Literary Conflict Study: #The Struggle Instagram Activity

Talk about high interest, student engagement, and alternate assessments! All I had to say was, "Instagram", and my students were hooked. The activity required each student to create a visual representation illustrating one of the many conflicts within the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. They had to add hashtags describing the key ideas, characters, and types of literary conflicts expressed in their images. I printed and copied the template and made the digital copy available online for those students who wanted the color version of the file (they were responsible for printing that out on their own). They were allowed to either hand-draw their image or create a collage of digital images, and I received many of both types. I was easily able to assess their understanding of conflict, and it gave my brain and eyes a rest from grading multiple choice and constructed response tests.

I set up the display above on an empty part of my classroom wall. I laminated card stock then punched out the letters and pound sign/hashtag using the letter press we have at our district's media center. I printed the Instagram logo onto card stock and laminated that as well. I used twine tied to clothespins to create my hanging lines, and I hot glued it all to the cinderblock wall near the door. My students (yes, my high school students) were so excited to see their work displayed in the classroom! They so badly wanted to write tally-mark "likes" on their favorites, but I insisted they not block traffic into the room and promised that they'd be able to do that at a later time. They are requesting to do another one following the completion of our current novel study, and I'll probably oblige.

Get my Instagram Template here.

My Crafty Classroom Drawer Files

Now that I have finally settled in at a school from which I plan to retire, I have taken the time and exerted the energy required to turn my classroom into my home away from home. I probably spend more time in my classroom than I do in my own home, so the effort has definitely paid off. I love my classroom!

I am not the craftiest person out there, but I do love Pinterest projects as much as the next person. I even try some of the things I see pinned on the site. This is one of the projects I've seen posted by someone else that I figured I'd try. I've had these plain plastic file drawers in the garage for a couple of years, taking up space and collecting dust, so I decided to repurpose them into an organization area behind my desk in my classroom.

Here's how I did it:

Materials:
1. old (or new) plastic drawer set(s) with clear drawer fronts
2. scrapbook paper or any other kind of decorative or colorful paper you have lying around
3. printed scroll frame labels (see explanation below)
4. transparent tape
5. scrap or white paper to make a template

How It's Done:
1. Clean the drawers. Since my sets were covered in cobwebs, I used some disinfecting wipes to scrub them and prepare them for the tape.
2. Make your template. I used some white copy paper to measure, draw, and cut a template just the right size needed to cover the inside face of the clear drawers.
3. Trace and cut your drawer face backs from the decorative paper. Because I had nine drawers to cover, I picked three different patterns that matched the decor of my classroom (all three pages came from the same scrapbooking set I bought at Hobby Lobby), and I traced the template and cut three drawer backs from each patterned paper.
4. Make your labels. I did a Google search for "black scroll frames clip art" and picked one I liked. I then copied it multiple times into a Word document. I made nine copies of the image because I had nine drawers to label. Then I used text boxes to to layer the font on top of the image.
5. Glue your labels to the drawer backs. To make sure my labels were centered and in the right spot, I "eyed" the placement on one drawer before permanently gluing them down. Once I had one label glued, I simply lined up all of the other drawer backers beneath that one and lined up the labels on top of them, being careful to keep them in line with the centered sample I put together first. 6. Tape your labelled decorative drawer backing papers to the drawers. Using transparent tape, I positioned the papers inside the drawers and taped them down on all four sides.

Voila! You now have cute crafty classroom drawers!

If you choose to try this out for yourself, I'd love to see your take on the project! Please post a picture of your creation in a comment.

A Letter to My Teen Leadership Class

May 30, 2010

Prepping for my job interview tomorrow at a local high school had me digging through old documents from MCHS that have been stored on my ancient jump drive. Among all the quizzes, tests, and worksheets I created and saved back in those days, I ran across this letter I wrote to my Teen Leadership students for my end-of-the-year address, and I wanted to share it...

January 10, 2005

Dear Teen Leadership Family,

Now that our semester together has come to an end, I have a few personal hopes to share with you…

First, I hope you learned something about becoming a leader. The course was designed to do just that. Remember to have an “I can” attitude, maintain your W.I.T. way of thinking, and always make a good first impression (if you’ve forgotten how, review your eight cues).

Second, I hope being together has helped you learn more about other people. Before this class, you may not have associated with many different groups at school. I’ve heard you all say that you’ve come to accept and even appreciate the differences between each of you—differences help to make this world a very interesting place. Please remember to have tolerance for people who are not like you—being open-minded and accepting shows a strength that not everyone achieves.

Third, I hope you learned a lot about yourself. Self-awareness is a rare gift. Many people go through their lives not truly aware of themselves, their gifts, their emotions, and the effect they have on others around them. Know yourself. You are a very special person, and being able to recognize your talents and share them with the world will make you happy and help to satisfy your feeling of self-worth. Be yourself, and then be the best self you can be.

Finally, I hope you have developed relationships in this class that will last forever. I will always remember the wonderful things we’ve all shared, and I will always hold each of you very close to my heart. Each person in this class has touched me in a very special way, and I hope that I have had some influence on you, too.

Teaching this class has taught me many things. I’ve realized that first impressions are not always accurate. Not only have I been proven wrong about the impression my first experience with Teen Leadership left on me, but I have also realized that, despite the first impression each of you portray, you are all very kind, caring, young adults who have a lot to offer to the world. Please do your best to make this world better—you were put here for a reason… find that reason out and make it happen. That would make my years of teaching worth it, knowing that the nineteen students I taught during the fall semester of 2004 sought and reached the potential I knew they all had. I love all of you very much. I hope you remember me because I will always remember you.


Love,
Miss Brigola


My Teen Leadership Class, 2004