Monday, December 16, 2013
Such an powerful and inspirational message! We should be proud to call ourselves educators/ teachers and not let anyone make us feel otherwise. Rita Pierson was truly an inspirational and remarkable educator. Love her message, may she rest in peace. http://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion.html
Monday, April 22, 2013
Found this amazing website on Mini-lessons to teach students that covers everything from reading to writing. Check it out! http://www.tips-for-teachers.com/Mini%20Lessons.htm
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
A different perspective
I found this article and that it was a great contrast to all that we hear about how much of a positive impact technology has on education. There are two sides to every issue here is just a different way to look at it. Posted by the New York Times. The article can be found at
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?pagewanted=all
LOS ALTOS, Calif. — The chief technology officer of eBay sends his
children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon
Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard. But the school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens
and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be
found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and
the school even frowns on their use at home.
Schools nationwide have rushed to supply their classrooms with computers, and many policy makers say it is foolish to do otherwise. But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: computers and schools don’t mix.
This is the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, one of around 160 Waldorf schools in the country that subscribe to a teaching philosophy focused on physical activity and learning through creative, hands-on tasks. Those who endorse this approach say computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans.
The Waldorf method is nearly a century old, but its foothold here among the digerati puts into sharp relief an intensifying debate about the role of computers in education.
“I fundamentally reject the notion you need technology aids in grammar school,” said Alan Eagle, 50, whose daughter, Andie, is one of the 196 children at the Waldorf elementary school; his son William, 13, is at the nearby middle school. “The idea that an app on an iPad can better teach my kids to read or do arithmetic, that’s ridiculous.”
Mr. Eagle knows a bit about technology. He holds a computer science degree from Dartmouth and works in executive communications at Google, where he has written speeches for the chairman, Eric E. Schmidt. He uses an iPad and a smartphone. But he says his daughter, a fifth grader, “doesn’t know how to use Google,” and his son is just learning. (Starting in eighth grade, the school endorses the limited use of gadgets.)
Three-quarters of the students here have parents with a strong high-tech connection. Mr. Eagle, like other parents, sees no contradiction. Technology, he says, has its time and place: “If I worked at Miramax and made good, artsy, rated R movies, I wouldn’t want my kids to see them until they were 17.”
While other schools in the region brag about their wired classrooms, the Waldorf school embraces a simple, retro look — blackboards with colorful chalk, bookshelves with encyclopedias, wooden desks filled with workbooks and No. 2 pencils.
On a recent Tuesday, Andie Eagle and her fifth-grade classmates refreshed their knitting skills, crisscrossing wooden needles around balls of yarn, making fabric swatches. It’s an activity the school says helps develop problem-solving, patterning, math skills and coordination. The long-term goal: make socks.
Down the hall, a teacher drilled third-graders on multiplication by asking them to pretend to turn their bodies into lightning bolts. She asked them a math problem — four times five — and, in unison, they shouted “20” and zapped their fingers at the number on the blackboard. A roomful of human calculators.
In second grade, students standing in a circle learned language skills by repeating verses after the teacher, while simultaneously playing catch with bean bags. It’s an exercise aimed at synchronizing body and brain. Here, as in other classes, the day can start with a recitation or verse about God that reflects a nondenominational emphasis on the divine.
Andie’s teacher, Cathy Waheed, who is a former computer engineer, tries to make learning both irresistible and highly tactile. Last year she taught fractions by having the children cut up food — apples, quesadillas, cake — into quarters, halves and sixteenths.
“For three weeks, we ate our way through fractions,” she said. “When I made enough fractional pieces of cake to feed everyone, do you think I had their attention?”
Some education experts say that the push to equip classrooms with computers is unwarranted because studies do not clearly show that this leads to better test scores or other measurable gains.
Is learning through cake fractions and knitting any better? The Waldorf advocates make it tough to compare, partly because as private schools they administer no standardized tests in elementary grades. And they would be the first to admit that their early-grade students may not score well on such tests because, they say, they don’t drill them on a standardized math and reading curriculum.
