Blog what you can

So this blog experiment has officially been neglected. All of my concerted efforts to post regularly have failed, so I'll give it the old apathetic one-two. Here's some of what we were doing, as told by me to a colleague through an e-mail. Remember, if you're reading this, you're actually just reading an e-mail I sent to someone else. This is what my blog has become. :( The names have been deleted to protect some measure of anonymity.

E-mail is as follows - this was to a senior year English teacher
I completely understand the problems you had with the research paper, and the 2nd six weeks spilling over into the third, (ours was the same, as it was a shortened six weeks). Initially, the papers were supposed to be finished the first week of the 3rd six weeks, but I had to extend it into the second, and I still have kids coming in after-school to finish.

While I feel that the project itself failed miserably as only a few students came out with legitimate research papers, the skills and knowledge the students gained through the process should be more than beneficial to them as they reach the senior year paper. We pulled texts from other libraries as our own is woefully inadequate, but unfortunately we had to give the books back a week before the papers were due. As such, many of the kids did not have completed research, and our databases were not very 9th grade friendly for our topics (deforestation, endangered animals, global warming, alternative energy, oil spills, and chemical sprays/pesticides). I allowed the kids to use wikipedia for some of their papers solely because of the lack of resources. However, we spent several days learning how to properly cite information from a book or website using in-text citations. Almost all of my students were able to complete this aspect of the project, so at least in this, the project was a success. I did have a few that blatantly plagiarized though, and their grades suffered because of it. They have been given the opportunity to amend their papers and turn them back in for a better grade.

At least the project was a learning experience, and hopefully next year we’ll be teamed with social studies so that the papers can be a more cohesive team effort.

Update

Well, it seems that more than just the teachers noticed that I was breezing through the trainings. I received an e-mail today requesting that I do not attend training on Saturday and instead read a Gifted/Talented book and write a 5 page summary. The e-mail was cordial, though there seemed to be some slightly snide undertones. They said that I seemed quite "knowledgeable" on the subject to the point of being "bored".

I promptly sent back an e-mail that was equally amiable and snarky, with my principal and one of the district administrators CC'ed. Basically, I said that I hoped the e-mail was in response to me being informed on the topic rather than a disruption to the training seminar. Then I asked whether they would like my paper to be double spaced or single, and if it should be a formal paper with footnotes or if it is a more informal reflection-based summary. Either way, I don't have to go to training this weekend, and thus saved 8 hours of my life. Sure, I'll have to read a book and write a 5 page paper, but I think that I'll learn a lot more from a material-heavy text than a 48 size font powerpoint that is about as general as you can get.

I'm still wondering if I was sent the e-mail due to me questioning the purpose of a half-hour activity, or if it was in response to me trying to get the group back on task. Either way, I think I just fought the man and won.

Man: 0
Me: 1