Aimlessly Searching the Internet...

I had no idea what to write for my final blog post this week. I was lost and couldn't even make something up if I tried, so I decided to try to do other homework and just hope that something would come to me while finishing my assignments.

Nothing did. Nothing at all.

I turned to Google to see if anything would show up in recent news articles that would help me find something to write about. I stumbled across an article from The Washington Post.

It starts off by asking us how we identify ourselves, and for many of us, it is our high school. Not everyone is lucky enough to go to college, even today, so we think back to high school (if we were lucky enough to complete that).

The author is asking why we don't talk about our high schools. He calls them invisible. He thinks we as people should make our high school experiences topics of conversations.

I thought about that. For the longest time, I hated mentioning where I went to high school. I remember that I even removed it from my Facebook. I don't know why. I guess I felt angry or something. I bet many people I know (except my friends from high school) know where I went.

He writes that writers use high schools for settings for everything from TV to books.

He wonders why we ignore where we really started to develop as people.

So how can we as teachers make sure that high school students realize that high school is more than just four years in a brick building? I wish someone told me something like that in high school. I wish I took away more memories. Hell, I walked away from graduation without even taking a picture. I wanted to move on. I think we need to tell students to cherish high school. It's important.

So here it is. My name is Erin, and I went to North Hills Senior High School in Pittsburgh, PA. I played the clarinet in symphonic band and marching band. I got locked out of my hotel room during a band trip once. I also got yelled at in the White House and on a boat on that same trip. I was nominated for Queen of Hearts, but the dance was cancelled. I almost failed chemistry because my teacher lost my tests all the time. I learned a lot from my friends. I learned a lot from my teachers. High school was rough, but I made it out alive.

Praxis

Today, I took my Praxis II. While a part of me feels excited to get the test over with, I feel like much of what was on the test wasn't taught here at SRU.

I knew going into it that I would have a few problems. Luckily I had an excerpt that clearly had "scarlet letter" written in it, but other things weren't so easy. I have never felt comfortable with meter, so I know I missed those. For the hell of it, I just put iambic pentameter for both. One was a Shakespeare sonnet, so I might have got that one right.

And one thing I didn't expect were the teacher related questions. I guess content knowledge to me was me just thinking it would be regurgitation and not application.

There was also a lot of writing related questions on mine, but the way they were written made them really seem like they could have been other things, too. There was even an example of student writing. It was interesting to see that included.

So here's to a stressful four weeks of waiting to see if I passed.

Bad Teacher

I was looking at my bookshelf, and I saw this book that came with my sister's copy of Bad Teacher. Even though the movie is inappropriate for students, the book that was paired with it is actually funny, even though portions of it are all over the Internet.

F in Exams is something I "read" right before the start of the semester, and it just contains goofs that students have done on tests on purpose. There weren't a lot of goofs from ELA tests, but it's worth it if you're already feeling worn down or might need a pick-me-up at the end of the semester.

Reflections

I really just wanted to say that I enjoyed Nikki, Julie, and Elle's lesson. I thought it was creative, even though I was confused at the beginning. It was fun to play a part of something, and I think that students would really enjoy something like that, plus it gets them speaking which is also important.

I also liked how the process drama was incorporated in the lesson. It shows that they took something away from the class and can apply it to something to do in the future.

Great work, ladies!

Interests and Assignments

So I don't know if any of you know, but I am a huge Titanic nerd. I love the history behind it, and I watch everything I can when it's on TV.

This weekend was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ocean liner. While I was trying to watch things, I remembered my college writing professor who let us choose our research topic. I wrote about Captain Smith for my paper, and honestly, it was the most fun assignment I had in college. I was able to learn more about something I liked and get a grade for it.

That option is one that I think teachers should always have in the classroom. My professor gave us a thesis. It had to be persuading why someone was influential to history, and I think I made my case with Captain Smith. I wrote that ocean liners safety improved after the tragic sinking of Titanic.

Obviously more students would benefit from choices. I know I did. I will most likely allow that option in my classroom one day.

Just a Thought...

As luck would have it, I had another eventful weekend. This one resulted in a concussion.

It's funny because I've had two of them before, and with the first one, it was summer, so I never was on the computer. I was also in high school, and social networks weren't a big deal for me. I didn't have to be on the computer.

With the last one, I had a hard time doing homework, and even now, just staring at the computer screen with my blurred vision is a bit hard. I know that we are supposed to work with students when something like this happens, but I don't think teachers realize just how hard it is for a student to physically do their work when they are hurt unless they have dealt with it themselves.

So I guess the answer is time. That's what the doctor at the emergency room told me today. That's just how I'll approach the rest of the semester, and I'll remember this if I ever have a student who is medically hurt and needs adjustments with online assignments.

Family, Cleaning, Chaos... Oh, how Holiday Weekends are Fun

So I went home this weekend for Easter, and everything was going well until today. I was able to get a haircut, go shopping, and even just relax.

All that ended this morning when I had to help clean the house to host Easter dinner. I dropped my cell phone into my bathtub. It didn't have a lot of water in it, but enough to mess it up. Thank goodness it's not an iPhone or anything, but it won't unlock, and I now have to figure out if I can get it fixed before heading back to school tomorrow night.

Yeah, I love technology.

Free Rice

While sitting in a class today, a group was making a presentation. They introduced the class to a website called Free Rice. I must say that I really thought it was pretty cool. You can study on it, and rice gets donated to hungry people in the world.

We even answered questions for three minutes, so imagine how much rice that about twenty people were able to donate today. It is a good cause, and I enjoyed it.

April Fool's Day

I don't know where this really came from, but I really don't like April Fool's Day. I am not that much of a prankster, and I hate when people pull pranks on me.

How am I going to handle being a teacher on this day every year? I can only imagine the silly things that middle school and high school students might try to pull. I remember some of the stuff that happened in my high school:

• Deer urine in the stairwells
• Fish in the swimming pool
• Fish in the bathrooms
• Chickens labeled "one," "two," and "four"

I guess I am not looking forward to that part of being a teacher. But the bright side is that no one has pulled a prank on me today. Yet.