Uriah+Renzetti

=Here is the link to the UP co-created by myself and Taz Alam: Conflict Unit Plan= = = =Below is my First Year Survival Notebook.=

__Subversive Crap Detection__
Dear Mr. Renzetti (for that is what you will be called from here on out), Now that you’ve had a few years of teaching under your belt, I want to check up on you. I have a few questions for you.

Why are you teaching? If you said, “It’s my job” then stop right there. When did this become about you? I thought you taught because you wanted to prepare kids for the real world. You said being able to read, write, and think critically was essential to making it on your own. Where did you go wrong? Yes, I know you have a tendency to not rock the boat when you’re the newbie teacher. You want to follow standard protocol. But I thought that excluded the “Teach the Jumbo Binder Curriculum” instruction. Yeah, I know it’s hard to teach students who don’t read outside of school. But have you just accepted that as “how students are these days”? I thought you started this profession as a subversive teacher, right? Was it just easier to teach like everyone else? The students didn’t really care how much effort you put into making your units relevant and engaging. They just wanted to get through the year with the least amount of conflict and work. And you believe that crap?! I’m sorry, but I thought the teacher was in charge. I don’t care if the students don’t read at home. You came here to make a difference. Maybe you should start by trying again, and again, and again. Teachers don’t give up on their students. Ever. If you can’t put your best effort out there everyday then you need to look for another job. There are a bunch of other teachers that are willing to give 200% everyday. If you’re not, move aside. Are you still a teacher-researcher? Are you still interested in finding out the best way to teach your particular group of students? Do you care about their wellbeing? Do you still go out to watch the football games and theatre productions? Do you still keep up with education news? Are you still suffering by watching all the popular TV shows that your kids watch? Are you still “with it”? Are you working your way through your Professional Development book wish list on Amazon? Please tell me you’re not bored. Are you taking care of yourself? I don’t want to hear that you’re going to bed at midnight, expecting to be 100% ready to take on the day at 5am. Do we need to go over the basics again? You need to be at your best so that you can best help your students. Look, I’m not sure how much what I’ve written relates to you today. I hope that you’ve grown each year. But I want to remind you: it’s about the students. If you keep them as your priority, you’ll do fine. I’m sure you understand teenagers a bit better by now. I trust that classroom management isn’t such an issue since you’re older. No matter where you are at, take some time now to evaluate where you are now as a teacher and as a person. Your students cannot afford to be taught by someone who is going through the motions. Let me ask my first question again. Why are you a teacher? Answer this and you will know what to do from here.

All the best, Uriah

__Ning Interaction__
Companion Texts for Hamlet __Grammar Resources__

(#1) Coming to terms with my profession
Yikes. For those of us like me who are not yet sure if they want to teach after graduation, this "coming to terms" stuff is even tougher to try to articulate. To try to explain that, I will present the most abridged version of how I got here as I can. Since high school, I knew college was in my future. My favorite class was English. I was a reader and writer from basically day one. And when I wasn't doing homework, I was watching Golden Age films of the 1930s-50s. When it came to make the big decision, I wanted to major in film studies and go to a school like UCLA or USC. But for several reasons, my parents and I did not feel comfortable with doing that. So we decided getting an English Ed degree (with a Film Studies concentration) at MU was the best choice. At the time, and for the first two years here I thought that I was living "Plan B." But it took me until my junior year for God to get through to me to see that MU is exactly where I need to be. I am more open now to the idea of being a teacher, although I'm not sure yet if that is what I'm called to do. Going to grad school for film studies is another option, but I'm taking it a day at a time.

Okay, now that I've got that out of the way, I can share what I feel prepared for with becoming a teacher. For me, I hope to do achieve 3 main goals as a teacher: (1) develop/increase film and media literacy education in my classroom and in the nation, (2) develop students' communication and critical thinking skills through writing, and (3) inspire children to enjoy reading. While I can't say I'm "prepared" to achieve these goals, they are my focus. I do have a film background that some teachers do not have, and I hope to put it to good use. While I can write good well, (sorry, grammar joke) I struggle with knowing and explaining the "rules." Usually, I can revise a sentence and make it better, but I can't tell you the reasons/rationale for my edit.

