Many of you who are my colleagues already know I am a huge advocate of boys literacy. It is my passion and it is my goal to help other teachers and educators understand the world boys live in and what will motivate them to read and write.

Today was one of those days in my classroom where I had to smile and say to myself WOW! So far this year I have incorporated some of Kelly Gallagher’s strategies for reading and writing. My students are doing one pagers, they are doing article of the week, and I am taking the approach he does with his students and letting my students read a novel without me interrupting every chapter and incorporating worksheets after every three chapters. In addition to the Gallagher strategies, I am infusing some of Ralph Fletcher’s ideas about letting boys choose their own topics when it comes to writing. Today I was seeing the pay off. First, in one of my 7th grade classes one of the boys commented on the novel we are reading and stated,”It is nice to read a book without having to do a summary after every page.” All I could do was smile. Upon receiving that positive feedback, another young man spoke up saying,”That is why I don’t read anymore.”. Can you say Readacide? I smiled again, but I know I have a long road ahead of me to get these students excited again about reading. On the other hand, it has already began.

Later on in the day, I had the students do writing into the day and I had two separate boys write short stories. One was about a girl scout getting shot over her delicious cookies. He proceeded to describe it like a hunter watching his pray through a scope on a gun. I thought it was about hunting deer, not a girl scout. The other boy wrote about a man who was diagnosed with cancer and was told by his doctor he only had so long to live. He then went to the diner to eat breakfast and was shot prematurely in a robbery before he died of cancer. His story continued with the man’s family suing the doctor because he died sooner than what the doctor said. I am not a huge fan of violence, but both of those students had some brilliant creativity. Both stories even had elements of humor. I applauded both of them and asked them how they came up with their ideas. They both shrugged but wanted to continue their writing. They were actively engage in their writing and they wanted to write. In the words of Vector on the Disney movie Dispicable Me, OH YEAH!

Today I became more convinced boys will like reading and writing if you give them the chance to like it. I know I won’t reach every young man, but I can sure try!

Cheers!

I normally don’t blog on the weekend due to just stepping back and giving my brain a break, but I missed a few days this past week due to pure exhaustion from a very whirl wind week at work. I just noticed the alliteration there, sorry. Anyways, I also can’t help the emotions I am feeling on this cold Saturday night.

While driving back home tonight with my family we came across another family who had hit a deer. We slowed down to make sure no one was hurt or needed a phone to call the police. I think the buck they hit was bigger than their car. Myself being a hunter I wanted to weep because of the sheer size of the buck they hit. Well, everyone was doing fine and the police were already on their way. As I was speeding away, my four year old son was really concerned about the dead deer. He kept telling my wife and I that the deer was going to miss his family and he really wanted to know where his family was. Needless to say, my heart was melting and I had to fight back a few tears. My son knows at four years old how important family is and what it means to miss someone. We eventually convinced our son that his family would be okay and what was important is that the humans were not injured. Not a small task when you figure in a four year old.

This whole episode made me recall a conversation I had with a few colleagues about a student who we have all been having trouble with in our classrooms. We all have had students like this in the past. Whether it is a class clown, an attitude problem, or a child who just refuses to learn; these types of students can make or break our day as a teacher. These students usually make us go into a rage about what we’re going to do or what is wrong with this child, maybe it even makes us take an occasional glance at their files in the office to gain some insight into what makes them tick.

This past week I was reminded not to forget where some kids come from. What do I mean? Most of us go home to our families and we see our spouses, kids, the dog or cat and sit down to a nice meal with each other. We have a nice warm bed to turn into at night and our bellies our more than likely full. Their are students out their in all of our classrooms that don’t get these luxuries. Students come from split homes, sometimes have to watch their younger siblings, and might even have to cook supper. How about those students who have parents that can’t afford health care and has to sleep in a room where there is a mattress on the floor? I have heard of students sharing a bedroom with six other siblings. It really doesn’t matter the situation. My point is as educators we need to keep in mind where some of our students come from. Before we jump into a student about them not completing their homework, check to see what kind of home life they may have. I am not saying to give them excuses, but perhaps this allows us more compassion into our hearts. I know after this past week and what my own child said; kids find value in family, love, and daily routine. Sometimes we may be the best part of their day!

Cheers!

