FEBRUARY 2015

February 2015 Spotlights

D'Vorre and Hal Ober Elementary School

Mrs. Michelle Thom is an exceptional fourth grade teacher at D’Vorre and Hal Ober Elementary School! She radiates a passion for teaching and learning that is contagious to all of us. Pure MAGIC is what happens in Mrs. Thom’s classroom! Visitors to her classroom may witness math mind-reading, QR code creations, Plicker cards, and even students solving math problems on balloons! Students might not even notice you visiting their classroom because they are so engaged! If by chance you were noticed, you would be welcomed with open arms and maybe even offered a turn in the “Happy Chair!”

Mrs. Thom is a strong teacher leader that takes pride in our school! She represents her grade level on the school’s leadership team, is the Chair of the Math Committee, and our “go-to” person for anything Infinite Campus! Most recently, she was accepted into the new prestigious UNLV Urban Leadership Development Program! Mrs. Thom is also an educational blogger and connects with teachers from all over the country to share ideas and network! You too can check out her blog: www.wellmichelleblog.blogspot.com! Mrs. Thom is a true talent whom we are proud to showcase at Ober Elementary School!!

Michelle

Thom

Spring Valley High School

My name is Felicia Bonanno and I’m a Geoscience teacher at Spring Valley High School. I’m a native to Las Vegas, graduated from Sierra Vista High School (the OTHER SV) and UNLV. Currently, I’m working on my MS in Science Curriculum and Instruction.

As a second year teacher, I’m still putting in a ton of hours and sometimes my car is the last one in the teacher parking lot. Although I feel like I’m just getting my feet wet in this profession, I can contribute my small successes in the classroom to just a few key “tricks” that I learned from my mentors (a shout out to Wende Lestelle and Stephanie Henderson), my students, and being in the classroom. Most importantly, from my first day teaching, I made sure that I had expectations and routines for students and I followed through with them every single day. This means being extremely organized, consistent, having a contingency plan, using a variety of formative assessments, and working students bell to bell.

Students like hands-on kinesthetic learning; they know that they will have at least one lab or project every week to reinforce what they learn. Last but not least, I listen to my students. I ask them for feedback on my teaching, I go to their games, I remember to always say “good morning” and ask how they are, and I have the coolest band aid selection in the entire school. Needless to say, they know I care. The phrase “warm but firm” describes the way I am and that seems to be working pretty good so far.

My favorite lesson: any lab that we do. Sometimes I think I’m more excited about them doing a lab than they are. There is nothing like seeing students engaged in hand on activities; I hear laughter and more science vocabulary words being used in lab than any other time.

Felicia

Bonanno

Lucille S. Rogers Elementary School

Sarah Barber has been a teacher over 20 plus years. Since working with Sarah in the KIDS Program for the past 6 years, it makes coming to work a pleasure knowing that she will be there. She is patient and supportive, and she truly loves what she does. Sarah dedicates not only her time, but also her Sundays by coming into work to prepare for the week. She rarely takes vacation days or calls in sick because she worries about the kids. The students and parents both love Mrs. Barber and it shows. We have had some students for 3 years because some parents request to have their child placed with her. As a parent, I would have no qualms about leaving my child with Mrs. Barber because I would feel confident that they were in good hands. She not only is a fantastic teacher, but a wonderful friend!

Sarah

Barber

Joseph Thiriot Elementary School

Joseph Thiriot Elementary School spotlights first grade teacher, Shawna Blackburn. Ms. Blackburn is an enthusiastic team player that always has a smile on her face. She embraces the best practices from the book study, Great Habits, Great Readers. Ms. Blackburn is reflective and open to feedback as she implements the instructional skills on the Nevada Educator Performance Framework. Her confident attitude and purposeful teaching practices have been reflected in her classroom achievement data. Ms. Blackburn encourages and welcomes parents to contribute to their child’s education by participating in classroom and school activities. Her encouraging attitude has cultivated a cohesive, positive school climate at Thiriotland.

Shawna

Blackburn

Grant Sawyer Middle School

Andrea Johnsen has been one of our PE teachers for many years at Sawyer MS. Recently we had a tragedy with a loss of one of our students. She worked with our PE/Health Department teachers to turn our school-wide Healthy Heart Fun Run into a memorial for Cameron. Her compassion and tenderness spread across our school and helped everyone in the healing process. Ms. Johnsen is a wonderful asset to our school.

Andrea

Johnsen

Kathryn

Ulin

Patricia Bendorf Elementary School

Kathryn Ulin is a great asset to Bendorf Elementary. As our intermediate resource teacher she not only assists with our special education population but she facilitates our PASS tutoring and serves as our Title I liaison. She helped organize our Family Nights and is a valuable member of our school performance team. Everyone knows they can go to Katie for assistance or ideas.

Lawrence Junior High School

Dawn Deering exemplifies the meaning of a truly wonderful educator. In the classroom, she provides her students with a rigorous curriculum and understands the delicate way to scaffold a lesson so that a child does not struggle in the learning process but succeeds in understanding the content. She maintains an exceptional learning environment and encourages all students to do their best. Ms. Deering is a role model for her students with her caring and giving attitude and a quiet leader among the Lawrence staff. Ms. Deering is soft-spoken yet always manages to get her invaluable knowledge and ideas articulated to other staff members in the most gracious way. This school year Ms. Deering added a Best Buddies charter at Lawrence Junior High School. Best Buddies is a club that encourages the pairing of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities in one-to-one friendships with middle school students without intellectual and developmental disabilities. Ms. Deering has organized countless activities after school and during school hours to foster the development of these friendships. The caring nature of such a club embodies the genuine nature of Ms. Deering. She consistently volunteers her time to help the staff, students, and community improve academically and socially through her guidance.