WFTY 2023: Priorities

Like many English teachers, I love words.

Last weekend, someone walked past me wearing a baseball cap with the logo of the University of Virginia. Their athletic teams are known as the Cavaliers, and the logo’s use of the crossed sabers below the “V” of course reminded me of the etymological connection to the French word chevalier, meaning knight, which naturally is reflected in the UVA mascot “CavMan,” who, without a suit of armor, looks less like what we might picture as a knight, and more like a Musketeer, with his shiny sword and classy cape and floofy feather. Hon hon hon!

And that’s not even one of the words on the “Fun Words” bulletin board that I have behind my desk in my classroom!

Best Practices for Professional Development

Are there any teachers out there – anywhere? – who, when they hear about upcoming professional development, actually look forward to it? I feel like it’s a truth universally acknowledged that teachers regard professional development as an unhelpful, frustrating time suck at best, with the added assumption that it will often be tedious and/or condescending.

Now this isn’t to say that I, personally, have never experienced PD that was useful and engaging. I absolutely have! But unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be typical.

The good news is, it doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s how you can ensure that your professional development is effective and meaningful.

Pinktober, Representation, and Individuality

Well, it’s October. Has been for awhile. And apparently there are a whole lot of things that we either celebrate, honor, or try to build awareness for during October. Some of them get a lot more coverage than others; for example, until I started putting this video together, I was not aware that October was Squirrel Awareness Month, or even that there was a Squirrel Awareness Month, actually, much less that it’s different from Squirrel Appreciation DAY, which is in January. 

Isn’t it amazing what you can learn from the internet?

Mandated Testing: What Students Really Need

I’m not anybody all that important. I’m just one public school teacher. One among about three and a half million. I don’t get to be the person who makes the big decisions; I’m the one who gets them handed to me. And, unfortunately, I’ve kind of gotten used to the decision-making folks not listening to me. I dunno; maybe that’s why I’m as opinionated as I am.

I know that the decision-making folks are really, really busy, and they’ve got a lot of people who want to be listened to. 

By the time I release this on my channel, we’ll be a few weeks into the 2021 school year. As I’m sitting here writing this script, it’s Day 7. I have 32 students enrolled in my English II class. It’s during the block when we have lunch, so I’m with these students from 11:25 until 1:40. In less than a week, I knew all their names. 

Part of that is because of a new activity I incorporated this year – the Five-Day Feedback Form, AKA “name tents” – which I’m going to do a video about later on. 

On Monday and Tuesday, I had thirty students present. Yesterday it was sixteen. 

Image: An empty classroom

Identity

One of the books I read last year was Cordelia Fine’s Delusions of Gender. An interesting point the author makes is that we often think that our biology influences what we do, and while that isn’t untrue, it’s just as true that what we do also shapes our biology.

Watching The Rise of Skywalker brought this to mind again. I didn’t like the director’s choice to return to the “Chosen One” trope after the saga finally seemed to be moving away from it in The Last Jedi. But what I did like was the concept that we choose who we become, but we are also responsible for following through on that choice with our actions.

So many of my students, like most of the people I know, get very defensive when they are told that something that they said or did is bigoted, or hurtful, or sometimes just incorrect. And that’s because it can feel like a condemnation, not of the action, but of the person.

It’s Okay to Dislike a Book

I finally finished The God of Small Things. Spoiler alert: I did NOT like it. I tried to be very gentle in what is a strongly negative review, because apparently, a lot of people really, really like this book.

Since I’m an English teacher, there’s often this assumption that I like books and I like reading. Well… it’s kind of like music. I like some music. I would guess that I might even like most music. But there’s some that’s repetitive or dissonant and I just don’t like it.

And that’s okay.

Community Blogging – Day 4

I finished Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation earlier this week. It was really helpful for me as a teacher, and particularly important in light of the school closures. Students are working individually and independently, and so self-motivation becomes even more important than it is in a classroom setting.

Student Writing Prompt – “Prediction”

Reflection 01 – Prediction: Based on your previous experiences in English classes, what do you think English I will be like? What would “being successful” in this class look like for you? Do you think you will be successful? What will you do to work toward success?

I’ve been teaching English II almost exclusively for several years. For the past two years, I’ve had English II Honors. So returning to working with freshmen is going to be interesting. I’m familiar with the course material, and I have some new ideas that I’m really excited about trying out.