WEBVTT

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I am Susan Theunissen. I teach fifth and sixth
grade math here at Sanders Elementary School

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in Hollandale, Mississippi.

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My name is Cortez Johnson. I am a fourth grade
math teacher at Sanders Elementary.

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Child: 253, 254, 255, 256...

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Teacher: Good job, Devlin. Now, our first
number is?

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Children: Seven hundred... (rest of number
inaudible)

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Johnson: Four years ago we just strictly taught
from the textbook. Well, now student engagement

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is much higher. And it's much higher because,
in everybody's classroom with the SIG Grant,

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or School Improvement Grant that we've had,
it allowed all of the classrooms to incorporate

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technology.

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Teacher: What do we do with those?

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Children: Add.

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Teacher: Add them up.

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Johnson: So we use the interactive white board
a whole lot, and we use technology a lot,

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where they are more hands-on. They are able
to, you know, touch and feel, to get up out

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of their seats, instead of just sitting down
at their desk all the time, just with pencil

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and paper writing.

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Theunissen: And they're also...where the
students are more facilitating the lesson.

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The kids are doing more of the talking than
the teacher talks. You put them in small groups

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and you still give them math work, but it's
not solving just a problem. It's more involved

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than that, and they get to actually participate
in it. A lot like the hands-on activities

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in the science class, there's hands-on activities
in our math classes also. And the kids can

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see what they're doing and actually do it,
and it's much better for them.

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Johnson: Those teachers that we're responsible
for, most times they're first-year teachers

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or beginning teachers. We go in those classrooms
just to add support to those teachers.

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Theunissen: And our feedback's not always
formal. Sometimes it's informal. You know,

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walking down the sidewalk, that helps our
teaching a lot. Even if it's, you know,

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someone else that saw my students walking
in a good line and they just make a comment,

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that helps our growth, because the students
see this gets me a good, positive comment.

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Johnson: We collaborate a lot—I think that's
really helpful with teacher morale, because

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when you're a new teacher, sometimes you
might be a little hesitant to talk to people

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that you don't know, but because we collaborate
so much it makes it a whole lot easier, especially

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for those first-year teachers.

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Theunissen: We're a very open school here.
In the mornings, it's "good morning."

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We speak to everyone. When we leave in the
afternoons, people check to make sure there

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is no one left in the hallways. We are very
open to one another. When Mr. Johnson gives

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me a suggestion, "Ms. Theunissen, you could
try this," I don't take it that he is

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putting down my teaching. I take it that he
is giving me an idea of something that I can

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use to help my teaching and help my students.

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Johnson: When we have our PLC meetings, Professional
Learning Communities, we make a conscious

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effort to bring to the meetings what you're
teaching in each lesson. We collaborate with

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each other on what we're teaching and during
our planning, we make a conscious effort to

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teach across curriculums so we won't just
be teaching in isolation. We can relate things

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that they've learned in their previous science
class or social studies or language arts class

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into the math class and vice versa.

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Theunissen: During our summer school program,
there are times in their afternoon when the

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teachers, the summer school teachers, stay
for professional development. That teachers

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at Sanders Elementary have done professional
development with our summer school teachers

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in math and reading and language.

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Johnson: We want to show growth with every
student, even if it's not the growth that

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we are looking for or that should be for that
particular grade level. They are showing growth,

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so we do know that what we're doing is working.