handwritten on February 20, 2017
I have heard from many individuals that "science and history" are becoming lost in this intense drive towards making sure students are competent in both math and reading. However, I think we have to look at our approach to Science and History differently. Our focus seems to remain quite heavily on proficiency in math, reading and writing. However, there are multiple opportunities throughout the day to be incorporating history and science into multiple different area of learning. I have found that one of the best ways to teach history is through reading rich historical material that is engaging and interesting to the students. I recently chose a novel for my novel study group entitled Riding...
handwritten on August 21, 2016
Sometimes, as teachers, we should stop and think, "Am I creating an atmosphere of motivation within the classroom?" Some teachers argue, "It doesn't matter if they don't find the topic interesting, they can't be interested all the time." It is a fact, that there will be classes you are asked to take and things that you are asked to do that may not be "interesting" or "magical" but you will have to do them. However, I can guarentee that a lesson on inferencing may become much brighter if an article about Michael Phelps is presented instead of an article about crickets. A lesson on character traits may become much brighter if a short story is read about an individual, age 8, is changing the...
handwritten on August 21, 2016
One of my favorite lessons this summer was a compare and contrast lesson involving point of view. Last summer I traveled to China and so I gave the students two accounts of the same topic (a primary account and a secondary account.) The beginning of the lesson was spent really honing in on what exactly a primary and secondary account was. A primary account means that the individual writing the account was acually present. A secondary account means that the person was not actually present. What I wanted the students to understand was both the pros and cons of reading such an account. Together, we read two short passages, and I first let the students decide which one was the primary account...
handwritten on August 21, 2016
One of the activities I had fun inventing this summer involved teaching vocabulary and robust character trait vocabulary. Honestly, when a teacher mentions vocabulary, the student's initial reaction is to groan. What I learned, on the contrary is that students truly pick up vocabulary much more quickly when the activities involved are challenging, motivating, inspiring and thought-provoking.
One of the ways in which I motivated the students was through the use of challenges. On a few occasions we played around the world with vocabulary. In some cases, I would ask the student for student-friendly definitions. In other cases, I gave a scenario and the student was competing with his or her...
handwritten on August 21, 2016
I do think, as teachers, we sometimes become so caught up in the curriculum that we forget to think outside of the box. This summer, I really felt as if I could take creative liberty with my lessons. For the particular group of students I was teaching, I found that many of them were quite drawn to moving pictures, song lyrics, movies and videos. In fact, I found that the reading comprehension strategies that were quite difficult in a written passage were quite easy for them when given a different medium. Thus, I often introduced a skill with a small video or thought-provoking clips from an inspiring movie. During the week in which I was teaching character analysis, round vs. flat...
