Teaching at its Finest

Yes, if you want to see exemplary teaching skills please visit my classroom anytime. Cough Cough, Wink Wink. Well, I wish this was the case but I will be honest in saying that there are days when I am not sure if anything productive is going on but I can promise you that I am trying. First of all disclaimer: none of this has to reflect the teaching of the professors at Taylor as they have prepared me well and are experts in their area. However, I am still learning and everything I want to do doesn’t come as natural yet. I know that this is the process though but I just want to make sure that my students get the quality education they deserve so they can be successful in life.
Here is an example: On Monday, I had them do an activity I Math but it wasn’t working at all. We had all of these slips of paper cut so I had them compare the difference of one pile of strips to another pile of strips. Voila! Subtraction. Then since we had all these strips of paper, we had a snowball fight! Yes, you can have snowball fights in Africa, don’t doubt! I had the boys on one side and the girls on the other. They crumpled up their papers and got to throw them at each other for a minute. At the end, the teams had to count up how many pieces of paper were on their side and find the difference between the two sides. Again, subtraction! Yes, they weren’t doing hard problem solving but I think there comes a time when a little bit of fun is necessary! Lesson learned, be super over prepared or know how to think on your feet fast. Unfortunately, since I know how to do the latter, I tend to do this more often. Again, I am learning!
There are moments when I know they have learned and that makes me excited. My kids are addicted to compound words. Whenever they see one their hands raise up in the air and they shout them out like it is the best thing in the world. I can get all hands to go up to the sky when someone sees a compound word and I don’t even give them prizes for it! Who knew what they would be motivated in doing? Some of my kids have been learning about different states in the US through the reading program and it started with California, Arizona, and now we are in New Mexico. On Friday, the 9th graders came in to read stories that they had written about the Cyclops. One of the stories took place in California and a boy in the group pointed to the map where there were Red Woods in California. The 9th grader had no idea what they were but my boy could tell her all about them! Then, he pointed to New Mexico with a picture of old houses and she said, “Oh, it is the Alamo.” He corrected her and told her that they were pueblo homes that are made out of clay and mud! Oh, he made my day because that means he actually learned something!
I have found though that the best learning comes from not myself but from other students as they are learning how to peer edit each others papers, or teaching each other math skills. They are the teachers more of the time and I am the student!