Interview: Mrs. Cunico (

Interview:

Mrs. Cunico 

1. How long have you been teaching? 10 years of teaching pre-school, 6 years of first/second grade. 16 years total!
2. What is your favorite part of your job? Seeing the growth that the kids make, just seeing them them be able to do something that use to be hard for them, or something they couldn't even do at all.
3. What is the most frustrating part of your job? When kids miss so much school. Also with how time crunching it is and time consuming, with making sure you teach everything in the core that you are required to.
4. What kind of disabilities do you see in your class? A.D.D and A.D.H.D. You just see that some kids have a harder time focusing in class, and some kids who just seem to be on a lower maturity level.
5. Do you get help/support from the Special Ed. Teachers? Yes, they help students with homework that I give, and they help with things that I notice they are struggling with in class. They are always willing to give me ideas of what I can do to help, and always willing to let me know what my kids are improving on.
6. What kind of parent support do you get? Pretty good, most parents are really good to help there students with there homework and reading each night. I even have a few parents that come in and help in the classroom, which is really helpful when I have a student that needs to review the last math lesson again before we go on to the next one.
7. How do you feel about inclusion? It is great. It helps kids be more excepting of others. Also helps the lower kids understand more if a class member is willing to help them.
8. What made you want to teach? I enjoy working with kids, love helping students understand things and be able to do things they once couldn't. Just really wanted to make a difference.
9. Do you have any I.E.P's or 504's in your class? Yes, one girl has an 504. I also have a student who goes to speech and he has an I.E.P in there, and then also another little girl who goes to reading and math and has an I.E.P in each of those.
10. What accommodations do you make for those that need them? I usually give extra time on quizzes and test. Repeating instructions multiple times so I make sure everyone hears. Working in smaller groups, so that I can give them all some one on one attention. Having students buddy up on a harder assignments so a higher student can help a lower student and they are both getting the assignment done.

3 Things I Learned from this interview:

          1. Learned that having kids with disabilities in your classroom is a lot more common than most                people think. I think it is great! Love that those kids are having the same experience as their                    peers, and also pushing them to achieve their highest potential.

2. There are so many benefits of teaching, it is so rewarding in so many ways. That teachers affect these young lives. Being positive with them and always encouraging them to do their best, that's the best thing you can do for those students. Being a teacher is not for everyone. They need to be selfless, as they are always doing things for others.
3. Also in the interview we talked about the different rolls that others play in the school, and how they all contribute to the students, and make things run smoother. How librarians can get students excited about reading, how principals can uplift students and give feed back to the teachers so that everyone is doing there best, how the recces workers keep everyone safe while they are having fun, and how the nurse is there just in case. Everyone contributes to the school.

Is Teaching for Me?

Yes! I am still so excited to become a teacher. My dream is still to be a resource teacher at an Elementary School. Sometimes I do get discouraged, because it seems so far away. I have to keep reminding myself that this hard work will pay off. So my next few steps will be finishing up my associates degree, raising my GPA, and taking the prerequisites, before I can apply to the program. I am definitely going to have to work hard and keep my eye on the end goal, even when times get tough. And especially with this baby boy on the way it will be important for me to stay focused and work hard. I definitely think this is the career for me. I love children, and I love to teach them, and watch them learn something new. I love making a difference, and to be able to do that on a daily would make work fun, and would be different everyday. Service Learning has been so fun, and I have learned students say the funniest things, making each day full of memories. I learned that in a cohort not everyone has the same opinions, and ideas. But I feel like it's important that everyone feels like their voice is heard, and it's important that everyone gives in a little. Service Learning was fun and I definitely learned so much from Mrs. Cunico. I have seen so many attributes of a great teacher in her. She is so selfless, kind, patient, smart, understanding, and so much more! I hope that when I become a teacher that I will be as amazing as her. I have loved this class, and it has gotten me so excited for all the classes to come. And it's so reassuring to know that by the time I graduate, I will have learned all that I need to run my own class.  

