Marilyn's Introduction

Hi, my name is Marilyn Cappo and I work as a teacher of English Language Learners at Kennedy Montessori Elementary.  I've been teaching for JCPS for fourteen years and before that in small Christian schools for tuition credit.  I've home schooled 3 of my children for some of their elementary years.  I enjoy and I am energized (most of the time) by teaching. 

I save all my "for fun" reading for the summer.  My daughter got me started on the Hunger Games, so then I had to read them all.  Blue Like Jazz was great.  I appreciated the writer's honesty about his spiritual search and the non-religious way he went about it.  I re-read A Wrinkle in Time in a literature circle with some 3rd graders.  I love to push the envelope in my thinking so this book was a lot of fun. 

I've been married for thirty-nine years and we have five children (4 boys and 1 girl).  We live out in Crestwood but I work in Jefferson Co.  I love to read, love music and love to cook.  I like movies especially mysteries and sci-fi.  My husband agrees that I'm kind of a movie junkie.   I speak fair Spanish and love just about everything Latino, so teaching English language learners was a good choice for me.



This past year when I used Reader's Theater and plays it really helped my ELL students to gain English proficiency, raise their confidence in speaking and listening and taught them a lot about literacy in the process.  I would like to expand the teaching of writing in the early grades to strengthen this area for  ELL students.

Multicultural Day



Late but never boring!

   What a summer I am already having from learning about poor construction of roofs, preparing craft kits for my Entrepreneur Club, building shelves around my window in my sewing room, cutting down a wind torn tree, dealing with a contractor for pouring a cement floor under my porch with a roof, losing our internet because my husband weed whack the line and more. No rest for the weary!

Whoops! I should introduce myself. My name is Francine Chandler and proud to have survived a total of 57 years with so many fantastic experiences throughout my life time. I have been teaching 4^th and 5^th grade at J.F. Kennedy Montessori for the past six years. Before Kentucky, I taught in six years in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and eight years in Spokane, Washington as a certified teacher (substitute).

I just finished reading all the “Hunger Games”. My students kept asking me if I had seen the movie.  My response was if a movie is based on a book, I must read the book first before going to the movie. I am glad I read the book with the details first before seeing the movie.

Personal information about Francine Chandler

        Lived in Oregon, Washington, Ohio, Germany, Florida, Kentucky

Love to sew, travel, teach, read, learn

        Love to make crafts, work with power tools

       

        Enjoy remodeling myself, painting, cooking

        Enjoy fixing roofs, quilting, gardening, camping

       

        Ways to obtain Peace are hiking, solving problems,

                creating, seeing the twinkle in my students eyes

       

        What a reflexive type question! An area of success, I had with my students concerning literacy was that authors have a purpose for writing their information/stories. My students struggle with the concept of “Author Purpose” and the types of techniques the authors used to empathize their reasons. I saw that my students started to make connects with newspaper articles but I still need to continue to work on these concepts.

        An area of literacy I need to work on is utilizing my time efficiently as possible in my literacy groups. I find, I my students want to go deeper into concepts they are learning or misunderstanding. Another area I need to work on is learning how to maybe use blogging in my classroom.

Hello all,

I’m Brooke Risinger and I just completed my first year of teaching at Kennedy Montessori. I taught a 1-2 split my first year, but will be working with a straight first grade class next year with the intent to loop with the students. I feel I have so gained so much knowledge about teaching after this first year and I am excited to make changes to my classroom next year.

In my current literacy block I hold guided reading groups and literacy work centers/stations. Every student would see me for a guided reading lesson, and visit every work station everyday. I am excited to learn new ways to structure my reading time to help make it more efficient. I also would like to learn more about successful literacy centers for students working independently. One success I had in the classroom was working with my ESL and ELL students. Helping to teach students how to speak English and read is one of the most rewarding things I have encountered.

I myself love to read, but sometimes get lost in professional readings and required reading that I forget to read for pleasure. The last book series I read was the Hunger Games, which I couldn't put down! I love getting pulled into a good book, however it can keep me from getting other things done. :)

I am excited to learn from all of you and look forward to KRP!

Gretchen Jurlando

Where and What I
Teach

Hello everyone! I cannot tell you how excited I am to finally be posting my introduction, and I
can’t believe that June is almost over. Between technical difficulties, traveling, and taking care of my nieces (who are 6 and 3 three years old) I thought this might not happen until class
starts. But here I am, finally!

My name is Gretchen Jurlando, and I feel like I am in a very unique situation as far as teaching reading goes. I have spent 10 years teaching in FMD classrooms in Jefferson County, the past six at Whitney Young Elementary. However, this fall I am transferring to Lincoln Elementary to teach 2nd grade. For those of you not in Jefferson County, and even for those who are, but don’t know what a FMD classroom looks like; it is the smallest number of students that JCPS services (also referred to as Low Incidence because of low numbers) because of the severity of their
disabilities. To qualify for FMD, students must have a very low cognitive level and also very low adaptive functioning skills. I truly enjoyed my time in the FMD classroom and feel like I
was quite proficient at it, but it was time for a change.

I graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1992 with a degree in Elementary Education, but did not begin teaching for another 10 years. In 2001, I was hired by JCPS with a provisional certificate to teach in a FMD classroom, while going to the University of Louisville to obtain my masters in moderate and severe disabilities. That pretty much brings us up to the present time.

About Me

I am a single mom with a 13 year old son, who attends Noe Middle school. When I am not working and have the money, I love to travel. Most recently my favorite trips have been to Cuba and Mexico, which brings me to another hobby, studying Spanish. I also enjoy reading, knitting, and anything that involves water (especially the ocean).

