JONATHAN CANNON/HERALD DEMOCRAT
First grader Sean Harian samples the temperature of three cups of water before his teacher, Candace Fulenchek, inserts thermometers to take each sample’s temperature. Fulenchek is one of three instructional assistants at Terrell Elementary in Denison who serves as a co-teacher for first grade. As she works with this group of students, the classroom’s lead teacher, Lynn Davis, works with other students. Fulenchek and Sean are pictured here with Lacy Frisbee-Butler, in the green; Dyemend Garnett, in the purple; and Mikayla Logan, on far-right.
They say necessity is the mother of invention. If you believe that then it doesn’t take a paternity test to prove that innovation is the less-well-known son.
In the case of Terrell Elementary School in Denison, campus administrators have innovated by adding teachers but not classrooms to address a high first grade population.
“It was a win-win situation for us,” said Kathryn Cheatham, curriculum specialist for Terrell.
Classroom space is limited at the campus, but when all the first grade classes reached 22 students this year, campus administrators decided something had to be done.
“We feel like the lower grades are the ones that need the lower ratio, because that is where they’re learning to read,” Cheatham said.
Lynn Davis, one of the first grade teachers, said teachers were asked early in the year if they wanted to pick four students each to go into a new class and let the school hire another teacher. “We were so attached to our kids already,” she said. “They’re just a sweet group, we didn’t want to let any of them go.”
One of the first grade teachers already had a student teacher in her classroom, so the school decided to hire three instructional assistants, certified teachers to serve as co-teachers. Since the instructional assistants are not contracted employees, the arrangement is costing the campus less than regular classroom teachers. Cheatham explained that the instructional assistants have fewer responsibilities than regular teachers.
And, she said, the instruction assistants are new to teaching or are returning, and the position is a way for them to get their foot in the door. “It’s a chance to teach … with your own ideas,” said Candace Fulenchek, one of the instructional assistants, who spent last year, her first year after receiving her teaching certificate, substitute teaching.
The arrangement has a big advantage for the students, too. “They’re getting a double dose of learning,” Davis said.
Cheatham said students are getting more time with their teachers in small groups. “While the teacher’s working in a small group, the assistant can be working with a small group of kids who are struggling or vice versa, and we just felt like that was a good use of our funds,” she explained.
On Friday, during students’ science lesson, Davis and Fulenchek were doing just that.
Fulenchek worked with groups of four or five, taking the temperature of three cups of water. Students learned to read an analog thermometer, practiced counting by twos and learned about energy. In the meantime, Davis made her way around the room, working with students individually on a different part of the lesson.
“Our primary reason for getting these ladies in here is because we want to give our kids the best opportunity,” Davis said. “We’ve got kids that go from high (performing) to struggling, and our goal is to put kids in smaller groups — as small as we can so every child at our school learns.”
Davis said the arrangement also gives students the opportunity to learn from different teaching styles.
“Some kids work well with one teaching style where they might not work well with another, and so by having two different teachers in there, they can go between the two, and what they might not have gotten over here, they can get over here,” she said. “You just have to teach kids at whatever modality they’re at. Some kids learn by getting up and moving, while others learn by listening.”
Finally, (and in keeping with our proverb theme), two heads are better than one, Cheatham said.
“The more people you have talking … about lessons and what they need to do, the better it is for the kids because they’re creating lesson plans that are higher level, that engage the students, that entertain the students and that make the students motivated to learn,” Cheatham said.
