Comments on: I Hope to Teach More than Math

By: Jacklyn

Jacklyn — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:33:06 +0000

I happened to be observing several middle school classrooms in Oakland the day after the riots and was very excited to see that the teachers turned the riots into a whole period-long lesson. The kids were extremely engaged and asked if they could discuss current events more often. Beautiful, I thought.

By: la

la — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:40:18 +0000

wow! this post reminds me that you are definitely becoming one of THOSE teachers.

you know, the ones students talk about years later, fondly, realizing the impact they had on their life. top 5 teacher. or don’t even know it but they changed you in ways you can’t even conceive of teacher.

keep up the good work, I!

By: Mr. D

Mr. D — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:20:02 +0000

Your “random breaks” might be the most important thing you do. You can’t teach in a vacuum–schools should adjust and react to the things happening in their students lives, just as they do in the real world. It helps build your classroom culture just as you alluded to.

In addition, who knows what kind of connections your students may make with the material. Maybe *they* see how it connects to your content. Maybe they decide they need to graduate and go to college so they can do something they thought about because you showed it for 20 seconds in class. Really, isn’t that just as important as the content?

Good job and keep it up!

By: camille

camille — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:36:57 +0000

that is awesome you did that.

this reminds about being a junior in high school on 9/11 and the time after. a few of my teachers taught normally without any mention of the happenings of that day. then there were a couple others who put on the news coverage in class and encouraged discussion. it was nothing as structured as what you did though.

props mr. g!