Shakespeare and Star Trek

Yes I'm on fire today. Shakespeare and Star Trek VI. Go nerds!

Animaniacs and Shakespeare

I just couldn't resist. The Animaniacs on Shakespeare's Hamlet, Macbeth, and a Midsummer Night's Dream:

Julius Caesar Rap

Also I'm working on a unit for Julius Caesar and found this clip from the Bill Cosby Show. I think that's all the introduction this clip needs. Enjoy!

Breakin It Down : Shakespeare Style

Yes, I know it's been quite a while since I've posted BUT I blame my internship this semester. Today I'm preparing an introductory unit to Shakespeare when I stumbled upon this little gem of a video. I will say I think this would be suited for higher grades (10-12th) as opposed to the younger kiddos (6-9th), but it's engaging and HYSTERICAL. Enjoy!

"The Best Teaching Tip Ever"

This post comes as a tip of my hat to my cooperating teacher for internship. As we worked together during pre-planning she, and I quote, gave "the best teaching tip ever." Are you ready for this?

Wait for it.....

Here it is: PRINT ALL OF YOUR TESTS ON RED COPY PAPER.

You probably weren't expecting that were you? Well according to her experience in the classroom of 30+ years this prevents students from cheating on the test because they cannot accurately read another student's answers.

Boom. So, start stocking up on red copy paper fellow teachers! Enjoy!

Changing Education Paradigms

Every single individual involved in education today should take 10 minutes and watch this video. It is inspiring, informative, and important. Enjoy!

A Poem A Day

Might make the doctor go away, but it certainly will expose your students to the world of poetry and perhaps instill an interest in this form of literary expression.

My excellent internship teacher gave me the heads up about Poetry 180 that provides a poem for every day of the school year.

Check it out and be inspired to make poetry a part of your every day curriculum! Also due my inspiration from Poetry 180, I have included one of my absolute favorite poems by X. J. Kennedy called "Nothing In Heaven Functions As It Ought" Enjoy!

Nothing in Heaven functions as it ought:

Peter's bifocals, blindly sat on, crack;

His gates lurch wide with the cackle of a cock,

Not turn with a hush of gold as Milton had thought;

Gangs of the slaughtered innocents keep huffing

The nimbus off the Venerable Bede

Like that of an old dandelion gone to seed;

And the beatific choir keep breaking up, coughing.

But Hell, sleek Hell, hath no freewheeling part:

None takes his own sweet time, none quickens pace.

Ask anyone, "How come you here, poor heart?"—

And he will slot a quarter through his face.

You'll hear an instant click, a tear will start

Imprinted with an abstract of his case.

Technology Biographies

This is going to be a super quick post because I am drowning with end-of-the-semester papers, but while I was researching for one of those said papers I stumbled upon this excellent idea:

Technology Biographies!

In the article "Fresh Perspectives on New Literacies and Technology Integration" by Labbo and Place (2011), they describe an assignment where they "ask students to write the story of their lives through the lens of the technologies they use and enjoy. Many students have years of multi-literacy expertise that they can bring into the classroom."

How awesome would it be to hear how your students implement technology beyond the classroom? Also it could provide you as a teacher with a way to assess their knowledge of technologies including new ways to implement them in the classroom. Plus we all know students are into technology, from iPhones to iPads, and having them write on something they already are interested in could boost levels of engagement.

Needless to say, this is a writing prompt that I would love to use in my classroom. If I have a chance to do so in the fall, I will let you know how it works out!

Enjoy!

Poetry, Art, and Music

I know, you guys are probably getting spoiled by my continuous posting lately, but sometimes resources tend to find your way to your laptop in their own time like this little gem below.

I have yet to teach poetry, but I imagine that a majority of students are often confused by the mere idea of it or its possibilities. I have always loved the art myself, but I want to find a way to make it interesting and accessible to students. I think this video, a performance by a singer/songwriter/poet named Tanya Davis and filmed by videographer Andrea Dorfman, is just too beautiful to pass up.

Here is "How to Be Alone" by Tanya Davis. Enjoy!

Harry Potter!

As a future English teacher, I have to admit that one of my obsessions, beside Shakespeare, has to be Harry Potter. I look for ways to incorporate J.K. Rowling's literary genius into my lesson designs (especially using sentences for grammar instruction!) Students seem to humor me and my love of all things HP, but I often found some students had yet to watch the movies or read the books (a tragedy in and of itself). Today one of my buddies Jason Mundie, (who happens to be an excellent wedding photographer; you can check his site out here) sent me this video of a summary of all the HP movies via song.

