I return to the blog. This trimester, I am teaching a new English course entitled nonfiction. Last year, the three 12th grade teachers all taught homogeneous classes of British Literature. Just when I began to find ways to make Beowulf accessible to non-readers, the curriculum changed to electives. Students now choose between Drama, Brit Lit and nonfiction. Nonfiction certainly offers a wealth of possibilities but
the department did not have any extra funds for ordering new texts, so I am photocopying a lot of material.
In addition to this new course, I am trying to incorporate some of the RISC standards-based philosophy. In short, I'm wrestling with a lot of new stuff. I'm thinking now about requiring my students to read magazine articles and blog about them weekly, so that they continue to meet or work on one of the required reading standards. Stay tuned.
I teach social studies and our school added an extra class period to our every other day block schedule. That meant we were to add more electives. We had the same issue with a lack of funding for resources for the new courses. Our photocopier was busy too. P.S. I graduated from Massabesic H.S. in 1986. (Boy, time goes by fast.) Go Mustangs!
ReplyDeleteOh, how funny. You must have had Jeff Lyons as a teacher??? And Mim Myers-Burch? Love your pug!
ReplyDelete