Once again this month, I’m joining
the Secondary Smorgasbord bloggers’ link up sponsored by The ELA Buffet and Desktop Learning Adventures.
In anticipation of Halloween, we’re sharing treats from our classrooms,
and in my case, some are tricks that I’ve turned into treats! So here are some
tricks that are geared to create success in the secondary classroom:
1. Have fun: I have taken this job
too seriously at times, and who can blame me?
I’m constantly pressured to make sure students are achieving high test
scores and will be “college and career ready.”
No doubt, I believe in accountability and pursing higher education, but it
can be a real chore at times. Lately,
I’ve been including Fun Friday videos to end the week. Since I love dogs, recent ones have featured
silly clips of dogs. Here is one you may want to watch:
I have incorporated more humor to
manage students this year. Instead of getting
mad that students keep forgetting their pencils, I got a box of golf pencils. Whenever
a student asks, I point to the cup of golf pencils. Guess what?
Not many have been asking me for pencils this year.
Students often forget to put their
names on their papers, which annoys and frustrates me. I used this meme from Tracee Orman and posted
it where students turn in their papers.
It gets the point across and makes everyone laugh!
Lately, I’ve also noticed that
students have been struggling to open the door to my classroom because they
have to pull it instead of push it. For
fun, I posted this Far Side comic on the door to help them remember:
2.
Be human: For our SAT essay
brainstorming sessions, I have students practice with retired prompts. One of them asks the following question: Do
memories hinder or help people in their effort to learn from the past and
succeed in the present? This usually leads to a discussion of
learning from the memory of one’s mistakes.
During this discussion, I tell a story about
how I got caught cheating on a chemistry test in high school. I explain how my chemistry teacher tore up my
test in front of the class; not only was I upset about the failing grade, but I
was certain that I would be disqualified from cheerleading since as a school representative, I needed
to reflect good character. So, of course
I tell my students that I went to the guidance counselor and tearfully told her my mistake. She advised me to apologize, which I
did. I learned never to
cheat, and they love hearing this story!
3.
Incorporate holidays with content:
In the secondary classroom, we usually don’t do Halloween parties or dress up
anymore, but we can still connect our teaching to the ideas of the
holiday. In English, poems, stories,
novels, and plays abound with frightening characters, spooky moods, and dark
themes. Edgar Allan Poe is the master of
this, but I’ve even used The Crucible, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” “A Rose for
Emily,” Frankenstein, and other texts during the days around Halloween. In fact, this year, I’ve created poetry
analysis prompts that are perfect for Halloween. As a TREAT to you, they are offered for free.
You can also find more resources for
Halloween here:
Hope you enjoyed these tricks (really
treats)! What texts would you recommend
for teaching near Halloween? Share them
in the comments below!
You can also find other great posts on these blogs!