Introductions - read this one first!
Gary Obermeyer, Fri October 21, 2005, 08:18 PM
I'm delighted to welcome you to the Reading First Virtual Academy Group Space. This is where we will share and compare perspectives on the readings and classroom applications.
Let's begin with introductions. Please tell us something about yourself. Where/what do you teach? How long have you been in the classroom? What is your current level of experience/comfort with early literacy and scientifically based reading research? What are your personal, professional goals for this workshop?
My name is Todd Wright and this is my 12th year of teaching. I taught 2 years in Wolf Point, MT and this is my 10th year at Fernley Elementary School. I have taught 2nd, 3rd, technology, and currently 4th grade. My class this year has laptops for every student, so this is a new challenge. I have been trained in Reading Recovery so I am pretty comfortable with early literacy, but I can always learn more. My goal is to be able to teach my 4th graders, at all levels, to read and write better.
My name is Nichole Rand and I teach 4th grade at Fernley Elementary. This is my first year teaching. I don't have that much experience with early literacy because this is my first year teaching and I am in upper elementary. I am feeling more comfortable with the scientifically based reading program and hope to learn more as time goes on. My goal for this workshop is to learn more about Reading First and how each component fits into the program.
My name is Danielle Adams. I have been teaching for four years. I have taught Kindergarten and First at Echo Loder Elementary. I now am the resource/intervention teacher at Grace Warner Elementary for grades 1-3. I have a high comfort level with early literacy, as that was a specility of primary grades in a Title 1 school. My goals are to review the material and use to help benefit the students.
My name is Christy Saul and I teach 4th grade at Fernley Elementary School. I have been teaching here for 4 years now. I don't have much experience with early literacy being that I have not taught in the lower elementary grades. I have experience with 4th grade readers which I am comfortable teaching, but would love to know more teachniques on current methods that are scientifically based and researched. My goals for this workshop is to learn how to better teach my 4th graders no matter what their developmental level, how to be fluent readers and writers.
I am Timbra Vaughn. I teach Early Childhood Special Education at FES. I have taught in public school for 1 year, private school for 3. I am very familiar with emergent literacy and fairly comfortable with early literacy as this program is addressing. I would like to catch up on some current research and see what I can apply to my students.
I am Shauna Ray-Ruff. I teach ESCE @ Fernley Elementary. This is my sixth year teaching. I have a masters in literacy studies and am finishing a masters in early childhood special education. In my spare time I ride a Harley with my husband :)
My name is Sarah Harrison. I am in my second year of teaching. For the past 2 years I have taught special education. Currenlty I am teaching 4th and 5th grade students. This year is my first year working specifically with a reading first school. Each day I am getting more and more comfortable with the program. My goal is to improve my students reading strategies with the help of the workshop and recources.
I am Heather Stood. I teach ESL at FES. This is my first year teaching in Nevada. I moved here from Chicago and taught K and 1st grade there. In IL I held an endorsement in both ESL and Sped. I am familiar with reading first but this academy is new to me. I am open to learning something new!
I am a first year, 5th grade teacher at FES. I am new to the state as well as new to the Reading First Program. I am always eager to learn and share ideas that will make me a better teacher. I am becoming more comfortable with the research based program. I am hoping that through this program I can become more familiar with RF as well and learn new strategies for my classroom!
Hi, I'm a first year teacher at FES. I am new to Nevada and to the Reading First Program. I teach 3rd grade, am bilingual in Spanish, and have the ESL cluster in my classroom. I am interested in learning more about RF and how to use it to apply to my teaching strategies and to better aid my students.
My name is Rebecca Lombard. I am a first year, 3rd grade teacher at FES. The Reading First Program is new to me, so I am eager to learn. I am hoping to learn more and become comfortable teaching RF. This way my students get the best education possible!
My name is M'lisa Callahan. This is my first year at Fernley Elementary. I have been teaching for 14 years. I have taught special ed, third grade, and am currently teaching second grade. I have been trained in NELIP and many other literacy programs and feel that this will be a good review of my experience. I'm hoping it will refresh the information and clarify any of the strategies that I already know and implement.
My name is Erika Kalis. I am a first grade teacher at Greenbrae Elementary. This is my first year teaching and I am loving it. Being that it is my first year, I am new to Reading First and scientifically based reading research, but I am looking forward to learning more about both of these and strategies that I can take back to the classroom to help all learners succeed.
Hi everyone, I am excited you have started your journey through the Reading First Virtual Academy. Even though most of your interaction will be online, feel free to stop in to discuss any of the topics your are researching. I look forward to seeing these strategies implemented into your classrooms this year. Remember I am here to help you in anyway I can.
