Letter to Parent/Guardian

Okay. So it's the beginning of a new year, and you're busy on that first day getting to know names, handing out paperwork, introducing yourself to your students. Don't forget to introduce yourself to your students' parents as well. I always like to send home a letter on the first day telling my parents/guardians a little about myself. Even though they're not in elementary school any more, students and their parents need to feel comfortable about the person their child is spending his/her days with.  Here is a sample letter:

Dear Parent/Guardian:

My name is xxxxx, and I will be your student's English teacher this year.  I received my xxx from xxx University and have over xxx years teaching experience. Most of my teaching career has been in the xxx, where I first taught English I at xxx.  During my years at xxx, I have helped sponsor the xxx, the xxx, and the xxx. I also served several years on the xxx. I have a son/daughter who graduated from xxx in 20xx and another who will graduate from xxx in 20xx.  

I am very excited about our upcoming year and have several interesting and educational lessons planned for your student. Our literature studies this year will include novels and plays, along with various poetry and  nonfiction selections. Students will write two essays, one a literary analysis, and, of course, a research paper. In addition, we will have grammar and vocabulary in ongoing, cumulative studies. Students will also be selecting novels to read independently during our Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) time. You will receive a separate handout detailing the information about SSR.

Students need to understand that what they learn, they learn for a reason. The time is past when they can study something for a test and forget about it the next day. Once we have studied a skill or term in my class, students will need to be able to apply that information for the rest of the semester. For example, if I teach students during the first week of school about using their best vocabulary in writing, I expect them to continue using their best vocabulary in everything they produce for me. If we study the rules of subject-verb agreement, I expect them to be able to apply that rule in their writing.  If we learn the meaning of a literary term, I expect them to able to discuss literature as it applies to that term.

I have given your student a list of Class Rules and Procedures as well as a syllabus for the year. I encourage you to go over these with your student. The rules and procedures allow our class to function at peak efficiency, and the syllabus gives everyone a road map of the course and what we will be covering. If you have any questions/concerns, please contact me at the following email address: xxxxxxx.com.  Or you may call the school to schedule a parent conference through the guidance office. The guidance office number is xxxxxxx.

I have a website at xxxxx. The site has copies of important documents, information about the class, and important dates/assignments that are upcoming. Please visit this site once a week to check on what your student will be doing in our class and to ensure that assignments are completed in a timely manner.

I look forward to getting to know you and your student over the course of the next few months.

Yours truly,

Music in the English Classroom

I love, love, love using music in my classroom. And I don't mean classical, though that has its place as well. I mean contemporary rock, pop, rap, country. Kids love it. I mean, really love it.

Every week, I do something called Skills of the Week. Each week we focus on a lit term/device, and every day I do a short minilesson with it. Thursday is always song day. For example, if we're doing similes and metaphors, I'll pull in a song like The Dance by Garth Brooks. Oxymoron? How about Beautiful Mess by Diamond Rio. Alliteration and Assonance? Higher by Creed.

It takes about 3 minutes to listen to a song, but it adds such depth to the lesson. Students see real world application of some of the things we've been talking about in the classroom. They get exposed to some songs they may never have listened to. I've had students who are really into rock fall in love with Johnny Cash, and students who are totally into hip hop start liking Bob Dylan or the Beatles.

The funny thing is, my students would get so excited when they realized it was Thursday. (They always called it "Song Day.") lol!

I used to laugh at them and say, "You act like you never get to listen to music except in my class."

They would reply, "You just don't understand, Ms. K." Hmm, guess not.

There are some amazing songs out there that do many of the things we try to teach kids with poetry. Why not take advantage of their sincere love of music to get them excited about language? To help them see that what they're learning isn't just isolated to the English classroom?

I hope that you start to use music regularly in your classroom. I think you'll find that your students will think you're very cool. Plus, they might just learn something!!

Favorite Books-Classic Literature

I'm an avid reader. I think most English teachers probably are. I don't think a single day goes by that I'm not reading at least one book. I'm a big re-reader, too. I mean, if it's good once, it's gotta be good a second time. And a third. And...yeah, I'm a BIG re-reader.

Now, as an English teacher I should probably be ashamed of what I am about to say, but here it is. I don't really love many pieces of literature considered "classic" literature. And there are several classics that I have never read that most English teachers have read and loved. Books like The Scarlet Letter, The Grapes of Wrath, The Sun Also Rises, and...yikes...To Kill a Mockingbird.

I know, I know. I should be ashamed. In my defense, however, there are a few classic that I adore. Here are my top ten, in no particular order.

1.  The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas-Love it, love it, love it. Best book on getting revenge EVER!
2.  The Lord of the Flies by William Golding-Most fun I have ever had teaching literature was with this book
3.  Great Expectations by Charles Dickens-Hated teaching it but loved reading it. When I taught it, I called it Great Explanations. lol!
4.  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain-What's not to love? Boy, raft, river
5.  The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (any Shakespeare, really)-Best speech ever: "The quality of mercy is not strained..."
6.  Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte-That red room still gives me chills.
7.  Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte-Heathcliffe is the man. Yum!
8.  1984 by George Orwell-Scary realistic
9.  Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut-There was a time I devoured everything Vonnegut wrote.
10. A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving-I struggled to finish this book but the end slayed me.

So there you have it. I hope I don't get kicked out of the English Teacher's Club. But I should get points for honesty, right? And Mockingbird is on my list. Not the others, though. Ugh!

