Recently, I (Jamie) was afforded the privilege of hearing
Frank Serafini present at the Literacy in Motion Conference at Judson
University in Elgin, Illinois. At the
beginning of his presentation he made a comment about teachers that made me
chuckle. I am paraphrasing here, but he
said something along the lines of teachers needing to live our lives outside of
the classroom, so we can be more interesting for our students. We all laughed,
but he was right!
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| Our Camping Van |
With that in mind, I just returned from a two week RVing trip with my
husband. Oh, it was interesting! But, that is too long of a story. I do want to write about a fantastic place I
visited that I can’t wait to tell my students about. My favorite stop on our road
trip was The Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick Canada. I am not a science teacher, but I will use
these fantastic rocks in the teaching of my English class.
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| E.T. |
The entire time I was there, I kept thinking of all the
potential writing possibilities. At
first, I was thinking only non-fiction, but then my creative juices kicked in
to gear. There was a rock called Diamond
rock. I started to think of a story
along the lines of a Greek god story. One
in which a god gives his girlfriend a giant diamond ring, but she does not
accept and throws the ring aside. There
it lies in the Bay of Fundy.
Another rock was called the E.T. (extraterrestrial)
rock. If you look real close, you can
make out a face that looks alien, right? Think of the possibilities! Students writing about how the rock came from
another planet. Perhaps, the rock comes
to life at night and roams the Earth collecting information on our planet.
It wasn't just about the rocks. The coolest part is the ability to walk on the ocean floor at low tide. I can't wait to educate my students about the tides, the geology, and the animals that inhabit the area. I hope to use my experiences to inspire them to tell stories about their own life experiences.
My husband and I also visited the home/museum of AlexanderGraham Bell located in Baddeck Nova Scotia.
If you’re like me, you immediately think telephone. However, Bell was an inventor of many things. He began working with the deaf and trying to
help them communicate. Even more interesting, he actually successfully invented
the first powered airplane to fly in Canada in 1909. And, as if this was not enough, he worked
with a man named Baldwin on something called the hydrofoil (HD-4) the fastest
boat in the world in 1914.
So, how can I weave this into my English curriculum? I took a lot of photos of different things
displayed in the museum and hope to use them as story starters. But, I also thought I could use the fact that I typecasted Bell as the inventor of the telephone--nothing else. I thought I could prompt my students to read
non-fiction about something they have a preconceived notion about or something
they simply want to investigate more.
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| Bell Experimenting with Flight |
Indeed, Frank Serafini was correct. Getting out of my classroom does make me a more interesting teacher. I can’t wait to share stories of my summer experiences with my students. When you share a part of yourself with your students, you move beyond the curriculum. You make connections with kids and show them all that life has to offer. The more I learn, the more I can teach my students. I love new experiences and learning new things. Traveling always satisfies those two passions for me. There is still enough summer left to build memories to bring back to your own classrooms. Get out there and enjoy life!