It is glorious.

Also, spoiler alert people! If you haven't read the books or watched the movies, then skip this post! ENJOY!

I love Shakespeare.

I love Shakespeare.

But what I love even more than his way with words has to be the humor it evokes. I have no idea what this could be used for in the classroom besides that it's absolutely hysterical. Enjoy!

Happy 4th of July

To celebrate the independence of our grand nation, I present this Muppet tribute.

Sadly I will, as far as I know, not be teaching during the month of July, but if I were I would show this to my class in a heart beat. It doesn't get better than Sam the Eagle.

Happy 4th of July everybody!

Bad Teacher: A Review

This weekend I went to the beach with a five other ladies in the same Secondary English Education program. While we were having our vacation, we decided to catch the newly released flick Bad Teacher. The film stars Cameron Diaz as a character who embarks on the field of teaching simply to earn a few bucks. Her co-stars include Justin Timberlake, playing a creepy substitute teacher and Jason Segel as a likable gym teacher.

First let me warn you. It is rated R and it certainly earns it's restricted rating. And overall it's quite an awful film. The only slightly humorous parts are shown in the trailers, as is the practice of most lack-luster movies these days. After seeing the film I think what bothered me the most, besides Diaz's breathtakingly annoying performance, was their portrayal of teachers. At one point in the movie Diaz asks Jason Segel's character, "What went wrong in your life that you became a middle school gym teacher?"

Even though it had a lot of potential, the film did deliver on one part of it's title: BAD. So, to make up for it, I have compiled a list of teacher-must-see movies and they are as follows:

1.) Dead Poet's Society. If I could steal any cinematic portrayal of the first day of class, it would be this one. So. Good. Plus Robin William's performance is impeccable. Diaz, take note.

2.) Waiting For Superman: Nothing but an inspirational documentary film about the present state of our education system. A must see if you are entering or participating in any aspect of education.

3.) Freedom Writers: I hear this is a classically "teachers make a difference" movie. Honestly I have yet to see this film, but I hear it's always on the top of any teacher's list.

4.) Finding Forrester: Okay, I know it has my last name in the title, but really it's such a wonderful movie about writing, reading, and authorship. It might be a little obscure, but trust me, it's a winner.

5.) School of Rock: This movie is just plain fun. Rock 'n roll. Guitars. Students. Enough said.

6.) The First Grader: This movie is a true story of a villager in Kenya that wants to go to school even at age 84. I haven't seen the film, but just by the trailer alone it looks as inspiring as it appears. I'll let you know what I think after I see it for myself!

Happy movie watching!

Hiatus

Hey everyone!

So I apologize for the hiatus on this here blogola but between 3 summer classes and working 2 new jobs I kinda got behind around here. Now that we have an apology out of the way, it's time for NEW technologies! I know. So eager, aren't you?

I took a class on Elizabethan and Shakespeare literature this summer. We read a fascinating article about the possibility of Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I meeting, and having a friendship of sorts. To coincide with our discussion on the article I made the video below using BLABBERIZE. Another site similiar to the one I used is called Fotobabble (it leans more toward a PhotoStory set up), but personally I thought Blabberize was a lot easier to use. If you haven't checked out this site, then you should. It's absolutely hysterical AND a great way to engage some of your less enthused students. I've thought about using Blabberize for character analysis as well.

Enjoy my video. And yes I did all of the voices myself.

Teach Me How To Study

My pre-teacher buddy showed me this video made by students in at a Charter School in Los Angeles. It's absolutely AMAZING! Enjoy!

Contxts

With the site Contxts.com you can text homework assignments to your students for FREE! If this is kosher with your school policy, this is an excellent way to remind students when assignments are due. The site was originally designed for business professionals to exchange business cards through text messaging. Essentially it is the same as texting your contact information, except it does not reveal your phone number.

All you have to do is enter your first and last name, create a username and password, and provide your number and email address. Next you add your homework to the "Your Txt Card" box. The "Txt Card" box only allows 140 characters, either you can send multiple messages or keep it short! Once you enter your information, click submit!

Then the site will give you directions to tell your students how to access the text messages. It will say something along the lines of "tell your friends to txt msforrester to 50500." Once my students text "msforrester" to the number 50500 then they will receive the homework assignment!

