I thought homework turnout was measly when I gave it in Theatre Arts. Little did I know turnout is almost as bad in a major subject!
Stealing from a great teacher (and equally great friend) in our building, Ms. Pick, I have come up with a more effective way of holding the students accountable for their work. Here's the layout:
If a student misses 2 homeworks in the same week and DOES NOT stay after to make up those homeworks the same day they miss the second, they will get a phone call home alerting their parents.
You'd think that would increase the amount of HW turned in AND the amount of students staying after.
Not so!
Today I had 2 students stay after. That was 2 out of 10 students. 20%. I have to call 80% of the students. I have 73 students total. In 2 days, 20 of them (or about 25%) didn't have their homework either day. That doesn't include the students who have turned in only 1 of 2 homeworks this week. Let's see...30 kids. 41% have done only 1 homework this week. which means 50 students (well over half!) have done one or less homework this week. And it's only Tuesday.
Kudos to those kids that do their homework regularly. I will certainly reward them with a homework pass at the end of this week.
But what do I do about what I can only call a homework failure rate???
I'm at a loss.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Strike One: Charlie Brown
So the new Theatre Arts teacher, Greg Allen (formerly of BCLA fame), and I have been collaborating on a successful Irving Drama season. Our first project in the works is a touring show "a PR" gig as the Principal, Mr. Unobskey called it. The idea is to take it to the elementary schools from which we get our 6th grade students.
I'm all in; it'd be a December show, just before the holidays and a great way to ease into an early production schedule.
I had my heart set on doing "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown," and I rented the book and script. Then we got a letter in the mail from the library company Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc.: "Your quotation is as follows: Royalty and Rental for first performance $275, Charge for each additional consecutive performance $105...the above quotation is based on a seating capacity of 250...and tickets priced at $5 and no charge." Did you get that last bit? Some tickets, in fact MANY of them, will be FREE. We aren't going to charge a group of elementary students to see our play! So where does this $ come from?
Needless to say we are exploring other avenues.
Ultimately it was better this way. Greg said the music was more difficult than he remembered and we both agreed a lot of the language was complex or antiquated.
When I was 12 I was in a musical called "How to Eat Like a Child." It is similar to "Charlie Brown" in that it broken up into vignettes of small groups of characters, the songs are about childhood, it will appeal to elementary school students, and it will appeal to our students. Unlike "Charlie Brown," if I read the Samuel French website correctly, we could afford to do this play! It has a really simple set: 6 cubes plus some props would do the trick, and if there is something more elaborate we can cut it and the continuity of the play is not lost.
I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the text. Cross your fingers that we strike gold with this one!!! Time is starting to become an issue!
I'm all in; it'd be a December show, just before the holidays and a great way to ease into an early production schedule.
I had my heart set on doing "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown," and I rented the book and script. Then we got a letter in the mail from the library company Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc.: "Your quotation is as follows: Royalty and Rental for first performance $275, Charge for each additional consecutive performance $105...the above quotation is based on a seating capacity of 250...and tickets priced at $5 and no charge." Did you get that last bit? Some tickets, in fact MANY of them, will be FREE. We aren't going to charge a group of elementary students to see our play! So where does this $ come from?
Needless to say we are exploring other avenues.
Ultimately it was better this way. Greg said the music was more difficult than he remembered and we both agreed a lot of the language was complex or antiquated.
When I was 12 I was in a musical called "How to Eat Like a Child." It is similar to "Charlie Brown" in that it broken up into vignettes of small groups of characters, the songs are about childhood, it will appeal to elementary school students, and it will appeal to our students. Unlike "Charlie Brown," if I read the Samuel French website correctly, we could afford to do this play! It has a really simple set: 6 cubes plus some props would do the trick, and if there is something more elaborate we can cut it and the continuity of the play is not lost.
I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the text. Cross your fingers that we strike gold with this one!!! Time is starting to become an issue!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Is it too early to tell?
Well, shoot!
Everything is going really well in Room 312: the room with a first-year teacher in the confident body of a fifth-year teacher.
I have an AMAZING cluster, who eats lunch together everyday. While the specialty cluster (as much as I love them), didn't spend much time together outside of our meeting schedule, and being spread throughout the building certainly didn't help that feeling of isolation.
My partners in crime/fellow ELA teachers, Sharon and Nicole, make me feel like I know what I'm doing! And while I go into each class with new material I've only previewed on my own, when I use it in instruction I feel like, hey---maybe I'm supposed to be a teacher!!!
Teaching ELA is fresh, exciting, and fulfilling. I feel like I'm seeing my students from an entirely new perspective. In specialty I got a version of the students sitting in front of me today. My ELA students clearly come from a background trained in ELA techniques, strategies, and concepts. Theatre Arts students were somehow wilder, freer, uninhibited by what is and isn't ok in acting class.
Once again I am faced with the challenge of 2 performances this year: a december touring musical, and another talent show. I've already had students begging for info on the talent show, which makes me think we did the right thing last year.
I'm also attempting to add a bit of cultural education to our 7th graders. At our first cluster meeting I suggested we organize monthly meetings for the students with guest speakers. Anyone out there in the interweb with ideas for adults who could be: role models, share experience, inform (entertainingly), or teach our students something they don't get during the school day? I'd love your feedback. I've already gotten some ideas, but you can never have enough!
Everything is going really well in Room 312: the room with a first-year teacher in the confident body of a fifth-year teacher.
