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!