What Matters

When my mother passed away in April of 2010, it fell up on my sister, my niece and myself to clean out her house. The task of undoing someone's life and deciding if their knickknacks are meaningless to you or not is extremely daunting. She had a house full of belongings she thought treasured. It was so packed with things that our shock and disbelief at her death turned into anger and rage as we discovered thing after thing that she had saved.

The more we cleaned, the more we found and the angrier we became. I believe we ended up getting rid of a lot of things that perhaps, now, I'd want but it is too late for that. As we emptied out my mother's life and pulled apart her existence, we found many things that were expected and many that were not. The numerous school projects and photos were lovely to find. However, the drawer of every pen or pencil we've ever owned was extreme. We found a bag of bags and a suitcase with another suitcase inside with another bag inside of that and smaller bags inside that with yet smaller bags inside them.

Being a Teacher

I visited Howe Caverns when I was five or six years old and I saw a book with a picture of a monster on it. The book was less than half a centimeter thick with a green border and I was fascinated. My mother purchased the book for me and I took it home to show my father. I sat with my father and we read the book together and I began learning all about dinosaurs. For about four years, I was obsessed with dinosaurs. My father took me on fossil hunts run through the state museum. My mother bought me every book she could find on dinosaurs. I amassed a bag of dinosaur figures, large and small. For about four years, my parents probably thought I would grow up to be a paleontologist.

I am not sure when that interest died out, perhaps when my friends started playing with Barbies or when I found Charmkins or She-RA. But when my students ask me why I wanted to be a teacher, I cannot say "I always wanted to be a teacher" because there were those four years when I dreamt of dinosaurs. However, I thoroughly remember enjoying telling everyone about dinosaurs. I knew all the different kinds and how big they were and what they ate. I loved telling my grandmother about them or talking about them at show and tell. So perhaps I really did always want to be a teacher.

The Sneetches

The most important thing I can do for my students is broaden their minds and their hearts. This has been apparent to me from the very beginning of my career. I remember it was my second year teaching when I had a Spanish One class third block which is when our lunch happens. Students would be with me an hour, go to lunch and come back for the last half an hour of class.

That day, our school newspaper had released an issue. They had printed an article written anonymously by someone about our school and how very divided it is with the haves and the have nots. My students walked into class that day and immediately said "did you read it?" because they were up in arms about the entire thing. I had a beautiful lesson planned that day to work on vocab and review for an upcoming test. But we did no Spanish that day. That day I allowed the students space to talk about the article and I was told to read it during my lunch so I knew more. The entire class was a conversation with twelve very upset students for different reasons. A couple were from the privileged end of the student spectrum and a couple were from the low end.

Station Day!

Every year, each class gets one or two Station Days a year. I enjoy Station Day a lot because it puts the onus of the learning on the students. For me, Station Day is usually spent running around because they have a dozen questions and one teacher and are constantly seeking approval before writing down an answer. But it's worthwhile time because I get to really answer their questions and see what problems the students still have. Every year on Station Day, I usually go home exhausted and tired but feeling pretty good about my students and my teaching.

Preparation is the key for a successful Station Day. You need to decide on how the students will work, create a filler for students who finish dramatically early, and create the stations. Each station needs directions the students can read independently and figure out as well as whatever necessary to complete the task.

I have created Station Days for the topics that I know cause students a lot of trouble because they need to be in the thick of it and muddle around with the complexity of the language. I suppose you could make stations for vocab practice but I prefer different cards games and activities for that. Station Day, for me, is a day when they can struggle and triumph. Topics that have lent themselves well to me are the preterit vs imperfect or subjunctive when the vocab of the unit drives the grammar points.

The Most Loathed Question of my Classroom

Being that I teach a "foreign" language in an ego-centric country that does not stress the importance of taking part in other cultures but boasts of being "the melting pot"- one would think that the most loathed question I could hear would be "does it have to be in Spanish?" I understand this question because it is steeped in the acculturation of "american" students growing up in the post 9-11 era.

