Cindy Stephenson Rogue 554

Name- Cindy Stephenson Content Area- Special Education Location- TX   USA Current School- Rogene Worley Grade Level- Middle School Teaching Since- 1983 Twitter- @yoda teacher Website-

I run Content Mastery for both 7th and 8th grade Sped kids. I use Star Wars references whenever I can, in any subject I can. I support the main core subjects, LA, Math, Science and Social Studies. Since I deal with pre-scripted assignments I squeeze in as many references to Star Wars that I can. At this time I do not actually prepare lessons. I use many of Yoda's sayings for inspiration. Depending on the content I can always link it some how to Star Wars. I feel it helps them remember the concepts better. My physical classroom is covered in Star Wars and I have had the local high school come interview me concerning my love and spreading the love of Star Wars to my students. Many of my students are Autistic and respond very well to the way my room is decorated. In some cases it helps them to focus and feel like there is an adult out there they can relate to. This si also true of my ADHD students. My favorite thing that I do is run Sy-Fy Club after school. I am on my 8th year of being the sponsor. This year we have 50ish 7th and 8th grade kids that stay after school each week for an hour. I come up with the activities for the club. They range from Pool noodle lightsaber making and battles, Harry Potter Wand making, Shrinky Dinks, Fan Art and comic book writing to actual 5-10 minute movies ( they write, film, edit the movies themselves in groups of about 5-10 kids). All types of fandom is welcome. We have Whovians, Anime lovers, gamers both role play and console/handheld, Star Wars lovers like me and anything else geeky! I am the head sponsor, Jedi Grand Master Stephenson, along with Game Master Lee ( History teacher that loves D&D), Jamison of Galifrey( LA teacher and our resident Whovian) and Bixby the Destroyer (math teacher, cheer sponsor and love Guardians of the Galaxy). Game Master Lee, Bixby the Destroyer and myself also run a Gamers Club another day after school. My main objective for these clubs is to get some kids connected to school and to each other. So far it is working. Attendance of these kids is up on club day and they tell me all the time they would not have friends without the club. Several of our Autistic kids find acceptance in the club too. I also love doing it because it is FUN!

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