I will never forget the first time I heard the word webinar. I was traveling to work one morning and I was listening to The Bob and Tom show. Those of you who don’t listen, I recommend it. I am always laughing during my 30 minute commute. Anyways, the bit on the webinar was called haunted meeting and it revolved around the idea of having another pointless business meeting and including a webinar and all of these people are screaming while a guy narrates with a scary voice. At that point, I had only heard few things about webinars.

Now, I find myself planning a webinar on boys literacy in November. I have spent my Saturday going through some training and playing with Wimba, the interactive webinar space where myself and other teacher consultants at CRWP will be using for our webinars on various topics dealing with writing. I really enjoyed our writing prompt to start our training today where we shared our thoughts about webinars. As teachers we are being asked to do more and more with students and within our classroom and our classroom sizes aren’t getting any smaller these days. I think webinars are going to be very beneficial to an educator that can not find the time to attend a traditional conference. Teachers can stay at school to do it or they can be in their pajamas at home. In my true opinion, I believe teachers will be participating in webinars more and more. Time constraints will be one reason, but another big reason will be money. Teachers are being forced to pay for more professional development out of their pocket. Districts are limiting PD spending or eliminating it altogether.

So, webinars are great ways to get around a few issues that plague teachers and school districts. Plus, webinars are easy to navigate; even for the novice technology individual. I know there are a lot of people out there that are frightened by technology and may not even know what a webinar is, but I can assure anyone that webinars are going to connect people across the country in the education world. And why not, it has worked for the business world. It is going to be crucial that we look at this tool as funding gets cut every place in the educational world.

Cheers!

Currently I am reading a book by Tim Elmore titled Generation iY: Our Last Chance to Save Their Future. It is a very engaging text thus far. The book discusses the generation that we are dealing with now as teachers, educators, coaches, parents, or anyone who works with today’s kids.

Though I just started reading the book, I am beginning to see a clear message I have been trying to tell a lot of people I know for years. What is that message you ask? Well, it has been confirmed to me that today’s youth are selfish, have low work ethic, and are over confident about the future. Well, at least most of them.

As I am reading this book, I am marking in the margins, interacting with the text much like I teach my students in my classroom. Anyways, the whole time I approach the reading in this book as if I am a coach and a teacher. Even though I am not presently coaching, I still saw numerous amounts of the above mentioned characteristics in today’s youth as a high school coach. The book discusses how today’s youth feels do not have to work hard or pay their dues to get something. Which is what I have been saying for years. I can’t tell you how many players and students I have come in contact with that want everything handed to them on a silver platter. The question in their mind is always, “Why do I have to work for anything?”. Kids feel they are deserving of almost anything. There are actually individuals in the iY generation that believe they know more than their bosses and should have the job their boss possesses. Unreal!

Today’s youth and their work ethic is not the only “wow” statement I have read in this book so far. Kids today don’t mind that their parents get involved in decisions about school and other areas. Younger people actually think of their parents as advocates for them. Are you kidding me? This is where I draw the line. This is why coaches have so many issues today. First, parents solve their own child’s problems instead of either having their child solve the problem on their own or having them buck up and face it. As teachers, parents make excuses for their children when it comes to homework and other issues in school. Why are parents afraid to let their children fail? What happened to telling a child to figure it out, especially if they have the tools to figure it out. We should all teach our children to advocate foe themselves.

Don’t get me wrong, even though I have encountered students, players, and parents that have fit the iY characteristics. I have also met students, players, and parents who are the complete opposite. Which, to be honest, helps me to keep my internal drive motivated to keep impacting today’s youth. The one aspect that completely irritates me to the core is the school systems who bow down to these parents and don’t let the coaches and teachers do their job. Administrators and administration in general should be supporting their educators, whether the classroom is the gym or the one where desks are lined up.

I am looking forward to what else this book has in store and what possible solutions it may offer for today’s educators or anyone else that has direct contact with the iY generation.

Cheers!

So after taking a night off from blogging, I feel that I am ready to write a quality blog to get out to everyone. Tonight I am going to focus on how using Celly in my classroom is working out.

