Feeling Grateful for Another Great Year
The End of the Year is a Bag of Mixed Emotions

Here it is June again, the end of another school year--a time to reflect on what went right in the classroom, what promoted effective learning, and what I still need to change.

 

 

I feel so grateful for the opportunity to share my passion for language and literature with (generally) open-minded and capable young people.  For some kids, reading can be such a struggle, grammar and writing such a chore--but hopefully not for mine.  It's all about the passion that you bring to your material and the spirit of compassion with which you delivery it.  I have high expectations of my students--we tackle complex texts and work with the subtleties of language--but they always come through for me.  Some are motivated by the challenge or the love of the subject, as I was at their age, but many are pulled along and buoyed by the current of the teacher's love and energy.  You have to make it relevant, achievable, and yes, fun, for young adolescents.  I generally choose classic novels for class texts (I eschew the District's textbook collection of uninteresting and unliterary bits and pieces, truncated and bowdlerized as they are), but I lead students to recognize in them themes that apply to their own lives and the real world around them and provide the skills and guidance that makes them accessible.  This year, we read 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, and my students looked around themselves and realized, "yeah, this looks eerily familiar."  Good literature, made relevant, illuminates our experiences and opens up new worlds and new possibilities to us.  That's what I try to give my students every day.  I think I'm on the right track: I received this note the day after school ended from a young man whom I thought wasn't all that engaged:

Dear Mr. Felt,

 

I would like to thank you for teaching me this year. You were an amazing teacher and your class was one of my favorites. You introduced me to timeless, classic novels that I wouldn't have picked out myself but learned much from and really enjoyed reading. My writing, vocabulary, and reading comprehension skills have all improved greatly because of you. I have purchased Edith Hamilton's Mythology per your recommendation and plan to read it along with study the remaining vocabulary in my workbook over the summer. I really appreciate your passion - your love of teaching is unmistakable! Thank you so much for all you've done for me and my education this year.

 

Sincerely,

Dylan

This is what makes it all worthwhile for me--knowing that I've made a genuine impact on a young person's life.  For all the hassle, administrative pettiness, low pay, unreasonable parents, and mindless paperwork, this is why I stay in the profession.

Join the Great American Read!
A Powerful Tool to Inspire Readers of all Ages!

PBS has come out with a great list of America's 100 most beloved novels--how many have you read?  Take the quiz!  And you and your students can vote on your favorites.  But the real gem here for teachers is the great video of brief interviews with readers--ordinary and famous--that creates real excitement about reading these novels and how they impacted other people's lives.  Plus, it would be easy to break the 2-hour video up into short 3-5 minute segments to show to class.  Too bad that the contest is running mostly over the summer vacation, but nonetheless, this is a great resource!

Check it out: http://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/home/

Orphaned Words?
Students Adopt a Word!

Here's this cool new gizmo for printing a word onto (what looks like a) washer and making that into a bracelet or necklace.  I think the intent is to be mindful and use it for some sort of gratitude exercise.  But what if each student chose a cool, exotic word (cacatory, bamboozle, diffibulate, egrote)  that's fast fading from the lexicon, and adopt it?  Promise to use it and bring it back to the vernacular?  How cool would that be?  Thoughts?  From MyIntent:

Show Your True Colors!
Paint a Chalk Wall and Inspire Your Students

 I have had such a fun time with our hallway chalk wall--a great outlet for my creative side.  At the intersection of two wide hallways (interior), there was a large expanse of emptiness, and I thought, what can I do with this space?  I didn't want to paint a mural--I wanted something I could change with the seasons and what we're currently studying.  What I found was chalkboard paint! 

I tried both the Rustoleum and the Valspar, and liked the Valspar better--it seemed to cover better.  I needed three coats in order to get a smooth, uniform surface.  One can ($10) gave me two solid coats for a 6' x 6' area.   I use the regular sidewalk chalk you find at Michael's.

I usually do two boards every month or so.  Last month I did a Martin Luther King Jr quote for Black history month: 

 

I use an old-fashioned overhead projector since I have 0% artistic talent.  I copy an image onto transparency film (I still have a box of it from the bad old days, pre-computer document reader).  Here's my colleague working on her history quote board:

 

 

Great fun!   And the kids really seem to respond to it.  Pro tip: situate your chalk wall in an area where the kids are not prone to rubbing against the wall.  Here are some more examples: