NFL Picks ~ Week Four

As I've done every week for over twenty years, here are my picks against the spread for the NFL:

Cleveland getting 11.5 from Baltimore
WIN
Baltimore 23 - Cleveland 16
        
New England giving 4 to Buffalo
WIN
New England 52 - Buffalo 28

Detroit giving 5 to Minnesota
LOSS
Minnesota 20 - Detroit 13

Atlanta giving 7 to Carolina
LOSS
Atlanta 30 - Carolina 28

San Francisco giving 4 to NY Jets
WIN
San Francisco 34 - NY Jets 0

San Diego getting 1 from Kansas City
WIN
San Diego 37 - Kansas City 20

Houston giving 12 to Tennessee
WIN
Houston 38 - Tennessee 14

Seattle giving 2.5 to St. Louis
LOSS
St. Louis 19 - Seattle 13

Arizona giving 5.5 to Miami
LOSS
Arizona 24 - Miami 21

Denver giving 6.5 to Oakland
WIN
Denver 37 - Oakland 6

Cincinnati giving 2.5 to Jacksonville
WIN
Cincinnati 27 - Jacksonville 10

Green Bay giving 7.5 to New Orleans
LOSS
Green Bay 28 - New Orleans 27

Washington getting 2.5 from Tampa Bay
WIN
Washington 24 - Tampa Bay 22

Philadelphia giving 1.5 to NY Giants
WIN
Philadelphia 19 - NY Giants 17

Chicago getting 3.5 from Dallas
WIN
Chicago 34 - Dallas 18

WEEK FOUR RECORD: 10-5-0

2012 - 2013 Record: 29-33-1
2011 - 2012 Record: 129-126-11
2010 - 2011 Record: 130-130-7
2009 - 2010 Record: 138-125-4
2008 - 2009 Record: 139-120-8

Back to School Night

I just came from my first back to school night in five years.

After five years out of the classroom as a teacher on special assignment, I found it was a major adjustment going from running professional development sessions, where I typically have two hours to get my point across, to trying to say everything I want to say about education in a matter of six minutes.

Whew!

I think I managed to get the key information out there. Here's how:

I spent several days ahead of time posting on my web page all the links to web sites that explain my philosophies (SBG, the flipped classroom, PBL, paper-free classroom, etc.) and provide examples of what we're doing in class, how parents can reach me, where to find our assignments, etc.

I covered as many of them as I could in my few brief moments with each class' parents this evening, hoping to pique their interest and show them where they could learn more.

On their way out, I gave them a single handout -- with the address for my web page.

The year is off to a great start. The students are on board, their parents seem on board, I'm already buried under a mountain of (electronic) papers to grade... we're rolling along!

NFL Picks ~ Week Three

As I've done every week for over twenty years, here are my picks against the spread for the NFL:

NY Giants getting 1 from Carolina
WIN
NY Giants 36 - Carolina 7

Chicago giving 7.5 to St. Louis
WIN
Chicago 23 - St. Louis 6

Tampa Bay  getting 8 from Dallas
WIN
Dallas 16 - Tampa Bay 10

San Francisco giving 6.5 to Minnesota
LOSS
Minnesota 24 - San Francisco 13

Detroit giving 3.5 to Tennessee
LOSS
Tennessee 44 - Detroit 41

Cincinnati getting 3 from Washington
WIN
Cincinnati 38 - Washington 31
 

NY Jets giving 2.5 to Miami
WIN
NY Jets 23 - Miami 20

New Orleans giving 9 to Kansas City
LOSS
Kansas City 27 - New Orleans 24

Buffalo giving 3 to Cleveland
WIN
Buffalo 24 - Cleveland 14

Indianapolis giving 3 to Jacksonville       
LOSS
Jacksonville 22 - Indianapolis 17

Philadelphia giving 3.5 at Arizona
LOSS
Arizona 27 - Philadelphia 6

Atlanta getting 3 from San Diego
WIN
Atlanta 27 - San Diego 3

Denver getting 2 from Houston
LOSS
Houston 31 - Denver 25

Pittsburgh giving 4 to Oakland
LOSS
Oakland 34 - Pittsburgh 31
 

New England getting 3 from Baltimore
WIN
Baltimore 31 - New England 30
    

Green Bay giving 3 to Seattle
LOSS
Seattle 14 - Green Bay 12

WEEK THREE RECORD: 8-8-0

2012 - 2013 Record: 19-28-1
2011 - 2012 Record: 129-126-11
2010 - 2011 Record: 130-130-7
2009 - 2010 Record: 138-125-4
2008 - 2009 Record: 139-120-8

Grading Online Work

All week I've been grading papers, some on paper, some submitted electronically.
Grading compositions online is so different from grading handwritten ones.
There are advantages:

a) Not having to fit my comments in whatever tiny spaces are left in the margins or on the back of the page (where I always wonder if they'll notice them). I have unlimited room in the comments on the side of a Google Docs page.


b) Copy and paste is GREAT. I can paste their line directly into my comments when talking about it, and I can keep pasting those most common comments I give to the students over & over again for the most common mistakes in their writing.

c) It is clear and easy to read.


