Michelle Lawless

1st grade meeting

9/30/15

The first grade team meeting was very informative and eye
opening. I honestly didn't know meetings this in depth about
certain students existed. I was also very surprised in all who
attended. All first grade math teachers, assistant principal,
counselor, math and reading coach, and other administration that
was very helpful. This many faculty and staff working so hard
together to raise kids skills was inspiring for me to see. Trace
crossings faculty and staff really do care for their students.
There were several things I learned about teaching reading
and math in this meeting as well. I had never thought about the
relationship between math and reading, but Mrs. Dunn was
adamant about it. Mrs. Bowen began talking about one student in
her class who didnt seem to have any number sense. This
student is an ELL student recently having moved from India. Mrs.
Dunn constantly asked if this student could count in their native
language just so Mrs. Bowen could see if the student had any
number sense. This was really good information for Mrs. Bowen

because she realized that maybe there is something to work with

in this student and she wont be starting from scratch.
This meeting included a lot of teacher vocabulary, which I
was confused with at first, but slowly understood as the meeting
came to an end. A PNOA was constantly talked about during this
meeting and I soon realized it was a type of math assessment
that all these teachers were getting their data form. There was
also a lot of talk about Tier 1,2, and 3. I know we had gone over
this in class before, but seeing it used in real life data made it
more understandable for me. These teachers really do heavily
rely on these tiers as a guideline for where their students fall.
I really enjoyed attending this meeting and look forward to
attending a full faculty meeting. This meeting was an eye opener
and really made me understand why I became a teacher, to help
these students. These teachers all care about their students so
much and want nothing but to see them succeed.