With the imminent approach of parent teacher conferences, I am interested in some reflections from my students over the past 9 weeks (this means we are halfway through the semester-yahoo). What do you think? Has class meet your expectations? What is challenging you? What is exciting you about class? Also, I would encourage you to reflect back over the projects we have accomplished this semester and evaluate those as well. Take a look at what other classes have done:
English Nine podcasts:
www.smithenglish9.blogspot.com
This I Believe podcasts
English Nine Honors SAT vocab assignment:
www.annesmith9h.blogspot.com
Wonder Woman Gone Country
English Literature scribe:
www.smithewl.blogspot.com
Daily Scribing
Also, think of this, I will be sitting in the gym for three and one half hours each night for two nights over the parent teacher conference time, what do you want your parents to know?
38 comments:
When parents come in for conferences, I would encourage them to ask about the use of projects, group work and the time spent with laptops. Basically, I would suggest that parents ask all of the typical conference questions.
I think that this first quarter has been a learning experience for me. I personally was not ready for one-night papers and the Macbeth tests.
After nine weeks though, I have properly adjusted to the expectations of high school. I have learned to worry more about whether I am completing the assignments and my personal understanding then whether I got an A.
As for my favorite part, I think I stand alone in this, but I really enjoy vocab. I like learning new words and ways to use them.
For parents: Parents should ask not only about assignments but also growth there child made during the year.
Just in general, "normal" parent-teacher quesions. Such as: any continual problems? Does he/she need any help in any areas? Do YOU (the teacher) need any help?
I think the semester has been going well in general. I also agree that general conference questions would be good. But parents should learn about what their kids have done before they go into conferences. I have really enjoyed the laptops, too. They have really made it easier for me to learn.
I just love the whole class in general. It's out of the ordinary so I pay attention better and it just flies by. I just want parents in general to know how much we've accomplished and how hard we worked. I'm also a much faster typer but I don't think that is what you were asking for.
I think that this class is awesome because it isn't full of small pointless things we won't really ever need. Instead, we're going really deep, looking past the text and discovering the message the author was trying to leave us. I've never really taken such an interactive class where the STUDENTS take charge, and I think it's a much more effective way of learning. Fishbowls take it to the extreme and I enjoy it because a lot of the ideas are things I would never think of on my own. I totally agree with joanneh there.
I would want to tell my parents that all this work isn't just the norm busy work. It actually is helping me learn and remember instead of short term memorize.
I want my parents to know that it wont be that difficult to bring up my grade and that what we are doing is working and fun. I think that i have gotten much much better at discussing and thinking things deeper when i read them. I now ask questions and have deep ideas when I read and i didn't used to. This class has met my expectations and exceded them. I didnt think i would have to work this hard although I have my grade because of spacing things like the writing conference. Using the laptops to blog and the fishbowl is very exciting for me.
The exciting think about this class is working with the laptops. It is so different from the normal classroom that it is so exciting to come to class.I think that the parents at conferences to really learn all about this class and to really take all of this in. This is NOT education as the usual.
In this first part of the semester, I have been challenged mostly with finding out how to ask good questions. At first, I would put a sticky note on every page and asked questions about things that didn't really interest me. Then Ms. Smith told us to annotate the things that meant something to us. I think that know I am asking better questions, and although I still have a lot of sticky notes, they are about important things that I've read.
I think my parents should be made aware of how we are challenging the system with our learning and how we are all positively affected by it. I think we have all advanced our thinking to some degree because of how we are learning.
Half way through the semester and I have survived high school so far!! I have enjoyed English honors for the most part, even though at times it has been very difficult. At the beginning of the semester, when we were reading Macbeth, I was having a difficult time keeping up. I do think that Macbeth was hard to start the year out with, but it was also a good preparation for the rest of the year. I think that the class has definitely met my expectations, but I am not really sure what my expectations were in the first place. I do enjoy the class, though, especially with the laptops!! They have really helped me, and I really enjoy not having "education as usual". The class is challenging, but I like a good challenge, because it prepares you for future references.
This first half of the semester has been so much fun! I love english class, and I always can't wait to come in to class. One thing is that I love the environment of our class. It's so comfortable and fun, its so easy to be yourself! Also, there are so many fun activities that we do. For instance, the vocabulary activities, although they are kind of hard, they are so much fun to work on. I'm surprised how much each of the activities have helped me learn too. Also, I've learned to annotate in books, think of connections, and remember important facts about each book for a quiz.
When talking to parents, I would like them to know about how comfortable our environment is and how much we have grown from our learning experiences. I want them to see some of our vocabulary projects and see how they helpl our grades when it comes to vocab quizzes. Also, see what amazing things that we have done on the laptops! Other than that, jus tthe normal stuff about how much we've improved since the beginning of the year to how we are now.
