I’m being stalked by two of the tiniest, cutest 7th graders I’ve ever seen.  Big eyes.  High voices.  You know the type.  They are apparently the heavies for Yearbook, sent out into the wilds of 8th period to swing open classroom doors and announce, “You owe Yearbook $12.50.” Yes, the Yearbook Mafia Family is after me.(...)
Read the rest of Fundraising Mafia (601 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blog, carnival of education, Character Education, competition, fundraising, k-12, k12, middle school, writing

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Post tags: carnival of education, digital immigrants, middle school, obama, world of warcraft, writing

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Dear Fellow Edubloggers,

Many of you have been blogging far longer than I have.  I have many of you on my Google Reader and I admire your wit, your writing, and would now love your advice.

Last week, I posted a review of the Stephanie Meyer Twilight series.  If you’ve read the review, you’ll see I was (to say the least) not a fan.  The point of my post was to encourage parents and teachers to read what the kids are reading so that they can be a part of their dialogue.  And, while I clearly didn’t like the book, I really like talking to people about all the new tween and teen literature out there and their opinions of them.  (Hence, the crowds of kids in my room at lunch, each there to check out new books in my awesome classroom library, or just simply there to hang out and talk lit.) 

Anyway, my posted review clearly hit a cord.  Generally I try to respond to everyone who comments on my website (pretty easy when you could count your daily hits on one hand), but the response to this review has been a little intimidating and, frankly, freaky.  (...)
Read the rest of What’s my role in this debate? (268 words)

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Post tags: blog, book review, carnival of education, Character Education, classroom library, description, dialogue, Ed Tech, education policy, ELA, k-12, k12, life long learners, teaching, Title I

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Look, I’m a big believer in reading what the kids are reading, so I picked up the first in this crapfest of a series.  I was a big Anne Rice fan during my middle school years, so clearly I’m not against trashy, vampire romances.  For some reason, vampires are sexy.  But Stephanie Meyer makes Anne Rice look like Shakespeare.   I committed to reading the series so that I could then intelligently discuss them with my students.

For one thing, the books are poorly written.  Where’s the craft?  For instance, I always give my students choice when looking for Golden Lines to mimic in order to learn grammar and sentence structure.  ”Go into your independent reading book and find an example of Adjectives-out-of-order or an Appositive or an Absolute.” They couldn’t find a thing.  I didn’t tell them this.  They told me.    

For another thing, the message of the books is icky.  Wake up teachers and parents, these characters and their unemotional, dysfunctional relationships have been adopted as role models for our tweens.  But don’t take the book out of their hands.  Read it yourself, be a part of the discussion, and cast yourself as a voice in their head when they are thinking about things in the quiet of their alone time. Discussion over Censorship.

It’s easy.  It’s plucky.  It’s sexy.  I get it.  But they require responsibility in their reading. 

So for those teachers or parents who want the Cliff Notes version of this series, here it is so you don’t have to go through the torture that I did.  Not important, you say?  Well this series, supported in large part by tween girls, has outsold J.K. Rowling’s little juggernaut, proving the age-old adage that vampires and virgins do sell after all.

Here goes:

Book one, Twilight: outsider girl falls in love with cold, unemotional, tortured, vegetarian vamp who won’t tell her the truth about anything, including his feelings towards her.  Think Ethan Hawke in Reality Bites but with a great car and without the tobacco problem. Girl decides that she’s plain and vamps are beautiful and she wants to be one.  Her father (with the depth of Homer Simpson), meanwhile, is totally unattached to reality, doesn’t notice there’s a vampire sleeping in her room each night.  She almost dies.(...)
Read the rest of Book Review: Breaking Dawn (Cliff Notes of the Stephanie Meyer’s series) (560 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | 194 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blog, book review, carnival of education, classroom library, ELA, k-12, k12, Language Arts, middle school, tween

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So I write to you today as a contrite tweenteacher.  Lesson learned.  Don’t listen to the gossip in the teacher’s lounge.