Classroom Assessment

I have loved the process of blogging through this course, and I feel I have learned so much from both this class and my service learning classroom. It has been great learning in the modules and then going into the classroom and seeing everything first hand. I feel like when I would do the modules I would learn, but it wasn't really until the service learning hours in the classroom were I really feel I gained an understanding, kind of like a testimonial of the things that I had learned in the modules. I loved learning about the different ways of teaching, and then when I would go into the classroom I would be able to point out, ok now Mrs. Cunico is using direct instruction, but here in this lesson she is using hands on learning for the kids. And the diversity lesson was such an eye opener for me. Growing up in the same town for most of your life, you don't really think of anyone else's schedule of circumstance being different from yours. So watching those videos, reading those articles, and then going into Mrs. Cunico's classroom and seeing the different kind of situations these students go through, and then to hear the story about one of Mrs. Cunico's past students. It really was just an eye opener, and it was great to see how to handle some of those situations, so that you can have a great outcome and be the difference they need in their life. Having a place to blog about my experiences has been great, because now I know I have a place to come back to, to read about my experiences, and I know that will help me in the future when I am stuck and wondering what I can do, but remembering that I can look back. It also has helped me see, that I would like to do a class blog so that all the students parents can see what we have been doing in class and to see goals that we have set and fun things like that. In my first blog I feel like I didn't relies how much I would actually would be contributing to the classroom in my service learning hours. But it has been amazing. I am so glad that Mrs. Cunico trusted me to do some of the lessons myself, and to trust me to handle situations, to really get that experience.  This has definitely been my favorite class this semester. It is getting me so excited to go into the teaching field, and getting me so excited for the classes that will lead me there!:)

Standards and Accountability

At the beginning of my service learning hours, Mrs. Cunico was teaching her students 2 digit addition and subtraction. Another thing she was having them work on was the hundredth, tenth, and ones place. They were also very familiar with counting by 5's and 10's, every time they would line up for lunch Mrs. Cunico would have them count by 5's or 10's to 100 until they were all in line. Now that the students understand these, Mrs. Cunico likes to still have the students work on them. Every day after lunch is their Math time. They come in and get out there "Math self start". Some of the questions on the self starter are writing the number of the day (how many days they have been in school). They would write the number and then spell out the number as well, they have a space for making tallies of that number, and then there is a question on either the hundreds, tenths, or ones place. There is even money on the board that Mrs. Cunico has them count and there is a question on that, and also a what time does the clock show question. After they have had sometime to fill those out, she has them go to the carpet where she teaches the math lesson. Then the students go work on a math sheet from their books. When they are finished they get to play a math game. Mrs. Cunico has so many games from word and phonics games to spelling games and math games. But after Math she has them choose from the Math games. Now that they have those things down Mrs. Cunico has moved on to the next step in the math standards. She is now working on 3 digit addition and subtraction. Having just learned the 2 digit addition and subtraction going into the 3 digit addition and subtraction is the next step it was a great transition. The things/rules they worked on with the 2 digits they can now use with the 3 digits with a few more rules/strategies. Math is the one I see most in the service learning class that I am in. As I was talking to Mrs. Cunico about common core and standards. She told me that common core doesn't really affect her because they start that when they are in 3rd grade, not 2nd. But she feels like the standards help them get ready for the 3rd grade and common core testing.  Mrs. Cunico follows the standards, she says most of the time it is great, but she did say sometimes it can be time consuming, and if they are behind she feels like they have to rush to catch up. I feel like Mrs. Cunico does a great job in making sure the students are ready to go on to the 3rd grade. 

