The Beach Boys – Be True To Your School

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So with one final week to go before students show up to Cochran Middle School on September 13, I’m realizing that I can definitely find things to prepare for, one of which is attempting to decorate my room in a much more visually compelling way than the traditional “dentist’s office” motif I’ve historically gone for.

One of the things I’ll be doing is lining the walls with college pennants. I’ve seen several very successful teachers at Cochran do this in previous years so, thank you, I’ll be stealing that idea for my own classroom this year (actually, I’m a proponent of the theory that good teaching is essentially stealing from master teachers you’ve already seen in action, or, put less crassly, learning from and reappropriating for yourself effective strategies you’ve seen in other classrooms).

So far, I’ll be hanging pennants from a few of the Ivy Leagues, a few of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, USC, UCLA, and yep, Wheaton.

And so with that, I offer my readers the opportunity of a lifetime (well, perhaps it merely falls within the Top 112 opportunities of a lifetime) to influence the class of 2016. Pretty much everyone who reads this blog is a college graduate who had an excellent experience during those four (or more) years of their life, and would recommend others do the same.

So here’s the deal. You order the pennant of your college, have it shipped to Cochran Middle School (c/o Kyle Hunsberger, of course, or I’ll never get it; or better yet, my home address) and it will be used in my classroom to influence the current generation of middle school students (of whom many will be the first college attendees in their family). I will:

• Display the pennant it permanently in my classroom.
• Give my students a brief primer on basic information about your college.
• Share with my students your personal perspective on why your experience there was great, and why they should consider working hard to be in a position to be able to attend in just 6 short years (this year I’ll be teaching 7th graders).
• I’ll even see if I can take a picture of a student with the pennant and send it to you.

If you’re in, just say the word. Maybe you can share alumni-hood someday with one of my students.

One Response to “You can influence my kids too!”

1. anne says:

   September 7, 2010 at 8:14 pm

   count me in– i’ll send you U of I and SU. great idea!

   Reply