Like all teachers, toward the end of the summer, I begin to get jazzed up about the coming school year. This summer, it happened a bit earlier than in previous years, but I think that is because my schedule was changing, and I like change. This year, I moved grade levels (from seventh to eighth) for ELA and picked up a couple of journalism classes. I'm pretty stoked about my course load. I find journalism to be an intriguing class and have always been interested in the subject. In fact, I went to the University of Missouri specifically to go into journalism, since it is the best journalism school in the nation. Go Tigers! Of course, I switched to education because I get to work with kiddos.
Moving to eighth grade has many benefits. I know several students that I have in class; I had them last year. We can build on the community and learning from last year and I can help them develop further, both as learners and as people. They will prepare for high school, and life, by setting high goals and working all year to achieve them. I am fortunate to have kids who are energetic, smart, and happy. I know that many of my kids have life circumstances that cause them worry, but while they are in class, we make sure that we have a positive, productive, fun environment where they can problem-solve and build confidence to tackle problems in other aspects of their lives. We are a community and together we can accomplish so much.
While our ELA classes will practice their independent reading and build on reading and writing skills using the teaching philosophies of Nancie Atwell, Lucy Calkins, Penny Kittle, Kelly Gallagher, and Donalyn Miller, our journalism classes will be immersed in year-long projects as we learn about the various forms of journalism. We are responsible for the Gator Gazette (our student newspaper), our yearbook, the ENM Tide (our literary magazine), and the Teen Lit Review. As the year goes on, we may launch more publications so that we can feature more students and events from East Naples Middle School. The kids are full of ideas and we have a LOT of kids enrolled in journalism (over 60) so the sky really is the limit. These kids are full of energy and ideas and it is my mission to harness that energy and direct it into productive and engaging projects.
After only a few days of classes, I am full of hope and energy. I want to do right by these kids and give them an experience that they will not soon forget.