No, the question I most loathe is: Is this going to be graded? Every time I hear it, it grates on my nerves. I've heard it at least once a week since I began teaching and I believe back in the early days of my career I was annoyed by it for very different reasons. There were many times I would bite back a sarcastic "what do you think, dummy? It's school." But other times,  I would answer "obviously" with an annoyed tone and an internal eye roll.

Every Page is an Adventure

Every day, I sit at my desk or in the library or at my table at home and I read. I read for an hour, sometimes more, sometimes less, but on average an hour a day. A lot of people do this. They read the paper. They read a book. They read online websites or journals or blogs or Facebook entries. Me? I read my students.

I sit for an hour a day and read their journals. I have had students journaling for two years and two months and never have I enjoyed reading them more than I do now. I sit and open my Chromebook. I open my journal spreadsheet and scroll down to the lines of the students I'm reading that night. I pick up a journal and open it to the correct place. I scroll through their line in my spreadsheet to see what comments I've made in the past and to remind myself of their writing goal. Each of them chose a writing goal a few weeks back. Common goals are: add more details, expand my vocab, write more or organize my thoughts. I review their goal so I know what I'm looking for and then I push the Chromebook aside and read. I flip the pages and check to make sure all the entries are there but I read.

I'm surprised.

Journaling Year Three

There are many things that I considered over the summer for how to improve my journaling system now that we are into year three.

HANDWRITTEN VS DIGITAL

The first thing I wrestled with over the summer was how I wanted my students to be writing. I had to decide whether I still wanted to keep to hand written composition notebook journals or if I wanted to go digital with them. I knew I'd have the Chromebooks in my classroom and wasn't sure if I wanted to move them digitally as well. It took nearly all summer for me to really decide. In the end, I still feel there is something very valuable about the process of physically writing. This is a hilarious notion since I'd much rather type than write but there are sometimes when I'm journaling or writing that I prefer handwriting. It's almost cathartic or hypnotic to put pen to paper. Additionally, I think if they were digital the temptation of Google Translate would be even greater than when they are writing "old school". So I asked my students to get a composition notebook. This differed because the previous year I'd let my students find any type of journal they wanted. Some had very pretty books or "diary" type books which I liked because it was personal to them. However the reality is that if they are uniform in shape and size, it's easier to transport them when I need to take them home. So I asked for composition notebooks only. However there are several students who purchased flashier composition notebooks with designs so they can still be personal.

Validation through Writing

This week, we had meeting two of Pens to Paper, the student writing group of which I am now advisor. In true CDWP fashion, we began with snacks! The two girls, we’ll call K & E, brought snacks and an agenda that would make any CDWP teacher proud. The agenda started us with a writing prompt: Behind her, the noise escalated…

 Together, with a group of young writers, I put pen to paper (figuratively of course since I was typing) and wrote something of my own creation: a short story of 117 words. I have not written original fiction in over five years and it felt amazing to be sharing the collective experience of creation with a group of ten young writers. This is my creation:

 Behind her, the noise escalated from soft murmurs to the dull roar of stampeding elephants. She’d never been so scared in her life. She was certain they were coming for her and coming fast. Could she ran fast enough? Far enough away to escape? Her legs pounded on the pavement, her blood pounding in her ears as she ran as fast as her body was willing to go. The street was dark, eerily silent, but all she heard was their never ending persistence at her back.

 Suddenly a crack echoed through her mind and a shriek was ripped from her soul.

 She looked back to see if they were gaining on her.

 There was nothing but silence.

Goobric Schmoobric

So as with any technology, some things are good and some are bad and some are simply not as functional as you'd like them to be.


For example the Doctopus script has an additional feature you can activate called Goobric, which is a google rubric. You define what the categories are and how many points it is worth and it will create a fill in rubric that will pop up when you are at a document that requires the goobric you assigned it previously. It's a great in theory but I spent more time grading using goobric than I did when I just used my own excel chart.


