Delia+Turner

=Delia Turner =

 6th Grade English teacher. English Department Chair The Haverford School

 Website: [|English with Dr. T.] School Site: [|Haverford School] Back to Team page: Haverford School PLP Team I teach because it's the most creative, challenging, fascinating job I can imagine. I teach because it makes a difference, one kid at a time. I teach because there is nothing like seeing a roomful of kids take charge of a discussion, think of themselves as writers, plan and execute a project, or explain why they chose to read the book they're reading. This is the only job I could do that would never, ever, be boring.

The thing I hate most is hearing someone say, "Today's music is garbage" or "Kids just don't know how to write or read these days" or "The world is getting worse." The world was always bloody awful, I happen to know, and hindsight is not 20-20, it's blurry and rose-tinted. I don't have the selective memory of many people my age. No, it's an exciting time to live.

Despite my age, I'm a 21st century native; I've used whatever advanced technology has come down the pike ever since my cousins and I created a radio play on a reel-to-reel tape-deck in the early 60s, and since my sixth grade classmates and I used a mimeograph to crank out the school newpaper. Some of my best friends are people who live on the other side of the world. I blog, I'm on Facebook, I belong to discussion forums, I accumulate all kinds of music for my iPod and apps for my iPhone, and I'm more likely to text my grown daughter than call her, but I don't believe that it's social networking tools that drive learning. I'm an old-fashioned progressive educator, a dyed-in-the-wool constructivist, and I can knit a sock with a turned heel, make a patchwork quilt, and letter a mean italic with a fountain pen.

It's a good time to be alive and teaching children.