These past 9 weeks have been great in Smith's english class. The projects we have done with the SAT Vocab have been fun and have helped me a ton with learning the new words. I have noticed that I've been doing relatively better on the SAT quizzes and I can recognize the words and actually use them. The class has definitely met my expectations because i never expected to use laptops in any of my classes, but it's definitely made life easier.
When our parents come in for conferences i think we should share with them all of the things we are able to do on the laptops so far and how much they have taught us so far this year. Also you should tell them about the activities and projects that we have done with our vocab and how well we have done on our vocab and how much it is heloing us learn. I
I think that this class has met all of my expectations and that this class has been great for me. i have had an outstanding time. This class has been both challenging and fun.
I think this class is really cool-I love having a laptop to use, and any information I need at my fingertips. It was slightly annoying in the beginning when you didn't know what to do, but it is so fun every day in class.
Well, i'm gonna have to say the amount of work assigned is moderate to heavy. i definitely think parents should ask about how laptops are changing our learning experience and what this class is doing to change the style of learing
For parent teacher confrences, I would just like my parents to know that I have really enjoyed this class thus far. The homework load, like what has been said earlier, has really showed me what high school is like. I do have the most home work in this class, but I complete it and I've been doing fine. Id like my parents to talk about the meaning of lap tops in this calss, and I would like them to ask questions about homework. I would also just like them to ask how I'm doing individually, and maybe about what other students and parents think about the class.
The first nine weeks for me, at least, have not been the most fun. I'm beginnning to feel that with the laptops, the work levels have increased dramatically in comparison to my Honors English classes in 6,7 and 9th grades. I feel that while the blogs aren't really hard to do, they become hard to complete on time for me. I always do them, but I'm usually a day or two late because they are sometimes assigned right as we're walking out the door, so I forget. This is my fault. The projects that we do in class that I work really hard on aren't graded. The bumper stickers, the pick-up lines and the other activities could really help my grade, but they can't if they aren't graded. I guess thats about it. I wish we could do xtra credit.
With the imminent approach of parent teacher conferences, I am interested in some reflections from my students over the past 9 weeks (this means we are halfway through the semester-yahoo). What do you think? Has class meet your expectations? What is challenging you? What is exciting you about class? Also, I would encourage you to reflect back over the projects we have accomplished this semester and evaluate those as well. Take a look at what other classes have done:
This class has definately met my expectations. I has pushed me, but not too far. I am learning alot and I really enjoy this class. I espeacially like the fishbowl discussions and the live blogging. I like all of the projects since they all help me understand what we are working on more.
sjSo far this semester, I have improved my vocabulary and I am getting better at tests. I struggled at the beginning of the year, but now I am pulling up my grades. I would like to work on getting better grades on blogs and getting them done.
Class has definitely met my expectations and it has gone far beyond. I didn't know that I would be having a laptop class at the begining of the year. I thought it was going to be just another boring English class. However, I would like to uses the laptops more than just with bacsic look at the text online things.
I really enjoy using the laptops and think that they are a big help in class. Fishbowl disscussions are fun. I really have never like Socratic Seminars before, but with the laptops in fishbowl, i really do enjoy it. You don't just talk to get your two points, you talk for the point of the discussion. I found Mscbeth hard to follow along in class, but it did teach me a lot about how to take notes. The work load is decent-- i never take out LA binder out of my backpack. But the load is not unbearable. I really do enjoy the class and have been learning a lot.
I want my parents to know that I am quite happy with this class. I love the laptops, and I think that they have enhanced everyone's learning. My grades are coming up (slowly.) I'd say that this has been the most engaging class I have ever taken.
I wany my parents to learn about the books we've been reading and the projects we've been doing so they can halp me and know wha is going on. I don't think that talking about grades is something that needs to be discussed because my parents check my grades almost every day and they also can check it when ever they want and its a waste of both of your time.
I wany my parents to learn about the books we've been reading and the projects we've been doing so they can halp me and know wha is going on. I don't think that talking about grades is something that needs to be discussed because my parents check my grades almost every day and they also can check it when ever they want and its a waste of both of your time.
I think this class has been really fun, especially because of the laptops, because i would much rather learn on the computer where everything is fast-paced instead of a textbook clase where we get lectured all day. A challenge for me is that we read A LOT, but i know it will do me good and I guess i can take on the challenge! I think it is also cool that we knew our final at the beginning of the year and that we focus on one thing the whole symester. My favorite thing so far is doing the "This I Believe" podcasts!
At parent teacher conferences, I think that you should comment on all the new and creative things we're doing in the class and try to stay away from all the negative things.
