SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE
An Anthology for Teachers by Teachers
Published at VermontFest 2018

As part of the Vita-Learn AppSmash eBook Sprint


In Partnership with Vita-Learn,
BookCreator, WeVideo, and SoundTrap

Table of Contents

Be Ready to Switch Gears by Lucie deLaBruere
Meeting students where they are at (today)

My First Year Teaching by Erica Zimmer
The importance of Risk Taking

Everyone Has Knowledge Worthy of a Compliment by Charlie MacFadyen
An inspiring way to share your expertise

Classroom Themes by Randi Ray and Lisa Cacciatore
Hook Your Students into Staying Connected All Year Long

Responsibility? By Deb Stender
Engage students to take responsibility for keeping their library organized.

Adventures of Lucky Liam  by Stefanie Lingenfelter and Liam
A Young Learners Photo Journal of New Learning Experiences

Attitude is Everything  by Tina Scheindel
Tips for Having a Great Day at School

CMS Makerspace by Rebecca Sofferman
A Peek into our School Makerspace

Things I wish I Knew As a New Teacher by Melissa Brooks
4 Quick Tips for New Teachers

What’s in a Name  by Denise Krohn
Tips for Remembering Student Names

Travel the World on a Dime of Time  by Laurie Williams
How to host Geography Club in less than 15 minutes 2x a week

Do What Inspires You by Joanne Reed Allen
A memoir of a teacher’s journey to a career filled with inspiration and aspiration

Appendix
Meet the Authors Microcredential Badge Opportunity
Meet the Facilitators
About the AppSmash
Resources from Session 1 - Kicking off the AppSmash
Resources from Session 2 - Soundtrap
Resources from Session 3 - WeVideo
Resources from Monica Burns - Book Creator

by Lucie deLaBruere

Be Ready to Switch Gears

by Lucie deLaBruere

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Be Prepared to Switch Gears
to Meet Students Where They're At

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by Lucie deLaBruere

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"There are days when no matter how engaging the lesson is, your students are NOT present in the lesson. It’s always a good idea to be tuned into the events in students’ lives and go with the flow rather than fight the current."

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Right after lunch on a spring day, I was at the whiteboard with different colored markers getting ready to explain Entity Relationship Diagrams to a group of high school students.  I had created a lesson that I felt pretty good about.

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My students were on track to take the Oracle SQL certification exam later that month. I had planned out the perfect example to help them learn and practice this skill.

I remember drawing the colored rectangles on the board representing each entity in the database I wanted them to create. Just as I reached for a blue marker, I heard Amanda shout across the room. “Daniel - Why aren’t you taking Susie to the prom?”

Has this happened to you?

Class Distracted

I remember being stunned that Amanda had shouted out loud in my class. I mean “what was that about?” What made her feel that she could interrupt class that way.

I remember feeling a little embarrassed for Daniel. I had no idea who Susie was but I’m sure neither Daniel nor Sue appreciated their relationship being called attention to in the middle of class.

I remember trying to refocus the class to the emerging diagram
on the whiteboard,

when all of a sudden I grabbed the eraser...

Take the Quiz

I realized that this was Friday before prom, and that the girls were already starting to skip out of school early for appointments at the hair salon. 

It didn’t take me long to realize that the lesson I had planned was not going to trump all the brewing anticipation, emotions, worries, and excitement about the upcoming weekend.

But I didn’t throw in the towel. Instead, I quickly refocused the lesson on what was happening in the room.  

“Is a prom date required to go to the prom?” I asked. Some of the eyes turned towards me with a quizzical look.

Someone muttered “Well you could go with a friend?”

“Could you go alone?” I asked.

“yeah , I guess.” answered a sophomore girl, probably hoping that was not her fate.

I drew two rectangles on the board and labeled one promGoer and the other promDate.

“Okay, so it sounds like promGoer is a required field, but promDate is an optional field”.