Recent Reads

Although reading is one of my favorite things to do, I haven’t been doing a whole lot of it.
The book that I most recently read, that I loved, was Jodi Picoult’s Change of Heart. I am excited to read during KRP in order to get me ready for this coming year. When I left Young for the last time, my principal said “read, read, read” (professional texts), and next week I am
going on a cruise so I will take both professional texts and fun reads. I will finish what I am currently reading Five Fortunes and probably start the Fifty Shades of Gray book.

Literacy in My Classroom

For this year, this part of my bio will drastically change. In the past, literacy in my classroom has
consisted of a lot of read alouds and meeting students individual reading goals. Most recently, there is more emphasis on comprehension for low incidence students, but this usually comes in
recalling information which, can be very difficult them. We answer a lot of “wh” questions. Discrete trial is a very specific strategy that is used to teach sight words, and two years ago we were provided with our first research-based reading program, Emerging Literacy Skills Builder.
Some other programs I have used either in their entirety or in bits and
pieces have been Reading Mastery and Rigby. My favorite reading computer software, is Edmark. It does a great job of getting students to read the books they provide in a relatively short amount
of time. And don’t all students love it when they first feel like readers!

Writing has mostly been done as shared writing. I model and students provide facts and
details, often using visuals as supports. Pixwriter is a computer
program that some of my students were able to use to publish their writing. My principal did an excellent job ofincluding all of her teachers in most reading and writing PD’s, so I feel like
I have a general background of what needs to happen this year, but like any
skill it requires practice and implementation. I feel like my strengths this year will definitely include working with struggling readers and writers, using data to guide my lessons, and scaffolding lessons.

Choice Words Discussion Repost

With all the introductions, the discussion thread got moved way down, and I wanted to bring it back to the top of the blog. We look forward to reading the dialogue about your thoughts on Choice Words. Dr. Sherretz and I are very excited about how quickly KRP will be here!

Choice Words

Our pre-institute reading is Choice Words by
Peter Johnston. I chose this book because it powerfully illustrates the
importance of the words that we use. Language is essential in establishing a
caring, healthy, and intellectually stimulating classroom. As you read the book,
please discuss how you might be able to apply what you are reading in your own
classroom. What insights or observations can you offer? Do you disagree with any
parts of the book? Let's discuss!

Hello!  My name is Sara-Beth Meredith and I teach an ECE Self-Contained class at Rutherford Elementary.  I completed my second year of teaching this year as well as successfully completing KTIP.  I enjoy the challenges of ECE and the unique teaching style that goes along with it.  I also have a masters degree in Educational Counseling, which plays a vital role in my teaching ECE students. 

I am a daughter, sister, wife, and mother.  I have an older brother and younger sister, which makes me the middle child.  I have wonderful, supporting parents who babysit our 2 year old daughter so that we do not have to worry about putting her in daycare.  I have been married for 7 years to an amazing man.  He has made my life an adventure and has shown me how to have fun and enjoy life.  We are building our first home, which will be ready at the end of July.  We are very excited about the new place and look forward to expanding our family in the new home. 

I enjoy reading romance and mystery books.  Unfortunately, I have not read a book in a while.  It has been a long time since I have read a book for me.  My husband and I do read every night to our daughter so I read a lot of Pete the Cat and Dr. Seuss.  When I do get five minutes to myself I usually try to scrapbook or throw myself in a new craft project.  My latest project was a wreath that I made my mom for Mother's Day. I would like to read again for fun, but feel as though I have temporarily lost my love for reading while going through school.  I know my interest for reading will come back and I'm hoping it will start with KRP. 

As an ECE teacher I find that my students have not developed a love for reading because they are struggling readers and find it to be very frustrating.  I want to show them that they can be successful readers and read books that they want to read.  It is a constant battle in my room to get students to read.  It was very difficult to get my students to even read for three minutes because they think it is too hard.  I am anxious to learn new strategies to teach my students to read.  My hope is that I can restore my love for reading as well as create a love for reading for my students. 

Hello All- Sorry for the late post but I was having some technology trouble. 

My name is Mary Beth McCubbins and am 29 years old. I have taught at Roby Elementary in Bullitt County for 3 1/2 years, all of which have been in 5th grade. For the past several years we have been departmentalized and I have been solely responsible for the math core. However, this upcoming year will be my first year being self contained and I am very excited about learning literacy techniques that I can implement next year.

As for pleasure reading I am addicted to the author Jennifer Weiner. I have most recently completed "Fly Away Home" and just purchased her newest novel "Then Came You". I must admit that I am still reading the old fashion way and like to turn the pages. When it comes to pleasure reading I like the typical love story with light humor. Life is so serious that I like to read to escape. I wish that I could read more often but because when I do read my life gets put on hold until I finish the book, I limit myself to mostly reading during winter and summer breaks.

I consider myself to be happy go lucky and I try to make everything fun. I grew up in Bullitt County and considered eduction as a profession at a very young age. Both my mother and sister were both teachers and it seemed inevitable. Consequently I chose to try something different and graduated from University of Louisville with a Marketing degree. I worked several years in advertising but felt like something was missing. I moved to the Grand Cayman Islands to "find myself" and "found" that my place was in the classroom. I graduated with my Masters from UofL and began teaching just two weeks after graduation. The classroom was a perfect fit. As for a perfect fit, I recently got engaged and hopefully will get wedding plans done over the summer. Sounds like fun but I will see!

This past year was my first time teaching small reading groups during a literacy block. Our reading core was taught by another teacher and I was responsible for my individual groups. I was pleased with the organization and management of the rotations. But struggled with the texts that came with the program (Lead 21). I wanted to teach authentic literature, Pinballs, Bud not Buddy, Holes, etc. the books that interest the students and encourages them to love to read. I understand that they need more non-fictional reading for test prep but I have to find a way to incorporate both next year.  One thing that I started this year was readers' journals but ran into a snag when it came time for showing student accountability. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to this learning experience and cant wait to take new ideas back to my classroom!