When asked for evidence of the schools’ effectiveness, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America points to research by an affiliated group showing that 94 percent of students graduating from Waldorf high schools in the United States between 1994 and 2004 attended college, with many heading to prestigious institutions like Oberlin, Berkeley and Vassar.
Of course, that figure may not be surprising, given that these are students from families that value education highly enough to seek out a selective private school, and usually have the means to pay for it. And it is difficult to separate the effects of the low-tech instructional methods from other factors. For example, parents of students at the Los Altos school say it attracts great teachers who go through extensive training in the Waldorf approach, creating a strong sense of mission that can be lacking in other schools.
Absent clear evidence, the debate comes down to subjectivity, parental choice and a difference of opinion over a single world: engagement. Advocates for equipping schools with technology say computers can hold students’ attention and, in fact, that young people who have been weaned on electronic devices will not tune in without them.
Ann Flynn, director of education technology for the National School Boards Association, which represents school boards nationwide, said computers were essential. “If schools have access to the tools and can afford them, but are not using the tools, they are cheating our children,” Ms. Flynn said.
Paul Thomas, a former teacher and an associate professor of education at Furman University, who has written 12 books about public educational methods, disagreed, saying that “a spare approach to technology in the classroom will always benefit learning.”
“Teaching is a human experience,” he said. “Technology is a distraction when we need literacy, numeracy and critical thinking.”
And Waldorf parents argue that real engagement comes from great teachers with interesting lesson plans.
“Engagement is about human contact, the contact with the teacher, the contact with their peers,” said Pierre Laurent, 50, who works at a high-tech start-up and formerly worked at Intel and Microsoft. He has three children in Waldorf schools, which so impressed the family that his wife, Monica, joined one as a teacher in 2006.
And where advocates for stocking classrooms with technology say children need computer time to compete in the modern world, Waldorf parents counter: what’s the rush, given how easy it is to pick up those skills?
“It’s supereasy. It’s like learning to use toothpaste,” Mr. Eagle said. “At Google and all these places, we make technology as brain-dead easy to use as possible. There’s no reason why kids can’t figure it out when they get older.”
There are also plenty of high-tech parents at a Waldorf school in San Francisco and just north of it at the Greenwood School in Mill Valley, which doesn’t have Waldorf accreditation but is inspired by its principles.
California has some 40 Waldorf schools, giving it a disproportionate share — perhaps because the movement is growing roots here, said Lucy Wurtz, who, along with her husband, Brad, helped found the Waldorf high school in Los Altos in 2007. Mr. Wurtz is chief executive of Power Assure, which helps computer data centers reduce their energy load.
The Waldorf experience does not come cheap: annual tuition at the Silicon Valley schools is $17,750 for kindergarten through eighth grade and $24,400 for high school, though Ms. Wurtz said financial assistance was available. She says the typical Waldorf parent, who has a range of elite private and public schools to choose from, tends to be liberal and highly educated, with strong views about education; they also have a knowledge that when they are ready to teach their children about technology they have ample access and expertise at home.
The students, meanwhile, say they don’t pine for technology, nor have they gone completely cold turkey. Andie Eagle and her fifth-grade classmates say they occasionally watch movies. One girl, whose father works as an Apple engineer, says he sometimes asks her to test games he is debugging. One boy plays with flight-simulator programs on weekends.
The students say they can become frustrated when their parents and relatives get so wrapped up in phones and other devices. Aurad Kamkar, 11, said he recently went to visit cousins and found himself sitting around with five of them playing with their gadgets, not paying attention to him or each other. He started waving his arms at them: “I said: ‘Hello guys, I’m here.’ ”
Finn Heilig, 10, whose father works at Google, says he liked learning with pen and paper — rather than on a computer — because he could monitor his progress over the years.
