Classroom General Education Teacher , 07/1993 - 04/2013
Kankakee Valley School Corporation – City, STATE,
Observe and assess student performance, keeping thorough records of progress.
Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects.
Equip students to persevere with challenging tasks.
Document individual strengths and weaknesses.
Apply technology through Oncourse for lesson planning, documenting of standards, and sharing of plans.
Maintain accurate and up-to-date student records by means of Powerschool technology.
Practice a variety of teaching methods such as cooperative learning, turn-n-talk partnering, small-group and large-group discussions, and demonstrations.
Set and communicate ground rules for the classroom based on respect and personal responsibility.
Identify early signs of emotional, developmental, and health problems in students and follow up with parents and/or appropriate school personnel.
Schedule and hold annual parent-teacher conferences to inform parents on child's academic performance.
Build positive relationships with students, parents, fellow teachers, and school administrators.
Collaborate with other staff members to plan lessons promoting learning and student engagement.
Develop themed units to share with grade-level staff.
Design tiered-ability, hands-on intervention activities for Math & Language Arts.
Contribute ideas at staff meetings and professional-development inservices.
Participate in numerous incentive reading programs - such as Accelerated Reader, Pizza Hut "Book It", Deep River Waterpark, and Six-Flags.
Improve students' reading skills through leveled-reading groups and whole-group instruction.
Merge a broad range of instructional techniques to retain student interest and maximize learning.
Manage effective classroom discipline with pre-established rules & consequences.
Implement numerous Class-Wide Reward Systems.
Reward individual accomplishments and recognize student's strong efforts.
Create lesson plans in accordance with state curriculum and district-wide curriculum standards.
Work outside normal hours to be available to answer parent and student questions.
Use children's literature to teach and reinforce reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, and phonics.
Enhance reading skills through the use of reader's theater, fluency centers, leveled readers, and chapter books.
Differentiate instruction according to student ability, primary language, and skill level.
Teach students to exercise problem-solving methodology and techniques during tests.
Instruct children in various stages of cognitive, linguistic, social, and emotional development.
Strengthen parent-teacher and parent-child communication by contacting parent or guardian - either in person, by phone, student planner, or email.
Communicate on daily basis with coworkers and administration via email.
Incorporate Promethean (whiteboard interactive technology) into daily instruction.
Mainstream students of special needs, implementing accommodations.
Encourage students to explore issues in their lives and in the world around them.
Provide a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction textual materials to encourage students to read independently.
Integrate technology with curriculum by conducting computer labs to use Internet researching skills, numerous educational websites for children, Microsoft Word, Ultrakey program, and interactive Channel One news.
Involve parents as active role in their child’s education by sending home informational study packets, frequent classroom newsletters, and Home-School Connection letters with suggested learning activities.
Utilize training of "Simple 6" Prompt Writing (preparedness for ISTEP Assessment).