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    • Teaching Fail: When Acronyms Backfire

      Posted at 9:32 am by Mrs. Ram Jam, on February 20, 2021

      My students and I have been working on argumentative texts, and I swore on Facebook not too long ago that I would ensure my students would never forget how to evaluate an argument and a source.

      So I turned to Google while lesson planning and discovered the CRAAP method for examining sources. All you have to do is ask yourself is this source CRAAP to analyze for currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose–and voila, the children remember how to evaluate a source! And they get to say CRAAP in the classroom, so it makes them feel like they can cuss but actually aren’t! Students love that cusp of danger feeling! 

      And my teacher soul radiated warm fuzzies every time I heard them say CRAAP while discussing texts about failure.

      CRAAP never sounded so good! CRAAP was magic! They were learning! They would know forever how to evaluate a resource!

      Well.

      It backfired.

      While my students did test corrections yesterday, I examined exit tickets that analyzed if a failure fluff piece from Medium.com was a compelling argument.

      What did my students do in their formal writing???

      Used the word CRAAP–EVERYWHERE.

      I audibly groaned everytime I came across a sentence that said “this source isn’t CRAAP.”

      Not only did they come up with incorrect answers (sigh, only like five kids said the source and the argument itself was crappy), they actually thought saying CRAAP in their writing was a brilliant idea!!!

      After having done a badass job of teaching how to evaluate sources and arguments using articles about failure, I WAS AND AM THE FAILURE AND IT MADE ME FEEL CRAPPY.

      Crap. Crap. Crap. Extra Crap.

      What if they do that on their benchmark???? Or god forbid the LEAP test????

      How do I get the CRAAP out of them?

      Well, that sounded terrible, but you know what I mean!

      Looks like they’re in for a crappy Tuesday because they’re going to be rewriting those exit tickets. 

      (Sidebar:  When I looked at these same exit tickets, so many students kept referring to the author by his first name. I asked my fourth block why–because they fully know to use the author’s last name. Their response? His last name was too hard to spell so it was easier to use his first name.)

      (gif credit)

      Posted in education, teaching, Uncategorized | 2 Comments | Tagged education, funny, teacher, teacher problems, teaching
    • A Teacher Tale: A Rant About Cheating in Digital Classrooms

      Posted at 9:36 am by Mrs. Ram Jam, on February 13, 2021

      Now that I’m an in-person and at-home synchronous teaching master–HA–I forget to start my Google Meet at third block about half the time and occasionally talk while my microphone is on mute–I need help mastering ALL THE STUDENT CHEATING THAT IS HAPPENING ALL THE TIME BECAUSE THEY ARE ALWAYS ON THEIR DEVICES.

      I miss paper. And pencils. And pens. And THINKING instead of Google searching and regurgitating whatever Spark Notes is telling them about symbolism in Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery.

      I’m starting to wish that Google was never invented.

      I’m so frustrated because some students’ grades are complete shams. Their grades aren’t reflective of their knowledge and ability. The grades are reflective of cheating and getting away with it.

      It seems like all my digital resources have been compromised. 

      All of the answers to CommonLit assessments are readily available to students on Quizlet.

      The state curriculum that we’re using is web-based. Want to guess how secure it is? Not very. Our unit test answers are plastered all over the internet.

      I can’t lock a Google Form anymore because my 8th graders don’t have Chromebooks.

      I gave the kids To Kill a Mockingbird before Christmas break to read on their own and a banana-ton of questions to answer as a test grade. It’s due in two weeks. Guess what some kids are doing? Googling the answers instead of reading the book. (In hindsight, this was a terrible assignment to give them.)

      And now that I’m teaching at home virtual learners who are, for the most part, unsupervised while they’re at home all day, cheating is even more of an issue. And I could be mistaken, but I think some of my in-person learners are staying home on days when they have lots of tests and logging in virtually to class so they can cheat more easily. 

      And while we do have Impero as monitoring software, it’s only on school devices. Some of my students use two different devices, one for the Google Meet, and one for classwork, which is fine, but I can’t see what they’re doing on the other device. This also becomes problematic when I do give locked tests through Illuminate. (Also no lesson planning or grading gets done when the students are testing anymore because I have to watch what they’re doing like a hawk.)

      End rambly semi-coherent rant.

      Do y’all have any teacher hacks to help prevent cheating, especially during testing, in this digital classroom era? This teacher needs help! 

      Here are some of the things I already do:

      1. Their cameras must be on and their faces must be fully visible. Most of the time, my rule is eyebrows and up, but this doesn’t work during testing. No blurred backgrounds are allowed either.
      2. I make all students push their sleeves up and show me their wrists to see if they have smart watches on. If they’re wearing one, I make the kids at home stand up and go put their watches on the other side of the room and the kids at school put their watches in their backpacks. (I personally don’t think kids should wear smart watches at school, period.)
      3. I make the kids at home show me their phones and have them put their phones on the other side of the room too. I don’t think this actually works. Lots of them tell me that their phones are already in another room. Yeah right.
      4. I make them have their microphones on the whole time they’re testing.
      5. Tests have to be taken on the school-issued device. 
      6. I give tests in a locked browser if at all possible. I wish I could lock students into a Google Form or CommonLit. UGHHH.
      7. I stalk them on Impero when I give them unsecure assessments.

      Is it terrible that I delight in their looks of misery when they realize I’ve thwarted most of their reliable cheating methods? Give me more ideas so I can get my schadenfreude on! 

