Evansville Day School Junior Leah Gehret received second place in the Barnes and Noble My Favorite Teacher regional contest. Leah wrote this letter to Mrs. Leilani Deem, Upper School art teacher, explaining how she has influenced her life.
Dear Mrs. Deem,
Intersession is something of a labor of love for teachers. Planning, managing, and executing a weeklong itinerary can be stressful at best, but the looks on our kids’ faces when they get to see and experience something new makes it all the work pay off.
Which brings us to China.
When we say we are culturally diverse, we mean it. Did you know that in our current 5th grade class seven students out of the 16 speak a second language fluently? These students represent 6 countries: Spain, France, Romania, Pakistan, India, Germany, and Japan. Likewise, 22% of our student body identifies as multi-cultural.
“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.” Henry Ford
As you walk into our building from the Primary School entrance, you find yourself inside our Rainbow Hallway. If you continue, you’ll reach our library, but it may not be what you expect to see. You will still find shelves upon shelves of books, tables, chairs and rugs, but you’ll also find a lot more as this space provides many new opportunities for our students in JPK through 4th grade.
Think back to when you were in school. In addition the the knowledge you gained from your classroom studies, wouldn’t it have been nice to be able to pick a topic about which you are really passionate, and learn as much as you could about it? I’m talking about something that really interested you, but you might not learn about during the regular course of study. This idea is exactly what “Genius Hour” is all about!
"It's the first day of the month - rent is due!" At the beginning of each month, my 4th grade students pull out their checkbooks and pay their “$1,000 rent.” Leading up to this, 4th graders also receive their monthly paychecks and extra-curricular activity bonuses. All of these events are a daily part of the classroom economy system in my 4th grade classroom.
On November 18th, Evansville Day School Global Honor Society students collaboratively organized an International Celebration Day to promote cultural diversity and understanding.
In just about any classroom, establishing context for why something matters is just as important as learning a skill itself. In my English class, this understanding of context couldn’t be more important. How is a student supposed to understand the full atmosphere of fear surrounding 1984 without understanding the politics of George Orwell’s time? How can a student truly appreciate Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner without immersing himself some in Afghan culture and h
Math often receives a bad reputation for not being applicable to students (or adults) in the “real-world.” While there is some truth to this sentiment (I never factor a trinomial while shopping), this isn’t true all the time. Students do not have to be professional mathematicians or scientists or engineers to see how math is used in the “real-world” (although there are some awesome examples of math in action in the STEM field).
The mantra “you get what you pay for” has its truths. If I pay $1 for a cheeseburger, then I would not necessarily expect the same quality as if I ordered a $10 cheeseburger. However, this does not mean that the low cost option is always a “bad” option. The world of Open Educational Resources (OER) is blossoming. Educators and those concerned about quality and cost of education have banded together to create and share content while still holding onto legal rights of authorship (to varying
This year in middle school, students at Evansville Day School are ushering in a new era. They are bringing their own devices to school and have the opportunity to use them in class to enhance their l
When I took piano lessons as a youth, taught myself how to play chords on a guitar, and sang regularly along with the radio, I knew I liked "music" as a pastime. In addition, I was told that music helps students learn math, though I didn't really understand why.
My students regularly ask me why I decided to become a biology teacher. They have heard all about my adventurous work at various zoos and my experiences working in wildlife conservation. They think I made a poor decision by leaving the zoological field to serve as a boring biology teacher.
