Memorable Students, Memorable Teachers: A Quick-Write Icebreaker for Teacher Workshops
"Memorable Teachers, Memorable Students" is a simple quick-write reflective activity that is especially appropriate for summer or "getting to know you" events early in the year with study groups, teacher mentor programs, or back-to-school gatherings. We've used this activity as an ice-breaker, and because the writing demands are minimal, even colleagues who are reluctant writers are often happy to participate.
Getting Started
Before the workshop or meeting, download the quick-write template and making a copy for each participant in the workshop:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/encounter.pdf
After welcoming everyone, you might begin the workshop by talking about an encounter you had with a student recently, and what you learned from that encounter. Another possibility is to read aloud "Chance Encounter" by Jennifer Jones, a brief essay about meeting a former student who recently graduated from high school. You can find the essay at this link:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/374.cfm
After sharing your story of a student encounter and/or Jennifer's essay, distribute copies of the quick-write template and have everyone write silently for five minutes. After the silent writing, have everyone share their stories in groups of three, or with the whole group if you are a smaller gathering. Close with a quick whole-goup discussion of reflections on the activity.
This is a simple exercise, but it never fails to provoke some hearty laughter and a tear or two, because there is such diversity in any group when it comes to memories of students and teachers and our encounters with them over the years.
An Alternative Reading
Another essay which we often read aloud in a "memorable students and teachers" workshop is Mark Medoff's "In Praise of Teachers." This essay is a little more difficult to access, but well worth the effort! It is available at the New York Times website. The essay is behind the subscriber wall, so the price is $4.95 if you are not a New York Times subscriber. However, they do offer a two-week trial subscription for free which allows anyone to access the archives on a trial basis:
http://tinyurl.com/2n9mk6
This is a longer essay, which chronicles Medoff's memories of his teachers from kindergarten through college. It is easy to excerpt sections of it to read aloud in a five or ten minute stretch which are most appropriate for the grade-level group you are with - we've read just the first sections and the closing with primary teachers. At other times, we've concentrated on the secondary sections. "In Praise of Teachers" is a classic we turn to often when we are looking for a beginning or end of year reading.
| 
About