Diversity in today's schools

Mrs. Cunico has a lot of things in her room that they talked about in a lot of these modules. She has a word wall to help remind students how to spell. She also has multiple libraries in her class, so there are a wide variety of topics for the students to pick to read about. So I talked to Mrs. Cunico about diversity in the classroom. She told me a story of a boy she had in her class years ago. They had just moved here. This boy, his mom, dad, little brother and sister, his aunt, uncle, and grandma were all in the same small house. The boy was going into Mrs. Cunico's then first grade class. He knew quit a bit of English but being the only one in his family he didn't practice English at home. He was put in an English learning class for 40 minutes each day. But Mrs. Cunico also wanted to be a part of it. So she would have a word or phrase, everyday to ask this boy how to say in Spanish.And they would take time out of the daily schedule for the boy to teach the class. I feel this was a great way to get this student involved in his class and get him excited to come to school rather than wanting to stay home because he was scared of failure or of not fitting in. Also it was fun for the other students to learn some Spanish too. I feel it helped them connect to him more so they also saw they were not all that different, and that being different isn't a bad thing. She also told me about how the little boy would get excited and would go home and teach his family some English. The family moved again at the end of that school year. But the little boys mother stays in contact with Mrs. Cunico, she is still working on her English. What a great story it was. That little act can make such a BIG difference in a young kids schooling experience. Now some of the other things I have seen Mrs. Cunico doing is giving clear and understandable instructions. Before they start on anything she gives them instructions on how she wants it done. Then before she dismiss them to start, she asks them if they have any questions. Making sure they completely understand how to do it before she lets them go to start on it. Another thing I like that Mrs. Cunico does is that when they do buddy work, a lot of times she lets them choice their own partner. But she also every once in a while will place certain students together so that they can help each other in different things. Such as if a student was very good at this subject she would pair them with someone that wasn't as good. Mrs. Cunico also has a student of the week. And that week they get to know this student, they see things they have in common with each other and things that they are different in. In one of the modules I remember it saying how teaching about different countries and not just around holidays. I remember one of my first days in the classroom they were being taught about around the world places. Mrs. Cunico had a packet that looked like a suitcase, and each country they visited she would have a sticker to represent that country and they would put it on there passport (that was a paper in there suit case packet) and the students LOVED this each day when they came in from lunch they would be so excited to see what country they would be visiting that day. They would have a picture of the countries flag in the packet to color, and a sheet of some questions that they wanted to find out about the country. I thought that was an awesome idea. And like I said the students LOVED it and I am sure that is something they are always going to remember. 

Engaging Learners in Today’s Classrooms

I feel like Mrs. Cunico uses engaged learning in the class everyday. She always has fun games planned that get the students involved and to get them to remember harder things like math, and spelling. She plays this around the world game, were students sit on there desks, and one student starts and goes around the room to each student and they either have to solve a math problem for the math game, or for the spelling they go around and each say a letter to spell the word. If the student wins the math problem game they go to the next student and the student that doesn't win sits down in that desk. Now with the spelling game if they say the correct letter that was next in the spelling word they get to stay sitting on top of there desk, if they said the wrong letter than they sit down in their chairs. Mrs. Cunico even has a cheer or song for most lessons. She has a couple sets of pom-poms that she lets the kids use to recite cheers to remember math rules. Mrs. Cunico is even known to "dress up" for a lesson. I remember one week they were learning about different kind of workers/heros in the community. So while the kids were at recess Mrs. Cunico dressed up as a police officer. and when the kids came in they all just though how cool it was and she gave her lesson that way. 

One of the activities that I can remember that Mrs. Cunico could have made more engaging, would be the time she was teaching how to tell time. She had a clock that she could change the time and ask the kids what time it showed. But a way I feel would have made it even more engaging, would be to have had the students make a little clock with paper plates and they could use one of those "do-dads" with the hands attached so they could move the hands, and then Mrs. Cunico could have asked the students to show her a certain time. And then they would have a clock they could work on by themselves.

Creating Productive Learning Environments

A time when Mrs. Cunico offered choice to her students? This week while preparing for Valentines Day Mrs. Cunico let her students decorate there own (however they wanted) Valentines Folder to collect all there Valentines. Mrs. Cunico also has silent reading time everyday, and she has chairs and bean bags all over her room, and she lets the students choose where they want to do there reading. She also likes to reward all her students for doing a good job, if she has a sub and get a good report back she gives them pick a card out of the bingo jar, there are other ways for the students to earn bingo cards. Once the students get a bingo, they have the choice of a few rewards. Last time they all wanted a pajama day / read-athon. This also shows Mrs. Cunico is recognizing and rewarding the hard work of her students. She is constantly complimenting her students on there good work. One thing I really notice, is when the class is kind of being wild, and not listening. She will look for a student who is obeying and being quiet and staying on task and compliment them in front of the class so that others hear that and want to do better too. 

