Welcome!

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This week is our first week at Desert Christian High School. I am super excited to be the US History teacher this year and am looking forward to working with each of you!

In this class each student will create their own websites which will serve as an online portfolio for the year. In this way, you will be able to see at a glance what you have achieved as the year progress and your family will be able to see what you are working on during your time with me.

Our first project will be an “About Me” essay which will serve as your first post on your website. I can’t wait to see what you write!

Welcome!

Mrs. Thomas

Teacher Professional Development

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This week I spent a few days with the professionals at Branching Out Consultants. It is the mission of this organization to educate new and seasoned teachers with quality professional development for Christian school administrators and teachers through highly focused workshops, one-on-one coaching opportunities and administrative consulting. I couldn’t possibly write for you all of my take-aways from the last three days, but I would like to share the following quote, which I discovered during my professional development and believe are powerful words to remember each day I walk into class.

“I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.”

― Haim G. Ginott

Busy, Busy, BUSY!

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I am so very excited to announce that I have been asked to be the new US History, Psychology and Mock Trial teacher at Desert Christian High School in Tucson, AZ! This summer I have been busy building curriculum for these classes, and as a new teacher, that means starting from scratch. While having three new preps to build can be a bit overwhelming, I am finding that it is not “work.” The study of history and social sciences is near and dear to my heart; how blessed am I to have the opportunity to do what I love as a career?

I very much look forward to meeting my 2016/17 students and well as their parents. This year is going to be amazing! I already have field trips, guest speakers and awesome projects planned.

This will be a year of telling stories: the kind that grip you and elicit a wide range of emotions because they are true and personal as citizens of this great nation. timthumb.phpThis will be a year spent in the courtroom, where the great laws of our country are put to the test and the future of American citizens hang in the balance.

Mrs. Nettie Hunt, sitting on steps of Supreme Court, holding newspaper, explaining to her daughter Nikie the meaning of the Supreme Court's decision banning school segregation. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-127042

This will be a year of personal and societal discovery, where we’ll embrace the aspects of conscious and unconscious thought, marveling at God’s creation of the human being. The sky is the limit and I only have nine months to cram it all in. Get ready for the ride of a lifetime!