Now you can send reminders or homework assignments to your classes! How cool is that!?

Qwiki

A few weeks ago I found this awesome site, Qwiki.com that shows images and plays audio concerning information on just about anything you can think of. I thought this would be a great way to introduce some background knowledge before entering a literature unit. So, in light of the holiday, enjoy this Qwiki on Easter!

View Easter and over 3,000,000 other topics on Qwiki.

Siftables

This is so amazing that my brain almost melted. Really.

MIT graduate student, David Merrill worked on these small computerized blocks that interact with one another. Watch the video below to see these ingenious blocks work together, and how they have the possibility to impact education.

Mixbook

Earlier in the semester, one of my classmates introduced us to this awesome FREE online resource called Mixbook.com. Essentially you upload photos and images to create your own digital photo book. The site also lends itself to educators where you can work on a year book for your class or school. For the edu edition, Mixbook provides free collaborative classroom tools, a secure online environment to promote interaction between students in your classroom, including a discount if you wanted to print books that your class creates!

I think this would be an excellent way to show case student writing, especially if you printed the book at the end of the semester. Perhaps you could use Mixbook as a presentation tool for students to work on their background knowledge before a literature unit. Also, while looking into Mixbook, I came across this blog from a teacher who highlights technology in his classroom. It's an excellent place for some innovative ideas, be sure to check it out!

Mixbook is easy to use and will excite your students to participate with this online scrapbook! For a 30 second demo on how to use Mixbook, watch the video below!

Glogster

The site, Glogster.com is an excellent place for projects with ELA because you can create your own posters online! I'm sure this would work for other content areas such as Science or History for fact based reports. What is so captivating about the site is its usability. The posters are interactive; you can include video and music files which would be impossible with traditional paper posters. It's incredibly easy to upload photos and pick from their wide range of stickers, images, backgrounds, fonts, and colors to give your poster its own pizzaz.

For example, see the poster to your left that was created for a report on Harriet Tubman. Through Glogster, you can engage a student's prior knowledge or scaffold prior knowledge into your own presentation. This technology would also be great for generating posters that you create as a class such as one that highlights writer moves or things that students should remember for an upcoming exam. I've seen Glogster used in middle school classes and it was well received by the students. I would recommend working through the education version of Glogster, as some posters on the regular edition might be inappropriate for school. Either way, the site is free and for a fee can be used by entire school systems or individualized classes. Check out the site and enjoy!

The Raven & The Simpsons

Yesterday, one of my professors mentioned that an intern she observed used the clip below to discuss Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. Gotta love The Simpsons! They also do a great summary of The Odyssey which might be fun to show students! Enjoy!

Chomp Chomp

Yesterday in my EDMD class (Integrating Technology into Curriculum), one of my classmates mentioned the site ChompChomp.com as a way to make grammar interactive for students.

If we're honest, grammar isn't the most fascinating of subjects for students, and this site tries to jazz things up a bit. ChompChomp.com provides online quizzes with accompanying handouts. This allows students to test their knowledge while receiving instant feedback and explanations on specific grammar concepts.

The site also provides a list of tips and tools to help answer your questions about grammar when you're pressed on time. The list of terms are a great resource for teachers who need a centralized place on the web to find that specific and elusive grammar concept.

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

Okay so I know it's April.

But, if you're working on a mini-lesson of alliteration an excellent example is the movie V for Vendetta including an emphasis on V's first speech. I found this video on YouTube that shows excellent motion animation of the typography. It's fascinating to watch and there are tons of these on the web, but I thought this was the easiest to follow for explaining alliteration. See how many V's you can count...

"To Be Or Not To Be"

Recently one of my friends sent me a link to this video via Twitter and I couldn't resist keeping it to myself. It could be a great motivator for students that refuse to memorize Shakespeare! If a toddler can grasp it, you can too!

Read This! And This!

During my pre-teaching last year, I asked my teacher who has been in the field for 30+ years what she would recommend a new teacher to read. She instantly said "You have to read Teach Like Your Hair Is On Fire!" She raved about the hilarious novel written by Rafe Esquith in 2007 about his classroom of 5th graders in Los Angeles. I instantly picked up the book and I have to agree with her insistence on ALL teachers to read Esquith's humorous and fascinating commentary on the state of education.

