Mr. Helmsing’s Backyard

The last two weeks have assaulted my morale and anyone at BHSN who has been able to put up with my grumpy crankiness is to be applauded.  What started out as a cold almost a month ago seemd to go away and then came back with a vegenance after Thanksgiving and turned into laryngitis.  In most cases, acute laryngitis goes away on its own after a fwe days.  I am in day 14 and I still have it.  On Friday I felt so miserable I went to a new physician who prescribed an antibiotic treatment since most viral cases do not last this long.  Cross your fingers that I’m back to my loud, bombastic self soon.

In fact, the last month has been frustrating.  Our unit on Dracula did not take on the vivid excitement I had hoped it would.  This was my second year of teaching the text and I am finding that it may not suit the objectives of Freshmen Honors English.  It’s such a long, plot-driven novel and while it’s full of many symbols and possible metaphors to analyze, it’s too vast for the micro-level nature of a 9th grade classroom.  I think I will retire it from the 9th grade curriculum for now.   I wish we had the funding to purchase classroom sets of contemporary literature.  Ms. Loser, Ms. Sweeney, Ms. Seegert, Dr. Hoevener and I attended a workshop last week on new titles and trends in young adult literature.  Since all of the books discussed have just been published, they’re too expensive to purchase in classroom sets.  Ms. Sweeney received a grant to purchase copies of Sharon Draper’s novel Romiette and Julio, a modern-day urban re-telling of the Romeo and Juliet tale.  It’s a great read and I hope to find a way to incorporate it into my classes.   What is the direction of the Honors course though?  The approach to teaching literature based around social and historical themes is fascinating.  However, I feel compelled to focus on the ways to study literature since that is what advanced students will be doing in Mr. Hays’ 10th grade class, Ms. Frye’s AP 11th grade class, and Mr. Hays’ 12th grade AP class - writing ABOUT literature.  How do setting and point of view dictate an author’s approach?  How do authors approach characterization differently?  What are the conventions of the short story and the novel and how do their literary elements function?  Literature is an art, a Muse from ancient Greece, and must we approach it with a magnifying glass to understand its form and function?   My Honors students last year were writing much more about how literature works, but was it beneficial?  How have the shorter response-driven writing assignments on Moodle affected students’ writing this year?  Must we study the conventions and mechanics of writing in more detail (as one parent of a Core 40 student has suggested?)  These are all questions that have no easy answer. 

The G4 class is finishing reading the novel Stargirl this weekend.  We will discuss the novel and its themes in the coming week and write an extended essay about the novel after we take a reading comprehension exam over it. 

The M4 class has been reading Nothing But The Truth as we have examined the realiability of narrators in a text and the student-teacher-parent dynamic that has broken down in the novel.  How culpable are the journalist and school board candidate in instigating the miscommunication fiasco that occurs in this documentary novel? 

The M3 class has had interesting discussions about gangs, youth, and choices as we read The Outsiders.  If you have not handed in your image collage of “tough” vs “tuff” images, you need to do so this week.  We will finish the novel this week and reflect on Ponyboy’s growth and what he learned.  Can we relate to any of the Greasers or Socs in the novel?  Is that the point of The Outsiders?  When do we evaluate and appreciate a book simply for its ability to keep us entertained and enthralled and when do we step back and examine it critically?  In Seminar on Friday, I overheard many students say The Outsiders was a great book - but is it?  Why has it remained so popular for over forty years? 

 This was my first semester of teaching Speech and as the course comes to an end in a few weeks, it’s been a mostly positive experience.  What is the best way to have students improve their ability to speak with confidence?  That’s the main purpose of the class.  When the semester began in August, I had a different objective - to get students to think differently about how we communicate.  I quickly found out there simply is not enough time to teach aspects of interpersonal communication AND cover the necessary basics of public speaking and speech writing, let alone specifics of rhetoric and debate.  A semester Speech course on block schedule is likely not the most effective structure, but it’s how most of us will encounter a speech course at the college level.  One thing I will change with the next class in January is creating rubrics and scoring sheets ahead of time for EVERY speech and focus more on how to write speeches earlier in the semester.  I wanted to cover interview techniques, group discussions, giving directions, and more, but time has expired.  Part of the problem was my unfortunate absences for conferences and other professional development that always seem to happen on Gold days.  Nonetheless, I have been pleased with the growth in the students from their earliest speeches in August to their persuasive speeches we’re currently giving.  The morning announcements will never be the same thanks to Sebastian and Michael’s excellent dyamic duo AM show!

With only two weeks left in the semester, it’s time for all of us to give us as much effort as we can muster to “run to home base” for a score.  I haven’t had time at all to think about the holiday season - I’m not sure where my time goes to be honest - but I have enjoyed working closely with Mr. Cole and Mr. Ruiz this semester in evaluating Moodle and thinking of ways to use the Linux computers in my classroom to help guide students to better reading and writing.  What does the word “better” imply?  More?  Less errors?  Deeper explanation?  Verbose word use?  The longer I teach the more I begin to realize there is so much more to do and so little time to do it.