English Teachers Chat

Here at Horace Greeley one of our buildings received a drastic overhaul. Walls were knocked down, glass was put up, and nooks and crannies sprouted in all sorts of new areas. In many ways, it's the difference between the kitchens of yesteryear and the much more sleek open-space designs of today. From the distance, it's sleek. The cubicles, glass walls, and art-deco pop furniture all make the space super inviting. From surveys, students are positive about the space. "There seems to be more of an emphasis on work space," said one. "I feel less anxious in this space," said another. Of course, there were a few caveats, "there's too much furniture." "I'm not always sure where I can go." But one comment really resonated with me, "The space is more modern than the teaching." Yeesh! Of course, that's not a surprise. Even in my approach, I can't say I've evolved with any profundity. I've tried stations a...

In our first episode, Daniel Valentin and his special guest Mary Devane talk about the vision, image and excitement around their school's new flexible space. See pictures below of our flexible space: Collaboration is taken to a new level with our glass walls. Fellow teacher Valerie Brunow, utilizing different layouts of L-Space. New shapes. New seating. New ways to think about learning. There are so many ways to configure a single space here in L-Building Daniel Valentin teaches American Wilderness, Ethics, and English 9 at Horace Greeley High School. He is currently reading Pet by Akwaeke Emezi  and listening to Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell. He wants his students to feel empowered through books. Follow him  @DaValentinCCSD

The first week of school was met with the usual jitters and excitement. My school had its debut of a gorgeous new renovated space with more glass, nooks, and crannies than I can properly do it justice. It's a flexible space, and the opportunities seem endless. This year, I started my American Wilderness with the Imagine Our Parks with Poems project. The project "...commissioned fifty poets to write poems about a park in each of the fifty states. This project is part of Imagine Your Parks, a grant initiative from the National Endowment for the Arts created in partnership with the National Park Service to support projects that use the arts to engage people with the memorable places and landscapes of the National Park System." My idea was students could canvas a large portion of the United States, seeing various states of wilderness and the state's identity. Using these poems as mentor texts, my hope was students would utilize their Writer's Notebook starting ...