For Craig Arnold
To wake when all is possible soon the agitation of the day has gripped you To come to reality and find your purpose for the day To hear the call like a phone ringing a distant yell crawling into your ears swift and fast like a bird to its prey each muscle tensing out of control so intense you start to stress you dread Monday It breaks your fun Into a boring reality The truth pooling Into you mind filling your Brain with realization and only then you learn Monday is sweet a discipline a precise lesson a wake up call you are the problem not Monday Stop living for the weekend and start living for every day. After four years of co-teaching with my colleague and dear friend Robert Thornbrough, Andrea Honigsfeld and Maria Dove asked me to tell the story of Robert and me for their new book on collaboration and co-teaching. The book is now available on Amazon!
Thanks to Elizabeth Hearn, founder of the CREATE Teacher Residency Program, and Kevin Maxwell, I was able to attend this year's SRI Fall Meeting. SRI is a non-profit organization serving thousands of educators and students nation-wide. Their mission is to create transformational learning communities, fiercely committed to educational equity and excellence. A commitment to equity in education means asking yourself, Whose voice am I not hearing in my classroom? I am inspired to continue this work at Inman and in my classroom.
In week nine, we got to enjoy poetry the way poetry was intended to be enjoyed--we listened to it. This was an eye opening experience for many students. Some commented on the rigors of poetry recitation; others commented on the beauty of the poems; all came to a new appreciation for poetry. Additionally, we continued to work on our design project, which has been an incredible journey in project based learning.
During Week 8, the designers were working on composing a group systems model, which is a design exercise that Tom Wujec describes in his TED Talk "Got a wicked problem? First, tell me how you make toast". Additionally, we were preparing for the midterm, which was a poetry recitation. Finally, some of the students were wrapping up thank you letters to host teachers after completing their field research.
I asked the students to experiment with creative ways to join independent clauses in their diary entries. These sixth grade students wrote some great sentences, and they wanted you to see them.
|
Nic AlarcónEnglish teacher Archives
May 2019
Categories |