The Life of a Teacher

For this blog I conducted an interview with my mentor so that you can all get to know the journey she went through to get where she is today, and to show how well she qualifies as a teacher and my mentor.

My mentor's name is Mrs. Sarah Fitch; she is a teacher for a 2nd/3rd grade combo class of 24 kids between the ages of 7&9 at Cottonwood Creek Charter School in Cottonwood. The Cottonwood Creek School has been running for 5 years on the old West Cottonwood site and Mrs. Fitch has been teaching for 4 of those 5 years. Mrs. Fitch started out teaching 6th grade back in her 20's, but when she started having kids she took 10 years off to raise them. During this time she did some substitute teaching to keep her credentials up to date then became a librarian in the Cottonwood Library. After a few years she went back to Chico State and got her library media credentials and a master in curriculum/instruction. She then ran the library for 7 years. And now she is teaching at the Cottonwood Charter, and at the school she started up her own library system, with new books.

Mrs. Fitch has a love and passion for reading, she quoted in our interview, "I'm a teacher and a credentialed librarian and so I love a good story and I know how important it is for kids to experience different kinds of literature so I am very thankful that Esther can come in and give lessons on the many different genres with a fun activity at the end."

Mrs. Fitch enjoys a good book, and loves to include reading in her classroom atmosphere. She has the kids taking part in a few different reading programs, one is Accelerated Reader, and this is an online program that quizzes the kids on the books they just read. These quizzes are meant to show just how much attention was spent on the book. The kids also have A.R goals they must meet by the end of each learning period. The next reading group which is most commonly used in her classroom is the Treasure program which includes tons of stories and spelling/reading programs. The final program is called standards plus, this teaches kids how to break down a story using its plot, setting, character traits, etc.

Mrs. Fitch strongly believes that children should learn the art of reading at a young age, she quoted in the interview, "Part of developing good readers is giving them a love for a good story, and so being read to with a great drama and animation is just another way to promote literacy and love of reading."

I am extremely excited to work on this project alongside such a wise woman with as big a love and understanding for reading as I do. She understands the importance of looking at all genres instead of sticking to just one; she believes that there is a different adventure to be lived with each new genre. I can't wait to further this project with the kids and her and to watch as the young minds of those kids are blown as they discover there is more adventure wrapped in a paper than there is reeled on a screen, because as they will soon learn, is that with a book no one can tell you who to be, because with a good book and a big imagination you can be anything.

The Journey Through the Genres

Hello my name is Esther and I am taking part in the 20% project. My project is on the multiple different journeys that you can be taken on when using different genres of literature. I have decided to use ages 7-9 for this project because this age group have a natural sense and curiosity for adventure but are also not easily intrigued by the quest set before them. My goal in this project is to take in the next 5 weeks 5 different genres of books and present them with hands on activities and present the kids with a big question that the kids are responsible for solving by the end of the book. They will also be questioned throughout the book to see if they are paying attention and appear intrigued or bored in this new way of reading.
I decided this goal for my project because I love reading and when I read I become part of the story, and the idea of giving young kids the adventure I embark when I read is something that excites me very much. I think all young kids should be able to journey to a new world, land, or realm every time they read whether it is the future, past, present, or in space I want them to feel as if they are really there.
I plan to reach this goal by-

• Going online and researching the word genre.
• Then I will choose the genres I will present to the kids throughout the 5 weeks and look up what each genre means.
• I will then pick out the book for that week and read over it to decide on my question the kids will try to solve in that book.
• I will create or find an activity for them to do based on that week's genre.
• Finally I will present the kids with this project and study their reaction.

I have already spoken with my mentor; she is a family friend who also happens to be a teacher at Cottonwood Creek Charter School for a second and third grade combination class. We have already met and discussed how the day each week will go and we will be furthering our discussion each week to decide on the next week's genre.

I expect that the most challenging obstacle would be to find the area of interest of the kids in an age appropriate book and in text they will understand. I very well can't bring in Shakespeare as a possible genre for drama, that would sound like Spanish to a child. I plan on overcoming this obstacle by speaking to my mentor each week once my genre is chosen and asking what books in that area of topic most intrigue the kids.

So there is my battle plan for my 20% project, I am very confident with this project and hope to morph the minds of kids more and more each week.