Welcome back to Teachers in America, where we celebrate teachers and their lasting impact on students' learning journeys and lives.
Today we are joined by Melissa Hawkins, a kindergarten teacher in O'ahu, Hawai'i. Melissa discusses how she partners with families to help students build literacy skills rooted in the Science of Reading. Plus as an HMH Into Reading user, she shares fun ways to engage students in early literacy skills practice in person and online.
A full transcript of the episode appears below; it has been edited for clarity.
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Noelle Morris: Welcome to Teachers in America, a podcast from HMH, where we connect with educators across the country to bring you teaching tips and inspiration. I’m your host Noelle Morris.
Today we’re discussing how to build foundational literacy skills in and outside of school with our guest Melissa Hawkins, a kindergarten teacher in O’ahu, Hawai’i.
While volunteering in her child’s classroom, Melissa realized she had a passion for education and returned to college to get her Master of Arts degree in Elementary Ed. Now, for the past 13 years, she has been teaching at a public charter school that follows a blended model, where she meets with students on campus three times a week and guides them through synchronous virtual classes twice a week.
In today’s episode, we’ll talk about strategies to make foundational literacy skills fun for students in person and online. An HMH Into Reading user, Melissa will share how she communicates with families to ensure students are practicing skills rooted in the Science of Reading, even when they aren’t in school.
Noelle Morris: Hey, Melissa! It’s Noelle, and welcome to Teachers in America. So excited to have you. Let our listeners know, where are you coming from? Take us to the 50th state. Is it the 50th state?
Melissa Hawkins: Yeah. It’s the 50th state. Hi, thank you for having me.
I’m Melissa Hawkins. I teach on O'ahu in the state of Hawai'i, and I’m on the west side of the island, near the ocean. I can’t see it, but we have a nice breeze outside.
Noelle: Nice. And are you from Hawai’i? Have you always lived in Hawai'i?
Melissa: I’m originally from California. I spent some time in Hawai'i in elementary school. I partly grew up here, partly in California. And then I moved my own family back here to enjoy everything that’s here and enjoy family time. We stuck around, so I’ve been here about 15 years now.
Noelle: And so in those 15 years, tell us what grade level you teach and have you always been a teacher?
Melissa: Sure. So, I actually started out as a writer. I did freelance writing and I was interested in teaching once I volunteered in my own child’s classroom. He was in a Montessori school and I really enjoyed being in the classroom, helping out. I switched gears and I got my master’s in elementary education and then went on for an MS in Curriculum Instruction. I taught elementary, kindergarten for about six years, first grade, third grade, and then enrichment for K through five.
Noelle: Nice. That’s a wealth of experience. And now you’re teaching kindergarten, right? Let’s talk about kindergarten and how you build foundational skills with your kindergartners. Let’s just jump right into some strategies.
Melissa: Do you want me just to tell you what my go-to is?
Noelle: Yeah. What’s your go-to? Let’s think about the very beginning. We’re in the beginning, in kindergarten. How are students coming into your classroom and you’re knowing that they’re school ready? And then how you begin to build that foundation for literacy skills.
Melissa: We start off every school year the same with our universal screeners, with getting to know the children, sitting, talking with them, understanding their background, whether they had pre-K or not, and getting to know the families and what their involvement level will be.
From there, I would always use a consistent systematic curriculum and we start at the same place each year, but that changes as we go along and we get to know the students and see where they’re at. Start with our screeners and our data and go from there.
Noelle: And how are you meeting your families and assessing what the communication level and engagement level is going to be with families? Do you have a communication rubric? Do you have a process?
Melissa: Well, we actually start off the school year with conferences, one to one with each family and get to know them there and assess students. Usually on the first day I meet the families, just quick assessments. From there we have virtual sessions. Our school is a little different. I have sessions to get the learning coaches, the parents, on board with our process at our school. There’s a lot of communication where I work.
