Monroe, Ohio, United States
I co-teach in homogeneously grouped gifted classrooms, teaching third and fifth grade math and reading. In addition to traditional classroom responsibilities I also co-ordinate gifted testing and placement of children in the correct classrooms based on those scores. I also conduct professional development sessions on guided math and gifted education.
I taught sixth grade math using the Montessori method with manipulative and individual presentations. I also taught pre-algebra and algebra for the seventh and eighth graders using the traditional text book but tying into their previous knowledge from the Montessori presentations in years past. In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I did a lot of advertising and promotions for the private school. These included presentations to interested parent groups and administrators.
I worked with parents and administrators discussing and deciding on the best educational path for students. This includes testing and accelerating students, creating accelerated classes, and developing an advanced summer school program.
During my five years at VanGorden, I was able to teach advanced humanities and accelerated math classes for fifth and sixth grade students. In addition to those classes I also managed enrichment opportunities for primary aged students based on teacher recommendations and testing data. These enrichment classes were interest based and challenging. The reading groups were multi-aged and ran like a book club with student led discussions. The math and science groups were STEM groups before STEM was in vogue. Students experimented and built new islands and populated them with animals and plants that would survive in the climate, giving some of them adaptations to make them viable.