Lead teaching has been a challenge, but a good challenge. During the last week and 1/2, I have been lead teaching two 7th grade classes and one honors English class. Previously, I had not been making the lesson plans. Finally, I thought, I would be more prepared. Instead of watching my mentor teach her lesson and me mimicking it, I would would have a better grasp of the subject I was teaching. This was true, I did feel more prepared, but there were many aspects of the lesson that I would forget.…
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Added by Sandi Stupica on October 13, 2009 at 9:36pm —
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I have been selected as this year's award winner. I'd like to send a very special THANK YOU to all the seasoned, tenured, and veteran instructors & professors in MCTE who continue to inspire, guide, and mentor young teachers, like myself, to be better people and teachers for our students. In this new era of learning, we (young, aspiring teachers) are encouraged and find the motivation within ourselves to be "better" by the examples you all set. To all the mentors associated with "Teachers fo…
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Added by Salvador Barrientes Jr. on September 24, 2009 at 9:33pm —
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Hello -- My students and I are looking forward to the Fall conference...a valuable professional opportunity to exchange ideas and learn new strategies. See everyone soon!
NJ
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Added by Nancy Joseph on September 19, 2009 at 12:45am —
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Hi everyone,
I'm excited to announce that one of our long-time MCTE members, Troy Hicks, has a new book out--The Digital Writing Workshop (Heinemann, 2009). I read an early draft of this book and it makes very important connections between our actual classroom practices and the digital tools that are so readily available to us. Check it out!
http://heinemann.com/authors/productsByAuthor.aspx?id=5056
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Added by Robert Rozema on September 10, 2009 at 9:43am —
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Teach and Reach for Classroom Miracles! Lessons on Teaching With Love is an inspirational, motivational, and idea-filled book for teachers of every kind. Packed with compelling real-life classroom stories and excerpt from student letters, the book encourages educators to commit to teaching with love, not always an easy thing to do! It reveals that real love takes commitment, planning, and execution and provides ideas and strategies to actively and consistently express love every day. Visi…
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Added by Wendy Byard on September 10, 2009 at 9:15am —
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Hello MCTE folk!
Because of a last-minute job offer given to our only other English teacher, my school (Journey Alternative High School) is looking for an English teacher for this coming school year. While my principal would like to have someone who has experience as a reading specialist/teacher, we are definitely looking someone to teach English to grades 9-12.
We are an alternative school located in Ludington. We cater to three districts (Ludington, Mason County Central, and Baldwin), servic…
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Added by Tamiko Teshima on August 15, 2009 at 8:51pm —
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MCTE members and friends,
This site has just won the 2009 NCTE Affiliate Award. Here is a bit from the announcement I just received:
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As chair of the 2009 NCTE Affiliate Web Site Awards, it is my pleasure to inform you that the Michigan Council of Teachers of English has been selected as the winner of this year's award. Congratulations to you and your affiliate!
As you know, each site was judged on the…
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Added by Robert Rozema on July 18, 2009 at 4:38pm —
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The State Board of Education is calling for feedback on the requirements for the Michigan Nontraditional Route to Teacher Certification (MNRTC). This is an opportunity to provide Michigan certification for 18 credits and would let programs like TEACH for AMERICA set up certification separate from Teacher Preparation Institutions. Please take the time to first respond then share the link and encourage response within your professional community. Share it with people in your department, your stude…
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Added by Robert Rozema on June 12, 2009 at 10:03am —
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I'm a college English teacher who has written an inspirational new book for teachers, youth leaders, and anyone in a position to empower and uplift people. It's called:
Teach and Reach For Classroom Miracles! Lessons on Teaching With Love.
I hope you are interested to learn more! Please visit my website: wendybyard.com. Tell me what you think!
Thanks! And have a warm and wondeful summer!
