I have not read any of your evaluations yet, so for all I know you all hated absolutely everything about the class and hope that I will catch a terminal case of fleas from my three cats. But I do want to say, from the heart, that I truly have enjoyed this year.
I enjoy just about every year, so it's not exactly uncommon, but there was something gloriously unique about each of my classes this time around. Each had a strong and definable personality as a whole, and each was comprised of many memorable personalities as well. I think that there are more indelible memories of this year than almost any other year, and it makes me smile just thinking of them.
the daily Ari-Thomas love-fest
Mira and the graffiti book
karaoke day in second period
waffle parties
Lindsey's love affair with John Barth
Andrew Carr zipping past Trent and Azul in posts
the 200-post club
ice cream and waves
Matt's perma-smile
Lain's video fantasia
Ben for two weeks
Ari's 337 posts
musings of johanna's ghost
Maddy's 10,000 workshop pieces
Emmy's 10,000 books
"Snuff"
second period debates
trying to keep up with Nate, Anna and Tylee
Tylee's violin solo
Trent and Nick as Thoreau and Emerson
the Feed Chrissy party
Thomas's "journal song"
6 million random wikicab words
the Portrait of the Artist rap
what is art?
water skiing across poetry
and I'm only scratching the surface of memory
It has been a joyous and wonderful year. It's barely over and I miss it already.
I may be back later with a response to the evaluations.
You've been out of here now for at least a day but I'm nowhere near finished. Still, I'm striving to get everything completed and your grades in.
All portfolios are done. Stop by today and get them if yours is still here.
I need all missing work today!!!!!!!
Grades will be posted as soon as I have completed everything. I'm trying to do that as quickly as possible.
Due to the end-of-year crush, there was one stack of essays in each class (the Catcher essay for sophomores and the Monologue essay for juniors) that was never finished and returned. Some had been completed, but not others. As this was your final analytical essay, it occurs to me that some of you might wish to know my specific remarks on it. However, at this moment I am grading holistically in order to get things finished (and because I do not know if any of you will ever even see these essays again). Should you desire real feedback, just let me know and I will endeavor to provide it within the first couple of weeks of break. (I may require an emailed version of the essay to do so.)
All juniors who desire recommendations: please follow the guidelines on the right (in the links). Email me first to make sure I am OK with writing it and to alert me that you desire one, and then get me whatever you think I need. If we have already spoken, please drop me an email: I can easily forget in the end of year chaos.
Drama class: I'm working still on finalizing your grades, but I'm extremely pleased with the work you put into the final production. Where the written stuff held you back, such is life, but you all did a great job. :-)
And to all of you who will still be here: stop by my room next year and say hi! Otherwise I may have to hunt you down in your next English class and do something really embarrassing. ;-)
If I need to make any further announcements, I'll have them up before Monday afternoon. Otherwise...
If you are a sophomore of junior (at least for the next couple of days), check powerschool to see if anything is missing. I have recorded all grades in my possession at least as checks for "collected." If there is nothing there, I do not have it!!!
Ah, the last day for seniors. Bittersweet. Happy for them, of course, but sad too--missing them already. :-) :-(
E3H: we'll finish monologue tomorrow and the shakespeare video. And we'll talk finals. Meanwhile: go to the side LINKS column and DL the Class Eval. Fill it out and email it back to me. I will not look at or even open these files until grades have been turned in for the summer.
E2H: tomorrow we'll finish the film and then go to SPEECHES!
Sequence (subject to change due to absence or other issues):
Nick Maddy Trent Jenny Drew Ashley Julie Megan Chris Azul Andrew Johanna Caroline
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another (or your first) year at LFHS.
What you have heard is true. The English teacher has lost her ever-loving mind and is not going to be giving any grades at all in her classes this year. Not. One.
There will be no percentages, no numbers, no scores, no letters, no anything that will count toward anything that will end up being averaged for a final grade. But before you call in the men with the white coats, let me explain:
As I hope you have read in the doc your son or daughter (I have always hated the phrase "your student" when addressed to a parent) should have showed you, there is a wealth of research that indicates that grades--or the need to achieve them--are the single greatest thing that stand in the way of a great education. Studies show that the most influential thing a teacher can do to help a student grow academically is to allow him or her to self-grade. Most teachers would rather climb Mt. Everest dressed only in a swimsuit.
But the thing is: our academic system is severely broken. We say that our goal is to get our students to master Common Core Standards, and that is all well and good. But if that is truly the goal, then why do we care how long it takes them to master them? I'm serious. Think about it this way:
Try to remember back to when you were learning how to ride a bike. Oh, it was scary. You needed all kinds of support at first, lots of help from Daddy or Mommy. Then they let go and you were very, very wobbly. Probably you fell off, maybe several times. It took quite a while before you completely mastered the skill. But when you had...you had it down perfectly for the rest of your life.
Now imagine if you were being graded on that learning experience the way schools grade you. We would not score those first scaffolding attempts with Mommy and Daddy, but then...oh, you failed those quizzes when you fell off. And those wobbly rides? C's at best. Then a bunch of B's probably before you finally settled into 100% forever. But if we graded you right at that point, you'd probably average, oh, 83% or so. Why?You've mastered the skill perfectly. So why do you not get 100% if that is what we say we care about? Why on earth do we care about all those earlier times when you didn't have it down yet?
That will be what we go for here. Students will know what the goals are. They will understand what an "A" student looks like. And they will know when they have mastered an objective. Those who do so earlier than others will become tutors to those who have not yet done it: everyone gains from this and the newly learned skills, instead of being quickly forgotten as things studied for a test usually are, will continue being applied as masters tutor their classmates.
That is an awful lot to imagine will happen because I don't give grades this year, but what the heck: if you don't dream big, you never win big, right? The research is behind this, as is the school administration. I'm happy--well, actually I am excited--to pilot this concept at LFHS. As always, I'm glad to discuss this or anything else with you.