Cass Dorn is on the 9th grade English Team at Red Bank Regional High School. The team spent the summer working on materials and structures to implement a detracking initiative, in which all frosh take a standard-level English class, as opposed to high or low levels.
Your Teaching Style:
Many kids loathe English (I did myself until I was a senior). One of my goals is to help kids not dread my class. Laughter is never a goal unto itself, but I find if I can coax a smile out of even the most reluctant student, I think, 'ok, there's a foundation on which to build'. I never want a student to feel intimidated or dejected in my room, which is why, I think, I act like such a whack job in my room. It's almost like I want them to think, 'if the teacher is this odd, how stupid can I look?' I also firmly believe that enthusiasm is contagious. The kids know I don't love every book, every assignment, but how am I going to ask them to learn vocabulary words if I don't demonstrate that I love, use, learn words myself every day? I also genuinely love my kids, and I try to convey that, even if a goofy way. I want every kid to think he/she is special, even if he/she is a total pain in my butt.
About the Detracking Initiative:
At first, I was extremely skeptical. It seemed like a ton of work for a questionable benefit. By the first week of school, though, I was sold. I realized within days that the differentiated classroom approach would give me more time to work individually with students, more time to focus on students' specific needs, and a greater range of skills and challenges for students to experience. None of the problems I anticipated--students' not being able to work well together, an insurmountable onslaught of work, classroom chaos and utter disorganization--turned out to be problems at all (knock on wood)!
PBLs in the Detracked English Classroom:
PBL gives kids an introduction to skills they will actually use once they leave high school: for example, letter writing, doing online research, using technology, creating and carrying out a plan of action. The process lets them explore literature and writing (in our case) through avenues they probably haven't before. We use one overarching PBL for each unit; it ends up being one or two for each marking period, with lots of smaller activities on the work we're reading scattered throughout.
The Ten Principles of Successful Classrooms in Action:
In my opinion, they're all worthy. I think some of the principles are easier to involve on a day-to-day basis than others. The principles that are easiest to see at work in the initiative (at least in my classroom) are 'student responsibility for learning' and 'high academic standards'. Both of these 
concepts, I think, are foreign to many of the freshmen. I absolutely love the thought that we are pushing them to take a more active personal role in their academic lives, and that they feel and see the consequences of not doing so on both small ("I wasted time yesterday so I didn't get the reading done") and large ("I didn't pay attention to the PBL rubric so I lost 40 points on the project") levels. Although it can be painful to watch (and inflict), I think taking greater responsibility for themselves is a valuable step for these kids to try to make. Finally, 'connected learning' comes about--more than I ever expected--through our activities and PBLs. We can incorporate a number of concepts (historical, social, personal) in one PBL, so that the students are almost forced to make connections.
Using Technology in the Classroom:
Again, until this year I always wondered how I could infuse technology into the study of literature without it seeming contrived or tech-for-the-sake-of-tech. However, I'm finding that using technology as a tool rather than an end is easier than I thought. In fact, many of the PBLs we've designed rely on technology; while they can be accomplished without a computer, using one aids the student immeasurably. I also have seen students teaching one another different tech skills (some of which I don't have)--in this arena, they are quite eager to jump in and help.