A Little bit about me:
My name is Don. I teach language arts at a small charter school (non-profit). My school consists of three sites, our main campus, a court ordered treatment center and a juvenile detention center. I currently teach classes for 6,7,8,9 and 10th grades. All of my students are either on expulsions, long term suspensions from their home schools, court ordered treatment, or are incarcerated.
I have been teaching for going on 7 years, teaching is a second career for me. I graduated from high school in 1994. After high school, I served in the Army, upon my return from service I started working in the field of manufacturing doing management and production. While this kind of work put food on the table I found it very unfulfilling. In 2003 I returned to school. I have both a Bachelor’s and Masters in education.
This year marks my 22nd wedding anniversary. I have 3 children, two boys, and a girl.
A little bit about what I do:
I try to merge out of the box material with technology and both practical and nontraditional assessment. I try to find the edgy (out of the box) stuff that many teachers don't touch.
We wonder why many many kids don’t read, well first off it is the hardest way to be entertained. Reading is not passive! Second, every time a teacher made you read something it wasn’t something you would pick (and if it was, count your lucky stars), it was safe, antiseptic, boring.
In third grade, I struggled with reading and a learning disability and was my way to becoming disenfranchised with reading. However, something changed, at that probably too young age my father let me read his copy of “Night Shift” it scared the crap out of me. But that visceral reaction went a long way towards me being a lifelong reader. I wanted to read more.
Compare that to this story, as I first started teaching, the common core had just come to town and one of the books that seem to come with it was "Touching Spirit Bear". I have never taught it, indeed I have never read it (so sorry if it’s your favorite and take this for what it’s worth), but I got in the habit of asking 6th, 7th, and 8th graders that were reading it or had what they thought of it. To date, my little non-scientific study has never yielded any rating better than “It's Okay”.
How can we expect our students to fall in love with reading if we only show them Okay? Don’t get me wrong I love a lot of the classics, but not as many of the “standards”. That doesn’t mean there isn’t any gold on the mountain, but why ignore the rest of the range?
We have to give kids things that excite them. Good writers are good readers. We learn to talk by listening, we learn to write by reading and if we allow ourselves we learn to escape through stories.
I have a pretty good track record of increased test scores and reading levels
But more importantly, my student often say things like “I hate books, except the ones in your class” or “you pick the best books”.
A bit about what I am promoting:
However, after educators have given their students that awesome story we have to have them do something, we need proof of understanding and comprehension. Hopefully, that is where I come in. I know that once I found things I wanted to teach, I couldn’t find materials, so I started down the road to making my own.
So if you teach or homeschool, I have something for you. I make worksheets, assessments and study guides for books, graphic novels, and short stories. I am currently working my way through all of Mr. King’s short stories, but I am not exclusively to Mr. King and plan on tackling the short stories of Hill, Bradbury, and Lovecraft among others.
If you are so inclined please check out my store (if you’re a King fan you should know its name) and if you have need pick something. If you have questions please ask.
NOTE: Any story or teaching material must be read and reviewed for appropriateness for your students, classroom, school, district, community, state, and country. Some stories are redacted before I teach them, others not at all. I implore you to practice due diligence before using any material from anywhere.
I am only selling supplemental materials the story its self is NOT included in any unit, you will need to buy copies of the story for your class.
My name is Don. I teach language arts at a small charter school (non-profit). My school consists of three sites, our main campus, a court ordered treatment center and a juvenile detention center. I currently teach classes for 6,7,8,9 and 10th grades. All of my students are either on expulsions, long term suspensions from their home schools, court ordered treatment, or are incarcerated.
I have been teaching for going on 7 years, teaching is a second career for me. I graduated from high school in 1994. After high school, I served in the Army, upon my return from service I started working in the field of manufacturing doing management and production. While this kind of work put food on the table I found it very unfulfilling. In 2003 I returned to school. I have both a Bachelor’s and Masters in education.
This year marks my 22nd wedding anniversary. I have 3 children, two boys, and a girl.
A little bit about what I do:
I try to merge out of the box material with technology and both practical and nontraditional assessment. I try to find the edgy (out of the box) stuff that many teachers don't touch.
We wonder why many many kids don’t read, well first off it is the hardest way to be entertained. Reading is not passive! Second, every time a teacher made you read something it wasn’t something you would pick (and if it was, count your lucky stars), it was safe, antiseptic, boring.
In third grade, I struggled with reading and a learning disability and was my way to becoming disenfranchised with reading. However, something changed, at that probably too young age my father let me read his copy of “Night Shift” it scared the crap out of me. But that visceral reaction went a long way towards me being a lifelong reader. I wanted to read more.
Compare that to this story, as I first started teaching, the common core had just come to town and one of the books that seem to come with it was "Touching Spirit Bear". I have never taught it, indeed I have never read it (so sorry if it’s your favorite and take this for what it’s worth), but I got in the habit of asking 6th, 7th, and 8th graders that were reading it or had what they thought of it. To date, my little non-scientific study has never yielded any rating better than “It's Okay”.
How can we expect our students to fall in love with reading if we only show them Okay? Don’t get me wrong I love a lot of the classics, but not as many of the “standards”. That doesn’t mean there isn’t any gold on the mountain, but why ignore the rest of the range?
We have to give kids things that excite them. Good writers are good readers. We learn to talk by listening, we learn to write by reading and if we allow ourselves we learn to escape through stories.
I have a pretty good track record of increased test scores and reading levels
But more importantly, my student often say things like “I hate books, except the ones in your class” or “you pick the best books”.
A bit about what I am promoting:
However, after educators have given their students that awesome story we have to have them do something, we need proof of understanding and comprehension. Hopefully, that is where I come in. I know that once I found things I wanted to teach, I couldn’t find materials, so I started down the road to making my own.
So if you teach or homeschool, I have something for you. I make worksheets, assessments and study guides for books, graphic novels, and short stories. I am currently working my way through all of Mr. King’s short stories, but I am not exclusively to Mr. King and plan on tackling the short stories of Hill, Bradbury, and Lovecraft among others.
If you are so inclined please check out my store (if you’re a King fan you should know its name) and if you have need pick something. If you have questions please ask.
NOTE: Any story or teaching material must be read and reviewed for appropriateness for your students, classroom, school, district, community, state, and country. Some stories are redacted before I teach them, others not at all. I implore you to practice due diligence before using any material from anywhere.
I am only selling supplemental materials the story its self is NOT included in any unit, you will need to buy copies of the story for your class.
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