Meme for the Day!

So as a school, we are promoting the message "Stay Drug Free" for Red Ribbon Week.  Today's theme was "We don't do drugs; we do meme's!"

As I was attempting to go to sleep last night, I was pondering what kind of meme I could be.  My sleepless night continued as I decided to enter the online vortex for some ideas and that's where I determined I could borrow the idea of being Kermit the Frog where in the meme he points out oddities in life and then responds with "but that's none of my business".

I know it's been some time since this popular meme came to be (2014), but I figured I could pull it off because it's only been 5 years.  My thought was that I had a green dress and could adorn it with a homemade paper collar, sign and response, and I always have my coffee cup.  Perfect, I now had a meme I could be!!

As I was thinking, I was trying to figure out how to make it more of a positive message versus a passive aggressive quick jab or some smart aleck comment that throws shade.  I also wanted it to be more of an AVID inspired meme, with focused on what the students have been doing since school started in August.  With further thought, I determined that it really is my business because I want them to be successful.

AVID meets Kermit

I thought the final product turned out pretty good!  After all, I'm not really a costume person.  I had several teachers pop in and commented on my costume/meme.  The excitement soon turned to shock once the kids started reading my signs and asked if I was a number of things:

• a flower
• a plant
• the Grinch
• Peter Pan
• an elf
• Tinkerbell 
• the Jolly Green Giant
• a leprechaun

Clearly they were missing the masterpiece I had become ...but that's none of my business!

Ah-ha Moments

As a teacher, you should adjust your teaching strategies to suit the needs of your students.  Over the years as an AVID teacher, I've noticed that some of the reflection questions asked on the Tutorial Request Form (commonly referred to as TRFs... pronounced:  turfs).  One that's the topic of today's blog is where students need to respond to the question:

"What I found most meaningful about today's tutorial session is...".

Students have gotten confused over the 5 questions and would give some variation of the same answer for all of the questions, so I've altered the reflection where the differences are in bold.  So the question now looks like this: 

"What I found most meaningful about today's tutorial session is...".  

This question continued to confuse students, so when I was reteaching, I was explaining that the answer would be what students said to themselves, "Ohhhhh".  As a reminder for when the students answer on their own, I again tweaked the question to:

"What I found most meaningful (your "ah-ha" moment) about today's tutorial session is...".

Since the students work in collaborative groups with a college tutor, the tutors grade the TRFs.  Today I found myself grading some that were turned in late to discover that a student responded:
What I found most meaningful (your "ah-ha" moment) about today's tutorial session is...when [the student presenter] started making weird and funny noises and that made me laugh.

I did not find this so humorous and wrote a note asking what this had to do with the topic of the tutorial session (which happened to be square roots).

So fast forward a few class periods and I had an 8th grader ask me for help regarding this same question and after explaining, he shared that he thought I wanted to know what he found so funny about the tutorial.  

This blew my mind and instantly became my "ah-ha" moment!  When other students overheard, it was really amazing how many students were confused, yet didn't ever ask for clarification.  Several students chimed in saying they too thought I was asking for what they found to be funny.  Thank goodness someone clarifies that I didn't ask for a "ha ha" moment, but an "ah-ha" moment.

So just today I've realized that it doesn't matter how old you are or how many years you've been teaching, we all have "ah-ha" moments!

Welcome to the Future!

So, teaching AVID is amazing!  I love the excitement that middle school students have when they see their own academic self-growth, how they leap into leadership positions, and become a leader among their peers.  I've witnessed 6th grade students who can't stop running everywhere bloom into Student Council Representatives.  I only wish that I could see where the road leads for them once they leave "the Nest" and fly into high school.

At what point does the adventurous nature leave?  Why is it that as a teacher, I become timid when it comes to learning something that is merely heard of, but not relevant in your current world.  Well, I've decided to take a leap of faith and enter the world of blogging!

I've had amazing people suggest that I should have a blog for AVID, then low and behold, I'm tasked with developing a technology goal.  So BAM! here I am, developing a blog for AVID.  Welcome to the future!!