“You can look back and see how sloppy your handwriting was in first grade. You can’t do that with computers ’cause all the letters are the same,” Finn said. “Besides, if you learn to write on paper, you can still write if water spills on the computer or the power goes out.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?pagewanted=all
Grading the Digital School
A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
The Waldorf School in Los Altos, Calif., eschews technology. Here, Bryn Perry reads on a desktop. More Photos »
By MATT RICHTEL
Published: October 22, 2011
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Schools nationwide have rushed to supply their classrooms with computers, and many policy makers say it is foolish to do otherwise. But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: computers and schools don’t mix.
This is the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, one of around 160 Waldorf schools in the country that subscribe to a teaching philosophy focused on physical activity and learning through creative, hands-on tasks. Those who endorse this approach say computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans.
The Waldorf method is nearly a century old, but its foothold here among the digerati puts into sharp relief an intensifying debate about the role of computers in education.
“I fundamentally reject the notion you need technology aids in grammar school,” said Alan Eagle, 50, whose daughter, Andie, is one of the 196 children at the Waldorf elementary school; his son William, 13, is at the nearby middle school. “The idea that an app on an iPad can better teach my kids to read or do arithmetic, that’s ridiculous.”
Mr. Eagle knows a bit about technology. He holds a computer science degree from Dartmouth and works in executive communications at Google, where he has written speeches for the chairman, Eric E. Schmidt. He uses an iPad and a smartphone. But he says his daughter, a fifth grader, “doesn’t know how to use Google,” and his son is just learning. (Starting in eighth grade, the school endorses the limited use of gadgets.)
Three-quarters of the students here have parents with a strong high-tech connection. Mr. Eagle, like other parents, sees no contradiction. Technology, he says, has its time and place: “If I worked at Miramax and made good, artsy, rated R movies, I wouldn’t want my kids to see them until they were 17.”
While other schools in the region brag about their wired classrooms, the Waldorf school embraces a simple, retro look — blackboards with colorful chalk, bookshelves with encyclopedias, wooden desks filled with workbooks and No. 2 pencils.
On a recent Tuesday, Andie Eagle and her fifth-grade classmates refreshed their knitting skills, crisscrossing wooden needles around balls of yarn, making fabric swatches. It’s an activity the school says helps develop problem-solving, patterning, math skills and coordination. The long-term goal: make socks.
Down the hall, a teacher drilled third-graders on multiplication by asking them to pretend to turn their bodies into lightning bolts. She asked them a math problem — four times five — and, in unison, they shouted “20” and zapped their fingers at the number on the blackboard. A roomful of human calculators.
In second grade, students standing in a circle learned language skills by repeating verses after the teacher, while simultaneously playing catch with bean bags. It’s an exercise aimed at synchronizing body and brain. Here, as in other classes, the day can start with a recitation or verse about God that reflects a nondenominational emphasis on the divine.
Andie’s teacher, Cathy Waheed, who is a former computer engineer, tries to make learning both irresistible and highly tactile. Last year she taught fractions by having the children cut up food — apples, quesadillas, cake — into quarters, halves and sixteenths.
“For three weeks, we ate our way through fractions,” she said. “When I made enough fractional pieces of cake to feed everyone, do you think I had their attention?”
Some education experts say that the push to equip classrooms with computers is unwarranted because studies do not clearly show that this leads to better test scores or other measurable gains.
Is learning through cake fractions and knitting any better? The Waldorf advocates make it tough to compare, partly because as private schools they administer no standardized tests in elementary grades. And they would be the first to admit that their early-grade students may not score well on such tests because, they say, they don’t drill them on a standardized math and reading curriculum.
When asked for evidence of the schools’ effectiveness, the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America points to research by an affiliated group showing that 94 percent of students graduating from Waldorf high schools in the United States between 1994 and 2004 attended college, with many heading to prestigious institutions like Oberlin, Berkeley and Vassar.
Of course, that figure may not be surprising, given that these are students from families that value education highly enough to seek out a selective private school, and usually have the means to pay for it. And it is difficult to separate the effects of the low-tech instructional methods from other factors. For example, parents of students at the Los Altos school say it attracts great teachers who go through extensive training in the Waldorf approach, creating a strong sense of mission that can be lacking in other schools.