The problem with Goobric, and that I wish they would fix, is that you can open the rubric and fill in the grades but if you click out of it to back to the document, you lose whatever you've filled in. I like to grade for one thing at a time and this will not allow you do that. Furthermore, I unclicked the "email grade to student" and it still sent the email to the student. I also discovered that if you have more than one file open, sometimes it assigns the rubric to the wrong assignment so students received grades that weren't even theirs. So that was the end of goobric for me! It was irritating.


I wanted something that would help speed up my grading process, not annoy me whilst doing it. That brings me to my other issue with technology: because they can produce so much more while typing, I find I have way more to read/correct/comment on. It's quicker because I can type comments much faster (and neater) than I could ever write comments, but the volume of grading I have to do is so much more than years past. It's crazy!

one of the best!

So there are probably many times when I've had this thought, but every time it occurs to me, it's like it's the first time: MY JOB ROCKS. I love my job. Today was probably one of the best days I've had this year, I think.


 It was really an ordinary day by all accounts. No student who normally gets 50s suddenly had an epiphany and now is a genius. No student who usually misbehaves finally purchased a halo. But every so often, a class just goes well or you have an interaction with a student that just makes you proud to be an educator. Today, I had a million of those moments.

Special Paper Lessons

I was preparing for my paper lesson this weekend!

Before I even get here, the first day of school, I show the students THIS VIDEO. We talk about how it'd be nice if we all did nice things for people.

On the second day, I have them see the TED talk the maker of the video did. THAT'S HERE. The students journal about life lines of kindness that they have extended and that have been extended to them.

THEN a couple weeks later, I'm ready for the paper activity.

docto-what??

Doctopus. It's a strange word but a wonderful little program! or "Script" as it's termed in Google. It has allowed me to create student files wherein the students can respond to questions, write something, and then it automatically syncs with me so that I have permission to view it, leave comments and grade it. once I decide on my grades, Doctopus also allows me to email the students their grades with feedback that I write.


The major quandary that I have is actually grading it! It's crazy to not have much in my "to grade" folders but to know I have tons of stuff to read this weekend! However it's quicker! And very convenient. I think the kids really liked getting the email with feedback. I can also include correction information or other comments in the emails.


I figured that with all this going on, I needed to remember what assignments I hand back and the deadlines for corrections I provide. So I've started charts with those as well.


HOWEVER THE MOST COOL THING: was the sentence race the other day. The idea of it is that I have a story that I wrote in Spanish. I broke it up into 5 parts. I have my desks arranged in tables of 6, what I call tanks. Each tank received a shared file where they could type the story. It worked like a relay race where the group members took turns running to the envelope to remember as much of the story as they could. One person was the "official" typer but I found they were all watching the sentences be written and correcting punctuation and accents. After they had the entire story done, they had questions to answer. Everyone was engaged and as they finished, they were working on their corrections for another assignment. It was incredible!

September I don't even know when!

I decided to ditch the date titles and go with real titles.

Today is I don't even know when because it's only the second full week of school and I feel like it should be December! Someone stopped me in the halls and asked me about yesterday- something like "how did it go yesterday" and I honestly couldn't remember why she might have been asking me something. I don't know if I'd told her I was doing something particularly cool or if I'd told her I was worried or had a problem. I really couldn't remember yesterday! Scary!

Planning is consuming me like it did my first teaching! However it was super cool in class!!!
So I used doctopus successfully four times today- little warning, it takes a good two minutes to send emails, so you have to time it well. ALSO (for whatever reason) it sends two emails to the kids. 1. saying they have sharing permissions on a file. and the other saying with the assignment- sort of annoying, but...

IT WORKED!!! It worked and was beautiful! I could also open the group files to watch as they worked on the sentence race. Then they each had a part they had to work on and I hope that the files kept all the information with six people working on them. But the cool thing is, is that you can use these features, even without Chromebooks. You simply need to take them to a computer lab or library. It's super amazing to watch them all typing stuff together and talking to each other at once.
I have a visually impaired student this year and I wanted to make sure he'd be able to take part with his group. Luckily, after forty minutes of playing, I figured out why his Google Drive app wasn't working. I hadn't given him the right file type. It won't let you edit word docs, you have to paste the information into google docs. So once I figured that out, the Google Drive app worked perfectly! It's really important for me that he be able to do everything along with the class.

