Director of Teaching & Learning Miles Azzeh's Academic Spotlight: ELA Teachers Kathy Baughman and Rachel Szmed
Our Lansing USD 469 teachers are incredible at engaging our students in fantastic learning opportunities to reach their full potential every day in our district. To highlight and bring recognition to this great work, Director of Teaching and Learning Miles Azzeh will be regularly shining a spotlight on a stand-out teacher through "academic spotlights."
January 13, 2022 Academic Spotlight by Mr. Miles Azzeh:
"This week's spotlight is on two English teachers at our middle school: Kathy Baughman and Rachel Szmed. Creative writing is often overlooked or viewed as an activity that doesn't provide value in learning. This couldn't be further from the truth! Creative writing not only improves a student's overall writing skills, but it also improves their ability to communicate, organize, imagine, and reflect.
After parent/teacher conferences in October, Ms. Baughman and Ms. Szmed asked their 6th-grade students to write a narrative based on "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick." The students were only given a picture with a caption, and they had to create a story based on what had happened, what was happening, or what would happen using dialogue, pacing, and descriptive details.
Ms. Baughman reported that this was the first year she had so many students interested in sharing their stories with peers.
'This was a double win for me, because the standards of speaking and listening were also addressed. I'm excited to read more from this group of very creative writers.'"