Welcome!!!
Hello everyone!!
My name is Rachael Collins and I teach English here at Hereford High School. I have been in this wonderful district for 10 years and I could not ask for a better place to work! I have encountered some really great teachers and a whole bunch of tremendously awesome students!
This year I have three main focal points that I believe support student growth:
1. Read! Read! Read!
- According to Cullinan, "Individuals read to live life to its fullest, earn a living, to understand what is going on in the world, and to benefit from the accumulated knowledge of civilization" (1). I want my students to read and to read a lot! I believe in personal choice as any text we read can be dissected for literary elements. I want every student to remember the joy of reading that some how gets lost between elementary school and senior year.
2. Writing! Writing! Writing!
- Writing goes hand-in-hand with reading. One can read more and become a better reader, but one cannot become a better writer by simply writing. Part of the reason I push reading so much is because become a better reader directly correlates with becoming a better writer. I want my students to write as much as they can in as many different genres as they can. I do focus a lot on college prep. and analysis styles of writing, but we get to write in a lot of other genres as well.
3. Post-secondary success!
- I want each of my students to leave my classroom with a plan for success beyond high school. This year I am focusing on ACT and SAT prep with my juniors as well as researching colleges for deadlines and scholarships. I also want them formulating a specific plan for what they want to do beyond high school. My seniors are doing a lot of the same research, but they are also applying to colleges and for scholarships. My goal is that the work the juniors put into prep for college this year, the easier their senior year will be when we finally get to start applying. Our big focus then is being more and more specific in answering the following question:
What's your plan?
Works Cited
Cullinan, Bernice. 2000. "Independent Reading and School Choice," School Library Media Research. 3: 1-24.
Rachael Collins
ELA Educator