Mikayla Clark

Kayla is currently a second grade teacher at Indian Creek Elementary in Olathe, KS

Kayla previously taught 5th grade before moving to second because her closest team member was moving to Wichita, so she decided it was time for a change and the second grade team were a wonderful team to join.

Kayla has a husband named Jake and in February will be getting their second dog.

Her mom was a teacher and her sister is a resource teacher – it’s in her DNA.

Indian Creek is a title school. Kayla worked closely with the previous reading intervention teacher using a new phonics program before it was implemented by the district. She also attended a training for SOR/Dyslexia during COVID. Moving from 2nd really opened her eyes with how students change from leaning to read to reading during the second semester. She felt she didn’t see that blossom as much in 5th grade.

Currently her district is using 95% group and Wit and Wisdom for their ELA resouces. The ELA block is one hour long using W&W (second year of implementation) for their primary resource. Alot of writing occurs during this time and sometimes it is hard to balance. Students do have access to alot of decodables thanks to the Phonics Learning Library. Interventionists or aides push in during the whole group reading time to assist.

Small group reading is 45 minutes long and students are pulled during this block. Phonics is 30 minutes with 95% Chip kit being the primary phonics resource.

Kayla is enthusiatic about learning how kids learn to read. Her school is in the process of learning about DRI – direct reading instruction and have their first training next Friday.

We will meet every other Monday at 3:00. I already created the Zoom meetings.