Class 5

I am LeAnn Nyman and I am the new 5^th grade teacher at Meridian and I am so excited for this coming year, even though it seems like summer just began. I was born and raised in a small community just outside of Blackfoot, Idaho. My childhood home was situated between the Blackfoot River and the Snake River, so consequently most of my childhood was spent outside in the fields, floating on the rivers, or laying in the hammock with a favorite book.

I attended the local public schools until I graduated high school in 2001. At which point, I spent a year at Utah State University before returning to Idaho State University, where I graduated in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and a minor in Library Science.

Music has been a passion of mine since I begged my parents to let me have piano lessons when I was in first grade. I continued with this throughout middle school and high school participating in the Symphonic Band, Jazz Band, Marching Band, and Choir. It wasn’t until my senior year that I had the courage to try out for West Side Story with our community players that I discovered my love for drama. Although I was kept busy by the music, I was also involved on basketball and softball teams too.

Despite being busy with music and sports, I spent a great deal of time with my family. I am the youngest of 8 children and I am an aunt to 22 nieces and nephews, who I love and adore. It was these children who first invoked the passion for teaching within me. As I have watched them struggle and succeed within classrooms, they have made me realize that every person learns differently with different passions and interests.

Though I have only been teaching since the beginning of this year, I have tried to bring different ways to teach, and subsequently, learn into my classroom. After spending the past 6 years in college classes where most professors drone on and on, I make class as interesting and engaging as possible. I love to do activities that are hands-on and messy. It’s just more fun that way and we all remember what we learned too!

Since this is my first year teaching 5^th grade, I am still discovering the curriculum and will have it all worked out by the time school rolls around. I am sure we are in for an adventure but the 5^th grade core is so much fun. I love American History, though I didn’t always like it when I was in school, but I had a professor who made it real and that is what I plan to do in our class this year. When history is only dates and facts, it’s no fun, so we are going to try hard in our class to make it come to life and become meaningful to everyone involved.

This year for writing, we will be doing writing workshop, along with writing buddies for the kindergarten class. Along with this, I would like to do a young author book, where each student will write his/her own book over the course of the year. This will be a great experience, especially since all authors of the books we love were young once too. Reading will be an integral part in our classroom. I love to read myself, and I love to see when students catch fire with a good book and just can’t put it down. I know that passion, joy, and excitement of reading may not be listed on the state core, but this is a standard I hope to reach within our classroom.

Though I love to have fun in class, I also have high expectations within our class. Growing up I had a few teachers who always seemed to be yelling at one of the students, this is all I remember about them. I was too afraid of them to remember much else. The teachers who I remember learning the most from had a welcoming classroom, with trust. That is what our classroom will be like this year. It will be a classroom built on trust and honesty. I expect us all; myself included, to be kind and work hard this coming year.

I welcome parent involvement whenever it is possible, for a few minutes or an hour, it is all appreciated. Your involvement will help to make this year great. I am looking forward to working with you, both students and parents, this year. If you have any questions or need anything, please feel free to contact me anytime. My current email address is leannnyman@gmail.com. When this is updated to a school account, I will let you know.