Ms. Barr and Mr. Clevenger by Kenley Ripka

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When students walk into English 10 in Room 1307, the first thing they see is a whiteboard with a question of the day. These questions, which are usually about which of two or more options students prefer, show the teachers’ commitment to making the start of class fun. Teachers is plural, because this class is co-taught by two great teachers, Ms. Barr and Mr. Clevenger. The question of the day was started by a 5th period student, but it was made part of every class by Mr. Clevenger, showing his commitment to learning from his students as a new teacher.

When class actually starts, it almost always begins with some sort of game. For example, in one game, one student looks at an image on the computer made out of shapes and they describe it for others to draw. The accuracy of their classmates’ drawings depends on how well the student describes the image. But students don’t just do the same few things every day – Ms. Barr actively searches out new things for students to do at the start of class, such as one she recently found where the class can guess a movie based on images of it quickly shown for a few seconds. These games not only make students look forward to class, but allow students to socialize with classmates more than they would without them.

Even in terms of actual learning, Ms. Barr and Mr. Clevenger often do things to make it fun for students. They have the class do various review activities to make sure they know the topics being studied. They frequently do online review games like Kahoot and Blooket that both help students review the material (such as vocab words and grammar rules) and enjoy the class. Students even have extra incentive to do good in these games, as the top places get candy for winning.

These two teachers make English the best part of a school day for me and many others. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to be a part of their class this year.