First, I want to comment on how my students reacted when I told them we would be using their cell phones in the classroom. The reaction was rather astonishing. Students gasped as they turned to their neighbor to ask who is this crazy guy and why is he breaking the school rule of no cell phones in the classroom. What was even more remarkable was their reaction to Celly itself. The students are loving it and they are asking about every day. Students went as far as saying that my language arts class is the best they have ever been in. I told them to hold on because the year isn’t over with yet. Right now, we only use Celly once a week in our classroom. I only use it once a week due to lack of time and the sheer, awesome, craziness it brings to my classroom. So far Celly has been a positive addition to my classroom, but there are some snags I have encountered.

First, I would like to discuss some of the positive features of Celly. One of them is I as a teacher can monitor what students are writing when they are using their cell phones. The teacher creates a “cell” and students sign up via their cell phone number. From there the students are invited to the cell and create a user name. Students are automatically assigned an avatar, but can change in their settings. From there, students can then start sending messages to the cell. Teachers can monitor what the students are writing and also post messages for students to respond to. Another positive piece to this digital tool is privacy. Other than the students punching in their cell phone numbers the one time, I never see their cell phone numbers and they don’t see mine. Furthermore, I really like how Celly allows you as a cell administrator to choose from three different cell setting from curated chat, open chat, and a restricted chat where only you as an administrator can send messages. See Celly to see how each setting works. Finally, the biggest positive I enjoy about Celly is the students wanting to write. This is why digital writing is important.

Besides the positives there have been a few learning curves I have encountered with Celly. The biggest issue I have had using Celly is the open chat feature. If you have 20 students in a classroom with cell phones and each one of them sent a next to the cell 1 time, not only am I going to receive all 20 messages, but each student will receive 19 new text message not including their own. When I started Celly I had two cells; one fore 7th grade and one for 8th grade. Well, I have around 62 7th graders in three classes and around 50 8th grade students in two classes. Yesterday when my 7th graders were done in all three classes, each student received around 130 text messages. WOW! So, I am going to create a cell for each one of my hours instead of one big cell for each grade. One other negative is what to do with the students who don’t have cell phones. I teach at a very rural school and there are students who not only don’t possess cell phones, but they don’t possess the internet or a computer at home. I put these students on our wikipage and had them respond in the discussion tab. It isn’t the same, but at least they are using a digital tool. I have had very few technical issues with Celly. I have had a few students have difficulty registering their usernames and another student who sent messages and it showed up as nothing but symbols and question marks. Each problem has been resolved. Celly has a great help cell and they were quick to respond. Also, I haven’t had any parent contact me about using it. I sent a letter home and parents seem to be supportive for now.

All in all, Celly is going really well in my classroom. Now I am going to develop some solid guidelines for my students to follow so I can assess their posts they put in the cell and create those separate cells for each class. More to come!

Cheers!

Every Monday during our Advisory class we have our students participate in Sustained Silent Reading(S.S.R). Once a month we require our students to read an authentic article or a piece of informational reading. After the students read this piece of reading, they have a series of comprehension questions to answer. The other three Mondays the students get to read something of their choice. During these Monday reading sessions, I like to model for my students that I enjoy reading too. Many of my colleagues take the time to grade papers or catch up on lesson plans or if they have coaching duties they may work on plays and such. Too me, I feel this is a time to show students how important we feel reading actually is. There is not any better way than reading ourselves. I am not talking about those professional books either. I am talking about reading a book for enjoyment. I have a book I read at home and at school for enjoyment. By reading with my kids, I am not only showing them I am an avid reader, but it also is a time for me to take a break from reality. Let’s face it, we can all use that from time to time. So, I encourage any teacher to read with their students when presented with the opportunity.

Along with reading with my students, I like to carry my book around with me in between classes and on my way down to the office, etc. This encourages students and adults alike to ask questions about the book that is in my hand. This sparks interest in reading. Little ideas like this can make a difference in students when it comes to reading.

Besides reading, teachers need to write and model for their students with writing that comes from them. I show my students a lot of my writing. I open myself up for critique, praise, even laughter. Even though I may encounter these elements, my students see me as a writer and that it can be very powerful. One other writing idea I use in my classroom is when my students do their writing into the day, which occurs every day, I write with them. Since I have started doing this, I have more and more students stay on task during this 10 minute writing exercise. So, I encourage you to try a few of these methods on your own, or be creative and they something on your own.

Cheers.

