The Teachers Thread

[The_Dude]

First round of conferences this week. I think that i am going "take no prisoners" mode this time around. A combination of kids not doing their work &/or wasting time in class & the bombardment of helicopter parents is driving me insane so far.

I think that i will wear my skull & cross bones tie, just to set the mood.

[Raiderz4Life]

Originally Posted by The_Dude

First round of conferences this week. I think that i am going "take no prisoners" mode this time around. A combination of kids not doing their work &/or wasting time in class & the bombardment of helicopter parents is driving me insane so far.

I think that i will wear my skull & cross bones tie, just to set the mood.

You let em have it!!

[Forenci]

Good stuff, Brent. So what other type of things do you assign to your students? I think my biggest difficulty is going to be lesson planning. I'm not sure how most schools do it, but have potentially 4-5 classes and filling them quality content seems pretty damn difficult.

I know one thing I'll do is put some emphasis on grammar. I feel as if it doesn't get taught enough on the high school level. One of the biggest issues I've seen from college papers (I've worked at the writing center for my school for a while) is poor grammar. I'm not a grammar nazi or anything personally, but a lot of professors are so I feel it's only right to prepare them for it.

[Caddy]

Originally Posted by The_Dude

First round of conferences this week. I think that i am going "take no prisoners" mode this time around. A combination of kids not doing their work &/or wasting time in class & the bombardment of helicopter parents is driving me insane so far.

I think that i will wear my skull & cross bones tie, just to set the mood.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Forenci

Good stuff, Brent. So what other type of things do you assign to your students? I think my biggest difficulty is going to be lesson planning. I'm not sure how most schools do it, but have potentially 4-5 classes and filling them quality content seems pretty damn difficult.

I know one thing I'll do is put some emphasis on grammar. I feel as if it doesn't get taught enough on the high school level. One of the biggest issues I've seen from college papers (I've worked at the writing center for my school for a while) is poor grammar. I'm not a grammar nazi or anything personally, but a lot of professors are so I feel it's only right to prepare them for it.

Good luck teaching grammar, I cannot think of a more boring ******* thing. You want kids to improve in grammar? They need to read. I can't tell you half the grammar rules there are, but I can read a passage and spot errors because I've read so much that it's subconscious.

Always have a free-writing starter for kids coming into the class. Read and write EVERY DAY. They need to read things that are current. Leonard Pitts writes awesome expository stuff. It's all about modern, well-written, current reads.

[Forenci]

Originally Posted by Brent

Good luck teaching grammar, I cannot think of a more boring ******* thing. You want kids to improve in grammar? They need to read. I can't tell you half the grammar rules there are, but I can read a passage and spot errors because I've read so much that it's subconscious.

Always have a free-writing starter for kids coming into the class. Read and write EVERY DAY. They need to read things that are current. Leonard Pitts writes awesome expository stuff. It's all about modern, well-written, current reads.

Well, I don't want to teach it in the conventional way. As you said, reading is one of the best ways to teach grammar which I hope to utilize fully. I'm floating around some entertaining ways to teach grammar though. I would never make grammar the sole focus of any lesson though. That would be god awful.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Forenci

Well, I don't want to teach it in the conventional way. As you said, reading is one of the best ways to teach grammar which I hope to utilize fully. I'm floating around some entertaining ways to teach grammar though. I would never make grammar the sole focus of any lesson though. That would be god awful.

It's so hard to work grammar into high school lessons in on-level courses.

[Forenci]

Ah, word. I'm just hoping to implement it in bits and pieces. What do you do to get your kids to write everyday?

[The_Dude]

You know what i learned at conferences today?

Everything is all my fault & kids do not need to be responsible for their learning or their actions.

Guess who is drinking a 7 & 7 out of a quart glass tonight?

[vikes_28]

Originally Posted by The_Dude

You know what i learned at conferences today?

Everything is all my fault & kids do not need to be responsible for their learning or their actions.

Guess who is drinking a 7 & 7 out of a quart glass tonight?

I'm not a teacher, but I hate it when people do stuff like this. In this situation or any other situation. When something goes wrong, and someone is bitching about it, it's never their fault...and my testicles are the size of basketballs.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Forenci

What do you do to get your kids to write everyday?

basic writing prompts. today's was "tell me about ten things that make you want to scream"

always keep it vague

[Forenci]

Originally Posted by Brent

basic writing prompts. today's was "tell me about ten things that make you want to scream"

always keep it vague

Haha, hopefully you told them to keep it G rated.

