One of my favorite quotes is by Mark Twain: “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” So true! I have been an English teacher for 19 years, and I always find things to marvel at concerning my subject area. Sentence structure, diction, syntax…these do not make good fodder for polite conversation. Most people don’t check the spelling and punctuation of their text messages before they send them. I do. Religiously.
I am constantly surprised by the willingness of my students to embrace new vocabulary, even if they don’t remember what they were supposed to read the night before. Half of the time they don’t even realize they are doing it, but they will use a word I have taught them, and another student will proclaim, “Vocab word!” It makes me happy, you know? I also love it when they start to make the connections between literature and real life that I make all the time. Two of my girls told me they had been watching a movie, and afterward one of them came and told me that they discussed how it related to Romeo and Juliet. *gasp* My work here is done!
I have had a blog for some time, but it is pretty random and not focused on any one thing. This blog will be a way to document the rest of my teaching journey, and maybe to pass along a nugget or two of the wisdom I’ve gained from the many mistakes and discoveries I have made. I will also share links to projects, assessments, and assignments that I have found through a variety of sources. I hope that this will become a place of give and take between me and the one or two readers I hope to acquire at some point. Even if that is wishful thinking, I will still be able to use these posts to look back on some victories I had in my classroom.
You can find me at Johnston’s ELA Gems Facebook page. I hope everyone ends the school year successfully, and finds some time to rest over the summer. I am looking forward to my vacation, but I know it will be filled with planning for the upcoming year!
