Christa Allan

Miracle Workers
by Taylor Mali (www.taylormali.com)
Sunday nights I lie awake—
as all teachers do—
and wait for sleep to come
like the last student in my class to arrive.
My grading is done, my lesson plans are in order,
and still sleep wanders the hallways like Lower School music.
I’m a teacher. This is what I do.
Like a painter paints, or a [...]

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As a teacher, parent, and writer, I’m incredibly annoyed with myself for not having this idea myself.
When his 10th grade son, Jesse, threatened to quit high school, his father David took action. He gave his permission to drop out, but only on the condition that his son agree to watch three movies a week.
Duh.
Of course, [...]

Written while wearing my “teacher” hat, I’ve listed several suggestions [in no particular order] for parents of high school students…
1. Some kids think whatever they wear the first day of school will mark them for high school life. Probably not, but unless Princess wants to wear spike heels and a tube top and Prince has [...]

Friday morning, at 7:25, I will begin meeting the 125+ teens who will spend five hours a week with me. Some of them won’t spend that much time with their parents in a week, but that’s a story for another post. In addition to the six classes I’ll be teaching (one English I Honors, one [...]

Note to those of you who subscribe: Sorry about the blooper half-post! Arrived home later than I’d anticipated. Here’s the real thing:
Over a week ago,  I wrote about the necessity of organizing my blog life. Ever-awesome website designer Natalie Jost linked Fictionary, my blog tour/book review/author interview blog, to this site. That smoothed another wrinkle [...]

This time next week, I will be headed to school for my second day of Professional Development for the new school year. Then, the darlings arrive on Friday. [Warning: enter Wal-Mart at your own risk after 2:45 that afternoon.]
For the past few years, the school year in my parish has started on a Friday. Befuddling, [...]

Whatever invaded my body for the past 48 hours took leave sometime overnight. I woke up this morning feeling almost human, which is how I feel most mornings, so that would mean that we’re back to business as usual.
Just for the record, I have NINE days before school starts. NINE. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. That’s counting today, so [...]

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more about “WeberTube - Never Lecture in Class Again“, posted with vodpod
Thanks to Vickie Davis@CoolCatTeacher, self-proclaimed tecno-geek, for this!

Internalizing the Scoring Guide

My first year as an AP Reader, I’d hear this “internalizing” mumbo-jumbo and wonder when I’d evolve into this higher state of consciousness. I think I was mostly unconscious. Year Two, I would’ve been willing to roll the scoring guide into a paper burrito and eat it if it meant I’d expedite [...]

Musing
Last year, the College Board and ETS surveyed Readers asking general questions about the reading experience. Hats off to them for listening because this year they provided a hospitality room in the hotel that provided soft drinks, coffee, water, and assorted munchies like chips, cookies, fruit,  and hot pretzels. Then, Saturday night, we had [...]

Thanks to Angela Maiers and Schools Matter for the heads up on this video.
the Teacher Project Trailer (long version)

Did I mention that one of the students thought Barry’s essay was so simple, even a stay-at-home mother would be able to understand it?  It didn’t appear, from what I read, that s/he was one of those yet.
The Musing Continues:
One of the acronyms I’m fond of teaching is SOAP because it serves two purposes:
1. It [...]

DAY LAST: DAYTONA LANGUAGE READING

Arriving at my table this morning, I heard rumors that the Question 1 room had been told when they left  yesterday afternoon that they should have reading material for the next day. That always means the room’s dangerously close to finishing. Since that room started out with extra tables, we weren’t [...]

DAY 5.5  DAYTONA UPDATE: MONDAY
I read 425 essays today.

Things I learned today:
1. Adjectives can be wild. (Note from me: File this factoid away for possible YouTube video for avid grammarians: Adjectives Gone Wild.)
2. Tone wraps itself around my head. (Note: Lately, this happens only when my iPod’s plugged in to my ears.)
3. Ellipsis or dot [...]

DAY 3.5: REPORT FROM DAYTONA

No beach walking this morning. Rain. Tracey and I walked across the street for breakfast, but we had umbrellas. I forgot my sweater and my sunglasses, but super nerd had her ‘brella. In fact, it was an AP umbrella; one of the end of scoring gifts from my first reading.
Yesterday at [...]

DAY 1.5: REPORT FROM FLORIDA AP READING
Daytona Hilton

My roommate Tracey and I walked along the beach this morning before breakfast; therefore, I felt fully justified eating carrot cake as my lunch today.
Follow up on the coffee maker: Coffee’s actually not bad for pod coffee. Last night we had only DeCaff pods. We drank it anyway. [...]