not motivated.  At least, I am not motivated to teach.  I am motivated to finish the year, spend the mornings in bed for a while, smile at the sun because it's shining and I have time to do so, go to the beach, spend afternoons laughing with my children.  I am motivated to leave this time frame and enter another where I do not have to run the course of a schedule.  I can cook because I still have brain cells left at the end of the day to think of a meal.  Or I can cook dinner in the morning because I feel like that.   I don't know how to motivate students when I feel like this.  So, I give them more smiles, hugs and reasons to relax.  Maybe if I give them a semblance of tranquility, they'll give me some  back and I'll be motivated to return in two months :) 

Thoughts on Next Year

Next year I will be much more fearless in integrating technology in the classroom.  I would like to continue with blogs, but I'm not totally sure about Blogger.   I would probably try Word.Sound.Life, in order to encourage larger community discussions.   I love the idea of having them do research, presentations and writing, using technology.  I think blogs offer a relatively quick and simple space for doing all of these things.  As a teacher supporting student writing, however, I must also think about how I can use this space to help with revision and writing skills. Depending on the resources I have next year, I would like to do some things that are more extended and more intellectually challenging.    

Maybe this will be useful to somebody...

SENIOR FINALS
6/3/2008 Tuesday- 2nd and 4th Period
6/4/2008 Wednesday- 3rd and 5th Period

FINALS WEEK 6/7-6/13
Mon, Tues, Fri: Friday schedule (First period does not meet)
Wednesday: 2nd and 3rd period finals
Thursday: 4th and 5th period finals

B-TECH GRADUATION
June 5th at 5:00PM

turning our brains off...as a necessity

These past couple weeks since our last meeting have been, in a word, loose.

We had 2 three-day weekends in a row, the health fair (which replaced classes for an entire day), an off-campus shooting that impacted our students directly, a processing meeting to follow up after the shooting, and last, but not least, Prom. Not to mention all the drama associated with seniors (not) graduating.

The way that some of them are panting toward the finish line is taking its toll on us as a staff, thereby making it even more difficult to maintain for us all. In a nutshell, classwork & curriculum have been forced toward the lower end of the priority list in the whirlwind that is our end-of-year campus atmosphere.

The sky is falling the sky is falling!

Last minute seniors always make the remaining days of school stress-filled.

Everything is everything

I am worried about Seniors who are not graduating. I think this is one of the most pressing issues right now. I am looking forward to building with others on the goals of the school as Cherise brought up and to putting some interventions in place that will hopefully prevent this from happening next year. I am excited about having ARMED on campus and I think that their presence has brought an enthusiasm and energy that we needed especially for the last few weeks.

What's Been Going On?

It's been a couple of weeks since our last session. Won't you let us know how things have been progressing/regressing for you in this time? Any major breakthroughs or attempts? What about students? How have they been responding to the activities going on in your classroom lately?

Please post a brief comment.

Motivating Towards Achievement

It could be good for us to begin sharing the blog as a tapestry of projects for research, or as a way of documenting practices.

Going back to our last reflection topic on your ideal students, and building on the recent conversations on framing Second Life (or other online learning environments) as presentation spaces for student work, how might we build our online activities in a cohesive way that facilitates students' growth and self-discovery? What online resources will they need in the process? How will you as teacher guide them? What kind of essential questions make a good starting point for dialogue?


Please answer this as a post of your own (do not respond as a comment this time around). Feel free to add links, pictures or other media that helps explain your arguments or ideas.

My ideal student is...

MOTIVATED AND FOCUSED

My Ideal Student

My ideal student is one who is respectful: of themselves, of me and of the classroom environment. I dream of a student who is personally invested in his/her future and believes that education is a key conduit through which success can come. Along with that belief is one that everyday, success is a choice, but that the choice is theirs. My ideal student has faith in his/her ability to break stereotypes and defy all odds. He/she also takes personal responsibility seriously and refuses to shortchange him/herself on account of foolishness, no matter the shape or form. In this way, my ideal student has a degree of wisdom, and if not, is open to developing it with the help of those who already possess it.

student disposition

My ideal student would be the student that comes into the classroom with respect for others; motivate that is driven within them; one the would have the continuity with the last homework or the last assignment; student would possess a strong mind; student would not accept everything that the teacher is saying , but they would use critical thinking; student would be responsible not only to themselves but to others as well; student would be hardworking and pride in their school as well as each other; student would have the stamina to complete the assignments as given to them.

My Ideal Student is Like Water Lillies

My ideal student trusts the process. She knows that the Teacher, while not perfect, has certain professional and life experiences that she (the student) can learn from. So she trusts the process that the teacher is taking her through, patiently. My ideal student respects his elders enough to trust the wisdom and compassion of a teacher who has demonstrated his or her care for him. My ideal student comes to class with a smoke-free mind that allows him/her to focus. My ideal student does challenge content, the teacher, and peers, respectfully. That is how we sharpen each other. My ideal student won't give up. He may take a break, but he comes back to it. My ideal student has enough nutrition in her/his body to feed the brain so that he/she won't burn out so quickly and get frustrated so easily.

Student disposition

It would please me to have a student who really knows what mathematics can do for them. One who comes in with the desire to learn what they can do in the real world to make their lives better than it is now.
One who wants to share what they have learned with others in their environment, and how they can figure out some of the everyday events in world.

ideal students...

possess a strong revolutionary mind able to think critically, a hunger for knowledge, respect for themselves and respect for others. these students also take responsibility for their actions. they are concerned about their community and want to help others.

some improvements...

This week has been a lot better, both in terms of behavior and students' motivation to do work.   It seems that students have decided one of two things: they either want to make up work or have given up entirely.  As far as classroom management, this has led to better discussions and better use of class time.  

____

My ideal student would be willing and motivated to work hard, convinced that education is important.  S/he would maintain respectful behavior, refraining from cussing and derogatory remarks.  S/he would invite challenging work, think critically, and take pride in the work s/he submits.  

Mixed Bag Day

Today for the class agenda, we played Vocabulary Jeopardy, and then took the Vocabulary Test. Most of the students enjoy the game, so it's easy to keep most of the kids engaged. Also, a majority of the students present were prepared or felt prepared to take the test. At the same time there was a good number who didn't even want to take the test, guessed many of the answers, or professed that they didn't know any of the words.

On the whole I feel that the students who aren't prepared, need to step up and meet my expectations- and a handful who formerly didn't in past semesters have. Yet those that are perpetually letting themselves fall short often just feel more and more defeated.