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Teachers Love TEEM!
mCLASS PDAMany teachers appreciate the user-friendliness and instructional benefits of the mclass PDA assessment tool. A Target 1 teacher in San Angelo wrote: “The mCLASS assessments were so helpful. It was so easy in working with the children, the results and exercises were right there. The best was seeing the kids’ faces on how they were not nervous but they looked like they had fun.” Another teacher added: “The assessments I received from mclass made my individualization easy to plan.” This next teacher agreed: “It is so easy to take the M-class web report from my CIRCLE assessments, find the names of my students listed under their weak areas and make my lesson plans accordingly.” Readymade Activities that Really Work!Teachers appreciate the CIRCLE manual and the large number of creative and fun activities available to choose from to meet specific goals. A teacher from Center, TX wrote: “The TEEM project has helped me tremendously as a second year teacher. The CIRCLE manual has given me a plethora of ideas to incorporate phonological awareness into my classroom. Instead of being told that I need to teach rhyming, alliteration, onset-rime, etc., and having to come up with my own lessons, the CIRCLE manual gives you several activities to help you teach these concepts.” A teacher from San Angelo has appreciated the “fresh new ideas that grabbed my students’ attention”, and several teachers provided comments similar to this teacher, who said: “I like the fact that CIRCLE provides phonological activities for all domains as well as for children on all levels. It provides specific activities to target specific areas. They are useful and fun activities.” Teachers have been pleased (and sometimes surprised!) to discover that “lesson plans do not need to be filled with worksheets and dittos…Lesson plans should be playful, planful, and purposeful. This is how children learn best. I as well as colleagues, parents, and friends opened up to the idea and are amazed at the results.” Helpful MentorsSeveral teachers expressed appreciation for their mentors. A teacher from Waco commented that: “The mentor concept is very helpful. Our mentor was very hands-on and extremely helpful to assist in implementing the learned ideas into practical form.” A Target 2 teacher praised her mentor as being “always positive and would help in anyway possible. She enjoyed my children and would delight in their growth.” One San Angelo teacher’s mentor contributed a creative idea and prop that enhanced the teacher’s lesson: “One success story that has really stuck with me is the ‘Willowby Wallaby’ rhyming activity. The children caught on fast. Even the three year olds. My mentor purchased a toy elephant for our classroom that makes a funny noise and the children laughed at the sound and had so much fun that it kept them interested and it provoked them to think about a word that would rhyme with their name. Every time they thought of a word we hit the elephant to make the noise. The children loved it.” Growth in Professional SkillsTeachers acknowledged that participating in the TEEM program is demanding. As this T-2 teacher noted: “The CIRCLE/TEEM Program is excellent. For the program to be successful, the teacher has to embrace it, [be] willing to sacrifice time and energy to learn and apply new ideas/activities.” Yet teachers are impressed with their own growth in confidence and skills over time, sometimes prompting significant shifts in their teaching style and expectations. This teacher explained: “The TEEM program has helped me be a better teacher. I feel like I plan my lessons that are at a higher level, they are purposeful, and I try to make them playful. The on line course work caused me to reflect on my own teaching and make adjustments from there.” A Target 1 teacher admitted: “I was a bit hesitant in committing myself to a year of extra work. Boy was I wrong and ever so grateful I did! This year of "extra work" has been a great and pleasant experience for me. I have gained new knowledge that I will forever carry with me. Thanks to this opportunity I am now a better teacher.” A teacher from San Angelo adds “The eCIRCLE classes were very helpful. I was able to see on line how different activities might look like and get some great ideas. The classes helped reinforce what was being taught. The week or two weeks in between classes gave me time to digest and implement what was being taught.” The TEEM structure has been particularly helpful for teachers entering the program with less teaching experience. For example, this teacher from Victoria told us: “Last year, without the CIRCLE program I can honestly say that I felt lost as it was my first year teaching. Now that I have been through this program, I feel very confident in planning as well as teaching my four year olds.” Raising Expectations for ChildrenMany teachers commented that they were surprised to discover how much more their children were capable of learning! This experienced teacher wrote: “I was skeptical in the beginning since I am teaching Pre-K 3’s. I thought some of the things in the phonological awareness section were out of their league. I was wrong. I have gone beyond teaching colors and shapes and some of my friends are recognizing every letter in the alphabet as well as making the sounds of the letters. My friends are hearing rhyming words and making up their own rhyming words.” Another seasoned teacher shared her similar experience: “I have been working in the program for over 10 years. The children learned more letters this year than they ever have before. I was so proud of them. I even had some that could listen to me make letter sounds and blend the sounds to make words. That blew me away. Although I had to work harder I believe the learning experience for me and the children was worth it.” Looking ahead to her children’s future in elementary school, this teacher concluded: “The TEEM project has taken PreK to a new level. I believe that my kids will go on to kindergarten and cause the teachers to have to challenge my kids more than years before.” Satisfaction of Seeing Progress in Children’s SkillsAll teachers