The Teacher's Lounge
Educators Reflect on the 2017-2018 School Year
Look Ahead for the 2018-2019 School Year
Chris Wooleyhand,PhD
@principal64
@principal64
@principal64
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What is the one/biggest educational memory/moment for you during the 2017-2018 school year?
Chris Wooleyhand, Ph.D.: Last year was great! My memories are always filled with the stories of staff members helping students reach their potential. Our teachers and support staff go out of their way to support students and their families. There were many success stories and the one common element for each student was that they had teachers who wouldn’t give up on them.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What is your hope for students, parents, and educators in the 2018-2019 school year?
Chris Wooleyhand, Ph.D.: The start of every school year is always exciting. When I stop getting that feeling, I know it will be time to retire. The first thing we work on is establishing strong relationships inside our classrooms. Once that happens, we then focus on building success through the strengths of our students as well as their interests. If our students can look back on their year with pride over their accomplishments, then we’ve done our job.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What are three goals you have for your students during the 2018-2019 school year?
Chris Wooleyhand, Ph.D.:
1. Help students become goal oriented so that they own their learning.
2. Support their social and emotional growth through school wide proactive practices.
3. Foster a love for learning that lasts a lifetime.
Christopher Wooleyhand, Ph.D.
Principal
Pershing Hill Elementary
Chris Wooleyhand, Ph.D.: Last year was great! My memories are always filled with the stories of staff members helping students reach their potential. Our teachers and support staff go out of their way to support students and their families. There were many success stories and the one common element for each student was that they had teachers who wouldn’t give up on them.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What is your hope for students, parents, and educators in the 2018-2019 school year?
Chris Wooleyhand, Ph.D.: The start of every school year is always exciting. When I stop getting that feeling, I know it will be time to retire. The first thing we work on is establishing strong relationships inside our classrooms. Once that happens, we then focus on building success through the strengths of our students as well as their interests. If our students can look back on their year with pride over their accomplishments, then we’ve done our job.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What are three goals you have for your students during the 2018-2019 school year?
Chris Wooleyhand, Ph.D.:
1. Help students become goal oriented so that they own their learning.
2. Support their social and emotional growth through school wide proactive practices.
3. Foster a love for learning that lasts a lifetime.
Christopher Wooleyhand, Ph.D.
Principal
Pershing Hill Elementary
Barbara Cotter
@BcCotter
@BcCotter
@BcCotter
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What is the one biggest educational memory/moment for you during the 201/2018 school year?
Barbara Cotter: For me this was not just a moment but definitely a life long learning. Getting to see my Gulf EAL learners embrace technology in a way that makes integration with other core curriculum, more meaningful and personal to them.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What is you hope for students, parents, and educators in the 2018-2019 school year?
Barbara Cotter: I would like to see all embrace technology not for technology sake, but rather for making their life as a whole more engaging, simplified, and interesting. Using technology to truly collaborate and interact with like minds for the purpose of exploring environmental, cultural and social issues that can be resolved or looked into as experienced by others with similar interests.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What are three goals you have for your students during the 2018-2019 school year?
Barbara Cotter: My Three (3) goals for this academic school year are:
a. Engage in collaboration across the globe to address common issues and interests alike.
b. Recognize that the technology is first and foremost just a tool and will do as much or as little as they the user intend on utilizing it for. Maximize and explore the many possible ways to using technology to not just simplify living but to also make living a wholesome life.
c. Learning should be fun, meaningful and purposeful regardless of the lack of or surplus of technology. True creativity can be discovered based on how they see their glass. Either as HALF EMPTY or HALF FULL. How they choose to approach it and their decision making process, will determine their longevity and active marketability in this competitive world.
Barbara Cotter
Technology Integration Specialist
Technology Director
Barbara Cotter: For me this was not just a moment but definitely a life long learning. Getting to see my Gulf EAL learners embrace technology in a way that makes integration with other core curriculum, more meaningful and personal to them.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What is you hope for students, parents, and educators in the 2018-2019 school year?
Barbara Cotter: I would like to see all embrace technology not for technology sake, but rather for making their life as a whole more engaging, simplified, and interesting. Using technology to truly collaborate and interact with like minds for the purpose of exploring environmental, cultural and social issues that can be resolved or looked into as experienced by others with similar interests.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What are three goals you have for your students during the 2018-2019 school year?