Kelly Sraj

Hello friends!  I hope you are enjoying your summer break!  I cannot believe it, but I've been on break for almost 2 weeks!  My name is Kelly Sraj, and I just completed my 5th year of teaching.  I enjoyed teaching a 3rd/4th combined classroom for 3 years at Goshen Elementary in Oldham County, took a jaunt across the country to Seattle, Washington for a year and taught 2nd grade, and made my return to Oldham County last year where I taught 4th grade at Camden Station Elementary.  Our school loops, so I will go back down to 3rd grade this fall and bring my students up to 4th grade the following year.  I feel so blessed that I was able to return to such a great district and find a home in an amazing school. I had the opportunity to grow as a teacher this year in so many ways and share my classroom with many of my peers at my school and another school within the district.

Recent Reads

I really enjoy reading and have the opportunity to do so frequently. Due to beginning my Master's to become a Reading and Writing Specialist, I read about reading the majority of the time!  I've read Conferring: The Keystone of Reader's Workshop by: Patrick Allen, Conferring with Readers by: Jennifer Serravallo & Gravity Goldberg, and I reread Reading with Meaning by: Debbie Miller.  I know I'm missing professional text, but these are just a few.  Of course, I read my textbooks as well.  

I love to read for fun, but find that I do not have enough time to do so. I am part of a Book Club with friends, but often it turns into a social time as many of us are pursuing our master's degrees, new mommies, or teachers!  We read The Hunger Games, which I read so quickly that I had to go get the next two right away.  I am currently wrapping up the final book of the series.  Prior to that series, I flew through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series.  My favorite thing about reading is becoming friends with the characters!  I love how close one can become to the characters, especially when reading a series.  Among my other light, favorite reads are books by Elin Hilderbrand.  A goal I have this summer is to keep a book log to share with my students when I return from break.  Hopefully this will remind me that it's OK to take time for myself and enjoy the pleasures of delving into a good book!

About Me

I am originally from Ohio, where I was born and raised.  Most of my life, I lived in Dayton, OH.  When I left for college, I attended Xavier University in Cincinnati.  From there, I felt I needed to continue moving south, thus making my way to Louisville where I began my teaching career.  A few things about me... I run... A LOT.  I am an assistant coach at Assumption High School, and I absolutely love running with some of my very best friends.  I love to compete and socialize while running, though running solo is not one of my favorite activities. :)  

I have a wonderful family; I am the second of 4 children, but last August, my brother got married, and I have another sister!  I'm blessed with amazing friends as well and spend time enjoying life with many of them.  I enjoy traveling, new adventures, decorating, trying Pintrest projects and reading.  This is my first looooong summer, and I plan to enjoy it on the lake or by the pool reading when I'm not attending class for my Master's degree to be a Reading and Writing Specialist.

Literacy in the Classroom

As I mentioned earlier, I had the opportunity to grow as a teacher this year.  My school spent time and money working with me to hone my craft as a literacy teacher.  I was blessed to attend the Oldham County Learning Institute, based off the PEBC program in Denver-- Mosaic of Thought/ Ellin Keene.  Upon doing so, my literacy coach spent a month or more in my classroom observing me, working with me to develop authentic lessons, scribing my minilessons, and scribing my conferences with students.  My success, I would say, upon working with her, is realizing the power of conversation surrounding text read.  

This all began with the Common Core strand dealing with myths.  I was terrified!  I did not know much about them, didn't recall much learning about them growing up, and so here my literacy coach and I sat, studying, reading, discussing and honestly having some doubts that students would NOT be able to synthesize to determine the themes.  Unbeknownst to us, while we stood, upon completion of a minilesson at the front of the room, trying to synthesize a text and determine the theme of a myth, she so kindly looked at me and asked, "Do you honestly think that your kids will be able to figure this out?  It's not exactly what you were discussing in the minilesson, and I'm thinking it will be too hard." -- Enter a group of 3 children, "Ms. Sraj, Mrs. Dant, we figured the theme out and here's why!"

This just goes to show that students are capable of so many great things, and what I realized is that I had allowed my students to use "thinking partners" if they got stuck reading or wanted to share a discovery.  It's amazing what transformations I saw in class upon allowing the reading block to not just be silent, independent reading, but a reading class come alive!

An area I am truly hoping to learn more about is how to incorporate grammar study within the workshop approach and my daily lesson plans.  I do not want to have a 15 minute grammar study each day to meet a quota.  I am looking for an authentic way of interweaving this in our literacy work.  Any suggestions are welcome!  

I so look forward to my time at KRP this summer. :)

Hannah Strauss

Hello everyone, hope you all are having a great summer so far! My name is Hannah Strauss. I just finished my third year of teaching Special Education in Oldham County. My certification is in Elementary Education as well as Learning and Behavior Disabilities P-12, but my love is in working with my babies (K-2) J My first year of teaching was a bit interesting being split between two different schools (Goshen and Harmony) for both special education as well as interventions, but since then I have found my home in one school, Kenwood Station Elementary. As I mentioned before, my love is in working with the babies, K-2^nd grade, and I am hopeful to continue to be with the same age group next school year!

Recent/Current Reads

These past 6 months have been full of reading textbooks for multiple Master’s courses, however I have had time to read some books on my own time. While I don’t particularly enjoy reading the non-fiction found in textbooks, I do enjoy reading non-fiction texts about healthy eating and living, exercising, cooking, etc. Being a part of a book club has helped me to branch out and read books I maybe wouldn’t have picked on my own. A few book club books that I have really enjoyed reading lately have been The Hunger Games and Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang.

