Teachers in School

School

Class Size

Class Length

Teaching Style

Looking For

Found

Mimi Saunders - Art I

Noble H.S.

Approx 18

90 min.

progressive

Classroom structure

The foundation class is the first time students are introduced to art. Most usually come in thinking it is going to be an easy grade. Mimi uses her outgoing personality to make sure that the environment feels "fun", but also has a deep voice and large presence to address behavior issues. She has very high expectation and relies on consistency and structure to give the students a strong foundation in art. I would consider her a progressive teacher because she likes the students to learn from their experiences and not give them all the answers.

Lee Shipley - Jewelry

Noble H.S.

Approx 12

90 min.

traditional

Materials

I do not have any experience making jewelry and it can be offered at the high school level. Lee is the head of the department and a huge resource of knowledge. What impressed me the most was her open-mindedness and willingness to help people. The day I was there, the students were assembling their jewelry to sell to people in the school. It was a fundraiser for the art department. What a great idea!

Ginny Vakalis - Photography

Noble H.S.

Approx18

90 min.

traditional

Teaching style and delivery of curriculum.

Ginny has been teaching for quite awhile and it shows in her teaching style. She is always ultra-prepared for the lessons and does not like when things do not go as planned. Although she does not directly give students the answers, she sets a clear standard and expectation of what she wants and the students seem to gear their work towards getting a good grade. She is very decisive and knows exactly what she is looking for. The lessons she teaches are delivered in a very traditional, lecture-style format.

Amy Mann - Biology

Noble H.S.

Approx.18

90 min.

mix

Teaching strategies

Amy seems to like to mix things up and enjoys having the students solve problems. She likes to have students do group work. She seems to discipline using a sense of humor and sarcasm, but is very consistent with her expectations. The students are each given the plan for the day and have to use their own time management skills to get the work done. Since she does not like to lecture, a lot of the decisions and learning is done through experience, but clear structure is definitely provided.

Josh Gould - English

Noble H.S.

Approx.18

90 min.

mix

Teaching strategies

Josh seems to always be thinking "out of the box." He likes to create classroom community through whole class activities that require physical activity. Usually the class is broken down into different roles for each person to have participation. For example, for the Catcher in the Rye, they go to an actual courtroom and act out the case. For A River Runs Through it, the students learn how to fly fish and actually go and do it. The students seem to really be engaged with this approach.

Tom Hibshman - TV production

Noble H.S.

Approx. 10

90. min

progressive

Teacher's role

Tom runs a very "college-like" environment. He is able to do this because it is an advanced class. I liked his approach to leaving assignment wide open and leaving it up to the students to create work based on their interests. He shows the students a lot of video and really shows his knowledge of graphic design and TV production. He seems to enjoy working one-on-one and models and instill equipment care tactics to help kids understand responsibility.

Kim - Music

Strafford School

Approx. 20

45 min.

mix

Classroom Management

I went to observe Kim's class because I knew that she had some good discipline techniques and this is something that I am working on. During the class she used humor and sarcasm frequently to keep kids on task. You could tell she had been teaching for a while. She had many systems of organizing the students to that there would not be too much activity in the small space. What I remember the most is her creativity. She made quizzes fun. She would play a tune and we would have to write the notes. Then she would show flash cards and we would have to repeat the sound on an instrument.

Ms. Krasko - Physical Edu. 10/7/04

Strafford School

Approx. 20

45 min.

mix

Student Focus and engagement

Ms. Krasko has a wonderful way of keeping students focus on her for directions. In gym class, the teacher is always modifying the activity and if students are not attentive, then they could get hurt. She has a nice low voice that projects well. Since the gym had an echo when she spoke, she would frequently get the kids to sit in a circle around her so she can speak quieter.

John Applebee - English

Noble H.S.

Approx.18

90 min.

progressive

Teaching style

John is a very unique teacher and is has a very "layed back" approach. He often philosophizes with his students to force them to do more critical thinking. He has his students learn through experience by creating projects where they have to research the information and come up with their own opinions. He seems very approachable, unpredictable and "different" and I think that is what appeals to the students and keeps them guessing what will come next.

Out of School 

School

Class Size

Class Length

Teacher's joy

Looking For

Found

Debra Hastings - Art

Mast Way

20

45 min.-1 hr

Students refine themselves as an artist

Classroom management

Very traditional the way that the classroom is set up and the way the class is structured. Teacher is the focal point and there is an emphasis on everything being neat and orderly. Discipline techniques such as clapping hands, changing seats, separating students to sit alone and ringing bells seemed to only work for the short term.

Laura Voveris - Art

Deerfield

16

65 min.

Being an art teacher

Philosophy of teaching art

Artist's studio/workshop atmosphere. Totally student choice driven. Students used sketch books and writing prompts to talk about their work each day. Found there was a limitation with materials they were exposed to, and getting out of their comfort zone.

Allen Unrein - Art

Strafford

18-25

45 min.

Growth and development of each student over time

Classroom atmosphere and creativity with delivering information.

Very relaxed atmosphere. High energy and activity levels. Teacher did a lot of mult-tasking and worked with students on a variety of intelligence levels. Teacher actively demonstrated each lesson at the beginning of class. Lessons were very innovative and age appropriate.

Heidi Mills - Art

Barrington Elementary

20

45 min.

