Diversity

One of the most fun (and challenging) parts of teaching is the interaction with so many different personalities every day. What I noticed at the end of my journey with the tenth graders this year was the clear collective homeroom personalities that arose. It was cool to see groups of students go from kind of knowing each other at the beginning of the year, to being a unit at the end. One student said she was happy that her friends were in different homerooms because it gave her a chance to connect with new friends. Why is this important for English class? Because of the diversity of opinion, background, and interest, I noticed a wonderful variety between the classroom discussions of the same novels and newspaper articles. 10R usually bent towards political discussion; 10W would often become a spiritual discussion; and 10S focused more on personal experience in relation to the novel. As the year progressed, students took more initiative in the group conversations. I had one student who would come in with a current event in mind, eager to talk about it and hear other students’ opinions. It was neat to help the students find what they are interested in and help them express their thoughts, in verbal and written words, with more clarity and confidence. As their teacher I am excited to see the tenth grade move up in the high school ranks, and will be interested to hear about their growth next year–in new groups, with new novels, building upon their hard work from this year.

Miss Miller

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Topics: 10 Tenth Grade
Date: Monday, June 27th, 2011 11:33 am