Mrs. Cunico also establishes clear routine in the classroom, making it a productive learning environment. Everyday after lunch Mrs. Cunico does a read out loud, letting the students relax, and calm down from recess. The students know this happens everyday so they come in and sit down and relax. Another thing is after the afternoon recess they come in and get started on there "self starters" of math. It's a booklet and they fill out the page for the day. I feel its productive because students know whats expected of them. Also I feel like its not wasting time, they come in and start working right away. Time is already so short for everything you are trying to get done in a day, so it's nice not having them come in, quiet down, give them instructions. Instead they already know what to do. Mrs. Cunico writes on her board the daily schedule of what the students will be doing. The students like this because they know ahead of time when they are doing things like the library or P.E time. and Mrs. Cunico likes it because the students don't ask her a million times when they will be doing something. 

Teaching Strategies and Development Levels

When I first asked Mrs. Cunico what style of teaching she feels she uses most in the classroom, she said she felt like she uses direct instruction and inquiry. She said sometimes when you are short on time (because you have to fit everything into such a short amount of time.... teachers you know what i'm talking about) is the easiest to make sure that you are getting them all the knowledge they need. Now at first I was thinking...(direct instruction??... that can't be to fun). I was wrong! There are so many benefits to using direct instruction: The teacher gets to state the goals for the lesson, they show/teach the new skill/lesson, then lead them through an instructional activity based on the students interests. I saw this especially when Mrs. Cunico was teaching math (while she also used other strategies as well like active learning, and cooperative learning) She started out with there math cheer, getting the students to understand it was math time and that it still could be fun. She told them what they would be learning, showed them on the board, had examples they went through as a class (letting the students spin a number spinning wheel to determine what numbers they would be using in there math problem, again making it interactive and fun for the kids to remember), and then examples for them to work out with there neighbor's help, and then a math sheet.
I see Mrs. Cunico working so hard with each student, to make sure they are understanding and learning the best they can. She is always willing to answer any of the students questions. Mrs. Cunico has a few low math students that she tries so hard to get them caught up and understanding, giving them a chance to fix there math mistakes, and even giving a couple of them a little longer time on there math tests, so they can take the time and read the problem, figure it out and complete the test. With another student that struggles in spelling, Mrs. Cunico would give him 10 words instead of the regular 15. So instead of getting overwhelmed and not being able to memorize or even study the 15 words, he can focus on the 10. Mrs. Cunico is showing me that it is ok to make accommodation for your students, if they are learning and soaking in the material isn't that what really matters. Isn't that what we as teachers what?? Is for our students to excel, and to see there work and be proud of it.
You can see the trust Mrs. Cunico gives her students, and that they give her. They know she wants them to do great, and they know she is always willing to help them. In another post i'll have to tell you all about Mrs. Cunico's classroom management. I am learning so much!! She doe's an AMAZING job!! This is a teacher who is truly in it for the kids!

Service Learning

The School that I have chosen to do my Service Learning Volunteer hours for is Fox Hollow Elementary. It is in Alpine School District. I have also chosen to do my hours in the 2nd grade class. Mrs. Cunico is kind enough to let me come to her class, to observe, and also to be able to work with the students in her class. I am so excited to learn from Mrs.Cunico, she has been teaching for over 16 years! She has taught pre-school, 1st grade, and is now currently teaching the 2nd grade. When I went driving around my school, I saw a few things. One is that while there may be a lot of fields around this school, that it gives them the opportunity to grow. They already have a ton of students, and I think it's safe to say that when more houses start being built around, they will increase in there students population. Another thing I noticed was the neighborhoods around the school. I never grew up in a neighborhood. But I always love the idea of having neighbors so close and with kids the same age as mine, so that they can walk together to and from school, and have other kids to play with that are so close. I found it very interesting when I looked up some of the facts about Fox Hollow, and saw the boy to girl ratio was so close. Almost 50-50. Always in the schools I grew up in, girls would out number the boys. I am starting my hours on Thursday. I am so excited to dive right in and to be able to assist Mrs.Cunico in all that I can, and all that she will ask of me, to be able to see how a classroom functions on a day to day basis, and to incorporate all that I have already learned into helping in this classroom.