Thank you, Denise
Hello everyone, this is my first year teaching. I graduated with a sociology degree and then went back to school to get my teaching certification. I was in a program where I was able to intern in a first grade classroom for a full year. I love teaching second grade. Reading First is a new program for me and I am excited to learn more about Reading First and how to best implement it into my classroom.
Hi!! This is my fifth year teaching at the elementary level. My second year as Special Ed. Resource at Greenbrae Elem. Before that, I taught in So. Cal as a Kinder teacher (2 years) and 2nd grade (1 year). I am pretty comfortable with early literacy and SBRR. My teaching credential program at Cal State San Marcos particularly stressed these two areas. Plus, I taught at a wonderful, high-achieving school in Hesperia, Ca! I just hope to learn new practical reading strategies or tools that I can implement in the classroom right now! My goal is to develop a wide repretoire with reading that I can try with all my struggling students, so that ALL can improve in some way or another.
My name is Michelle Findley. I teach kindergarten at Alice Smith ES. This is my first year teaching and I love it! I am looking forward to learning more about early literacy and scientifically based research. I want to be able to better service the individual needs of my students.
This is Ursula Conway's introduction (posted as a separate thread, October 25, 2005, 04:18 PM)
"This is a valuable site. It can be difficult to find quality resources on the web with the abundance of information available - I like that the links provided are research-based and peer-reviewed."
I am a first year teacher here at FES. I team teach with the second grade. I rove between four classrooms and mainly work with small groups, whether guided reading or math. I have read about early literacy and some scientifically based reading research, but I have difficulty applying it in the classroom. My goals is to be comfortable enough with some of the components, so that I can use them effectively in my future classrooms.
Hi, I am in my second year teaching. I teach in a first grade team at Dodson Elementary School. Last year I was a math/reading 1st/2nd grade teacher at Dodson. I am looking forward to learning many new things through this virtual academy to help the children in my class.
I am Bev Shimizu and I am half time ESL at Dodson Elementary for 2 yrs and love it. I am a seasoned teacher from the 70's... I like our Literacy Read First program here and see the challenges and needs for our ESL students to learn to speak,read and write english. My personal goals for this program is to implement the latest research to awaken the abilities in all my students. . . .and give myself some fresh new approaches and enthusiasm . BAS
My name is Nancy Fink, I teach Special ed at Dodson. I am new to elementary school so I will use this information to teach myself how to teach younger students how to be better readers.
My name is Marie Pargeon,i teach Special Ed at Greenbrae Elementary. i started my first year only a few weeks ago, but i am enjoying it and am really excited to learn more strategies that will help my students. This is the first time working with reading first and i am really interested in the programs we are using. i hope to familarize myself more with research, strategies, and literacy
My name is Cherry Rensch. I teach reading to K, third and fifth grades as well as ESL. I have been teaching 15 years.
Aloha! I am Adam Carter, kindergarten learning facilitator at FES and this is my first FULL-TIME teaching position. I was teaching ESL in Washoe before I had the wonderful opportunity to participate at FES. I am a rookie to this reading program and look forward to learning all I can to enhance the learning my students get in the classroom.
I am Ginny Warfield. This is my first year teaching in Nevada and at Greenbrae Elementary. I am one of the ESL specialists here. I graduated at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo California where I lived for 40 years, and taught in the Paso Robles School District just north of San Luis Obispo. I am new to Reading First, however the teaching strategies and programs that are being presented here and at Greenbrae have been used extensively in Paso Robles for many years now and are not new to me. It is always good to take a refresher course and every time I do I learn many new things. In addition this is my first virtual classroom and I'm having fun with that!
I have finished my 20th year teaching. Most of my experiences have been teaching 4-8 year olds. I have taught kindergarten for 10 years, first grade for 9 years, title program for 1 year. I have had numerous trainings in literacy over the last 7 years. I have had training in Kindergarten GRIP, and CELL, PSFM early development and research based education.
This is my fifth year of teaching. I taught fifth grade for four year. This is my first year as a Literacy Specialist. I'm enjoying learning more about early literacy.
I teach second grade at Hafen Elementary. This is my first year teaching. I just recently graduated college and I'll be taking a year off before I try getting my masters.
Greetings. My name is Elissa Couch. I teach Special Education (K/1) at Hafen Elementary School in Pahrump, Nevada. I have been teaching in the Nye County School Disrict for four years. I am looking forward to implementing the methods and techniques I learn in this course.
I am a new Nevada teacher. I taught 32 years in Southern California. This is my first assignment at a Title 1 school. I want to prepare Kindergarten Students for 1st Grade.
