The Official List of #ThingsMyStudentsSay

After conferring with Benjamin Lewis via Twitter, I have decided to keep a running list of all the gloriously goofy things my eighth graders. As much as I pretend some of it annoys me, I live to catch them saying completely offbeat things. 

• I really wanted to go the Justin Beiber concert last night, but I couldn't. I was about to have a mid-life crisis. (4/11/16)
• The Holocaust was in Star Wars. (4/11/16)
• It wasn't me. It was accidentally my computer. (4/8/16)
• What does it mean when it says purpose? (It actually says porpoise.)
• My leg fell asleep, and now that thing on my butt is missing. 
• Miss, did you know back in the day, like 20 years ago...
• Miss, when you were younger did people throw paper airplanes in class to send notes to one another?
• Best student response to "How will you be successful on the STAAR test next week?": Highlight harder.
• "Are you sure it's mine?" - while looking at his document, on my computer, under his name, in our online classroom
• China IS in Chinese.
• Miss, we found a pack of gum in the recycling bin! And we ate it! YUH!
• Alaska is a continent.
• S: I like your haircut, Miss. You look nicer. Me: (evil glare) S: No, no, no! That's not what I meant!
• London IS in Paris, Miss.
• Why don't they celebrate Thanksgiving in England?
• My boys are discussing their future children: "We gonna put them in box or in the attic. They gonna learn."
• S: Do old people get bruises out of nowhere? Me:...Why are you asking me?
• From a writing assignment: I was like Curious George but less curious.
• When I flip the paper over, which side is the top?
• Miss, who is the school's internet provider? It just shut down on me and then restarted.

The good stuff

The past couple of months have been rough, and I have not had much to say about lessons because it feels like all we are doing is testing, testing, and testing - state testing, district testing, state retesting, high school testing, district testing, final exam testing. It has been nonstop and will continue to be for the next two weeks of school. Fortunately, I have had some awesome reminders of why I do this.

______________________________

Every year, the top 2% of graduating seniors get invited to a district luncheon to celebrate their achievements. As part of this honor, they invite an important teacher from their educational careers. In 2009, I received this recognition from one of my first year students, and I was blown away that a kid from my seventh grade class would think enough of me for this. One of my favorite memories of this student was chasing her down the hallway the day I caught her with a note. She was so well-behaved that I was quite shocked. I never did get that note, but I have watched this silly girl turn into a married woman and college graduate. 

Well, I have been chosen again by a wonderful young lady. I have had the pleasure of watching her grow up over the past few years because her younger brother was at the junior high after her. I visited the high school a couple of weeks ago and ran into her on my way out. I will see her tomorrow for our photo and then again June 2. I am anxious to ask her why she chose me over all the other teachers she has had (sometimes I find it crazy that they still think highly of me after they have gone through high school). 

______________________________

Today I had not one, but two visits, from former students. As I was taking my class to lunch this afternoon, I saw a young woman walking toward me. At first I thought she might be a sub or someone's sister. Then the light bulb went off, and I could not believe I was looking at D. 

D. was in my class year's ago. She was a pain in the butt, scrawny tomboy with big glasses. If I recall correctly, we had a few parent conferences in the few months she was with me before Mom packed D. and her brother off and headed back to their home state of Michigan. 

That first student who picked me for the recognition award is also the one who introduced me to Facebook, and to this day, I have a student page because of her. D. found me a few years ago, and I have watched my former tomboy blossom in to an amazingly gorgeous young woman. So imagine my surprise when I found her standing in front of me when I thought she was hundreds of miles away. 

D. told me that she had come back and was getting ready to enroll at the community college before heading to the University of Texas at Arlington to major in social work. I am an alumni of both the school and the program, so this completely blew me away. She told me how much I meant to her and how she wanted to give back, then she broke into tears, bringing me pretty close (I am getting far too emotional in my old age). 

