My Walls Reflect Their Excellence!

The student-work on my wall reflects the units that the students have covered the past two months. First, parents will notice several posters depicting social issues, such as bullying, abortion, and drug addictions.

The students created ad campaigns in order to persuade their audiences on the negative effects of a social issue of their choice.

Furthermore, the students' goal was to inform the audience on the impact of each topic and what the audience can do to help fight the issue. The posters are persuasive in nature--full of statistics, rhetorical devices, and powerful images.


Secondly, the students have been going through a novel unit in which they are learning about the Holocaust. As you know, this is a very emotional and powerful topic. The students recently created "Found Poetry" based on Elie Weisel's Holocaust memoir. A found poem is a poem that is entirely made up of lines and words from the text they are reading. The challenge of found poetry is taking sections of the text and creating a cohesive, thematic, and powerful poem.

The students were amazed at the different interpretations of the text that were expressed in each found poem.

All in all, I am completely proud of my students. They are engaging in high school level material on a daily basis. In fact, the memoir that the students are reading is a book I read in eleventh grade!

The students have been working relentlessly to go above and beyond expectations; they have set high standards for themselves and try, everyday, to achieve even greater goals than they set for themselves. It is a privilege to teach these students. The work on my wall is much less a reflection of my teaching than it is a reflection of the excellence and academic abilities of the students.
The picture below depicts one of the coolest features about my classroom: the reading lab is a cool place that is joined to my class. Here, the students can allow fantasy and fiction to collide into one powerful journey. The lab allows the students to grab a favorite book, select their ideal reading spot, and let their imaginations do the rest. I must admit, the couches are QUITE a comfortable alternative to the traditional desks! :)