Welcome to part two of My 8th Grade Writing Experience. For this part two I will be giving some tips for 8th grade teachers before school starts again this fall. The first advice I have is that, when you teach your students types of poems or any other …
What does this quote by John Dewey mean to you? How does it manifest in your practice?
Hello, my name is Fidan, and I’d like to share my writing experience in 8th grade with you! When I first got to writing class in 8th grade, I have to be honest, I wasn’t ever really the biggest fan of writing so I wasn’t …
When I was in high school, I kept a diary. It was where I spoke my truth, my inner most thoughts, but also where I wrote poems to boys who didn’t even know I existed and dreams for my life beyond the dungeon of my …
As teachers, we bear witness to the lives of students every day, and in journals, blogs, seminars, and over lunch, we read the lives of students as well. Because of teachers, students’ stories endure. We are a witness to their lives.
It is Friday morning, and I am not in school but writing about it. For now I feel like I am in some dimension of utopia, but I realize we, our schools, have yet to arrive at some utopian destination. Indeed, we are far from the sort of schools our students deserve, and yet there are teachers who create these wonderful communities that make possible many of the points listed above (conversations with students, feedback over grades, and learning over testing). Utopia doesn’t have to be a work of fiction. We can imagine utopia as a direction — a direction I intend to keep running toward when the “real” school year begins and elements of dystopia loom.
By way of introduction I am the paternal grandfather of a fourteen-year-old boy. His grandmother and I have provided day care for him since he was born. In the early years of his education he was diagnosed with A.D.D. which makes it hard for him …
The beauty of Akata Witch is that readers discover alongside Sunny, a strong female protagonist, who she is becoming. Readers feel her anxiety, frustration, and confidence as she finds comfort in her beautiful (and transforming) skin and as she learns to navigate and integrate two very different worlds.
Rating: Finding the Flow (yes, no, partial): not really Classroom Library (single, book group, whole class): single As a middle school teacher, I read YA lit in a couple ways. First, I read like a, well, reader. How much I “like” it depends on whether …