TT54 – Teaching students the bigger picture and connecting content to humanity: Jennifer, teacher of ELA, ELL, Spanish in MS and HS
In this episode, our guest teacher from North Caroline, Jennifer, goes big and deep into making connections to humanity through what we teach students. We touch on all the important C’s – curriculum, content, celebrations, communication, conversations, conferences, community, cross-curricular, cross-cutlural, and most of all, connections! As Jennifer showed participants at a recent conference, these big C’s are like strands of thread that should be woven into a lesson in order to help them see a bigger “tapestry” of life and to greater appreciate the humanity that connects us all. Jennifer shares that her goal in every lesson is to “highlight, celebrate and build bridges” of connection, communication and community. She also points out that when we present our tapestry of learning in this way, we are also tapping into diversity and inclusion as core elements that will help us connect with the humanity in each of us! These are the teachers we remember and cherish for the rest of our lives because they answer the the core questions all students have: why am I learning this? what does it have to do with me and the real world?. Tell that teacher “thank you”!