The Sugar Solution is a book that I chose to read on my own these past 6 months. The reason I picked this book is because I am very interested in healthy eating habits as well as trying to keep my triglycerides under control. Unfortunately, due to my families history of diabetes, I need to make sure to keep on top of my genetic tendency to have a hard time breaking down sugars. I felt that this book helped me to see which foods helped in this endeavor and which foods continued to raise my risk for high triglycerides.        

A Little About Me

I have spent my entire life in Kentucky, more specifically Louisville and the surrounding areas. I was born and raised in the Highlands and moved out to Oldham County after a little more than a year of commuting up and down 71 to work everyday. My husband and I, who have been married for just over a year, bought our house with enough land (about an acre) for our two dogs, Sadie (Austraillian Shepard Border Collie mix) and Bella (Golden Retreiver) to play! I enjoy playing with “the girls” as my husband and I refer to our dogs, spending time with friends and family, cooking, sewing and DYI crafts, reading, and being outdoors. 

 

Literacy In My Classroom

Even though this past year was my third year of teaching, I feel like there are always new things that I am learning and implementing into my classroom. This past year I implemented a model into my classroom that follows many of the same techniques used through the Reading Recovery approach. As a special education teacher I was able to see tremendous growth out of my students through this approach. While I typically just work with the babies, our team each took a fourth grader and implemented this approach with them one-on-one. My fourth grader was reading on a 2^nd grade level at the beginning of the school year and by the end she was on grade level! I have never seen so much growth in one year and the confidence that this gave my student was tremendous. This student was allowed a reader for KPREP and only used it a time or two when she was running out of time because she was so excited that she could do it on her own!

One area that I feel that I under taught this school year was the proper use of reading strategies. I spend a lot of time teaching my students according to their IEPs and there just isn’t enough time left over for the strategies. All of my students K-2 are at different levels with different goals (basic reading, reading fluency and reading comprehension) and it seems like by the time I make sure I am addressing each students needs, it just gets overlooked. The only time and of the reading strategies are addressed is on Friday’s when I do a group read aloud and we do pre, during and post reading discussions about the book. 

Ashley Dyer 

My name is Ashley Dyer and I work at John F. Kennedy Montessori. This is my first year teaching and it has been an incredible year, full of ups and downs :) 

In the past few months I have gotten hooked on the Hunger Games series. I chose this book to read because I had previously seen the movie and LOVED it. One of my fellow colleagues read the series and talked about how awesome they are. So, I wanted to see what all of the hype was about. 

I am married to a wonderful man named Jarred. We have an incredible ten year old son named Isaac. He will be in the 5th grade this coming school year. I am SO thankful for both of them. My husband is going to start his masters degree  next year at U of L focusing on elementary education.

An area of success this year would have to be the increase in my student's reading abilities and levels. I had several first grade students that were reading on a level 4 at the beginning of the year and they are now reading on a level 28. It has been incredible watching them grow throughout the school year. 

I feel that an area of growth for me would have to be my guided reading groups. I don't feel that I am utilizing this time as efficiently as possible and I am so happy that I will be able to incorporate successful strategies into my reading groups this coming year, thanks to KRP.

Ruth Welch

Ruth Welch  (no picture yet...working on just learning how to do this!)
Hi!  I love teaching ESL at Kennedy Montessori Elementary!  I am please to be invited to do KRP with 6 of my colleagues.  I have taught ESL for 9 years and before that I taught high school biology for 8 years in Malawi.

Our family lives on a 66 acre farm in Shelby county.  We grow blueberries (they are ripening as I write!) and in the winter make maple syrup.  My husband, Doug and I have four children and call ourselves a multicultural family.  We love embracing other cultures.  This was further developed when we lived in different parts of Africa for over 14 years.  There I worked with my husband in community development and education.   


This year I have focused on providing extra reading for my students and have had several fourth grade students go from a beginning first grade level to a fourth grade level.  As an ESL teacher, we provide a "reading intervention" in the form of guided reading.  I believe I have skills at adapting the guided reading format to ESL students.  We also work specifically on developing more extensive vocabulary, but am always looking for more creative ways to do this.


It is sometimes hard for me to help my students understand the writing process of introductions and conclusions - they sometimes don't understand what they are supposed to do:  I don't seem to have the right vocabulary to help them understand - or the right model.  It takes soooo long to get them to write...


During the school year I don't always find enough time to read.  It is my summer when I relax more with books. During the summer I make sure to  read books about teaching, other nonfiction about farming or the sustainable earth , or poems, novel and also  books that feed my soul.  Recently I read Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, and Clay's Quilt.  I also read Blue Like Jazz.

When I think about these first  three books, they all have a common thread (although they are vastly different).  Our backgrounds and families are within us - even if we think that we have put them aside.  I chose to read Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, because I love the Mennonite and because my father was raised very fundamentally.  Even though he had put that part of his life away, as he neared the last years of his life, he fondly reminisced about so many good people and good times and wanted to listen to the old hymns that were so important to him.  I think the author, by going back to her roots, realized how immensely valuable was her upbringing, while being able to poke fun at it.

 

Stephenie Blakley

Hi, everyone!  I am Stephenie Blakley.  I currently teach special education (LD, MMD, and EBD) at Roby Elementary in Shepherdsville, Kentucky.  I am so excited to be participating in KRP this summer, along with two colleagues from my school, April Atherton and MaryBeth McCubbins.

I am currently working on my dissertation to complete my EdD in Leadership Education.  I am also the mother of a very busy 6 year old and the wife of a LMPD bike officer in downtown Louisville.  Along with our yorkie, JonJon, my husband, Trever, my son, Will, and I live in Mount Washington. 

As you can imagine, with teaching, school, and running around with a 6 year old, I have very little freetime.  When I do have time for leisure activities, I enjoy working out (I have recently taken up hot yoga), reading, and boating.

