As teachers, one of our favorite “go-to” activities for a fun day in class is playing games. These can be a lot of fun. I am always a little taken aback how a usually reserved or quiet class can be whipped up into a frenzy when the element of competition is introduced. It is fun to see these people engaged and even passionate about winning the prize, even when that prize might be something insignificant, like a Jolly Rancher. These games are great for review days, where actual test items can be converted into “trivia questions” that students try to answer for individual or team points. It is an attractive choice for teachers, in part, because there are so many online resources and tools that make “gaming a lesson” quite easy—Kahoot and Gimkit to name a few. These games are fun and dynamic and a good choice every once in a while. However, they can also create a tension within a community, especially if those games are...
As mentioned in the September newsletter, we will focus our attention this year on some of the earlier pillars of reading instruction to help understand the current interventions being employed within our curriculum and to potentially play with some of their elements in our own classrooms. To establish some common language, I am going to begin by defining three important terms of reading: dyslexia, phonemic awareness, and phonics. The first, dyslexia, is an often used, and largely misused term. Depending on who you ask, you are likely to get a different answer. In a general sense, people use it to indicate someone struggling with reading. Perhaps they have observed that the reader or writer transposes letters backwards or flips the order of the letters as they decode. Perhaps the reader struggles with multisyllabic or unique words. Or perhaps they read very slowly and deliberately. While all of these are ...
AVHS was built around the idea of a circle. It began as a quirky, architectural choice in the building’s original design with these massive circular windows that span the height of both floors and look out from the building’s front facade. In the last wave of remodeling, the circular theme has become infused throughout the building. Our marquee at the front incorporates the circle, our expansive commons area uses the design in the carpet, massive circles hang from the ceiling, and the newly painted walls are decorated with them. Even the exterior walls of our theatre follow the curve of a circle, defying the usual square corners of large rooms and buildings. It is a different feel from the traditional spaces of schools, where we have become accustomed to hard angles, straight lines, and clean, tidy box-like clas...
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