Borgia welcomes six new teachers!

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On Tuesday, Borgia welcomed six new teachers to its family. All six of these new teachers just happened to be guys, and three of the six are named Andrew. However, that's not the only unique thing about this class of new hires. Four of the six of them are Borgia graduates, and you can't talk to any of the six of them without wanting to be in their classes. Students will have a lot of fun learning with them.

Learning was the focus of our new teacher orientation on Tuesday as we discussed our favorite classroom learning experiences. We discussed these in our effort to analyze what makes learning memorable. It was a lot of fun to hear about some of the experiences the new teachers came up with! The following ideas were among the memories:

1. Teachers wearing costumes to get students interested. 
2. Sugar-box sculptures of Ancient Greece.
3. Having to participate in a debate and argue for a side aside from one's own.
4. Having to become a planet to participate in a solar system presentation (all the moms made the costumes)
5. Hands-on experiences with mold.

We also had one teacher who said he had a past teacher encouraged him to "invent," and he is still working on inventions today. The discussion then got into the learning that happens when we make a mistake. We remember more when we don't do it right the first time, our new teachers agreed. 

When I think about my favorite memories in the classroom, several stand out, and most involve teachers challenging me to do something tough. I remember being the first in my class to count 100 beads in kindergarten. Similarly, I also remember being the first in my class to memorize all fifty states in 2nd Grade. In 4th Grade, I got to touch moon rocks that had been brought back from the moon. Our teacher only had them for a couple of weeks before they got moved onto a new location, and I thought that was so neat.  When I look back at those experiences, I recognize how valuable it is to push our students to be their best, and to go out of our way to provide experiences that can alter their memories for the better.

Trust me when I say that our new teachers will be providing such experiences to our students in the near future!

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