Name: Amy Kriska

Grade: First Grade

Homeroom: 104 

email: akriska@franklinboe.org

Teaching Philosophy

The essence of teaching is creating meaningful learning experiences for 
children. Educational programs should be centered around the child, 
emphasizing:

Conceptual learning that leads to understanding along with acquisition of 
basic skills. 

A balanced literacy program with curriculum content integrated across 
traditional subject categories, especially for communication skills of 
speaking, listening, reading, and writing. 

Children's active participation in learning: they should be able to move 
around the classroom, talk with their peers, and make choices about doing 
activities that have personal interest to them. 

Cooperative and collaborative learning activities that foster social skills, 
skill acquisition, and concept development. 

Curriculum content and teaching strategies that consider the age span of 
children, individual differences in learning styles, diverse backgrounds, 
and cultural differences. 

Flexible grouping for instruction in a specific skill area: temporary, 
homogeneous grouping that reflects a student's individual variation in 
learning. 

The regular use of technology, especially computers, integrated throughout 
the curriculum. 

Varied evaluation techniques employed for ongoing assessment of student 
progress; assessment utilized as basis for future planning of instruction. 
A variety of resources are utilized to accomplish this: our own classroom 
community, hands-on activities, parent connections, collaboration with staff 
members and other teachers, community resources, and my own continuing 
education.