I thought I had a well behaved class…until I got a student teacher. That’s when the Lord of the Flies broke out. Kids who had been angels in the classroom for over half the school year turned into savages. One day the student teacher left for the day and I resumed my role as teacher. And they suddenly turned to angels again.

That led me to think about civilization and the meaning of being civilized. Without rules do even the most civilized turn into savages? William Golding thought so.

Links

• Free Video Course Sign Up : https://forms.aweber.com/form/34/1733538234.htm
• Lord of the Flies Blog Post
• Complete Lesson Plans Collections: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/

How many times per day do you tell your students that if they believe in themselves they can achieve anything?

What you say is, “Hey if you believe in yourself, you can achieve anything!”

What they hear is: Blah! Blah! Blah!

In other words, they’re not buying what you’re selling:

1. You don’t believe it.
2. Because you aren’t accomplishing your dreams.

In this episode, I break down why believing in yourself is the ultimate key to getting what you want. I challenge you to put your actions where your mouth is. Learn how to handle the uncomfortable and scary obstacles in your path and practice your skill of believing harder.

When we start believing in ourselves then students will take that cue and start believing in themselves.

I want you to stop talking about it and start doing something about it.

ELA Teacher Links

• Teaching Emotional Intelligence: Short Stories for Teaching Empathy
• Short Story Catalog at ELACOMMONCORELESSONPLANS.com
• Poetry Collections at ELACommonCoreLessonPlans.com

Poe is the most famous of American Romantic writers. One aspect of this literary movement is a fascination with death and the supernatural. And is there anything more supernatural and portentous of death than a Raven that quotes “Nevermore.”

“Nevermore” is not the literary quote of the day, by the way, but it does come from Poe’s “The Raven.”

Takeaways

1. “The Raven” is one of the most famous poems in the English language
2. There’s a cool episode of The Simpsons about “The Raven.”
3. “The Raven” is a great poem for teaching poetic devices.

Resources

• Free Video Course Sign Up : https://forms.aweber.com/form/34/1733538234.htm
• Complete Lesson Plans Collections: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/
• Edgar Allan Poe Short Story Lesson Plans: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/collections/short-story-lesson-plans/products/edgar-allan-poe-short-stories

I don’t really know the exact truth about Poe’s personal life, but his writing expertness cannot be denied. One thing that makes him so iconic, in addition to his tales of horror, is his ability to innovate. You’ll notice that famous short story writer was not really an occupation before Poe. You’ll also note that detective stories did not exist before Poe. 

Links

• Free Video Course Sign Up : https://forms.aweber.com/form/34/1733538234.htm
• Complete Lesson Plans Collections: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/
• Edgar Allan Poe Short Story Lesson Plans: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/collections/short-story-lesson-plans/products/edgar-allan-poe-short-stories

Poe is best remembered for his tales of terror and haunting stories and poems. He is credited as one of the earliest writers of short stories, the inventor of the modern detective story, and an innovator in the genre of science fiction.

Takeaways

1. One can easily infer that Poe was a wee bit unstable based on passages like the one we read, but that’s not necessarily true.
2. This is a great short story any time of year, not just Halloween.

Resources

• “The Black Cat” Blog Post
• Free Video Course Sign Up : https://forms.aweber.com/form/34/1733538234.htm
• Complete Lesson Plans Collections: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/
• Edgar Allan Poe Short Story Lesson Plans: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/collections/short-story-lesson-plans/products/edgar-allan-poe-short-stories

Here's a replay podcast of one of my favorite poems. So on this 4th of July, remember those who secured our dreams.

Here's what a loss of freedom looks like, at least according to Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron"

I don't feel like doing podcasts over 4th of July weekend, but if you feel like listening, here are some old teaching poetry podcast episodes.

John Keats is my favorite poet. That’s not something I normally tell people. Perhaps that’s the real reason I do this podcast…so I can tell you who my favorite poets and poems are. It’s not like I sit around and discuss literary quotes with my friends like I’ve been doing all summer with y’all.

Life Lesson

The poem’s topic is perfection. And I think a lot of us become perfectionists in the classroom. I want to say that perfectionists and perfection are not the same. Because perfection is an impossible goal on Earth–even if it does exist in some form, according to Keats at least–doesn’t mean we need to achieve it to be effective in the classroom.

Takeaways

1. Keats found perfection on an urn, so perfection does exist. It’s just not very practical in real life.
2. Perfectionism is not the same as perfect.
3. Be careful not to cast this pearl of a poem on the swine of a class that doesn’t appreciate literary greatness.

Resources

• “Ode on a Grecian Urn” Blog Post
• Free Video Course Sign Up : https://forms.aweber.com/form/34/1733538234.htm
• Complete Lesson Plans Collections: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/
• Poetry Lesson Plan Collections: https://trent-media.myshopify.com/collections/poetry-guides