So, in an attempt to bring this post around to some actual advice for all you educators out there, I want to reiterate that point: do not waste one minute of your time this year in a toxic teacher environment.  This is different than a Toxic Teaching Environment which can be defined as anything that gets in the way of you doing your job: under-funding, lack of school wide discipline, fractured classrooms, etc…

No, I’m talking about a specific breed of pollution that is meant to choke the enthusiasm out of you: the Toxic Teacher Environment.  (...)
Read the rest of Oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is a’comin… (419 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, blog, carnival of education, Character Education, collaboration, computers, credential, critical thinking, Curriculum, curriculum design, curriculum development, differentiation, digital immigrants, Ed Tech, ELA, employment, equity, game shows, interactive whiteboards, internet literacy, k-12, k12, middle school, new teachers, professional development, teaching, tenure, Title I, UCI, websites

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The Carnival of Education is in town and tweenteacher has joined the parade.  Interesting host and post.

Enjoy!

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: carnival of education, Ed Tech, education policy, interactive whiteboards, middle school

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So, I had my online training.  I met the Whiteboard sales guy in my classroom to discuss where the board is to be mounted.  I talked with my principal to develop an interactive whiteboard presentation during our first staff development in an attempt to drum up excitement amongst the somewhat less-than-tech-enthused staff.  I spent time over my summer developing my own curriculum for the first quarter: pulling out my books, pacing my units, and choosing those individual static lessons that I will expand into Interactive board lessons.  

It wasn’t long, however, that I began to suspect I had wasted my time.  The odor of bullshit was in the air…

 (...)
Read the rest of Hurry up & Wait – My New Interactive Whiteboard: Part II (737 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, blog, carnival of education, computers, critical thinking, CUE, curriculum design, curriculum development, digital immigrants, integration, interactive whiteboards, internet literacy, teaching, technology, Title I, UCI, writing

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Enjoy!

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, carnival of education, ELA, k-12, k12, Language Arts, NCLB, new teachers, Title I, UCI, writing

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These questions and many more are explored in today’s The Opening Bell.(...)
Read the rest of My new Interactive Whiteboard: Part I (807 words)

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, achievement gap, blog, carnival of education, critical thinking, CUE, Curriculum, curriculum design, curriculum development, differentiation, digital immigrants, digital natives, Ed Tech, ELA, k-12, k12, Language Arts, learning, middle school, Title I, UCI, writing

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Post tags: carnival of education, credential, Ed Tech, k-12, k12, learning, middle school, teaching, Think Aloud, UCI, Writers Project

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Thank you to Schiess Weekly for the inclusion.

Enjoy!

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Post tags: carnival of education, collaboration, Ed Tech, education

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© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, achievement gap, assessments, blog, book review, btsa, budget, Careers, carnival of education, character, Character Education, classroom library, collaboration, computers, concrete, contract, CORE, credential, critical thinking, CUE, Curriculum, curriculum design, curriculum development, differentiation, Ed Tech, education policy, ELA, electives, essay, essay starters, jobs, k-12, k12, Language Arts, life long learners, merit pay, metacognition, middle school, NCLB, new teachers, online, peer teaching, performance pay, PI, podcasting, powerpoint, professional development, Proficiency, school accountability, school funding, speeches, standardized testing, technology, tenure, Title I, TLN, top 10, union, voice, websites, Writers Project, writing

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Enjoy Le Carnival! 

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 2008, blog, btsa, Careers, carnival of education, contract, credential, Ed Tech, education, education policy, ELA, employment, How To, jobs, k-12, k12, Language Arts, learning, middle school, new teachers, professional development, teaching, Title I, top 10

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Little known Tweenteacher fact (which could also be filed under “Too Much Information”): I owe my existence to game shows.  Yes, it’s true.  My father was the 1969 World Champion Jeopardy player.  With his earnings, he also won a trip to Hawaii for him and his lovely wife, where, ta-ta-da!  You fill in the rest…Enjoy the Carnival. 

© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: carnival of education, contract, education policy, game shows, k-12, k12, prep, teaching, technology, Title I

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© heather for tweenteacher.com, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: carnival of education, credential, education policy, new teachers, performance pay, PI, school funding, technology, tenure

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Hey, guys!

Le Carnival has arrived.  It’s in a forced choice, multiple-choice style format in homage to the testing season.  Enjoy this Carnival of Education hosted by My Bellringers, and see if you can’t spot tweenteacher in the mix.

Take care and happy testing!

-TT