Help is on the way.

Here is a website I discovered for grammar idiots like myself:

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/GrammarGirl/grammar-verbification.aspx

Confessions of a wanna be English teacher

I am not alone! That is my discovery for the day, and is also the beginning of confessing a long held burden on my soul. See, I don't like grammar. I don't even have the slightest idea about grammar, nor how to teach it. ("Real" writers don't use contractions or words like "it" in their writing! That much I know!) As an aspiring English teacher I am suffering the effects of my upbringing. I am a product of the "free" 60's and 70's where children were encouraged to call their teachers by their first names, and it was assumed that if given an encouraging environment students would naturally learn...without direct instruction. Thus I don't ever remember learning anything about grammar and punctuation. Sure, I picked up on some rules through writing, but not enough to actually get up in front of a pack of 9th graders and teach it!!
But I am not alone! I read today in an English Journal that this is a rather common phenomenon in the English Arts classroom. Most English teachers approach their assignments feeling ill prepared for teaching grammar, especially in the light of NCLB's tough standardized testing. The good news is that teacher's learn the rules of grammar through teaching. Yay! There is hope. You have no idea how stressed out I have been over this educational flaw. Maybe, just maybe, with a few years of teaching grammar under my belt, I will ready to be an English teacher after all.

English Nerd's Canterbury Tales

Do you think I should try this stunt in front of my 9th graders? You know I will!

Raising little Democrats

My husband, Mack, and I are very conservative in our political points-of-view, and yet we have managed to raise a slew of little Democrats. Thank goodness God gave us a "late-in-lifer" in whom we can concentrate our efforts to "raise her right!" Having said that, we were a little unnerved the other night when Maggie, now six years old, blessed Barack Obama in the middle of her bedtime prayer as if he were just another member of the family. "Please bless my mommy and daddy, all my brothers and sisters, Barack Obama, and my nephews." That elicited an interruption in the prayer by her father. "What do you mean bless Barack Obama?" Maggie simply stated that she wanted to bless the President of the United States of America.....10 months before the November election! When an argument ensued, Mack gave up in exasperation and replied, "You just like saying 'Barack Obama.'" Returning to her prayers, Maggie turned to God for allied support. "Please bless Barack Obama, the next President of the United States of America. Barack Obama will win. I love Barack Obama. Barack Obama is wonderful." Then interrupting her own prayers, she turned to me and said, "I DO love saying Barack Obama!" Where did we go wrong again?

Is it me, or do you think the pilots wanted to kamikaze?

Art? Stress test? What is the purpose here? You tell me!

Educational Technology

My blogging days, long forgotten, are back! I am taking an educational technology class at CSU, and am required to post 20 blogs during the semester. I am excited to do this assignment and get more familiar with the technologies that young people are using these days.