Toe-Dipper or Leaper?

It has now been four complete weeks attempting to use Penny Kittle's theories in my classes.  I find it difficult in that the class is a meager 48 minutes. Kittle's school follows a block schedule; her classes are 90 minutes.I can only imagine what 90 minutes with students would be like. At best I have 30 minutes.  I often devote 15 minutes to silent reading of choice books. Sometimes students use the 15 minutes to respond to prompts by writing in their working portfolios. I feel as though that time is important because they need to establish the habits that will carry them through the rest of the activities this year.

I will be finishing my SLO obligations this week.  I will have data that I can use to guide students' instruction, so it is definitely the right time for students to make some goals based on their performance the last month. I can put them into groups based on their goals and give them larger writing assignments to work on individually and together.

I wonder how much time they would actually focus and write? If I am attempting to get deeper writing, I need to give them more meaningful assignments. And according to Write Beside Them, the companion to Kittle's Book Love, I need to write beside them.  I will admit that I am a bit afraid to do so. When I think about sitting down in the desks with them, I wonder what I would write. I realize the irony in my fear. But that does not negate its presence. Do I complete the assignments alongside them? That makes me inwardly cringe though I do not know why.  My reticence leads me to ponder my desire to assign specific tasks to students. Are the assignments authentic? Are they similar to what students will encounter in the future? What do I write in my everyday life that could transform into an assignment for students?  Or do I approach the tasks as if I were an author, an actual writer of fiction and nonfiction alike who writes to publish? I think Penny Kittle would say stop thinking and just take the leap. But I am usually a toe-dipper not a leaper.  

New Meds

My classes have currently completed five full days of Penny Kilttle's Book Love. Yep. Our first week of school was actually a five-day week.  Needless to say it was a long week.  And though it was hard on me to give up the stress-free life of summer, my students actually fared pretty well.  Upon our first meeting, I introduced the idea of choice reads.  We went to the library on the second day of school.  Honors and regular alike, every student found a book that they want to read. I showed students how to calculate the number of pages they needed to read in order to attain their weekly goals.  We have read silently twice: once for ten minutes and once for 15 minutes. I actually read a book that I wanted to read for more or less two hours this week!  Not consecutive hours, but two hours nonetheless. That in itself is actually amazing! I read along side the students.  And students read.  I would say 95% read.

Kittle's plan seems to work.  Of course, I'll reserve judgement until the end of the year...I always have opinions! Currently, I'm optimistic.  In addition to a choice reading program, I introduced a working portfolio system (Kittle's Write Beside Them) that should foster writing. The students will write in composition books answering prompts, taking notes, brainstorming ideas, in general, documenting their thoughts as we progress through the year. They will use both their choice books and mentor texts that I introduce as fodder for their writing.

The students seem to be taking it seriously.  We shall see.  I will talk with students next week.  I did talk with one student who had no idea what he was reading. He said that he would start reading and then his mind would start drifting off to another topic. Also that he couldn't follow what was happening in the novel.  That is  an indicator that the book he chose was too challenging.  He needs a different book.

After reading Kittle's books, I recognized the one essential part of her plan that Kittle didn't quite emphasize enough is the need to start the habits right from the beginning so that by the middle of the year the students are actually ready to participate in an environment with the goal of learning. If students get a bite of  a "better-tasting" type of classroom structure (i.e. one with looser work standards), they will never want to fully commit to a more hearty meal.
The next couple of weeks will be very interesting.

Thought domination

When teaching writing, I usually give plenty of prompts and brainstorming activities in an effort to decrease the chances that a student will say "I don't know what to write."  But sometimes I want my students to come up with their own subject matter. I recognize that doing so can be challenging.  My advice to students who must write something without any parameters is to write about what is dominating their thoughts.  Every minute of every day we are thinking, but usually there are thoughts that continue to pop into our minds more frequently than others.  These thoughts are fodder for writing. 
Of course, allowing students to write about what they are thinking can be dangerous. Do I really want to know what a teenage male is thinking about most of the time?  Don't I already know?
And yet, I am a risk-taker. Those thoughts may become wonderful pieces of writing. If nothing else, I will learn a little more about my students and who they are as human beings. 
When reading my students' writing, I may step into dirty places where there are strange and offensive ideas.  I may also enter into worlds of sadness or fear or even anger.  But alongside this, I will also experience joy and excitement.  Through their writing, I will enter into their worlds.  I will see what they see and feel what they feel. And I will use what I learn to make their education fruitful.  That is what dominates my thoughts.