I love to read, but right now, I mostly read research and professional books.  When I do get free time, to leisure read, I LOVE fiction by Mary Higgins Clark and Jodi Picoult.  I also enjoy reading ethnographies by Alexandra Robbins (Pledged, The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth) and any autobiographies or biographies focused on the Kennedy family (my favorite is True Compass by Ted Kennedy).  I will be traveling to Mexico with my family in a few weeks, and I hope to spend plenty of time on the beach reading. 

As a special education teacher, literacy has always been a major focal point in my classroom.  I love reading with my students and helping them unlock the magic of a good book.  For the past two years, I have worked with 4th and 5th graders, and my reading lessons have been focused mainly on comprehension skills.  I am excited to further hone my teaching of comprehension skills through KRP.  I am also excited to gain new insight into teaching fluency, decoding, and phonics.  I also plan to spend a large amount of class time working on vocabulary, in the upcoming school year.  So, I am excited to learn new strategies for teaching vocabulary. 

I look forward to meeting with all of you soon!!

Nicole Robison



Hi! My name is Nicole Robison and I am a Reading Recovery teacher at Liberty Elementary in Oldham County.  I have been married to a wonderful man, Jason, for seven years. I have a 20 year old stepson, Ryan, a five year old son, Jaden, who just graduated from preschool, and a three year old daughter, Emily, who is having her first dance recital this weekend!  I spent several years working in Marketing and Advertising prior to changing careers and entering the field of education. I'm so glad I made the change and I couldn't be happier!

I just completed my ninth year of teaching and I enjoy teaching just as much now (if not more) than when I first began teaching nine years ago. I have taught first grade, second grade, fourth grade, and served as the Intervention Coach at Liberty. I just completed my training year for Reading Recovery and  I am looking forward to being trained in CIM (Comprehensive Intervention Model) next year.

With a three year old and a five year old, I don't have much time for reading for my own personal enjoyment. Not to mention, most of the reading time I did have this past year was spent reading and studying the work of Marie Clay - it was an intense training year for Reading Recovery! This summer I do plan to read The Skinny Rules by Bob Harper. My summer reading list also includes; From Brain to Mind by James Zull, Mindset by Carol Dweck, Small Group Reading Instruction by Beverly Tyner, and The Ultimate Guided Reading How To Book by Gail Saunders-Smith. How many of these I will actually get to read this summer....I'm not sure! I would also like to read a trashy romance novel.....any suggestions?

This past year I developed a deeper understanding of the reciprocal nature of reading and writing and how intimately these two areas work together.  Next year, I hope to assist the K-2 classroom teachers in implementing small group instruction in their classrooms in addition to the already established Literacy Workshops and conferring that our teachers have worked so hard to implement.

I am truly excited to be a part of the Kentucky Reading Project this summer and I look forward to getting to know you all!



Jackie Elliott

Hello ya'll! My name is Jackie Elliott and I teach at Eminence Middle School in Henry County, Kentucky. I have taught at Eminence the whole of my career, all 3 years now, concentrating in 5th and 6th grade Language Arts. What is unique about our school is that middle school begins with 5th grade and continues on until the completion of 8th grade, and that we have an elementary school and high school with us in the same building.  Because the high school is just upstairs from my classroom, I have the opportunity to co-coach the high school girls Varsity basketball and will be starting my second season next year.

Favorite Reads

Now that it is coming closer to summer break, I will be reading one or two books a week again [so happy :)] .  During the school year, I participate in our faculty book club at school and meet once a month to discuss a different New York Times bestseller. Other than than the monthly book, time constraints limit my reading during the school year. Since December, I have picked up The Hunger Games trilogy and devoured those in three days. I choose to read them because of all the hype it received in the press. But, it was a choice well made, because I conducted a book talk to my 6th grade classes the first day we came back from Christmas break and successfully encouraged 15 or more students to read the book. Many couldn't help discussing it before, after, and even during class with me. Three months later, we were able to discuss and evaluate the movie that came out. The trilogy served as a great way to connect with my students and see their perspectives on the content, and I look forward to our 8th grade teacher using it as a summer reading requirement this year.  Currently, I am reading The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I love a good mystery story and I read reviews that it is a sort of self-discovery type novel, of which I am a big fan. The plot weaves through three different generations, giving clues to uncover the secret- about the identity of a character - along the way. Over spring break, I read The Secret Life of Bees. This reminded me a lot of what I read last spring break, which was The Help. The Civil Rights era is probably one of my favorite time periods to read about, and it has urged to me to include a civil rights unit in my 6th grade classes, centered around the novels Watson Go to Birmingham and The Cay.  I also try to read many books on my students reading levels and on my nightstand are the following: Loser by Jerri Spinelli, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordin, and Esperanza Rising. I hope to somehow include these somewhere in my lesson plans through excerpts. My favorite reads of all time would have to be The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, The Pillars of the Earth, The Host, The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, Sarah's Key, and Jane Eyre. 

About Me

I am a super fan of the Louisville Cardinals. I go to many football, basketball, and baseball games throughout the seasons and my classroom is decked out with fan gear. In the spring, summer, and fall months,  I enjoy hiking and camping at various state parks throughout Kentucky. I got married in November 2010 to my high school sweetheart, Brian, and we are the proud parents of two kittens- Boots and Spooks. 

Literacy in the Classroom

Being a language arts teacher, literacy is the core of my instruction. One new thing I tried this year was differentiating literature circle groups based on MAP scores and lexile ranges. We studied the Holocaust, and I was able to set up groups with different Holocaust themed novels that corresponded to each student's reading level. Towards the end of the year, a colleague introduced me to this awesome website called EDMODO (it is structured just like Facebook and allows students to have online discussions with their entire class or specific groups, as well as turn in assignments, take quizzes, and participate in polls directed by the teacher) and I plan on using it next year to facilitate our paperless literature circle project. This way, students can access the website from home and discuss their assigned reading in a flipped classroom style. My 5th grade students really loved EDMODO the last quarter of the year and many were sending me responses and logging on to the class page at home asking for more work and extension projects. I highly suggest anyone who hasn't checked it out to do so! 