The second book she recommended I was slightly puzzled by. "And you have to read this," she said, holding up a copy of Cesar Milan's The Natural, Every Day Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems. I asked, "What does that have to do with teaching?" "Everything. Middle school students need an alpha leader, and not to say that students are dog-like, that's not it at all. It helps you put a new perspective on how you guide and manage your classroom." I haven't read this particular recommendation, but seeing how she has experience in the field for longer than I've been breathing, I plan to take her up on the suggestion.

Even though my experience in graduate school has been . . . well, challenging I have picked up three excellent books along the way. First off is the book by Jeffry D. Wilhelm entitled: "You Gotta Be The Book:" Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading with Adolescents. The reason I absolutely loved his perspective on teaching ELA was his incorporation of drama and fine art in the classroom. I also valued his true-to-life perspective and inclusion of specific students. It's a must have for any ELA teacher's library.

The second book I've become rather fond of is Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them: Risk, Voice, and Clarity in High School Writing. The excellence of this book lies in her direct classroom application. She gives a very detailed walk-through of how she structures her writing class and how you can incorporate those strategies into your own teaching. Plus a DVD comes with each book, a must watch, for future teachers. She even records the first day of teaching a new class which is quite a comfort for someone entering the profession for the first time.

The third and favorite book is Do I Really Have To Teach Reading? by Cris Tovani. Again this book outlines simple strategies for teaching reading in the classroom AND across content areas. As you can see, I'm a big fan of helpful real-life strategies as opposed to pure theory or philosophies of teaching. You MUST pick this up if the title has been running through your head!

If you have any suggestions, I'd LOVE to hear them! Feel free to leave your book suggestions in the comments below!

Mindomo

The site, Mindomo, is an excellent resource for thought maps. With the free account, you can create maps such as the one seen here for Othello. This might be great to include in class on a Smartboard as you brainstorm as a class.

Mindomo would also be valuable outside of the ELA content area, especially in mapping out scientific processes or relationships between historical events or persons. I am a visual learner, and I think incorporating tools like this could help with students who struggle with auditory learning.

Tagxedo

I found a site, similar in concept to Wordle called Tagxedo and it looks SO COOL!

You take word clouds and manipulate them into images such as the ones seen here. You can choose a variety of fonts, colors, and sizes. The site takes the document you upload and emphasizes the words based on frequency, like Wordle.

I think this would be an EXCELLENT activity to use with characterization. The students could pull descriptions from the text to enter into Tagxedo, then compose them to create a portrait of the character (or themselves). Check out their list of 101 Things To Do With Tagxedo too.

You can have these designs printed, shared digitally, or printed on t-shirts! Due to my undergraduate degree in Graphic Design, this site just seemed like too much fun not to mention!

And yes, even Tagxedo begs to ask, what team are you on?

Free Rice

I found this site will digging through the internet for educational tools. I do believe this is quite a little gem, if I do say so myself.

The site, Freerice.com, allows you to test your vocabulary knowledge. For each question you answer correctly, they donate 10 grains of rice which tends to add up to quite a bit since their launching of the site in 2007. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) distributes the rice that is donated from sponsors. From the site alone, Freerice fed 66,000 school children in Uganda.

Their basic purpose is to promote free education and solve world hunger. I absolutely LOVE this site. Also you could incorporate FreeRice if you're doing a unit on empathy for character studies.

For the vocabulary quiz, you can change the level (the hardest being 60), which I barely knew the words for even after the GRE! Excellent site. Excellent mission. Check it out!

Fan Fiction

For quite some time I have wondered where fan fiction could be found, our submitted to, since I was introduced to the concept in an undergraduate fiction writing class.

Behold. My search is over. FanFiction.net is a site where fans, obviously, can submit additions, prequels, sequels to some of their favorite movies, comics, or novels.

First thing I did on the site you ask? Search for HARRY POTTER of course! Is there really another option? Turns out this site is chock full of delightful HP Fan Fiction additions. Some excellent, others lacking, but all craving to capture the HP world we've come to know and love. For example, I found this story, that springboards off the character of Greyback (a nasty werewolf dude) and the idea that he has a daughter who is trying to escape the darkness within herself.

This would be an excellent activity to have students write a fan fiction piece and submit it to the site. Perhaps this would promote incentive because others will be able to see and read their work, and it allows them to bounce off of something they already enjoy from a book, movie, comic, or television show.

Also this is a side note, but they have a category of Fan Fiction specifically called "ANGST." Yesssssss. Enjoy perusing this highly entertaining site!