As my Sunday night winds down, I have to say I have enjoyed my weekend immensely. It always amazes me how fast the weekend flies by as I spend time with my family and attend to things that need to be done around the house. Today it was mowing my behemoth lawn. Anyways, as I have mentioned in previous blog posts, my teaching assignment changed this year. I teach 7th and 8th grade language arts this year and it has been a smooth transition…so far. Before this year I was strictly 8th grade language arts with one section of science.

Prior to this year I always struggled with my balancing act. You know the one I am talking about! Going to school to teach, going home to have dinner, play with the kids for a bit, pack the lunch for the next day, give the kids a bath, put the kids to bed, spend some time with my spouse, then start tackling the mound of papers that need to be graded. I might even find time to go over the next day’s lesson. All I have to say is, phewww! This routine goes on all week and don’t forget, there may be doctors appointments and groceries to get too. The one thought that keeps going through my head again and again is I am not completely sure how I am going to get through all of the paperwork I am going to be swimming in this year and possibly years to come. I have been teaching for almost 11 years and I don’t think I have a solid answer or solution to my dilemma or many other teacher’s dilemma.

Based on my prior experiences as a teacher, I know it is an almost perfect balancing act. However, I do believe the scale can lean to one side or the other based on the circumstances laying in front of any teacher. First, I want to offer some advice I heard from Kelly Gallagher, the author of Readacide. Don’t grade EVERYTHING. He was specifically referring to the writing your students do. This was hard for me to do at first, but eventually I tucked that advice in my belt to use. Students don’t mind the fact you don’t grade all of their writing either. It is a conversation worth having with your students. Second, as an individual, you need to decide what are your priorities. This can even change on a daily basis. When I was coaching and I had a game, I spent little to no time grading papers or looking at anything concerned with my classroom. Don’t mistake that as neglect, because I didn’t neglect my students. It just took me a week or two longer to get their assignments returned to them.

Besides choosing between coaching duties and teacher duties, there are parental duties that I have and I am sure other teachers have too. I love my children very much and their are nights when I get home from school that may require me to spend more time pushing my daughter on her swing, or exploring the dirt with my son for more worms. I am sure everyone has something in their life that causes them think about their priorities when it comes to that heap of papers that are awaiting them on the kitchen counter. Everyone’s scale gets tipped. So, the question remains, is their a perfect balancing act we can perform as teachers? More specifically, a balancing act for all of us English teachers. I am curious to hear from people.

Cheers!

Tonight as I was finishing my work for school and I couldn’t help but read the news. The post office made their announcement about what they wanted to do to trim a 3 billion dollar deficit. As I am reading this article, I began to grow more upset because here is another entity that is virtually “too big to fail” in a lot of individuals eyes. My mind wandered towards the automobile industry and AIG. Companies like Chevy and Chrysler took taxpayer dollars as a bailout for their ginormous financial crisis they put themselves into. Let me enlighten you by saying that there is a common thread between the post office, the automobile companies, and AIG. The common thread is they didn’t plan for the future. Instead they hustled and bustled to worry about the here and now. People who were in leadership roles failed. They should be FIRED! What happens when the everyday person doesn’t plan for the future? We pay for it in the end don’t we. People might lose their job, people might not eat for a week, etc.

As teachers, if we don’t plan for our classes every day, we look like idiots in front of our students. Don’t get me wrong, we do have to wing it once in a while. As teachers we are trying to plan for the future by getting our students to the next grade. So, what happened to the people in these leadership roles. Most of them got rewarded by getting bonuses. Or, if they were fired, they received million dollar pensions. What type of message does this send to our children? It’s alright to fail because you are going to get rewarded. I wish I could go to school one day and not teach anything, then get reprimanded with a $5000 check.

You can’t honestly sit there and tell me that the postmaster or any of the other political geniuses we have running this country didn’t see the impact of the internet and technology. Now about the simple fact that email was replacing letter writing. Do you think phone companies have prepared for the barrage of cell phones people have and the termination of landlines in homes? But, once again, the people who run these companies and are in charge get rewarded for their failures.

