By Leon Mays

When asked to write an article for “The Branch” on teacher tips, my first thought was which activity the students and teachers enjoy most.  I got the activity book and started thumbing through the pages.  To my amazement, I discovered that collectively our teachers have done just about every activity in the book.  I started picking out the activities I had done and looking at the activities that I didn’t want to do for whatever reason.  I realized that the ones I didn’t do sounded more exciting now.  This is like starting all over again. 

Our school is an alternative school for at-risk students.  This is the last choice for many students to get a high school diploma.  Many students are court ordered to be here and some have no other place to go during the day, so they come to school for breakfast and lunch.  Some are homeless, living on the streets or in cars. To say their home life is unstable is an understatement.  To get these kids interested in anything but survival is a major accomplishment.  Ten years ago I was looking for something that might get the interest of the students and PLT came to the rescue.

I remember one of the first activities we did in “the Woods” (a twenty-acre plot donated to the school). The students picked out an activity to demonstrate for the other students and one student chose Activity #25 “Birds and Worms”.  He spent so much time painting camouflage popsicle sticks and doing such a good job that very few were found, much to the displeasure of his classmates.  He found great pleasure in the fact that his patterns could fool his classmates.  This student now works for a local screen printing company, designing layouts for its customers.

Years ago I decided to introduce students to plants and how they grow.  I used Activity #41 “How Plants Grow” as a resource.  I had a young man in my class that did not want to be there.  His name was Sol and his goal for my class period was to get as much sleep as he could.  In order to do “How Plants Grow”, I had to get some plants started from seed.  I enlisted the help of willing students to put seeds in baby food jars with damp paper towels.  Sol would pass by the row of jars every day to get to his seat.  One day Sol stopped by the jars and said, “Mr. Mays, something is happening in there and it’s really creepy”.  For the first time Sol listened while I explained to the class the process of survival for the plant.  Sol adopted a plant and pampered it for the rest of the school year and took it home for the summer.

I had never concentrated on language arts until the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test was mandated a few years ago.  We easily incorporated PLT into the FCAT Sunshine State Standards and are satisfying local standards as well.  I am using activities now that never would have been used if not for the FCAT.  I purposefully look through the activity book every time I update my lesson plan book, knowing that I can use something different and meaningful.  I am discovering PLT all over again.  

Leon Mays is a classroom educator at A.D. Harris High School, a dropout prevention school in Panama City, Florida.    He was named a Project Learning Tree National Outstanding Educator in 2005.