One literacy strategy I would like to improve in my instruction is vocabulary knowledge, specifically teaching Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes. What is best practice? How do you assess most accurately? Also, I've heard of DR-TA for informational texts, but would like to know more about what it is and how it can be implemented. 

Denise Bullock

Hello!  My name is Denise Bullock.  I teach at Shepherdsville Elementary School in Bullitt County.  This past school year, I taught first grade and had a wonderful group of students.  And lucky me, I am moving to 2nd grade next year and will have all of my kiddos again.

About Me

I have been married to my wonderful husband Chad for 18 years.  We have two fabulous children.  Phillip is 16 and is a junior at Bullitt East.  Rachel is 12 and is an 8th grader at Mt. Washington Middle School.  When my children were younger, I worked as a child care provider which enabled me to be with my children on a full-time basis.  When they both entered school, I went back to school also to get my teaching degree.  I started my career as a substitute teacher for Bullitt County Public Schools and just finished my first year of teaching.  I enjoy reading, shopping, and spending time with my family.  We are also building a new home and although it is very stressful, I am having a blast picking out exactly what I want for the house.

My Reads  

I love to read and find it a great way to relax after a crazy day.  I recently completed the Hunger Games series and loved it!  I also love Karen Kingsbury, a Christian Fiction author.  I have read all of her books and just completed her newest one last night. I also read a lot of books to help me in regards to teaching.  I refer often to Reading for Meaning by Debbie Miller and Debbie Diller's book about literacy workstations.  

Literacy in My Classroom

It was amazing to watch the growth of my students as readers!  They loved to read and looked forward to free reading time.  I have learned a lot about literacy this past school year, but there are many areas that want to learn more about.  As part of a pilot program for my school, I taught the thinking strategies for whole group reading.  I love teaching the thinking strategies and hope to learn new methods for introducing them especially since I will have the same group of students again next year.  I am also considering implementing The Daily 5 and would love to learn more about it.  

Lauren Hunter

Hello all!  My name is Lauren Hunter and I am currently a first grade teacher at Southside Elementary in Shelbyville, Ky.  I am in the second year of my teaching career.  We have not received our assignments for next year so be prepared for many questions if I move to another grade level! :)

This past spring break I was lucky enough to vacation in Florida with my mom, dad, and sister.  My sister and mom read The Hunger Games and couldn't stop talking about the adventures and romance.  After feeling left out of the conversation my sister loaned me The Hunger Games and once I started reading I couldn't put it down!  I have been so consumed with reading professional texts for school and grad school that I forgot how much I liked to read for my own enjoyment.  I have tried making more "me" time since spring break but I am not getting through the second book in the series as quickly as the first book.  I hope I can enjoy more books this summer.

The biggest thing happening in my personal life is that I am getting married in October!  Between grad school classes and KRP I will be busy with my mom planning for the big day.  If anyone has special tips I would love to hear them!  My family is spread all over the U.S.  My dad is from Ohio and my mom is from Texas.  My dad was a fighter pilot in the Navy so I was born in California and my sister was born in the Philippines.  We eneded up in Kentucky by the time I was five years old. 

An area of success I have experienced with my students would be perfecting my guided reading group instruction.  I had the opporunity to observe our reading recovery teachers with their CIM groups and adapt my groups to be more effictive. 

One area that I feel I am under teaching would be writing.  I teach first graders so the ability levels of the students are very different.  I have tried several different strategies with my students but I still feel lost with how far I should have my students edit their writing.  I never know when it is okay to leave it alone.  I would love to learn how to make this a strength because I know writing ability is directly linked to literacy achievement. 

Carrie Donovan, an introduction

Good evening all! My name is Carrie Donovan. In the picture above you see me, my husband Will and our son Collin. I just finished my sixth year of teaching. My first five years were at a cute little school in Florida and this was my first year at Liberty Elementary in Oldham County. I have only taught second grade, and will be getting the chance to start next year in first grade. 

My Reads

I have read several books recently. I read to my son every night, usually three books. Our current night time readings consist of Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes, Mater's Birthday Surprise, and some sort of train book (we have many!). Some of the books in my bag currently are Conferring, The Keystone of Reader's Workshop, Mosaic of Thought, 2nd Edition, and several picture books to read over for first grade next year. I really enjoy reading mysteries and science fiction books in my free time. Conferring has been an eye-opening book for me. Patrick Allen has given me so many ideas on how to listen, question, and help my students when I confer. I look forward to implementing many of his practices as I venture into first grade next year. 

About Me, simply stated

 I was born in New Orleans, LA and moved to Indiana when I was 3. I grew up in Evansville, Indiana and attended college there as well. During my student teaching, I had the opportunity to interview for a teaching job in Florida. I was shocked when they offered me a job! I eagerly moved and began teaching in a second grade classroom. I began in January and finished out the year with a challenging and wonderful class. My husband and I had a son, Collin, and wanted to be closer to family. I interviewed in KY and was lucky enough to be offered a job in Oldham County. 

I really enjoy cooking, spending time with my husband and son, gardening and making any changes to simplify our home, my classroom, or Collin's room. I spend a great deal of time outside in our backyard with Collin and our two pugs, Max and Prince. I have an amazing husband, Will, who works evenings so that Collin can be home with him during the day.

My Classroom

Being my first year of teaching in Oldham County, I had many 'new' strategies and ways of doing things I had to familiarize myself with. We do not use textbooks and consistently follow the workshop model. I have utilized the use of mentor texts and my mini-lesson time to provide my students with helpful tools and strategies to help them gain information to strengthen their comprehension. I have also allowed them to show their understanding. This could be through a PowerPoint, writing to demonstrate knowledge, a journal response, or an exit slip.

