In Shannon
Carlisle’s classroom at Moore Elementary School in Franklin, TN, it is always 1895.
Shannon,
the accelerated learning teacher, has turned her classroom into 221B. Ann and I
visited recently and were bowled over her methods of using Holmes to incorporate
critical thinking into both language arts and math lessons for fourth graders.
From
the front door on, it’s obvious that something special is going on in Shannon’s
221B. Visual reminders are all over the place.
There
is even a delightful Sherlock Holmes Museum housed in a former cloakroom.
And
in this room, there no doubt as to what constitutes a Sherlockian. One of the
dozens of signs posted proclaims:
If you
are a “true” Sherlockian, you believe:
- · Sherlock Holmes is still alive, is retired from consulting detective work (for the most part) and living in South Downs, Sussex.
- · Dr. John H. Watson wrote the Canon (the 4 novels and 56 short stories) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was his literary agent
Not
surprisingly, the Beacon Society presented Shannon with the Beacon Award in 2013
for her work in introducing Sherlock Holmes to young people. She directs the
Society’s one-year-old Junior Sherlockian Society -- check out its fabulous website! And last year she was invested as
a member of the Baker Street Irregulars.
We
were delighted to come and see this wonderful classroom for two fast-moving
hours, but there was almost too much to observe!
Thank you for visiting 221b Baker Street of Moore Elementary. The students absolutely loved learning that the museum had visitors. I appreciated our conversation and hope to incorporate some of Ann's ideas (boxes) into our Sherlockian studies this year.
ReplyDeleteIs there a *real* Wonder Woman? Yes! She is an exceptionally creative teacher, a fabulous mom and wife, a Sherlockian leader (BSI and ASH), and a friend of all of us in the Nashville Scholars of the Three Pipe Problem!
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