Para Sandy Peatrowsky, maestra itinerante para estudiantes con sordera total o parcial, todos los días son diferentes. Visita hasta cinco escuelas cada día para trabajar con un promedio de 16 estudiantes cada semana de casi todos los grados, y adapta sus lecciones y actividades a las necesidades de cada individuo. Durante sus visitas, la comunicación es un tema recurrente, ya sea sobre el vocabulario, la memoria auditiva o la acción de abogar por sí mismo. “Un estudiante que no usa un aparato auditivo ni que tiene pérdida auditiva podrá escuchar una palabra 100 veces, pero mis estudiantes posiblemente la escuchen…
Author: Priscilla Rice
For Sandy Peatrowsky, a deaf/hard of hearing itinerant teacher, no day looks the same. She visits up to five schools per day to work with an average of 16 students per week across most grade levels, catering lesson plans and activities to each individual’s needs. During her visits, communication is a regular theme, whether it be related to vocabulary, auditory memory, or self-advocacy. “For a student who does not have hearing aids or hearing loss, they will hear a word 100 times, but my student might only hear it 50 times,” Peatrowsky said. “We do a lot of work so…
The Lion King, one of musical theater’s grandest and most complicated productions, is not something that you’d expect from elementary school students who are the designers, actors, and dancers. But Jesus Moroles Expressive Arts Vanguard theater teacher, Jamie Nelson, and dance teacher, Brianna Miller, believed that this seemingly impossible task was possible. It was. The students staged and adapted the production this spring to great success and accolades from parents, team members and community. Nelson and Miller began collaborating two years ago when they presented the school’s first musical ever, Matilda, performed by fourth and fifth graders. The opportunity to…
Lo que empezó como un momento de enseñanza y esfuerzo por mejorar la comunidad ha hecho de Ascher Silberstein Elementary School un lugar donde los estudiantes, el personal y la comunidad pueden apreciar y aprender sobre la naturaleza. Todo comenzó cuando la directora Erika Pasieczny notó el gran número de perros que corrían sueltos por el vecindario. Abordó el problema inculcándoles a los estudiantes la responsabilidad de tener una mascota. “Nos dimos cuenta de que nuestra comunidad no estaba cuidando bien a sus mascotas”, dijo Pasieczny. “Así que hicimos un cuarto para animales para enseñarles a los estudiantes cómo cuidarlos”.…
What began as a teaching moment and a community improvement effort has turned Ascher Silberstein Elementary School into a place where students, team members and the community can appreciate and learn about nature. It all started when Principal Erika Pasieczny noticed how many dogs ran around loose in the neighborhood. She started to tackle the problem by instilling in students the responsibility that comes with owning pets. “We realized that our community wasn’t doing a good job of taking care of our pets,” said Pasieczny. “So we started an animal room, so we could teach all the students how to…
Desde que Dallas ISD la reclutó en Filipinas hace 27 años, Estrellita Perez Richter, maestra del programa de estudiantes talentosos y dotados de Julius Dorsey Leadership Academy, ha hecho del distrito su hogar. Perez Richter vino a Estados Unidos en 1995 para ser maestra como parte de los esfuerzos de reclutamiento del distrito a nivel mundial de maestros experimentados para combatir la escasez de docentes de ese entonces. Antes de venir a Dallas, había ejercido en Filipinas desde 1978 como maestra de inglés como segundo idioma a refugiados chinos de cinco a 60 años de edad. Ya que el inglés…
Since she was recruited from the Philippines 27 years ago, Estrellita Perez Richter, a gifted and talented program teacher at Julius Dorsey Leadership Academy, has made Dallas ISD home. Perez Richter came to the United States in 1995 to be a teacher as part of the district’s worldwide recruitment efforts of experienced teachers in response to teacher shortages here. She had been a teacher in the Philippines since 1978 and was teaching English as a second language to Chinese refugees—from 5 to 60 years old—before coming to Dallas. Even though Perez Richter spoke fluent English when she emigrated to the…
María “Lupe” Vargas García fue estudiante en W.E. Greiner Middle School Exploratory Arts Academy, y tras una serie de acontecimientos regresó para tomar el puesto como directora de orquesta. Descubrió que en la escuela había instrumentos que podrían utilizarse para formar un programa de mariachis, así que cuando se lo comentó al director, él le dio autorización para poner en marcha el programa después de clases. “Sabía que muchos estudiantes en la escuela eran latinos, así que pensé que esto funcionaría muy bien”, dijo García. “Creí que vendrían unos 10 o 15 niños. El primer día se presentaron alrededor de…
It was a full circle moment for Maria “Lupe” Vargas Garcia, when she first came to teach at W.E. Greiner Middle School Exploratory Arts Academy to be the orchestra director—she had attended the school as a student. When she found instruments at the school that could potentially be used to start a mariachi student program, she approached her principal about the idea and received the green light to start an afterschool program. “I just figured there’s a lot of Latinos in the school and thought this would catch on really well here,” Garcia said. “I expected about 10 to 15…
Jazmin Mier, instructional coordinator in the World Languages Department, is a citizen of the world. She has visited over 30 countries and uses this knowledge to help teachers in the district. So when she saw that the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth was offering an opportunity for 12 educators to participate in a United Arab Emirates Educator study tour this past spring, she jumped at the chance to go. Mier and 11 other educators from around the country visited the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai March 11-18 to make connections between classrooms in the Emirates and the United…