Years ago, I had a student who told me that I should have her uncle come as a guest speaker to my class. She gave me no prompt as to why he might be a good fit, or even what he would talk about but the class was called Sex, Drugs, and RocknRoll: a Study of the the Counter Culture of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, so I went with it. I was comforted by the fact that he was a teacher in Minneapolis, so I wasn’t taking a huge risk in inviting him to class. When he showed up, I learned that he taught theatre in a high school. He wore glasses, but he was missing one of the stems so they sat askew on his face. This was the 90s and AVHS was almost exclusively white, so his first comment to me was, “Wow! I’m in a White Palace here!” There is so much I remember about his talk that day. He was a recovering addict, so he had a few stories about some of his wild adventures. He talked about race at ...
Early in my teaching career, I was given the opportunity to move into the honors and accelerated English classes. It was an awesome experience, and I learned quite a bit about good and bad teaching through my experience with those very motivated and ambitious students. After a number of years however, I knew it was time for a change, and I transitioned into the role of a reading specialist and began to work with students who really struggled both with reading and with school. It was a dramatic shift. In my honors classes, students would want to argue over a point they missed on their essays, papers, and tests. In my reading intervention classes, students weren’t interested about how or why they lost a point here or there, they were more interested in why they had to do the assignment or activity in the first place. I learned real quickly that before I could do anything to help them develop their academic literacies, I had to g...
Guidelines for Writing a Commencement Address The draft you write for consideration does not need to be a final version, but should give the panelists a clear idea of what you plan to say in your speech. The traditional commencement address has had content which reflects back on the class's experiences and also gives advice or guidance for the future. The tone should be one which inspires and motivates the listeners. Although the Commencement Address is directed at the graduating class, the message needs to be meaningful and appropriate for the adult audience present as well. Content, language, or style which parents or grandparents might find offensive is not suitable for a Commencement Address. Humor can be an effective minor element of a Commencement Address. The predominant message, and consequently the predominant writing style, should be serious, thoughtful and inspirational. Format: This a general map of graduation speeches. It is not required. Feel ...
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