Download this brand new International Teacher Appreciation Year poster by Peter H. Reynolds for free until May 31, 2012. We’re so thankful for all you do — may you feel appreciated all year long!

To honor you, NY Times best-selling illustrator and author Peter H. Reynolds created this poster. Display it proudly in your classroom, and know that your hard work is greatly appreciated!

Educator Lauren Hill wrote this wonderful post about a life-changing experience that made her the teacher she is today. Lauren’s message really resonated with the FableVision Learning team — in fact, we were so moved that we asked if we could share her post on our blog. Lauren graciously agreed!
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Seeing the Invisible:
How I Teach AP (and Why)

by Lauren Hill

I had earned an A on every English assignment I had turned in since 7th grade. (My streak would have started sooner, but I failed a 7th-grade project about Judy Garland; her life depressed me so much that I just could not finish the paper.) Yet, despite my apparent success, I was invisible to my teachers for most of high school.

It’s absurd to me now, but somehow I made it to junior year without giving a single thought to what I might do after graduation. My father, less clueless about the requirements of adulthood, enrolled me in an SAT prep class taught by the school’s AP Literature teacher. I had never seen those shiny honors kids—or their teacher. But now Mrs. Pelton saw me.

Because she did, I took her AP Literature class my senior year. Mrs. Pelton gave me my first C—but she also showed me the depth of my abilities. She proved to me that I could achieve at the same level as those shiny students—all headed to Stanford, M.I.T., and other places where I thought only “other people” went. The following August, with Mrs. Pelton’s encouragement and recommendation, I started at Barnard College at Columbia University, where I got a lot more Cs. Instead of giving up on college and myself, I stayed after class, hounded professors during office hours, took a remedial composition class, and learned how to write.

My Students

When I finally became a teacher, I swore that I would see the potential in every kid who came through my door. I would see more in them than they could see in themselves—and push them accordingly.

Many of us imagine that students in AP classes have it all: parental support, obvious intelligence, outright ambition. This stereotype may hold true in some classrooms. But not in mine, and I’m proud of that.

When I earned the right to teach the junior honors English class, I converted it to AP Language and filled it with any kid willing to do the work. There was Cat M., a girl who only wore black and was one of eight kids living in a trailer with her alcoholic stepfather. There was Johnny E., a boy who looked a lot like a girl and would not stop reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance long enough to pass any of his classes. And there were a lot more, each with their own reason for never imagining that an AP class was right for them. Not everyone in my school agreed with my open enrollment policy, suggesting it diluted the strength of the course. But when many of my students passed the test and earned college credit, the administration left me alone.

How I Teach

Over time, my teaching strategies have evolved, but I have always maintained some basic principles:

• Learning happens at different speeds and in different ways for all of us. I give students myriad ways to fulfill and then re-do assignments. I want them to learn and to take responsibility for that learning—not just to earn a grade and call it a day. I try to construct an environment that places value on the intrinsic rewards of study and personal growth. We want to get better, not just get an “A.”
• It is always best to answer a question with a question. We need to teach students to teach themselves. It is one thing to tell students to “look it up,” but it is another to ask them to work through complex ideas, to make sense of arguments, and to find their own answers to “why, how, and why not?” Why did Abraham Lincoln write only ten sentences for his Gettysburg Address? What would he have lost, or gained, if he had been more verbose? It is not so important that we get these answers right, but that we learn to ask these sorts of questions in the first place.
• Problem solving is an inherently collaborative process. We must ask students to work together and to work in permanent groups that can mature over time. Not only does this raise the rigor of the work, but helps to integrate all types of students into the class community. When we rely on each other, we see more in each other than what our surfaces suggest.
• No student’s work is without merit or without flaw. We use the work to make us better than when we started, and that can only happen when we speak honestly about both our successes and failures.
• I never believe that what I am doing is good enough. I keep reading, thinking, and asking my own questions and encouraging my students to do the same.