______________________________

During my seventh period Pre-AP class, the one that drives me absolutely bonkers, a colleague showed up at my door - with her younger sister. D. (not the same name, but another D.) was one of my second year students, and boy, did she make an impact. Despite keeping in touch with her, we have been crossing paths for a long time, until today. 

D. was from my favorite Pre-AP class ever. I cannot tell you how much fun those kids were. There were some big issues at school that year, and we often had to shut down and just vent. When D. would get going, she would make me roll. 

D. had scoliosis. Our science teacher, a woman struggling with cancer, worked her butt off to get D. treatment at Scottish Rite. We watched D. go from playing basketball in a brace (and she was good) to being able to completely function without it - and show up to my classroom in five inch heels today. That girl has always had an awesome sense of fashion. My colleague died shortly after, but even this agnostic believes she is somewhere looking down at D. with exceptional pride. 

D. also attended my Alma Mater (she graduated two weeks ago). She was such an exceptional student on campus that she is featured in a campus tour preview video. When we took a field trip to the campus last year, I got all giddy when I saw her on screen. Now she is preparing to head to Ohio for graduate school. 

______________________________

When I started teaching, I never considered that students would want to come back and see me or keep in touch with me. It just never crossed my mind as something that happened. After eleven years, I am still shocked when they remember me. They have taught me more than I have ever taught them through the lasting relationships they have maintained with me. 

They are my reason. 

TLI Vocabulary Routine: Round 2 (Reflection)

I love this strategy. I love love love love love this strategy. Did I mention that I love this strategy? I do. I love it. I loved it the first time. I loved it this second time. 

The Texas Literacy Initiative vocabulary strategy engages students. The kids are actively involved in learning the material. 

1. They repeat the word. I have them do this in different ways for my own enjoyment - say the word, say it like a cat, say it like a dog, say it like a boss. I definitely see some future actors and actresses coming from my classroom. 

2. They are analyzing usage and providing informal assessment information with a thumbs up/thumbs down response. I can scan the room and visually see who is understanding within a matter of seconds. Both times I have conducted the routine, when a student provides an incorrect answer, he/she will go back to the sentence and process again until he/she figures it out. Watching a student take the initiative to actually correct himself is pretty impressive. 

3. I learn a great deal about my students through my examples and non-examples. Case in point: Today, one of my sentences said that parents are vexed when kids take the initiative to wash dishes on their own. One boy told me that he is not allowed to wash dishes because his parents think he is does not clean them well enough. I think this is one smart child!

4. The kids are speaking to one another in complete sentences with the Seven-Up Sentences. I did not complete this part of the activity last time. This time, I added it, and the practice was magical. I am one of two eighth-grade ELA ESL teachers, and getting my ELLs to speak in front of others can be a struggle sometimes. This was a no pressure partner conversation, and everyone was talking, in addition to working with the given word. 

5. They are learning. It has been a few weeks since we went through our first vocabulary routine. When I referred back to our gripes lesson, I was immediately barraged with a chorus of "to complain." Sure, a few kids forgot, but after a few seconds, the first lesson seemed to pop right back into their brains. 

6. They made connections between two lessons and were able to write about it using the words. 

I have not yet taught this strategy to my campus colleagues, but the training is coming up soon. I cannot wait to share and model how this works with them. 

Teaching in Metaphor: Writing Sentences with Coordinating and Subordinating Conjunctions

Sentence variety. Aaaah. As much as I love understanding how sentences are constructed, for some reason (cough-cough) my students simply do not find it terribly exciting. But with my unique teaching style, I am comfortable totally nerding out over sentence construction. This year, I managed to take it farther than ever before. 

For starters, I use Jeff Anderson's Mechanically Inclined and Everyday Editing  to teach many writing skills. The man is a genius, and his books have been some of my best investments. And he has already done so much of the work that I really only have to put my presentations together. 

