July 1, 2010 – 1:18 am | Word Count: 208
A teacher says thank you
Dear Macbook,
You have been through many years of schooling, many long nights and many useless you tube videos. You have served me most diligently and kindly. You have always been user friendly and speedy in executing my tasks. I have filled your hard drive twice over and killed your battery countless times. You have been a rock for me. But I wouldn’t have noticed save for one thing. The amazing things you do for my students.
You have helped create interactive Keynotes that can compete with television, nintendo DS’s and cell phones. You have helped create websites, flyers, and newspapers to send home to anxious parents. You have ignited interest and fanned the flames knowledge. You have provided pictures, information and storage with no hiccups. I have never had to inform my students their project was lost to cyberspace. That their knowledge parade would be slowed to technical difficulties. You have been picked at, typed on with sticky fingers, slammed shut, left open, and lost. But you provided what I needed to be successful simply and consistently. Which left me much more time to worry over my students and their education.
Thank you My Macbook, for helping my students and I succeed.
-Your appreciative partner Ms. Cam
May 31, 2010 – 1:39 am | Word Count: 276
I am an educator. As much as I wish I could turn off that part of me, I can’t. I’ve accepted this. So it was no surprise to me that I immediately related the word of the day “whisper” to my students.
Whispering in my class is never a good thing, one of my constant “teacherisms” (idiosyrich sayings that every teacher has) is “Whispering is just sneaky talking”. My kids think this is funny and respond by giggling and ceasing their covert conversations.
The most frequent comment I get from people when I tell them I am a teacher is, “But how do you manage the students? You’re the same size as them!” They underestimate me due to my physical structure. I also would hazard a guess that they don’t understand the power of a whisper either.
My students don’t know this but whispering is my best classroom management strategy. I am not a teacher who yells. I can scold and express my disappointment, but angry yelling is not natural to me. I don’t often have to scold but it is necessary sometimes, and I always do it in a borderline whisper. They hang on your words like they are gold when they think they might not hear the next one. My whispered lectures are very effective for me and pack a lot of punch. My kids have told me that they can gauge the amount of trouble they are in by how quiet I am when I reprimand them.
Alright, I’ve tried this. I don’t believe in writing to hit a number and always tell my kids to write until they are done. So at 273 words, I’m done.