Noelle: We’re going to talk about your school and everything, but real quickly, did I just hear you refer to your families as learning coaches, literacy coaches? I know you and I have had a conversation before and I’m intrigued, but I don’t think I’ve had the term stick yet. So talk to us about that a little bit.
Melissa: Yes, at our school, the parents or guardians are considered learning coaches, and they actually sign up for it. It’s a charter school, so they enroll with the understanding that they are partnering with us, with the educators. They’re very involved with the children from day to day and all of their instruction. So yes, learning coaches. I like how you said literacy coaches, though, too. And I want to start using that. So, thank you for that.
Noelle: I think I’ve called them learning coaches, learning partners, and literacy coaches. What strong partnership to start in kindergarten and begin to have that connection with their child, with their family, and families understanding the learning, and the expectations of those milestones. Are you following, when you think about your foundational skills, have you transitioned to Structured Literacy and more of the Science of Reading in the last three years?
Melissa: Yes, definitely. I would say that I’ve always followed the Science of Reading. I’m trained in, I would say, Structured Literacy models and I won’t name any in particular. Our school is new to HMH. We started using Into Reading last school year and I use the Foundational pathway. And then this school year I was really excited to start the Structured Literacy pathway and it’s been wonderful to follow. It’s very familiar to me and we’re seeing really good results with it. So yes, we do follow the Structured Literacy path.
Noelle: With your kindergartners, within the scope and sequence of teaching them the letters and the sounds, what trend do you notice year to year, or does it depend on the kindergartner? Where within that scope and sequence do you see there’s going to be more of. . . not challenges that they’re not going to get it, but that it’s going to require more cycles and trials through the instruction to get that specific skill.
Melissa: It differs from year to year and student to student, but I feel like the process of identifying that, where the student’s strength and stretches might be is always similar. You’re observing and you’re looking at your data.
And in every class I feel like there’s a group of students who pick up those irregular words really quickly and they turn into sight words, and then there’s some who need extra time with those, and there’s some that pick up the letter sounds. I guess we can kind of group the kids where we need them to be. And I feel like I see the same each year, but the numbers might vary of how many are in each group.
Noelle: I’m curious. When you, as a kindergarten teacher, regardless of what curriculum you’re teaching or what program, you get to something and you’re like, "I don’t know if my students are going to be ready for this," or, "they’re going to be able to do it," how do you as a teacher talk yourself through not inhibiting moving forward for fear of what they can’t do. How do you work yourself through that?
Melissa: Well, that’s always tricky. Just try it. You just have to try it. And I think we’re usually surprised by what little kids can do. If they have a strong foundation, if they have the phonemic awareness, the phonological awareness, usually they are able to pick up the skills.
We know they can’t always pick it up the first time or the first five times. Sometimes it takes many, many repetitions, but we keep it fun. Even today, I was just surprised, all the children knowing that s is plural and it has two sounds and it’s pretty awesome to see that and going, I didn’t realize you knew that, but you’re all writing it and you’re adding s. So yeah, you have to just try and see where you end up.
Noelle: That’s awesome. I loved having my own aha moments, and then just say, "what was I worried about?" Or, "I’m so glad that you showed me you know this, because I think I was overthinking it and too concerned, but I didn’t necessarily have the right thing for you to show me that you know it." I love those moments and your reaction.
How do you make teaching the foundational skills fun? Because it’s very systematic. It’s very explicit. You’re kindergarten, how do you make it fun?
Melissa: I think you just have to read the kindergarten room and if they’re looking the other way, I’ll have to bring you back. So lots of music and movement, things that keep their hands busy and their brains busy at the same time.
My students have these big cookie sheets and their magnetic letter tiles and Elkonin boxes, and they can write on those cookie sheets. And so that makes them really motivated to do word building and chaining and to write sentences. Some days they’re not too into that, and we just have to find a different way: write it in the air, write it on your hands. So just lots of different ways, I guess, to do the same thing. They don’t know that they’re doing the same thing all the time. It’s just fun for them. Keep it different.
