I had an awesome teacher day today. I did conferencing with my sophomores who are working on character analysis papers, and most of them are doing a terrific job. I let them choose a character to analyze, which blew them away. That cracked me up… apparently in the past they have all had to write about the same thing, or have been given 2 or 3 characters from books read in class to choose from . Bleh. What crazy teacher out there wants to read 55 essays on the same two characters?
I let them (with ample guidance) choose characters from books and movies of their own, and they have run off with it. I have a few kids who usually hate to write really blowing me away with this assignment. I love to see them being able to translate English class/critical thinking skills to their own lives. One girl said to me today “You know, I never thought about this movie before. I just thought it was fun. But now that I’m doing this I see that it’s really complicated and there’s a lot of important stuff in it.”
Bam. It’s like I paid her for the soundbyte.
At this point in the school year, it amazes me how much they have grown and changed in the few months I’ve worked with them. I have a few juniors who I also had as sophomores… when they graduate next year, I am going to cry like a mom. I feel honored to watch the formation of human beings. They start out so awkwardly, and turn into such amazing people (see this earlier post for more adoration of my students).
Filed under: education, film, fun, life coming at me fast, quotes, random, teaching
