Class 6

I am the Eileen Nagle, the new 6^th grade teacher at Meridian, and I am looking forward to our upcoming year together.

I was raised in northern California in San Francisco and then in the redwood forest near the ocean. In San Francisco I lived in an Irish Catholic neighborhood and attended the local Catholic school. There were 50 students per class with one nun as a teacher. Amazingly, when I transferred to a public school in Sonoma County I was at least a year ahead of the students in my 'tiny' class with only 28 students.

During all of my school years I wrote and directed plays, participated on debate teams with issues such as the Vietnam War, and private versus public schooling.

I often wondered about the structure and delivery system of the public school system. As a senior in high school, I had a concussion and missed at least a month of school; yet with the take-home work I not only had a semester of straight A's, I had the top grade in a couple of my classes. This confirmed my suspicion that there was something wrong with the ideas presented to us of how successful schooling worked.

As I began raising my own family I experimented with a vision outlined in Glenn Doman's How To Teach Your Baby To Read. You should read it, at least the introduction. By employing his methods, with modifications, my daughter was reading at 3 years old, at 5 years my son was reading The Hobbit. The reaction of the school in Vermont of having a 'reader' come into the kindergarten: negative! It led me to the decision to home school my daughter for that year and see what happened. Well, 17 years of home schooling with 5 children happened. Four of those children are in college and my youngest is a senior in high school.

I researched curriculum using at first the A Beka math and moving on to Saxon math as more of John Saxon's books were written. There is a private school in Vermont consisting mostly of Russian immigrants that is based on a thematic structure. I loved the idea and home schooled using that format.

As I began teaching in the charter schools, I loved the idea of the Core Knowledge Curriculum, which is thematically based. History is the catalyst that leads to what the readings and writings will center around. So instead of jumping all day from one idea to another, the students see a 'three dimensional' picture of the era they are studying by approaching it with a variety of learning skills. In reading and writing the students will be moving at their learning level.

I will be teaching the Utah 6^th grade state standards by taking the social studies topics and incorporating them into a thematic curriculum. If you are interested, visit the Core Knowledge website at www.coreknowledge.org to get an idea. There is a wonderful book, The Knowledge Deficit , by E.D. Hirsch that shines a new light on what can be learned.

Three words about Saxon math; I love it!! I used Saxon math for most of my home schooling. The charter schools I have taught in have also used Saxon math. Some schools level the math across the school having all math classes at the same time and students go to the teacher who is teaching their level. Last year I taught the accelerated 4^th graders. We finished 1 ½ math books last year. Several students were excited about their progress and have purchased the 5^th grade book to finish this summer and be prepared for 6^th grade math in the fall.

Since we will be all 6^th graders in one room, I will initially do an assessment of math skills using the Saxon math tests. I would like to create an individualized math program and may need help in the classroom to implement that. Saxon requires homework most days, except test days. The students learn to love test day because it means no homework. About 20 minutes per day is given to the students to work on homework in class.

I welcome parent help and participation. During the year I have culminating activities as we are completing different units. Most likely a few of these will consist of a Roman Days, a Medieval Banquet, and possibly a music fest of music out of England during the 60's. My favorite: The Beatles. I would like a parent to take my outline of ideas and create the event for the class with other parent help.

I appreciate help with the writer's workshop and a variety of other events. I believe in hands-on learning to complement direct instruction, and try to create field trips to reinforce what is being learned. Again we will need parent participation for these activities. Any one with a particular skill in a certain area is most welcome to approach me and see what we can do. I will have a more detailed list of topics after I have had a chance to study the curriculum in more depth and will send out a sign-up sheet for volunteers. Young children in the classroom are too distracting during learning time so I will let parents know if there are some things that can be done from home.

I require a high level of discipline in the classroom. What appears as a very strict environment in the beginning leads to a fun year of learning because we are hopefully not dealing with uncertainties and behavioral issues all year. The expectations are learned at the beginning and then we get on with the exploration of ideas.