Mr. Geranis
Biography
Where do I begin?
I have a wonderful wife, Becky, who, until Rhett was born, was a second grade teacher at Mitchell Elementary School in Kittery. For four years Becky taught the GED/HiSET program for Kittery and Marshwood. Two years ago she was named one of the Adult Education Teachers of the Year for the State of Maine! Most exciting of all, this year Becky will be starting her second year teaching sixth grade math right here at YMS!
We have two sons. Rhett is eight years old. Emerson is six. They love baseball, soccer, football, the Patriots, Legos and Rubic's Cubes. Rhett can almost solve all six sides and Emerson is learning how draw. He is becoming a very creative artist!
I've lived in York my whole life. I grew up on Beacon St., near Longs Sands Beach. I graduated in '94 from Y.H.S., '98 from the University of Maine at Farmington and in '00 from the University of Southern Maine with my Master's in Teaching and Learning.
This is my seventeenth year teaching and my seventeenth year at York Middle School (although sometimes I feel like I never left!). I taught sixth grade for four years. This will be my thirteenth year teaching fifth grade.
Besides spending time with Becky, Rhett, and Emerson, I love to garden, run, and read.
Becky and I have maintained a 3,000 square foot organic vegetable garden for many years now. Five years ago we decided to jump deeper into gardening. We added to the garden our first hoophouse. It's a small (12' x 40') quonset style house. The picture above shows a bit of the garden in mid-August.
In addition to the garden, we also have 18 hens, a mini-orchard, a growing blueberry patch and we make our own maple syrup every spring!
Working the farm is a something I love to do almost as much as teaching. I find it rewarding, challenging, sometimes relaxing and always a great change of pace from teaching.
Thoughts on Teaching
I love helping kids understand something new. I love helping kids improve in their skills. But what I find most rewarding is when a student says to me, "Mr. G, I've never knew reading could be this much fun!" (and I've been lucky enough to hear that quite a few times).
I say this because I firmly believe that as humans, we only choose to practice and improve those skills and activities we find rewarding and important. Like juggling, dancing, painting, playing an instrument and hitting a baseball, reading and writing are skills. And like all other skills, the ONLY way to improve is to practice. And if you were ever made, as a kid, to take lessons in something you truly didn't enjoy, what happened? Did you quit the first chance you had? Did you drop it until fortune, and maturity, reunited you and your rusty skill in a new context?
For me, neither of these outcomes are acceptable when it comes to reading or writing. Reading and writing are skills too important to be drilled to death, or left to chance. The foundation of reading and writing instruction is the student's realization that both activities can be truly enjoyable and rewarding. Only then will students practice enough to improve. And by "practice enough" I mean continue doing both outside of school, where those skills will really matter.
Biography
Where do I begin?
I have a wonderful wife, Becky, who, until Rhett was born, was a second grade teacher at Mitchell Elementary School in Kittery. For four years Becky taught the GED/HiSET program for Kittery and Marshwood. Two years ago she was named one of the Adult Education Teachers of the Year for the State of Maine! Most exciting of all, this year Becky will be starting her second year teaching sixth grade math right here at YMS!
We have two sons. Rhett is eight years old. Emerson is six. They love baseball, soccer, football, the Patriots, Legos and Rubic's Cubes. Rhett can almost solve all six sides and Emerson is learning how draw. He is becoming a very creative artist!
I've lived in York my whole life. I grew up on Beacon St., near Longs Sands Beach. I graduated in '94 from Y.H.S., '98 from the University of Maine at Farmington and in '00 from the University of Southern Maine with my Master's in Teaching and Learning.
This is my seventeenth year teaching and my seventeenth year at York Middle School (although sometimes I feel like I never left!). I taught sixth grade for four years. This will be my thirteenth year teaching fifth grade.
Besides spending time with Becky, Rhett, and Emerson, I love to garden, run, and read.
Becky and I have maintained a 3,000 square foot organic vegetable garden for many years now. Five years ago we decided to jump deeper into gardening. We added to the garden our first hoophouse. It's a small (12' x 40') quonset style house. The picture above shows a bit of the garden in mid-August.
In addition to the garden, we also have 18 hens, a mini-orchard, a growing blueberry patch and we make our own maple syrup every spring!
Working the farm is a something I love to do almost as much as teaching. I find it rewarding, challenging, sometimes relaxing and always a great change of pace from teaching.
Thoughts on Teaching
I love helping kids understand something new. I love helping kids improve in their skills. But what I find most rewarding is when a student says to me, "Mr. G, I've never knew reading could be this much fun!" (and I've been lucky enough to hear that quite a few times).
I say this because I firmly believe that as humans, we only choose to practice and improve those skills and activities we find rewarding and important. Like juggling, dancing, painting, playing an instrument and hitting a baseball, reading and writing are skills. And like all other skills, the ONLY way to improve is to practice. And if you were ever made, as a kid, to take lessons in something you truly didn't enjoy, what happened? Did you quit the first chance you had? Did you drop it until fortune, and maturity, reunited you and your rusty skill in a new context?
For me, neither of these outcomes are acceptable when it comes to reading or writing. Reading and writing are skills too important to be drilled to death, or left to chance. The foundation of reading and writing instruction is the student's realization that both activities can be truly enjoyable and rewarding. Only then will students practice enough to improve. And by "practice enough" I mean continue doing both outside of school, where those skills will really matter.