Notes
Courtney is a 3rd grade teacher in Olathe.
I shared that we had three purposes today:Â to get to know one another, both personally and professionally, to discuss our work together, and to identify some successes and challenges she is seeing in her classroom in literacy instruction.
Courtney shared that she has been married 23 years. She has a daughter who is almost 21, Olivia, who is in school for mortician science; a daughter who is a senior, Elle, who is an overachiever; a freshman named Griffin; and 7th grader named Bennett. She and her husband have partial custody of her niece and nephew, Max in 8th grade, and Abbey in 6th. They also have two dogs. She has taught for 2 1/2 years, was home for 15 years, and did long-term subbing. In 2020, she taught 4th at Woodland, then was the online teacher in 2nd at Countryside, then moved to 3rd at Clearwater Creek.
She reports that there are eight teachers in her school enrolled in this class!
When I asked her to share successes and challenges she jumped to her frustration with Wit & Wisdom. She doesn’t like that they have to share books, she wonders if it hits all the students, instruction is whole group, and she has no “proof” of their knowledge. She said, “I supplement a lot.” She thinks the phonics program is good as a whole. She emphasized that they do sound mapping every day and that it builds confidence in their abilities. She believes that a “safe space” leads to a “brave place.”
We will meet again on 2/10 at 9:50.