why poetry is important

Wallace Stevens:

The poet's role is to help people live their lives.

I'm listening to Nancie Atwell explain why poetry is important



I'm sold.



ok, now back to "reality."
The poems in our literature book...... I love NONE of them. I like a few. I have hardly had any poetry in my classes for years, because I cannot find value in the material I already have, and I never sought other material that I could use legally in multiple copies.

Also I have been I think cowardly about poetry. To me, its value is that it is deep and serious and goes into controversial, highly personal areas. And I have imagined problems with that, which may never arise, but they have helped block me from this vast and powerful resource.

Does it sound like I'm moving towards making the effort to find better stuff? I think so.

lovers of literature, and makers

Manuel Garces, Jr. wrote:

How can we foster dialogue and questioning among students as an essential instructional practice?

I treat my kids as lovers and makers of literature, from day one. We speak in the language of book lovers and poetry lovers. We name the qualities of good literature. We look at issues and questions raised by our readings. Reading and writing and talking fill the air, always.

lovers and makers of literature

I'll be using this as part of my personal jdt*armory.


* joie de teaching-- how I will protect my heart from the corrosive effects of those who see teachers as the UPS people of education

great week

I sent the following in an email to Dar. I want to share it with our blog. It's got some very "inside my head" sections, but we'll live with that.

I have had such a thought-productive week. Last summer I became aware of the English Companion Ning. I must have joined it and then done nothing more with it.

This summer for some reason I bumped into it again, tried to join, discovered I had already.... So then I saw the ECNing is having its first ever Webstitute (via Elluminate) on 13 and 14 July. So I signed up to "attend." It was excellent. Mostly the speakers were about technology and connections using the web with students. I learned and learned and learned.

I created a second Twitter account for educational use. Currently I'm using it to follow some of the education people I was already following; I added some people I met at the webstitute. One of the wonderful characteristics of many outstanding teachers is that they are so generous with their time and wisdom.  In her keynote presentation, Laura Nicosia talked about Diigo and described how she finds it useful. and now I am crazy about it. We are following each other on Twitter. 

Sunday I'm joining a 2-week-long online discussion of a book co-written by Releah Cossett Lent (who wrote that cool book Dar also liked) and Jimmy Santiago Baca called "Adolescents on the Edge."

One of the most valuable aspects of all this online professional feasting is that it removes all the horrible, depressing parts of our job from my immediate concern, and it spurs me to have ideas and questions and joyful anticipation of the coming school year.

I am going to protect that feeling/attitude fiercely when we return to school and have our trainings and information and dictates from the great omniscient bureaucrats. I am going to let that part of the job lightly intersect with my being but not penetrate. I am going to protect my teaching joy fiercely. The feeling is too wonderful to let it be shut down.

So I'm working a bit on "protection strategies."  I think I must sound way over the edge, but I'm not going to go back and edit for clarity. We can talk. That's quicker than re-writing about how I feel.

voice

» The Week in Tweets for 2010-04-19 Bud the Teacher

• @ddraper So long as teachers believe that someone needs to "give them a voice," they/we won't have much of one. @bcrosby in reply to ddraper # 

I have learned so much this week: diigo, more twitter, tweetdeck, slideshare, google docs, more. Will elaborate later.



wow.  love it.

how am I going to set up my classroom for 2010-11?

I'm thinking of making four quadrants/groups of desks.

I'm thinking of putting my teacher desk in the middle of the quadrants. I won't have a desktop computer anymore, so if the new teacher laptop can connect wirelessly to the net (for attendance and grade recording and email), then I can put myself in the middle. HA!!!!

I also want to have a small table near the door where students pick up handouts, tokens, etc. as they enter.

about quadrants.... students could name their quadrant group.  how to choose who is in a quadrant.... I'll figure that out.

I'm listening to Alan Sitomer talk about Project Based Learning.  oh wow. and he's wearing a beret.

Alan Sitomer about Project Based Learning

I learned the word apodictic this afternoon.

I'm reading Joseph Campbell. I bump into this word: apodictic. I do not recognize the word; I observe the context, and it doesn't lead me to the specific meaning of the word.  I know that dict means word or say or judge/direct. It's the apo part that i don't know. APO.... what word(s) do I know that have that as a prefix?  can't think of any, so I have to go to the dictionary. I used M-W.com . Here's the screen print.

I started thinking about students memorizing and what was worth memorizing. Memorizing should contribute to something more significant than the things memorized. For example, memorizing prefixes should help me know more words than I knew without knowing those prefixes.

I observe that the root dict had no relation to the actual meaning of apodictic. I confess, I am so enamoured of etymologies and roots and prefixes and languages that I sometimes have hypotheses that collapse upon examination. But I have exhilarating mental exercise, no matter what.

