Monthly Archives: September 2016

9/30/2016

by

I love teaching Canterbury Tales. Okay, actually, I love explaining the jokes and teaching indirect characterization, but close enough, right?

Thank you to my singers:

Shelton, Austen, Manuel, Trent, Wyatt, Luke, Shane, Nathan, Mickey, (and I know I’m forgetting some UNFORGETTABLE singers!

Today, we read about the Pardoner, the Summoner, and the Friar – some of the more corrupt church officials. We added a bit to our Little Book today, and we ended the day with a linear array:

I gave you a bunch of words that are related to good and bad and you essentially mapped out the degree to which the words are related. linear array

So, for tiny is smaller than medium, so it goes to the left. Gargantuan is larger than huge, so it goes to the right.

I’ve also given you the characters to place on the array to show where you think they belong: they don’t need to be assigned a word!

9/29/2016

by

We pulled out the little books that we made in class yesterday and wrote down a sentence about the characters that we read.

The skill we are working on is identifying and analyzing author’s viewpoint. You’ll see this on the test next week with quotes and phrases like “From this quote, one can tell that the author feels…” or “This quote shows…”

authors-purpose

Notice that I *gave* you the sentences in purple. Just copy those down. Notice that I started the sentence fr you in yellow. You’ll finish those sentences off today on our own. Tomorrow, you are going to write your own sentences that show how Chaucer feels about the characters.

We read The Wife of Bath, the Parson, and the Plowman today. In 4th period, we also talked a little about the Nun (or the Prioress). If you weren’t here, go back and read those three sections, either in the textbook or on No Fear Canterbury Tales.

Our test is next Thursday, so please make sure you are keeping up with what we are doing in class.

I know that Skyward isn’t showing you your 1st 6 weeks (MP1) grades right now – I don’t know how to fix that, bu I can tell you that I haven’t put the two grades that I’ve collected in the grade book yet. I’m hoping to do that this afternoon for at least one!

Riley’s Code of Chivalry

by
  1. I will have the courage to teach my students the best way I know how, even if that means embarrassing myself or questioning people/policies that I don’t think are in the best interest for my students. I got your back, guys!
  2. I will hold myself to the same expectations that I have for my students, whether it be for behavior or academics. I understand what is equal is not always just, and because of that, I have to treat people differently.
  3. I will be merciful in my grading and my words. I will forgive students when they are having a bad day and hope that they, too will forgive me when I am having a bad day. I will let them redo assignments if they learned the material.
  4. I will be generous with my time. If a student needs help, I will help them before school, during Panther Den, during lunch, and after school. I will spend time reading what they write. If they take the time to do an assignment, I’ll take the time to grade it.
  5. I will be faithful to the mission statement of the school, “Empowering lives through learning.” I will be faithful to my students and not intentionally betray them. I will be honest and truthful with my grades, assignments, and report cards.
  6. I will not only be the best teacher that I can be for my students, I will continue to try and improve. I will make sure that my actions help my students and that I do not intentionally hurt them academically, socially, or emotionally. I want my students to graduate from Klein Oak with the skills necessary to accomplish their goals and to look back on my classroom with fond remembrance.
  7. I will try my best to make sure that my classroom is a safe place for all learners. No one should come to my classroom feeling nervous or like they don’t belong. Even if they fail an assignment, I want them to have hope that they can pass my class and graduate. I will be hopeful when they cannot. I will uphold the Texas Educator’s Code of Ethics and be the kind of teacher that I want my own children to have one day.

https://vriley.edublogs.org/2012/01/17/the-eight-big-ones/

The Seven Knightly Virtues

The Athlete’s Code of Chivalry

9/23/2016

by

So I graded the tests and first things first: #15 was kind of a flop question. I went back and looked at it and decided that that wasn’t a fair question, so I dropped it. Then I noticed that the matching section on the scan-tron really messed with people, especially in 2nd and 3rd period – before we realized what was going on. So, if you have an asterisk (*) in the grade book, that means the test hasn’t been entered yet, either because you were absent or because we have fix your bubbling.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with the scores. We will do reteach/retest next week, so check Enriching Students to see when and where you’ll be.

However, if you feel like your test score should have been higher, send me an e-mail and I will manually grade it. I have had a few students that had marks on the answer document that confused the printer and ended up getting higher grades than originally thought!

Today, we just finished The 13th Warrior and I was scrambling trying to get people to turn in missing work.

Have a great weekend – I know Autumn started on the 21st, but fall does’t officially start for me until the 2nd 6 Weeks! 🙂

9/22/2016

by

Test day today! So, while I’m officially on campus, I do have a sub. I’m working with my wolf pack today, planning out the second 6 weeks. I’m confident that you will do well with Ms. Miller and the substitute teacher today. Just be careful, especially with the matching section. A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4, E=5, and F=6. Mark this like you’d mark a math question.

Use a pencil so you can easily erase if need be. I should have these graded and in Skyward tomorrow!

9/21/2016

by

Today we reviewed for the test tomorrow! Ms. Miller and I wandered around the room gathering late work, helping with the review games. A few notes – the first two items in the Beowulf Review folder were made SPECIFICALLY for this test. All of the other games are games that I created over the past ten years. This means there will be items in those games that I did not teach this year: literary foil, Unferth, pyre, lament, and a few other details.

I did warn people that I have been extremely lenient with accepting late work this 6 weeks because we’ve had a lot of issues to deal with, but I am not going to be this easy going with late work next grading period.

9/20/2016

by

I am SWAMPED (get it?) by people turning in late work. This is going to have to stop next 6 weeks. I’m spending all of my time grading late work rather than preparing for class. Who wants to do worksheets and memorize facts for some test? I’d rather you learn!

I have been contacting parents if I’m super worried about you. If I haven’t gotten to yours yet, don’t worry – I will!

Today, We just watched more of The 13th Warrior, played review games, and Ms. Miller worked with people.

We are going to review for the test tomorrow and *hopefully* finish the movie on Friday. Based on my classes performances during the movie this week, I don’t think that we’ll be having very many in the future. It gave me more work that I needed – I had to get people to stop talking, redirect people, and wake people up. I spent the past two days very frustrated and don’t plan on doing that to myself again anytime soon. I’m not going to assign busy work while we watch a movie – that creates even MORE work for me.

Play those review games!