James Sisenstein

Tell us why you became a teacher

At first I was an Art teacher, but noticed something in my students when it came to engagement. They were actually engaged. I thought to myself "why can't this be done in the classroom?" So, I became a classroom ELA and Math teacher so that I could combine the art and project based learning and allow the students to have more fun with their learning. It's as simple as giving a character a neat voice when reading or having the students prepare a reader theatre and perform it.

Tell us about your most memorable teaching experience

My students were struggling with "perspective." We were reading The Three Little Pigs and it was not getting to them the different perspectives and how they shape the story. So, we created a trial. My students were the characters from the book and they performed the trial. I called it Wolf v. Pigs. We hosted it live and even had the other classes vote on who's perspective they belived to be true. Spoiler: the wolf won

What would you do with the $25,000?

I would put some of that money into my "Phonics and Folktales" tabletop tutoring program I'm developing for my school. I would also pay off some student loans. Yikes! That would help.