BrownBearsTeacher

I have taught for 11 years now. I started in 4th grade and worked my way down to pre-school. I loved teaching pre-school and seeing 3 year olds learn to sound out words and read. I then moved up to Kindergarten-1st-2nd grade combo and love it! My Kindergarteners were reading by October this year and some are already almost to a 2nd grade level by now in January. I also have a son who began reading at the age of 2 and I have a video of him on my Footprints Learning Center website on Facebook, which you can connect to from my main website www.footprintslearningcenter.com ... or look me up on facebook under Footprints Learning Center in Arizona.

I teach direct instructuction style with class purpose being of foremost importance over curriculum. We do many outreach and community service projects every week and every month. For curriculum, I use RIGGS for phonics and spelling as well as my own teacher created materials, Houghton Mifflin for Math, and integrated projects for Social studies and Science. I recommend the use of PDSA in the classroom which is setting goals, like we want 100% of the students getting 85% or more on their spelling tests. Then chart the progress (by number only - number of students out of the total number of students and NOT by their names) of what precentage is meeting that goal on a graph. Then make plans every Friday with the class about how everyone can get closer to achieving those goals. When you reach a goal, the class gets a set award that they brainstormed and chose. Keep expanding the goals and use them for everything from Homework completion, to percentage of students on-task during the day!

I graduated with distinction from High School and from College ... both having more than 3.5 GPA. I belong to the Sierra Club and Plan International. I am a Seventh Day Adventist Beginners and Primary Teacher and have been since 1997.

I recieved a degree in Conservation Biology (trying to save the world) with a minor in Creative Writing from UNR in 1998. My job at the Don Edwards San Fransico Bay National Wildlife Refuge in 1998 consisted of teaching school children about the environment. I loved the teaching part so much I returned to get my Masters in Education. I now have a directors license CDA also, and certification as a professional teacher in Colorado and in Arizona as well as a directors license to teach Infants to Middle School level and have tutored Infants through College Level students.

I am very creative. I write my own songs for months of the year, the alphabet sounds, and any other concept I need to teach. I always use Sign Language or motions with every song and a poster so that they are getting 3 learning modalities - Visual, auditory, and kinethetic. With 1 modality the rate of rememberance is 15% or less, with 2 it only goes up to 25%, but with 3 modalities it is a whopping 75% chance of remembering what was learned. I know it works having taught both 3 year olds and Kindergarteners to read using my songs! Check out ASL signs online for the alphabet ... there are some great sights. Use ASL with everything and see scores skyrocket.