Experience Summary
My name is Jean and I am a retired elementary school teacher with 35 years of experience teaching all subjects in grades K-5. I was voted Teacher of the Year by my peers in 2013. I was a Writing for Success Mentor in my district and led in-services. I tutor because I love to help students reach their academic goals and gain more confidence in doing so. I feel it is essential to establish a mutual bond of respect and trust between teacher and student. I always check for understanding and create a safe environment where students feel comfortable asking questions. I love to laugh and incorporate humor into lessons. Laughter is good for the student and the teacher!
I have taught whole group, small group, and individual reading. I helped students learn how to decode through developing phonemic awareness and to use contextual clues in determining word meanings. I taught children how to become active readers by incorporating Cornell Note taking strategies while reading. They then learned how to use their notes to develop a concise summary. I integrated the use of I-pads into the classroom. I taught the students how to research cites and use note taking programs simultaneously .I also helped students learn how to visualize what they read by developing pictorial flow charts, and then verbally retelling the story to a peer.
When teaching writing, I used many different strategies to help students become more efficient writers. I often used Wild Storm techniques. For example, I would place one dot in front of a sentence, and I would label it “p” for punctuation. I taught the student how to go back and correct the error. This facilitated a higher degree of awareness while they were writing and helped children to become independent writers. I also taught students parts of speech and how to diagram a sentence through the use of a color coded chart. Verbs would be one color and adjectives another. Students would come up to the front of the class and use the chart to develop sentences. They would then sing the sentence in a song format.
In math, I always stressed and taught students that there is more than one way to find an answer. I taught students to verbally explain how they got an answer and then effectively put it into written form. I often embedded numbers in real world word problems so students could learn how they would be able to use math in their daily lives. . These strategies support and reinforce the Common Core standards.
I adapted curriculum to music and chants and used this technique on a regular basis in the classroom. This process made learning fun and made it easier for students to memorize important concepts.