It's bizarre to me that I might not be carrying much home ever. I have a lot to grade now, but I have no grading folders, so it makes me feel like I have nothing to grade! HAHA if only! Oh the life of a teacher! Have to get to work! Adios!

September 15, 2013: Scripts!!

Well... I was doing a lot of planning yesterday for level 4 and I'm excited to say that I'm really working out digital planning. In my level fours this week I'm going to use DOCTOPUS, which is a combination of the words document and octopus and it's a way to distribute documents and collect them to grade. We shall see how it goes but I felt like a genius figuring it out! Ha ha. Actually, I watched videos on YouTube to remember what I needed to do.


Now I have to start planning for 2A which will be harder since there is so much content we have to do.

September 14, 2013

I had originally started keeping my Chrome journey in a doc file but I decided to switch to a blog, don't know why but then I could share it out with people I suppose. I thought perhaps my fellow Chrome compadres might like it. Who knows? Or just for my own crazy amusement.

So Thursday and Friday were the first days that I had the kids pick up their CBs (henceforth meaning Chromebooks) on the way in the door.

This really is making me plan like a first year teacher again because I have to rethink how I do things. Last year, and every year for the past few years, I've had unit packets. I photocopy it in the beginning of the unit and then have all the copying done for three or four weeks. I think it was around year three that I had that brilliant idea and it eased up my life so much. So this year, for the first two units, I naturally photocopied the units but now as I plan, I find that a lot of it is not needed, or needed differently since they can access things digitally.

September 11, 2013

I am starting to think technology hates me. The Chromebook charging issue yesterday and today, my projector is defunked and not working at all whatsoever. It needs to be replaced, so my beautiful powerpoint lesson is completely done for. What am I to do??

However we did, with the first class get into the Chromebooks and things worked well- with a couple minor issues: one of the track pads wasn’t working. One of the Chromes hadn’t charged at all. One of the kids has an account that is all in Arabic now.

An hour later, my projector was swapped out so that I can use my powerpoint with my class, however then I go to play the video and the sound is coming from the ELMO input while the computer screen is on another input. My crazy technology life!

September 10, 2013

It was my first day with the Chromebooks today! I had a beautiful lesson that built up to getting out the Chromebooks and logging in to do my first day survey. The kids were very excited to get them and turn them on and THEY WEREN’T CHARGED. The cart had been wired wrong and hadn’t charged all weekend. They were all dead and couldn’t be used. Four students were able to do the form and the others sat and listened as we talked about the information. They have to complete it for homework!

So she rewired the cart and said they’d charge and should be good for third block, about an hour away. So third block went up, got them out and again- NO CHARGE. She had to rewire the cart AGAIN to make them charge.

Technology is not without issue!

September 6, 2013

It is 9:13 am Friday morning, about a half an hour before I officially have my first class, though I met my first class in homeroom a half an hour ago. They seem very cute! I did happen to mention that we will be going digital this year and they seemed really excited!

Last night I had the normal “day before the first” restless sleep. I don’t think I fell asleep deeply until midnight, or later. I can never shut my mind off and I’m constantly thinking about stuff that I could do or change. I wish I was normal and could just go to sleep but I can’t seem to do it! I’m excited and not terrified this year though. Normally, there’s a small terror about meeting the students, or maybe it’s just when I know they’ll be difficult classes. This year I’m just excited. Year ten and I’m excited. I hope for all the years I am, though it may be the Chromebooks that really make me excited, but even then, who knows?

My worry is the amount of planning it might take but I think I have to stick with what I know. I have to remember to add new stuff in gradually, not all at once. So Tuesday and Wednesday will be simply be having them get into the Chromebooks and take the “survey” aka class policies. We shall see how it goes that day. I think I need to stress the importance of close the book, open it- that type of thing. Classroom management is going to be important.

I did make signs last night with a few of the important short cuts we need that I’m going to go and blow up right now actually.