When a student feels that they are a good artist

Philosophy of teaching art

Heidi co-teaches with another teacher who has a background in art therapy. Since Heidi has a background in studio art - painting, they provide the students with a curriculum rich in cultural variety, art history and studio art. Her emphasis seems to be a lot about the product.

Jodi Moore - 1st grade

Barrington Elementary

 16

 All day

 Seeing children laugh.

How to manage young students without being a discipline "nag."

 I went on a hiking field trip with Ms.Moore's class. My son seems to enjoy her class and I originally went there to observe a first year teacher. I found out she had been teaching for 10 years! Her greatest assess is her personality. She has a great balance of showing that she is having fun, yet has total control of the class. She treats every child with interest and respect. She seems to be the kind of teacher I want to be. I learned a lot from this observation. You have to laugh more and if you are not having fun, then the students probably aren't either!

Ginger Kelso - 5th grade

Barrington Middle School

19

All day except for "specials"

 How have things changed since I was in 5th grade?

 Ginger is a new teacher and I wanted to see how she ran her classroom. I was surprised after talking to her that the curriculum was very similar to when I was young. They were teaching reading phonetically. But after sitting in the class, I picked up on differences. The did activities to act out their math concepts. They did journal writing and it seemed that students were separated into groups based on ability during reading and writing.

Scott - head of art department - photography and graphic design

Coe Brown

8

1.5 to 45 min.

Student relationships

Small School feel - partly private

I taught photography at Noble High school and I wanted to compare how the class would work at a smaller school with smaller classes. Would there be more time for the teacher to meet with the students? I was surprised that it didn't feel that way. Half the students were in the dark room with the teacher, and then other half I sat with and help them with poster designs. Somehow I imagined them having better art equipment and supplies that the high school I was at - but they didn't. The class was really layed back - almost college-like, but a little too quite for me. There was not much activity and people kept to themselves. I did observe an Art I class at the same school and it was much more active. Maybe intro classes are for me J

Lois Sans - Art
10/18/04

Barrington Middle

22

45 min.

Student's feeling like they are artists

Utilization of Classroom Space and classroom layout

Since this was the first year that the middle school was open, Louis was still tackling the logistics of the spacious classroom. It was helpful to make a map of the layout. The large individual draftsman desks were very nice, but bulky and took up too much space. Students had a hard time traveling across the room to get their supplies. Students had to move their stools to the attached room to draw from two separate still lifes. There were two skylights that put natural light into the room, but there didn't seem to be a way to make the room dark and point the spotlights onto the still life. The vaulted ceilings made it difficult to hear Louis' soft voice. The boards to write and hand art on didn't seem to be in places where students could view them easily. What I found was that even with large spaces there were issues.

Lynda Augustine 4^th grade

Barrington Elementary

19

All day except for "specials"

Creating a classroom community

Progressive approach, experiential learning

Being a fairly new teacher, Lynda has a wonderful way of engaging each child. She is very interested in getting to know each student and their interests, strengths and weaknesses. She goes out of her way to make each student feel special. The atmosphere is very active and sometimes even messy and chaotic, but there is a clear underlying structure with objectives for each activity. Lynda puts a lot of trust in her students by creating lesson that help students learn through experience.

Multi-cultural

School

Class Size

Class Length

Grade Level

Looking For

Found

Ryan Burgess

Central High School - Manchester

Approx. 30

1.5

Freshman and Sophmores - Mod E

ESL

I was shocked at how many ESL students were in one art class without any aids. I observed one of my intern friends and his two cooperating teachers.

Interns

School

Class Size

Class Length

Grade Level

Looking For

Found

Jodi Bossio - English

Noble H.S.

Approx 18

1.5

Sophomore

Comfort in the classroom

Jodi seems very good one on one with the students. She rarely addressed the class as a whole and instead wrote the assignments on the board. When she did speak to the class, she seemed very comfortable and almost a bit too layed back? She connected with the students by sharing a personal story related to their assignment. I did not find Jodi to be very open about her teaching philosophy or techniques. I felt uncomfortable asking any personal questions.

Ryan Amtamann - English

Noble H.S.

20

1.5

Freshman

Classroom presence

Ryan has a huge classroom presence. His deep voice and energy make him the focal point of the room. He really seems passionate about what he teaches and tries very hard at every opportunity to connect the lesson to the student's lives. He doesn't like when students talk out of turn, and maintains a large amount of control through students raising their hands before they speak. The classroom was set up so that the desks were in a U shape around the teacher, but the students were giving the opportunity to read out loud.

Sophie Costello

Strafford

17

All day

Grade 4

Lesson Planning

When I visited Sophie, she was still not at the point of taking over the classroom. I observed her doing a spelling quiz and she said that she had to read from a script. I found that as a classroom teacher, there is not so much pressure to get a lesson finished that day or in any certain order. There is so much more flexibility and you don't have to be watching the clock all the time.

Eric Werner

Strafford

Grade 4

Student Connections

 Eric seems to have his own certain style. It is very different from mine. What I noticed is that he seems to have very high expectations for the grade level and he pushed the kid to be more responsible and self-reflective. Although I observed him in a one-on-one conference, I know he is also comfortable lecturing in front of the class - something that I hate doing.

Janice Eldridge - History

Noble H.S.

17

1.5

Sophomore

Discipline techniques

Janice seems to have control over the class and is always aware of when students are off task. She uses the phrase "you have a choice of..." putting the outcome in their hands. Her greatest joy is students getting excited on their own. She seems to be well liked by the students even though she can seem to be very "strict."