Hi and welcome to our course! Please remember that one of the benefits of a blogging course is to have communication between participants. Remember to read and respond to other participants' comments each week. We look forward to working and learning with you. Please try to keep your responses within one allotted "comment" space to ensure that the blog remains manageable for all participants.
Also, you may want to type your comments in a Word Document and either copy from Word and paste onto the blog or save it in a folder on your computer and then post it to the blog. I have written a couple of lengthy comments that I lost before I was able to post it to the blog. This extra step may save you some frustration later on this term.
Last of all, we will write our comments to your posts on the blog, so you will need to check back to the corresponding week for feedback (and to make additional comments if you wish.)
Let us know if you have any questions. You can email us, but please put the words "Question for Classroom Instruction" in the subject line so that we can respond in a timely fashion.
Assignment #1: Introductory paragraph. Please post your introduction to the course blog in the blog archive under the posting: Week One: Introduction - Please tell us a little about yourself. Where do you teach? What grade and how long have you been teaching? How many students are in your class and do you have instructional support? What does your current literacy program look like? (If you aren’t currently teaching let us know what your educational background and experiences are.) What is your knowledge/training in the area of literacy? Does your district provide literacy training? If so, what exactly have they offered? Also, let us know a little about you outside the classroom: Interests/ Hobbies/ Family Life.
Also please read: Classroom Instruction that Works - Chapter 1 – Applying the Research on Instruction: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Sign in to the blog (follow directions below)
o Click on the comment link below. If you do not have a Google account you will need to create a free one. Underneath the “leave your comment” box – click where it says “no Google account? Sign up here.” Then follow the direction to create an account.
o After you create your account you can just type in your user name and password from when you created the account and then click the button “publish your comment” and it will be posted. You should post Assignment # 1 explained below as your first comment.
(Please Note: In addition to posting your first assignment (Introduction) to the blog, please email it to us. This is to enable us to contact you individually should the need occur. Please also make sure that you label your assignment with your name when posting to the blog to ensure that you receive proper credit for your work.)
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11 comments:
Hello! I am Erica Maller, I teach 7th and 8th grade health at Scappoose Middle School. I have been at the middle school level in several subjects for ten years. I have anywhere from 18 to 36 students in a class, and instructional support is widely varied by class as well. Our school is focusing on reading and writing across the curriculum and has been working to implement writing and reading strategies to help all students into our content area classes. We have had many workshops and trainings about including this sort of support in content area classes, and currently our data teams are using the course text to encourage specifically designed instruction. Outside of the classroom, I have three kids and a husband that are all very active and keep me incredibly busy, which is why an online class like this one is perfect for me!
Week 1: Introduction
Hello! My name is Therese Tardif and I currently teach 7th grade Social Studies at Scappoose Middle School. I have been teaching for 10 years. I have taught in the past, here at SMS, 8th grade Social Studies and 8th grade Science. I am very happy with my current position and grade level. I teach 5 classes a day with numbers of students in the range of 18-33. Currently, I have one educational assistant in one out of five classes. In addition, we get support for IEP students with a Special Education department of 2 teachers and numerous educational assistants in our classrooms.
One of our school and district goals is to increase scores in reading and writing across the curriculum and grade levels. Each department (here at SMS) is responsible for collecting data while implementing a variety of teaching strategies. We are in the middle of this process right now and hope to see improvement in the future. Our school district does provide literacy training with the goal of improving the reading and writing skills of our students.
Away from school, I have a supportive husband and three children. All three children are busy and keep the family on the go. I enjoy cycling and playing sports, weather permitting, of course. With it being wintertime, I am excited to take this online course and being able to stay indoors.
Hello,
My name is Kelsey Boyd and I teach elementary ELD (English Language Development) at East Gresham Grade School. I am currently in my fifth year of teaching, all of which have been spent working with English language learners. This year I have “small” groups that range from seven to twelve students and work with kindergarten through fifth grade. The other ELD teacher and I share an EA and we have a two half time TOSAs who can help us if we need but in terms of instructional support we have a monthly or bimonthly gathering of ELD teachers while the classroom teachers are learning a new literacy curriculum and have almost weekly meetings as well as time with our districts instructional coach. Unlike a classroom teacher ELD focus is slightly different and while literacy of course is valued and promoted through the use of sentence frames and other instructional tools it is not my primary focus. My district does provide literacy training but mainly for the classroom teachers. I try to help out and make connections to the classroom by front loading my students with vocabulary and such from their current literacy theme but on top of everything else I am responsible to teach, in thirty minute time slots, I don’t get to do as much as I would like. I wish there was more time in the day so I could have more time with my students, all six different grade levels of them!
Outside the classroom I live with my husband, 19 month old daughter and our two dogs. We are expecting another child in June (we haven’t found out the gender yet)! I love to read and am usually doing just that when I can find any free time. When I’m not pregnant I love to snowboard and wakeboard. One of my biggest passions is travel and I’m sure my husband and I will start up again when the kids are a little older. I’ve been to 13 countries on four continents and can’t wait to get the other three under my belt! I really like spending time with my daughter right now. She is learning to talk and discovering something new every day!
Hello Erica, Therese and Kelsey!
Welcome to class! We look forward to learning and working with you as the term progresses.
Erica and Therese it's great that you are able to take this class together. Having someone on your team to bounce ideas around with is very helpful.
