Teaching Practice Finding the Words to Change the World BACKGROUND
THE STUDENTS
Oyster River Middle School has an enrollment of roughly 800, with 200 eighth graders. The eighth grade is split between two core teams, and the typical class size is 25. The team structure of ORMS fosters a familial atmosphere with interdisciplinary capacities. The classes are heterogeneously grouped, and the students bring a wide range of strengths to the classroom– I teach aspiring artists, athletes, future movie directors, multi-lingual ESL students, comedians, and high-school level mathematicians. This mixed-bag aspect makes open-ended, student-relevant lessons exciting for me as an educator– I can never predict the innovative spins that my students put on their work, and I feel that it allows me to really know them.
THE AUTHOR
I am a language arts intern in an 8th grade classroom at Oyster River Middle School in Durham, NH. I'm headed toward receiving my M.A.T. in secondary English from UNH this May. I've found the experience of building this exhibit to be beneficial to my practice and to my sense of personal achievement. The use of technology (beyond my trusty laptop) was once a daunting concept to me– integrating it into the classroom as an intern was even more so. This experience has proven to be constructive for me as a beginning teacher, and for my students. I've gained the confidence in technology– and in myself as a practitioner– that I need to forge ahead in the classroom armed with some experience and faith.
Author:Sarah
Hatch (e-mail) School:Oyster River Middle School Organization:University of New Hampshire Credits: Paula Ickeringill, ORMS Language Arts Teacher
Mike Middleton, UNH Internship Supervisor
Jason Demers, ORMS Science Teacher and Technology Wiz
