Vickery Creek Elementary Experience
Intro to Elementary I have had the opportunity to teach all content areas during my time in fifth grade, but have had the most impact on my school in the math, science and social studies content areas.
Math In each of my four years at Vickery Creek my classes' math scores saw an increase of no less than twenty percent (increase in the exceeds category). In addition I served on the 5th grade math frameworks committee, which was responsible for aligning the county math curriculum to the state math tasks. We also created standards based math assessments, which were one of the reasons why the 5th grade math scores, in Forsyth County, increased by 8% in the exceeds category in 2011. Social Studies I have prided myself in my social studies instruction over the past three years. In addition to having CRCT results which were 30-40% higher than the county average over the past three years (based on exceeds category), I have also designed study guides and standards based assessments which are now being used by all the fifth grade teachers at my school. I take greater pride, however, in my project based learning which has included making a WWII documentary each year, student designed websites and a stock market simulation, designed to simulate the economy of the 1920's. These meaningful projects evoke a high quality of writing out of students, as they truly care about the final product. If you don't believe me listen to the newsreel script or check out the Cold War website linked on the right hand side of this page. Science When possible I like to have students experiencing science in a hands-on manner. One of my favorite projects that I have designed for fifth grade is having students create an electric holiday display with Christmas lights. |
Testing DataWhile I pride myself more in my project based teaching style, my standardized test results speak for themselves. You can click here to view my testing data from the past three years.
Student Work SamplesNewsreel Sample
My fifth grade students researched, wrote scripts, gathered photos and videos and then created segments of a newsreel documentary. Student Website Design Sample
One of my more popular activities has been teaching students how to design their own websites. I have linked an example website created by one of my students about the Cold War. The password to access the site is a single exclamation point. Cold War Website |
