Aren't Students Amazing?

One of the many reasons I love teaching is because students amaze me every day.  I love how they can be so thoughtful, curious, and hilarious (sometimes all at once!).  Our film class ventured out to take photos to demonstrate particular angles/concepts used in film.  Check out these awesome photos students shared!  Can you name the angles/techniques?

What's on your bookshelf?

Junior Honors students are currently reading a book that supports our goals for the Transcendentalism Unit.  Throughout their reading, students are tracking whether or not the main character exhibits the main tenets of Transcendentalism that we studied:

1.  Non-conformity
2.  Self-reliance (solitude)
3.  Importance of Nature
4.  Free Thought
5.  Confidence

They are reading ONE of the following books:




Throughout their reading, in addition to focusing on answering whether or not the main character is a Transcendentalist, students are analyzing particular aspects of the writing to help make their determination.  These include, but are not limited to:

1.  characterization of main character
2.  setting
3.  characterization of minor characters and thereby, comparing them to the main character
4.  structure and syntax
5.  quote selection
6.  theme

Types of Shots in Film

When analyzing film, it is important for students to have a good handle on the language of film.  So, we spend a good amount of time reviewing types of shots--through film, film clips, and still photos.  In today's exercise, students ventured out into the high school, armed with their iPhones or device of choice to take photos of the following types of shots:

Oblique angle 

extreme long shot                   

extreme close-up                    

medium shot  

high angle       

establishing shot                                

bird’s eye view                                  

low angle      

close-up                                 

juxtaposition   

For example, in each class, I took one type of shot--seen here:

  

   

Can you identify which one it is?

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Answer: OBLIQUE ANGLE!  (affectionately called the Danny Boyle angle by Jack M)

Did you get it correct?  Hopefully, you did, and hopefully the Schmitt's Scholars took some creative photos to address the different types of shots.  Looking forward to sharing those soon!

Family First. Broncos Second.

It looks like it is going to be a beautiful weekend, so I hope all of my students get the opportunity to spend some well-earned time with their families.  While our weekends can be filled with many obligations, we must remember the Transcendentalists:  enjoy some solitude and being in tune with nature.  Take a moment to feel the (still!) warm breeze and listen to the gentle swaying of trees and their whispering leaves.

And, of course, if you've got time--show some Bronco love.  A little school spirit won't hurt ya.  Take a look at these two sporting their favorite colors:





Ninja Nagel, Assistant Principal & Tessa Rife, English Teacher at Back to School Night


And sometimes, you can roll Family First; Broncos Second all into one!



Have a great weekend!  Looking forward to seeing you Monday!

Transcendental Poetry--Written by YOU!

Check out these poems written by your classmates/your students:

Remember, our goals were:
1. To express a Transcendental Mindset
2.  To emulate a poet's style (repetition, syntactical choices, metaphor, rhyme)

1. A Smog exists over civilization

            Growing larger by the hour

            As man asserts his power

            Over his domain

           

            A beauty lies in nature

            That cannot be replicated

            Yet can go unnoticed by some

            While others seek to live forever within it

            The Smog is covering the forests

            That soon will be no more

            As civilization seeks to feed its never ending appetite

            For land, wood, food, and ore

            Man is shortsighted creature

            Seeking gains only for himself

            He doesn’t care what he destroys

            If it is able to fund all his new toys

2.  Billions of inhabitants

Not one the same

But all with one common desire

Happiness is their aim

Along the way,

It is sometimes lost

Time will not stop,

Each decision has it’s cost

The pursuit of happiness is not one single thing

It has no true beginning nor end...

It is the pursuit itself that brings content

Where people no longer have to pretend

Happiness is attainable

Though one can be easily derailed

The basic values are explainable

Do not rely on others,

For you will only have yourself in the end

Originality is key

A copycat will never be seen

Those who get a taste of what it’s like to be free

Understand that individuality

Is blocked by the norms of society

This strong desire that we all share

Is so simple yet complex,

It’s hard not to care

Happiness brings good to each and every person

It is the base to unity among the world

But first,we need to learn to break free

And be the unique people we were destined to be

3.  There is a part of me that’s introverted

And a part that wants to be known

One side wants to be alone

And the other wants to be noticed

I try to fight the side

That wants to be alone

Because how can I do anything

If I don’t affect anyone

There is no reason to be alone

When I can change people’s lives.

4.  When the world is dead,

Blame yourself.

Black, scorched, and without life

Blame yourself

When our children die young

We sicken each other for “life”

Blame yourself

For our life with paper

With coal, with phones,

With slow roasting a planet

Blame yourself

Without cars, only legs

Without coal, only sun

Blame yourself

Blame yourself, unless you help save it

Our world

then and only then

Can you

Praise yourself.

