Exam Review that Isn't Torture

Let's be honest - for a teacher, the month of May is a NIGHTMARE.  The kids check out as soon as they return from spring break.  Because spring break came so early this year, my children have STRUGGLED to stay interested in the literature that we're using.  I just so happen to teach 6 sections of the big scary EOC class every year and I KNEW that this semester was going to be touch-and-go when it came to exam review.  Even though I knew my children needed a lot of extra review, I also knew that it would be best if they were left with a good feeling about me as their teacher and the class in general.  

I SWEATED over what I could possibly do to make review less painful for them.  I tried to think of ways to spice up the content or maybe change the reading passages...then it hit me.  Ya'll, if there's one thing I LOVE it's a party.  I enjoy every part of planning the details and crafting the perfect theme.  I'm that person that will look for a reason to throw a good party no matter the time of year.  So, why not make review into a celebration?

For very little time, effort, and $$$ I was able to have the most successful review days in the history of my time teaching English 2.  Kids from other classes were begging me to join the review and my students NEVER COMPLAINED or WHINED. IT WAS AN EARLY CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!  

I had two days designated completely for review so this is how I planned:

Tuesday: Pirate Day: "Arrrr You Ready to Review?"
Supplies:
- 6 buckets (Dollar Tree)
- baseballs (check with your PE teachers)
- one piece of wood (for walking the plank, luckily my fabulous inclusion teacher had this at his home!)
- Red solo cups
- Hooks (Lowe's)
- glow stick bracelets (5 for $1 at Dollar Tree)
Total spent: $10

Activities:
As soon as my students entered the room they were surprised to find a pirate paradise! We had a plank to walk: 

And a Hook Hand Toss!

And my inclusion teacher and I even dressed the part! 

They knew it would be a fun day when they read this on the board:

The real fun started when the review began.  I set a timer for exactly one minute and gave the students a small worksheet where they had to match literary elements to their correct defintions.  The group that answered the most correctly in one minute receieved an extra turn at "Cannon Ball Blast"!  

For the cannon ball blast, we set up 6 buckets and used a sharpie to write different point values on them.  Each group received 5 baseballs or "cannons".  They could each fire a cannon and try to make it into a bucket.  The team that won the literary matching contest was able to "fire" ten "cannons".  I kept up with the point values on a separate sheet of paper at my desk.

Next, I used my practice EOC book to copy an article + multiple choice questions.  Again, I set a timer (they need to feel the pressure of time/quick reading).  This time, the students had ten minutes to read an article and answer 8 multiple choice questions.  I let them know that I knew this wouldn't be enough time, but if they practiced good testing skills like reading the questions first, answering questions that don't require them to read the whole article, etc. then they could do a pretty good job with a short amount of time!  The group that got the most answers correct could walk the plank for extra points!

My students LOVED this!

Finally, one of the most difficult sections on the EOC asks students to understand which claims are subjective and which are objective.  I gave them a list of pirate details and had them sort the papers into a subjective stack and an objective stack.  The first group that finished received an extra round of Pirate Hook Hand Toss! Each Hook was worth 10 points for their group. We used glow stick bracelets as the hoops to toss!

At the end of the day, we added up all of the points.  The group with the most points received the treasure!

Tomorrow I'll be posting our second review day theme: Beach Day! Do you do any fun activities to help your secondary students prepare for their finals?

What We Don't Want to Think About

I've thought a lot about this post.  So much thinking has been put into it that I've not blogged about a single topic in over two months.  Lately, I've become incredibly frustrated with my students.  The apathy is unreal.  It's beyond apathy, it's just laziness.  There is no greater burn than the sting of watching wasted potential.  I see BRILLIANT children every day making D's and C's and being okay with that.  I hear, "Oh yeah, I'm passing math." PASSING!? Since when did "passing" becoming something that was goal worthy?  It's almost infuriating to me.  I can threaten them with zeros and they just don't care.  To top it off, we've lowered the grading scale so that now they can PASS with a 60.

That's when I realized it...it's not them, it's us.

Children aren't making laws.  Children aren't grading tests.  Children aren't assigning course work. We are the ones in control of their education.  The adults and teachers who are involved in the education of our precious children are FAILING them...miserably!

Let's get real for a second.  If you're late to work, rarely do ANY work, or turn in your work 3 months late, do you get a "re-do"? Does your boss allow you to come and go as you please? Do you always leave your work at work and have hours of free time at night? NO! If I don't do my job, I get fired. It's plain and simple.