Kelsey, congrats on the new baby. I (Mary) am due to have a baby June 1st. It will be our third baby. My other children are boys ages 5 and 6. :)
My name is Christi Seiler and I teach in Mt. Angel at the elementary school. I have taught for 18 years, mostly at the third grade level but also 2nd and 4th grade. This year I am the intervention teacher/instructional coach for grades K-5 at our building. Our school is currently focusing on PLC’s (professional learning community) and all that they entail including; creating common formative assessments, rubrics and data analysis. We are currently working with Marzano’s book Classroom Instruction that Works in our PLC’s . We have chosen certain chapters at each grade to read and discuss as well as reflect and plan within our next school wide data team. Our school currently uses Scott Foresman “Reading Street” for our literacy program. We have a full time title 1 specialist in the building as well as my position which is mostly used for math and writing but can be utilized for reading based on each team/student needs. Our reading program looks slightly different at each grade level but all consistently use the adopted program. Literature circles and trade books are used at grades 1-5 as well. W e have been trained in DIBELS and EasyCBM although those assessments are administered by our title 1 specialist. We have had a variety of trainings over the years in literacy. We just completed a “mini” training on Step Up to Writing last month. Our district is generally supportive in providing the needed trainings as well as supporting us with best practices and updated information for professional development.
Hello my name is Molly Mannix and I am a K-5 Reading Specialist at St. Mary’s Public in Mt. Angel, OR. This is my 11th year teaching. Aside from a short long term sub position I have been fortunate to spend all of my 11 years at one school. The beginning half of my career was spent as a K-1, and 3rd Grade Classroom teacher. Three years ago an opportunity to move into a Title I Reading position presented itself to me, and I decided to give it a try. I loved the challenges and rewards such a position provided and decided to continue in this professional direction. I love the variety of working with all grade levels of students, as well as all of the grade level teams. I definitely have a “Big Picture” view of our school. I also get to run our school wide reading assessments (DIBELS and Easy CBM), and participate with grade level and school wide Data Teams. Our building began doing Professional Learning Communities about 3 years ago, which we have now merged with the Oregon Data Project. I am a Data Leader as well, working with other leaders in our building to provide a building wide consensus for our PLC framework projects and Data Teaming throughout the year. We have used CFA’s (common formative assessments) and building assessments for data team focuses, but we are currently using the Marzano book, with each grade level choosing a chapter to focus on as a PLC team. We have had many inservices and trainings on reading and writing. Reading was initially a focus when we adopted our new materials 3 years ago, and has been ongoing, but the last couple of years have been more of a writing focus (reading scores were up, writing scores way down for the district). We just had a Step Up to Writing training last week that we are excited to start implementing into or current writing practices. As a reading support we have Title I, of which I teach. As a school wide title building it is available to any struggling readers that would benefit from extra help as determined by the grade level team and specialists.
Personally—I have two daughters ages 7 and 5. My husband is also a teacher. We have a boat, so our schedule allows for a lot of water fun and vacations around Oregon while we are all off for the summer. I enjoy reading, knitting and spending time with my family. I also starting running with a friend of mine 2 years ago and we just completed a half-marathon this last fall—quite the accomplishment for two mommies with not a lot of training time available!
My name is Renee Geiger and I teach at St. Mary’s Public Elementary in Mt. Angel, Oregon. This is my eighth year of teaching and over the course of that time my job has changed several times. I have taught kindergarten, ESL, Reading, PASS, and first grade. This year is my first year teaching third grade, which I am enjoying so far. I have 22 students this year, many whom I have had in previous years as either their kindergarten or first grade teacher. As a school, we are currently reading Classroom Instruction That Works during our PLC times and focusing on a chapter to explore further in our teams. We have recently had an introduction to the Step Up to Writing program and are excited to begin using it in our classrooms. We are currently using Scott Foresman Reading Street for our literacy program and envision Math for our math program. I have an assistant with me for forty-five minutes of the literacy block and forty-five minutes of the math block. We also have a full time Reading Specialist and an intervention teacher/instructional coach in our building. Outside of work, I am a wife and mother of two. My daughter just turned 5, so we will be starting kindergarten in the fall. My son is almost 2 and very active; typical of boys I’m told. When I’m not working I just enjoy down time with my family. We like to go for walks and play at parks, weather permitting of course.
Hello Christi, Molly and Renee! We're happy to have you join us! Again, it's wonderful that you all can take this class together and bounce ideas off one another.
It sounds like your school and district does a good job in supporting what the teachers need with trainings and the time for PLC's and data teams. When really given the time, support and leadership these teams really can lead to some amazing changes in instruction and practice in a school.
I am a fifth grade teacher at Fir Grove Elementary in Beaverton. As I am finishing up my fifth year here, and as a teacher, I have realized how much teaching has changed for me. My confidence and comfort level have definitely increased, along with the politics and pressure of testing. This year I have 28 students from very diverse backgrounds. Although learning the different cultures can be overwhelming at first, I absolutely love the families I work with. They are so appreciative of the educational system and our strong community we have built.
In a Title 1 school we are fortunate to have a very supportive instructional coach who offers new ideas in reading and writing. In the afternoons we do a smaller version of Daily 5. We have small groups/conferences running at the back table, read to self and literacy choice at the students' desks and a small group of students at the front using Tweentribune.com on laptops. I love that Tween Tribune has given my fifth graders the excitement for current news while encouraging them to be stronger writers as they post their comments and reactions.
This spring the instructional coach and I were representatives for our school at a 6+1 Writing Trait training. We attended the training and in return will be training our staff this fall. Along with that our principal is very supportive of thinking outside of the box. We've done book clubs, as a staff, on Daily 5 and inquiry circles. Our focus as a building this year was to become stronger narrative writers. We have submitted 3 writing pieces throughout the year which common goals.
When I'm not at school I am very busy with family and friends. I love to travel, work at the gym in the evenings and hang out with my girlfriends on the weekends. I think balance is extremely important and although I love my students, I try to keep evenings and weekends for myself. I am extremely thankful for the staff that I am a part of, especially my team. The three of us each carry out our unspoken roles and have the utmost respect for each other!
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