Language Lounge moving to new site

Dear Reader,

This will be the last post to this particular blog.

I have decided to consolidate and streamline my efforts online and better serve my students and readers. I will no longer be posting to this blog. Now everything will available at http://mrvogts.wordpress.com. Of course, this is a temporary address as well. In June 2014 I will be moving that Wordpress.com site to a hosted Wordpress site at www.mrvogts.com.

Thanks in advance for your patronage to this site and your continued viewing at the new location.

And don't worry, I have already copied all of my posts from this site to the new site. The final transition to a self-hosted Wordpress site won't happen until June 2014 because by then the school year will be finished and my need to post won't be as great. That will give me time to get everything set up just the way I want it before the next school year. It's a process. Thanks again for sticking with me through it.

Yours Truly,

Todd Vogts

P.S. — I'm doing the same thing for the Homework Repository and my Teacher Todd Tumblr. Both of those sites have also been incorporated into the new site. Rather than have multiple sites, I feel it better to have everything in one location, which should make everything stronger since it won't be so scattered. I won't be deleting those sites or this one, though. I will keep them alive just in case I ever need anything off of them or need them for some unknown future reasons. However, they will not be updated. You can still follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mr_vogts and my Google+ Profile is still going at http://plus.google.com/+TRVogts/posts —TV

Spring Break 2014: A Recap of the 2013-14 School Year . . . So Far

Wow! It has been since July 2013 since I posted on here. That's no good, but it is because I have been crazy busy! This year has been full of good stuff so far, and I wanted to take a moment during the 2014 Spring Break to give you a brief recap of what's been going on so far in the 2013-14 school year.

First, let's look at English III, which is my American Literature class. Last year I felt like I was kind of just floundering. I was struggling from day to day to keep my head above water. I experimented with different styles and methods. I never felt like I found that perfect combination that worked for me. So this year, I tried something new. I went against my initial inclination to avoid using the textbook, and fully adopted the textbook as my guiding source for the class. As much as I hate to admit it, I love it! The class has gone so much more smoothly, and I like to think the rigor has been positively impacted. The textbook goes in chronological order, which is exactly what I wanted as the class is supposed to be a survey course. So far, we've taken a few diversions to go a little more in-depth with an author (Edgar Allan Poe, for example) and read Edith Wharton's "Ethan From," as well as a few other short stories outside of the textbook. I'm especially pleased with the time using the textbook has saved me. Instead of worrying what I'm going to do each day, I just keep going through the text, which frees up my time to develop projects over special sections of the course. Some of the projects have turned out great! And, of course, some didn't go as well as I would have hoped. We did take a break and write a argumentative paper, which was designed to prepare the students for the research project they will be taking part in after Spring Break 2014. First, though, we will be tackling my favorite novel of all time — "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I can't wait!

Now, let's consider my freshman communication courses, Media and Public Relations and A/V Production Fundamentals. I adopted a textbook. I've developed new projects. The rigor of the course has increased, and I feel like I am covering more information and, hopefully, learning more. I also adopted a textbook for one of my other communication classes, 21st Century Journalism. This class focused on reporting, law and ethics, and journalism history. It went well. Just like the freshman courses, it was only a semester-long class, so for the second semester I turned it into Special Projects In Journalism. The first task I gave my students was to sell advertising for a 24-page basketball tournament program. They didn't fill all the ad slots, but we made a nice profit and produced a quality program. I was very pleased! Then, I turned them loose on selling advertising for our yearbook. This is a big deal because it was the first year in the school's history that the yearbook had permission to sell advertising. They have crushed it! They have filled 10 pages with advertising! I'm blown away!

Speaking of yearbook, which I call Varsity Journalism because I want my students to look at student journalism as something equally important as sports, the student editors also embarked on something new. They decided to do a chronological book, which means we tackle every season as it comes (Fall, Winter, Spring) instead of doing a traditional treatment to events (all the sports in one section, academics in another, et cetera, et cetera). It is turning out great, and I can't wait to see the final product this summer. Also, in terms of how I teach the class, I kept with my athletic theme and create a Boot Camp to get everyone who is newer to staff all trained up and ready to go. This didn't go as well as I would have hoped. Some students didn't feel like they needed to be brushing up on this information, but for the green staff members, it helped quite a bit. I'm still sorting through how to effectively give grades in this class, since the final product is what really matters. I feel like this will be an ever-evolving process, so I'm not too worried. The staff has been under some strange tension nearly all year. This is something I'm investigating and will take steps to remedy for next year.

