Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

 

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year!!

Enjoy your Winter Break see you in 2015!

Jennifer and LizJ

 

"Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief"

Sixth graders in their ELA classes have been studying about ancient Greece and mythology using the novel Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.  On Friday, December12, 2014, they had a Percy Party in the FMS library. 

Several activities were available for students to participate in, they included the following: pin the eye on the Cyclops, Percy Jackson Trivia on the computer, Who is your Greek God parent, personality quiz on the computer, Greek Mythology  Go Fish card game, write your name in ancient Greek, and make a Medusa head puppet.  The students did a great job!

They also received Percy Jackson bookmarks with quotes form the book and blue candy canes.  Students also had an opportunity to put their name in for the drawing of the Percy Jackson Greek Gods book

Lisa Smith

 

More "Christmas Memories" and New Teacher Profile - Colleen Nicolosi

 

 

Thank you LaFrancine Baker and Derek Simons for giving us more "Christmas Memories". What a fantastic show and a wonderful way to help the Freeport Food Pantry. You brought a lot of smiles to a lot of people!
:)

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Colleen Nicolosi teaches 5^th grade ELA and is an assistant coach for FAST, Freeport Area Swim Team. She received her bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University and has her Masters from Regis University in Denver, Colorado. Colleen started as a special education aide in the Elgin School District then taught at Lincoln Douglas School in Freeport and in Rockford for several years. She substituted in the Harlem School District for the past three years.

Colleen says she feels fortunate to be a part of a great 5^th grade team working to implement personalized learning of the Common Core Standards. “Seeing my students get excited about progressing through their evidence plans and becoming proficient in each standard they work on has been very rewarding. It is not often that I have seen students who couldn’t wait to take their next assessment or get upset if they lost any class time to work independently. “

Colleen said that most recently, she has started using the web based “ClassDoJo” program that has increased her students’ engagement dramatically and helps her reinforce positive behavior immediately.

Something Colleen would like you to know is that teaching at FMS feels like home to her. This is because she grew up in those hallways, since her parents, Jack and Arlene Egan, both worked in the building for 30 years. In fact, she is teaching in the same room her mom taught in during her final years with Freeport School District.

 

 

 

Field Trip to FMS - "A Positive Place to Be"

 

A Field Trip to FMS

Recently, I have brought teachers to visit FMS with the purpose of talking about and observing learner-centered practices.   All observers walked away with new ideas of how to implement standards-based individualized learning in their own classrooms.  While this is wonderful, and obviously fulfilled the purpose of the visit, I also believe that they walked away with more.  Every staff member that we encountered, whether it was in the hallway, the classroom, or the office, was truly an ambassador of the building.  So, the observers walked away with a sense of collaboration and a realization that no one is in this alone.  They walked away with inspiration and an overall good feeling about the climate of the building.  They walked away with the knowledge that if there was an issue or if they had a question, they would be supported.  So, on behalf of the teachers and coaches that have visited you, thank you.  Mr. Swords summed it up best when we were leaving, “We are all in this together.”  Thank you FMS for being a positive place to visit. 

Positive Alert - "Library of Doom"

I just have to share this as I know you will appreciate it.  I have a 5th grader who “pretends” to read most of the time during MIRP.  He gets those big non-fiction informational books and looks at pictures, etc.  I have been trying so hard to get him interested in reading, but, he just finds it painful to read…has dyslexia and really struggles.  He finally agreed to read captions from the pictures of these books and so this is all I have really been able to get him to do during MIRP.

 

Anyway, I was telling him about these really cool books that some of the 8th graders read (Library of Doom) and I asked him to read one with me to see if he liked it. The text is spread out, there is a lot of space on the pages, it is short, etc.  It is above his reading level.  Today he finished his first book!!! He loves that series now, begged me to let him check out 4 from the library to keep in my room.  Taking one home tonight to read with mom.  Says he can’t wait to finish it!  By the last half of the book he was reading without my support and even decoded the word “guardian” by himself!  I let him call mom to tell her because he was soooo proud of himself for reading a whole book.  Oh…and he kept stopping when he was reading to make comments, and predictions, and he kept trying to peek ahead to see what was going to happen next.

 

Just wanted to share this as I am so happy as a teacher to see this stuff happening so often now with these kids!

 

Laurie Lafferty

 

 

 

Positive Alerts!! - Colors and "Grease"

“Today let the little things in life fill your heart with joy.”

Heather Stillufsen

 

 

Colors

My daughter who went to preschool knowing NONE of her colors (which made her teacher mother totally crazy trying to teach them to her) now know FOUR! Red, Blue, Pink, Brown!! Thankful for amazing teachers!!!

Also, there are 4 more school days before Thanksgiving break and that makes me smile J

Monica Pleschwych

 

 

What’s the word???  “GREASE”

I just finished the run of “GREASE” and I’m happy and proud of the students. Some students really struggled with songs and many of the students were first timers on stage.  They worked hard and put on a wonderful production and they all sounded great!

