...and that's why I love teachers who work with first graders.Each week, I have a graduate student 'open the curtain' with a 15-minute activity that we might steal for our own classrooms (I borrowed this from George Theoharis from Syracuse - the opening and closing events were a great way to build community and to learn from our colleagues).
Last night, a first grade teacher brought many show-n-tell items and walked us through the ways she gets her students to think about stories, characters, plots, and setting. In the materials she brought, however, I found this easter egg with the letters "die" on one side and phonemes on the right side: s, r br, h, sn, etc. As you twisted the egg, you had a fast and easy way to learn letter sounds and to practice reading them simply by holding one side still and twisting the other.
S P E C T A C U L A R !
She told the class that she read about this on Craig's List. Talk about bringing intelligence together with items lying around the house. I was thinking about this for math teachers - to have students practice multiplication tables or for high school teachers to teach greek root words. This is the brand of instruction I've never found in textbooks and why I'd much rather work with teachers in the classroom who do whatever it takes to dazzle students and keep their reading and writing in mind.
AND I realize I would have never witnessed this if I didn't pay attention to the teaching styles of my mentors. Teachers teaching teachers - it truly is the best model for learning!
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