Three days into the school year!

Wow, it's been three days since school started, and I am still as pumped as the first day!

I have all 9th grade English and we are well underway in our semester.  I'm pretty sure I've been called a hardass behind my back, but quite frankly, I don't think I mind.  It just goes to show that I have high expectations.

The first few days has been all about drilling procedures, taking pre-assessments to ensure my students are in the correct class and reviewing basic stuff (plot/conflict/tone).  While teaching mini-lessons and having them do assignments, I go through grouping procedures, passing out/in papers, answering/asking questions.

I also have what some may consider absurd rules in my classroom, but I am hoping these rules will limit distraction and increase learning.

1. No one is allowed to open the door except the student sitting closest to the door.  I let the two students who are closest to the door choose who on the first day and that person is responsible for the semester.
2. Knocking on the door must be done appropriately (firmly, but not obnoxiously - I had students demonstrate!)
3. Food is not permitted at all in the classroom.  Food that is seen in the room will be thrown out.
4. 5 bathroom passes in a grading period (6 weeks in a grading period).  If you have any left over, you may turn it in for extra credit. If you go over 5 passes, you will have an administrator walk you to the restroom and you will give back the time in lunch detention with me (I have planning during lunch, so this works perfectly!) I was told that 5 was generous and I should do 3.  I will need to try 3 next semester!  I even have set times when they are NOT allowed to use the restroom and when they are.  It is so explicit!


One thing I really need to work on is my whiteboard.  In all honesty, I think it needs serious improvement. In addition, I need to learn how to write objectives!  I just am never happy with the objectives I do write - I feel it's not rigorous enough, does not explain the objective enough...  Any suggestions?!

One thing I was concerned about were lack of pencils, but since establishing a rule in which students must ask their neighbors before me before the final bell is working beautifully!

We get our Chromebooks in two weeks and I am stoked!  If y'all have any GREAT interactive learning programs that works in your high school class that I can incorporate, please let me know!  I plan to use Google a lot!  I feel that would be beneficial with the writing.  I did the laptop 1:1 last year, and while that was awesome, I want to go in complete technology mode and really make it an integral part of the classroom.  Teachers with  this kind of success, I could use your words of wisdom!

How to organize all these awesome ideas?!

Hey y'all!

It's been quite a relaxing summer!  Just a few more weeks til we're back in school hitting the books again!
I've taken the time this summer to really look through different sites such as Pinterest, TeachersPayTeachers, blogs to gather ideas for the upcoming school year as well as traveling to visit family.  Now I'm starting to feel overwhelmed with everything I want to do and such little time to do it all!

Does anyone have good organizing strategies or a way to not feel so overwhelmed with awesome stuff to create to fit you best?

What I've been doing is making a list of things I want to do and dividing it up accordingly and then I plan on tackling as much as I can in the next two weeks before I go on vacation to the beach!  No, I don't plan on doing work at the beach, but I am definitely bringing a notebook to jot down thoughts as they come to me!

Collaborative Test Taking

In today's world, we are require to instill 21st Century Skills in our students.  One of those skills is to be able to work with others to solve "real world" problems.  I came across an idea on the wonderful world wide web: collaborative testing.

With collaborative testing, our students work with a few other students to come up with answers, and as expected, generally score higher on those assessments as opposed to independent test taking.  I thought this was an interesting idea - one I definitely will be incorporating in my class for the 2013-2014 school year.  However, I will be having students take the assessments independently first, then working in groups to answer the questions.  I believe I will then average out the two test scores, putting more weight on the first assessment.

Any thoughts about this?

Ms. Bergin

End of year sale!

Hey y'all!

I've been slacking on my blog big time! :-(  It's be hectic with end of year and running around!  I am hosting an "End of Year" sale at my store on teacherspayteachers.com - several items are 10% off!! :)

Hop over to my store and check out my products!  teacherspayteachers.com/store/colleeen-bergin .

I promise to be updating more often now that we are heading into summer vacation as well as updating my store, so stay tuned!

Ms. Bergin

End of year suggestions

Hey y'all!

I cannot believe we only have 3 weeks left of school! Well, technically 2 weeks left and 1 week of testing.   Still, nonetheles, it's been a long and great year, I'm shocked it's finally ending!

I recently went to a workshop that discussed what to do at the end of the year, especially after exams.  Thankfully, my school does exams the final week so we do not have to worry about what to do following exams.

Here are some suggestions you can do with your students:

Project Based Learning - give them a rubric, set your expectations and let them go wild. Let them choose their topics! It's a fun project for the end of the year

Teach your students something you may not otherwise have time to teach - what are you most interested in? the Titanic? Pearl Harbor? the era of the 60's?

Ms. Bergin

Happy Mother's Day!

Hey y'all!

I just wanted to take a moment and thank all the tireless mothers out there.  The mothers who are stay-at-home moms taking care of their children, the mothers who work as teachers being mothers to not only their kids but their students at times as well, and mothers who work in the workforce.  You have done an amazing job so far and will continue to do an amazing job! 

Ms. Bergin  

Using Music to Teach

Hey y'all --

Let me start off by saying, I never really knew or understood how music can help someone learn.  I am not huge on music as I am hearing impaired. However, I don't let my hearing loss keep me from doing something that may be beneficial to students.  After all, our lessons should be geared towards student learning right?!

I have started incorporating music in my unit plans.  I did not realize it would be a big hit and help students retain and understand novel information.  I had originally compiled music videos as a way to make the lesson or novel entertaining.  After I had the playlist for Of Mice and Men playing in class, students asked if I could play it again after we discussed the music and how it ties into the novel.  An example: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? - this is geared towards the Great Depression and how people did not have money to spare.  This song launched into a discussion of today's recession and ultimately leading back to Of Mice and Men and how the men need to migrate to find jobs so they can earn money.

Below are playlists geared for three units - The Odyssey, Of Mice and Men, and 1960s-1970s - I use songs for poetry when covering this time period. For the 60s-70s, I use songs that focus mostly on the Civil Rights Movement and the War in 'Nam.

Enjoy, these are visible to the public on Youtube, so feel free to use!

Ms. Bergin