Author Archive
Writing a Class Rap – What an Adventure!
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We wrote a class rap about Lewis and Clark.
Yes, you heard me right – a class rap.
I’ve mentioned before that one of the best ways to engage your students is by incorporating your hobbies or passions into your lessons.
One of my hobbies is music and song writing, so I thought it would be a cool idea to try and take what we’ve been learning and write a rap as a class. I did this last year for the first time, and it worked out pretty good. I learned a lot from that first experiment, and this year it went a little better. Here’s what I did: Continue reading “Writing a Class Rap – What an Adventure!” »
Principal Calling: Can You Recommend This Student Teacher?
Posted by: | CommentsHello again,
I received a call yesterday from a principal who was considering hiring one of my former student teachers. He asked me a series of questions that I thought would be good to share with my blog readers.
It thought it might be nice to be able to share with prospective teachers what principals are looking for in a candidate.
Here are the questions he asked:
1. What are the candidate’s strengths? If you’re going to get noticed, you have to have something that you are really good at. In my student teacher’s case, she was really good at getting the kids to debate controversial issues. You have to be careful with 8th graders. They’re not real good at debating, but I told the principal that my student teacher was able to control the discussion and keep them on topic. You might want to ask yourself, “What is my strength?” Is it preparation? Organization? Rapport with the students? Communicating with parents? Technology? Whatever your strength is, make sure your master teacher is aware of it, so he/she can answer this question. Continue reading “Principal Calling: Can You Recommend This Student Teacher?” »
She’s Worth It
Posted by: | CommentsHello all,
I wanted to share something that really had an impact on me, and reminded me of why I became a teacher. Funny how it seems that I’m being reminded of this a lot lately.
Like I’ve been sharing, we have a student who has been diagnosed with Autism, and has been becoming more and more violent lately. Well yesterday, she had an episode in my class. She had to be forcibly taken out of my class kicking and screaming. I’ve seen a lot in my many years of teaching, but I had never seen that. Continue reading “She’s Worth It” »
