Refocusing on the Memes

There comes a time, at the end of a school year, when I reflect on the best practices and what to improve for next year.  Overall, flexibility is key and there is no way to tell what challenges we will face as the weeks progress.  But, I would say that meme-ing continues to be a hallmark of my teaching philosophy.

There is nothing that compares to a joke, surprise, song, dance in teaching.  I catch students sneaking two rulers to dance "The Dance of the Parallel Lines."  They reminisce, "Remember when we played Battleship?"  We take the end of the year computerized testing and can't help but call out, "We drew story plots this year.  That's the rising action, climax, and falling action!"  I hear, "There's a prefix!" proceeded by the song and dance. "Prefix in the front.  Suffix in the back.  Changes what the base word means."

Teaching is greater than presenting content.  It's finding a way to make content relevant and memorable.  I continue to strive to find the keys to memory, retention, and true connections in my students' lives.

Edit:
For an interesting read on LeVar Burton, host of Reading Rainbow, look here.  It states, "For Burton, the love of reading is tied to the very essence of what makes us human. 'Storytelling,' he said. 'is an elemental part of the human experience.'"  I agree that loving something about a subject, finding it fun or valuable, helps students retain that information longer and use it in more meaningful ways in their lives.