Learn Something Every Day

This site not only is absolutely hysterical, it could be an excellent jumping off place for creative journal entrees. If you open your class with free writing, you could include these images as a springboard for student writing topics.

For example, display the following illustration then ask your students:

If you could visit any planet, what would it be and why?

What is your first memory of ice?

Would you want to live in space?

Also note some images might not be classroom appropriate, so be careful with your selection. Enjoy these witty illustrations!

BrainFlips

I know, what an awesome name right? Well it lives up to the concept too, this site allows students to create their own stacks of flash cards online!

Confession: I wish I had this technology during my undergraduate degree. Maybe I would have done better at Art History!

You can search the site for pre-made decks that could coincide with your studies, OR make your own. From there, the cards are divided into three piles: Introduction Mode (for learning new information with question and answer side by side), Traditional Mode (just like real flash cards), and Response Mode (tests your knowledge as you enter a keyword or answer multiple choice).

The Deck Viewer allows you to test your knowledge based on the cards including a score card to see your progress and a timer. You can shuffle the deck, show them in order, OR (this is the coolest part) have SMART CARDS which shows the ones you continue to miss. BrainFlip also allows you to insert PICTURES and VIDEOS for your cards!

I think this would be an excellent tool to introduce to your students for test preparation, plus it is something they could use beyond your classroom and across content areas. Bravo BrainFlip!

Analogies

Even though this word sounds like algae, and just as exciting to students as seaweed, analogies are vital parts of reading and writing. Today I found a blog that lists some of the funniest analogies created by students. Here are a few examples:

She grew on him like she was a colony of E.Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

Her vocabulary was as a bad as, like, whatever.

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

Check out the rest of the blog for some excellently hilarious examples of analogies. Using interesting examples to scaffold with at the start of a mini-lesson could aid in engagement. Also why not throw in a comic for good measure?

Newspaper Blackout Poems

Last semester I had a excellent opportunity to work with Ms. Reed, an 8th grade teacher at Auburn Jr. High. During my observation there, she did a wonderful activity with poetry called blackout poems. Her inspiration for the lesson came from Austin Kleon who does Newspaper Blackout poetry on his blog. Ms. Reed explained to her class the process of selecting words from the newspaper articles and coloring in the ones they didn't want to include to form their personal poem. This also goes hand in hand with an activity my professor modeled with "found poetry." Similar idea where students bring in found materials such as labels, to-do lists, etc and change the spacing, line breaks, etc to create a poem.

These blackout poems worked wonderfully with the 8th graders and now I find myself scratching over articles from time to time. Also I want this shirt - I mean, how awesome would that be for casual Fridays?

Comics in the Classroom

During this semester, one of my professors did a grammar activity using comic strips. I happen to be a lover of comics because it combines three of my favorite things: writing, drawing, and humor.

With the activity our professor split us into groups and asked the following questions:

1.) Where do the artists use an ellipsis? What do you think might be significant about the location of the ellipses?
2.) What signals do you think the ellipses in these comics might be giving to readers? What do you think the readers are meant to do when they see the ellipses?

Turned out that the inquiry based grammar instruction provided some interesting conversation. It also allowed us (or our future students) to generate the jobs of ellipsis giving us ownership over what we were learning instead of being told the information by the teacher. I would highly recommend incorporating comics into grammar mini-lessons. The same professor also started each class with a comic that realized how the students might be feeling about school, and it gave a great light-hearted atmosphere to the start of a lesson. Try out Calvin and Hobbs or you can search a site like GoComics.com to find a specific comic or artist. Enjoy!

Commas and Ninjas

Like I said in my previous post, I taught a block on commas last week. Well after finding the Schoolhouse Rock video, I decided to search YouTube with the word commas and see what appeared.

Well I lucked out. ASK A NINJA did a segment on the lack or overuse of commas! It's absolutely hysterical and I can't wait to show this to my class. In the meanwhile, watch out for those spitting commas. They'll getcha!

Conjunction Junction

What's your function? Hookin up words, and phrases, and clauses.

I taught a lesson on commas last Wednesday to a class of 12th graders. During the entire 90 minute block I wanted to burst into this song about grammar, but the students had no idea what I was talking about. To enlighten them, I plan to show this video this week after a mini-lesson on sentence combining. It's hilarious and be warned, it will get stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Enjoy!

