Having Fun - and Learning Too!
When Old Quarry Middle School teacher Jill Dulany-Hollander invited a guest speaker to her eighth-grade class in Lemont, Illinois, she had no idea they would all end up flying kites together as a vocabulary exercise.
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GKPI Is proud to be a small part of this great teaching project. For more details on our Mini Diamonds, click here and here. |
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Having Fun - and Learning Too! When Old Quarry Middle School teacher Jill Dulany-Hollander invited a guest speaker to her eighth-grade class in Lemont, Illinois, she had no idea they would all end up flying kites together as a vocabulary exercise. |
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Hollander is a literature, language arts and social studies teacher at Old Quarry and her guest speaker was her father, Aurora University teacher Dave Dulany. "My dad came into my language arts class as a guest speaker because my students had a lot of questions about professional writing and how much writing is used in college and the workforce. Of course, by the end of his visit, they thought he was hilarious and all the students were joking around with him. They wanted to know every detail of his life, including his hobbies. At that point, he explained that he liked to fly kites and the kids were astonished!"
Hollander then decided to surprise the kids with a "Fly High with Vocabulary" activity. The students involved in the activity were 8th grade literature and language arts students and they tied the kite flying event into a vocabulary review. 
Most of the students had never flown kites before. They ordered Mini Diamonds from GKPI and then decorated them with the vocabulary words. Students were able to fly them on one of the last days of school. Of course since Dr. Dulany introduced the idea of kite flying to the class and knew how to handle them, he came back and helped make the "Fly High with Vocabulary" day a huge success! 
"It was amazing to see 45 kites up in the air at the same time," Hollander said. "The students had an incredible time, which was our goal for this 'Fly High with Vocabulary' activity." She describes the day as one of the most rewarding in her teaching career. "I saw the students truly happy and engaged," she said. |
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Kites are a great tool for teaching art, science, history and culture. The Drachen Foundation is one resource in this teaching process. Check out this interview with founder Scott Skinner. |
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