Noelle: Does each child have their own cookie sheet?
Melissa: They pair up or if they’re in groups, then they get their own and then they all have their own dry erase boards, plenty of those. It’s new for me this year, having these really awesome cookie sheets. I guess we’ll have to double the numbers next year so everybody gets their own.
Noelle: They do make a really great space. It’s bigger than some things that come with different programs, but you have that space.
How do you teach them to use the magnetic letters and use the space correctly?
Melissa: We start without any letters on there. And as we go through our lessons, we add a letter or two each week, depending on where we are in the lessons. I show them, I model for them, and I tell them, keep them organized at the top.
It’s easier to find your letters. They’re very particular about organizing their trays because they want them to look nice and be able to build and find those letters. We just practice and model and take good care of them. And then we have helpers who stack them. It’s their responsibility to take care of them and keep them organized.
Noelle: What do you notice about their confidence from the beginning of the year to the end of the year? Will you talk to us about what you’ve seen and what you anticipate, and how your students celebrate their own growth?
Melissa: I see their progress and their ability to be able to read and to write, and they get so excited over it. We practice at home and we could talk about that schedule later. They’re just really proud of, even if they make mistakes, they’re still learning and I heard it today.
We celebrate those wins and lots of encouragement.
Noelle: Do you mind sharing what you heard today? Did you hear a student work through their frustration?
Melissa: It was a student that was talking to another student who was frustrated and they said something to the effect of making mistakes is part of learning and it’s okay. It was just something like that. And it was the sweetest moment. Oh, okay. We’re going to make mistakes and they might happen over and over again. And it was nice to see another little person up with another kindergartner.
Noelle: Now, I know I met you and saw you giving advice in the community to another teacher, specifically about how you use a component, decodable text, to build that confidence. Can you talk about for any of our listeners who are using Into Reading, how you’re using the Start Right Readers to build that confidence?
Melissa: My students love the Start Right Readers. I love them too. They’re very colorful and the stories are fun and the kids can actually read them. I know that starting out, they’re heavier on the irregular words, which is okay because for some students, once they have a few of those irregular words down, it really builds their confidence. It takes off that cognitive demand and then they can work on the blending piece. So having a good foundation with some of those irregular words is helpful. And just understanding the text features, tracking left to right. We work on those with the Start Right Readers.
They’re so excited about these books that they’ll read the whole thing. I’ll tell them it’s just one story, but they want to go through the entire thing. They can find pictures that begin with certain letters. We do sight word searches. I feel like it’s an important piece. It’s an important component to the whole program, and there’s something about turning the pages in a book that is really calming, and so that’s our most fun part of the day, I think, is the Start Right Reader time.
Noelle: Oh, nice. Are you using the Alphafriends, or what’s their connection to the alphabet and the Alphafriends and even the key images and using those in a strategic way and a very explicit and intentional way with your learners?
Melissa: Alphafriends, we start off the beginning of the school year with those, and then they do the keyword cards. We have some movements for some of the keywords. They really do help some of the children, make that learning more sticky, right? They remember the sound and they have a keyword. I know some students don’t need it, but for some they do, and they definitely help.
Noelle: Are you using anything specific to monitor their progress? As we segue to talking about your families and engagement and your student conferences and your conferences with families, do you use any specific tools? And if so, is that a tool that you only explain to families or is it a tool that their child could talk through it, or the family could talk through it?
Melissa: I do use the Structured Literacy, the weekly or the module assessments as needed. I find this to be really handy and the kids understand the routine. Then we have screeners and progress monitoring for students. My communication is pretty often with parents, so there’s a lot of communication between me and the parent as far as progress. I think students often do know where they are and they do know where they need the extra practice because we let them know, and we work on those things. If they’re not sure, I say, Oh, that’s what we’re going to work on.
They’re pretty clear on where they are and what they’re working on, and that’s why they get so excited once they’ve got it down, because they know they’ve accomplished a goal.
