Wednesday, August 27, 2008

"free-spiritedness"

so i was inspired to start a blog... that was the easy part. but what would i call it? it is difficult to choose a title that embodies you as a teacher and/ or your students. however, with this particular class- one similar characteristic quickly emerged: free-spiritedness (if that's even a word?).
this is my reasoning...
first, the students. i have recently transitioned from teaching general ed with several students w/ disabilities to teaching gifted students. one of the main differences that i have immediately noticed is their spontaneity and off-the-wall thinking (in a good way!) example: creating a paper light-bulb on a stick that they raise behind their heads to simulate that a lightbulb is going off in their brain which now is their signal when they would like to share. one thing that i admire about this group is that they are their very own individuals and they really don't seem to care much about what others think of them. they definitely epitomize marching to the beat of their own inner-drummers!
secondly, one of the popular reads within the classroom is this series of books that begin with the smart girl's guide to... (money, survive sticky situations, etc.) well... in the book about "surviving middle school", two girls, that were reading together, excitedly ran up to me and yelled "you're totally this type of teacher!" as i glanced over at the book, i noticed that the girls were pointing to the section labelled "freestyle teacher". basically, the book gave pros/ cons of this style of teaching and suggestions on how to "deal" with the freestyler. i have to admit that i would categorize myself under this title as well- asks A LOT of questions, encourages group work, initiates long discussions....
thus, i felt free-spirit would be an appropriate title to embody the entire classroom this year...
just to further illustrate... on the second day of school, we decided that we needed a class name. last year my students chose the name superstars. a very generic, yet normal class name. this year was a different story. i took suggestions from students and listed the names on the board. here are a few of my favorite suggestions: the hooligans, the flying hyenas, the perseverence deer (my personal fav), and the anklebiters. as the suggestions were rolling in, the just envisioned myself calling out "perseverence deer: please line up from recess!"
i think it's going to be a great (and entertaining) year!