Because of my "Plan B" mindset, I learned nearly nothing in Foundations bloc. I honestly didn't care at the time (although I really did enjoy my field placement experience). I was going through the motions (or should I say "doing school"?). But now I am trying to make time to review/re-learn the material. With that, I didn't pay too much attention in my English survey courses, and I feel that I would struggle teaching those time periods and texts. Somewhat unfortunately, I've had the typical White middle-class life. I know that I won't be teaching an all-white class. How do I relate and engage students who have completely different life experiences than me?

With that said, I need to accept my perceived inadequacies, and make a commitment to regularly learning about teaching, learning, students, etc. even after I graduate. Can I really "be ready for a classroom"? I'm not sure. But I can say that I will do my best.

(#2) 21st Century Education (Insert Question words here)
I agreed with most of the points made in the article, "How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century." I struggle with it because it focuses more on theory than application. It just scratches the surface of some of the problems with the state of American education today. For example, when (not if) we move past the NCLB-style of "easy assessment," what will teachers assess, and how? I remember from our 330 course that Dr. Dietrich asked "Are we assessing what we value?" As we well know, life is not as easy as choosing between A, B, C, or D. More likely, we will need a bit of A and C (and maybe E) to succeed at our task.

Also, how do we expand this vague "global education" without expanding our school budgets? At a time when administrations are cutting back and keeping the "essential" courses, I don't know how foreign language classes and technology and the arts electives are going to survive, but they must! With that, what can we take away from purportedly successful I.B. programs to bolster our curricula? Instead of thinking of creating a new curriculum for a global ed course, we should view it as a perspective or lens that we view all our classes.

I'd also like to know how we go from "group work" to developing "EQ" and "good people skills." How can we tell the difference? How can we value those skills and work them into our assessments? We know technology is playing a larger part in our lives. If we do not have the perk of specific tech courses, how can we as English teachers develop or use Web 2.0 apps to expand and enhance student learning while building tech skills? I know that web education is trending, but how can I use it when I don't know the quantity and accessibility of school computers? And how many of my students have computers at home?

Finally, I would love to create an interdisciplinary environment in my classroom. We know that we don't make students read a novel so that we can assign comprehension questions. It's about life. When writing is such a core part of our curricula, we need to show students that it is not limited to literary analysis essays (although that's about all I wrote in my high school lit courses). If writing can be used in history, science, art, etc. courses, (and just for fun, too!) how much better chance is there that our students will understand and value writing and will not abandon it after graduation? (This goes for reading as well.) Without a doubt, the student must take charge of his/her learning. Every one of us in this class understands that--we're all in college! The professor isn't going to learn it for you. The same goes for the job world. Our goal is to bring kids to believe and understand that for themselves. School should prepare us for the "real world." If our classrooms look/act more like the real world, won't our students have a better chance of success when they go beyond our schools' doors?

P.S.--If there's one thing I'll do when I become a teacher, I will make sure that every student that graduates will know how to shake hands!

(#3) Reflections on DI
For me, differentiated instruction will be something I //don't// attempt in my first year of teaching. It seems like the next step after UbD. In fact, the "three areas of possible modification" seem to connect or parallel with UbD:
 * Content--what a student is to learn (Stage 1: Big Ideas and Understandings)
 * Process--how the student is to learn this content (Stage 2: how we lead students to the understandings)
 * Product--how a student is to display what he/she has learned (how we assess student development of the understandings) (King-Shaver and Hunter, p. 4)

To quote from one of our Issues readings, teaching by DI requires "with-it-ness." We need to know our students to best develop our instruction. "If there are 25 students in a class, there are 25 people with different prior knowledge" (p. 45). Thankfully, we can use the examples found in Chapter 5 without going completely DI.

As for the "Drive" reading, there was a lot of lingo from the book that I didn't know (ex. Type Is and Xs, Motivation 3.0). I do like the 3 question test for making homework. I think it follows nicely with Stage 1 considerations. I like the DIY report cards. The midterm self-evaluation that Tim used for Teaching Writing was helpful for me to see where I was and where I needed to go. The mix of student and teacher grades removes the "Teacher-as-Ultimate-Authority" role. Self-assessment is essential for whatever kids do after graduation.

