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"Yes, And..."
As our class was starting in October, we were starting a new project in the HTHM 9th Grade Humanities classroom. A project that was meant to be a 'takeover' for me, where I had to design and plan everything. We did the "Yes, And..." protocol in class and I remember feeling excited and ready to take on the challenge. (TPE 4 6) -
Ew! Reading?
One of the 'Ask Your Students' that stood out the most to me was the one where we had to ask them how they had been taught reading. (TPE 3) I turned this into a class activity, because we were about to start "Babes in Bookland"- where my students had to read for 20 minutes, 3x a week. By the end of the semester, they were expected to write a book review on Goodreads. (TPE 7) This activity + all the readings for the project helped my students have a high volume of readings from diverse authors. -
Group Work! Group Work! Group Work!
One thing about my students... they LOVE group work. I was aware of this before asking them, but for the 'Ask Your Students' on where their authentic voice was heard AND discussion techniques, the landslide vote was for small group work- especially when they get to work with their friends. Which led to the way I created their writer's workshop groups! I also wanted to make sure there were lots of fun activities to do community building in their workshop teams. (TPE 4 7) -
"Ms Abhinaya... I Like, Don't Even Care"
Many students in my class do not enjoy reading and have expressed a strong dislike of materials that do not seem to add to their lives or have a strong purpose.
“Classroom environments and curricula are not often structured to shape students’ lives by engaging them with texts that they find meaningful.”
I spent a lot of time talking to students during the project launch on what they liked and didn’t like about science fiction in order to tailor the rest of the project to their needs. (TPE 3 4) -
Introducing QCQs
The QCQ discussion post format is something I ended up using a lot during the course of the science fiction project. I used it in almost every writer's workshop my students participated in it ended up being a great way for me to 'listen in' on discussions that I wasn't able to be there for. It felt like it created a more equitable discussion environment as well- students were able to pay attention to each other more with a concrete deliverable. (TPE 5) -
Did You Say Drabble?
I knew that I wanted my students to participate in a lot of creative writing activities this semester to help them hone their writing skills the amount of time they spent writing. It was important to me that they were able to hone their authentic voices through creative activities and gain stamina in writing pen to paper. Every day I had students do a fun prompt in specific notebooks my students LOVED it. I felt grateful that I could share my passion for writing with them. (TPE 3) -
YOINK!
Something I am endlessly grateful for through the course of this class is being able to steal lesson plans from brilliant educators. I was able to really develop my pedagogy and an understanding of how to design/teach lessons outside of my strengths. If you're in this Zoom right now... I probably nicked a lesson plan from you at some point... thanks ;) (TPE 6) -
Guys... We Gotta Lock In For Real
As the project semester started drawing to a close, things got really hectic. However, I feel as though leading this project while simultaneously being in this course was such a lifesaver. It was great to learn so many incredible things from the theorists and you all, then almost immediately be able to apply it to my pedagogy. I could also see that my students were WAY more invested in this project than they were with the first two of the semester. It really helped build my confidence! -
Year in Review
The semester we just completed was such a rollercoaster. I could feel my brain expanding with all the fabulous knowledge I was acquiring. One of the coolest things for me was being able to read my students' 'Year in Review' writing activity... it was awesome seeing that they were doing as much learning as I was. I felt super proud of them was happy to see they were equally proud of themselves. -
It's Our Turn :)
I figured since I made my students do a Year in Review... it would be fun to do one of our own!
- The thing I am most proud of achieving in this class is...
- The thing I was most nervous about starting this class was...
- My favorite activity we did was...
- Something I remember fondly is... Thanks for being amazing educators! -
Quotes About Abhinaya
"i like your willingness to bribe us with candy"
"You're good. But, you talk a little too much 😅"
"your teaching style is so demure and I love how you get to the point in a fun way and always give us interactive activities"
"you get to the point then give us a reason to get there."
"I really like how you relate to the students on the work but also I really like your style of teaching. I really like how you go slow and really help the kids when we don't get it right away"
"Yapping."