ALUMI TEACHER SPOTLIGHT: Looking Forward, Looking Back
by Heather Warren

I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit several teachers from North Spencer County and West Noble School Corporation this fall, and I would like to share with you some of the wonderful activities going on in these corporations, many of which are led by our own alumni.

Annie Gunselman, of Heritage Hills High School, has had success collaborating with the Spanish teacher, Julia Kerchief, in her building. If ESL students at her school are Spanish speakers, they are often encouraged to take the foreign language class as an elective, which means the two teachers have students in common. One strategy Annie has used is to allow her student to write rough drafts in Spanish with the assistance of Ms. Kerchief and then translate and revise these drafts in English in her classroom. This strategy allows the students to have more time to work on their writing, and they receive credit in both classrooms, as well as instruction and clarification in both
Annie Gunselman _____languages.

At the North Spencer Alternative Education Center, some students attend ESL classes and receive tutoring while others prepare to take the GED depending on their individual needs. In addition to her GED tutorial students, Charlene Hess is also currently tutoring students who are transitioning from the ESL program to the GED program. One extraordinary student from Niger is pursuing his studies in English with the goal of returning to his country to translate the Bible into his local dialect. The center’s flexible hours, instituted for the benefit of its working students, require a state of constant preparation on the part of its instructors. Charlene is pleased with the center’s reading preparatory materials and recommends them for use with English Language Learners. The series is called Discovering Fiction…A Reader of American Short Stories by Judith Kay and Rosemary Gelshenen, and it is available from Cambridge University Press.

Also recommended, by Annette Altmeyer from Heritage Hills Middle School, are materials by Carolyn Coil, specifically Teaching Tools for the 21 st Century for developing activities and assessments.

Finally, Tama Rickelman, from Lincoln Trail Elementary, explained that the elementary schools in the corporation are doing curriculum mapping four times a year to establish benchmarks to prevent gaps and repetition in instructions, since students may transfer to different schools within the county. In her own classroom, Tama is focusing on teaching social studies and science through literature. See the Share Fair link for one of Tama’s strategies to motivate students to complete their silent reading.

West Noble School Corporation

Deanna Strombeck and Julia Shepherd Gibbons are co-supervisors for the adult basic education program for Noble County. They offer services for ESL and GED students, with an overall focus on literacy. They are currently working on getting additional funding for a citizenship class to assist students in preparing for the citizenship test. They feel that this collaboration has been successful because they are united in a common goal, and this relationship carries over into their more informal day to day meetings during prep time and in Julia S. Gibbons __the hallways.

The corporation has made strong initial efforts at providing its teachers time to collaborate. At the high school, during homeroom time, teachers have their classes covered so they can attend study groups. ICP alumni, as “resource people” in the building, have been tapped to lead these study groups. Deanna recommends the book, Apple Pies and Enchiladas : Latino Newcomers in the Rural Midwest by Ann Millard and Jorge Chapa which chronicles the impact of increasing newcomers and the reaction of local communities in Indiana, such as Ligonier, who are making headway in terms of providing services and reducing tensions.

Julia, Deanna, Monte Mawhorter, and Dale Marano were also able to present their in-service to their colleagues at the high school. The format they used was a group session designed to raise awareness, followed by breakout sessions. Monte felt teachers responded well in part because they, as presenters, began by providing positive affirmation. They made a list of all the strategies teachers were already employing in their classrooms to help ESL students.

At West Noble Elementary School, teachers of the same grade level meet together for lunch once a week while someone covers their rooms during the students’ recess time. Mindy Morgan explained that the meetings were focused because, at each session, one teacher was asked to share something and there was a clear agenda.

Another policy that Deena Rupert and Brenda Custer mentioned as helpful in terms of collaboration was the use of cluster teachers. These teachers have been assigned all of the ESL students so that when the children are pulled out for instruction, the ESL director, Melanie Tijerina, can work with them in small groups. Melanie also meets with cluster teachers to discuss strategies and send out a monthly memo to the whole staff. These memos include specific strategies to target the issues that have been raised.

Julie Hanna is teaching all day ESL Kindergarten at Ligonier Elementary School. She is using the series On Our Way to English as part of her kindergarten curriculum, a series which is also used in the later grades. Since the majority of her students are just beginning their language acquisition, Julie includes a wide variety of activities in her classroom to appeal to different learning styles (shaving cream to write on desks, songs, puppets, etc.). She and the other members of her cohort assisted in the revision of the ESL handbook for their corporation, which they were then able to go over with colleagues at the beginning of the year. Julie and Julia Gibbons both recommend including “eye-pleasing” documents in these sorts of resources so teachers are not overwhelmed by the amount of text.

A BIG thank you to all of the alumni who welcomed me into their classroom! It is wonderful to see you in action.

If you would like to share some of the activities in your school with the ICP and TACIT participants, e-mail Heather at heawarre@indiana.edu.