Advertising and Guest Blogging

Check out Scott McLeod’s post on advertising at Dangerously Irrelevant.

Ditto, Scott.

I have been approached by companies wanting to advertise on this blog, although to be honest, not in quite the same manner, thank goodness.  I loved Scott’s response.

I don’t like advertising on blogs.  If you want to do it, that’s fine, but I never click those links, and I admit it makes my flesh crawl a little.  I link to Amazon products, which is not the same thing in my opinion because it’s relevant to my post, and I use the referral fees to buy books for my classroom and for me.  Not to mention I earn very little in referral fees.  I also have complete control over the products that appear on my site.  Finally, Amazon never approached me asking to advertise.  To me, any ads on the site are a reflection of the owner, and if I cannot completely endorse every product that appears in ads, I won’t have them on my site.  Tools like Google AdSense generate links to products I might not necessarily endorse.  Once I was asked about advertising on my site, and when I checked out the company’s site, I discovered it was full of typos.  I don’t want anyone to think I endorse a product whose Web site looks like that.

I have also been approached by folks wanting to write guest posts, too.  This site is huffenglish.com.  My words, my thoughts, my opinions.  I speak for myself alone.  I pay for the hosting fees.  I do not speak for my employer.  I own all the language on my site.  Therefore, I can support and endorse everything that appears on the site.  Why would I allow a guest post?  It doesn’t make sense to me.  If someone is interested in blogging, they ought to start their own blog.  If they don’t have a lot of readers, then they need to work to earn them over three years like I have.

This site is mine.  Everything that appears on huffenglish.com is mine unless attribution to someone else is provided.  I have put a lot of work into this site, and I am proud of that work.  Why would I compromise all that by accepting ads or guest posts?

Week in Reflection, May 5-9

I try to write these reflections on the weekend, but perhaps I can be forgiven for skipping Mother’s Day weekend.  This time of year is so busy for teachers, isn’t it?  Even as things are wrapping up, which should make me feel lighter, I seem to have more to do than ever.

I have already reflected a little bit on last week in a previous post.

One thing that’s been on my mind this week is that it is taking quite a while for Amazon to ship my copy of Write Beside Them.  I would like to have it by June, so I am starting to wonder if I shouldn’t cancel my order and order directly from Heinemann.  I was so excited to save money by ordering from Amazon, but it’s taking unusually long, and I feel I should apologize to folks who ordered the book through my referral.

As I write this, I find I am not feeling particularly reflective at all because I can barely remember what I taught last week.  I think I will chalk it up to the time of year.  I do know that utilizing backward design has made all the difference in my teaching this year.  At this time of year when students have one eye on the calendar (and so do their teachers) and the other out the window, I am pleased to say we’re still learning and thinking and writing and reading.

Each year gets better, but I’ll save that reflection for the end.

Reflecting on Backward Design

The end of the year is drawing closer, and today I was thinking about backward design.  This year was the first year I implemented backward design planning.  I have been really impressed with how much students have learned.  My 9th grade students in particular really seemed to connect to this type of learning; furthermore, unless I’m a horrible judge, they have seemed more engaged than I can remember any other class being.  Today they started working on the performance assessment for the unit I created for Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye.  Students were researching and writing about the impact of media and society on how people feel about their bodies.  At the same time as they were analyzing a novel’s theme, they were also writing persuasive essays about body image, using research to support writing, and learning about ways in which literature truly can be a lens through which we examine our society.  In times past, I don’t think I would have designed an assessment nearly as good as this one, and students were clearly interested in what they were learning through their research.  They frequently called me over to read facts and statistics they found.  They wanted me to read what they had written.  One student began her essay with an anecdote that integrated information she learned from a YouTube video I showed the class.  And it was a brilliant introduction.

I know I sound like an evangelist when I talk about UbD, but I can’t help it.  Backward design revolutionized the way I teach.  I feel rejuvenated and invigorated by working with my students.  And I am learning so much, too!  Every day, I just can’t wait to work with students on the units I’ve created.  I truly enjoy planning and creating units now that I have a clear process that helps me focus and think about why I do what I do.  I am really proud of all my students have learned and are learning, and much credit for those learning experiences belongs to UbD.

Tagged! I’m It

Clix tagged me for a meme. First, I am supposed to post the rules:

  1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
  2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
  3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
  4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

OK, so now the questions.

What were you doing ten years ago?

I was finishing up my first year teaching at a rural school. It was probably the most awful job I’ve ever had, and certainly the most awful teaching experience. We had gang problems and a do-nothing administration.

What are five things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order)*

  1. Grade vocabulary and quizzes and start on projects.
  2. Follow up on and answer some e-mails.
  3. Sketch out next week’s lesson plans.
  4. Re-read chapter eight of The Great Gatsby and take some notes.
  5. E-mail students absent on Monday who have not checked in with me and do not have their final exam assignment.

