Very Patient Teacher

Teresa A.

Elementary (K-6th)

I am an elementary school teacher. I have taught first and third grade in Montgomery County Public Schools. I have my Master's Degree in Reading and I am certified as a Reading Teacher. I am currently teaching the Curriculum 2.0 objectives. I have also taught Saturday School. I love working with children. I feel learning should be fun and meaningful. I have worked with many children with homework help, math, reading, science fair projects and writing assignments. In math, I believe in starting from the basics, using learning tools to help students learn. Students will enjoy learning to work with counters, clocks, base ten blocks, tens frames, and other materials so the student can use the concrete models to assist them in transferring learning to the abstract. We will play math games and sometimes take a quiz to make sure the objectives taught have been retained over time. In reading, students will learn when they are reading about topics they enjoy. I will use text that is on their level and that is interesting to the student. I will also use technology and games to help to make learning fun and meaningful. We will focus on decoding skills, vocabulary, comprehension strategies and writing responses to reading.

Elementary Math

I believe math should be fun. I also believe students should be able to show how they know multiple ways. I teach students many ways to solve problems. I also use concrete methods as well as abstract- paper and pencil. I believe students should also find strategies that work for them. My job is to help student to build their confidence mathematically. I also believe in reviewing old concepts while moving on to new concepts. Basic facts are also important. Review and practice helps students to build skills and confidence.

Handwriting

I teach first grade and will use proper paper, pencils and grips to assist students to create letters properly. Students will learn how the lines on the paper can be used as a guide to print properly. I will teach sayings to help students to remember how to make letters properly.

Phonics

Learning letter sounds, blending sound spelling patterns and segmenting words, writing words and sentences, building phonemic awareness. Also allowing the learner to hear and write sounds heard and having the learner to identify to correspondence between the sounds and the spelling patterns that represent that sound. My educational background includes a degree in Early Childhood Education. I also have a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Literacy. I also have a Certificate for Reading Instruction. In the Montgomery County Public School System, I have taken the Early Literacy Reading Initiative courses. I have taught first grade for 14 years where the guided reading block is the most crucial part of the day. The 90 minute block includes small guided reading groups that will focus on reading as well as phonics instruction. i taught third grade for one year, where these skills were also taught, but at a different level. Phonics instruction would include: Alphabet activities-sorting letters by letter and by sound. Students may need assistance finding the connection between upper and lower case letters. Also using the students name to help with this connection. After a student learns the letter names, they can begin to work on the letter sounds. Picture and word sorts- A picture sort can be used to find similarities and differences between the pictures selected. usually two categories can be sufficient. Using pictures can allow the student to say the name and to listen to the sound and place the picture in the correct category. Blending and Segmenting Activities allow words to be manipulated by segmenting and blending words a the level of the phoneme for example cat- /c/ /a/ /t/ each letter has a sound that is broken apart. if this is too difficult for the student the word can be segmented using the onset and rime /c/ /at/- cat. Elkonin boxes can be used as a visual support. While working on sounds it is crucial for me as the teacher to talk about the sounds in words and

Prealgebra

I am currently a certified teacher. I understand basic concepts that need to be taught. Although I do not teach middle school now, concepts of fractions, inequalities and variables are introduced earlier in grade school now.

Reading

I have a masters in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Literacy. I am also a Certified Reading Teacher in Maryland. I have taught reading to elementary age students during guided reading group time, where I teach specific reading strategies, work on vocabulary, fluency as well as comprehension during oral and written practice.