Since when did lowering rigor prove to be a good thing? Are we making that 60 too attainable? Are we pouring our hearts and souls into these children or are we discouraging questions and watering down course work so it's "easily digestible"? When did life become easy?  We aren't doing these children any favors by going easy on them.  We are raising a generation that truly believes that they do not have to work for anything.

The drop out rate is horrendous and the attendance was either completely made up, or given to an "appeal process" committee who "okay-ed" EVERY.SINGLE.PERSON.  Yes, even the people who missed over 40 days.  Schools are doing this....probably the one right down the road from your house. The policy clearly stated that over 10 days would result in an automatic failure.  Why didn't we write a big "just kidding" notice on the front of that policy? This isn't with just one school, but with MULTIPLE SCHOOLS.  So now, to "fix" this, there is no attendance policy.  That's right people, you can miss 90 days of school and still pass as long as your work is done.  Who really needs to learn promptness, responsibility, and accountability, anyway?

It gets even better.  Here's a blurb from The Gaston Gazette.

If that doesn't hit you right in the feels, then I don't know what will.  Our children are filled with talents, abilities, and gifts beyond what we can fathom.  Are we really okay with letting them feel like it's okay to be mediocre? I certainly wouldn't want my son or daughter being encouraged to "get by".  Are we really okay with the future leaders, politicians, and military having a "mediocre" education and watered down training? What the system currently says is: We're okay with raising a generation of slackers. I hear "I'm not doing that because it's so boring" or "He's a bad teacher because he's boring" over and over and over again.  Yes, because paying bills, shopping for groceries, writing checks, going to appointments, having early meetings, experiencing problems in your relationship (children, marriage, friends) is so fun and exciting.  Can you see my eyes rolling from here? Where is this going to stop!? 

I have fully decided that it is going to stop with me.   I agree, we CANNOT do anything about many of the policies currently in place.  However, what can we do something about?  Gone are the days where everyone gets a trophy and everyone is a winner.  That's just not the case in life.  Think about it, we've all failed at something and felt really crappy about it.  But did you not learn something from that?  When I was an all star cheerleader, I fell on my face, "ate mat", and bled more times than I'm willing to admit.  I spent four years...FOUR YEARS falling in my standing tuck. Yep, that's right, I fell (hard, with carpet burn on my face and both elbows, the same shoulder dislocated more times than I can count) on the SAME SINGLE SKILL for that long.  I spent 3 remedial math classes, 2 "real" math classes, and multiple tutoring sessions crying because I couldn't figure out electron dot formula or if I was supposed to solve for x or y. 

 However, you want to know what I learned? Good things don't come easy.  Anything worth having takes hard work.  You'll get sad, you'll get upset, and you'll get down right pissed sometimes - at yourself!  But, I also learned that I can do things I never thought I could do.  I learned that the things that hold us back are only preparing our muscles for something greater.  I learned patience, perseverance, and I tried a whole hell of a lot harder when I knew what I could lose.  I found out quickly that the real world wasn't kind to strangers and the learning curve was something serious. But, what do I have to show for all of that hard work and failure? A job that I LOVE, students who are like family, and a salary that is paid in something you cannot buy.  All of the really crappy, upsetting, infuriating times, brought me to this...which I wouldn't trade for the world.  

Let's be honest with these kids.  Life is hard.  Before you know it, you're a grown up having to make grown up decisions.  Life is so much more than the football game on Friday nights and making a 70 on your math test just to go on to Math 2.  One day, you will graduate to a world that doesn't accept late work or, most importantly, no work.  

It's sickening to me to see A students crying over ACT and SAT scores.  It hurts to see children who think they did well in high school drop out of college after the first semester.  It hurts even more to see a system give up on students who were plucked from a weeping willow of a family tree and never given any hope to prosper.  I am not going to fool my students any longer.

From now on, I refuse to accept late work. I refuse to water down a standard just because it is a difficult concept.  I refuse to give anything more than a 0 for 0 work.  I promise to be real with my students.  I promise to up the rigor, not by giving extra work, but by emphasizing the gems of the real world: trustworthiness, respect, good manners, diligence, intelligence, optimism, hard work, and responsibility.  We can't do anything about policy, but we can make the policy fit our high standard. I'm a firm believer that we can fix this thing through accountability and consistency.  Make that 60 hard to obtain, and make the 90 even harder.  Show your children that there is a life outside of their circumstances, and a world that caters to no one but the brave. 