There are disadvantages:

a) I still have not worked out WHERE I type my corrections. Do I make the change in the work itself and highlight it, or do just highlight it? If I only highlight, should I use different colors to differentiate between grammatical gaffes, word choice errors, and punctuation or spelling mistakes?

b) I can't be as sure that students read the comments without doing a little extra work on my end. I can check to see if students opened the document after they shared it with me and I graded it, and I can check to see if they made revisions, but both of these involve remembering to go back to the document. With pen and paper assignments, students just hand in a new paper. With electronic documents, my students will have to notify me in some way when they want me to go back and view a revised essay.

This is still a work in progress, but all in all, grading online compositions from my students has been a success. I am saving a little time, a LOT of paper, and getting more students to turn in their work by allowing them to share them via Google Docs. Online grading may have its challenges, but it has been a success so far.

NFL Picks ~ Week Two

Hello and welcome to a special Thursday edition of Tuesdays. As I've done every week for over a decade, I will be picking every NFL game against the spread this season. Note: I do this purely for fun. I am not a gambler, and I don't recommend anyone follow my picks with any substantial sums of money, unless you are indifferent about holding on to said money.

I had one of my all-time worst weeks last week, going 4-12 against the spread. Then I realized I did not do the very thing I pledged to do, which is make the opposite pick from the majority of the country. This week, with very few exceptions, I am picking the teams that the majority of the country bet against. This is the "Vegas knows more than we do" approach. Let's see how this goes...

Chicago getting 5 from Green Bay
LOSS
Green Bay 23 - Chiacgo 10

Kansas City getting 3 from Buffalo
LOSS
Buffalo 35 - Kansas City 17

Cleveland getting 6.5 from Cincinnati
LOSS
Cincinnati 34 - Cleveland 27

Indianapolis getting 1.5 from Minnesota
WIN
Indianapolis 23 - Minnesota 20

Miami getting 2.5 from Oakland
WIN
Miami 35 - Oakland 13

Arizona getting 13.5 from New England
WIN
Arizona 20 - New England 18

Tampa Bay getting 7 from NY Giants
PUSH
NY Giants 41 - Tampa Bay 34

Philadelphia giving 2 to Baltimore
LOSS
Philadelphia 24 - Baltimore 23

Carolina getting 2.5 from New Orleans
WIN
Carolina 35 - New Orleans 27

Jacksonville getting 7 from Houston
LOSS
Houston 27 - Jacksonville 7

Seattle getting 3 from Dallas
WIN
Seattle 27 - Dallas 7

St. Louis getting 3 from Washington
WIN
St. Louis 31 - Washington 28

NY Jets getting 5 from At Pittsburgh
LOSS
Pittsburgh 27 - NY Jets 10

Tennessee getting 6 from San Diego
LOSS
San Diego 38 - Tennessee 10

Detroit getting 6.5 from San Francisco
LOSS
San Francisco 27 - Detroit 19

Atlanta giving 3 to Denver
WIN
Atlanta 27 - Denver 21

WEEK TWO RECORD: 7-8-1

2012 - 2013 Record: 11-20-1
2011 - 2012 Record: 129-126-11
2010 - 2011 Record: 130-130-7
2009 - 2010 Record: 138-125-4
2008 - 2009 Record: 139-120-8

Flexibility

Flexibility is a huge part of the life of an educator.

When students don't finish an assignment on time, we have a choice. We could extend the due date, knowing that it would increase the likelihood of student completion, which will increase learning. We could also give a zero, knowing that the lesson here is about self-regulation, responsibility, and time management. However, the effect a zero has on a grade is staggering, and probably far more detrimental than any lesson it could teach. For this reason, I give students target dates for completion of many projects, or for mastery of essential content, but allow students who learn at a different time later on to still earn credit for their hard work.

There is a constant balance between over-planning, or perhaps the unwillingness to revise our plans, and the reality of what gets done in the classroom, creating the need for constant revision of our plans.

In the same way, flexibility needs to be granted to teachers from administrators. To be told that benchmark testing must take place in your classroom for two days in a five-day window two weeks away is not enough notice for teachers who have carefully planned out their lessons for the month. A video about educational practices, or a podcast for activity advisors, that must be watched by Friday, should probably have been sent out a month prior. A survey about professional development, a log of PLC work, or an invitation to a pull-out in-service day that will require sub plans, should not be sprung on teachers without plenty of advance notice.