One teaching strategy that I would like to implement, as well as learn more about, is the use of small groups within the workshop model. How would this look? What would it consist of? Are there any texts to help me get started?

April M. Atherton

Hello! My name is April Atherton.  I apologize that my photo is rather dated as it was taken four years ago when I married my wonderful husband Damon.  I prefer to be the photographer not the subject.  This year will be my eighth year teaching first grade at Roby Elementary in Bullitt County. I was also lucky enough to be a student at Roby years ago so it is wonderful to now be a teacher at Roby.

About Me

In my free time I enjoy spending time with my family and friends.  My husband and I are currently “fostering” two albino New Zealand (Pookas) rabbits.  We chose to foster the brother and sister pair after our “baby” Benjamin Bunny crossed the rainbow bridge this past November.  For the last 4 summers, I’ve spent my time volunteering at a local rabbit rescue and love helping all the buns and their amazing foster mom.  Many people don’t realize that rabbits are the 3rd most euthanized animal in the country and most of this occurs because of a lack of understanding about rabbit care.  This spring, I began the process to become a licensed rabbit educator for the House Rabbit Society so I can continue to advocate for the house rabbits in our area.  When I’m not with the bunnies, I can be found at the Louisville Zoo visiting the polar bears. 

Books

I enjoy being curled up on the couch with a good book.  Some of my favorite books are anything written by Nicholas Sparks, the Twilight Series, and the Vampire Diaries series.  This past fall I read a book with other teachers at my school that made a great impact on my relationship with my students.  We chose to read Room by Emma Donoghue. This book really reminded me that we have no idea what our kids go through when they are not with us.  It made me cherish the time I had them and to be sure I made each day a positive experience for them.  I highly recommend reading this powerful book.  After reading Room, I wanted a “lighter” read so a friend recommended The Hunger Games. I’m not sure how she considered that a lighter read but I have enjoyed the series so far.  I am currently reading Mockingjay (the 3^rd book in the series) and plan to have it finished before KRP starts in July. 

My Classroom

I am always trying to improve and discover new ideas in the area of literacy in my classroom. Three years ago I discovered The Daily 5 and it has changed my classroom drastically.  My students are now immersed in authentic literacy activities when they are not with me in reading group.  I am still trying to find additional ideas for the Word Work component of Daily 5 and hope I can pick up some tricks this summer.  One area where I really want to improve is in the area of writing especially in ways to strengthen my writer’s workshop.  

Dee Dee Phillips

Hi all! My name is Dee Dee Phillips. In the picture above you see me, my husband Josh and our puppy Hallie. I just finished my first year of teaching at Shepherdsville Elementary in Bullitt County. I taught first grade, loved it and will be back in first grade again next year. 

Recent/Current Reads

I have read several books in the past 6 months. I have a hard time turning my "teacher brain" off sometimes so reading an unrelated book is a wonderful way for me to relax and wind down. Some of the books on my recent reading list are The Hunger Games series, several Nicholas Sparks books and my current favorite, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I really enjoy reading memiors and this a great one because for me, she was very relatable. In my opinion it is a very inspiring book. She made a lot of little changes in her life in order to make herself and ultimately those around her happier. Definitely makes me want to make some little changes in my life that would accomplish the same thing. 

A Little About Me

 I have spent my entire life in Kentucky but just moved to Louisville last summer after getting married to (here's the semi unique part) my husband who I began dating in high school. I really enjoy cooking, spending time with my husband and cocker spaniel, DIY projects and designing new teaching materials. I spend A LOT of time on my computer when I get home from school. I have a list of teacher blogs that I read daily and I also spend a lot of time on Pinterest.  

Literacy In My Classroom

Being my first year of teaching, this past year was a HUGE learning experience. Although I want to continue to learn about pretty much every aspect of literacy, I do feel like there was a lot of success going on in my classroom. We practiced the thinking strategies and I feel that these not only helped tremendously with their comprehension but also helped them to develop a love of reading. Sending a group of 7 year olds who love reading on to second grade made me a very happy teacher. 

One area that I felt like I under taught this year was the proper use of reading strategies.  I had a hard time knowing when it was appropriate to introduce each strategy and have been reading a lot on this. Although I did introduce my students to each of the strategies, I want to gain more back ground on this so that my instruction on these is more purposeful and meaningful. 

Choice Words

Our pre-institute reading is Choice Words by Peter Johnston. I chose this book because it powerfully illustrates the importance of the words that we use. Language is essential in establishing a caring, healthy, and intellectually stimulating classroom. As you read the book, please discuss how you might be able to apply what you are reading in your own classroom. What insights or observations can you offer? Do you disagree with any parts of the book? Let's discuss!



Christine Sherretz

Assistant Professor U of L

My Personal Life

 

This is a picture of my family.  My son Joshua just graduated from U of L with a degree in Geography. My son Samuel is going to be a Freshman in Meade County.  He was voted Freshman class president!. The big guy in the middle is my son Kaleb who just graduated from Evangel University with a degree in Music. He also got married on the same day that he graduated!  The handsome guy in the uniform is my husband Scott. We've been married for 25 years!

 

My Professional Life

This is my 5th year at the University of Louisville and my 2nd year as the KRP Director.  I love everything about my job!  I get to teach students at literally all levels from elementary students to graduate students. It doesn't get better than that!  When it comes to literacy instruction, I feel that one strength I have is in motivating students to do the best they can do.  It is really important for me to get students to think deeply about what they are reading and engage in literacy.

It is my desire to be a better writing teacher!  For the last four years, I've worked with 4th grade students and my undergraduate students on writing stories of times they have been resilient.  I'm extremely proud of this work but want to do better next year.  I'm trying to create a classroom library for mentor texts. 