Spending Less on Class Sets

One of the best things my county has done is take away "content based" pacing guides for English II.  We have now switched to a "skills based" pacing guide that has seriously changed my life!  I am a firm believer in two things:
1. If I don't enjoy a book, my students can tell.  If I hate what we're reading, then they probably will, too! On the other hand, I've had teachers tell me, "Don't even bother with ________(book title), the kids will hate that!" But, because I love the book, my children also enjoy it!
2. Why does it matter if my children know Things Fall Apart like the back of their hands, if they will never use it again on the test...or, more importantly, LIFE!?

Because of our new pacing guide, I'm able to use literature that still allows me to teach the standards, but also allows so much creative freedom!  Now, instead of teaching that horrible novel where nothing happens, some yams are farmed, then there's a suicide (Sorry, Achebe fans, I just don't get it), we can read an AMAZING, CAPTIVATING, RICH-WITH LITERARY-GEMS story, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.

Now...I'll also admit that this system has come with several challenges.  Our literature books are not in the best shape, so I try to save them. AND some books that I'd like to teach just aren't available through my school's library.  I've actually spent hours which turned into days researching how to get the best deal on class sets.  Yes, you can go the Scholastic route, but that costs sometimes hundreds more than what you should actually pay.  Yes, you can go to Amazon and be positive that the books will be here in two days....BUT I've found the best kept secret on the internet.

Thrift books has seriously saved my life/money.  So far, I've ordered 4 class sets from the site.  My children now have Lord of The Flies, A Long Way Gone, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and Sold!

Let me be honest-these are not new books.  However, the quality has ALWAYS been excellent with every book that I've ordered.  I've never had a problem.  And let's be real, after 5 minutes of our students having the books, they definitely won't look new...even if they're hot off the press. :) 

I love this site for a few reasons.  First, they sell quality books.  The majority of the these books are from libraries that have downsized or they are hard cover books that are simply missing a dust jacket.  I mean, who ever missed a dust jacket?   

Secondly, they offer a great teacher discount!

And finally, the books really do ship quickly.  If you can plan ahead, you'll get a much better deal.  I typically do the majority of my orders in the summer, because the books do seem to "trickle" in 3-5 at a time.  Overall, I've never had an entire set take more than 2 weeks to arrive.  Not too shabby for the price! 

Oh! The other cool part is that you can make a classroom wishlist!  If you're like me, you have random parents throughout the year (or even some of your own family members) who offer to "help" in your classroom.  If you struggle to think of something to say, you can always direct them to your classroom wishlist on thrift books! Most books are less than $4, so they won't break the bank and you'll get a cool new book to add to your library!

Here are some tips for using this site and getting the most for your money!

1. Sign up for "Reading Rewards"! When you go to the site, there will be a link to sign up for Thrift Books.  DO THIS! Not only do you receive a coupon just for signing up, but you also get the chance to enroll in reading rewards.  Once you've enrolled in reading rewards, you'll get a $5 gift card for every $50 you spend!  These add up!

2. Thrift Deals! Many books will have a banner beside them that says "Thrift Deal".  You will get the most for your money by really watching for these.  Thrift Deal books mean 2 books for $7, 3 books for $9, and 4 books for $12.  You can combine the books this way and use the teacher discount to get even more savings!

3. There's a secret teacher discount!  Thrift books will actually give you 15% off your total order if you order a class set.  They define a class set as any ISBN# with 20 or more copies.  This has been a life saver for me!

4. Sign up for their email newsletter and deals!  This site really isn't bad about aggravating you to death with emails.  They only send emails whenever there's a big sale or they have a coupon to send.  TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THESE!  Most of their sales are actually YA lit. or "Teen Literature" (novels actually used in the classroom).

Now, math makes me nervous, but here's some math for you (so simple even an English teacher can do it):

Cost of  25 copies of A Long Way Gone on Amazon: $194.75 + shipping

Cost of 25 copies of A Long Way Gone on Thrift Books: $80.50 with free shipping. (only coupon used was teacher discount)

I really can't say enough good things about this site and they aren't even paying me to advertise! :)  

If you're like me, and seeing is believing, use this link to check it out for yourself!  You'll even get my 15% off coupon on your first order.  Click to visit Thrift Books!

English II EOC: Preparing for Battle

Any English II teacher understands the title of this post.  The EOC is probably one of the scariest beasts that our students will ever face.  It's one of those things that, when you see the questions, you feel instant panic.  My second instinct was to hug all of my students and apologize to their poor brains.  It's about 75 questions full of 2-5 page reading passages for every 2-3 questions, poems, and nonfiction articles - which are equally as lengthy.  They're asked the same thing a million different ways and I'm sure it becomes frustrating and TIRESOME.  I teach all English II, every semester, from honors to inclusion.  I've never had a class finish the test in less than 4 hours.