These and countless other demands placed on teachers from all sides have a negative effect on morale and adversely effect the quality of work that will be completed. Having worked as a teacher and talked with teachers, I have seen people shut down when given an unrealistic completion date, and have found myself looking for the quickest and easiest way to complete a task assigned to me or my group if we weren't given enough time to do it well and make it count.

Having also worked closely with administration for several years, I completely understand how and why this happens. The administrator's life is also a series of target completion dates. State and national requirements come down the tube, and these have to be processed, planned and reviewed. Administrators with the best intentions attend committee meetings and planning meetings, and set up the target dates that are handed down to the teachers. For many of these directives, teachers must then pass the dates on to students.

By the time an edict works its way down the chain of command, there is often not enough advance notice to complete a task as well as it was originally intended. Teachers make accommodations for students, groups accomplish what they can, and if a target is not met, a suggestion is run back up the chain of command. By the time it reaches the top, if the leaders have not already moved on to a new initiative, the committee will need to revisit the plan and the cycle starts again.

So many last-minute scrambles could be avoided if administrators were able to pass along their goals to teachers with more advance notice. How many steps of this process could be avoided if teachers and students were present when the first proposal of a plan is on the table? Of course, that would take pull-out sub coverage and advance notice for that... it's like the chicken and the egg.

What can we do?

Flexibility is huge. We need to be flexible with our students, but just flexible enough to allow for all the work to be completed and done well, while still teaching the valuable lessons of self-regulation and time management that due dates create.

Administrators need to be flexible with us. A little more advance notice will lead to the creation of a much better product, and a little flexibility will go a long way toward keeping everyone's unified focus on the real goal: educating our students.

NFL Picks ~ Week One

Hello and welcome to a special Thursday edition of Tuesdays. As I've done every week for over a decade, I will be picking every NFL game against the spread this season. Note: I do this purely for fun. I am not a gambler, and I don't recommend anyone follow my picks with any substantial sums of money, unless you are indifferent about holding on to said money. In my younger years, I used to correctly pick 140-150 games each year, but the last five year's picks show a marked decline (Hmmm... I wonder if becoming a parent five years ago had a negative impact on my trivial knowledge, what do you think? One need look only as far as my video game skills, now entirely nonexistent, to see the answer). That said, I feel a comeback coming on, using a new strategy:

I am going to look at what the nation is picking and, as frequently as possible, pick the opposite. That, and always picking the Eagles to win and cover, and Dallas to lose. Like I said, this is just for fun, so enjoy this week’s picks…

NY Giants giving 4 to Dallas
LOSS
Dallas 24 - NY Giants 17 

Indianapolis getting 10 from Chicago

LOSS
Chicago 41 - Indianapolis 21

Philadelphia giving 9 to Cleveland
LOSS
Philadelphia 17 - Cleveland 16

Buffalo getting 3 from NY Jets
LOSS
NY Jets 48 - Buffalo 28

New Orleans giving 7 to Washington
LOSS
Washington 40 - New Orleans 32

New England giving 5.5 to Tennessee
WIN
New England 34 - Tennessee 13

Minnesota giving 3.5 to Jacksonville
LOSS
Minnesota 26 - Jacksonville 23

Miami getting 12 from Houston
LOSS
Houston 30 - Miami 10
 

Detroit  giving 7.5 to St. Louis
LOSS
Detroit 27 - St. Louis 23

Atlanta giving 3 to Kansas City    
WIN
Atlanta 40 - Kansas City 24

San Francisco getting 5 from Green Bay
WIN
San Francisco 30 - Green Bay 22

Carolina giving 2.5 to Tampa Bay 
LOSS
Tampa Bay 16 - Carolina 10

Seattle giving 2.5 to Arizona
LOSS
Arizona 20 - Seattle 16

Pittsburgh getting 1.5 from Denver
LOSS
Denver 31 - Pittsburgh 19

Baltimore giving 6 to Cincinnati
WIN
Baltimore 44 - Cincinnati 13

Oakland giving 1 to San Diego
LOSS
San Diego 22 - Oakland 14

WEEK ONE RECORD: 4-12-0

2012 - 2013 Record: 4-12-0
2011 - 2012 Record: 129-126-11
2010 - 2011 Record: 130-130-7
2009 - 2010 Record: 138-125-4
2008 - 2009 Record: 139-120-8

Back to School

Today is Tuesday. It is the day after Labor Day. It was my first day teaching my own classroom in five years.
That's right; after five years on special assignment as a technology integrator, today I have gone forward to the classroom!

Today, this focus of this blog shifts from that of a technology coach to that of an English teacher.

While I will continue to reflect on technology, literature, music, and life, this blog will mostly focus on events of the English and Creative Writing classrooms, and my students will find my thoughts on upcoming projects and even a few hints toward extra credit ideas.

Let the games begin.

Welcome back to school, everyone!