Barbara Cotter: My Three (3) goals for this academic school year are:
a. Engage in collaboration across the globe to address common issues and interests alike.
b. Recognize that the technology is first and foremost just a tool and will do as much or as little as they the user intend on utilizing it for. Maximize and explore the many possible ways to using technology to not just simplify living but to also make living a wholesome life.
c. Learning should be fun, meaningful and purposeful regardless of the lack of or surplus of technology. True creativity can be discovered based on how they see their glass. Either as HALF EMPTY or HALF FULL. How they choose to approach it and their decision making process, will determine their longevity and active marketability in this competitive world.
Barbara Cotter
Technology Integration Specialist
Technology Director
LaConti Bryant, Ph.D.
@LaContiBryant
@LaContiBryant
@LaContiBryant
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What is the one/biggest education memory/moment for you during the 2017-2018 school year?
Dr. LaConti S. Bryant: The one biggest educational memory for the 2017-2018 school year was one shared with my husband who is also a teacher. He worked at an all-male middle school and they had a special guest, Roland Martin, come to his school to address the student body. There was a lot of student engagement as Mr. Martin spoke openly with the young men not only about their educational journey but life as a whole and how choices they are making now and will make will have an effect on their future. In the weeks after Mr. Martin’s visit, it was observed that many students did actually reflect on the words that were shared with them. This was a very important observation because we as teachers truly desire our students to take time to reflect and think about their choices and make the right decisions not just for their educational goals but also for their life goals.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What is your hope for students, parents, and educators in the 2018-2019 school year?
Dr. LaConti S. Bryant: My hope for students is they become vested in their academic careers. My hope for parents is active engagement. I believe that starts with me as the classroom teacher. I have a responsibility to provide a conducive and collaborative environment that encourages parental involvement. Often, parents do not hear from teachers unless there is a problem. My goal was to change that for my students and parents this school year. One thing I did differently this year was to reach out to the parents the first week of school with positive comments about students. I intentionally called the parent of students that have behavior challenges. I want to build the emotional bank so that on those days I have to make phone calls or set up conferences parents are on board to help support their student.
My hope for educators is that we foster productive, professional relationships that benefit students, parents, and our colleagues. As I spoke with my business coach about this I came to a realization about myself. I learned that I was not intentional in relationship building with colleagues. As I started this year, I smiled more. I took the time to have conversations with colleagues that previously tried to engage me but to no avail. I set my intent on building positive relationships from the beginning of the school year.
As professionals, we engage research to learn about best practices instead of relying on someone to tell us what they are. Just as I desire for children to take charge of their academic careers, my hope for my colleagues to be vested in their professional growth and development. `
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What are three goals you have for your student during the 2018-2019 school year?
Dr. LaConti S. Bryant: Firstly, I would desire for my students to take ownership of their education and be more intentional about engaging in their class work as well as assigned homework. It is of utmost importance they learn at this early stage prior to their college years to take their own education serious and begin to prepare their minds for the rigors of college. My next goal for my students would be that they seek to be more socially responsible. This includes more than just being community-minded but also entails how they treat their peers, teachers and other adults. With the advent of numerous school shootings over the past few years, bullying in schools has become center stage and it has caused much damage to families as well as other students. My desire for my students as well as all students is that they become more aware of and intercede when appropriate to combat bullying in their school. Lastly, it is my goal for my students to not just do well on their state assessments, but rather to show growth in knowledge and understanding. I want them to be able to go to the next grade level and have a foundational understanding of their subjects so that the next year’s teachers will have something on which to build upon.
LaConti S. Bryant, Ph.D.
K-12 Educator
Principal Owner/Trainer/Consultant at Best Practices Educational Consulting, LLC
Dr. LaConti S. Bryant: The one biggest educational memory for the 2017-2018 school year was one shared with my husband who is also a teacher. He worked at an all-male middle school and they had a special guest, Roland Martin, come to his school to address the student body. There was a lot of student engagement as Mr. Martin spoke openly with the young men not only about their educational journey but life as a whole and how choices they are making now and will make will have an effect on their future. In the weeks after Mr. Martin’s visit, it was observed that many students did actually reflect on the words that were shared with them. This was a very important observation because we as teachers truly desire our students to take time to reflect and think about their choices and make the right decisions not just for their educational goals but also for their life goals.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What is your hope for students, parents, and educators in the 2018-2019 school year?
Dr. LaConti S. Bryant: My hope for students is they become vested in their academic careers. My hope for parents is active engagement. I believe that starts with me as the classroom teacher. I have a responsibility to provide a conducive and collaborative environment that encourages parental involvement. Often, parents do not hear from teachers unless there is a problem. My goal was to change that for my students and parents this school year. One thing I did differently this year was to reach out to the parents the first week of school with positive comments about students. I intentionally called the parent of students that have behavior challenges. I want to build the emotional bank so that on those days I have to make phone calls or set up conferences parents are on board to help support their student.