This past week, we worked on writing with coordinating and subordinating conjunctions for their sentence revisions. I had the kids copy the mini-poster slides and examples in their resource journals while I explained the basic structures of the sentences. So far, so not-very-exciting. Then I pulled out the metaphor!

I have used this for years now, and it works. At first, I get the you-are-such-a-nerd look (to which I respond with my own duh-I-have-a-poster-of-Darth-Vader-on-the-wall look). It doesn't take long, however, for the kids to become pretty impressed with my genius on this one - or maybe it is just what I am showing them and connecting to sentence building. 

What is this magical metaphor, you ask? Let me leave you in suspense no longer. The magic is in the Lego. I teach my students that sentences are simply Legos in word form. Different pieces are different types of Lego blocks, and we can put those blocks together in multiple ways to create unbelievable creations and works of art. You will see in my presentation that there are even boxes around different elements, and when the kids write for me, they draw these "blocks" to show how they build their sentences. 

Now, explanation alone is not good enough for the kids to get this. This is a true "a picture speaks a thousand words" moment.  This year, I showed a recent article from The Huffington Post that I ran across just a couple of days before I taught this lesson (you can also find a gazillion amazing Lego creations with an image search). I compared the different levels of design to the different levels of sentences that one can write. I explained that some students would write dessert-level creation sentences and some would write castle-level creation sentences. Either way, both would be fantastic. The group I have this year is highly competitive, and they were not about to settle for dessert-level writing. I have to admit that I was shocked by how some of their eyes lit up when I read their work and responded with, "You wrote a castle!"

Don't be afraid to get your nerdy on. It is all about the passion you express. Let it be contagious. 

Blind Rewrites

As we continue our writing journey with the personal narrative, I added another new element that I got from Jeff Anderson's 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know: blind rewrites. 

After the power writing, speed drafts, and a peer questioning activity, I gave my students four minutes to thoroughly read over what they had written. Their objective was to focus on the important details, particularly what their classmates felt they should add to their work. Once the four minutes were up, I collected their original papers. 

When I presented the next step, I was blatantly accused of torture, to which I replied, "Torture for you; entertainment for me." The uproar continued, but I smiled my way through it. 

Their concern? I told my lovelies that they had to rewrite their entire paper in seven minutes. Without looking. 

Sure, I heard a lot of "but I can't remember." But they did. Within that seven minutes, almost every student in class had at least a half page written, and a few were quick to point out that they only remembered the important parts. Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner!

Tomorrow, we will be contrasting the first draft with the second draft. I want them to determine if they included the information that was truly important to the meaning. If they left anything out that they deem necessary to the rewrite, they can add it back in. 

After that, sentence revisions. Oh, how I love complex sentences!

Speed Drafts

Before I move on to today's topic, let me follow-up on my Power Writing post:

• This was a continued success with my academic students. The best response I heard all day was a whispered, "This is aaaaaawesome." In addition, I heard requests for more rounds. 
• One of my science colleagues (anonymous shoutout) used Power Writing with her students today as a review of academic terms. We are both part of our Texas Literacy Initiative Campus Based Leadership Team, and we are working on reading and writing skills in all classrooms. The teacher provided this feedback: "They LOVE this. I was afraid they wouldn't buy in to writing in science but they did and then some!! Thank you" 

The power rounds were used in anticipation of a personal narrative writing assignment. Traditionally, in assigning a personal narrative, I would model brainstorming and Thinking Maps planning before approaching a rough draft. This time I decided to try something different based on informal observations. The  biggest issue the kids have is getting started, and the more time they are given, the more time they will take. Well, I am not into wasting time (at least not too much; we all need our moments). 

Extending on my Power Writing lesson, today I added Speed Drafts. After presenting the topic and giving the kids a few minutes to discuss their ideas with one another, I provided them with a very limited amount of time to write as much as they could about their topic - 5 minutes for Pre-AP; 7 minutes for academic. By no means did I expect them to have a completed draft. Working with a time limit, however, ensured that they had something written with which we can work on skills such as elaboration, clarification, complex sentences, and basic editing. 

