Blogs - Michigan Council of Teachers of English

Fighting Back

Everyone needs to know that there is a groundswell movement on the part of parents and teachers to stand on the steps of the capitol building in Lansing on December 3 and forcefully tell our legislators that they need to stop eviscerating education. There are other ways to balance the budget. Children should not be used as political pawns. If you can go to Lansing on December 3, please do. The more voters who are there, the better. Check with your friends, neighbors, parents, EVERYBODY and incre… Continue

Added by Patricia R Gilman on November 24, 2009 at 3:18pm — 1 Comment

First Blog! Woot!

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.… Continue

Added by Sandi Stupica on October 13, 2009 at 9:36pm — 2 Comments

2009 Affiliate Developing Leaders Award

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… Continue

Added by Salvador Barrientes Jr. on September 24, 2009 at 9:33pm — 2 Comments

MCTE Fall Conference -- Oct. 30

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 Continue

Added by Nancy Joseph on September 19, 2009 at 12:45am — 2 Comments

Great Book on Digital Writing Tools

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 Continue

Added by Robert Rozema on September 10, 2009 at 9:43am — 1 Comment

Let's put more love in our classrooms!

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… Continue

Added by Wendy Byard on September 10, 2009 at 9:15am — No Comments

Now Hiring: Journey Alternative High School

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… Continue

Added by Tamiko Teshima on August 15, 2009 at 8:51pm — No Comments

Site Wins NCTE Excellence Award

MCTE members and friends, This site has just won the 2009 NCTE Affiliate Award. Here is a bit from the announcement I just received: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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… Continue

Added by Robert Rozema on July 18, 2009 at 4:38pm — No Comments

State Asking for Feedback on Alternative Certification

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… Continue

Added by Robert Rozema on June 12, 2009 at 10:03am — 1 Comment

Want to get inspired to teach?

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 Continue

Added by Wendy Byard on June 1, 2009 at 3:50pm — No Comments

Sign in Support of Shelby Teacher

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

… Continue

Added by Robert Rozema on May 17, 2009 at 10:24am — 4 Comments

Seventh Grade Writing Assignment

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… Continue

Added by Coach Thelen on May 12, 2009 at 2:49pm — No Comments

Some additions

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! Continue

Added by Robert Rozema on April 26, 2009 at 6:28pm — No Comments

Final Project-"Teaching House on Mango Street as a Parent Text: Ninth Grade Literary Portraits"

pedagogyproject1.doc Continue

Added by Jory on April 19, 2009 at 7:03pm — 1 Comment

First Pedagogy Project

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… Continue

Added by Saralynn Bush on April 16, 2009 at 1:30am — 2 Comments

Writing Across the Curriculum Session

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 Continue

Added by Lynnette Van Dyke on March 18, 2009 at 3:07pm — No Comments

How to balance all areas of MS ELA in just one class

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… Continue

Added by Coach Thelen on February 13, 2009 at 3:32pm — 2 Comments

Fall 2009 MCTE Conference - Save the DATE!

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. Continue

Added by Kia Jane Richmond on February 4, 2009 at 5:57pm — 3 Comments

Technology Resource: Turn Multiple Links into One with Sqworl

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… Continue

Added by Robert Rozema on January 20, 2009 at 3:23pm — No Comments

Technology Resource: Wikispaces

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… Continue

Added by Robert Rozema on January 16, 2009 at 11:00am — No Comments

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