The source of good education

Suzie Harrison

It’s Kyle Martin’s first year teaching at Thurston Middle School,

and if the student reaction is any indication, the position suits him

well. During a recent language arts resource class he made learning a

fun and interesting experience.

Students can take a resource class for one subject they need help

in or several. This class had nine students in grades 6, 7 and 8, who

worked well as a team throughout the period.

“It’s a fun class. Mr. Martin is really nice,” said Seth

Morris,12. “He taught in Hawaii, he loves to surf and I do too. He’s

cool.”

They were studying parts of speech and the students exuded

enthusiasm when Martin told them that their test was postponed until

the next day. He assured them that they would review the material and

that with their knowledge the test should be a breeze.

“The good news is the test is not today,” Martin said. “It’s only

going to be fun, why -- because it gives you all the answers.”

“We’ve talked about different types of words -- verbs, nouns,

pronouns. We’re going to figure out how to put it all together to

write a sentence,” Martin said

He told the class that a sentence is a group of words that tells

something or asks a question.

“A sentence is always a complete thought,” Martin said. “Make sure

our sentences are complete.”

Martin did an exercise where he asked everyone to look at the back

of their chair, a few of them would have a gold piece of paper

attached to them. The students weren’t allowed to share the word or

group of words written on the gold paper until, as he illustrated,

they stepped outside the door and knocked. Then he would open the

door and they would say it to the class.

One student came in and said the word “pizza.” The teacher asked

the class if that was a sentence.

The last participant asked the class, “If they would like to buy a

pizza?”

The students seemed to enjoy the process of building a sentence,

discerning what was and was not a sentence.

“I’ve learned lots of verbs, adjectives, nouns and we got to read

a book for a book report we’re doing and he does that once a month,”

said Garrett Miller, 12. “He’s nice. He’s a good teacher.”

“We break the classes down by ability,” Martin said. “One thing I

try to do is make it exciting -- they learn better.”

What Martin liked most was that the Laguna school district gives

the resource classes the same material as other classes but the

method of teaching might be a little different and there is a smaller

class size.

“We find out each student’s strength is and apply the strength,”

Martin said. “Some are analytical, some more artistic.”

“When we can teach them to use those strengths -- they can apply

it to all their classes,” Martin explained.

When the bell rang they all said goodbye to their teacher and

those who won the most points for the day, by answering questions and

working hard, received a chocolate frog.

* SUZIE HARRISON is a reporter for the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. She may be reached at 494-4321.