IT. IS. A. MONSTER.

This semester, I'm prepping my students in a different way.  We complete "testing Tuesday" every week - I teach them a quick mini-lesson that will help on their test: everything from test taking tips to why we need subplots.  We also do a timed, cold read.  I can't emphasize enough how helpful this has been for my children.

BUT, they've just had two weeks out of school, my extra credit packet, and a whole lot of sleeping in and doing whatever they please.  I know they'll be lethargic and not in the mood for test prep.  

I spent some time over winter break brainstorming some specific ways that I could prep my students for the EOC battle.  I'm introducing them to "EOC BOOTCAMP" on Monday!  It's an entire packet full of review games, articles, poetry, and fiction all based on the military, war, soldiers, etc.  Everything is themed - they've come to expect it from me at this point.  haha! Who knows, I might even purchase some camo and pretend like I'm a wilderness girl.  

You can check out the packet in my TPT store now! I'll have it on sale (20% off), for the next 24 hours only!  

Take a Look Here! 

Interactive Notebooks Saved My Life

Interactive notebooks seriously saved my life.  After my first year teaching, I knew that I needed a better system.  My children were learning, yet they weren't able to track their own growth AND I was getting frustrated when I had to repeat myself a million times.  I tried a portfolio system for a while, but I didn't love it.  My students were doing the assignment just to get it completed...they weren't seriously able to reflect on how much they had really learned.  

I knew a couple of teachers who used notebooking in their Science, History, and Psychology classes, but never really any English teachers at my school who took the plunge.  I spent my summer researching everything from elementary blogs, to secondary academic journals to find just the right formula for success.  At this point in my teacher life, I COULD NOT IMAGINE NOT USING NOTEBOOKS! When I look back on things now I think, "How in the world did I ever keep a record of learning without a notebook!?"  My notebook is my child - I can't imagine life before it. :)

My first year notebooking was a MESS. Here's a whole list of the scary, terrible, reasons (that I'm actually embarrassed about now) as to why my original notebooking attempt just did not work.
1. I did not have a system for absent students - many students fell behind, then gave up.
2. I spent wayyyy too much $$$ on supplies - seriously, how hard is it to recap a glue stick, people!?
3. I didn't keep a notebook of my own, so when students had questions or accidentally skipped a page, I couldn't get them back on track.
4. The trash - no explanation needed. 
5. Not everyone could afford a notebook of their own.
6. And the list goes on and on...

HOWEVER, after many failures, I finally learned ways to tweak the process and "fix" many errors.  At this point in my teaching life, I have no idea how anyone could ever teach a class without interactive notebooks.  Ya'll, I cannot say enough wonderful things about how note booking has changed my entire educational philosophy. 

Here's why it works: 
- The kids are engaged because they're doing something, literally. That's it.  They are using their hands.  They are having to pay attention because they are cutting out specific things and precisely gluing them.  
- Also, they have an exact record of their learning.  They can physically see each unit, step-by-step.  They can also track their progress!  All directions are printed right in their notebooks - no more questions about directions! 
- Finally, one of the best reasons to utilize this "tool" is FOR PARENT CONFERENCES!!!! Parents LOVE seeing how their child has progressed through your class, AND it's also good for those parents who question what their child is or is not doing in class.  

Over the past few years I've been asked many questions by other teachers at my school about my notebooks and I've heard my fair share of comments from people outside of my own little 300 hall. :)  I've compiled a list of the top questions and comments I get and how I try to answer honestly AND show that these notebooks will change your teacher life for the better!

1. "So, are you just coloring with your kids?"  I get so frustrated when I hear this. NO! Interactive notebooking is NOT a synonym for coloring. Yes, we UTILIZE coloring to stay organized, make things pop off the page, and trigger memory recall.  
At the very beginning of the semester, I teach my children how to "Read Like a Pirate" and uncover hidden treasure in the text.  We create a colorful foldable so that they understand how to highlight/underline different things in the text.  Color coding REALLY helps them learn how to analyze a complex text.  Here's an example: 

The students list information about each topic on the flap behind the key word.  We then practice with multiple texts throughout the semester.  I also use color when it comes to the writing process.  I teach my students creative formulaic writing - I show them the "bones" of the piece, and they add their own style! It's worked very well for me and I've been assembling a packet that outlines this process for TPT for quite some time now.  Oh well, at least it's on my to do list! :)  Here's a picture of what color looks like in the process: 

