While driving home today ( 40 minutes) I realized I had a few things on my mind and just decided to write them both on one post.  Here goes:

I teach in a rural school.  Tomarrow my juniors have their research papers due.  The other day I stayed after school with one student who needed some extra help.  After we talked about her specific questions, we just started a small conversation. This student happened to mention the trouble she was having typing her paper.  Now, mind you, we have been working on this paper for about a month in class.  Now that the due date is so close, I tell my students that computer problems, running out of ink, the dog ate it ect. are NOT valid excuses.  Anyway my student happened to tell me that he/she is able to type at home but cannot print because dad refuses to purchase the ink cartridge necessary for their printer!  I felt so badly for this student.  How could a parent deny allowing their child to succeed in school?  It just doesn’t seem right to me.  Growing up in the suburbs, mostly white collar, I had never experienced anything like this.  My friends and I grew up without a want.  Working in this district has taught me so much and has showed me how other people live.  Some of my students don’t have computers so their assignments for English class are a continual struggle that they must figure out.  I finally offered this student the option of e-mailing me the paper in order to save her from typing it out and saving to a disk and then having to come to school to print.  These thoughts have remained with me and I continue to wonder how a parent would out and out refuse something of educational value to their child.   This leads me to my second issue……

My son is in fifth grade and is very bright.  Currently, he is working on three different projects/presentations.  The current one that has me all worked up is the president presentation.  Each student selected a president to research.  Now, the presentation part.  Each student must dress like the president,and  do an oral speech about that president.  Then, each student must bring in a red, white and blue treat for the entire class!!!  Now, I ask you, what fifth grader can make a red, white and blue treat for their class???!!  These projects become the projects of the parent, NOT the student!!  Is this my grade or my son’s grade???  Of course my son had to make the dough and put them on the cookie sheet and then decorate them to be patriotic.  So, I guess that was him doing it? Or is it?  Secondly, my son had a president who wore a beard.  Having no luck purchasing a beard, yes, you guessed it, Mom made the beard, with some help from my son.  Why can’t the project be completely student driven?  Now, here I am doing what ever it takes to help my son be successful in school.  This, of course, is the complete opposite to the student’s situation I described above.  Will my son get a better grade because I helped him? Is that fair? What if some of his classmates have parents who work late and don’t or wont make time to help their children?? Should those students get a bad grade because the child’s parent didn’t get involved?  Is this the student’s project or the parents?!

Today my honors English 12 students performed their Hamlet scenes.  I have to say that I was very proud of them.  Students in groups of three to four select a scene from the play after we have read it, watched it and discussed it.  The students must memorize their lines, have costumes, each character must have a prop and the scene must include appropriate music.  Along with the acting, students have to create a booklet reflecting upon various questions based on the character they played.  Throughout the rehearsal period, some groups faced difficulties due to students being out.  None of that difficulty showed today!  They must then respond to how they think the rehearsal process went as well as their performance.  Today’s group was very good!  The students did such a good job getting into character.  Each one of them was fully suited for the character they played.  For our audience we invited the 9th grade class down to watch.  I usually invite the 9th graders in hopes that they will someday be inspired and want to take this class.  Some of my students were talking about remembering watching the scenes when they were in 9th grade.  One of my colleagues, who has seen all of the scenes during the last few years stated that this group was the best so far!  Bravo!  Next week the second group of scenes will be performed.  To them, break a leg!  I look forward to watching them.

A few years ago upon the completion of reading Hamlet, I had my students take part in the “Hot Seat”.  Each student selected a character from the play at random.  They then had to become that character.  Each student in the class would write up 5 questions to ask each character from the play.  On the day of the “hot seat” the student’s desks would be lined up in front of a single chair.  The character of the day would sit in front of the panel in the single chair.  Each student would go down the line and ask the character questions.  The student must then respond as  the character would respond.  Students get bonus points for dressing the part or bringing in props that are appropriate for the character they are playing.  In the past, this has been an exciting exercise.  This year, however, it didn’t quite go so well.  Now, I find myself wondering what I did differently or how next time I can make this an exciting experience for the students.  I wonder if anyone has ever tried anything like this that could help me out with this assignmnet for next year?  Part of me wants to say that many of the students this year did not take this assginment seriously. I hate to say that or even think it since it is an honors 12th grade English class.