My hope for educators is that we foster productive, professional relationships that benefit students, parents, and our colleagues. As I spoke with my business coach about this I came to a realization about myself. I learned that I was not intentional in relationship building with colleagues. As I started this year, I smiled more. I took the time to have conversations with colleagues that previously tried to engage me but to no avail. I set my intent on building positive relationships from the beginning of the school year.
As professionals, we engage research to learn about best practices instead of relying on someone to tell us what they are. Just as I desire for children to take charge of their academic careers, my hope for my colleagues to be vested in their professional growth and development. `
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What are three goals you have for your student during the 2018-2019 school year?
Dr. LaConti S. Bryant: Firstly, I would desire for my students to take ownership of their education and be more intentional about engaging in their class work as well as assigned homework. It is of utmost importance they learn at this early stage prior to their college years to take their own education serious and begin to prepare their minds for the rigors of college. My next goal for my students would be that they seek to be more socially responsible. This includes more than just being community-minded but also entails how they treat their peers, teachers and other adults. With the advent of numerous school shootings over the past few years, bullying in schools has become center stage and it has caused much damage to families as well as other students. My desire for my students as well as all students is that they become more aware of and intercede when appropriate to combat bullying in their school. Lastly, it is my goal for my students to not just do well on their state assessments, but rather to show growth in knowledge and understanding. I want them to be able to go to the next grade level and have a foundational understanding of their subjects so that the next year’s teachers will have something on which to build upon.
LaConti S. Bryant, Ph.D.
K-12 Educator
Principal Owner/Trainer/Consultant at Best Practices Educational Consulting, LLC
Gery Moreno
@gery66
@gery66
@gery66
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What is the one/biggest educational memory/moment for you during the 2017-2018 school year?
Gery Moreno: When I began the 2017-2018 school year, I realized teaching students was not about knowing the content. It was about motivating them to want to learn the content. There is one student who stands out. This particular student had insecurities about Math and did not have intrinsic motivation. Through small talk and affirmations, this student went from being one of my lowest to the highest within 3 months. It was an amazing feeling of joy and success that I will never forget.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What is your hope for students, parents, and educators in the 2018-2019 school year?
Gery Moreno: My hope is that students, as well as parents, become involved in the education of the student. When there are parent and teacher involvement, there is a level of performance by that particular student that meets and exceeds expectations.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What are three goals you have your students during the 2018-2019 school year?
Gery Moreno: I want to impact my students to where they never forget the confidence the built while in my class. There is a level of confidence I display and there is a level of confidence I expect my students to have no matter their background or overall grade.
The second goal for my students is to learn how to problem solve effectively. If every student learns how to take a challenging task and come up with a solution and explanation, then one of my personal goals as a teacher has been met. If they can problem solve effectively, it will transfer to every aspect of their life and eventually into adulthood.
Lastly, I expect my students to make the decision to work for themselves in school and in their personal lives. When they become self-aware of how much power they have, they will be able to attain any goal they set their minds to as long as they take full responsibility for themselves.
Gery Moreno
Certified Bilingual Educator
Math Instruction, Grade 6
Gery Moreno: When I began the 2017-2018 school year, I realized teaching students was not about knowing the content. It was about motivating them to want to learn the content. There is one student who stands out. This particular student had insecurities about Math and did not have intrinsic motivation. Through small talk and affirmations, this student went from being one of my lowest to the highest within 3 months. It was an amazing feeling of joy and success that I will never forget.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What is your hope for students, parents, and educators in the 2018-2019 school year?
Gery Moreno: My hope is that students, as well as parents, become involved in the education of the student. When there are parent and teacher involvement, there is a level of performance by that particular student that meets and exceeds expectations.
Forest Of The Rain Productions: What are three goals you have your students during the 2018-2019 school year?
Gery Moreno: I want to impact my students to where they never forget the confidence the built while in my class. There is a level of confidence I display and there is a level of confidence I expect my students to have no matter their background or overall grade.
The second goal for my students is to learn how to problem solve effectively. If every student learns how to take a challenging task and come up with a solution and explanation, then one of my personal goals as a teacher has been met. If they can problem solve effectively, it will transfer to every aspect of their life and eventually into adulthood.
Lastly, I expect my students to make the decision to work for themselves in school and in their personal lives. When they become self-aware of how much power they have, they will be able to attain any goal they set their minds to as long as they take full responsibility for themselves.
Gery Moreno
Certified Bilingual Educator
Math Instruction, Grade 6