Wendy
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Added by Wendy Byard on June 1, 2009 at 3:50pm —
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Just when you think it can't happen here: a text is being challenged by a group of conservative parents in Shelby, Michigan. The text in question is Toni Morrison's
Song of Solomon , and the teacher is a recent GVSU graduate, Jane Glerum. The name sounded familiar to me, and I remember now that Jane and her class also used my online role-playing game Thoughtcrime a few years ago. Here's a bit from a news article about the case:
Provocative’ book comes under fire in
…
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Added by Robert Rozema on May 17, 2009 at 10:24am —
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I wanted to share this latest experience with all of you. It was a writing assignment I gave them at the end of a short lesson on text features. Each student checked out a magazine and chose an article that used at least three text features we discussed in class. They then wrote a five paragraph paper evaluating the authors use of text features. Each of the three body paragraphs focused on one text feature (graphic aids, captions, titles, headings / subheadings, bold-faced words, etc.). Those pa…
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Added by Coach Thelen on May 12, 2009 at 2:49pm —
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This is a short note to say that I've added a couple of new pages under "Who We Are." The first is actually on our existing "Affiliate" page--now you can check out all of NCTE's state affiliates, or at least the ones with web sites. You can also find out what MCTE region you belong to and who your regional coordinator is on the new "regional map" page, also under the "Who We Are" feature.
Enjoy!
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Added by Robert Rozema on April 26, 2009 at 6:28pm —
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Added by Jory on April 19, 2009 at 7:03pm —
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I created my first lesson plan this semester for my ENG 311 Teaching Literature to Adolescents. I'm really proud to have accomplished this project. In the back of my mind, I am never absolutely positive about what I want to do with my life. After creating this unit and actually liking working on something so tedious and creative, I feel more and more like this is the right career choice for me. Below is a copy of my unit entitled:
A Bully by Any Other Name: Connecting Drowning Anna to High Scho…
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Added by Saralynn Bush on April 16, 2009 at 1:30am —
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Hi Everyone,
Troy Hicks, Sharon Armstrong Carol Trojanowski and myself just finished presenting the MDE Writing Across the Curriculum : English Language Arts document this past weekend. If you are interested in the powerpoint and materials for the session, you can view them at this link: http://hickstro.wikispaces.com/WAC_MRA_2009
Comments?
Questions?
Your experiences with WAC?
Lynnette Van Dyke
MDE ELA Consultant
vandykel@michigan.gov
517-241-3508
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Added by Lynnette Van Dyke on March 18, 2009 at 3:07pm —
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I've been teaching for eight years, but this is my first year as an ELA teacher. I was transfered to seventh grade ELA away from high school business and computers, where I had been for the past 6 years. One of my biggest struggles has been balancing the instruction and practice of (1) grammar (2) literature (3) composition and (4) spelling. To be honest, I have done very little with spelling and have observed that is something that will have to be brought back next year.
Class periods are only…
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Added by Coach Thelen on February 13, 2009 at 3:32pm —
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Remember to
save October 30, 2009 for the annual fall conference of the Michigan Council of Teachers of English.
MCTE's Autumn Assembly 2009 is scheduled for October 30, a Friday, at The Lansing Sheraton Hotel.
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Added by Kia Jane Richmond on February 4, 2009 at 5:57pm —
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I often have to point to multiple links in a single class period. Sometimes, I use
del.icio.us social bookmarking to accomplish this, though the site is a little ugly and doesn’t offer visual previews or thumbnails of the sites you are linking. I sometimes list them on this blog, though that involves a little bit of work. A new service, the weirdly named
Sqworl lets you gather multiple resources on a single page and combine them in…
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Added by Robert Rozema on January 20, 2009 at 3:23pm —
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I'm sure many of us have heard of wikis--and perhaps one great free wiki site called
Wikispaces. If not, a wiki is a collaborative web site that is easy to set up and perfect for collaborative writing assignments.
Troy Hicks has done some very cool stuff with wikispaces over the past few years.
I use wikispaces as a place for my literature methods students to write reviews of young adult nove…
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Added by Robert Rozema on January 16, 2009 at 11:00am —
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My principal signed us up for Aimsweb. I just administered the Reading CBM to 150 middle schoolers. I'm trying to find statewide and national norms. Apparently this is Top Secret information, because my question that was posted on their forum was deleted. My kids' average was approximately 140. Has anyone seen national norms for this?
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Added by Brian Perry on January 14, 2009 at 2:28pm —
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First Blog! Woot!
2009 Affiliate Developing Leaders Award
MCTE Fall Conference -- Oct. 30
Great Book on Digital Writing Tools
Let's put more love in our classrooms!
Now Hiring: Journey Alternative High School
Want to get inspired to teach?
Seventh Grade Writing Assignment
First Pedagogy Project
Writing Across the Curriculum Session
Fall 2009 MCTE Conference - Save the DATE!
Reading CBM Norms