Let’s take a look at the Ford company shall we. Here is a company who was offered money by the government and it turned it down because they had the smarts to see what was coming down the line. They knew the cost of oil and gas and our dependency of them were going to change how we needed to look at transportation. They planned ahead. They made vehicles that were more fuel-efficient. They had a leg up on the market because of smart planning. They were smart enough to make it through a crisis because of a quality leader. Bill Ford is the one who needs the million dollar bonus for having his company earn profit during a time when there wasn’t much profit to be made.

I guess I am bothered by the lack of poor judgement and planning by these companies. If we want to set a model for our children to follow, certain people need to be held accountable. Every year there are classrooms where teachers and students are being held accountable. It is hard for us to get our message across to these students when they see failure is being rewarded.

Cheers!

Over the course of the last two days in school, I have introduced my students to a web based cell phone tool called Celly (cel.ly). Celly is where I can collaborate with my students instantly using text messaging on their cell phone without ever disclosing my cell number to my students or my students ever disclosing their number to me. Needless to say, I am still learning the ins and outs of this tool with my students.

Now, I teach in a very rural school district and I not only have students who do not have Internet capabilities at home, but they don’t possess a cell phone either. Obviously this can pose problems when I want my students to use their cell phones in my classroom. However, this isn’t what I wanted to discuss or write about now.

What I did want to write about is when is it appropriate as a parent to give your child a cell phone or should they even have one at all? As a teacher and a parent I can argue both sides. I have my colleagues son in class and his son is one of the students in my classes that does not have a cell phone. He asked me today if his son would fall behind academically because he didn’t have a cell phone. As I explained to him I wanted my students to write using 21st century tools and put their cell phones to use, he became very receptive to the idea and asked me if he should purchase a cell phone for his son. At this point in the conversation I assured him I had alternate tools for the students to use if they didn’t have a cell phone. He was good with my response, but included that maybe he was going to need a cell phone some day and his son should practice using one. Me being a tech guy, I liked his thinking, but I never want to push a parent. Finally, I told him my door was open to him to see how we are using cell phones in the class.

So, should students possess a cell phone? How young is too young? I have a teacher friend who teaches 5th grade and had a student’s cell phone go off in class. I know 2nd graders who carry cell phones with them and use them to get in contact with their parents in case of an emergency. I myself struggle with how early I need to allow my children to have a cell phone. My wife and I agree our children will have them, but when.

Another aspect to consider is cost. Cell phones today are becoming less expensive and that is even with unlimited texting and internet capabilities. To me, this is cheaper than a computer at home. After all, they are like a small computer. Don’t get me wrong, I am not arguing for cell phones, just stating some points.

Finally, when are our schools going to loosen the reigns on their restrictions and rules when it comes to cell phones? Our students can be using them in the classroom to write and it could open the door to other possibilities in the classroom too.

Cheers!

As teachers we are often faced with a plethora of questions when we are teaching new curriculum to our students. Even if you are a veteran teacher you know how difficult it can be to get to every student in the given amount of time you may have for each class. Some students might leave class with unanswered questions or may have to stay after class because you couldn’t reach every child. Then, you may feel you didn’t teach the lesson very well because there were so many questions. Now, what I have described to you could potentially happen in a typical classroom.

Let’s introduce another factor into the equation, a student who has special needs; a student who has sensory issues and requires your attention constantly. Someone who may be autistic. This is not a make believe classroom, it is a reality. So what do teachers do? Do they focus their attention on this one student who requires a lot of accommodations and deprive 25-30 students of the teachers attention or does the teacher spend less time on the special needs student and focus on the majority? To be honest I don’t have the answer to this question. With more special needs students being placed into a regular ed. classroom, this is becoming a reality. In addition, with schools being forced to make cuts because of state budget constraints, how does a school district afford an aide for a child that may require more one on one assistance? Legally, I believe a school has to provide for a student with special needs, if it is necessary.

I am very early into my school year and I am already seeing very exhausted teachers because of having to use time and energy for one student and they are neglecting the other students in their classroom. Yes, this student has special needs. When it comes time to prep for classes, they are spending an extra two, maybe three hours trying to accommodate this one child. Don’t get me wrong, there hasn’t been any complaints about doing the accommodations, they are just tired.

So, I am at a loss. What is a teacher supposed to do? Focus on many or focus on one? Perhaps there is more to it than what I am seeing. All I know is every child deserves the chance to be properly educated.

Cheers!