Notebooks-They're the Bomb!

I love notebooks. I require my students to keep one, and they use it every day. I don't issue textbooks. Texts have become so heavy and cumbersome that students can't carry them around. I do keep a class set in my room for us to use when we need it, but I tell my students that their notebook will essentially become their textbook.

For my class, students need a 2 inch 3-ring binder divided into five sections: Reading, Literature, Grammar, Vocabulary, Writing.

Everything I give to students or ask them to do goes into their notebook, dated, labeled, and in the proper section. This includes handouts, worksheets, assignments, returned tests/quizzes, lecture notes, exercises from the text. EVERYTHING.

Whenever I hand out ANYTHING, I say, "Make sure you put the date at the top of this and put it in the ____________________ section." I never assume students know which section. Even if it's grammar. Some of them don't understand it goes in the Grammar Section. I know, sigh! So I say it. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Saves us all a lot of headaches.

At the end of the grading period, I give students a written test on their notebook. Items look like this:

GRAMMAR SECTION
1.  August 10     "Identifying Subjects and Predicates Exercise A"   What is the correct answer for item #5? _____________________________

2.  August 11     "Parts of Speech Review Handout"   What is the word you labeled ADVERB in sentence #9? ________________________

LITERATURE SECTION
3. August 16     "Notes on J.R.R. Tolkien"  When was Tolkien born? ____________


I try to have a question from every day. My test is divided just like the notebook and in the same order. The test is super easy to make out. I just keep a notepad on my podium. Every day I write down the date, one question, and its answer. (Make sure students don't have access to this, btw.)

Grading is a breeze, students are held accountable for all work done, and I am not bogged down checking notebooks all weekend.

I make sure that students are aware that they are responsible for everything that they miss when they are absent. If they write ABSENT in the blank for an item, too bad. No excuses. You can check out my Make Up Work post here. This helps make students responsible for getting their own make up work completed.

Students who move into my class from another teacher or district are not responsible for items they weren't here for. I just make a note of the day they entered my class and excuse them from everything prior to that date. Easy peasey.

I emphasize to students that notebooks should be organized, and the easiest way to get them organized is on DAY ONE. Inevitably, there will be students scrambling to find papers wadded up in the bottom of their backpacks on the day of the test. I do not allow this during the test. Students can have ONLY their notebook on their desk along with something to write with and the test itself. No searching through backpacks.

I do time notebook tests; otherwise, some students will continue to search for missing items the whole period. Generally, when most everyone is done, I will say, "You have five minutes to complete this test." At the end of that time, I take them up. I also don't answer questions like, "Is this the handout you mean?" I simply tell them to look and see if it is the right date, label, and section. Students learn pretty quickly to get themselves organized. They also learn to pay attention when we go over an activity and make any corrections to items they did incorrectly. If they don't have the correct answer on the notebook test, they miss it.

Sometimes students will say something like, "But I loaned that handout to Billy and he never returned it" or "I left it on my desk at home." My answer? Lesson learned.

Notebooks for my class do eventually become quite full. I usually spend some time at the beginning of the next grading period going through and telling students what they can discard and what they need to keep.



Hopefully this idea will help make your class run more smoothly and simply.  Good luck!

Bathroom Passes

Okay, so I struggled for years with how to manage students going to the bathroom. You know the following are true:

1.  Some students have to go to the bathroom EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Now some of these are legitimate. When I say some, I mean, one or two. On occasion.
2.  Some students have to go to the bathroom AT THE WORST POSSIBLE MOMENT. I'm lecturing. They're taking a test. You get the drift.
3.  Some students have to go at the same time their friend has to go. Shocker!
4.  Some students take advantage to wander the halls. (No way!)
5.  It's hard when you just let one student go to the restroom, to say no to the next student who asks. (Not fair!!!!)
6.  Sometimes it seems like you have a parade of students who have to go to the bathroom. (Revolving door syndrome)
7.  Some students are gone to the bathroom FOREVER. I mean, really, what are you DOING in there?

Okay, I think you get the idea. How do you control trips to the bathroom? Especially if you're on a 95 minute block. Now, I know some teachers who never let students go. I just can't do that. There are real times when students need to go.

I developed my bathroom pass system so that I had some sort of control over this problem.

1.  Each student gets two bathroom passes each nine weeks.
2.  Bathroom passes are a different color each nine weeks.
3.  Bathroom passes expire at the end of the assigned nine weeks.
4.  Students must have their names written on their passes in ink.
5.  Students must have their passes in their possession in order to use them.
6.  Students may not loan or sell their bathroom passes to another student.
7.  Bathroom passes must have my initial on them. (To prevent some enterprising person from making duplicates.) I usually initial in red.
8.  Bathroom passes may not be used during tests or lectures. Only when students are doing quiet work at their desks.
9.  Students who do not have passes with them but need to go to the bathroom get 1 hour of detention.
10. Students may earn additional passes during the nine weeks as bonuses.
11. Any unused bathroom pass at the end of the nine weeks may be turned in for bonus points added to their lowest grade.
12. Bathroom passes that are lost are gone forever. :(
13. When I take up a bathroom pass, I tear it up immediately and throw it away. I do not keep up with who has or has not used a pass.
14. Ugh. I hate ending a list at 13. lol!

I can't say that this solved ALL of my bathroom issues, but it sure did solve a lot of them.''

Good luck!