2. "I don't have time for that."/"You must not have kids."/"Just wait until you get married/have kids" etc. Work is work, ya'll.  It's what we make it!  I can't imagine not being interested in the newest educational trends.  I can't imagine not wanting my students to have a positive, almost entertaining classroom experience!  The honest answer is, YES, it's A LOT of work.  BUT, IT IS TOTALLY WORTH IT! I have VERY few behavior issues in my class.  My motto is, if the kids are engaged, behavior will not be a problem.  Notebook is not easy. It is rigorous and really challenges students.  They have to pay attention, be organized, be independent, and stay on top of the material.  My greatest challenges come within the first two weeks of every semester.  I always have children who think they know better work ahead and cut a piece before I give instructions.  This always ends in disaster.  They truly have to figure out how to listen to me, my instructions, and focus on the material at the same time.  

3. This sounds like such a distraction, does it not waste time? One of the main reasons why I love notebooking is that it actually gives the children a constructive break.  99% of the time my students are SILENT as they cut and glue.  My school has 90 minute class periods, so sometimes they are hit with A LOT of information in just one class.  Taking small breaks to cut and glue actually gives their brain a minute to absorb what they've just heard/seen.  This is a great time for me to walk around and talk with them about what they've just learned, too.  One-on-one time is so hard to get in the secondary classroom.  These cut and glue breaks give me time to speak to 1-3 students and really focus on those that sometimes get overlooked. Andddd it's not like we're cutting just to cut or gluing just to glue! We're making things that stream line learning, like this:

I remember the moment that I knew these notebooks worked: A student approached me while taking a quiz and asked a question I couldn't answer without giving her the answer to the quiz.  However, I told her, "We did a pink foldable on that.  We even colored certain sections of the robot on the front."  She instantly remembered and went back to her desk to ANSWER EVERY QUESTION CORRECTLY!

4. I can't stand the mess.  I feel like my room will be wrecked by all of the paper or trash on the floor.  I am probably the most panicked person in the world when it comes to my room being a wreck.  If there's a pencil on the floor I CANNOT HANDLE IT.  It typically takes less than a week for my students to learn to pick up after themselves.  My students who finish early learn to walk around with the recycling bin and collect the trash from the other groups.  At the end of the class, I always stop about 2 minutes early and play a game called, "Let's all pick up three pieces of trash." haha!  I figure three pieces of trash multiplied by 30 students will really get the job done quickly.  I promise you that all it takes is modeling tidy behavior for about a week.  I used to walk around with trash cans and recycling bins and now the kids do it for me.  They have a job, and I have a clean classroom.

5. I can't stand them getting up and getting materials constantly.  It's too much back-and-fourth.  I HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION THIS YEAR!  I purchased small crates from Target before school started.  I keep my desks in "pods" for multiple different reasons: "team" points, group work, collaborative learning, AND ORGANIZATION OF MATERIALS!  I paid about $3 for each crate, and it is TOTALLY WORTH IT.  I also invested in a plastic tub for each crate to house the small supplies that might fall through the cracks.  Beside each "pod" of desks, I sit the crate.  I keep it full of materials that they'll need: scissors, rulers, glue sponges, highlighters, crayons, markers, colored pencils, a stapler, etc. Here is the end result: 

The students don't ever have to leave their seats to get any supplies.  Also, if you're tired of buying glue sticks, you need to make yourself some glue sponges! They seriously work.  Mine have been going strong for 18 weeks now! Here's the tutorial! 

Overall, YES notebooking is a lot of work.  I spend a good week in the summer knocking out the prep work chunk.  It's SO MUCH easier to continue for the rest of the year once you've got the skeleton of the notebook decided.  

Also, some teachers stress over "teacher side = left side, reflection side = right side."  I found that system to be ineffective.  The kids forget what to write on which side, become frustrated, and give up halfway through your lesson.  I do ask for my children to number each page and keep an updated table of contents for easy review.  I plan on doing a blog post later in the year for how to set up the notebook: THE SCARIEST (but best) part! 

The bottom line is you have to find what works best FOR YOU.  I've done a lot of tweaking and changing my notebooks over the years.  I still reflect on my work and change things from semester to semester.  Being a perfectionist isn't easy ya'll! ;)   I'd love to hear any tips or tricks that you have for interactive notebooking.  Do ya'll get asked the same questions and hear the same thing that I'm getting?  Let me know how you rock your notebooks in your own classroom!