This week is spring break for students and families here in Durango. I wanted to take a quick moment to highlight the exciting events scheduled during John Fisher's upcoming visit. Enjoy your vacations and I look forward to seeing you at next week's gatherings!
Public Presentation by Animas High School Language Arts Teacher John Fisher:
21st Century Learning - Incorporating Hands and Minds at Animas High School
Durango Arts Center Theatre
Monday, April 6, 2009
6:00 - 7:30
Informal Mixer with Animas High School Language Arts Teacher John Fisher:
Come meet the AHS 9th grade Language Arts Teacher John Fisher
Appetizers and soft drinks will be provided free of charge
East by Southwest 160 East College Dr. Durango, Colorado
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
6:00 - 8:30 PM
Coffee with Animas High School Language Arts Teacher John Fisher:
Come meet the AHS 9th grade Language Arts Teacher John Fisher
Jobson Residence, 1215 East 3rd Avenue (corner of 3rd and 12th)
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
8:30 - 9:30 AM
AHS Student Gathering
Durango Rec Center- The Peaks Rooms
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
6:00 to 8:30 PM
Students already enrolled in the 9th grade class at AHS will have their first opportunity to gather as a community during this Wednesday night event. Join Michael Ackerman, AHS Head of School, and John Fisher, AHS Language Arts teacher, for an evening of fun activities, new friendships and food!! (Parents need not attend.) The event will include a chance to meet fellow classmates, hear more about all the great things planned for next school year and just some time to hang. You can count on big laughs, major fun and some exciting surprises at this event! Enrolled students are encouraged to bring along a friend or two. Please let us know if you’ll be attending (michael@animashighschool.com or 970-403-4827) so we can make sure to have plenty for all!
John's Bio:
John Fisher attained a BA in Philosophy from UC Santa Cruz in 2001, and an MA in Composition and Reading from San Francisco State in 2005, for which he won the departmental distinction award.John was passionately teaching writing to college students before joining the High Tech High faculty on the San Diego campus last fall. Immersed with his students at High Tech High, he is also currently finishing his secondary teaching credential in both English and History from the High Tech High Graduate School of Education.
Project based learning is an exciting way to prepare students to excel in a college environment. Writing for real audiences in real contexts changes everything. Having your work on public display creates incentives to reflect and refine like no other context, and that helps to create not only beautiful student work, but beautiful teaching.
John brings his varied passions to his students, and enjoys learning from them as much as he enjoys teaching them. Under the larger scope of "the Humanities" John gets his students excited about the connections between past and present - the larger historical trends and what's happening around them today. In teaching the relevance of ancient philosophy to their daily lives, he encourages them to express those relationshiops as "sentence ninjas."
John looks forward to the magnificent four season opportunities for exploring the natural world of Southwest Colorado with his wife and co-teacher, Lori Fisher. Between studies and teaching, John has lived and studied in a Hindu ashram in India, worked on a reforestation project in Costa Rica, learned to scuba dive in Bali, and has been a tour manager for the band Dredg.
