Teachers Switch It Up

By Fae Lobron

    Aubrey DiSanto, who taught the younger middle group students, had a baby in June and decided to take a year off. Jane Laties, the youngest group teacher (K-1), was running one day and thought it would be an exciting change to teach the younger middle groupers. So began the teacher switch up.

     Jane says that she is “having fun” working with the 2nd and 3rd graders (Team Polar).

Jane Laties in her classroom.

The first thing that Jane noticed about this group that is different from the K-1 was that these kids can tie their shoes and clean up after themselves. She also says that since these children can already read and write, she gets to help them grow as readers and writers by talking about the books they read, reading different kinds of books and writing a variety of stories. This is a wonderful change for Jane since she has been teaching K-1 for 23 years and she had been teaching the youngest group  at Project Learn School (PLS) for 13 years. Jane says that her way of teaching has not changed because of the different age but the curriculum has.

    At PLS the name of the group is very important to the students this was especially true for the kids in Jane’s Group (K-1) from last year. It was important to them that they not be called “Jane’s Group” because they didn’t want to be known as the youngest students in the school.  Since a lot of people are used to Jane’s group being the youngest kids at PLS, it was important to change the group name. When the kids were choosing the name for the group Jane realized that the older kids didn’t mind if Jane picked the name for them but the newer, younger kids wanted to pick the name themselves. All together they decided that they would be called ‘Team Polar’, which seemed to fit perfectly since Team Polar will be learning about Antarctica and the Antarctic explorers this year with Liam Gallagher, the science teacher at PLS.

     When Jane was in second grade she had a teacher named Ms. Sokena, who she absolutely loved and that was the year that she realized that she wanted to be a teacher but in third grade she had the teacher who she “most disliked” because she cracked her gum.  Jane went to a public school when she was in 2nd and 3rd grade which was a  very different way of teaching compared to how she teaches at PLS. When Jane was in first and second grade they were always given what they had to do. She was taught at a desk, in front of chalk board. This is very different in comparison to how she teaches now at PLS, which is often on the floor with arts and crafts and small plays. For homework, Team Polar keeps their reading book and a journal to record things in the book that they thought were funny through pictures or words. For math usually the students bring home an activity that they did in class.

    Last year Jane had a helper, Dorian Dean, who was a great help. When Aubrey decided to take a maternity leave and Jane took her job, Dorian accepted the opportunity to teach the youngest (K-1) kids on her own.

Dorian Dean with one of her students, Alma.

    Dorian likes teaching K-1 and thinks it will make her a better teacher in the future. When she is talking to the kids or explaining something to them she talks clearly, firmly and with short sentences so that they know what’s happening and they do it in the time that they have. She loves teaching this age because they are full of wonder and curiosity and the love to learn.

    When Dorian took the job she knew it would be hard but she didn’t realize how much effort and practice it would take to teach this age group. Dorian thinks that the most exciting part of teaching the K-1 students is being part of their learning experience and getting to see them grow.     

    Dorian has been teaching for eight years as an after school art teacher.  She did a residency as a professional artist and worked with the K-1 group at Wissahickon Charter School in their after school program. Last year was the first time Dorian taught full time.

    She says that there is a different schedule and she has more time to do the activities and she has to prepare for a full day instead of one or to projects.

     When Dorian was this age she went to a Waldorf school for half of the year and then went to a public school the other half. She remembers Waldorf being more relaxed and in the public school there was a lot of chaos with 35 students in her class. This is one of the things Dorian likes about PLS - there is a lot of time for the kids to work in a relaxed way. This year the kids in Dorian’s Group are looking forward to their theme, Birds, this year.

     All of the teachers seem to be very happy with the rearrangement and everyone in the community is very happy for Aubrey and her family for having her baby, Lucien.