A Change of Pace

At school in the past, this semester has been extremely easy, but boring for both the teachers and the kids. We read a story; we answer questions. We read a story; we answer questions. Over and over, day after day. This year, that practice has ended. I've wanted to change things up for the past couple of years, but I didn't feel like it was my place yet. Then last year, Hayley Chandler (Aaron Chandler's wife for you ACU people) came to Ousley as a 3rd 7th grade English teacher. She too did not like the way that we did things. We started going to workshops and changing our own lessons, and Shana liked what we were doing. (Shana is an amazing teacher who has had her share of new English teachers throughout the years. It's the department with the most turn over, and she's stuck it out since the building opened 11-12 years ago. She had worked VERY hard on the old curriculum, and felt overwhelmed with all of the new demands that have been put on us.) Hayley and I got together and changed the lessons for last six weeks, then gave them to Shana when we were done. SHE LOVED THEM, and so did the kids!!!

All of a sudden, we went from being the second to the bottom (one of the other teachers is not well liked, so that's their least favorite subject) to competing with the fun history teachers for first! There's less homework, less grading, less bordom. We have a blast working in groups and reading children's stories. That's right...I read my 7th graders books from the toddler section of Borders. They LOVE it! In a few weeks, we'll read about 5 versions of cinderella. One is called Buddy, the Cowboy Prince, there's The Persian Cinderella, Cinder Edna, and Smoky Mountain Rose just to name a few.

Last six weeks, I had 8 students fail out of 110. That's unheard of for English. I can't wait to see how their TAKS scores improve just by us having more fun in class!