Teaching Journey

Catholic Schools Week

| Elizabeth

Tomorrow is the start of Catholic Schools Week 2023. This will be my 10th year celebrating with my students and staff. Our HASA and CSW committee always plan such a fun week for all of us. The national theme for this year is “Faith, Excellence, and Service.” Keep reading for inspiration for your own fun during Catholic Schools Week!

Sunday

CSW always starts on a Sunday. This is usually the last Sunday in January or the first Sunday in February depending on when it falls that year. Our parish purchases cookies to pass out after each Mass and all are welcome to join in fellowship. Some years our teachers all pass out cookies. Other years we’ve had students volunteer for each Mass. It is always a fun and faith filled way to open Catholic Schools Week!

Monday

Monday’s theme is always Family. This year we are calling it Faith Rooted in Family. On Mondays we celebrate our home, school, and church family by writing letters of appreciation to parents, grandparents, and other influential members of our families. Our alumni share memories from their time at our school and we decorate the front entrance. Our art teacher does an amazing job of helping students create beautiful decorations for the week! This year our students also get to dress up as their favorite artist, athlete, author, musician, etc.

Tuesday

Tuesday’s theme is always Staff. This year we are calling it Faith Rooted in Our Staff. Our HASA is AMAZING! They do so much for us throughout the year, but go all out during CSW. This year we get lunch along with someone coming in to do massages. So relaxing!! We are also getting treats delivered throughout the day. Our parents send in notes of appreciation and our students are encouraged to dress up like their favorite teacher or book character.

Wednesday

Wednesday’s theme is Community. Following the theme, it is called Faith Rooted in Our Community. On Wednesdays during CSW we choose an organization to help and this year we are helping the homebound. Some years our junior high students go on volunteer trips to different community organizations. Our students also get to dress down for the day in fun school spirit wear. Teachers are also getting breakfast delivered this year!

Thursday

Thursday is Faith Rooted in the Gospel. We’ll have an all school Mass celebrating the Presentation of Our Lord. Typically we provide opportunities to join in faith formation throughout the day in different classrooms. Our teachers are amazing at incorporating our faith into our daily teaching. This year we will gift something to a fellow Catholic school. Students are also encouraged to dress in their favorite era. This year my daughter gets to join me in dressing like th 80s! Here come the scrunchies!

Friday

Fridays are my FAVORITE! Not only because its Friday, but we do so many fun things on Fridays during CSW. HASA is delivering coffee first thing in the morning. Coffee gets me through anything! This year we are having a color war between our floors. My daughter and I are on the same floor this year so we get to both wear purple, green, and blue. We’ll also play games in our classrooms and have an assembly run by student council. This year is extra special as we are opening a time capsule from 1997 and creating a new one as a school. After that, we will have our annual Staff vs 8th grade volleyball game. I am HORRIBLE at sports, so I sit with the students and cheer everyone on. It is always so fun to watch the teachers work together and the students cheer on both sides.

I hope you all have a wonderful Catholic Schools Week, whether you are a teacher, staff member, parish member, or parent. This week is for all of us! Enjoy and God bless!

Elizabeth

My thoughts on the science of reading

| Elizabeth

We are FINALLY seeing some sunny days here. After a very long, cold winter, it is so refreshing to see green grass and the flowers blooming. The science of reading is making waves in the education community, and for me, like spring, it’s such a breath of fresh air! I was not taught to read using phonemic awareness and phonics. Most of my reading instruction was in using picture clues and memorizing words. I wasn’t horribly “behind” in reading, but it made reading new text especially difficult.

It wasn’t until college that I was taught about phonemic awareness and phonics. I didn’t even know the terminology until college! Digraphs, vowel teams, blends, etc. were all new words to me. It completely changed my perspective on teaching reading. I felt more confident in my understanding of the English language and in my ability to teach students how to read.

Fast forward to my first year of teaching in a resource room with only one reading intervention program that didn’t use phonics! While the program was fabulous for students who have mastered their phonics skills and needed to work on fluency and comprehension, it did nothing for my students who needed explicit phonics instruction.

I went to my principal and told her I needed something, so she found an Orton Gillingham training! Best 30 hours of training ever! I went through the Institute of Multisensory Education (IMSE) and it gave me the tools I needed to explicitly teach phonemic awareness and phonics to my students. I’ve used what I learned daily ever since. I’ve watched my students blossom and start to enjoy reading. That is the end goal. Students successfully decoding text and enjoying reading books they are interested in is the best feeling ever.

I encourage you, whether you are a first year teacher or a veteran teacher, to explore the science of reading. I don’t think this time around it is just a “phase” or “buzzword” in education. The proof is in the results. Children need a foundation in phonemic awareness and phonics to be able to master the other components of reading.

A few of my favorite resources/books:

Institute of Multi-Sensory Education – they also have freebies on their linktr.ee site!

Recipe for Reading

Phonics from A to Z

High Noon Books – fabulous decodable books

Check out my phonics resources on TPT:

Spring Blending Board

Garden CVC & CVCE Task Cards

Vowel Teams Seat Work

CVC Task Cards Bundle

Differentiated Multiplication

| Elizabeth

Learning multiplication facts is always a goal for my students in the resource room. Many times they need visuals or manipulatives when working on mastery. When our school went to full distance learning last year, I needed to find a different way for my students to practice their facts. While on quarantine, I came up with these differentiated multiplication slides.

The first set offers support by providing the answer choices on the right hand side.

The second set takes away the answer choices. Students type their answers in the text boxes.

The third set adds an extra challenge by removing one of the multiples and adding the product.

The fourth and final set gives students a challenge! They have to use the key provided to solve the problems.

With so many ways to practice, plus the fun images, my students soared in mastering their multiplication facts! Click HERE to check them out! If you aren’t convinced, try out the FREEBIE sample of the 2’s facts.

©Resource Remedies

About Me

| Elizabeth

My name is Elizabeth and I have been teaching since 2013. I come from a family of teachers and married into a family of teachers. As of right now, we all teach in the same district, which is pretty special! I met my husband at my current school. He was our maintenance man at the time and our coworkers played matchmaker. Now we have a beautiful daughter and 3 rescue dogs.

I started as a resource teacher for students with IEPs then branched out into working with students qualifying for ELL services. I absolutely have fallen in love with working with learners that need extra support. Some of my students I’ve had for 7 years now and it has been a joy watching them grow. This year has been a little different as I was tasked with teaching 1st grade due to COVID restrictions. Due to our small class sizes, our gen ed teachers jumped in with both feet to meet the needs of our students while I took on my own gen ed class for the first time. It has been a challenge, but it has been a rewarding experience teaching little 6 and 7 year olds.

I’ve been creating content for my own students for years and then in 2020 started creating and posting my resources on Teachers Pay Teachers. It has been so rewarding to see how my resources are helping other teachers and students. I hope you find inspiration here that you can use in your classroom!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Resource-Remedies-By-Elizabeth-Skordos