[scottyboy]

so I just got accepted into the Rutgers grad school of education Urban Teaching Fellows which pretty much means I'll be doing my observations and student teaching in urban areas. I'm pretty excited, but also a tad nervous. Not because of like getting shanked in school or that nonsense, but on relating somewhat. I'm an upper middle class white dude who doesn't know much about the situation these kids are in. I'm not dumb nor am I culturally unaware, but it's different, you know?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by scottyboy

I'm not dumb nor am I culturally unaware

Does not compute.

[scottyboy]

Originally Posted by Brent

Does not compute.

I'm not sure if that's a scotty dumb joke or a jersey joke, but either way; hush

actually, i'm not sure where you're going with that at all. I kinda am, but not sure.

[A Perfect Score]

Marking essays is the worst thing in the history of the world. If I circle one more comma splice, you can all read about my suicide on the Canadian News. I **** you not, I had one student spell literature wrong on the title page of her essay. "Liturature". Just sad.

[Forenci]

Originally Posted by A Perfect Score

Marking essays is the worst thing in the history of the world. If I circle one more comma splice, you can all read about my suicide on the Canadian News. I **** you not, I had one student spell literature wrong on the title page of her essay. "Liturature". Just sad.

Well that's why you've got to correct it. Kids won't learn unless they are corrected on it. I won't lie, at times my spelling can be off as was raised in a spell check generation but for the most part it's pretty good.

Originally Posted by scottyboy

so I just got accepted into the Rutgers grad school of education Urban Teaching Fellows which pretty much means I'll be doing my observations and student teaching in urban areas. I'm pretty excited, but also a tad nervous. Not because of like getting shanked in school or that nonsense, but on relating somewhat. I'm an upper middle class white dude who doesn't know much about the situation these kids are in. I'm not dumb nor am I culturally unaware, but it's different, you know?

That sounds fun to me. **** teaching a bunch of rich/middle-class white kids. That's boring to me. I'd much rather teach a diverse group of students.

Just try to make it as engaging as possible. Obviously, don't just lecture at them.

[scottyboy]

Originally Posted by A Perfect Score

Marking essays is the worst thing in the history of the world. If I circle one more comma splice, you can all read about my suicide on the Canadian News. I **** you not, I had one student spell literature wrong on the title page of her essay. "Liturature". Just sad.

I'll splice your comma.

Originally Posted by Forenci

That sounds fun to me. **** teaching a bunch of rich/middle-class white kids. That's boring to me. I'd much rather teach a diverse group of students.

Just try to make it as engaging as possible. Obviously, don't just lecture at them.

Oh absolutely, that's the goal. Even if I were to teach rich white kids, I wouldn't wanna just lecture at them. I'm excited about it.

[A Perfect Score]

Originally Posted by Forenci

Well that's why you've got to correct it. Kids won't learn unless they are corrected on it. I won't lie, at times my spelling can be off as was raised in a spell check generation but for the most part it's pretty good.

These are second year university students in an English class titled "Introduction to the Novel". She didn't get a good mark, let's leave it at that.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by A Perfect Score

These are second year university students in an English class titled "Introduction to the Novel". She didn't get a good mark, let's leave it at that.

oh boo ******* hoo.

[Forenci]

Haha, I won't lie, my grading on papers won't be epicly harsh. I want to correct them to make sure they emphasize grammar and content, but I hate professors and teachers that try to take sides on papers instead of grading them for their content and such.

[Brent]

That feel when you finish grading 100 essays in one sitting.

[CJSchneider]

Originally Posted by Brent

That feel when you finish grading 100 essays in one sitting.

[Brent]

this is more accurate:

[Forenci]

I am loving my English education class. It's a class based on young adult lit and it's quite awesome. We have to read a book a week but it's pretty quick and I'm pumped about teaching some of it.

I can't wait to get into the classroom. I think I've picked up a lot of valuable tools and ideas. I feel like my main goal is just to get students reading and enjoying reading. Easier said than done, though. Finding a way to get them involved is challenging but pretty awesome.

I don't know if this is true, and this may be more of a Brent geared question, but is it true that Shakespeare isn't really a required reading as part of the core curriculum anymore? My professor says it hasn't been for quite a while and that, in fact, a lot of the classics that most of us read are no longer required but are put on their because of the teachers preference. Maybe it varies from state to state but I'm just curious.