Chapter 1: Stoking the Fires Within

I loved reading this chapter. I felt like what it was saying was all relevant to me, as if someone was right there giving me personal tips on how to teach. I also really liked how the author presented a lot of examples of different (fun) ways of teaching classroom material. I Hope to start an activity list for myself of different ways I can engage my students in learning and this chapter was filled with ideas for that list. I especially liked the idea of showing 2 minutes of a suspenseful part of a movie and then having students try to translate that suspense into writing. I totally agree with the author, Wormeil, that our students have so much they can teach us, just as we have so much to teach them. This chapter made me think about how I present myself to students and what I can do to change my attitudes and how I would respond to situations like the one where the author is confronted by a student. I hope I can handle it as smoothly as he did and I will be thinking about this chapter as I go and work with the third graders today.