Moving from Washington, DC to Texas was a huge transition in and of itself… But when you add the differences in the teaching content, it was even more drastic. In writing, the differences were most pronounced! In DC, our students wrote in the context of a reading passage; it was more of a response or a find details to support the conclusion that you have drawn. In Texas, on the other hand, students are asked to write about their own experiences and organize it in a one page-26-line paper. In DC, they may be given up to 4 pages to flesh out there response. You can easily see how MY mindset had to change in order to prepare my Texas students. What I relied heavily upon were graphic organizers to give students a checklist and help them remember the brainstorming and planning steps. It helped in the end because by the end of May, my students knew what elements to include in their writing to have a quality composition.
For the past 2 years, I have coached students in oration to compete in the Frederick Douglass Oratorical Contest in Washington, DC. This national contest is a wonderful opportunity for our students to challenge themselves by memorizing an excerpt from a Frederick Douglass speech. In the first year, one of my students placed 3rd in the competition, and in the 2nd year, she placed 2nd.
My students love rap, and I love when they are engaged in the lesson. I found a rap beat, and then I wrote some lyrics to help them remember how to find coordinate points. They loved the song, and I would often hear them rapping the lyrics on the playground. Needless to say, this lesson was successful!
My students love our review games, and one of the most popular games we played this year was the American Revolution game. Our reading theme for this instructional window was the American Revolution, so I thought of a way to incorporate that theme into a math game. What resulted was a way for us to potentially “rewrite history” with a battle between all of the sides that had a stake in this “New World”. In our game, we had the British, the French, the Colonists, the Native Americans, the Enslaved People, and the Freeman’s Bureau (free blacks). Each student was placed on one of the six sides. Each side had a Commander/General and a 2nd in Command, which were made up of our weakest and strongest students. We played this game in my classroom with all of the fourth graders at one time to maximize our instructional time and encourage the peer tutoring. This was a game where all students had to have the same thing written on the boards for their teams, and points were awarded for teams that worked well together. Teams could spend as much time as they needed on each problem because early finishers were given “sneak attack” opportunities, which were additional problems the teachers would give finished teams to work on while the other teams completed the problem. Teams could earn additional points if they were called on to explain how they arrived at their answer. This meant that the higher students needed to make sure that the others on their team knew the content and could tell someone else how to do it. One student, who receives special education services in reading and math, was so thankful for his 2nd in Command (a higher student) because he really showed him how to do the problems!
In this teaching profession, I have grown accustomed to working without any recognition because when all is said and done, my job is really not about me! It is about equipping the youth for future success. That being said, it is always nice to get a little recognition or “Good job” ever so often!
Well the other day, I was notified that I would be receiving an award for my students’ achievement and growth on the Achievement Network (ANET) benchmark assessments. Once the event started, we were notified that out of over 1,000 teachers, between 20 and 30 teachers were being recognized at this event for our students’ growth. What an honor!
Superb Student Tests from ANET #1The ANET AwardThe PowerPoint from Award Ceremony