      But in all seriousness, I can’t believe that parents of in-person learners aren’t making more of a stink about how easy it is for at-home learners to cheat and ultimately get better grades. 

      Is there anything that parents and students hate more than grades not being fair?

      Posted in teaching | 0 Comments | Tagged digital classrooms, education, student cheating, teaching, teaching during a pandemic
    • A Teacher Tale: Questions About the 2020-2021 School Year

      Posted at 1:54 pm by Mrs. Ram Jam, on April 24, 2020
      person wearing protective suit

      Photo by Gustavo Fring on Pexels.com

      Am I going to have to wear a mask to teach?

      If I do have to wear a mask . . .

      How are the kids going to see my facial expressions? That’s like, the best part of me as a teacher!

      Does this mean I have to up my eyeshadow game and learn how to properly apply winged eyeliner for once and for all to make up for the lack of, you know, a mouth? I’ve got to give the kids something interesting to look at. Looks like I’ll be watching a million Jaclyn Hill YouTube tutorials before August.

      Can I stop wearing lipstick to work? Who am I kidding. I rarely wore lipstick at work anyway . . .

      What happens when I sneeze? I’m obviously going to have to take off my mask to blow my nose and that’s going to break the law . . . Do I just count that mask as my Kleenex and whip it off and don a fresh one?

      Do I have to match my mask to my outfit? Or can you get away with clashing? Like is it crime against fashion to wear my orange and blue school polo shirt with a pink-ribbon-breast-cancer-awareness-patterned-ten -year-old-piece-of -scrap-fabric-diy mask that my MIL sewed for me? Maybe I need to find a subreddit about the art of mixing prints?

      Am I going to have to stand six feet apart from everybody at all times at school?

      How am I going to stand in the hallway in the mornings and stand six feet apart from the teacher in the class next to me and keep an eye on the kids inside my classroom?

      Is my temperature going to be checked daily before being allowed to enter the building?

      Are the kids going to have to wear masks?

      Is the school board going to have to change the dress code to allow for masks?

      Are the kids going to have to have dress-coded masks? 

      Are the kids going to have to do temperature checks?

      How are the kids going to socially distance while riding the bus?

      How are the kids going to socially distance while in the hallway?

      How are the kids going to socially distance in the classroom?

      Is outside school going to become a thing?

      How am I going to handle outside school? 

      Am I going to have to write kids up if they refuse to wear masks? BECAUSE YOU KNOW IT WILL HAPPEN. 

      Am I going to have to write kids up for touching each other?

      Am I going to have to write kids up for sharing food?

      How’s the cafeteria and lunch going to work? If they have to eat lunch in classrooms with their teachers, I might lose my mind. Or get the teacher’s union involved. 

      Am I going to have to wipe down desks and chairs in between classes?

      If I have to do that, who is watching kids in the hallway?

      Is the school day going to have to be longer to accomodate for lost instructional minutes because of after each class cleanings?

      Oh god, trying to crowd control 200 8th graders in the hallway. 

      Who’s going to pay for all the Clorox wipes and Lysol used at school? 

      Are kids going to try to steal toilet paper?

      Am I going to have to write kids up for not washing their hands in the cafeteria before they eat?

      Do I need to be prepared to teach from home again? I succccckkkkkkk at making videos and hate being on a screen. I’m the WORST at it and have never liked being video recorded. 

      How are they going to disinfect the library books?

      Is passing out paper documents to students going to be illegal?

      If I have to go to a paperless classrooom, how am I going to keep track of everything? My Google Drive is as disorganzied as a middle school boy who treats his backpack as a garbage can. I’m of the staunch opinion that digital files don’t really exist because they’re intangible. (Not really, but you know what I mean, right?) 

      How do I rearrange my Google Classroom so it’s easier for students to locate assignments because I might not be with students all of the time? 

      Can I convince the other teachers on my team to all organize their Google Classrooms the same way so kids don’t have to figure out 6 different organizational methods?

      If we have to switch in and out of distance learning and face to face learning, am I finally going to have to break down and use Remind? All of my assignments and due dates are posted on Google Classroom–in one place. Why do I have to do more work and post the same shit through another format? Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. 

      Will I be allowed to write kids up for being asshats during a Zoom?

      How does virtual detention work? 

      Can I be in charge of designing and implementing virtual detention? That sounds cool as shit. GIVE ME THE REINS. I WANT TO INNOVATE DAMMIT! How can I make it as much like The Breakfast Club as possible but rated G? Step one, befriend someone who works for Zoom and convince them to make a The Breakfast Club background . . . 

      Is school just going to be completely different forever?

       

      Posted in teaching, Uncategorized, writing | 2 Comments | Tagged 2020-2021 school year, distance learning, education, english teacher, middle school teacher
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    • Recent Posts

      • Mini Book Reviews February 2021 March 6, 2021
      • Teaching Fail: When Acronyms Backfire February 20, 2021
      • A Teacher Tale: A Rant About Cheating in Digital Classrooms February 13, 2021
      • January 2021 Mini Book Reviews February 6, 2021
      • A Poem: Mistake January 30, 2021
      • A Teacher Tale: The English Teacher Who Hates to Read Aloud January 23, 2021
      • Defund the Grammar Police January 16, 2021
      • My New Year’s Resolutions for 2021 January 9, 2021
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