handwritten on July 22, 2013
After talking to my director during our final conference together, we both came to the conclusion that the students were becoming tired of drilling the mechanics of writing. We talked about ways to make the last two weeks of class academically challenging but also personally fulfilling.
On Monday, we spent a day talking about the importance of social change through a Ted Talk about body posture and body language. Afterwards, I rearranged the classroom into a half circle and lead my very first Socratic Seminar. There were three specific rules: everyone had to contribute at least once, they were not allowed to talk over each other and they had to be respectful of each other’s opinions....
handwritten on July 15, 2013
This week marked the home-stretch of our personal narrative essays. On Monday we spent the day reviewing the importance of dialogue and how to use quotations properly. I admit that I probably should have spent at least two days going over this in detail. However, after 40 minutes, I could tell that my students could not take any more dialogue examples and thus, I decided to move on to the topic of imagery.
On Tuesday, we spent all day as artists in the classroom. We explored the simile, the metaphor, personification, alliteration and the different senses. During the second half of class the students rotated through four different stations. One of the stations involved having them reach into...
handwritten on July 8, 2013
This week was absolutely exhausting due to the fact that we finally taught a full five days! The beginning of this week started off somewhat shaky. The students are becoming more comfortable with each other and so talking in between transitions within the classroom has become my main challenge. I had to physically move a student’s desk one day so that she was forced to pay attention to the lesson instead of choosing to talk to her friend. Moving name tags around twenty or thirty minutes before class starts has become a routine.
Unfortunately, I have come to realize that there is no such thing as a ‘perfect classroom combination.’ At the same time, I have come to realize that I actually...
handwritten on July 1, 2013
This week was an abbreviated week at Summerbridge due to the extended Fourth of July weekend. At this point I am a bit sleep deprived, but classes went well, and I am beginning to know my students better every day. This week we worked on the color-coding stoplight method that is used to understand and identify the parts of a solid expository paragraph. Although I wasn’t ecstatic about this particular lesson, it was a mandatory part of the curriculum so I tried my best to keep a positive attitude. It certainly is amazing how easily a student or a group of students can sense a teacher’s positive or negative mood for a particular day. I realized that when I try my best to remain energetic and...
handwritten on June 22, 2013
The first week certainly went better than expected. The first day began with loud cheers coming from the summerbridge teachers and tired and somewhat puzzled seventh, eighth and ninth graders trudging off the buses. As we finished breakfast for the first time together, we recited the daily summerbridge chant: “We are Summerbridge Pittsburgh. We are the young people who make a difference. We are striving for academic success and personal mastery. We come with open minds, willing hearts, caring souls and high expectations. We are Summerbridge Pittsburgh.” It was during this moment that I knew this would be an unforgettable summer.
The first day was honestly a blur. It was a combination...
