Source:
Dicicco, M. & Cook, C. (2015, September). Community warming: Creating a climate that engages all students. American Middle Level Educators 3 (2), 24-26.
What is Sacred:
I am trying to create my own "book" of resources for my introduction to middle/secondary level education so I am going through my stash of AMLE magazines because they are written like middle school teachers - short, to the point, with useful information that can be implemented tomorrow.
There isn't much that is totally new, or that I don't already have in some shape or form in my own teaching toolbox, but I'm not making this for me, but rather for my teacher education students who are going into their second field experience of their journey.
This article is about cooling the classroom, warming the classroom, keeping it warm - in other words it is about how to create relationships, strategies that can help that as well as how to keep it up even when you are doing curriculum.
I like this quote under "be positive":
find ways to laugh with students, and focus on student strengths to encourage and engage students.I think that is the key to middle school. You have to have a sense of humor, big time. People that cannot laugh at themselves, laugh at situations, people who are too serious, prone to freak outs and crying - they need to not be at the middle school level. Go to high school or better yet, come to the college level.
Connections to Current/Future Work:
I am going to use this for my EDEF 345 course but more importantly we will model some of these things. I put 2 truths and a lie down because I know it works, but also I wanted to talk about how that can be used in content. I liked their suggestion of 2 successes and a challenge. That is a good way to talk about their field experiences not just in EDEF 345 but also my secondary practicum course. Heck, even my intro to teaching course. Three out of my four classes are in the schools which is why this will come in handy.
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