a new world view:
a high school stage set with love
inclusive of all
There’s Still Hope
a new world view:
a high school stage set with love
inclusive of all
students
Even the Sunset Says So
Is there a prettier Denver sunset than this ‘red’ sunset over teachers rallying to strike??
I don’t know what you were thinking, DPS. Did you not realize you are a district in a union-led hotbed of liberals???
Did you think we were going to sit down and shut up??
We’re going to rally. We’re going to win.
Even the sunset says so.
Blue Rectangle
he holds it up proud as a parent
perfectly cut into a blue rectangle
it fits behind the glossy plastic
he grins his jolly-Jun grin
and though he drives me crazy
with his grumbling questions
and loud arguing voice
(“we can’t whisper to argue!”)
he follows me home,
makes it into the dinner conversation,
and with my words,
his actions,
has made my day.
Ode to Pod
for years I’ve dreamed of this day
so why am I not smiling? my own
classroom, my own walls, my desk
in the corner with no one to bother me,
no one to pester me with the constant
openings and closings of doors,
students incessantly filing in and out,
no little pod desk accessible only
by interrupting someone else’s teaching.
but if I hadn’t been here I wouldn’t
have heard Hanna wondering about
lessons that I then reached out to share
(making our co-teaching the best
teaching I’ve done so far);
been close enough to Karen to see
the endless hours she puts into teaching those kids;
heard Bill complain about the toilet
overflowing and everyone in homeroom
giving him crap about it (punny, I know!);
I wouldn’t have caught clips of those
conversations Bill and Scott had with
their students (the ones in trouble,
the bullies, the ones with family issues)
and witness, firsthand, how to mix humor
with discipline in a way that is nothing
shy of teaching’s greatest masterpiece;
I wouldn’t have visited Tammy’s lab
to see the limitless ways that students
could be brought to think for themselves.
if it weren’t for my little windowless pod,
my small desk that Bill cleared his crap for
(with nothing overflowing), I wouldn’t
have the friends who make me feel
less departmentalized (in my solo
department), I wouldn’t have even
had a brownie list, I wouldn’t have seen
the best teachers in the school, but would
be in the dark, just like I thought I would be
when (during the overcrowded days)
they put me in this dark space
that, in fact, has brought nothing less
than a world of light into my life.
Who You Are to Me
Dedicated to my class of 2015
My first-ever group to not only pay attention
to this (too old? unrelatable setting?
boys’ prep school—really?) movie choice,
but let loose your tears of frustration,
your cheers of redemption, at its bittersweet end.
The only students who actually followed my
standardized-test lecture (copying, studying
the notes, underlining passages, reminding
each other on test days the right things to do)
taking the most time—and care—than
I’ve ever witnessed or dreamt of seeing.
The next generation of Americans (lazy?
ungrateful? bored to pieces?) who
will lead our country into a future
(recessed? depressed? unforgiving?)
whose citizens will one day be as proud
of you (hardworking, grateful, dedicated)
as I, your humble teacher, am today.
Top Ten Reasons Why Co-Teaching is Best for ELLs
1. Pulling them out of their classes makes them feel dumb. They are isolated from their peers and they are made to feel that they have disabilities.
2. They benefit from interactions with native-English-speaking peers. If they are in sheltered ELD classes all day, they have little time for this benefit, and copy each other’s linguistic errors.
3. Every classroom would run more efficiently with two certified teachers in the room to help all students. So the ELLs are not the only students who benefit.
4. Content-area teachers need more support on sheltered instruction techniques. How is any administrator or ELD teacher supposed to support them without being able to regularly participate in their classrooms?
5. The ELD teacher becomes more familiar with the curricula that the ELLs struggle with, therefore is better able to assist them with assignments and make appropriate testing modifications.
6. Speaking of testing modifications, when the ELD teacher is in the content area classroom with the ELLs, s/he can pull the ELLs out to read tests aloud to them, one of the most effective accommodations of all, and one that ELLs rarely benefit from receiving because there is just one classroom teacher and thirty students to watch.
7. The ELD teacher can work with the classroom teacher in parallel teaching scenarios, each working with small groups and focusing on different skills. This benefits lower-level students, such as special education students and ELLs, as well as higher-level students who rarely have the benefit of being challenged.
8. All teachers become more effective when they regularly observe and work with other teachers who may or may not have different approaches and teaching styles. Since teachers are rarely given opportunities to view their colleagues’ styles, co-teaching helps each of the co-teachers improve his/her skills and gain new ideas.
9. ELLs are confronted with a more challenging curriculum from day one. While at first they will be behind their native-English peers, in the long run this will benefit their education because they will not be pulled into a sheltered class with only other ELLs that is often dumbed down. This way, when they exit out of the ELL program, they don’t feel that they are grade levels behind their peers.
10. ELLs will be ETERNALLY grateful to actually have help from their ELL teacher in their content classes where they would otherwise be swimming upstream. This helps build rapport and trust that will last years.
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