Also, this year I became the CTE Coordinator for the building (see this blog post to learn more about what CTE really is). I've enjoyed it, despite the sometimes frustrating nature of the work. I'm learning a lot about it, and I look forward to continuing to work with it. I feel like this is an area where I can have a positive impact on the staff at my school. It's a service role, but it provides me with sense of feeling like I'm part of team, which I prefer instead of feeling like I am working in a vacuum. Want to talk about CTE? Connect with me on Google+: https://plus.google.com/+TRVogts/posts

Though I've been lax in posting to this blog, I have been diligent about updating the Homework Repository (http://mrvogts-homework.blogspot.com/). I created this homework blog quite a while back as a safety net for my students. It is there for them in case they forget what the homework for the day was or just wanted to remind themselves about it. Also, it eliminates the excuse that they didn't know about an assignment. It is posted on the blog every day, and I tweet (@toddvogts) out a link to the post each day. I rarely post what is coming up on this blog because that isn't the point of it. It is purely to help the students keep abreast of what is going on in the class every day. I like it, and I like to think it has served my students well.

Other than all of this, things are going well. I'm sure I've overlooked a thing or two, but that's what I get for waiting so long to write a post. I am going to work on that. One thing I feel I need to do more as a teacher is reflect. I haven't done that as much this year, which is why I haven't posted often. Blogging on here is how I reflect, so in my never-ending quest to improve myself as a teacher, I going to make a conscious effort to reflect more, which means blog more.

Oh, and in the coming days and weeks, I will have some exciting news to share. I'm going to make the official announcement on here, so stay tuned!

Most importantly, though, have a great 2014 Spring Break!

Vogts to attend Jostens Adviser University

 

Thursday I will be loading up clothes and computers to head toward Minneapolis, Minnesota. I will be attending the Jostens Adviser University, and I am stoked!

This will be a great opportunity to learn more about my craft of yearbook advising. I hope to come away with a bunch of ideas to make my program even stronger.

The program runs from Friday through Monday. I figure on using Thursday and Tuesday as travel days.

I'm not entirely sure what to expect. I just know it is going to be great.

Here is a link to the program: https://www.signup4.net/Public/ap.aspx?EID=JOST10E

While I'm there, I will be Tweeting and posting to my Tumblr. Below are the links. Follow along if you are interested!

Twitter: @toddvogts

Tumblr: http://teachertodd.tumblr.com

Career Technical Education impacts learning

Here at Sterling High School, we are heavily involved in Career Technical Education, also known as CTE.

Essentially, CTE is a learning structure that prepares students to enter the workforce or be poised to succeed in college by providing industry-standard certifications to them as they complete the program during their high school years.

Here is how SHS officially describes it:

Career and Technical Education is organized educational activities that offer a sequence of courses to provide students with coherent and rigorous content aligned with challenging academic standards and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging professions. CTE courses provide technical skill proficiency, an industry-recognized credential, a certificate, or an associate degree and include competency-based applied learning that contributes to academic knowledge, higher-order reasoning and problem-solving skills, work attitudes, general employability skills, technical skills, occupation-specific skills, and knowledge of all aspects of an industry. 

Sterling currently offers six pathways, which are the programs of learning I've discussed. Two more are in the works for next year.

It think this is a pretty great program. My journalism courses are part of a pathway, so I get to see firsthand how many fantastic opportunities CTE affords the students. Also, it does result in extra funding for the district, the proceeds of which are designed to go toward the CTE programs for equipment and whatnot.

Like I said, the benefits are many.

What's cool is that I will be the CTE coordinator for SHS next year. I have a lot to learn, but I'm excited about the possibilities.

If you would like to see the flyer SHS uses to discuss and promote CTE locally, click the following link: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxHBSJA9t1zITjNYamVfQVF1Yjg/edit?usp=sharing

Business Education teaching test passed

In the world of education, you have to constantly be moving forward in order to keep up. Perhaps that means learning the latest and greatest teaching methods, diving in to new technologies, or taking college courses to not only improve your own knowledge but to also move yourself along the pay scale so you can earn just a little more money for your efforts.

