Friday, August 19, 2016

SubLog and VocabLady!

Hi! As you may know, I've created a separate blog for my jaquitos, named, appropriately enough, Jaquito.com. So I'm going to use this blog for all my other methodical madness.

My husband and I are planning to move to Denver as soon as one of us gets a job, so I didn't sign a teaching contract this year. Instead, I'm going to be a Substitute Teacher! I'm going to use this opportunity to work on my skills at connecting with students, since I won't be able to focus on the academics so much when I'm on my one-day missions to Save the Day. I'll blog about my experiences here in a sub-blog called SubLog.

I'll also be using this space to start posting about my new dream job: VocabLady. When I was an English teacher, I (and many of my colleagues) had the following problems: first, when students use rote memorization to cram vocabulary words for quizzes, without really learning why the words mean what they do, they usually don't retain much.

Second, English teachers are overworked. In addition to teaching their content areas (literature and vocabulary), they are also constantly working on the fundamental skills of writing and grammar -- because when kids write poorly, other teachers blame us. In addition, English teachers tend to have more and longer essays to grade than other teachers, and we have to grade them both for content and for mechanics (grammar, spelling, etc.).

So, how to get students to retain more vocabulary, and give English teachers a little relief? By hiring me, VocabLady! I will come into English classrooms on a regular schedule (once a week, every other week, once a quarter...) and teach kids the analytical foundations of grammar: classical roots. I was told in an AP English professional development seminar that that the second-best way for kids to learn vocabulary is through Greek and Latin roots (the best way, of course, being to read a lot). The teacher can give me a list of words, or she can have me choose them. I teach the kids how to break down the words and figure them out. I can provide assessments, and I can grade those too, if the teacher desires.

I basically take over one aspect of the English teacher's work load, and give the kids tools they can use in any subject area to learn more words.


So please follow me here to learn how a sub can save the day, and to expand your vocabulary with VocabLady! 

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