Absent clear evidence, the debate comes down to subjectivity, parental choice and a difference of opinion over a single world: engagement. Advocates for equipping schools with technology say computers can hold students’ attention and, in fact, that young people who have been weaned on electronic devices will not tune in without them.
Ann Flynn, director of education technology for the National School Boards Association, which represents school boards nationwide, said computers were essential. “If schools have access to the tools and can afford them, but are not using the tools, they are cheating our children,” Ms. Flynn said.
Paul Thomas, a former teacher and an associate professor of education at Furman University, who has written 12 books about public educational methods, disagreed, saying that “a spare approach to technology in the classroom will always benefit learning.”
“Teaching is a human experience,” he said. “Technology is a distraction when we need literacy, numeracy and critical thinking.”
And Waldorf parents argue that real engagement comes from great teachers with interesting lesson plans.
“Engagement is about human contact, the contact with the teacher, the contact with their peers,” said Pierre Laurent, 50, who works at a high-tech start-up and formerly worked at Intel and Microsoft. He has three children in Waldorf schools, which so impressed the family that his wife, Monica, joined one as a teacher in 2006.
And where advocates for stocking classrooms with technology say children need computer time to compete in the modern world, Waldorf parents counter: what’s the rush, given how easy it is to pick up those skills?
“It’s supereasy. It’s like learning to use toothpaste,” Mr. Eagle said. “At Google and all these places, we make technology as brain-dead easy to use as possible. There’s no reason why kids can’t figure it out when they get older.”
There are also plenty of high-tech parents at a Waldorf school in San Francisco and just north of it at the Greenwood School in Mill Valley, which doesn’t have Waldorf accreditation but is inspired by its principles.
California has some 40 Waldorf schools, giving it a disproportionate share — perhaps because the movement is growing roots here, said Lucy Wurtz, who, along with her husband, Brad, helped found the Waldorf high school in Los Altos in 2007. Mr. Wurtz is chief executive of Power Assure, which helps computer data centers reduce their energy load.
The Waldorf experience does not come cheap: annual tuition at the Silicon Valley schools is $17,750 for kindergarten through eighth grade and $24,400 for high school, though Ms. Wurtz said financial assistance was available. She says the typical Waldorf parent, who has a range of elite private and public schools to choose from, tends to be liberal and highly educated, with strong views about education; they also have a knowledge that when they are ready to teach their children about technology they have ample access and expertise at home.
The students, meanwhile, say they don’t pine for technology, nor have they gone completely cold turkey. Andie Eagle and her fifth-grade classmates say they occasionally watch movies. One girl, whose father works as an Apple engineer, says he sometimes asks her to test games he is debugging. One boy plays with flight-simulator programs on weekends.
The students say they can become frustrated when their parents and relatives get so wrapped up in phones and other devices. Aurad Kamkar, 11, said he recently went to visit cousins and found himself sitting around with five of them playing with their gadgets, not paying attention to him or each other. He started waving his arms at them: “I said: ‘Hello guys, I’m here.’ ”
Finn Heilig, 10, whose father works at Google, says he liked learning with pen and paper — rather than on a computer — because he could monitor his progress over the years.
“You can look back and see how sloppy your handwriting was in first grade. You can’t do that with computers ’cause all the letters are the same,” Finn said. “Besides, if you learn to write on paper, you can still write if water spills on the computer or the power goes out.”
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Reading to Kids
Reading to Kids is a great website that I discovered that offers a wide variety of books for students selected by teachers. Each book is categorized by grade K-5. Also included for each book is the grade level guidelines, discussion questions for before and after the reading of the story, crafts ideas and special activities. Other resources and volunteer opportunities are also available. Really nice resource check it out:
http://readingtokids.org/Books/BooksGrade.php.
http://readingtokids.org/Books/BooksGrade.php.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Happy St. Patrick's Day
Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone! In honor of the holiday I've found a website that has a host of fun activities and recipes for teachers to do with students or parents with their children. Enjoy!
