Last Day in L.A.

Pacific Ocean Study Away in L.A. 2012

Rafe Esquith's Room 56 Hobart Elementary

Study Away in L.A. Summer 2012

The Before Pictures

Welcome to Room 213

Teacher's Desk

Computers and Reading Area

More Bulletin Boards

Student Lockers

Teaching a Themed Unit: Pinterest to the Rescue

I am combining my love of Pinterest with my love of planning and organization.  Now, I am creating boards and treating them as folders to hold all my resources for teaching any given unit.  I can include books, videos, blogs, websites, photos, maps, travel brochures, scanned primary source material, etc.  I know many people may already be doing this, but it just occurred to me.  I can spend 15-30 minutes gathering resources from the web, and have MORE than enough material to teach any given unit.  For example, one of my boards is called The School of Athens.  This simple little unit can actually cover art, history, science, math, literature, writing and drama.  For example, the chemistry involved in preparing lime for fresco is quite high level (and dangerous!) and extremely interesting.  Not to mention, many of the scholars that appear in the painting are early scientists and mathematicians. The painting holds the unit together, with endless instructional possibilities spanning across the curriculum.

link to School of Athens Board

[W]e have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world.

-- Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, 1988, p. 123.

"Yes, and let's..."

     Often our first reaction to new situations, people, and concepts is a big knee-jerk, "No!"  In the drama portion of my graduate course, David Young taught us a very useful life tool. My goal is to practice this in my daily life and especially in my profession.  The idea is to train yourself to automatically respond with a yes to anything life hands you, and then simply adjust to it by adding the and let's so that it works in your life. For example, my teacher said to me, "Why, don't you drive us in L.A.?"  I responded, "Yes, and let's make sure I have a really good co-pilot!"  I mean, I can still say no anytime I wish, but how fantastic to respond first with a genuine openness and willingness to hop out of our comfort zone and just go for it, whatever it is!

Editing Resource

Click Here For Peer Edit Form

I will probably tweak this, but it is a great start.  There are some examples on how to model peer editing as well.  I feel this is such a crucial part of the writing process.  One of the most important elements to make this successful is the culture of the classroom. Without a safe space, kids will not take this seriously.