Regardless of how an educator decides to do this, the goal is always to remain marketable and needed. Becoming obsolete is not an option.

I have earned my master’s degree, and that is a step in the right direction. However, my primary focus of late has been to pick up extra endorsements, which means I earn licenses to teach various courses.

Previously I have earned my English Language Literature Composition Content Knowledge endorsement, and I have earned my Speech Communication Content Knowledge endorsement.

These are on top of my primary endorsement of being a certified journalism teacher.

Well, now I have one more endorsement to add to the list: Business Education

This means I can now teach any business-related class, and I brings my list of endorsements to four.

I’m pretty proud of these accomplishments. The only question is, where do I go from here? Another college degree? More endorsements? Who knows . . .

'Great Gatbsy' redux a success

The latest theatrical version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic "The Great Gatsby," which is directed by Baz Luhrmann, was outstanding!

I took my Junior English Class students on Thursday since we had read the book and watched the older movie earlier this year.

Most of the students seemed to enjoy it, and one student even told me this movie helped him understand the book even better. #winning

Without giving the movie's secrets away, I will say it was visually stunning, which is to be expected from Luhrmann (he also directed "Moulin Rouge!" and "Romeo+Juliet"). What's more, though, is he gave the characters depth. In the book and the original movie, the characters were fairly flat. This was intentional by Fitzgerald to make them appear shallow and a representation of the times, and the original movie, it pulled almost directly, word-for-word, from the book.

In the redux, Gatsby, Daisy, Nick and almost everyone else is three-dimensional. They become humans instead of mere caricatures. I loved it!

Some critics have commented that it isn't completely true to the book. I agree. It took some liberties. But that's what makes it great! Luhrmann told the story of Gatsby. He used the book as a guide, but he injected it with more life than previous incarnations. He even pulled from other works of Fitzgerald and gave Nick a back story as to why he was writing the story of Gatsby in the first place.

So those critics don't think the movie is purely "Gatsby," but it is totally Fitzgerald. Luhrmann did an incredible amount of research, and it paid off big time. Read this article to learn more about what I'm talking about (there is a bit of a spoiler, so be warned): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/13/baz-luhrmann-great-gatsby_n_3265327.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment#news_content

I urge you to go check it out. It is 2.5 hours long, but that time flies by. It felt like we had just sat down when the end credits began to roll. I loved this movie! I can't wait to see it again!

Vogts gives 2013 WPHS Commencement Address

On Saturday I had the distinct honor of being the commencement speaker at the Class of 2013 Western Plains High School Graduation in Ransom, Kansas.

I can't possibly describe how grateful I was to be asked to do this. It was truly an honor. That place still means so much to me, and those students will always hold a special place in my heart.

Since most of you reading this probably weren't there, below is the speech I wrote.

I hope the students of WPHS got something out of it. I hope they enjoyed the speech as much as I enjoyed giving it.

If you like it too, please let me know in the comments.

— Mr. T.

2013 Western Plains High School (Ransom, Kansas) Commencement
May 11, 2013

Go forth and do good; create your legacy by following your passions

By Todd Vogts

First, I want to thank the Class of 2013 and Debbie Hagans for having me here today to deliver the commencement address. It is an honor for me, and I am grateful for the opportunity.

Being here today is special to me for many reasons. First, this is where I started my career as an educator. I experienced and learned more during my time here than I could possibly describe. I made life-long friendships while I was here, and I cherish those friendships. I look back at being a Bobcat with fond memories. I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about Ransom at least once a day.

However, this event is particularly special to me because the Class of 2013 is what I consider my class. My first year here, these young men and women were freshman. I have watched them grow up, and I could not be prouder of them. Many of them were my students at one time, and it brings me joy to see them succeeding in all aspects of life. Sure, a couple of these soon-to-be alums of Western Plains tested me at first. One person in particular made the mistake of using his cellphone in class. After I took it from him and he responded in a very memorable fashion, he spent some extra time at the school after the final bell. Still, he, along with the rest of this class, have shown me time and time again how incredible they all are. They have shown character in the face of adversity and reached new heights in their successes.