The advertisements for alternative schools at the end of the excerpt seem far-fetched. I'm not against different approaches to education. (If I was, I would be against DI.) There is a tendency for these types of schools to be so far on the "be creative and do what interests you" idea that I question if those students can read and write well, for example. If we are preparing students for jobs that don't exist yet, we need students to be, for lack of a better term, well-rounded. It's already hard enough to get a job these days. We can't have "specialists" that can only do one exact thing. That might be a bit of a stretch, I know.

(#4) More Musings about DI
Thanks to Mrs. Shea's presentation, my understanding of DI has become a bit clearer. First, the reason why a teacher uses DI is to get to know his/her students at a deeper level, both academically and relationally. The teacher will structure the lessons to be where students are at individually. Second, readiness should be determined for each unit. This made a lot of sense in class. A new student from out-of-town may never have read Shakespeare in his class, but he is a great reader. He might ace the poetry unit because he already learned how to read poetry last year and possibly be bored. I can see how DI almost inherently is based on engaged learning. Being bored is not an option. The expectations will not be too high. The academic level will be at an appropriate difficulty level that the student will want to take on the challenge. That interest in the challenge equals engagement!

One caveat should be mentioned. Mrs. Shea taught elementary grades. She has her thirty-odd students for the entire day and, understandably, gets to know them better. We high/middle school teachers will have probably four times as many students and will only see them for one period. Getting to know your students and incorporate DI on a regular basis just got a whole lot harder. I'm not throwing in the towel, but it's a different ball game at the secondary level. I'd like to know how we get to the place of knowing our students' academic levels and readiness before doing DI in full. I personally want to know my students well both academically and personally. We are trying to engage the "whole person," not just the "student." Kids are more than their grades. We have to act like we believe that. I think DI is one way to achieve that, may I say, deeper understanding of each student.

(#5) Reinventing English: the Amorphous Discipline
This was a tough read. For Cliff to believe that rape is sometimes justifiable in war makes me wonder what his parents were (or were not) teaching him. How does one get to that state of mind? I won't spend time asking the why's and how's about the other student profiles. I will say that we as teachers will have students who, may I be frank, are messed up. I say that not to judge, but to say that we can help them. The degree that we will earn is different than a school counselor's. Yet we can't only deal with the "academic" part of a person. The kids we have coming into our classrooms are humans first and students second. In the same way that a breakfast-free stomach will distract and concern a student during the school day, so will the constant remembrance of the verbal/physical fight a kid's parents had before she left for school (and the fears of what will happen when she gets home) will plague her mind.

And this is where the author's second point comes in. What exactly is this discipline we call English? For once, there was something in one of our readings that I thought about before the class. The broad view of what English is is why I like it. At its core, English is about language and all the things that go with it. How do we communicate? We speak (and listen), write (and read). And now in the 21C, we create texts (and consume texts [I'm using the broad definition we talked about in class]). Since language and texts do not exist in a vacuum, we are required to deal with the real world in English. Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle! That's a lot to fit into a class period.

Yeah, it is, Rocky, but that's why we want to teach. We want to prepare our students (or should I say, the next generation) for the real world (good, bad, and ugly parts included; batteries not included). Through our language exchange about literature, we can discuss, debate, question, and explore the "big issues" that we are dealing with today. Our classrooms can be the environment where kids formulate ideas and opinions about topics from racism to the American Dream to the quest for power. I need to make one point about this. I am not suggesting that any indoctrination occur in the class because of these discussions. I believe schools should be places where children are presented with many ideas and perspectives. I use "presented" specifically. Teachers can give their students "presents" of having a place and time to learn about the big issues. The student has the choice to receive the gift, unwrap it, open the box, and take it out of the box. We can encourage our class to go all the way in that sequence, but they need to make up their own minds on these things. This is America, folks. You are free and welcome to think as you please.

To wrap up, language is social. And as Dr. Shields claims in Trans Gram, language is related to social power/status. We can help students climb up this language ladder and use language (in all its forms) to produce positive change in the world. Sounds great in theory, right? Let's be the group of teachers that actually practices it. We can do it. Ready, and...go!