5.  Stand up to your fears,

make them tremble at the sight of your face

Stand against those who belittle you,

they cannot tear you down as long as you believe that they cannot

Stand up for yourself,

even when your own mind betrays you

Stand with your sisters,

your brothers,

your friends,

build them up just as you have been built up before them

Stand up for your beliefs,

your truth,

your mind,

and your heart, never leave them behind,

they are your greatest tools

they are too precious to be carelessly tossed aside

Reading Beside Them

The English department at Barrington High School loves us some Penny Kittle (pennykittle.net).  A component to Kittle's philosophy on independent reading includes choice.  In her most recent workshop documents, Kittle reflects:

Students need to make choices in reading that reflect their interests because interest drives engagement. Teachers should encourage wide reading in all genres as well as students who pursue an author or genre study. Allow students to reread favorite books and to abandon a book that no longer interests them (Kittle 2016).

Because of this philosophy--that totally makes sense--those of us who host 10 minutes of reading a day allow students to select books that they WANT to read, and we let them abandon a book if they just aren't feeling it.

Here are my students enjoying a book talk from our librarian Janet Anderson (@kelmegter)--and checking out books that titillated their interests!

60% of the Time It Works Every Time (but even better!)

We had our first out-of-class Blended Experience, and based on feedback, the students who opted to come to class had great success!  A big advantage of having the ability to choose to come to class or not is that the scenario allows students who need extra help to get more one-on-one attention.  Of the two Junior Honors classes, I had 26% in-class attendance.  And guess what? 100% of them said that their one-on-one time with Mrs. Schmitt was helpful!

Now, it remains to be seen how well the out-of-class students perform, but I have never been so excited to collect data in my life!

Check out how different this classroom environment was:

Pretty easy to get the teacher's attention and assistance when the classroom looks like this...

You're Killing Me, Smalls

You know it's going to be a good day when a student walks in wearing this:



And while we might not be watching Sandlot, a shirt like that definitely gets us in the mood for some Movie Magic.

Today, we finished The Shawshank Redemption, a film many students were shocked to discover earned ZERO Oscars.  Yep, when your movie comes out the same year as Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction, it's hard to win.  And, of course, The Lion King snagged that Best Score award, so poor little Shawshank went home empty-handed.  But I digress....

Students took notes for our first film by following this pattern:
                           
                               Observation                                                                   Making Meaning

For example:      
Shot of Bible with hammer in Exodus             Cheeky punch at Andy's  "exodus"




Basically, students are to make observations of film aspects/choices they notice--and then explain why they think that choice is important.

Here they are in teacher-selected groups discussing what they consider to be their TEN BEST observations:
                                              

Class Discussion & Ranking

Students worked in self-selected groups to discuss Transcendentalism & Today.  Our focus was to consider how the tenets of Transcendentalism might be present in our lives today--or not.  After discussing a variety of questions, students selected what they considered to be the best part of their conversations and shared those ideas with me.  Far and away--many of them reflected on how they couldn't believe that they felt they couldn't live without their phones.  Shelter? Check.  Family? Check. IPhone 6+? Need that thing. NOW.  Hopefully, their discussions led them to have the sort of meaningful pauses Transcendentalists love.

Here they are in action:

Ask your student about Transcendentalism: do you think you could live up to the Transcendentalists' expectations?

Blended Learning: Self-Pacing & Student Choice

It's Friday before a 3-day weekend.  When it's the beginning of school, and really, anytime I suppose, this sort of weekend can feel like a well-earned respite.

But, first, learning:

JUNIOR HONORS

The juniors spent time today working with another Blended Strategy--working at their own pace.  Students were first permitted to select how they wanted to engage with the text at hand, choosing one of the following options:

1.  Have Mrs. Schmitt read the text to them
2.  Read out loud with a pal
3.  Read silently on own

This wasn't any "we-vote-and-majority-rules" situation.  Each student got to engage with the text on his/her own terms.  It was interesting to see how the different classes made their selections.  Usually, when giving students this sort of choice, I'd make them put their heads down heads-up-seven-up style so that they were not selecting based on what their friends selected.  I did not do this today.  I let them freely choose--heads up.

The result?
Period 1:
Most choose work with a pal.  ( I let these stay in the classroom)
A few choose read on their own. (These came out in the hallway, down a few paces)
Three students had me read to them.  (These sat with me in the hallway, close to our classroom door)

Period 6:
Four students wanted to work with a pal.  (They did so in the hallway.)
One student wanted to read with me. (He saw he was the only one, so he changed his mind--which made me feel like this:

The REST chose to read silently on their own. (Including the one who was going to read with me)

I always find it interesting to see how different each class behaves.

After the students read, they also had some choice in determining how they wanted to respond to their reading.  Through Blended Learning, I'm working on incorporating more Student Choice in my classroom--and allowing students to work at their own pace.

Here they are, working at their own pace, in self-selected learning groups: