New kindergarten teacher Sue Ackerman says she wants to incorporate parents’ jobs and interests into her students’ learning and to connect classroom lessons to activities at home.
“I come from a preschool background. I’m all about hands-on learning,” she said.
Ackerman also will be introducing her 23 students to technology through the use of a “Smartboard,” a kind of interactive, electronic chalkboard, and by use of two classroom iPads during “choice time” sessions once weekly.
“Right now we’re focused on learning fine motor skills. When you’re practicing fine motor skills, you can only get little boys to draw circles for so long. On the iPad, it’s more engaging to them and different. Whatever we’re learning in the classroom, I try to find an app to support it,” Ackerman said, as devices presents the same learning in a different context.
Ackerman said her approach to teaching is very research-based. “I try to keep up with what’s current and I believe in learning through play and hands-on engagement.”
On the classroom’s Smartboard, Ackerman will post the calendar and each day’s schedule of activities. Students participate by moving their names on the Smartboard to activities they’d like to participate in, and by changing days on the calendar.
The Smartboard can also store poster-sized information like song lyrics, saving a teacher both storage space and time, Ackerman said.
Upcoming student trips around town will be to the Sheldon Museum, firehall and American Bald Eagle Foundation. The class goes to the public library for story time on alternate Fridays.
Ackerman’s previous experience includes teaching preschool, including last year in Sitka, two years at a private preschool in Thailand and seven years as a Headstart teaching in Seattle and Bellingham, Wash.
Kim Cunningham is director of support services for the school district, overseeing special education, assessment coordination and testing, and compliance with federal grants.
The administration position is a new one for the district and removes responsibility for administering federal grants from teachers and teachers’ aides. Those responsibilities previously fell to staff overseeing programs under Title 1, Migrant Education and Indian Education, and Carl Perkins (vocational education) grants.
“It’s more efficient having one person who knows the ins and outs of the programs and the grants handle them and be able to see the programs and funding as a whole,” explained principal Rene Martin. “(The position) also creates that support, supporting the teachers so they can do what their main jobs are.”
Cunningham is a 22-year education veteran who has worked as an elementary and high school teacher and special education coordinator.
Besides working 18 years in her native Texas, she spent four years as a school principal in the Middle East, where she learned about Haines from former superintendent Ginger Jewell.
Cunningham is certified to be a superintendent and teach English as a second language and she also worked overseeing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants in Texas.
A family member who has intensive needs partly inspired Cunningham to want to work with special education students.
“Their high moments are so much bigger. When the light bulb goes on, it’s a major hurdle achieved,” she said. “It’s harder but the rewards are bigger. You can see the difference you make.”
The hunting and fishing opportunities here were particularly a draw for her family, Cunningham said.
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Kim Cunningham is director of support services for the school district, overseeing special education, assessment coordination and testing, and compliance with federal grants.
The administration position is a new one for the district and removes responsibility for administering federal grants from teachers and teachers’ aides. Those responsibilities previously fell to staff overseeing programs under Title 1, Migrant Education and Indian Education, and Carl Perkins (vocational education) grants.
“It’s more efficient having one person who knows the ins and outs of the programs and the grants handle them and be able to see the programs and funding as a whole,” explained principal Rene Martin. “(The position) also creates that support, supporting the teachers so they can do what their main jobs are.”
Cunningham is a 22-year education veteran who has worked as an elementary and high school teacher and special education coordinator.
Besides working 18 years in her native Texas, she spent four years as a school principal in the Middle East, where she learned about Haines from former superintendent Ginger Jewell.
Cunningham is certified to be a superintendent and teach English as a second language and she also worked overseeing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants in Texas.
A family member who has intensive needs partly inspired Cunningham to want to work with special education students.
“Their high moments are so much bigger. When the light bulb goes on, it’s a major hurdle achieved,” she said. “It’s harder but the rewards are bigger. You can see the difference you make.”
The hunting and fishing opportunities here were particularly a draw for her family, Cunningham said.
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New school counselor Kristen Brumfield has worked two years as a school counselor in Walden, Colo., and previously worked five years with at-risk students and in the social-emotional curriculum at an elementary and middle school.
Her previous work experience includes as an office assistant and owner of a dog-training business in the Denver area. She also created a cable-access TV show “Pet Peeves,” about pets.
Her new job includes working as a guidance counselor for high school students, ensuring career and workforce readiness, working with students to get required graduation credits, and administering social-emotional curriculum in the middle school and elementary school, including classroom presentations on topics like managing emotions.
She serves as a liaison between professional counselors and the school psychologist, and serves as an ear for students who have trouble coping with school.
“I’m more of a ‘You look like you’re having a bad day? Do you want to talk about it?’ I’m an ear, an outlet, a safe place to talk, but I don’t get 50 minutes with a child. We don’t always fix their situations. Sometimes we just talk about strategies for how they can make situations better… Mostly, my job is listening. My favorite part of the job is building a relationship with kids.”
Brumfield has a master’s degree in school counseling.
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Janice Byerlee is the new Title 1 reading teacher at the Haines School. Her job focuses on helping students develop reading skills, primarily in lower grades. She taught kindergarten and first grade in Atqasuk, a village on Alaska’s North Slope.
A native of Beaverton, Ore., she’s been a teacher since 2001 and previously taught in Oregon.
“It’s something I always wanted to do is be a reading teacher. When you teach lower grades, that’s basically what you do. That’s your main focus,” Byerlee said.
Byerlee will work with students in and out of the classroom, individually and in small groups.
The district has had the federally funded position at least 10 years and the job, formerly held by Barbara Pardee, is one of the reasons the district has won recent awards in reading achievement and improvement, said assistant principal Cheryl Stickler.
“This level of work is important. With this position, we’re able to focus intervention and instruction where it’s needed,” Stickler said.
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Science teacher Ashley Hutton said she’ll be using elements of her own curriculum and one laid out by Mark Fontenot during the coming year. Hutton is filling in for Fontenot during his year of leave.
Hutton will teach Earth science, biology, health, physics and marine biology. She most recently worked five years as high school science teacher in Craig.
She’s a proponent of citizen science – using students to conduct research for real studies, including making plankton tows for NOAA and helping track different forms of shellfish poisoning in Southeast. She is also interested in local toad research, as her former students helped track the chytrid fungus in salamanders. The fungus also afflicts toads in Haines.
Citizen science makes a big difference in the classroom, she said. Students learn scientific research methods and processes, as they would from a book, but are more engaged and interested when they’re not just learning for a test, she said.
Hutton also has received training to teach genetics by genetically engineering certain bacteria to glow under ultraviolet lights. That’s typically a college-level lab lesson, she said. It’s also a more engaging way to learn genetics, a large part of the biology curriculum. “They’ll get hands-on learning about genetics, which you usually don’t get in high school.”
Hutton said using hands-on methods to teach science isn’t “dumbing it down” but rather providing incentives for students to work harder. “The idea is they’ll go through the pain of learning difficult things because there’s something interesting and engaging at the end. It’s about keeping students hooked, even through the hard stuff.”
Hutton grew up in Hoonah. She holds an undergraduate degree in zoology and a master’s degree in education. She worked seven years for the U.S. Forest Service in Alaska and Colorado as a fisheries technician and as a wilderness and recreation technician.
Opportunities for backcountry skiing and snowboarding were among opportunities that attracted her to the job here, she said.
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Jennifer Johnson returns to the school district as part-time music teacher for grades K-4. She has previously served as full-time director of the district’s music program.
She’ll work with students on learning the basics of singing and musical symbols, and playing instruments including percussion, ukuleles and recorders.
The foundation of a music education involves learning to read music, to understand concepts like rhythm and become familiar with performing, she said.
“Students will be starting with a good foundation in all aspects of music. I’m hoping I’ll inspire them to enjoy it and have fun, too,” Johnson said this week.
She’ll be teaching kindergartners daily for a half-hour and students in grades 1-4 twice weekly for 45 minutes. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music education and a master’s degree in trombone.
Johnson, who plays in the Haines School pep band, said she believes that all children can learn and perform music and the music experience can be very enriching for them.