Books I Like to Read

Writing has always been a struggle for me. A friend of mine recommended The Art of War so I'd like to read that book to see if I can unlock the inner writer in me.  Here's information about it. http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/.  For fun, I love fantasy books and am a big fan of the Hunger Game series. I also love Silas House! When I first read his books I thought he had to be a woman because he just gets how women think! 

Let me know how I can help all of you acomplish your goals in regards to literacy instruction.  I want to work shoulder to shoulder with you in helping all our kids have a joy for reading.  

Stephanie Whitley

Here's a little bit of background infomation about me...

Name:  Stephanie Whitley

School:  Kennedy Montessori (JCPS)

Years of Teaching:  8 (2: JCPS & 6: Indiana)

I've read a ton of books for personal pleasure in the last six months, especially since receiving a Kindle as a gift.  I'm the type of person that is unable to put down a book when I begin.  Even if it's bad, it's almost like an OCD thing and I have to finish it.  I also like to read while in the bathtub and have been known to spend hours turning all cold and pruny, while I attempt to finish a book.  Lord knows what I'll do when I finally have kids, which leads me to something unique about me.... 

I'm unique because I think I'm the only one I know (and my age) that hasn't had a kid yet.  It's taken me a loooonnnng time to feel ready and I'm just now starting to think that it's starting to feel right :). 

As far as a success concerning literacy, I really feel like I was able to establish a good, solid routine for my guided reading groups.  Before coming to Kennedy, I didn't "teach" reading.  In Montessori, teaching reading (in the sense most know) doesn't happen.  Phonics is big in the Montessori curriculum and that's how I usually taught reading. 

I'd really like to improve the way in which I teach writing.  Writing is also an area that the Montessori curriculum tends to overlook and I've not had much practice teaching kidshow to write and I'm finding it soooo difficult. 

R. Ernesto Castro F.

Hello KRP Cohort 14,

   I am looking forward to me you guys since I did not get a chance to attend the orientation meeting a couple of weeks ago! I am very excited to be participating in the Kentucky Reading Project and even more excited to put into practice many of the reading strategies that we will be learning from each other! I have heard that is a really awesome experience from everyone I know that has participated in the project!

 Anywise, I am supposed to be introducing myself but I got carried away with the excitement of the things that are about to come! So here it is. My name is Romel Ernesto Castro Falconi, but you do not have to remember all that. I go by Ernesto. I am from Quito, Ecuador and I have lived in the wonderful city of Louisville since 2005. I came to Louisville originally to learn English and go back to Ecuador. However, I loved the city and decided to stay for college. I attended JCC for my first two years of school and then finished my bachelors degree in Early Elementary Education from the University of Louisville in 2010. After that, I had a good experience teaching at JCPS and I currently teach 1st grade at La Grange Elementary in Oldham County. I can honestly say that not giving up on teaching has been the most rewarding experience I have had so far and I am looking forward to see all the opportunities and memories that are ahead of me.

As far as interest goes, I truly enjoy sports in any way, shape or form. I play, read, write and yell about soccer, which is my favorite sport (as most south americans). I am a passionate Louisville Cardinals fan and I follow their football, basketball and of course soccer teams. My reading is mostly guided by what I feel my weakness are. For instance, lately I have felt that my conversation abilities were not where I wanted them to be, so I picked up a book called "The Art of Conversation" and I have been reading it on and off, restarting it two times and have not yet finish it since March. My goal is to finish it before KRP begins, but with other readings on top of it, who knows! During the school year, my reading is mostly about school stuff. I also enjoy just hanging out with friends joking around, going out or just simply sitting anywhere just talking. Other than that I am a pretty lay back person trying to make a difference through education.

 I can not wait to read about and meet you pretty soon! Take care and enjoy the wonderful weather!

Ernesto.

A Non-Tech Tuesday....Throw Away Your Highlighter!

Congratulations to those in Bullitt and Oldham Counties on completing your school year. Jefferson County teachers are in the home stretch now too. May you finish well. I am looking forward to reading your upcoming introduction posts.

Today I am writing to you from Rochester, MN. My husband has some appointments, and I brought a ton of reading materials up here. I watned to share with you some things that have stuck out to me.

Six Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard

I am a big believer in teaching students to "dirty up texts" with their thinking. I think even our youngest readers can annotate with pictures.

Go Make a Difference...

Why did you become a teacher in the first place? This article is a short read and a chance to reflect as summer approaches.

Studies on Multitasking Highlight Value of Self Control

Are you familiar with the Marshmallow Test? If not, watch the Youtube clip...

Giving Students Opportunities to Think and Share Their Strategies

Tech Tuesday and Summer Bucket List

I have been using the Lend Me app to keep up with books that I lend to students and teachers, but was introduced yesterday to another app by Booksource called Classroom Organizer. You can scan in your books by barcode, set up categories by book basket, and you have a place to list each of your students. You can get the app from the app store on your phone. Happy scanning and lending!

Summer Bucket List


I've seen several teachers around the blog community posting their "Summer Bucket List." You know how as teachers we put many things off until the summer. Some of the things we put on our bucket list are chores, but others should be things that make us more well-rounded people, and will in turn make us better teachers! You have already made a professional commitment, and I can't wait to see what your personal bucket list items are.

My Summer Bucket List:

1. Visit Yellowstone with my family
2. Take two more cooking classes at Cooking at the Cottage
3. Take another art class with my mom at Uptown Art
4. Shakespeare in the Park
5. Read of course! (Here are just a few of the adult books I plan on enjoying! Perhaps I might take the Book Whisperer's Book a Day Challenge?)

• Why I Left the Amish
• Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale
• Brave Girl Eating
• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
• Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son
• The Good Doctor: Bringing Healing to the Hopeless