Unsurprisingly I conclude that it is worth students' time and effort to learn prefixes. Then how do I assess this learning?  I have been reading and thinking about mastery.  So now I explore that.

Is 80% mastery? and what traditional letter grade should I assign that 80% to? my gut tells me B, with 90% being an A.

But if the material is essential, and I want my students to achieve mastery, then nothing short of that should be "gradeable." C and D will not have a part of this essential* learning.

... which leads me to think about re-testing, re-assessing (with conditions) until mastery. Until my student achieves mastery, I assign no official letter grade. I break the massive quantity of prefixes and roots into 5 sections, roughly one section per grading period. If a student declines to achieve mastery of any one section, the student fails that section and the official letter grade is an F.  At this point, I am thinking of advanced classes. Regular classes have Rev it up, which I am very happy with.

back to Joseph Campbell and things that relate to necessary truth or absolute certainty.


* It's essential because I say it's essential.

Alfie and Doug

I'm reading the available free Kindle sample of Alfie Kohn's Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community. I will be buying the book.

First, our blog is officially about our thoughts and experiences with Doug Lemov's Teach like a Champion. Weeks ago on an ed blog (or somewhere on the net) I read Kohn's observation about Champion, that it was about compliance. I won't elaborate now, because that's not my point. I could see Kohn's objection. I am suspicious of anything that leads toward mere compliance-- my own or someone else's.

But I had read enough of Champion to think that isn't what it's about.
Lemov and the teachers he cites are intense about having their students listen, learn, remember, demonstrate learning. Education is a matter of "life or death." In order for this listening, etc. to occur, each student must be giving maximum attention to the class activity.

My sense, what I value in the book, is that it shows me or reinforces ways to increase the probability of my students getting from me what they need, sharing with each other, remembering, being confident... because class activities occur where students are paying attention to the activity. For me that's the value. Last year's classes were ok, but... I'm not pleased to acknowledge that inadequate attention from many students kept the whole class from getting the maximum learning. Frequent (and often useless, stupid) interruptions (bathroom, talking, lead breaking, dress code, lack of materials, someone sneezing.... an endless and unpredictable menu) fragmented momentum and focus.

So what I want and need is to be reinforced that some of what I am doing is on the mark and I want  more options to consider. I'm used to what I do and it's quite effective. But in the flurry of the school year, I seldom have time to cogitate on significant alternate ways of being. I want Doug's and Alfie's help (and Frances's and Dar's and Cynthia's) to get some alternatives well-thought out, and to summon and nurture the inner energy necessary to do differently what I know I already do more than adequately.

sorry if this is vague to a reader. I guess I am writing to get my thinking moving rather than to describe or persuade another.

Back to Lemov and Kohn--

 I am unwilling to accomodate discipline practice that I philosophically disagree with: specifically, discipline practice that is based on the belief that students cannot be trusted, do not care, etc. I don't believe that, and I cannot treat anyone else that way. And I refuse to be be treated that way myself. What Kohn says strengthens my resolve to assert my belief, rather than just give in as I have been doing (with my style used quietly in my class, but not articulated to admin or parents).

still working out my thought on this,
scared to put it out there in case I fail
or give up,
decide it's too much trouble,
the kids won't like it anyway,
on and on ad nauseum,
ad nihil

putting it out there because I really do believe it
that it's worth the effort
that I can do it
that it is what I believe will be best for all directly concerned

and anyone not directly involved doesn't deserve a say.

~ I untied the string ~
Robert Graves "Warning to Children "
Read the complete poem. 

about the comic website

I think it would be cool to have students make summaries, extend or invent stories, conflicts, etc.



I think this could be fun.

http://pixton.com/

comic website

KWL for teachers

for thought:
a-kwl-interlude

“K.W.L.”
by Ms. W, Ms. V, Ms. FB, Mr. K

I know.
I want to know.
I learned.

I know teaching’s hard,
I know the kids are far behind,
I know the challenges I face,
I know it pays to be kind.

I want to change their world,
I want to open their eyes,
I want them to learn how to learn,
to keep their eyes on the prize.

I learned how far I could be pushed,
I learned to hold back tears,
I learned to keep my cool,
I learned to face my fears.

I know I am a champion.
I want to be a champion.
I learned to be a champion.

Alfie Kohn interview

I'm listening for the second time to an interview with Alfie  Kohn.

"Kids don't learn to make decisions by following directions. Kids learn to make decisions by     [wait for it...]   making decisions."

Yup. even bad ones (kids, decisions, either).


more to come as I continue re-listening.
Alfie Kohn interview


You can download the interview as a podcast and listen to it at your convenience in iTunes.