Today we had a guest speaker from our board, an Audiologist talk to my students about hearing, hearing impairment and the ear. It's funny how one forgets how important it can be to have experts in the classroom. My active class who tend to not spend too much time on the carpet engaged, were throughly mesmerized for 45 minutes. Likewise, my student teacher and I were engrossed, taking multiple pages of notes.
It was incredible to see the deep background knowledge many of my students had through asking questions & sharing stories. Similarly, many students who don't participate regularly did so insightfully, I could barely keep up writing anecdotal notes. Some of the questions that they raised were:
The respect and professionalism my students had for our guest speaker moved me. They gently, passed the microphone around to each other when asking her questions. Bringing an expert into the classroom brought much more depth to the topic then I ever would have. One of my goals as an educator is to have more real world connections to my classroom through experts, place based learning, connections to the community and greater community. What are ways that you get experts into your classroom? How do you link your school with the community? Join me on this 31 day journey for the month of March with twowritingteachers.org and their 10th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge. #sol17
1 Comment
Adrienne
3/7/2017 07:33:44 pm
We do a teen activism unit in 6th grade writing. Last summer I learned about a teen led organization in town called "Youth Ending Slavery". We had them in to speak and my middle schoolers were in awe of these teens who, in addition to their regular teen lives, have take this on as a passion.
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AuthorI am a grade 3/4 teacher in Calgary, AB, Canada. This is a space for my reflections as an educator. ArchivesCategories |