Cursive vs. Print

When I started the semester off with my new crop of students, I decided I was going to write and type everything in cursive.  I made sure the cursive on the board was large enough for the students to read and understand (or so I thought).

I grew up in a public school system, while we did learn cursive in grade school, we were not required to write in cursive on every paper we did (that was more of a catholic school thing).  Despite not being required to write in cursive, we were expected to be able to READ and WRITE in cursive when necessary.

So, when I started off this semester writing in cursive - something all students in my opinion need to be able to read and write in, students complained and would not do the work.  I quickly realized students did not know how to read in cursive, nor could they write cursive.  I could blame this on not being taught cursive since that appears to be the case, as well as typing everything these days instead of writing.  Since I teach high school students, I did not have time to stop and teach cursive to the entire class (all three classes mind you), I had to revert to print.  Is cursive going the way of the landline? Is it really becoming obsolete?  Everyone really needs to know cursive to be able to sign their names for crying out loud.  If you don't know cursive, you are to put an X as your signature.  Will it get to the point that every person puts an X as their signature instead of their own distinguished signature?

I propose we bring cursive back!

Jeff Foxworthy's You know you're a teacher when...

Here's a quick, fun read for today! How many of these apply to YOU!?

You Know You're a Teacher When...

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TEACHER?
by Jeff Foxworthy

1. You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one belongs to the child out of line.
2. You get a secret thrill out of laminating something.
3. You walk into a store and hear the words "It's Ms/Mr.> _________" and know you have been spotted.
4. You have 25 people that accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time or another.
5. You can eat a multi-course meal in under twenty minutes.
6. You've trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct times of the day: lunch and planning period.
7. You start saving other people's trash, because most likely, you can use that toilet paper tube or plastic butter tub for something in the classroom.
8. You believe the teachers' lounge should be equipped with a margarita machine.
9. You want to slap the next person who says "Must be nice to work 8 to 3 and have summers off."
10. You believe chocolate is a food group.
11. You can tell if it's a full moon without ever looking outside.
12. You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."
13. You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior when you are out in public.
14. You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.
15. You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.
16. You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own needs.
17. You can't pass the school supply aisle without getting at least five items!
18. You ask your friends if the left hand turn he just made was a "good choice or a bad choice."
19. You find true beauty in a can full of perfectly sharpened pencils
20. You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer and finally,
21. You understand instantaneously why a child behaves a certain way after meeting his or her parents.

Technology - what is in and what is NOT...

A few weekends ago, my sister traveled from snowy CT to beautiful blue skies Carolina to visit me. During her visit, she mentioned a comment that my youngest sister made to my mother - "...Mom, no one emails anymore, we tweet, message, instagram..." Naturally, I burst out laughing because that had to be the most absurd thing I ever heard of. I consider myself to be up to date on social media and the popular way to communicate. I still email regularly as does every one I know (apart from my sister apparently). Fastforward to the last week of March. Students had to write a paper. Some students did not print their papers out and wanted to go to the library to print. I told them no one was going to the library and instead they had to E-mail their paper to me. Imagine my shock when after 10 minutes students were still trying to email their paper to me. I went around to different students' computer and saw they were either creating an email account, OR retyping their paper into the email. I was flabbergasted! I pull up my email account and directed all students to follow my directions and that it did not matter what email account they were on, it was all the same. I had to teach ninth graders how to attach a document to an email and email it to me. After this experience, I had to think back on what my sister had said -- did she have a point? Is E-mail really becoming obsolete with this up and coming generation? What methods of communication and exchange of documents will be use in the future? I currently use Moodle with my classes and it works like a charm - they had been exposed to it in the past and are familiar with it, though I am learning Moodle this year as I go since it is my first year using Moodle. If there's anything I can learn from this, it's that students will make sure I am up-to-date on the latest form of communication -- Students have already started trying to get me to have an Instagram and Twitter account and have made very convincing arguments why these social medias should be incorporated in lesson plans and activities. Ms. Bergin

Classroom Walls

Decorating your classroom

If you are a new teacher, the first thing you think of when planning on decorating your classroom is running to the teacher store and getting all these colorful posters and hanging them up.  If you are a high school teacher, you may not hang up much except a few posters relating to your content, because quite frankly, who has the time to concern themselves with classroom decoration when the more important thing is to prepare AMAZING lesson plans that will leave your kids wanting more at the end of the lesson.  

The truth is, if you go and buy posters and hang them up (after laminating of course!), what use are they in the classroom?  Your classroom wall should consist of teaching materials.  They should be posters, life size graphic organizers, or student work that you can point to while teaching.  This will help your students learn easily!

The best way to decorate your classroom?  Have your students do the work!  Identify your best artists, students who may need the extra credit, students who like to stay after school and have them post student work on the board or create posters relating to the unit.  By changing your walls for each unit, you keep your room updated, interesting, and creative!  Make those assignments pop by putting construction paper behind the student work!

April Vacation - a wonderful time to relax and recharge!

I have been on spring break this week and let me tell you, it has been FANTASTIC to just relax and recharge!!  When I get back to work, we are diving right into Romeo and Juliet, one of my favorite plays!  I've already gotten the students set up on a few projects, one of which will require students to keep a blog of their assigned characters.  The students are really excited about it, since it will be online, students can decorate their blog, add photos, and blog the thoughts and feelings of the characters.  It's a modern twist of keeping a journal!  Another project that I am extremely exited about is creating a timeline.  Students need to have a timeline of the events that happen in the play and the timeline will be updated continuously and will be checked weekly!  In addition, there will be a CLASS timeline so students can refer to it during reading!  Students who want extra credit can come after school to work on the class timeline (because as a teacher, I certainly do not have time to do it myself, and isn't it much better to have it student-created?!  I started the timeline off, but students will continue it and finish it off for me!)

In the meantime, as I relax and recharge, I scouring the internet for more fun activities to do with my students!  I came across an awesome project where students work with another class in creating a movie of the book they are reading (at the same time).  I thought it was so genius I immediately called my friend I went through the education program with in college and she apparently came across the same project.  She lives in MA, and I am in NC, we have decided this is a project we need to try out next year!  To see what I am talking about, visit this link - http://www.slideshare.net/npro6979/epic-rj-project 
It certainly looks like a very time consuming and intense project, but I believe if my fellow colleague and I plan extensively ahead of time, there is no reason why we should not be able to pull it off!  Any comments on it?!

Update

Wow!  It seems I fall off the grid when it comes to blogging!  I really need to update this much more often than I do. It's been a work in progress with my students this semester.

The thing that astounded me the most was when I gave them a quiz, and they were required to write a sentence using "sale" and a second sentence using "sail" -- yes we were working on homophones, and yes these are ninth graders.  I got papers back saying "I have to sale my Ipod" or "I sale my car to pay my bill".  I was flabbergasted!  I immediately launched into a mini-lesson, and to my surprise, students fought me on the correct way to use sale.  It seemed someone had drilled it into their minds that "I sale my car" was the proper way to do it.  What is your take on this?!

In other news, I have permanently reduced my prices on TeacherPayTeachers!  I currently have 19 products in my store and more to come!  Please visit my store, purchase some products, I promise, you won't regret it!

I am loving these new graphics I found on TPT for free!  I just made up these great posters for type of conflicts!  Available for FREE for a LIMITED time!  Click to download!

My store has reduced prices on several items!  visit to see what I have and follow me so you can see all the new materials I will be uploading soon!!

teacherspayteachers.com/store/colleen-bergin