Hi! My name is Dalia Gorham, I teach 3rd grade at Samuel B. Huey School.  Huey is located in West Philadelphia and is part of the School District of Philadelphia. I have been teaching for 9 years. It is my hope that all of my students become independent thinkers and be successful in all that they do. The most pressing issues/obsticles in my classroom is the wide range of abilities.

...You Are Not Alone

...Man in the Mirror

Hi! I teach science 7-9 and I enjoy these institutes!  I teach inclusion with developmental challenges from emotional support to learning support in Chester-Upland School District.  I am looking for cool ideas to challenge and engage my students using multi-intelligences!

Some of the most pressing issues I have for my class is to get them to think outside of the box!  Trying to motivate them to use their strengths in the classroom and become more positive; to bury the past and look for a brighter future!

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.