Personal Learning Experiences

Middle School: Something to Sing About

My eighth grade English teacher was Mrs. Hronek, and she taught a wonderful lesson on literary devices using music. She had record players (!) set up around the classroom with records like Johnny Cash's"A Boy Named Sue" (ballad), "I Am A Rock" by Simon & Garfunkel (metaphor), The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" (simile), the catchy commercial jingle"Snap, Crackle, Pop" (onomatopoeia), and others. Common topics everyone learns in an English class at some point to help decode literature, but we were thrilled to learn them in such an interesting way and through pop culture. I've actually used this lesson plan several times as a classroom teacher, and students always get so much from it.

High School: Finding My Voice

My junior year of high school, Mr. Zasa was my English teacher (perhaps all these fantastic English teachers are why I became an English teacher!). We were going to spend an intensive year writing, and my first paper was on Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I wrote it in a snarky, funny tone, and my teacher said, "Rachel, we're going to do a lot of writing this year, and I see you're already developing a voice. Not everyone does, so I want you to take this year to explore and practice this voice. Next year, you'll have to return to strict academic writing, but I want to see what you can do this year." Yes, I learned a lot about literature and mechanics that year, but what he taught me about writing and my voice that year---that personalized approach to my education, even at a very large high school---was instrumental for me in so many ways.

Professional Learning: The Pros Have No Cons

I'm currently an historical interpreter at the Indiana Historical Society. We have to study in great depth the time periods we portray, the lives of the real people we portray, and the event or career the exhibit is based on so we can be those things in the museum exhibits. This requires about six weeks of intensive training and research. Right now, I play an archaeologist at the Angel Mounds State Historic Site in 1939, and part of our training involved real archaeologists from the site coming in to teach us how to be archaeologists. We have had actual archaeologists and Angel Mounds historians come in to our exhibit as guests, so we have to pass muster, and talking to the experts prepared us to think and answer questions like the archaeologists we portray.

Click here for more information on You Are There! 1939: Exploring Angel Mounds.

Rachel Snyder in character as Ida Mae Black at You Are There! 1939: Exploring Angel Mounds at the Indiana Historical Society.