Kristie Stevens
Kristie Stevens is currently completing her MAT as part of the evening program at Portland’s Concordia University. She holds a BA in English from the University of Washington and was a pilot participant in the Phoenix Project, UW’s literacy advocacy program for urban high schools. Not surprisingly, her areas of focus are secondary language arts and social studies. She spends her scant spare time reading as much as she possibly can, traveling, and spending time with family and friends. This winter, Kristie will be launching her practicum in an all-male seventh grade social studies classroom. She apparently enjoys situations that test one’s mettle.
Throughout my teacher training program, I had visions of beautiful, engaging work samples. I would teach my favorite novel using every technological trick in the book; I would use music in class every day; my classroom would float around on a magical cloud of academic fairy dust. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my seventh graders barely knew how to use spell check, let alone write a topic sentence. Culture shock was quick to set in. I had assumed that I wouldn’t have to teach basic skills. After all, didn’t they take care of that in the seven-and-change years of school they had before I came on the scene?
Turns out, they did, but ever-changing young brains aren’t quick to retain organizational skills and linguistic conventions. My cooperating teacher reminded me that we will spend most of our careers re-teaching things that they have already learned, especially at the middle school level. My students are a great bunch, and they can remember everything about LeBron James and L’il Wayne, but trying to get them to hold onto what goes into an annotated bibliography is like trying to stuff a sock in someone’s mouth.
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Category: teaching strategies | No Comments »
Tags: Kristie Stevens, teaching the basics
As a teenager, there was nothing I hated more than icebreakers. I used to dread the first week of school; it was inevitable that we’d be slogging through some folksy getting-to-know-you activity in every one of our six periods. You know the ones—Two Truths and a Lie, toss a ball, learn a name. Couldn’t we all just sing that song from The King & I and call it good?
We use icebreakers on the first day of class because it’s tradition. We did it in school; teacher preparation textbooks encourage us to do it. Fortunately, the Southwest Washington high school didn’t know or care about my long history with those cutesy games. Without meaning to, they softened my longtime cynicism. They invited me to Challenge Day.
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Category: professional development for educators, teaching strategies | No Comments »
Tags: acceptance, challenge day, icebreakers, professional development, safety, students
