The Power of Voice

Dear Tumblrverse,

sorting trays if that’s your thing

Milk crate esque boxes if you plan on kids keeping journals in class

binders to organize hard copies of your units

index cards—lots.  Good for bell ringers and class closers (post it notes can do this too)

A good bulletin board if your room doesn’t have one so expectations/procedures can be posted clearly

craft stash: construction paper, markers, crayons, scissors, glue sticks

congrats! you’re going to LOVE your work, for sure.  :)

i don’t have a classroom anymore. since i’m a reading specialist/coach, i work with teachers rather than small groups of students.  (i love my job.) my passion for literacy began when i was little.  my parents used to take me to the library all. the. time.  i just fell in love with the written word and its ability to transport me to different places.

to encourage reading inside and outside of the classroom, i’d suggest:

create a diverse and well-stocked classroom library, spanning all genres (including comics and magazines); you don’t have to spend a tone of money…scholastic reading club is great for building class libraries cheaply, as are trips to local book sales and garage sales.  

make your children read every night for their reading homework.  i don’t know the grade you’ll be teaching, but i’d say 5 minutes for K-1, 10 minutes for 2nd grade, 15 minutes for 3rd, and 20 minutes for 4th-8th grades.  find a reading log online or create your own requiring a parent/guardian to sign off on the reading homework. let them read whatever they choose for homework.  also, read alouds by parents/guardians count toward the time, too.  allow kids to pick books from your class library to take home.  (you’ll need a checkout system that works for you.)

require students to keep a (separate) log of books read in a notebook or on a blog page.  it’ll be great for students to recognize patterns in their reading choices and feel that they are accomplishing something. 

book talks or book trailers are awesome (i’m a huge fan of the latter).  once a week, show students a trailer or book talk (lots are online).  bonus points if the book is already in your library.  display the book in a prominent spot and let kids check it out.

READ A LOT yourself!  read books that are age appropriate for your students.  talk about what you’re reading.  tell them how much you loved book X and then display it for students to check out.

give them opportunities to talk about the books they’re reading at home.  maybe you make it part of a Fun Friday or have kids draw a picture/poster/movie trailer of a book they love once a month.  

allow them to abandon books, if they choose. (this applies more for 2-8th graders)  just monitor their book logs to make sure that they are not making it an avoidance technique. guide them toward books they may enjoy, if needed.

Well, my gut instinct is to say….do it yourself?

In my experience you don’t need any training to teach AP.  You just have to have your course approved.  If there is already an AP class, this is done already.  There is nothing more for you, technically, to do. 

UNLESS you want to find some AP seminars to learn more about the test and how to prepare kids for the test.  Look on the College Board website for that information and go.  

If know your school regularly sends teachers to these things and you want them to pay for it, then just ask.  ”Hey!  Next time you send people to AP seminars, I’d like you to consider me.  I’d like to be able to take over those classes someday.”  Boom.  Done.   What’s the worst they can say? No.  And then you move on.

I was working on my MA on my own when the numbers for AP went up, so for a year I taught a section.  I haven’t since, but I’ve proven I’m qualified to do it if the need arises again.  The school sent me to an AP seminar the summer before I taught the class, but it wasn’t super necessary.  I could’ve gotten the gist myself but looking at some AP test prep books myself.  Knowing the content material for AP Lit, I think, it most important and time consuming.

As for theater?  I don’t know your story, and don’t think I’m being rude when I say theater isn’t something you just “train” in.  You have to have experience in studying it and doing it in order to teach it effectively.  So if you have a college nearby with classes you can enroll in the concentrations you need (acting, directing, history, etc.), I’d recommend that, because I can tell you there is no “training” for theater that a school can send you to to make you competent in teaching theater. I use every dripping ounce of my theater minor to teach theater technology and it’s barely enough.  I spend hours self teaching and researching to make up the gap.  

No.

I was a reasonably good elementary school student (although certainly not the best in my class), and then a not-very-good middle school student, and then a poor student for much of high school. (I failed my junior English class, and had to write essays about The Bluest Eye and Twelfth Night over the summer to get a D.)

Some of this had to do with intellectual challenges: I was a bit behind the curve when it came to abstractions. Like, I could not handle the idea of the equation x + 2 = 4, because x is not a number, so how is that even possible? My struggle with abstractions was also seen in my study of literature and anything that couldn’t be, like, memorized. (I’ve always been a pretty good speller, for instance.)

Some of my troubles in school also had to do with what in retrospect were social and mental health challenges. But I was very lucky to have teachers who saw a lot of potential in me and refused to give up on me, even when I was defiant and annoying and set off fireworks outside their bedroom windows. (Do not do this. It is not cool. It is just annoying.)

That said, I think it’s an oversimplification to say that I was a “troubled child” or whatever. By college, I was engaged and interested in many of my subjects and became, as my favorite college professor once called me, “a solid B+ kind of fellow.”

I don’t think it’s fair to see some kids as merely smart and others as merely troubled, or to think that kids who are performing poorly in school are simply miscreants/stupid/whatever. (It’s also unfair to portray kids who perform well in school or who have expansive vocabularies or whatever as inherently untroubled.)

Anne Frank would have been 85 today.

From one of the best essays we’ve read on teaching in a while.

The Hard Part

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-greene/the-hardest-part-teaching_b_5554448.html

(via weareteachers)

This. A million times this.