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/patrick/index.html
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/patrick/index.html
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Today I listened as a book was read to a class of kindergartners called Pet Show by Ezra Jack Keats. I really enjoyed this story and the children seemed fascinated as well. The story was so beautifully written and wonderfully illustrated that I decided I wanted to learn more about this author, the illustrator,Pat Cummings, and their other amazing stories. So I found this website fascinating ezra-jack-keats.org that gives a pretty good description:
"As a storyteller, Ezra Jack Keats is synonymous with celebrating the world of children, where the reality of everydayness meets the realm of imagination. In his books, life is full of pleasure, disappointment, hope and accomplishment..."
"As a storyteller, Ezra Jack Keats is synonymous with celebrating the world of children, where the reality of everydayness meets the realm of imagination. In his books, life is full of pleasure, disappointment, hope and accomplishment..."
Lettering
The A-Z of Learning Letters. 90+ ways to teach your child all about Letters.
Aug 15, 2012
61K+
Posted by Deborah Alter-Rasche at 12:32 PM
From: http://www.learnwithplayathome.com/2012/08/the-z-of-learning-letters-90-ways-to.html?m=1
Letters are everywhere! It's no wonder that often long before children start school they will start talking about, noticing and questioning about letters.
For parents, it can sometimes be hard to know when is the best time to start teaching your child about letters and how to go about it?
When to start "teaching" your child about letters?
I believe that Children need to be exposed to letters, through reading books with their parents, from birth. The entirety of their lives should be filled with books, words and text and learning about letters should be as much a part of everyday life as brushing your teeth.
Children will be learning about letters long before you intentionally set up activities or expose them to any explicit or purposeful teaching of letters.
You should know when your child is ready to start learning more about letters by them showing interest. Asking what a letter is, what sound a letter makes, what a word says, pointing out letters, recognising particular letters, attempting to write etc. are all signs that your child might be ready to learn more about letters.
How do I teach my child about Letters?
There are so many different "methods" and "programs" out there on the *best* way to teach Children the letters. Let's face it though, each child will learn and respond differently. Some will pick it up very quickly with minimum exposure and others will need multiple exposures before they have consolidated the learning.
At around the age of 5-6 they should be attending/completing a more formal schooling where they will more than likely be taught about letters (recognising them, naming them, their sounds, their shapes, their blends, writing them, building words etc). Therefore, your job before this time is recognising their interests and readiness and providing FUN and ENGAGING ways for your child to learn more about letters. I believe that forcing learning at this stage will only lead to your child resenting learning.
Starting with the first letter/letters in their Name can be a good beginning point as your child will often be the most interested in knowing that. Having them recognise their own name is also a handy skill!
Letters that have only one sound (eg M, F, S etc) can also be easier for your child to learn about.
Adding in knowledge about vowels (a, e, i, o, u) early on can be useful as well as you require these letters for word building.
Above all, make it FUN and don't force it.
Aug 15, 2012
61K+
Posted by Deborah Alter-Rasche at 12:32 PM
From: http://www.learnwithplayathome.com/2012/08/the-z-of-learning-letters-90-ways-to.html?m=1
Letters are everywhere! It's no wonder that often long before children start school they will start talking about, noticing and questioning about letters.
For parents, it can sometimes be hard to know when is the best time to start teaching your child about letters and how to go about it?
When to start "teaching" your child about letters?
I believe that Children need to be exposed to letters, through reading books with their parents, from birth. The entirety of their lives should be filled with books, words and text and learning about letters should be as much a part of everyday life as brushing your teeth.
Children will be learning about letters long before you intentionally set up activities or expose them to any explicit or purposeful teaching of letters.
You should know when your child is ready to start learning more about letters by them showing interest. Asking what a letter is, what sound a letter makes, what a word says, pointing out letters, recognising particular letters, attempting to write etc. are all signs that your child might be ready to learn more about letters.
How do I teach my child about Letters?
