A Reflection on Blogging

Maintaining a blog can be very time consuming and rather intimidating for a novice teacher who believes he or she is in a sink or swim situation. Ideally, a blog would be great for my students. Unfortunately, I am teaching in a very high poverty area of Arkansas. As a result, many of my students do not have internet service at home and limited access to a computer. In fact, approximately sixty-eight per cent of the Crossett High school students do not own a computer at all.

Being able to maintain a blog and blog regularly with one's professional peers affords opportunities for novice teachers in need of advice, additional resources, and possibly a place to de-stress by airing a few concerns. I hope to have more time during the second semester to work on a blog and attempt to connect with my peers and students on a more regular basis.

Herland: A Book Review

Written by reknowned The Yellow Wallpaper author Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland is a utopian novel in which a 1915s society run solely by women suddenly allows three male outsiders within their fold. The men's presence alters the future of this secluded society as first the men must reconsider the myth of masculine superiority and the role of women as they believe it should be. In the end, the women and men must make decisions about the lives they wish to live and their position within society. Nothing will never be the same.

Herland might be suitable for Pre-AP students but I really believe this Charlotte Perkins Gilman work best tackled by AP students. The reading of this novel introduces students to feminist writing of the early twentieth century.

Ever Proud of My Students' Abilities

I'm always proud of my students and have begun to think of them as "my kids." Therefore, I can not pass up a chance to post a photo or two of those who are able to stand up and make a presentation in front of a roomful of adults: something that this teacher would never had done at age fifteen. This young man is one of my sixth period Pre-AP students; the audience is made up of not only parents but CSD's assistant superintendent.

A Lesson Before Dying: A Book Review

In an instance of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with

the wrong people, twenty-one-year old Jefferson finds the life he once knew suddenly altered forever. As a resident in a little Cajun town in Louisiana called Bayonne, the vicissitude experienced by this young black man finds him spiraling downward from the image of a man to that of a "hog." The only hope for a regaining his manhood is through the intervention of ones Grant Wiggins, the plantation school teacher, who is asked by Jefferson's godmother to make sure that "no hog sets in that chair." However, this teacher is dealing with issues of his own as he attempts to come to terms concerning his own place within a passive society.

Another read for tenth graders, A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines reveals the continued myth of one race's superiority over another in the 1940s although the southern practice influencing the attitudes of the people was abolished nearly eighty years earlier. Much of the author's writing is influenced by his own personal experiences in the same area he once called home as a boy.

Observing a Pro in Action!

The local Crossett newspaper weekly series titled "Schools News" updates the community concerning events and changes occurring within the Crossett School District. An October segment of this series focuses on Crossett High School Principal Henry Anderson's use of techniques promoted by education guru Dr. Robert Marzano. At the time of the interview, Anderson was model teaching in my second period Pre-AP English class while I observed. This afforded the interviewer an opportunity to capture several photographs of Anderson, a former English teacher, at work.

10th Grade Reading

Written by Russian-American author Ayn Rand, the setting of the novella Anthem is a futuristic society in which the protagonist breaks the laws so stringently enforced by his society's governing body. The society in which Rand situates her characters is in ruins. Civilization as readers know it no longer exists. In fact, members of this society have digressed or devolved. It takes a man with an independent spirit like Equality 7-2521's to break a cycle that is the only hope for a despairing society without a future.

The first assigned reading for my tenth graders this semester, Anthem proved to be a bit of a challenge for some of Pre-AP students as well as the low-achieving students who have never really had to apply critical thinking skills. However, I still recommend Rand's work as an early read in the
semester to get those stagnated minds in gear for longer, deeper readings.

Where, OH WHERE, has the time gone?

As most of my peers have probably figured out by now, I am not much on the blogging. The only time I get on Facebook is to see what my daughters and granddaughters are up to as well as keeping up with past and current friends from church, high school, and college.. I do hereby officially apologize. After reading several posts, I now realize that I missed out on some valuable sources for lessons plans, websites, and various resources that might have the first year of the ol' lady's teaching career go just a little smoother.

The transition from the college to a secondary classroom has been a bit more difficult and stressful than I had anticipated. Things weren't going particularly well with my move to Crossett anyway and probably made this an especially trying period in my life. I never believed that I would survive the first nine weeks of tenth graders whose greatest challenge in ninth grade English was the completion of large packets of grammar worksheets. Very little, if any, writing took place. Reading literature was not a priority either. However, I HAVE SURVIVED! :~)

The turning point for me came one day toward the end of the first nine weeks. While explaining an assignment I had just given to my students in one of my more challenging classes--attitudes, WOW!--, one female student became rather perturbed at several of the male students who were moaning and groaning about the work I expected them to do. All of a sudden she speaks up, "Will you just shut up?!!! I'm finally learning something!" I immediately thought, "Thank you God! Someone is finally getting it!" Things still aren't perfect, but I no longer feel like I'm drowning in a sea of hopeless (more like an ocean really!). The stress of the next couple of weeks--one last essay for the semester, the tests from The Learning Institute, three unexpected (and unplanned) absences in a week due to administrative requirements, students being out for various trips, non-English testing, and a semester tests as well as finishing up the work for the MAT--figures to be a challenge. A challenge that I am not really looking forward to with excitement. Yet, once more, I was gifted with that little boost once more when another female student in the same class made a similar statement: "Shut up! Quit talking! I want to do well on this assignment, because Ms. Young is trying to teach us something that will help us in college." YAHOOO! I have preached that sermon to all of my classes for the past six weeks. I just might survive this first year one student at a time!