What this has meant for my students is, obviously, different for each of them. I hope they view the world more critically and can explain why they believe in something—instead of just stomping their feet or raising their voice. I hope they ask questions and keep reading and thinking. I imagine that they begin to see fewer boundaries and more ways to get past them. I hope none of them sees college as “for other kids”; nor do I want a single one of them to go unprepared to face the academic challenges. I collect college graduation invitations and pin them to my wall, especially from those students who would not have gone to college or who would not have done as well without our work together.

Why I Teach

As I consider why I keep teaching after all of these years, why I still get worked up about a word or phrase or essay I have read and cannot wait to share with my class, I go back to my own time as an invisible student. I recall what it meant to me when Mrs. Pelton put her hand on my shoulder and asked why I hadn’t taken the honors English class.

I remember how she conferenced with me through every paper and asked me to clarify every idea, to examine every sentence. She still believed in me even when I couldn’t for all the world understand anything about Crime and Punishment. And, in the end, she told me to dream big and helped to send me three thousand miles away to New York City to fly on my own.

She encouraged me to see myself as she did, and I teach AP to pay her back—a bit every day, one kid at a time.

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This article originally appeared on Education Week Teacher through a publishing partnership with the Teacher Leaders Network.  Reprinted with permission from the author.

One great way for students to celebrate Earth Day is by creating an animation using a program like Animation-ish. Here are some fun Animation-ish films that show how students can use art to think about our planet and nature.

Animation by Drake Shaberg

Animation by Kristin Spath

Animation by Kristin Spath

Why not have your students try something similar? If you don’t own Animation-ish, consider exploring the free 15-day trial.

You can also commemorate Earth Day by having students create some great writing projects about nature. If you own Stationery Studio, open a nature-themed shape or border and ask students to write about the earth. Here are just two samples created with the software:

 
Our website offers a trial version of Stationery Studio with select borders and shapes, so consider giving it a try!

How will you be celebrating Earth Day this year? Do you have suggestions of clever ways of incorporating art and writing into science lessons?

Peter H. Reynolds’ 8 Tips for Inspiring Students to Write

In his post “The Brave Heart: Protecting the Passion, Keeping Wings Outstretched for a Daring Journey,” NY Times best-selling author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds discusses how the pressure to write “correctly” can cause many beginning writers to pack up their creative wings. Encourage your students to write with wings outstretched! Here are a few quick tips from Peter to inspire bravery in your students.

1. Step off the path and write with your wings outstretched. Break a rule or two as you go.
2. Don’t let a jumbled thought stop you — plant it and keep going.
3. Don’t let a misspelled word slow you down. Go back and attend to it later.
4. Listen to your inner voice and transcribe what you hear without trying to edit it.
   
5. Try writing for yourself. Not for your audience. Try to ignore the critics’ voices you may hear.
6. Invent a word.
7. Skip punctuation or invent your own …__…> and see what it feels like.
8. Borrow an idea from your favorite author and twist it a few times. Turn it inside out. Make it your own!

For more ideas, read Peter’s entire post at our Educational Resources Page. Click on “Sparking the Creative Spirit” and visit the section titled “The Brave Heart.”

Get Students Writing With Our Irresistible Tool to Encourage Writing 

Sometimes a blank page can be intimidating to students. Stationery Studio is an award-winning writing tool that provides over 400 curriculum-based borders and shapes featuring art by Peter H. Reynolds — all designed to inspire even the most reluctant writer! Students can type at the computer or print stationery for writing by hand. Teachers can easily customize line width, layout, and fonts to match an individual students’ objectives and writing level. The program also includes incredible cross-curricular activities by Dr. Peggy Healy Stearns, award-winning software designer and educator.

Students love using Stationery Studio to write poems, stories, book reports, letters, essays, and more. To start envisioning the types of projects your students could create with the program, try the free trial with select borders and shapes today!

Great Free Poetry Resources at the Guyku Haiku Website

Make a point of visiting the Guyku Haiku website, based on the book Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys (written by Bob Raczka and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds). FableVision partnered with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to create this playful website, which offers a multitude of fun, free activities and resources for educators who want to spark a passion for poetry in young writers!

Download this guyku (haiku) poster by Peter H. Reynolds for free, now through May 9, 2012. Enjoy!

What do you do to encourage your students to write? Let us know!