Doing the Right Thing
One of the things that has astounded me about many of my students is their indifference to “doing the right thing,” as I call it in my classroom. I have smart, talented, friendly, beautiful students who seem to make decisions based solely on how the outcomes of their actions will affect them. Unfortunately, the behavior I see most often that completely lacks in integrity is cheating and plagiarism. However, I also see students being mean to each other, disrespecting property that does not belong to them, and finding entertainment only in violence or crudeness. I have a big problem with this.
I do believe that my students’ behaviors are a reflection of many parts of society and, therefore, I’m tempted to take a “hands-off” approach to dealing with it. If I can model integrity for them the best I can, what more am I required to do and how much of an impact do I have anyway? Of course the irony in this temptation is that deciding to ignore the problem is, perhaps, the choice with the least integrity. I know that I need to teach my students what it means to be a good person and how to contribute to the community in a positive way. It’s just a matter of finding the resources that will inspire them, even if it’s just by making them reconsider (even for 5 minutes) why it could be good to “do the right thing.”
My inspiration for this rambling? Norman Corwin’s essay “Good Can Be As Communicable As Evil” for This I Believe. Check it out for yourself at http://www.thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?uid=12.
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Tags: education, integrity, norman corwin, teacher, this i believe
Journaling Prompts
I stumbled across this interesting site full of journaling prompts. These would make handy last-minute warm-ups or provide a solution for the student who can never think of a topic on “choose your own topic” quick-write days!
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Tags: education, english, journal, teacher
Thrilled to be here!
Hi all. I’m a relatively new high school English teacher in Napa California (I started teaching in January 2008). I wanted to start a blog to track my experiences as a teacher and to gather great resources as I find them. I’m new to blogging, also, so bear with me! I hope this blog will be of value to others. Looking forward to being a part of the community 
.
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End of Year! and Freshman Houses
Tomorrow finals begin for my students. Wednesday is graduation (which I will be chaperoning) and Thursday is the last day I report to work until the middle of August. I’ve taken an extremely lazy day today, wandering around World Market and Trader Joe’s, sipping Peet’s coffee while reading a magazine, and hanging out on my deck with my dog — again doing nothing work-related. By 6:30 in the evening I’m definitely feeling the guilt of not having spent any time grading yet today. And, unfortunately, I don’t see myself grading any time in the near future! I guess I have my work cut out for me while my kids toil away at their exams.
On a brighter note, I’m looking forward to a meeting with my fellow 9th grade Earth House teachers tomorrow afternoon. All freshmen are assigned a “house” for their first year of high school. The house teachers work together to make the students feel a sense of belonging, recognize students weekly, plan fun events for the students, and generally work together to try to make the students’ year as successful as possible. In tomorrow’s meeting, we will be finalizing a mission statement, working a rough draft of the “Earth House” letter home at the beginning of the year, and coming up with tabs for the binders each freshman will receive at the beginning of the year. At this point, I’m trying to decide what information I most want my students to have behind their “Language Arts” binder tab. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
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Tags: education, freshman houses, language arts, school
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