New English Teachers Creating Change
Two teachers have joined the English department for the current school year
By Abigail Shlimenzon
Two teachers have joined the English department for the current school year
By Abigail Shlimenzon
This year two new teachers have joined the English department, Ryan Alpers and Mary Berger, bringing new skills and teaching methods with them.
Currently Alpers is teaching English 5-6 and English 1-2, but he taught a range of classes from Intervention to AP Capstone during his 11 years at Lincoln High School. English department chair Beth Stafford feels that his experience will help improve her department with the skills that he has brought with him. “He has a lot of experience,” Stafford said. “He has taught a wide range of classes from Intervention to AP, so we have much to learn from him. His experience teaching AP Capstone is probably what we most hope to learn from.” Berger recently finished her student teaching virtually at Los Gatos High School, and Stafford feels that the technology skills she learned from San José State University have proven to be useful during these new circumstances of distance learning. With her new ideas and creative use of technology, she has been able to help students on a more individual level despite not teaching in-person. |
“I’ve found that making collaborative Google Slide decks can be a successful way to work together in real-time in our WebEx classes. I make each student his or her own Google Slide and then after they’ve written the assignment, I can read through their work and edit their writing with them, giving specific advice on how to improve,” Berger said.
One student in Berger’s class, Makayla Mann, 9, finds that using Google Slides is easy and aids peer and teacher communication on assignments.
“My favorite tool that she uses are the collaborative Google Slides because she can help us improve our writing with us in class together,” Mann said.
Sadie Cook, 9, also feels that Berger’s teaching methods have allowed her to focus better and improve writing skills.
“She uses a lot of Google Slides and Google Docs to take notes from. I think it helps me stay on track and know what I’m supposed to be doing,” Cook said.
In Alpers’ class, students like how simple it is to communicate with him during WebEx meetings. Heather Carter, 11 uses a function implemented in the chat, which provides students with a simple yet effective way to communicate with the teacher. Not only can such a simplistic tool help relieve the stress of having to ask questions, but it can also incite students to ask more questions.
“I can press the ‘raise my hand’ in class or privately chat with him in class. I like being able to ask him anything in class through text, it’s more comfortable,” Carter said.
The new teachers have been able to merge their skills into the English department and teach effectively with the help of effective communication used often inside the department and school. Stafford explained that the use of staff meetings and text messages has been a useful platform for teachers to communicate different methods of teaching and share advice.
“Weekly or bi-monthly collaboration meetings (now through Cisco Webex), emails, and lots of text messages are used. We talk a lot, share ideas and opinions, and work together to compromise. We are all very student centered and want to do right by our students, so that guides a lot of the discussion,” Stafford said.
Overall, the new English teachers find the environment at Pioneer to be very welcoming with a strong bond between the teachers, students, and other staff members.
“I love the environment at Pioneer. Our principal is really approachable and funny,” Berger said, “He plays music at the beginning of staff meetings. They also have fun raffles during our staff WebEx meetings, which makes me feel like teachers are appreciated here.”
One student in Berger’s class, Makayla Mann, 9, finds that using Google Slides is easy and aids peer and teacher communication on assignments.
“My favorite tool that she uses are the collaborative Google Slides because she can help us improve our writing with us in class together,” Mann said.
Sadie Cook, 9, also feels that Berger’s teaching methods have allowed her to focus better and improve writing skills.
“She uses a lot of Google Slides and Google Docs to take notes from. I think it helps me stay on track and know what I’m supposed to be doing,” Cook said.
In Alpers’ class, students like how simple it is to communicate with him during WebEx meetings. Heather Carter, 11 uses a function implemented in the chat, which provides students with a simple yet effective way to communicate with the teacher. Not only can such a simplistic tool help relieve the stress of having to ask questions, but it can also incite students to ask more questions.
“I can press the ‘raise my hand’ in class or privately chat with him in class. I like being able to ask him anything in class through text, it’s more comfortable,” Carter said.
The new teachers have been able to merge their skills into the English department and teach effectively with the help of effective communication used often inside the department and school. Stafford explained that the use of staff meetings and text messages has been a useful platform for teachers to communicate different methods of teaching and share advice.
“Weekly or bi-monthly collaboration meetings (now through Cisco Webex), emails, and lots of text messages are used. We talk a lot, share ideas and opinions, and work together to compromise. We are all very student centered and want to do right by our students, so that guides a lot of the discussion,” Stafford said.
Overall, the new English teachers find the environment at Pioneer to be very welcoming with a strong bond between the teachers, students, and other staff members.
“I love the environment at Pioneer. Our principal is really approachable and funny,” Berger said, “He plays music at the beginning of staff meetings. They also have fun raffles during our staff WebEx meetings, which makes me feel like teachers are appreciated here.”