There are so many different "methods" and "programs" out there on the *best* way to teach Children the letters. Let's face it though, each child will learn and respond differently. Some will pick it up very quickly with minimum exposure and others will need multiple exposures before they have consolidated the learning.
At around the age of 5-6 they should be attending/completing a more formal schooling where they will more than likely be taught about letters (recognising them, naming them, their sounds, their shapes, their blends, writing them, building words etc). Therefore, your job before this time is recognising their interests and readiness and providing FUN and ENGAGING ways for your child to learn more about letters. I believe that forcing learning at this stage will only lead to your child resenting learning.
Starting with the first letter/letters in their Name can be a good beginning point as your child will often be the most interested in knowing that. Having them recognise their own name is also a handy skill!
Letters that have only one sound (eg M, F, S etc) can also be easier for your child to learn about.
Adding in knowledge about vowels (a, e, i, o, u) early on can be useful as well as you require these letters for word building.
Above all, make it FUN and don't force it.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Cool Website
Funbrain is an interactive website that has so many fun and educational games and activities for students to enjoy! Teachers can also use it in their classroom. One activity in particular called Once upon a Mad Libs allows students to create their own silly stories by filling in the missing blanks with funny adjectives. Check it out http://www.funbrain.com/brain/ReadingBrain/Games/Game.html?GameName=MadLibsOnceUponA&Brain=reading&GameNumber=2&Color=FFFFFF
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
I found this wonderful website http://www.ilovethatteachingidea.com that has a lot of different and cool ideas for teachers of all grades and subjects. With my major being Language Arts I thought this was a really cool idea from Janie
Allan to share:
"I have used this song with 1st-10th graders who struggle with learning verbs that are not action verbs. I wrote it to go to the tune of "It's a Small World After All" from Disney World.
The tune begins at,"It's a world of...."
"I have used this song with 1st-10th graders who struggle with learning verbs that are not action verbs. I wrote it to go to the tune of "It's a Small World After All" from Disney World.
The tune begins at,"It's a world of...."
Am are is was were has been had and have
Am are is was were has been had and have
Am Are is was were- has been had and have
Am are is was were has been had and have
Am Are is was were- has been had and have
And DO- DID- DONE! (said with emphasis)
(The
tune varies somewhat in the next part. The object being to say it as fast as possible)
Could be should be would be will be
May be might be must be
May be might be must be
Could be should be would be will be
May be might be must be
May be might be must be
Could be should be would be will be
May be might be must be
May be might be must be
And DO- DID- Done!
It's a verb word after all.
It's a verb word after all.
It's a verb word after all.
It's a verb, verb, word!
It's a verb word after all.
It's a verb word after all.
It's a verb, verb, word!
Thursday, February 14, 2013
The month of February is dedicated to celebrating the lives and accomplishments of African American leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, writers, activists, poets, etc of both the past and present. It gives teachers the opportunity expose their students to a culture and people that they may or may not be familiar with. Not simply learning about famous African Americans this month but continually learning about the importance of diversity and teaching about different cultures every day should be the goal. In celebration of this month here is one of my favorite poems by the remarkable poet Maya Angelou;
Still I Rise
"You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise."
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise."
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
"It is quite customary for teachers rather consciously to put on the mask, the role, the facade, of being a teacher, and to wear this facade all day, removing it only when they have left school at night"
-Carl Rogers
I found this quote interesting because as a future teacher I think its important that we realize that our job is more than just giving our students work to do. Our job is to get to know our students and create a community within our classroom where they feel free to express their ideas and feelings about the world around them. The article entitled Hearts and Minds by Steven Wolk gives great examples on how to do this. Check it out http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept03/vol61/num01/Hearts-and-Minds.aspx
-Carl Rogers
I found this quote interesting because as a future teacher I think its important that we realize that our job is more than just giving our students work to do. Our job is to get to know our students and create a community within our classroom where they feel free to express their ideas and feelings about the world around them. The article entitled Hearts and Minds by Steven Wolk gives great examples on how to do this. Check it out http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept03/vol61/num01/Hearts-and-Minds.aspx
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
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