take satisfaction in seeing their efforts pay off in terms of children’s learning during the school year. The PDA system and targeted activities allow TEEM teachers to actually measure and observe these gains firsthand. Many teachers told us of the pride they feel in their students’ successes: “This time of year is really great because after you have tested the children three times a year you can really see the wonderful things they have been able to learn. It is reasonable for a child that started out only knowing four letters to now being able to name over thirty letters.” “Most of my class this year is able to recognize both upper and lower case letters and many of them know the sounds. I am doing a phonics program with several kids and two of them are reading really well. I have some children who are blending and getting ready to read. This is the first time I have had children reading in my pre-k classroom.” Children Love TEEM Too!Several teachers made special mention of their children’s (and their parents’) increased enthusiasm for school. Teachers from several different districts wrote the following comments: “The children in my class love to learn. I am greeted every morning with lots of hugs and happy faces of children asking me What are we going to learn today Mrs. Martinez? My students can’t wait to see the next theme and get involved in learning. The children in my class have a great love for books. Our class has created several books. They enjoy bragging that they are authors and illustrators. I also have a lot of parents requesting that their children be in my class.” Success in Classroom ManagementWhen a classroom is running smoothly, teachers can spend more time teaching and less time redirecting behavior. As this teacher has noticed, in her TEEM classroom: “Teachers have more freedom to move around the room because the children are learning to manage themselves and they are taking more responsibility”. Teachers find many aspects of the classroom management system helpful in this regard. As this Pre-K 3 teacher explained: “The classroom management system was good in that it helped set the tone for the day. The kids have pride in their room and their routine.” A teacher from Joaquin agreed: “I love the classroom management charts and the kids check them to see their job, friends who are absent, the schedule, etc. These are a big help.” The structure especially helps children who are new to school, as this San Angelo teacher recalled with some humor: “My class was comprised of 3 year olds. Some had never been in a preschool setting much less day care. The children found it easy to move from center to center using the Classroom Management charts provided in the Hatch Kit. It didn't take long for them to understand and sometimes manipulate the STOP sign. One child wanted in a particular center, but it was full. In order to get in he moved the STOP sign down to the next Velcro and placed his name in that center. It was always fun to watch the children go to the Classroom Helper Chart on Monday to see what their job was for the week.” TEEM Helps ESL StudentsTeachers are gratified to find that the TEEM approach also works well for children with limited English proficiency or other special needs. This experienced teacher from Wharton ISD shared her story: “I have been a Pre-K ESL teacher in the Wharton Independent School district for 8 years. I have implemented the CIRCLE program in my classroom for the past two years and have had outstanding results! My student achievement has risen drastically!. I can honestly say that because of this program, all 22 of my students that have been exposed to the program for the past two years have left my classroom better prepared for Kindergarten than ever before in my years of teaching.” Another T-2 teacher writes: “I have a three year old Vietnamese student who was very limited in English and did not know any letter of the alphabet, but at the end of the year he can name all 52 letters (26 upper letters and 26 lower case letters). Now he’s in the 2nd year and he scored “green” in all areas except in the vocabulary (yellow). I am very confident that he will master all areas when he’s assessed with the spring assessments.” A Complete PackageThe combination of classroom management structure, engaging and purposeful activities, the support of ongoing professional development and individualized mentoring, and progress monitoring to guide lesson planning and document children’s achievements, provide TEEM teachers with a coordinated and effective approach to reaching school-readiness goals. As research continues to show the effectiveness of the TEEM approach for children’s outcomes [link to most recent TEEM results on CLI website], it is equally important to know that teachers are finding it useful, fun, and worth the time and effort needed to succeed. As this teacher summed up: “The CIRCLE/TEEM program gives me that training, the tools, and ideas that I need to be an effective Pre-K teacher. It enables me to give my students the academic skills they need to be successful students. The CIRCLE Assessment scores prove that my students are excelling.” Calendar of Events
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August 2008CONTENTS
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We know that being a teacher in a TEEM classroom is quite demanding, and even a bit intimidating at first. It can be a challenge to take in so much new information, reorganize one’s classroom, learn how to use new technology, and lead children in unfamiliar types of activities. But the good news is: despite all the hard work, teachers love TEEM! We recently asked TEEM teachers to provide feedback to us about the ways in which their participation has impacted their teaching style and their children. Wow! We received so many enthusiastic and heartfelt comments that we thought you’d like to hear some of them too! We received feedback about everything from the PDA assessments to the center management charts; from the quality of the eCIRCLE training to the surprise of seeing how much more young children can learn than their teachers previously thought they could. Here are the voices of some of these teachers…