Overheard at GCTE

"My friend saw this at High Schools that Work and she's doing it with her 10th graders...." 

There were only about 175 people at this conference.  They offered 10 different presentations each section.  I had just over 30 at mine.  It went really well.  Four books (my new 3rd Edition!) and three mini-units were purchased.  What was most exciting was to be able to share student samples and talk about how my kids are actually doing (which is great by the way!).

However, I am now dying to know who this young lady's friend was.  I didn't know I had any tenth grade classes....  Anyone, anyone?

GCTE

Tomorrow morning I am presenting at the Georgia Council of Teachers of English.  This promises to be a smaller group than High Schools that work, but I am just as excited.  I have so much more to share this time.  Student samples, anecdotes, and actual results....  I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Assessment and Discussion

So, the kids had their first assessment last week.  I did it a little different.  There were three parts.  The first part was the night before.  The TOD.  The question was based on the episode 109: Home in regards to Dean's talk with his dad on the phone and did that play to our expectations and Dean's archetype.  Then on test day the students did a 25 question multiple choice test.  After that they got to watch the episode 110: Asylum, with out stopping except for prediction question and the graphic organizer was due at the end of the period as the third part of the test grade. 

I was nervous about what I would get without the stopping or the opportunity to go over the episode.  In terms of the TOD writing and the EGO, however, the kids were amazing.  The ideas, concepts and analysis were spot on and very advanced.  The multiple choice test was not as good, but I think some of the questions were as much my fault as theirs...  Lots to go through.

But I have lots of time.  We have the next two weeks off (through President's Day) for a Winter Break.  I will be attending the Georgia Thespians Conference this weekend with my drama students in Columbia, GA and then the following weekend I will be presenting at the Georgia Council of Teacher's of English Annual Conference at Callaway Gardens (Pine Mountain, GA).  Hopefully I can get changed made to update the book and I will have new editions to be available at the conference.

Hiatus.... Is Over.

Welcome back!  Happy 2012.  Yes, I know I've been teaching four weeks without a post.  There were lots of reasons.  Most are not ones I can really talk about here.  There has been some re-configuring, re-conoitering, re-organizing, but TLS is back on track.  This semester I have three classes.  About 75 students total.  We only watch episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the occasional Friday.  This is as opposed to just letting the episodes fall where they fall.  Also, episodes that refer to demons are being greatly limited.  I am still including some in the second season, but pretty much all reference to the word in the first season has been removed.  Long story for another time.

Sufficed to say, now that we are back on track, the kids are THRIVING.  Several kids wanted me to know last week that this was their favorite class.  I pointed out that they do more work here than anywhere else.  They said they don't care.  Warms my heart. 

We are back on track!

Changes

So this week I am working on "structural" changes to the TLS program.  First off I plan to change the graphic organizer.  It needs to incorporate more about Conflict and Monster of the Week (recording research data, essentially).  There also needs to be additional information about Quid Pro Quo (also called flipped teaching where the kids do more passive work at home so we can actually work and discuss in class) and reducing class anxiety.  This is the biggest surprise and now, IMO, best feature of the TLS approach.  My kids want to work, want to learn, want to be in class and are more active and less anxious about the process.  I have also spent some time talking to some friends in Special Education.  It is my hope to add more thoughts on SpEd modifications to the new addition.  It's a brand new year, TLS!

PCA/ACA

This past week I was officially accepted to present at the National PCA/ACA (Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association) Conference in Boston, April 11-14.  I will be presenting in the Education, Teaching, History and Popular Culture "area" or "thread."  I'm pretty pumped about it.  I also have GCTE (Georgia Council of Teachers of English) at Callaway Gardens, Georgia in February.  Jada Genter will be with me on the one.  PCA/ACA, I'm on my own.  Big Things!

Twitter @TLS4Students

In an effort to help students know what is going on and to help others follow our progress I started a Twitter account today.  We will see how that goes.  It is my hope to post assignments, Tickets Out The Door, and Announcements for the kids there and to create a forum for discussion (albeit in 140 characters or less).  I am debating about who (other accounts) I can/should have the account follow. 

@TLS4Students

Check us out.  :)