Wordle

On Friday night I was in my living room, spending some time with a few of my friends after a long week of school. As Ghost Adventures flickered on TV in the background, we started to talk about our classroom experiences. Two of my buddies are ELA Education Majors and one is in her semester of internship.

As I explained about my blog, she interrupted and asked, "Have you ever heard of Wordle?"

"Um...no."

"IT'S AWESOME! I use this with my students after they create a first draft of a paper or piece of creative fiction! It uses the words from the document you upload to place visual emphasis on the words that appear the most in your work. It helps students see what their piece emphasizes and it's a great place to start for quick writes."

Turns out, it is just as awesome as she said. You simply upload a document and create these awesome collages. Try it in your classroom and see how the students enjoy creating these word collages online!

MS 223

In 2010 I had the chance to volunteer with a school in the Bronx during my spring break. I returned this year leading a team of 28 other college students to work with teachers and students in the school. After returning home, I found that MS 223 snagged the cover of the New York Times Magazine with a compelling article about the state of education in the Bronx.

I could sit here and tell you all of the challenged that a school in the South Bronx of New York face, but in reality that is not what stuck with me after my time at MS 223. What struck a chord with me the most were the teachers. Principle Ramon Gonzalez, featured on the cover of this month's magazine, spoke with us while we worked in the school. When asked about the teachers he said,

"The thing about being a teacher here is it's not a job. It's a way of life."

After spending the week in the school, I know that his statement was true. Their passion for the students radiates from everything they do in the classroom, from lectures to greeting students in the hallway as they walk in each morning. These teachers are there for one reason and reason alone: the students. I had the opportunity to work with an 8th grade ELA teacher who was the epitome of passion. She inspired me to teach with a sense of urgency that I had yet to witness in a classroom. I aspire to the same vigor and excitement with my won students because I know the attitude of a teacher has the potential to make or break the academic success of their students.

Pick up a copy of the magazine this month and read the article, or you can visit it here online. The article provides great insight into the New York school system and how a dedicated faculty and administration can truly impact an entire neighborhood.

Magnetic Poetry

After writing the last post and considering haikus, I found HAIKUS ON ZOMBIES! Yes. Amazing. Here are a few examples:

I hunger for your

delicious cerebellum.

Where's the ice cream scoop?

The vegan zombie

cares not for sweet grey matter

they cry out for graaaaaaaaiiiiinnnnnns!

Then I remembered composing poetry on my fridge with a set of these:

I wondered if there was a version of these online that students could use to compose their own poems and I was RIGHT!

You can visit MagneticPoetry.com which allows you to play with the different sets. From there you can submit a poem or save your own. The only drawback is there are some less appropriate sets online that I would avoid for the school setting. If you could limit your students to particular sets that would be great. Or you could use this on a smart board to scaffold poem construction.

Regardless, I thought this was a fascinating idea and could be used in the ELA classroom. Enjoy!

Pixton

While researching for my course "Integration of Technology in Curriculum," I stumbled upon this lovely site named Pixton.

What's great about this site is you and your students can create online comic strips for free! It has a ton of features that allows you to generate your own comics. For teachers, you get a few great perks like free rubrics with which to grade said comic strips. Also other students can comment on their fellow classmate's comic strips. I thought this would be an excellent resource to engage some students who would have issues visualizing the story world or even grasping grammar lessons.

Here is one example of a comic that illustrates a haiku:

You can incorporate the use of comic strips into other content areas, like science where this student used his comic strip to explain the difference between weight and mass:

I hope you have a chance to use this tool in your classroom! They also have a great comic on the use of adjectives which would be excellent to use to bring some excitement to grammar instruction. I think it would be a great way to incorporate a strategy to promote visualization in ELA. If I try it out with my 7th graders during my pre-teaching I will let you know how it goes!

Dear reader, user, viewer, audience member,

I am not a teacher.

Wait! Don't close the browser window!

Perhaps I just destroyed all the validity of this blog and its subject, but I felt compelled to shoot straight with you.

In reality, I am a Graduate Student attempting to achieve my certification through an Alternative Masters program in Secondary English Language Arts Education.

Even though I might not be a teacher, yet, this blog is where I will pool resources, articles, inspiration, commentary, and a few comical bits mixed in as I become a bona fide English teacher.

So, return for the aforementioned tid-bits and some retelling of my celebrations, misadventures, and realizations from University and Secondary classrooms.

Till then, cheers to the journey,

- Forrester