I have an AMAZING cluster, who eats lunch together everyday. While the specialty cluster (as much as I love them), didn't spend much time together outside of our meeting schedule, and being spread throughout the building certainly didn't help that feeling of isolation.
My partners in crime/fellow ELA teachers, Sharon and Nicole, make me feel like I know what I'm doing! And while I go into each class with new material I've only previewed on my own, when I use it in instruction I feel like, hey---maybe I'm supposed to be a teacher!!!
Teaching ELA is fresh, exciting, and fulfilling. I feel like I'm seeing my students from an entirely new perspective. In specialty I got a version of the students sitting in front of me today. My ELA students clearly come from a background trained in ELA techniques, strategies, and concepts. Theatre Arts students were somehow wilder, freer, uninhibited by what is and isn't ok in acting class.
Once again I am faced with the challenge of 2 performances this year: a december touring musical, and another talent show. I've already had students begging for info on the talent show, which makes me think we did the right thing last year.
I'm also attempting to add a bit of cultural education to our 7th graders. At our first cluster meeting I suggested we organize monthly meetings for the students with guest speakers. Anyone out there in the interweb with ideas for adults who could be: role models, share experience, inform (entertainingly), or teach our students something they don't get during the school day? I'd love your feedback. I've already gotten some ideas, but you can never have enough!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Work will be nothing if not interesting this year---new principal and big changes afoot. Some changes include: uniforms for kids, a new "in school suspension" room, and random search and seizures of students who bring food into the school. You wouldn't believe what an epidemic the junk food is in our school!
I feel like all of these changes are steps in the right direction to providing our students with a positive and challenging learning environment. And...it was revealed in a meeting of teachers today that Mr. Unobskey does not want us "teaching to the MCAS." WHAT?!?! Is that even possible for us to do? We have been so conditioned to teach to the test. Good news for both teachers and students.
Meanwhile, there are many changes in my own little classroom. I'll be teaching ELA for the first time as a teacher (this is my FIFTH year!!!), and the new theatre arts teacher may want to be involved in the drama club. The Principal, Mr. Unobskey, has requested we do a December touring show to the area elementary schools too. That will definitely be a new challenge.
Is the Irving being ushered into a new era? That is still to be determined. But I'll keep you updated!
I feel like all of these changes are steps in the right direction to providing our students with a positive and challenging learning environment. And...it was revealed in a meeting of teachers today that Mr. Unobskey does not want us "teaching to the MCAS." WHAT?!?! Is that even possible for us to do? We have been so conditioned to teach to the test. Good news for both teachers and students.
Meanwhile, there are many changes in my own little classroom. I'll be teaching ELA for the first time as a teacher (this is my FIFTH year!!!), and the new theatre arts teacher may want to be involved in the drama club. The Principal, Mr. Unobskey, has requested we do a December touring show to the area elementary schools too. That will definitely be a new challenge.
Is the Irving being ushered into a new era? That is still to be determined. But I'll keep you updated!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Emily Mathews, Irving Theatre Arts Teacher: R.I.P
I come to you today with a heavy heart.
After performing their last scenes and playing their last theatre game the students are gone.
And I, my room stripped bare, am gone too.
In a small act of hopeful defiance, I left one thing in Room 116, the first classroom I could call my own.
Hanging on the hallway wall, just outside of my classroom, is a room sign, welcoming one and all to Ms. Mathews' Theatre Arts class. With any luck (and lots of shameless plugging on my part) that sign will have a purpose next year.
It's funny, because when I first started at the Irving my room sign did not hold up too well to the students' abuse. Neither did I. I was an inexperienced teacher and had much to learn. By the end of the year that sign had a few choices words on it letting me know exactly what they thought of me. This year, my room sign looks almost like it did in September when I hung it. I'm a 4th year teacher now, and everything has changed. Unlike my room sign, the words of my students linger inside of me, reminding me exactly what I mean to them. It makes me so proud to know the teacher I've become and I feel so lucky for the students I've had that make me a better PERSON.
This is a sad day, and while there's hope on the horizon, I am going to wait a few days before I share the details of that hope. I'm like a movie sequel: just when you think they've killed off the main character, she manages to resurrect herself bigger and better than ever before!
After performing their last scenes and playing their last theatre game the students are gone.
And I, my room stripped bare, am gone too.
In a small act of hopeful defiance, I left one thing in Room 116, the first classroom I could call my own.
Hanging on the hallway wall, just outside of my classroom, is a room sign, welcoming one and all to Ms. Mathews' Theatre Arts class. With any luck (and lots of shameless plugging on my part) that sign will have a purpose next year.
It's funny, because when I first started at the Irving my room sign did not hold up too well to the students' abuse. Neither did I. I was an inexperienced teacher and had much to learn. By the end of the year that sign had a few choices words on it letting me know exactly what they thought of me. This year, my room sign looks almost like it did in September when I hung it. I'm a 4th year teacher now, and everything has changed. Unlike my room sign, the words of my students linger inside of me, reminding me exactly what I mean to them. It makes me so proud to know the teacher I've become and I feel so lucky for the students I've had that make me a better PERSON.
This is a sad day, and while there's hope on the horizon, I am going to wait a few days before I share the details of that hope. I'm like a movie sequel: just when you think they've killed off the main character, she manages to resurrect herself bigger and better than ever before!
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