Read Katherine's inspiring blog: Read, Write, Reflect
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What
grade(s), subject(s) do you teach?
I teach fifth grade, three classes of reading, one class
of writing.
How long
have you been teaching?
This is my fifteenth year teaching.
What
initially drew you to a career in education?
My mom taught third grade for years. I would help out in
her classroom. Also, my first grade teacher had me read to her classroom. I was
hooked.
What
motivates you as a teacher?
I want kids to see their potential and work hard to help
them realize it.
I also love to teach the kids who can’t sit still, who
have had a rough time up to fifth grade. Those kids who don’t like school.
Getting them to change that viewpoint and see how successful they can be is very
rewarding.
And, of course, I love helping students find a love of
reading.
What has
been your best classroom memory thus far?
Wow, that’s a hard question. There have been amazing
memories every year, every week, every day. I’ll go with a current one so I
don’t have to think so hard.
A boy in my class came in this year very angry. He hated
school and reading. He did love graphic novels, but didn’t think I would count
them as real books. (Of course, I did.)
Last week we added up how much he had read this year.
He’s read over 200 books, has grown almost two years in relation to reading. He
jumped up six levels in Fountas and Pinnell and increased over one hundred
words per minute in regard to reading fluency. When he and I conferenced at the
end of the year, he hugged me and said he’d miss my classroom. That was a good
day.
What do
you want the future of education to look like?
Student centered with student voices being heard.
Choice in regards to reading and writing.
Authentic work being done in the classrooms.
Teachers being viewed as the experts in their classrooms.
Time given for reflection instead of just cramming more on our plate.
Teachers viewed as the experts they are and the profession treated with respect.
Choice in regards to reading and writing.
Authentic work being done in the classrooms.
Teachers being viewed as the experts in their classrooms.
Time given for reflection instead of just cramming more on our plate.
Teachers viewed as the experts they are and the profession treated with respect.
What
makes you stay in the classroom?
The students. I love interacting with them, seeing them
grow, visiting with former students year after year and hearing what they took
away from our time together.
What
do the words “use your outside voice” mean to you?
That
we need to speak up and tell the world what we know to be true:
We are the ones inside the four walls of our classrooms. We know what children are capable of at the age we teach. We know what is important that children learn. We should not sit back and let others dictate how and what education looks like. We are the experts, the artists. It is time to take our profession back.
We are the ones inside the four walls of our classrooms. We know what children are capable of at the age we teach. We know what is important that children learn. We should not sit back and let others dictate how and what education looks like. We are the experts, the artists. It is time to take our profession back.
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