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Saturday, August 26, 2017

Philosophy of Teaching: Outside Connections - Guest Post by Melissa A. Smith (Part III of III)

Guest post by Melissa A. Smith, AP Literature and English 11 Teacher, Lake Norman Charter High School

Melissa is in her 8th year at LNC and her 12th year of teaching overall.  She was recently named the Lake Norman Charter School district Teacher of the Year.  You can follow her on Twitter (@MelAlterSmith). This essay was included in the Teacher of the Year portfolio.
Philosophy of Teaching
Part III

by Melissa A. Smith
Part III of III

Belief:  I believe in making authentic and meaningful connections outside of the classroom that directly impact students.

Evidence: Being an active member of the #aplitchat PLN has immensely benefitted my students and me as a teacher. I relish the opportunity to make personal connections with other English teachers all over the nation (and Canada!) by engaging in a weekly Twitter chat, a Voxer group, and meeting them in person at conferences like NCTE last fall and the AP Reading this summer. By maintaining communication with this inspiring group of educators, I have been able to create opportunities for my students to interact with other students all over the country. Just in this past year, my AP Literature classes engaged in Twitter chats about Frankenstein and a selected poem with students in Iowa, California, Texas, Washington, Georgia, and more. My 11th grade classes also chatted with students in other states about The Great Gatsby. It is through my relationship with the teachers in my PLN that we can organize these chats together and have our students reading the same books at the same time. There are already plans in the works for next fall, as several of us are doing similar summer reading assignments and can start the 2017 year off strong with inter-class connections.

But we didn’t only connect through Twitter last year; my class also Skyped with a class in Massachusetts about Othello. Both of our classes benefited by hearing another group’s understanding of a text and having the opportunity to discuss the play with each other. Furthermore, I was able to organize an AP essay swap with two other teachers in my PLN, one in Atlanta and one in northern California. Our students submitted essays using Google Drive, and we (the teachers) then shared the folders of essays with each other. My students were able to get their essay scored and receive quality feedback by two experienced AP Readers (as I did the same for their students). Not only did we benefit from getting two highly qualified AP teachers’ feedback other than my own, students experienced writing for a different audience, one who did not know them personally, that could provide feedback perhaps different than my own.

All of my classes last year also participated in blog shares. AP wrote monthly blogs on poetry, and 11th grade wrote on the major works they were reading at the time. These blogs were then shared with other teachers - and those teachers shared their students’ blogs with us as well - and students would read and comment on each others’ ideas. Students knew that when they were writing their blogs, it was for an authentic audience, and not just me as their teacher. For next year, I already have at least three other teachers from my PLN on board for more monthly blog shares.

I also tweeted out links of the student-created poetry blogs to the poets themselves. Several poets actually responded to them and published comments on the student blogs.  Watching students enthusiastically come to class the next day after seeing that their poet of choice had personally communicated with them on an individual basis was amazing. They felt like they had met someone famous! Due to my reaching out to poets consistently, I was also able to provide my students with a three-session Skype Q & A and poetry workshop with award-winning poet RA Villanueva. He happened to be traveling the world at the time, so we Skyped him while he was in England, France, and Germany. I can’t think of a better example of a 1:World connection. In addition, two individual students did a project on his poems and they were able to message him individually to discuss his work. I feel like I got so lucky with securing Villanueva to work with our students individually and for multiple whole-class Skypes, but he put it the best, “Chance favors the connected mind.” By being a connected educator, I was able to provide this innovative educational experience for students in their study of poetry. Some seniors were so inspired by him that they created artwork based on his poems; another student wrote an original song that she performed at an open mic - and shared with Villanueva during our last Skype, and several have told me they are excited to take poetry classes in college.

Lastly, through my engagement on social media with education and poetry, poet Jose Olivarez reached out to me for a classroom visit. He had another engagement at Chapel Hill and was willing to come to LNC for a day to host a poetry workshop for our students. Since poetry is such a large focus in AP, and they had previously studied his works, the workshop consisted of AP students, and students I individually invited. The students I invited were either from Rap & Poetry Club or my other classes and had shown a strong interest in poetry. It was one of the best days of the year. I had a unique opportunity to ‘become a student’ and engage in the workshop just like any one of them. Olivarez has since connected me with more renowned poets and has opened doors for me heading into next year.

All of this happened with only ONE year of forming connections. I can’t wait to see what this coming year will hold for my students.

Thank you for viewing,

See Part I: Community of Learners

See Part II: Student Choice


The opinions shared in this blog belong to Craig Smith (or guest blogger) and do not represent the school or district in which he works.

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