I am also working with a great group of people/colleagues on “Christmas Memories”.  This is my first time being a part of this unique and wonderful show.  I can’t wait to perform because it’s been a number of years since I’ve performed on stage.

 

Derek Simons ♫

 

 

 

 

New Teacher Profile - Diane Lizer

Diane teaches ELL (English Language Learner) classes. She has groups of pull-out students that come into her classroom. Others, she pushes-in to the general education classroom to assist the students. Diane attended NIU (twice) – once for computer science, the second time for elementary education. She was a substitute teacher for a year and took over an ELL position for seven months when a teacher left that district.

Diane tries to use a variety of hands-on activities to engage her students. Any way she can connect a topic to them personally, she finds it especially effective. She has a Promethean board in her classroom and would like to learn as much as she can to be able to utilize it as another way to engage students. Also to help students focus on specific vocabulary in a text, Diane uses small colored transparent post-it notes to identify these words. (SEE PHOTO BELOW)

Diane has an eleven year-old daughter who is in 5^th grade. When her daughter talks about her school day, Diane of course pays close attention. She does this  not only as a way to know what her daughter is up to in school, but also to  see if she can tweak the activities her daughter talks about and  use them  in her classroom.  

New Teacher Profile - Lauren Mays and Formative Assessment Tool

Lauren teaches 6^th grade ELA. She received her Associate’s from Rock Valley College and her Bachelor’s from North Park University. Her position here at FMS is her first teaching job, but she was a substitute for three years.

Lauren uses learning centers and gallery walks to engage her students in the content.  Lauren enjoys reading, drawing, and painting. She likes Italian food.

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Another Formative Assessment Tool

"3 -2-1 variations"

This strategy can be used as a "ticket out the door". Have the students use one of these variations  on a topic you have covered in class Write:

                   3 differences between_____

         2 effects of ___ on___

                                         1 question you still have about the topic

OR

3 important facts

2 interesting facts

                                 1 insight about yourself as a learner

OR

                                                                          3 key words

                                                                          2 new ideas

                                                                          1 though to think about

OR

                                                                          3 things you found out

                                                                          2 interesting things

                                                                          1 question you still have

"FMS Family Math Night"

A Marvel-ous Family Math night!

 

 

 

New Teacher Profile - Heather Anderson / "Voting is the American Way"

Heather teaches 5^th grade Math at Freeport Middle School. She is a 2009 Freeport High School graduate and attended Northern Illinois University where she graduated in December of 2013.  This is her first teaching job.

Heather has her students use a variety of manipulatives to engage her students. Currently they are learning about volume and the students have been using large unit cubes. These cubes help students to discover the formula for volume and find the volume of different objects like a desk or cereal box.

Heather likes to go to the movies. Her favorite movies are The Avengers, A Walk to Remember, and, The Lion King. She also enjoys taking her dog, Riley, to the dog park. An interesting fact about Heather is that she is currently teaching in a room in which she was a student.

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Jason Prell's students exercising their right to vote.

 

“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

New Teacher Profile - Vanessa Dinderman

Vanessa attended Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa and graduated in May. This is her first teaching job and she feels very blessed and enthusiastic that she is at Freeport Middle School. Vanessa teaches a math class, has two learning centers, and her advisory class. She pushes in to math and English classes as well. She also coaches the freshman volleyball team at Freeport High School.

Vanessa uses math stations in her classroom. She executed these math stations for the operations of decimals a few weeks ago. She feels that using stations is a great way to a help develop independence and self-management skills for her students.

Vanessa plays all kinds of sports such as volleyball, basketball, and softball. She enjoys spending time with her brothers and sisters and her crazy 17 nieces and nephews. Her favorite food is tacos or Manny’s pizza. She mostly listens to country music and watches funny movies and TV shows.

 

Welcome / New Teacher Profile

Welcome to the FMS Learner Centered Best Practice Teacher Blog. This a place to find out some interesting facts about your fellow colleagues and to share the amazing work you are all doing.
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Bryant Moore teaches 5^th grade Social Studies and coaches the 8^th grade girls’ basketball team. He is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and completed his graduate work through National Louis University. Prior to teaching at FMS, Bryant taught at the Galapagos Charter School in Rockford, IL. He shared that the following strategies engage students in his classroom; working in groups, acting out events in history and center based instruction.

Bryant shared some fun facts about himself. His favorite food is eggplant parmesan. He enjoys listening to R & B music.  Usher, R. Kelly, and Mariah Carey are a few of the current artists he listens to. He also enjoys listening to more “old school” musicians like Keith Sweat, New Edition, Prince, Michael Jackson, The Temptations, Jackson 5, James Brown and Al Green. Bryant likes kicking back and watching “The Walking Dead”, “Game of Thrones”, and “Family Guy”. He also enjoys watching movies especially comedy and action movies, but tear jerkers like “The Notebook” and “Titanic” expose his sentimental side.

Something that Bryant would like everyone to know about him is he studied abroad in Malaysia. He is married, has two daughters and has three siblings.