Orange+CIG+9-25+Transcript

Assignment: Choose pictures that describe your classroom.

Diane Ader

I chose pictures that represented my kids that I see. (shares pictures of kids) I teach five choirs and music in the theatre class so I have a variety of kids that I teach and so this picture represents a lot of children, but then so does this one., (energetic kids) because I get a few that are very dramatic and very creative. Then again like you I get kids who absolutely have no idea why they are they- they have no idea what a note is, they can’t match pitch, but somewhere along the line they have a good feeling and so they come in.

Then I chose 2 pictures that kind of represent what I want my room to be. I would like to take them all to this kind of feeling (shares picture) Not the perfection of the performance so much, although that would be really nice, but I want to bring all of them up to about the same level so they can feel successful personally. And then this picture (shares picture of garden by a brook) In my world I do a lot of gardening and there is a place for everybody. If I were to take a group of children, of high school students here, they could pick their spots. Some would choose to be in the water, some would choose to be beside the water, some would choose to among these plants…

Jessica Higbee Zebrak

I have two pictures for my classroom. I chose this one (something breaking out of a shell) because I try to get the kids to come out of their shell and one of the first things I do with my classes, not with band because it is huge, and you really couldn’t do this, but I do an ice breaker where I have them all write three things about themselves and we don’t put our name on them and then we pick them out and try to guess whose it is- and itis just a really neat way for them because I do it to, it helps me to learn their names and know more about them and it really just seems to change the atmosphere in the class.

And this picture. (hands holding mixed fruit and nuts) because I have a lot of nuts in my class, (laughs) actually because like in my steel drum class I get kids who have been playing music their whole life and then I get kids who don’t even know what a staff is, and so it is kind of like this- this whole collaboration coming together. They are almost like an ensemble, they can make really great music together.

Not this way (shows a cute dog yawning) no yawners- (laughs) I just thought this one was cute. (shows picture of woman arms raised in triumph) This is the best one I could find. I want my classes to be inspirational. I think of my chorus class as probably my class that I probably just want to inspire the most- because they don’t act like they really want to be there and I try to inspire them.

Tracey Gilpin

(shares picture of graphic pattern with the words Help and Hope in the Middle) Going through the magazines, the first thing I was looking for because I teach art, and I also have an elementary degree so I kind of combine them and I do cross curricular. For me I’ve taught all over the building, so for me with my 6th and 7th graders it is almost a reunion. I maybe taught them in kindergarten and we’ve kind of come back together again. The help and the hope- this year they have decided to try to change the middle school, not just the curriculum but the approach to it and incorporating art therapy so this summer that is where my studies have taken me, I’ve been studying art therapy and instead of focusing on that perfect product, focus on the process for all the kids, focus on that process and not always wanting to have that perfect product at the end. So it is kind of both, hoping that I’m helping them and hoping that they see what they can get out of the class. They had a male teacher for years and now to have me that’s a different approach to it so I’m hoping that the therapy concepts will be beneficial to them.

Lorraine Kelly

(shares a picture of a starfish plain white on top with the bottom dripping purple paint) I said that this represents my class because in the beginning when they come into communications class they don’t want to share, they are unwilling to participate, they’re not going to do it, they’re not going to do it and slowly but surely the color comes out, they start to share and their emotions start to spill out all over the place and I hope that they all end up in one place like in this bucket where their emotions can be used for them to start to achieve what their goals are.

Joe An (shares picture of a violin with the words “where education meets performance”) Here’s my first picture – where education meets performance, because we are always working on performance. (shares picture of woman on a horse jumping a gate) And here’s the lady on the horse- because it is the unbridled passion of my singers, still trying to control their emotion at times.

(shares picture of contemporary room) And this is what I would like my classroom to be- clean lines but still colorful.

Jacki Cavey

(shares picture) Getting control somewhat.

(shares picture of reading) And this one I picked because we do a lot of reading. Because its’ literature- we read a lot. (picture of group) And then this one I picked because we do a lot of group work in my class. (shares pictures of stage) And this one I picked because when I do theatre this is my classroom, and then after our productions of course, this is working on it.

(shares picture of people eating/computers) This is what I would like my classroom to be. I thought they (in the picture) were incorporating technology with everyday things- like eating, and I’m trying to incorporate everything, literature and theatre with technology, so I’m learning. (shares picture of outside garden) And then this one because I like outside. I’m always going by the outside door and then opening it and going.. ah.. this is nice. I like outside.

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