Dear Student: Rethinking Assignment Deadlines

Dear Student,

I realize that your life is complicated.

I know you have family commitments. I know your mom and dad fight or maybe they don't because you don't have one or either. I know you might live with grandma or big brother or foster mom and things can be busy. I know that even if you are fortunate enough to live with your biological parents who are happily married, they might be stressed and yell at you for no reason. They may have high expectations for you and expect everything to be done a certain way and it drives you crazy and you are simply trying to reach their goals for you.

Express Yourself: A Letter of Invitation to Language Teachers Everywhere

Dear Esteemed Colleagues:

I can say "Language is not a" in my honors class and the students will respond "word to word translation." This is one of my catch phrases this year, along with "staring is not studying" and "how you feel and where you are, always use the verb estar." I use them so often that I'm thinking of having posters made to hang in my room of what I dub as Cleggisms.

Language is not a word to word translation.

I began saying this two years ago when I collected journals from my students and found the rampant use of translators. It was frustrating and that's putting it mildly. I always start the year talking to the students about what cheating is and how translators are not acceptable. I talk to them about online dictionaries and have embraced wordreference.com as a mainly reliable online dictionary.

However given how trusting my students are of anything online, be it translators or online dictionaries, I started looking into Google Translator and how it works. I put together a twenty minute lesson on translators wherein I wrote a paragraph in English, put it through Google translator and then translated that back to English. We talked about how translators can sometimes give you an idea but they largely work on the idea that languages do translate word to word but languages don't. Languages require context and meaning, not simply a word for a word.

PWC: My Second Family

PART ONE

Two years ago, in early fall, I was invited to attend a CDWP leadership retreat. I never really viewed myself as a leader as I’ve always seen myself as a follower or wallflower but I said yes since I knew a couple people who were also going. Unfortunately, that weekend I was terribly ill and was unable to attend. When the group met again in December, I popped the address into my GPS and finally found out how far Averill Park was from anything I knew. I entered a stranger’s house and broke bread with a dozen people, only three of whom I really knew. We began the meeting with writing, in true CDWP form. The prompt given was “What do you think is our future? What do you want to get out of this?” This then led to a rich discussion as we talked about the function of CDWP in our lives and what we needed.

In reviewing my writing from that evening, I see that I wrote “I would really like to be involved with some writing project group to push myself to write personally/professionally, to refine pieces and get feedback or even co-write something to be sent to a newspaper, journal or the NWP/CDWP sites.” I remember having a discussion with another participant during which he expressed his frustration that teachers are being given knowledge, being handed common core, being told the best ways to do something and that we are ineffective. I wrote down this following conclusion from this discussion: Be producers of knowledge and not just consumers.

The List

I'm sure we can all look through the rosters from year to year and remember a lot of the students: their faces, their handwriting, where they liked to sit, who they laughed with. But I want to talk about the students that stay with us. The names, that even ten or twenty years later, we know we will never forget.

There are many students on my list that I remember fondly, a few that I even meet for lunch from time to time. There are dozens of students who have now friended me on Facebook and I enjoy seeing the photos they post from college and beyond, some have even posted wedding photos. Though I might not see them frequently, it's nice to know they are out in this wonderful world, chasing their dreams. These aren't the students I want to address today either.

I have another list: the ones I worry about. It's a list that changes as time passes.

These students might not even realize that I am still worried about them, still betting on them, still hoping that life will be kind to them. They probably don't realize how deeply my experience with them still affects me. I would like to hate their stories, as I know them, with you.

Be The Change

I was asked to be the keynote speaker for the National Honor Society induction ceremony this year and a friend suggested that I post the speech. Here it is in it's entirety:

Be The Change

The Art of Presenting

Over the last two days, my students have been presenting their ideas from the environment project they've been doing that was described in this blog entry. As I sat watching their presentations, I was struck by how lightly most took the presentation portion of their project. I started to think about why. I wondered if it was because I did not stress the importance of doing a good job or because they didn't think I was serious when I told them they had to memorize their Spanish sentences.

Granted, this was the first time I have done this project with my students so I wasn't really sure what I was looking for or expecting. I admit that my directions were not clear nor specific. I did inform the students that they should each say two sentences in Spanish and as much English as they wanted. I directed them that they should tell what their idea for helping the environment was, where that idea came from and how it will help people.

Literacy & Language

Literacy.

What is literacy? I have taken many classes on this and I remember when it first became really clear to me that literacy is not simply the ability to read. Literacy involves understanding the world's communications as well as the cultural and social contexts of those messages. We receive these messages via written texts or images as well as through body language and facial expressions. When we speak of literacy, more often than not, we are referring to the written texts or images of society. However the message and context are not mutually exclusive. In order to read these messages and interpret them accurately, one must understand how you create them and why.

The Intersection of Creation, Collaboration & Chrome

Having the Chromebooks in my classroom has really afforded me some interesting opportunities the past six months. I've had the students taking online quizzes, visiting websites for information on traveling and collaborating on chapter summaries. I am only now beginning to understand the power of technology to facilitate true collaboration and creation in my classroom.

I have long been interested in the project-based learning models. Certainly when the possibility of Chromebooks was presented to the faculty, project-based learning was mentioned as a use of the technology. Though I have not studied extensively about it, I had considered it but never found the time to think about what it would look like in the classroom. The presence of the Chromebooks and my desire to have my students create something complimented each other perfectly.

My Spanish 4 classes, a combination of sophomores and juniors, were approaching the second part of the environment unit in which the vocabulary lends itself to social activism. I gave the students a double-sided sheet, that I dubbed their "Trash Journal," on which they were to record anything they discarded. They were to keep track of their trash items until both sides were filled. They wrote the item, where they were when they discarded it and where it went (ex: trash, recycle bin, compost, or reuse). When I created the trash journal, I hadn't even decided what the project was. I knew I wanted them to analyze their trash in some way but I hadn't thought that far ahead. I avoided writing the project description until the last minute because I had no idea what it would be. When I finally sat down to write it, the night before I wanted to give it out, I still had no idea but needed to get something down for the following day. The description that I wrote can be found here.

The Single Story

I have once again, for the third year in a row, embarked upon The Single Story. This two day lesson is a product of my summer spent with the Capital District Writing Project. Each year, a layer has been added based on what I've learned from previous years and new experienced I've had. This year, it begins with some journaling and then will move to the Chromebooks.

It is my hope that you might use this lesson as a guide. If you are an educator reading this, please feel free to use this lesson plan exactly or take it and change it to meet the needs of your learners. Please comment or email me any changes you make so that I might learn from those experiences.


It starts with the first prompt wherein my students receive three minutes to journal a "sound off". I told them to sound off in English about anything on their minds, anything bothering them, anything they're looking forward to- anything swimming around in their head. I told them to swear if they needed to and if they don't want me to read it later, to color it over in black crayon or marker. Then I asked them to set those things aside and bring their full attention and thought to our work today.

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.