It is without a doubt that I say we live in very troubling times, and these students have had a front-row seat to the recent history of negativity that has beseeched us all. Locally and nationally, they have been witness to tragedy. Most recently, during their senior year, the world has been shocked by the mass shootings at the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater and the grade school in Newtown, Connecticut. Prosecutors in Texas were murdered, and the 117th running of the Boston Marathon was bombed.

In this wired and digital day and age, these tragedies were brought directly to these students, and being concerned for their safety would be a normal reaction. However, I urge you to look at what happened in the aftermath of each of these horrible occurrences. People came together. The resilience in every human being showed through brightly. For example, runners in the Boston Marathon not affected by the blasts crossed the finish line and ran two more miles to a hospital to donate blood in order to help the injured.

That’s incredible, and it goes to show there is more good than evil in this world. Class of 2013, don’t lose faith in humanity, and upon leaving these hallowed halls, I urge you to go forth and do good in this world. Be a cause for change. Stand up for what you know in your heart to be right. Remember where you came from. The people of western Kansas are some of the best people on Earth. When a neighbor is in need, they step in and help. They look out for each other. They are willing to lend a helping hand no matter what. Remember that, and act accordingly. Follow the lead of this community, no matter where life takes you, and be the good that prevents evil from rearing its ugly head.

The best way to do that is to always give your best effort in all that you do. In college or in life, do your best. Work or study hard. Doing so will be made all the easier if you find your thing. That one thing you love. That one thing that is your passion that renders waking up in the morning not a chore but a joy because you look forward to doing it.

As Confucius said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

For me, that job is two fold. I relish my role as an educator, but I have wanted to be an author since I was in the fourth grade. I even still have my very first piece of fiction. It was less than a handwritten page long. It was about a quarterback’s arm that was dislocated and torn from his body. Then it came to life and attacked all the players on the field until it could be captured and destroyed. It was a strange story, and I only bring it up because when I look at that piece I realize how far I’ve come as a writer.

As most of you know, I have published a novel. It has been one of my greatest joys to see it on the shelves of libraries and bookstores. It is a dream come true, and though the road to being published was long and challenging, it never felt like work. I loved every minute of it! I couldn’t wait to sit down at my computer and write more of the story.

Since then, I have begun writing a follow-up novel, but starting it took far longer than it should have. If it weren’t for one inspirational book, I don’t know if I would yet have been started on my second novel.

That book was “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles” by Steven Pressfield, who is the author of, among other great works, “The Legend of Bagger Vance.”

In “The War of Art,” I found the encouragement I needed. Pressfield’s mantra was, “sit down and do your work,” and I took that to heart.

I got to work, and I made great strides in my second novel. I was over joyed. I got home from school each day eager to enter the world of my main character, Tyler Fox, and write.

Pressfield also wrote about what can get in the way of writing, or whatever your passion is. He called it resistance. Resistance comes in many forms, but the way to deal with it is to give your best and do your work. Don’t let resistance win. Take yourself seriously. If you are passionate about something, do it like it is your profession. Your calling. Don’t treat it as a mere hobby. Do your work.

I urge you to do just that. Do your work. Follow your passion. Be a cause for good in this world. Vanquish evil.

Do as philosopher Alan Watts proposes. Think about what you would do if money were object. What would you do if you didn’t have to worry about making a living? Whatever that one thing is, do it. That is your passion, so go do it. Money and everything else will fall into place, and you will lead a happier, healthier, more productive life. You will become a cause of good in this world.

You are in control of your future. That control lends you a great power over your life and lives of those around you. Take that responsibility seriously. Leave a lasting legacy that is uniquely yours. For if you don’t, you risk denying this world something important.

Regardless of your unique passion, the legacy that is to be, the work that is to be done, only you can make it happen. Pressfield summed it up the best at the end of his book. He said:

“Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answer by action.

Do it or don’t do it.

It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.

You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”

So go forth and do good. Create your legacy by following your passion. Sit down and do your work.

To the Class of 2013, I say congratulations on your accomplishments. I think I can speak for everyone here when I say, we are rooting for you.

Thank you.