AAPS: What’s in a word? Ask these Haisley fourth graders

By Jo Mathis/AAPS District News Editor

If they didn’t know it five months ago, Ellen McGee’s fourth graders at Haisley Elementary know it now: Words matter. A lot.

“It all ties to my firm love of reading and having kids fall in love with books,” she says.  “I have an enormous book collection that is always growing.  Teaching reading is my biggest passion—next to connecting with my kids and establishing a long-lasting relationship with them.  I have a saying that I use all of the time: Once my kid, always my kid.”

She recently read about the MyIntent Project, which when used in classrooms, allows students to choose words important to them, and then emboss those words on tokens to wear around their necks.

And so that’s why her students are now wearing around their necks words they embossed themselves onto metal rings.
Kindness.
Peace.
Michigan.
Transgender.
Oscar. (A beloved dog who lives on in memory.)
And the kids’ reactions?

“They are over the moon excited to create their necklaces,” says McGee.

MAIN PHOTO: Ellen McGee helps her students emboss their favorite words on a token to wear around their necks.

 

 

 

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