Winding Down.

Winding down my time at Lindsay Thurber I’ve realized how amazing my journey has been. I have truly come to look forward to my afternoons at the high school. Not only am I learning valuable lessons, but I’m also making very valuable connections. After having such a positive experience at the school I plan on continuing some field experience, and volunteering after the semester is over. This extra experience will benefit me in many ways. Having a variety of experiences throughout the school therefore gaining valuable lessons, the volunteer time is a good for my resume. Plus having relationships in the school past the expectations of the course shows the school that I’m passionate about becoming a teacher. But mostly I want to continue returning to Lindsay Thurber because I truly love interacting with the students, and staff at the school.

This week I visited Nov 25^th, and 27^th, and 29^th, in the 30-1 classroom the focus this week was completing their final assignments on the novel study “Night”. Many of the students had a jump start on the projects as they were assigned last Friday. During the work period I was able to interact with the student’s one on one. I circulated around the room talking to students about what project they had chosen, and seeing all of the works in progress. Because each project had a written response portion, I was often questioning students about how they planned to respond the choices they had made artistically. Many of the students surprised me with their ability to creatively respond to many different aspects of the project. One student creating a playlist for the book decided to take to assignment even further than requested. His playlist illustrated the story’s main characters emotional changes, sequentially from the first chapter to the end of the book. The kid’s drawings, diorama’s and various other kinds of projects were all very impressive. I was mostly impressed by the final project itself, I think Geoff created a great project that allowed all learning types to succeed. Not only would many of the students receive great marks, but also encounter a powerful learning experience with the novel.

In the grade 10-honors class this week Geoff had the class do a quick poetry assignment. The students were individually given an anthology of poetry and asked to search for some poetry to share in the class. When asked to read them aloud to the class hands shot up all around the room. The kids were reading poems of all kids, funny to serious and all types in between. Everyone was excited to share the readings they had found, this type of interest in poetry isn’t average, even in an honors class. The nonchalant nature of having everyone search for a poem they liked, held a much greater impact with reading poetry. Having some student choice still allows for teachable moments, while giving the class the excitement that drives a successful class. The class later continued the readings of Romeo and Juliet, reading, and acting the parts to the class. As the kids read each scene we are following along in the movie to further ensure understanding through the class. The students are still being very enthusiastic reading the parts, often coming to class early to volunteer to read. Geoff has effectively gotten the kids really excited about Shakespeare!