7th graders are...special. It is a truly unique and challenging age to teach. My students constantly keep me on my toes, and challenge me to come up with better and more relevant ways to teach them.
I tell my students, the world is not a safe space, but my classroom is!
It is amazing seeing what my kids are capable of once they feel safe enough to entertain new ideas, and even secure enough to try something new and get it wrong! I know plenty of adults without that kind of courage, which is what brings me into work everyday.
I love my job! My students make all the late nights worth it when I see a student's eyes light up with understanding...whether they finally understand the concept of natural rights or understand a peers contrary perspective on one of the days controversial political issues. That moment is what I live for.
My Project
For many of my students English is not their primary language. Many others struggle with reading, and still others have 504 plans that cite medical reasons contributing to their poor reading skills. I would say that, round numbers, approximately 40% of my students fit into one or more of the above categories. This is why over the past couple years I have worked with the English department at my school to utilize more cross curricular instruction. One way I could do this with a class set of "Animal Farm" is an activity called "Book in a Day."
Students are split into small groups, high readers with low, and they help each other to read and summarize a chapter of the book.
Then, at the end of class, each group presents their chapter, so it is like they have all read the book in a single day.
If you were to fund this project, you would have allowed me to teach my students better reading comprehension, as well as illuminate in a fun way different forms of government. By funding this project, you would be helping my students reading compression as well as exposing them to great literature.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Klima and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
