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...
handwritten on August 18, 2016
I note the obvious differencesbetween each sort and type,but we are more alike, my friends,than we are unalike.
We are more alike, my friends,than we are unalike.
If you have been watching the Olympics, you may have come across a rather memorable Apple commerical played countless times between events.
Sometimes, we pass through life and we hear a lot of static, noise and chaos. Then, sometimes, we are lucky enough to not only hear spoken words but also to feel them within us. These moments are rare, and I knew after hearing the above words, I was on to something. This was going to be my class theme for the year. This was life. This was the environment that I tried to create within my...
handwritten on July 5, 2016
This morning we were lucky enough to view the Grand Canyon via a small airplane. The view was unbelievable, we were able to truly see the rocks, the ripples in the water and the shrubbery. To say it was awe inspiring would be an understatement. I truly enjoyed viewing one of the most majestic places of the seven natural wonders.
On our way back to Vegas we stopped along the famous highway that is the Historic Route 66.This particular highway was really the start of the first hotels and food places and diners on the side of the road. During the time of the Dust Bowl (1930's), people literally packed up their things because their land met nothing. They traveled along this route and headed to...
