POT class on Wednesday, 20 January 2010 from 10:00 am to Noon will be in Scarfe 1011.  It’s a computer lab on the basement floor of Scarfe.  We will be using this space for only one lesson, as our permanent home for Wednesdays will be the spacious and well appointed Angus 426.  Check it out here.

– Lawrence

Seeing as some of you are working with poetry during your 2-week practicum, I thought I’d help you out with some resources.  The PDF files are too big to email to individual people so I figured the next best thing to do was to post them on the blog.  Here they are:

Cow Poetry

A great introductory activity for a poetry reading unit.  The activity is described in The Poet’s Craft Unit Ideas PDF but here’s the handout to support the activity:

Cow Poetry Handout

Cut Up Poetry

Another fun poetry intro.  This one’s active, too (but a bit messy):

Cut Up Poem Directions

Poetry Unit Ideas

A collection of excellent ideas related to the study of poetry.  They’re designed to be used with the textbook, The Poet’s Craft, but are adaptable to any text and any middle grade:

The Poet’s Craft Unit Ideas

The Poet’s Craft Sample Unit

A sample unit developed using ideas from the file posted above.  This gives you a sense of how you could put a poetry unit together:

The Poet’s Craft Sample Unit

The Poetry Playoffs

Looking for a great way to get your students working with and listening to great poetry?  Try is activity.  It takes a long time – it’s modeled after a single elimination tournament like the  NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, after all – but it is a lot of fun.  Here’s some files I’ve used as I ran the playoffs in my classroom:

Poetry Playoffs Task

Poetry Playoff Bracket

Poetry Playoff Poems

In addition, here’s a rubric I’ve used in the past.  It could use some tweaking – I haven’t used it in about 5 years – but it gives you a sense of what one could look like:

Poetry Response & Recitation Rubrics

You should also find these resources very helpful.  Here’s a link to the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) website’s page on how to organize the March Madness Poetry Tournament.  Also, here’s a file of information on how a variety of teachers have used the Poetry Playoffs in their own classroom (this file is also a link at the bottom of  the March Madness Poetry Tournament page):

March Madness Poetry Tourney Examples

That should be enough to get you started.

Cheers,

Lawrence

Two items of note with respect to goings on in the Faculty of Education for your edification.  One helps you do good for others and the other could bring some good to you and your school during the long practicum.  Here goes:

CITE Cohort’s “Gifts of Hope” Holiday Initiative

Please see the image below for details on this very worthy cause:

BC Field Trips Competition

The BC Field Trips Organizing Committee is pleased to announce a $500 prize towards a field trip project organized, supervised and delivered by a teacher candidate in his or her practicum school.  Please read the following application form to get all the details. Applications for the prize are due on Friday, 2 April 2010.

If you are interested and have an idea for an outing, please feel free to talk with Shep or I if you think that would be helpful.

Here’s the form:

BC Field Trips Competition – 2010 – Final

You’re up to date in the world of sports.. so yes, here’s another set of bloopers for your viewing pleasure:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWNPB2Vcnw&feature=related[/youtube]

– Lawrence

GraphJam is a collection of charts and graphs on pop culture topics.  One of last year’s Middle Years TCs used it to very good effect in her Math class… but it’s also a great time waster!

Here’s a graph I thought you might relate to (If not, there are thousand of others to check out):

Here’s a funny one:

And, finally, one for the History majors:

OK, now back to work 🙂

– Lawrence

I love movies.  In fact, I just finished a Halloween double bill of the very tense Cold Prey, a Norwegian slasher film from 2006, and the Slot A-in-Tab B-but-stylish-and-somewhat-suspenseful 2009 remake of Friday the 13th.

I’d have a lot more time to watch movies if I hadn’t been seduced by Flickchart, mind you.

What is Flickchart you ask?  Well according to the site’s FAQ page:

“Flickchart is a website that lets you:

• rank movies to create your own personal list of favorites by using the Flickchart matchup system
• become part of the Flickchart community and help decide what the “Best Films Of All Time”really are
• take part in discussions about particular pairs of movies
• view movie information, and its ranking statistics on Flickchart
• invite friends and make new ones that you can compare your taste in movies with
• view the definitive best-of lists that break down the top movies by popular choice, year, decade, genre, and coming soon: actor, director, and more”

At the time of the writing of this post (Sunday, 1 November @ 1:33 pm), Minority Report is My Top Movie of All Time…

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9IsuZz5de8[/youtube]

and Predator is My Least Favourite Movie of All Time:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-d8-t3W6Ac&feature=PlayList&p=AC67607F3D6BF875&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=12[/youtube]

Now I wouldn’t agree with the ranking of either of those movies – I think they’re both great action films ( if forced to choose I would prefer Minority Report, mind you) – so it would seem that I need to spend more time ranking movies to develop a more accurate list.  The site has well and truly sucked me in!

Enjoy… if you’re up for it!

– Lawrence

I’ve been asked to pass along information about computing workshops offered by CMS, the Faculty of Education’s Computing and Media Services organization.  I figured I’d spare you the email and post the information here:

CMS Drop-in Workshops will start up again next week.  For more details see: http://cms.educ.ubc.ca/workshops/workshops-nov2009.html

Hey, TCs.  As you start to think about your Microteaching planning, I thought I’d remind you that this blog has a Strategies for the Classroom page on which we list a lot of the cool stuff we play with in class.

For instance, I’ve posted documents or links to websites for both the Fishbowl and Value Lines activities.  As an added bonus, I’ve added a very cool document entitled Collaborative Learning Strategies.  In this file you will also find directions for both Fishbowl and Value Lines in addition to 15 other strategies that you can use to engage your students… and impress your advisors!

FYI, here’s a video clip that shows a different take on the Fishbowl; the “fish” are educators discussing a school visit:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhxjlGJnJik[/youtube]

Enjoy.

– Lawrence

Thanks Melissa for submitting the in-the-middle header image of walkers on the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

Remember to email any of your in-the-middle images to Shep or I so you too can have the thrill of seeing a photo of yours as the header on the Middle Years blog.

Here’s a few photos from the interweb that might get your creative juices flowing:

Cheers,

Lawrence