I am in my 5th year of teaching and second year of first grade. I have lived in Pahrump for 5 years and I'm interested in learning more about small group activities that make reading fun! I am currently at Hafen Elementary in Pahrump, NV.
Hi, I am SewKe Grenke. This is my first year teaching ESL in Nevada, covering grade levels from K to 5th. Previously, I taught in California, mainly as a math and science teacher. This is therefore a new venture for me. I am excited about it and I love the kids that I am working with. I am I am into something good.
I am currently a Literacy Specialist at Hafen Elementary in Pahrump, Nevada. I have been here in Pahrump for twelve weeks. I orginate from Texas, where I was a classroom teacher for five years and have worked at Central Office for the last fours years in the Curriculum and Instruction Department. I am looking forward to participating in the Nevada Reading Academy,as well as learning side by side with my colleagueas.
This is my first year teaching. I am a second grade teacher at Fernley Elementary. I am not very familar with early literacy programs. I am excited to be here and know that I will learn something that will better my teaching skills and therefor better my students.
Last summer I taught a sixth grade summer school program and this year I am teaching part time at Alice Smith as a resource teacher. This is a second career for me and I am very excited to be teaching. I look forward to improving my teaching skills.
I am new to your group in November so I am playing catch up with the Dodson group. Currently I am a new Reading First Literacy Coordinator here at Dodson. Previously I was at Echo Loder team-teaching second for 4 years and at Mt. Rose teaching 5th for 2 years. I have a lot of literacy experience from being CELL trained at Loder, GLAD trained at Mt. Rose and being a NELIP mentor for the last 5 years. I'm happy to be joining your group
I am a second grade teacher at Greenbrae. This is my first year teaching, and I am learning so much! Prior to this position, I worked as an ESL assistant at Alice Maxwell. Most of my training was in upper elementary and middle school, so I am less familiar with early literacy. From this academy, I am hoping to learn practical teaching strategies that I can use to help my students succeed in reading.
I am a second grade teacher at Greenbrae school. I am a recent graduate of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and am a first year teacher here in Reno. I feel comfortable with literacy only because it is my favorite thing to teach; however, I know I have a lot to learn and I hope this workshop can help me. I teach the 2nd grade intensive students so I really hope I can learn more techniques to teach struggling students to read.
(Robbie Gilmartin) Hello! My name is Robbie Gilmartin and I am a 2nd grade teacher at Greenbrae Elementary. This is my first year teaching as I just started 11/1. I had some great literacy classes at my college but I realize I have so much to learn. It is exciting. My goal for this class is to just learn as much as I can so that I can better help my students. I would really like to get some ideas for activities that I can use.
I'm sorry I don't see myself up there. I am Emily Boston, I am a first year teacher teaching at Hafen Elementary. I am a Kindergarten teacher. I have had lots of fun doing this program so far and I am excited for the next few sessions. I just graduated from college in May so my Literacy courses are fresh in my mind. I love all of the ideas that I have been getting and I love all the talking that is going on with the Virtual Academy.
Hi! My name is Marci Humes. I'm sorry I'm so late in introducing myself. I tried a while ago to post my introduction and I lost it. Anyway, here we go. This is my sixth year teaching at the elementary level. I am currently teaching Kinder at Greenbrae Elementary and I love it. Kindergarten is a wonderful age and I have a wonderful class. I do have some literacy knowledge under my belt. I have had trainings in CELL and GLAD. They are great programs and I have enjoyed the Virtual Acadamy. It was very helpful and taught me many things I did not know.
Hi my name is Michelle Cabello. I'm sorry I'm introducing myself so late but I was experiencing some difficulty with my computer at work. I am a 1st grade teacher at Alice Smith Elementary School. This is my first year teaching in Nevada but my sixth year teaching first grade. I recently moved here from Southern California. I had previously taught at a reading first school so I am quite comfortable with teaching early literacy.
My name is Debbie Sutherland. I am currently the music teacher here at Fernely Elementary School. I have my Master of Science in Education and have taught elementary school grades k-3 for the past 16 years in California and Nevada. I have been here at this school for 11 years now. I taught Reading Recovery for 4 years and feel pretty comfortable in teaching reading and language arts but there's always new things to learn in case I ever go back into the regular classroom again. So I think I want to learn what's new out there and keep sharp what I do know.
My Name is Corinne Hardy. I am a first year, first grade teacher. I have really enjoyed the virtual academy. It has provided me with great activities and a wealth of knowledge to apply to my repetoire. Well done!! P.S. I am horrid speller so I appologize in advance for the mistakes that I made while typing with out spellcheck =)
tell me way you dont put adjectives describing timbra