What are some snacks I enjoy?

  • popcorn
  • Hint of Lime Tostitos
  • nuts
  • chocolate

What would I do if I were a billionaire?

  • Like Clix, pay off debt.
  • Buy a house.
  • Get a new car.
  • Travel like mad.
  • Share with my family, friends, and favorite charities.
  • Outfit my school with more technology—SMART Boards in each room, laptops for teachers, etc.
  • Honestly, this is one of those questions that has an unlimited number of answers, as I can’t even imagine all I could do with that money. Sigh.

What are three of my bad habits?

  1. Clutter. It’s how I live.
  2. Procrastination.
  3. Worrying.

What are five places where you have lived?**

  1. California
  2. Germany
  3. Virginia
  4. Colorado
  5. North Carolina

What are five jobs I have had?

  1. Teacher
  2. Waitress at Sonny’s Real Pit Barbecue
  3. Student Worker in the Science Library at UGA
  4. Student Worker in the Financial Aid Office at Macon College
  5. Temp. Bleh.

What five or six people do I want to tag?

Well, this is hard for me because I can never tell if people like these things and want to be tagged and included, or not. So I tag the following folks, who only have to play if they feel like it (no pressure):

* Because it’s so late, and the only thing on my to-do list at this hour is to blowdry my hair and go to bed, perhaps read, this is tomorrow’s list.

** I didn’t include my current residence because I think most people know that about me. However, it might be a surprise to learn I have lived in some of the other places.

Teaching Shakespeare Mini-Institute

Michael LoMonico let me know of a change in this summer’s Teaching Shakespeare mini-institute in Georgia.  The event will now take place at Glennwood Academy in Decatur from June 9-13 and includes a trip to the Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern on Thursday the 12th to see Much Ado About Nothing. The workshop is free, and teachers attending will receive a $500 stipend.  Hurry and register!  The deadline is this Friday, May 9.

Register here.

If I can get approval, I’ll see you there.  I will have to miss two days of post-planning.

Week in Reflection, April 28-May 2

Our Spring Break was last week, so I didn’t post a reflection.  As this was the week of our return to school, and we have also entered that final stretch of the year, I’m not sure either I or the students were as plugged in as usual.

My seniors basically have two weeks left because our school allows them to finish early.  Next week and the week after, they will be working on a final paper for me.  This week, we finished watching A Streetcar Named Desire, and I was struck again by Brando’s performance.  You probably know this bit of trivia, but Brando was the sole member of the core cast not to receive an Academy Award, though he was nominated.  Vivian Leigh won Best Actress for her portrayal of Blanche; Kim Hunter won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Stella; and Karl Malden won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Mitch.  The Best Actor award that year, however, went to Humphrey Bogart for his performance in The African Queen.

My ninth grade students are working through grammar.  One class finished up phrases and started on clauses.  The other class learned about active and passive voice and began discussion of Toni Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye.

The tenth grade writing class I teach presented Power Point presentations.  So often our kids add animations, busy backgrounds, and too much text, then read the text rather than use it as a guide for the audience.  Despite my instructing students on the perils of Death by Power Point, a few of their presentations included some of the problems I’ve mentioned, and I am frustrated that I somehow was not able to communicate how to avoid these issues to my students.  Also, I am frustrated by the fact that in order to be successful, they had to unlearn bad Power Point habits, which may explain why all of them weren’t successful.  We need to teach kids how to use Power Point correctly from the start.  I think too many teachers are a little too impressed by all the bells and whistles and actually reward students for making cluttered, busy, and ultimately unreadable presentations because they themselves don’t know how to do some of the things the students do, thus the teachers assume it’s hard and took a lot of time and effort.  Let’s face it, our students have become accustomed to being rewarded for style over substance.

The last two days of the week, my writing class began a unit on SAT preparation and practice.  I have evaluated SAT essays in the past, and as I haven’t done so for quite some time, I suppose it’s safe to disclose this fact.  Students generally find this unit to be very helpful.  I have been using Sadlier-Oxford’s helpful Grammar and Writing for Standardized Tests as a guide; I highly recommend this book, as it focuses on the SAT’s writing section (error correction, sentence and paragraph correction, and essay).

Learners4Life

Lisa Huff has created a wiki called Learners4Life where those of us interested in exploring Write Beside Them (which I mentioned in my last post) can gather, discuss, question, journal, interact, respond, and all the other million things you can do with a wiki. In order to join up, all you have to do is

  1. Pick up a copy of the book. My order is being shipped Monday, according to Amazon, but your mileage may vary.
  2. Join us over the wiki, and follow Lisa’s directions there.

That’s it! I like love it that Lisa set it up so that we can use the wiki to discuss future books.