Reading, vocabulary in teachers’ focus
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Reading, vocabulary in teachers’ focus
During the summer vacation, teachers have been sharpening their skills in workshops at Emporia State University’s Jones Institute for Educational Excellence.
A July 9 workshop brought information to help teachers’ improve students’ literacy skills. Erin Pittenger, presenter, lead about 30 teachers through “The Daily Five,” a series of literacy tasks that students complete while the teacher meets with other students individually or in small groups. The tasks studied are: reading to self, reading with someone else, writing, word work and listening to reading.
Teachers from the Emporia school district who attended the workshop were Ashley Bollinger, Megan Cox, Melissa Johnson, Gena Langley, Traci Meyer, Jeri Scheve, Roberts Shafer, Erin Stahl and Wendy Stanbrough. Other participants included Amy Birk of the LeRoy-Gridley district, Gennifer Birk of Southern Lyon County and Judeen Bachura of Morris County. Ali Geitz, Kathy Harsch, Christy Meiers, Lori Puckett and Cori Thomas represented the Three Lakes Educational Cooperative of Lyndon.
A July 14 workshop focused on Reading Recovery, an intensive one-to-one tutoring program that targets the lowest-achieving first-graders. In the program, which is used in 58 Kansas school districts, nearly 90 percent of first-graders who were struggling with learning to read and write improved to the same level of their classmates, according to a study by Emporia State’s Reading Recovery University Training Center.
Teachers who participated in the Reading Recovery workshop included Linda Born of the Lebo-Waverly district and Donna Arndt of the Southern Lyon County District.
Heading state group
Martha Leek, assistant to the chief executive officer of TFI Family Services in Emporia, has begun her term as president of the Kansas Division of the International Association of Administrative Professionals.
Leek’s time of leadership for the organization began on July 1.
The association represents about 40,000 members and affiliates in nearly 600 chapters worldwide. Its goal is to enhance the success of career-minded administrative professionals by providing opportunities for growth through education community building and leadership development.
The Kansas division holds educational seminars in the spring and fall, as well as an annual meeting in June.
A reminder …
The Emporia Area Chamber and Visitors Bureau has set a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, celebrating the new location of KISS 103.1 radio at 541 Sherman St.