September 5, 2013

A friend who has a Chromebook texted me the other day and asked how I was enjoying it and getting used to it. I told him I hadn’t had much time to play with it since I’d been doing so much other stuff. He said I should start using it as my laptop at home so I knew what I was doing but I wonder if it’s possible to do all I do on the Chromebook.

This year will have a huge learning curve for me, as it always has, when trying to learn something new. I believe my goal is to have at least one thing on the Chromebooks to do each class, no matter what it is. I think some days this will be easier than others but that is my goal. I have been working on my blog and sharing files with the kids. I set up the blogs so that I can post what they need to do every day and an excel file shared with them for a running log of the journal topics.

I debated a lot about the journals and whether they would go digital or not. The main reason I decided that not all of them will be digital and that the kids will need a composition notebook for their nightly journals. I’m going to give the kids the option of keeping a digital journal to share with me instead, however there could be kids that really don’t have access at home and I don’t want them excluded. Additionally, I really believe there is something to sitting with a pen in your hand, a connection to yourself and the words you write. I will be asking for the composition book instead of the spiral because the spirals are too hard to carry home all the time!

However my starters in the beginning of class will hopefully all be digital- that is my goal to start the year. At least my starters can be digital but I need to find other things online to use to collect data from the students, other ways to collect answers. I’d like to use Today’s Meet and other things to do this. These are a few of the things I’m thinking of tonight, a half an hour before bedtime.

Tomorrow morning I will not be using the Chromebooks. I know the other teachers are beginning right away but I still want to put forward respect and dignity before we pull out the technology.

September 2, 2013

Here I am, the night before the first day of school. My tenth year at Guilderland High School and in some respects I still feel like a new teacher. People come to me and ask me for advice, tell me they’ve heard such wonderful things about me, and it’s very surreal. I am still young, still new, not experienced. I am constantly changing and reworking things. My plans are always in a state of flux and in that sense, I am no veteran. I am ever changing.

And I am using Google Docs for the very first time to write something of substance. I figure I should learn since I will be expecting my students to do the same thing. I will be expecting my students to create and share. My classroom is a Chrome Class this year, and hopefully forever more.

In the middle of the year, I was sent a message about a meeting for the Tech Advisory Committee because I am a teacher who is known for loving technology. A group of us, teachers and administrators, started talking about how to use the wifi that was being installed. The discussions ranged from whether we wanted to the building to go to a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or a 1:1, wherein the district provides devices for students. During the discussions, my only thought was: let my students get on the network in my classroom. That was my simple wish. I wanted my students to be able to bring their laptops to school so we could view maps or videos from other countries. I wanted to bring the Spanish world into the room a little better.

When it was announced that the district had grant money to purchase a set of Chrome Books for a few teachers, I wanted in. I might have offered up my soul, if the announcement hadn’t been immediately followed by the words: application process. As an interested party, I bowed out of the application creation and reviewing so I could submit my own application. It was a series of questions that required written responses. Mine went in the form of four essays, submitted over a weekend before the state final for three of my classes. Two days later, I received an email telling me I had been selected as one of the lucky teachers to take part in the Pilot Program, with the caveat that I would leave my classroom doors open to observers and that I would attend several professional development sessions during school and potentially over the summer. I couldn’t have been happier.

I saw the cart of Chrome Books wheeled into my room last week and stared at them with awe and wonder. How am I so lucky? I’m simply grateful and would like to document my struggles and successes with these in my room this year.

I think the main struggle and concern is that there are so many possibilities, I have no idea where to start and it stunted any curriculum work I may have done over the summer. So it is less than four days since I meet my new group of students and I’ve prepared nothing. Today I sat and looked at my course outlines and began to think: am I collecting journals? Do I want them digital? Will I collect classwork? Will it all be digital? Will students be able to access the web at home? Will the wifi work? Will they respect this wonderful opportunity we have? Will they remember their passwords?

These are just a few things that are running through my mind tonight at twenty of ten. And one more: will the potential of the Chrome keep me up tonight?