Welcome to the 2017-2018 school year!
Here we go! It's my fifteenth year of teaching and year number five at Littleton High School. It feels good to return to a familiar school community. When I look down my roster and out at the sea of faces in my classroom, I see so many siblings and cousins of my former students this year. I look forward to getting to know these students as the individuals they are.
This year I am excited to be teaching English I College Prep and English II Honors. So far, the English I CP crowd is enthusiastic and bright--we are cranking through some great literary texts like "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman, "I, Too" and "Harlem (A Dream Deferred) by Langston Hughes. We will soon be connecting these poems back to the summer reading book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, as well as to some current events (think Charlottesville race riot/protest and DACA). The freshmen students have been very receptive to the rolling out of some "Thinking Routines" I learned about in a graduate course this summer. They are already pretty adept with I See-I Think-I Wonder and What Makes You Say That? With these Thinking Routines in hand, the ninth-graders are coming up with deep high school-level insights already.
As for English II Honors, I am psyched to be "looping" (teacher jargon for teaching the same group of students again) and getting a chance to see how they can carry over last year's knowledge and apply it to new texts, while watching their vocabulary, grammar, and writing skills continue to grow. There was no need to break the ice with these people, so we got right down to business and read "The Summer I Was Sixteen," a poem by Geraldine Connelly, on the first day of school. I asked the sophomores to "get inside the poem" by writing a version of their own and letting me see what they were up to this summer. I was so pleased with the results: beautiful imagery, precise word choice, alliteration, and symbolism abounded.
In addition to teaching, I will serve as the advisor of GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance). We have one event planned already: National Coming Out Day, on October 11th, when we will meet in my classroom after school to share our stories. As always, I love to see which students step up to be the new leaders of GSA and in which directions they decide to take our club. I'm also heartened to see new members, including freshmen, who have eagerly joined our ranks.
This summer I will confess that I read less than probably any summer of my life since I've been able to read. If you don't count picture books, I barely squeaked through my one required summer reading book (Huck Finn) the week before school began. My excuse is a happy one, however, since I gave birth to my second child, Juliette Isla McCook, on May 24th. Juliette is a happy-go-lucky, smiley little creature so far. She and her brother Will are already good friends with their own language and the ability to make each other laugh. I'll count that as a success this summer.
I want to end this letter by saying that I strive, above all, to be student-centered. This means that if students ever have a question or concern, they should come to see me or send me an email. I am an approachable person and I will make the time. I look forward to getting to know each and every one of my students this school year as we grapple with big ideas. Let the learning begin!
Best,
Mrs. McCook
LHS English Department
Room 127
[email protected]
Here we go! It's my fifteenth year of teaching and year number five at Littleton High School. It feels good to return to a familiar school community. When I look down my roster and out at the sea of faces in my classroom, I see so many siblings and cousins of my former students this year. I look forward to getting to know these students as the individuals they are.
This year I am excited to be teaching English I College Prep and English II Honors. So far, the English I CP crowd is enthusiastic and bright--we are cranking through some great literary texts like "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman, "I, Too" and "Harlem (A Dream Deferred) by Langston Hughes. We will soon be connecting these poems back to the summer reading book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, as well as to some current events (think Charlottesville race riot/protest and DACA). The freshmen students have been very receptive to the rolling out of some "Thinking Routines" I learned about in a graduate course this summer. They are already pretty adept with I See-I Think-I Wonder and What Makes You Say That? With these Thinking Routines in hand, the ninth-graders are coming up with deep high school-level insights already.
As for English II Honors, I am psyched to be "looping" (teacher jargon for teaching the same group of students again) and getting a chance to see how they can carry over last year's knowledge and apply it to new texts, while watching their vocabulary, grammar, and writing skills continue to grow. There was no need to break the ice with these people, so we got right down to business and read "The Summer I Was Sixteen," a poem by Geraldine Connelly, on the first day of school. I asked the sophomores to "get inside the poem" by writing a version of their own and letting me see what they were up to this summer. I was so pleased with the results: beautiful imagery, precise word choice, alliteration, and symbolism abounded.
In addition to teaching, I will serve as the advisor of GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance). We have one event planned already: National Coming Out Day, on October 11th, when we will meet in my classroom after school to share our stories. As always, I love to see which students step up to be the new leaders of GSA and in which directions they decide to take our club. I'm also heartened to see new members, including freshmen, who have eagerly joined our ranks.
This summer I will confess that I read less than probably any summer of my life since I've been able to read. If you don't count picture books, I barely squeaked through my one required summer reading book (Huck Finn) the week before school began. My excuse is a happy one, however, since I gave birth to my second child, Juliette Isla McCook, on May 24th. Juliette is a happy-go-lucky, smiley little creature so far. She and her brother Will are already good friends with their own language and the ability to make each other laugh. I'll count that as a success this summer.
I want to end this letter by saying that I strive, above all, to be student-centered. This means that if students ever have a question or concern, they should come to see me or send me an email. I am an approachable person and I will make the time. I look forward to getting to know each and every one of my students this school year as we grapple with big ideas. Let the learning begin!
Best,
Mrs. McCook
LHS English Department
Room 127
[email protected]