I am in Smith's 5th period honors class, and it has turned out to be way better than I thought it was going to be. Using laptops for our class has been so amazing. I don't know if the English would have been fun if we did not have laptops. I also like what Zach said about my classmates, and they are all very smart people. Smith is an amazing teacher, and I look forward to the rest of the year!
This is my favorite class this semester. The computers make everything so much easier, to look up a word all you have to do is type in dictionary.com and then the word. It's simple, it's fast. The discussions, when people are participating, can be very interestiong and, well, deep. This isn't learning as normal. It's not what I expected a ninth grade english class to be, it's on a much higher level.
I feel as though that it is a smart idea to have our class use laptops everyday. In the real world we use technology everyday. This class has met my expectations of what a class should be. In this class there is a wide Varity of assignments that I can actually look forward to doing. The only thing that is challenging me in this class is really just keeping track of papers.
Other classes are much blander than this class because all of the other classes use old fashioned ways of teaching. This class also saves money for the school. There is no paper wasted from this class.
The projects are much easier to keep track of and they are much easier to do.
I think my mom will be coming to conferences and my guess is that this will be one of the number one classes she wants to visit. What I want her to here is how I individually am doing in the class and why it's that way. I also want her to know about the books and projects we will be reading/doing.
I think that we should encourage parents that the laptops we use are great tools for our learning, not that any parents think they are bad, but any that don't should know that they are awesome to use. Honors class has really pushed me to work harder, becuase I have never been in a honors class, so I seriously had no idea what it would be like. I have learned to share my ideas with the class and to think more outside the box. I have really learned alot from this class and I hope that I will have it again next semester.
When parent come in for conferences, I think its extremely important that they don't focas soley on the students grade. Although this is imporant it shouldn't be the sole focas of the meeting. Ask about projects and other thing that we have done in class.
Coming into this class, I think I had either the wrong expectations, or a different idea of what it would be like. In all of my english classes before, we have basically written essay, read books, and done a little amount of research on topics. I thought this class would be similar, just at a higher level...I was wrong. This class is truly not education as usual. I have never been expected to annotate entire books, and I thought, although tedious sometimes, it helped me think more about what the book was really saying and take more away from the texts. Also, I have never been in a class that spent 6 weeks on one text like we did with Macbeth. I really liked that we did so much with it and not just blow right through it. I also thought all the projects we have done have been really interesting--some I have no idea why we do it, and others I really like how it connects with what we are learning. When the parents come for conferences, I think it would be helpful to explain how helpful the lap tops have been!! Many of them might consider them useless, but they have assisted in deeper levels of learning throughout this nine weeks!!
Class has definitely met my expectations and I look forward to English every day. I feel challenged in many ways in class. SAT Vocab has been a challenge because I find studying for the quizes difficult. Also, writing satisfactory papers has also been a challenge because the expectations are higher. I am always excited for this class because I love having laptops. I feel like a trusted and responsible adult because I have the privilege of a laptop and I feel like the limits on learning have been significantly expanded. In addition, I love coming to class everyday because of the people in my class. My classmates are friendly, love to learn and make the atmosphere in the classroom exciting and enjoyable. One of my favorite assingments we have every week is the activity we do on Wednesdays to use our vocab words. These activites, which have included bumper stickers, country songs and movie posters, have taught me that vocab is useful and a colorful vocabulary creates a more interesting world. I would like my parents to know that I work hard in English and I am enjoying every minute of it.
I think that this is an honors class as it should be. The work load has been challenging but manageable. And the books we've read aren't like the ones I read in middle school. Let's just say that compared to them, these books are like a dandelion in a recently bombed and still radioactive area. (And they are anyway, but that's just a comparison!). And, as a cherry on a chocolate sundae, blogging is the cherry on top of my English Honors 9 class. Although Macbeth was about as enjoyable as gettting four teeth pulled within five minutes, it really helped me to understand the writing style of the glorious William Shakespeare. Pwease tewl my mommy wut a gweat cwass dis is.
I love being in laptop class, I feel like it enhances learing opportunities all of the time. This class has really met my expectations, it was everything that I wanted to get a chance to do and more. I think that we are challenged everyday to think and analyze for ourselves. This class offers so much, I love that Ms. Smith always gets us involved, like when we acted out Macbeth, instead of just reading it. I love the projects that we have done for our vocab in this class. My favorite by far was creating a song about Wonder Woman for a podcast that was later posted on our blogger webpage. As I said before, having laptops has truly enhanced the way I have been learning in, this is not education as usual.
I think you should share this post and these comments (well, there are probably too many, but at least share the one from their student). I think that in addition to talking about their student, you should share some of the student's work (again, if you have time), and your hopes and dreams for what their student will learn (and become) in your class.
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