I'm a fourth grade teacher here at List Elementary School. My personality and teaching style seem to fit nicely with this age group.

This year, Mrs. Livingston and I, team-teach.  Mrs. Livington handles the math and science curriculum for our students, and I handle social studies and writing for both groups.  Each of us teaches our own reading; however, we coordinate our instruction together so we are teaching the same content.  Our teaching strengths and expertise in our curricular areas compliment each other nicely.

In social studies, we are examining the regions of the United States.  As we travel across the country, we are investigating the geography, history, economics and political workings of the places we visit.  After each visit, we summarize our learning in our travel journals.  To round out each region, we design scrapbook pages of our favorite stops.  We will also take a closer look at Michigan history since statehood, and spend time learning more about economics.

With writing, I focus on developing writers by exposing them to the Six Traits of Writing (ideas, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency and conventions). I incorporate these traits into the traditional writing process.  Students will be involved in various writing pieces as they tie to the traits and other curricular areas.

Our reading instruction is continuously evolving.  We will enjoy reading books from various genres and interact with the reading through various activities.  One of the units students get most excited about is mythology.  This seems to be a hot and exciting topic for students at this age!

I incorporate Cultures of Thinking into my classroom.  It is an innovative approach to widening the spectrum of thinking in the classroom.  I use this technique, which levels the playing field for all students, allowing them to think and openly share their ideas.  I look forward to watching my fourth grader grow and mature as learners.

If you should have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email at jzimba@frankenmuth.k12.mi.us.