Rachel’s Challenge

In October, my school participated in a Rachel’s Challenge assembly. If you don’t know who Rachel Scott is, she was the first student shot and killed at Columbine. The assembly exposed students to Rachel’s story and was very emotional for many. The main point of Rachel’s philosophy on life is outlined in her five step challenges. Our students embraced Rachel’s Challenge with amazingly open arms. After the assembly, leaving very few with dry eyes (including people who already knew Rachel’s amazing story), students were invited to show their acceptance of Rachel’s Challenge by signing a banner.

Behavior Management In The Classroom

This month there will be three rules while reading my blog entry:



1. NO yawning.

2. NO scratching your head.

3. NO licking your lips.



Now. Repeat each of the rules to yourself at least five times until you have them memorized. Come on, you guys, it’s just three simple rules. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to follow them. Just don’t yawn, even though seeing someone else yawn, or just the thought of yawning, is slightly contagious. Don’t scratch your head. No matter what. Even though it’s probably starting to itch as you read. Oh, and definitely don’t lick your lips, even if they suddenly feel super dry.

Hollie Mason: September blog entry

I always have a hard time describing myself, but, lately, I’ve decided that the best way to describe myself is to give others a list of the things that I DO and let them put together their own image of Hollie Mason. So here is my list:

My “Students” Have Names

I am quite a few weeks into my full-time student teaching now, and if asked what has been the the hardest lesson learned thus far I would without a doubt say the realization that I am no longer staring at a class full of “hypothetical” students, in “hypothetical” desks, learning “hypothetical” content. This lesson has been both the hardest and most fulfilling to learn.

The Great Awakening

Well, I must say I have visualized my student teaching since the day I entered the Middle Grades program at UNCG. Where would I be teaching? What grade would I be teaching? Which of my content areas would I be undertaking? What would my students be like? What would I wear? Let’s begin by saying – the only vision I had that remained intact would be the wardrobe. Everything, and I do mean everything, has been so much more than I expected.

My first shock came when I received a call from my cooperating teacher over the summer explaining that instead of completing my student teaching in Language Arts, as I had planned, we would now be teaching both language arts and social studies. After my initial kick of sheer excitement, I was immediately hit with – what felt like – a two ton brick in my stomach. Two content areas meant two preps, two sets of lessons, two sets of assessments, two sets of modifications, and most importantly two times the impact! I was instantly petrified that I would irrevocably scar my students and go down in history as the biggest student teaching failure of all time. (A little dramatic I know!) I am rather pleased to say I have yet to fulfill either of those initial predictions! In fact, the two content experience has taught me, what I believe is, the first life-long lesson of teaching…