I did expect some grumbling, but what I did hear was about hand cramps. I have never seen my students write so much in one day, nor have I seen them exhibit such pride in accomplishing a small feat for the day. One student came up to me with a huge smile and said, "Miss. I wrote 260 words. Can you believe it?"

I would not have believed any of it had I not seen it with my own eyes. I set a personal goal to challenge my students more this year, and this small victory ensures me that I am doing the right thing for them and for me. 

Tomorrow, rewriting without looking!

Know-it-all

For as long as I can remember, there are two names that I have been called. One is know-it-all. The other is a consequence of being a know-it-all (I'm trying to keep the blog PG). I learned early on to consider both of these titles compliments rather than derogatory statements. 

I am curious and curiouser. I want to know everything I can possibly know. I want my brain so full of information that I can hold a conversation anywhere with anyone. And like a colleague of mine mentioned last night, "Even if Foti doesn't know it, she speaks with enough confidence to make you think she does."

I read everything I can get my hands on, fiction and nonfiction alike. I'll read fantasy, historical fiction, and classic literature, then turn around to read educational materials, health and nutrition books, and memoirs. I also read environmental and tech news, gossip columns, and book reviews. No bit of information is out-of-league for this brain of mine. 

So here is the thing: If you feel the need to call me a know-it-all in a derogatory manner, then do not come to me when you need any of the following:

• technology help
• classroom management strategies
• teaching ideas
• ESL resources
• rapport-building strategies
• book recommendations
• scaffolding recommendations
• websites

Do I need to go on, or do you get the point?

The information in my brain is for me. I share because I am capable. And beware with whom who use my name negatively. It will get back to Ms. Know-It-All. She knows-it-all. 

Were our teachers like this?

I love spirit week, mostly because I get to wear jeans. I was thinking about my own teachers today, trying to remember any of them participating in events like tacky day and crazy hat/sock day. Did we even have these things? Were our teachers too lame to participate? Or am I lame for participating?

Texas Literacy Initiative: Vocabulary Routine

This year, my school has become part of the Texas Literacy Initiative. This is a grant that helps support literacy efforts from ages 0 -18. The focus for 2013-2014 is vocabulary instruction. Our at-risk students come to school with a significantly lower vocabulary knowledge-base than students from other family backgrounds. If we want out students to make it to college (or simply get by in a future workplace), it is imperative that we find effective ways to provide vocabulary instruction. 

I am serving as a pseudo-instructional coach for my school regarding this grant. I have already had the opportunity to attend professional development with state representatives that I am bringing back to my campus for my students and colleagues.

This week, I incorporated the TLI vocabulary routine into my classroom instruction. In the professional development sessions, the routine seemed extremely time-consuming and very dorky. Boy, was I wrong on both counts. The entire routine took no more than ten minutes, and it only lasted that long because the students were so engrossed in what we were doing. 

I conducted the vocabulary routine with the word gripes to accompany a news article. The first group I completed the lesson with was my Pre-AP students. I thought for sure that my group of 29 was going to hate this activity. Wrong! By the time we finished, one of my girls called me over and said, "Are we going to do more words this way? This was fun!" Out of all my students, she was one of the last I expected to hear this from. 

My favorite experience was with my co-teach class, a combination of special education and academic students. My co-teacher and I struggled to pull in the reigns with this group. Not only were they fully engaged with the routine, but they managed to turn it into a song. My classroom was full of singing, dancing, and clapping. How is that for vocabulary instruction?

I honestly thought most kids would know this word, but a quick show of hands throughout all my classes showed the contradictory. I think it is incredibly important to point that out because we often assume that our students know more than they actually do. I am working hard to break that mindset, and this vocabulary routine has provided me with an entertaining avenue to break through to my students.