Blogs

Wil Franklin playing around on his blog

 Teaching is a second career for me after 20+ years in the construction industry.

I've taught at DVFS for 16 years, mostly math, 11 years as the department head, the last 2 years I've taught a hands-on physics course to 9th graders.

With a student population of bright, (average to above average IQ) LD students (ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, Disgraphia, etc) our curriculum provides the kids with an activity to reinforce all of the lessons.  I use the curriculum to help them learn to use appropriate compensatory skills for their particular learning style.

I am so glad Wil invited me to his institute starting today, July 20, 2009. Although I have been using inquiry based educational lessons over the past seven years, I do not know where I will be teaching in September and I am cautiously optimstic that I will be teaching in a school where inquiry is welcomed!

My name is Brielle Stark -- I am a rising sophomore at Bryn Mawr College and a proposed psychology major (concentration in neural and behavior science).  I'm a learner, athlete, outdoors-lover, reader, writer, pianist, conversationlist and much more!

I've been teaching for 9 yrs, at Bryn Mawr for 7 yrs and coordinating the Summer Institute for 5 yrs.

I come from a family of educators, mom, dad, brother, sister, wife.

Students and summer institute participants have been the greatest shapers of my teaching appoarch.

I teach less for what I have to say and more for what I can learn about teaching and learning.  The institute and my classroom are my research, my labortory and field site.

My favorit metaphor for a classroom is that of  an "Improvisational Dance" -  both between students and students and teacher.

Suggestions from the group: Bob Dylan (Chronicles), Ramachandran (New Yorker article, others?), Oliver Sacks (Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood), Joseph Heller (Catch-22)

I'd like to add: Donna Williams - she has a series of autobiographies about her experiences living with autism, including vivid descriptions of her inner world. Titles include: Nobody Nowhere, Somebody Somewhere, Like Color to the Blind, and Everday Heaven.

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General Schedule of All Classes  

(except 8th period which will have an extra 5-10 mins each day of stress reduction activities)

Every day:      

Unlocking the Brain is the focal point of my blogs. I realized that during the institute my job as a special educator is to find multitudes of strategies to unlock the brains of students’ with Individual Educational Programs.  My curriculum project is to help my students increase their ability to read and perceive social cues by using a digital camera.  Using pictures that the students will take, the goal will be for the students to make observations in social situations in the school environment and then analyze what they have learned from this set of observations.