The Polliwog Journal

AP students are often asked to analyze the diction of a passage. Diction means to some degree the author’s style, such as formal diction, but more technically diction means the author’s choice of words. I sometimes have students highlight words and phrases that have a similar tone or meaning. They may use more than one [...]

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This is fun, but wish we all had access to email accounts

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Pam sent me this question and I thought it was worthy of public discussion:
I read your blog frequently for inspiration to share with our English teachers. Today I went to it to mine for free advice. Since I didn’t see any posts alluding to this question, I thought I would ask you directly.
What qualities do [...]

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I created AP English Connections yesterday, replacing an old website that did not offer interaction. I hope it will become a place for community and growth for AP teachers.

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Thank you Ted Nellen for the link to this video, “Learning to Change-Changing to Learn,” which is further validation of everything I believe about the future of schools. I am so proud to be a CyberEnglish teacher, which I owe again to Ted and his vision.
We’re a revolutionary classroom, and yet, we are not anywhere [...]

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I am adamant about the fact that teachers who integrate technology into their classes must use the tools themselves to truly understand their uses. As a teacher of writing, it is also important for me to write. And since I expect my students to make their work public, I must expect it of myself.
Spurred by [...]

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There’s a flaw in me as a teacher. I should be skating away on thin ice into my retirement years, but I don’t. I continue to develop new units in an attempt to make school meaningful and relevant for students. I know! What am I thinking? But I just can’t help myself.
I recently created a [...]

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In a conversation yesterday with my colleague and friend, Lee McGlade, we were talking about balancing life and work. He told me about waiting for a parade to begin this fall and noticing the guy next to him was sitting there grading papers.
What he would have told the guy if it would have made any [...]

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I felt confined by a rubric this morning, more than ever. When I read the book Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment by my friend Maja Wilson, I agreed with her premise but had not felt, in practice, the same angst she had felt when she conceived the book in the first place. I get it [...]

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 Thanks to Bud Hunt, from whose site I “stole” this link.

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