Kill two birds with one stone

If there is one thing I love, it is efficiency.  Nothing is closer to perfection than the balance that comes from perfectly organizing my activities so that the total time taken is minimal.  Just last week I had to run two errands, and the route I chose to get from one place to the next ended in the least amount of time taken to complete the task that I deem possible in that situation.  It was perfect!  It was four o'clock on a Thursday before a three-day weekend, so the traffic could have been horrific.  And yet everything worked in my favor.   Even with two erroneous choices made while driving on the highways, I still made terrific time.  How is this "killing two birds with one stone?"  I accomplished two errands with only one car trip.
According to wisegeek.com, the adage refers to a hunter's skill at killing two birds using a slingshot and only one stone.  That definitely would take great skill.  With all of the tasks and requirements that I need to accomplish, I view this adage as one that only practitioners of effective time management can accomplish.  Interestingly, the adage is over four hundred-years-old and actually had a negative connotation.  In our ever-busy lives, it seems that killing two birds with one stone could never be negative.  What do you think?

The euthanasia of Ozora

________ is coming over. I am cleaning a large closet that one encounters when entering the house through the front door.  This closet happens to be the place where I chose to put my cat Ozora's two litter pans (recently downgraded from three).  This is why I am cleaning the closet.  Some may think that cleaning two litter boxes and ridding the house of the odor that permeates would not be a difficult task.   I would agree. I would agree if that were what I was doing. But I am not simply dragging the pooper scooper through the gravely wasteland to pick up turds and clumps of pee. I am attempting to conquer a magnificent feat. One that requires the dew of spray bottles spritzing chemicals on nearly every surface that I tread upon.  As you know, what is tread upon is lived upon.  And I am living in cat urine and fecal matter.
Ozora pees and poops in almost every corner of my house.  It is irritating and disgusting. I am appalled at myself for living this long with pee pads strategically placed throughout my dining and living rooms. It is awful. I am embarrassed to have people come to my house because I am certain that as they cross the threshold, hints of cat piss will creep up to their nostrils.  I do not want my house to be the house that reeks so badly that visitors talk about "the smell."  But Ozora is old.  She is nearly 20 now. I have known her all of her life.  She was my pet throughout middle school and high school.  She was there to cuddle with when I came home from college.  When I moved to live on my own, she and her sister Fluff Fluff came with me.  And so I ask you this: What am I to do with a beloved pet who is a part of my family, but who defecates around my house?
  Ozora may be in discomfort. I don't know. I should take her to the veterinarian, but I am terrified that he will tell me that she is sick and should be put down.
  My mother, who parented Ozora and Fluff Fluff when I was young, is visiting.  She definitely has opinions about Ozora. They change frequently and with her mood.  Her statement that I should, "go ahead and kill her," tells me how she feels about the euthanasia of Ozora.
  I am even having difficulty finding an appropriate term for what I need to do.  I am killing her if I ask the doctor to give her a drug that stops her heart. It is such an ugly word. K-I-L-L. I don't like it being attached to the subject "I". I guess "put down" is the euphemism that is currently used.  Even that phrase seems derogatory to me.
 Recently Ozora has been reposing in one corner of the living room.  She has never released herself in this corner. A grandmother clock that belonged to my grandmother furnishes the corner.  Ozora lays next to the clock so much that her fur collects on the carpet. I collect gray tufts of it as I pass by the spot.  I cannot help but think that Ozora is some kind of connection to my grandma. When my grandma was alive and living in my house, Ozora would visit her daily. So many times I walked passed her room and saw Ozora, cozy as a kitten, lying on the bed next to Grandma.  They would both be relishing the warmth provided by the cream blanket or the space heater, I don't know which.
  Grandma will be gone for one year in September.  It could be mere coincidence that Ozora cat naps next to my grandmother's grandmother clock.   But I'm superstitious enough to take a step back and think.