Beautiful to take a chance And if you fall you fall And I'm thinking I wouldn't mind at all --Burke/Van Heusen, "But Beautiful" My high school students (grades 9-12) recently completed an inquiry unit I'd wanted to teach since I started this gig in 2012, but, for whatever reason, hadn't. I spent some time this …
What Makes Us Human?
Art is the most effective form of communication that exists. --John Dewey This year, I'm lucky enough to be teaching a new elective course simply called Humanities. I've realized in the five years I've been here that students at our school don't have that many chances to be exposed to a wide variety of art, …
It’s… Blog Time!
I love teaching English 101. Students get college credit for the first semester of English composition in college, and they satisfy their high school junior or senior English credit at the same time. And, thanks to Advanced Opportunities, it costs them nothing. They understand the trade-off, though: there's a lot of homework and outside-of-class reading, …
Japanquiry
A dear friend of mine surprised me with a care package recently, from someplace far away. Not really sure what to do, I decided to let my students figure it out for this week's Article of the Week. Three snack foods and a pile of printed material later, one of the students said, "This is …
Compliments Project
A good friend and mentor recently sent me an email telling me about something called the "Compliments Project." It's a community-building activity in which students sit in the "hot seat" while the rest of the class writes something positive about them on the board. Since our culture is still reeling from the recent election and …
Reflections, arguments
All of my students (8th-12th grades) have been working on argumentation this semester. Many of them hate it. I do Articles of the Week (thanks, Kelly Gallagher), and the first seven AoW's this semester required students to write an argument-based response ("just" one page). On the 8th AoW I changed the focus of their response …
Culture of Argument
In this election year, the title of this post might warn you off reading it. But no: it's actually a good thing, and students at my school are learning that "argument" means better things than mainstream culture, and some politicians, would appear to believe. As part of the National Writing Project's College-Ready Writers Program (CRWP), …
Senioritis: Blogging their way
My senior students are creating blogs about their intended majors in college, and need feedback from "strangers" (don't get creepy on me, now). This is part of a course most of them are taking for dual credit through Boise State; they'll get credit for English 101 that they can transfer to any college or university …
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Wonderful Writing Workshop
James McMichael and Susan Davis (my father and step-mother) visited us in Cambridge this September and put on a workshop on September 7th to help students develop their poetry writing and reading skills. Students from Cambridge High School and Fruitland High School, along with their English teacher Kelly Dayley, attended the workshop. Attendees were introduced …
Mr. McMichael 