October 5

Beginning Again

Earlier this year, I made it a goal to blog on a regular basis, and I was doing really well . . . for three weeks. Last week, however, I fell off my schedule, but this week, I am getting back up and trying again. One of these weeks, I’ll get around to sharing my organizational structure, but since I’m convinced that it only makes sense to me, that post might be a long way away.

A few days ago, I started blogging with my students again. Last year was the first year in which I took the plunge to begin blogging, but it fell apart for a variety of reasons. My student teacher struggled with teaching the content, and by the time she left, I was doing so much to catch the students up that blogging was left in the rearview mirror. However, when I decided to try this again, I knew that a few things needed to change from my perspective. First and foremost, I needed a checklist for guidelines and grading so the students could see what they needed to do while they were accomplishing their tasks.

Tis a lovely shade of pink . . . I hope they can find it amongst the white pages

‘Tis a lovely shade of pink . . . I hope they can find it amongst the white pages

I came up with a quick, double-sided bookmark that I printed out on really obnoxious pink cardstock. We reviewed the content together so that the students know what I am looking for in each post, and we discussed the grading criteria. Most of the posts will be just regular, everyday kinds of writing, so a very generic 10 point grade seems appropriate. I wanted to make sure that my students knew exactly how they were being assessed, so on the back of the bookmark, I have the grading criteria: content, GUM (grammar, usage, and mechanics), and photo/image selection. Later this week, we will be adding a pocket to our IEN, and I’ll expect my students to keep their bookmarks in there along with other information we may clip and add throughout the year.

When I first decided to take the plunge on blogging, I thought we would be able to accomplish a year long project called “100 Things to Be Happy About,” but it turns out I was being too ambitious. Way, way, way too ambitious. This year, we’re scaling back a bit and shooting for “25 Things to Be Happy About.” If I was having a hard time coming up with 100 things, I’m sure that my students were struggling. Our first full-on brainstorming session is tomorrow, but today . . . today they are creating their first blog post about their goals for the 7th grade. I created my own sample for them to view because I think that they ought to have a model or an exemplary to look at. Here’s my model for them. Hopefully, through the use of exemplars, we can improve our writing this year. I have high hopes for my kiddos, and they know it. For me, that’s about half the battle.


Posted October 5, 2016 by mrsgreenwood in category Development, Uncategorized

About the Author

The path to teaching is not always a straight one. Prior to finally admitting I wanted to be an English teacher, I worked as a technical writer, graphic designer, pharmacy technician, and instructional assistant. Being a teacher, however, is the most rewarding career yet, save for one . . . being a mother to 26-year-old twin daughters. When I'm not teaching, I'm either reading, knitting, taking photographs, running, or writing, but teaching is never far from my mind. I truly love my job and am privileged to work with many talented colleagues and students alike.

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