Teaching Profession

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts (for Teachers)

By Anthony Rebora — November 21, 2012 1 min read
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A holiday teacher blogosphere roundup:

Inspired by a session at a recent National Writing Project meeting, Bud the Teacher encourages educators to take 5 minutes to write about a teacher or mentor for whom they are thankful.

Middle school teacher Bill Ferriter, as if on queue, expresses thanks for teacher-technologist David Jakes, whose thinking he says is helping him transition from being a “Yes, but” to a “What if?” type person.

U.S. New and World Report‘s High School Notes blog, taking a slightly different approach, collects teachers’ responses on what, in spite of everything, they are thankful for this year. (Spoiler alert: Having students who are engaged in their learning seems to do the trick.)

Always on the lookout for that teachable moment, meanwhile, Larry Ferlazzo marks the holiday by posting some interesting new infographics for delving deeper into the topic of Thanksgiving from various angles.

English teacher David B. Cohen, pondering the need for “A Rigorous Thanksgiving,” thanks his stars that those poor misguided teachers of his youth “who tried to reach the ‘whole child’” and actually helped him enjoy learning somehow “didn’t harm [him] irrevocably.”

And Chicago teacher Marilyn Rhames, reviewing her resume, discovers she’s thankful for the awful teaching jobs she had in the past because they prepared her to be the educator she is today.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.