As a Teacher for Today's World
The world is a dynamic and interesting place. In response to this dynamism, I hold high expectation for all students. As well, I bring an international perspective into the classroom, with the goals that your child's experience will be inquiry based and personalized. With this approach, students will be empowered to gain new skills and insight; and, more importantly, they will gain independence and growth as active learners. Such growth is based upon three pillars: myself as the primary learning "coach," the curriculum and foundation of PYP learning framework, and home support.
My Experience
I have raised two sons in Beaverton schools and abroad. We lived for three years in Vietnam, where my eldest son earned the IB diploma at a British International School. While in Asia, I had the wonderful opportunity to work within Vietnamese charity schools, which taught at risk children. While there, I also helped to find materials for the first immersion elementary school in Portland. This experience brought me to many schools and exposed me to many perspectives and methods of teaching. However, the fundamentals of good teaching, regardless of the language of instruction, remain the same.
In today's world, we need to foster confident learners, who gain knowledge, reflect on the learning process, and become critical thinkers. This is done through creating learning experiences which celebrate different strategies to deliver outcomes. Practice is necessary to develop mastery just as an inquiry model is the most effective in developing the growth mindset of life-long learners. A child who feels safe to take risks, while making mistakes, also makes the most progress.
Previous to living in Vietnam, I taught science inquiry, health, technology, and language arts in k-8 classrooms. My focus was middle school, and it was very hard to say goodbye to the wonderful students and families I was honored to teach. This experience has given me the perspective of the stages of development kindergarten through middle school as well as the expectations for which we must prepare fourth grade students for middle school and beyond.
In today's world, we need to foster confident learners, who gain knowledge, reflect on the learning process, and become critical thinkers. This is done through creating learning experiences which celebrate different strategies to deliver outcomes. Practice is necessary to develop mastery just as an inquiry model is the most effective in developing the growth mindset of life-long learners. A child who feels safe to take risks, while making mistakes, also makes the most progress.
Previous to living in Vietnam, I taught science inquiry, health, technology, and language arts in k-8 classrooms. My focus was middle school, and it was very hard to say goodbye to the wonderful students and families I was honored to teach. This experience has given me the perspective of the stages of development kindergarten through middle school as well as the expectations for which we must prepare fourth grade students for middle school and beyond.
Curriculum and PYP Framework
I am so proud to be working for the Beaverton School District, Oregon's education leaders in best practices. I truly believe they respect their teachers and are working with us to do what is right for your children. That said, West TV is also becoming a Primary Years Program school, which focuses on inquiry-based learning and is at the core of my teaching philosophy. This means the math, science, social studies, and language arts curricula are to be implemented as tools for the primary years model of learning. To understand this better, you can click on this link from the International Baccalaureate Program, here.
Math curricula include Eureka Math and Fosnot Contexts for Learning Math, and support videos can be found here. Beaverton School District sets the calendar for when lessons are to be taught. The lessons focus on multiple strategies to develop mathematical concepts. It is fast-paced, which means some review will be necessary across the units in order to give students enough practice to master the content. The math curriculum is also strongly linked with the SBAC. If your student scores nearly proficient on any unit test, we will need to discuss more practice work in addition to the usual daily homework.
Science curriculum is Interactive Science. The textbook will be staying in the classroom as a support for our integrated science units. Science is taught under the PYP themes and integrates writing and nonfiction reading strategies.
Language arts is taught as a reader's and writer's workshop model.
In a reader's workshop, students are encouraged to read and apply reading strategies in books of their choice. Choice is a key motivational aspect of reader's workshop. Studies show that students who read an hour a day achieve greater long-term school success and college readiness. By the end of the year, your fourth grade student should be able to read for 45 minutes continuously in school. Students in fourth grade are also expected to read a chapter book per week, and nightly reading is a homework expectation. We will also do word study, with vocabulary development based on Latin/Greek roots and content specific vocabulary linked to social studies, science, math, and literature.
In the writer's workshop, we will explore expository (nonfiction), personal opinion, and short story genres. Students will be asked to develop secure websites in which to publish their inquiry projects and written essays. Having participated n the Oregon Writing Project, I feel it is necessary to honor student voices in order for them to grow as writers and learn the fundamentals of writing. Students who have too much parental help in writing usually turn out to be reluctant writers as the expectations increase. I also encourage students to reflect on their writing process, using Lucy Calkin's rubrics, which I make available online. I collect pre and post writing samples, so student work will be evaluated based upon their demonstrated progress in class.
Math curricula include Eureka Math and Fosnot Contexts for Learning Math, and support videos can be found here. Beaverton School District sets the calendar for when lessons are to be taught. The lessons focus on multiple strategies to develop mathematical concepts. It is fast-paced, which means some review will be necessary across the units in order to give students enough practice to master the content. The math curriculum is also strongly linked with the SBAC. If your student scores nearly proficient on any unit test, we will need to discuss more practice work in addition to the usual daily homework.
Science curriculum is Interactive Science. The textbook will be staying in the classroom as a support for our integrated science units. Science is taught under the PYP themes and integrates writing and nonfiction reading strategies.
Language arts is taught as a reader's and writer's workshop model.
In a reader's workshop, students are encouraged to read and apply reading strategies in books of their choice. Choice is a key motivational aspect of reader's workshop. Studies show that students who read an hour a day achieve greater long-term school success and college readiness. By the end of the year, your fourth grade student should be able to read for 45 minutes continuously in school. Students in fourth grade are also expected to read a chapter book per week, and nightly reading is a homework expectation. We will also do word study, with vocabulary development based on Latin/Greek roots and content specific vocabulary linked to social studies, science, math, and literature.
In the writer's workshop, we will explore expository (nonfiction), personal opinion, and short story genres. Students will be asked to develop secure websites in which to publish their inquiry projects and written essays. Having participated n the Oregon Writing Project, I feel it is necessary to honor student voices in order for them to grow as writers and learn the fundamentals of writing. Students who have too much parental help in writing usually turn out to be reluctant writers as the expectations increase. I also encourage students to reflect on their writing process, using Lucy Calkin's rubrics, which I make available online. I collect pre and post writing samples, so student work will be evaluated based upon their demonstrated progress in class.
Home Support
As a teacher, I acknowledge that you are your child's primary teacher. While I have the gift of one very special year with your child, you have the insight and wisdom to know your child best. My effectiveness as your child's teacher, however, is only as good as our partnership and willingness to communicate. Open communication means we both listen and try to come up with a solution for what is best for your daughter or son. Children thrive in consistency and having the same expectations at home and at school for behavior and learning.
Not all children come into classroom with the same strengths and areas for growth. I use assessments to drive instruction and to personalize their learning experience. The amount of parental support will vary depending on the child's needs and circumstances and will be grounded in the ongoing assessment of their efforts in class. For this reason, it is so important that we communicate openly.
In the end, this year should be full of adventurous new learning, hard work, and personal empowerment. While there is far more to learn than I experienced in elementary school, I hope we can collaborate together to make this experience one step in your children's journey to becoming life-long learners with an interest in the world and the confidence to affirm their place in it.
Not all children come into classroom with the same strengths and areas for growth. I use assessments to drive instruction and to personalize their learning experience. The amount of parental support will vary depending on the child's needs and circumstances and will be grounded in the ongoing assessment of their efforts in class. For this reason, it is so important that we communicate openly.
In the end, this year should be full of adventurous new learning, hard work, and personal empowerment. While there is far more to learn than I experienced in elementary school, I hope we can collaborate together to make this experience one step in your children's journey to becoming life-long learners with an interest in the world and the confidence to affirm their place in it.