Noelle: And the work behind it. I find that just fascinating because at four and five, they’re starting to have . . . I was able to do this. I can do this. I want to do more of this. And you’re just like, Well, I appreciate that. But I also want you to do some of this. You know, that negotiation skill.
I have been fascinated by your school, your charter school and how it works. Talk to our listeners about your charter school, the mission of it, and how it’s set up, because I don’t want to give anything away, but I just want everybody to know. This is happening before the pandemic, and that I think is what I’m the most intrigued by.
Melissa: I’ll do my best to explain it. I’ll go kind of big picture and then we can narrow it down to what kindergarten looks like. It’s a public charter school. In Hawai'i, we’re on four islands now, so O'ahu, Kaua'i, Maui, and the Big Island of Hawai'i. And we’re K through 12, and we have, I think about 1,700 students now, so the largest charter in the state. We have multiple programs within this school. I think it’s been around 16 years I’ve been here. This is my 13th year. So I’ve seen it grow and change and lots of different iterations of the school and the programs. Now we have we have a fully virtual distance learning program for the upper elementary through high school. We have career-based learning.
We have a design-based learning for high school. For elementary, we have place based, which the children come in twice a week. I’m teaching in the blended learning program. We call it the three-day blend, which it’s a traditional blend, which is kind of funny, because there’s nothing traditional about it. And so that’s three days on campus and two days, which are virtual or asynchronous.
We’ve been teaching virtually and putting out asynchronous work for many years.
Noelle: How does a family decide this is the approach that they want? And how do y’all manage the two days asynchronous experiences?
Melissa: We have a website that explains a lot and families are often. . . it’s a word of mouth.
They come to us or they see us in magazines or whatever, and they come to the school and tour the campus. We talk to them and tell them about the program and they can decide if this is for them, if they are available daily school hours, and they can be a dedicated learning coach. Then they sign up for it and we’re off and running.
With elementary, the learning coaches know that there may be work after school on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, because it is a shorter day that they are on campus, four-and-a-half hours. Then Tuesday, Thursday, it’s a full learning day, so they have their work posted in Canvas, and they follow those modules and anything the teacher puts out they follow it. It’s all laid out very clearly for them and we try to make it available so parents or learning coaches have time ahead to prep, because they need a little time too, and if they have questions, they can ask questions. It’s teacher-driven in that sense, even though there is a lot of student agency within the classrooms themselves.
Noelle: How did you prepare yourself for this level of family engagement? Because it is on a completely different level. It’s not just send a note home each week, or call in and check in, or family night/family conferences. This is a true partnership. How did you need to adjust? And how have you seen yourself improve? What are ways that you’ve improved or things that you’ve put into place to ensure your success with this amount of communication and your families have just as much success with communicating back to you?
Melissa: I think just understanding that different families may want different things from a program. They may have different schedules and obligations. Really looking at it from what the families want to get out of the school and also what we need to provide to students, and kind of finding that balance really helps.
I always assume the best of intentions with people. We have great families, they are all about communicating, which I appreciate. People may not be used to that, but for me, I feel like the more communication there is, the better. It’s always professional and polite. We generally form really good relationships. I still keep in touch with people who have moved on to different parts of the world and kids that have grown up.
It’s a very interesting community. It’s a community where people are definitely dedicated to their students, the learning coaches, and the teachers, the administration. Everybody has an eye on what’s going on with the students.
Noelle: Now, you’ve taught there 13 years. Your first kindergarten class is now in college, right? Or post graduate? You still keep in touch with some of them? What do you see in them now that you give yourself credit for being a part of who they’ve become?
Melissa: Yeah. There’s a few families that have moved on and I get to see pictures of the whole crew. I see these wonderful humans and their wonderful families and I’m really lucky to get to work with them. It’s really neat to see students graduating high school too. I taught first for a couple of years, six years actually. And so, yeah, a lot of those kids have graduated and gone on. It’s pretty amazing. I’ve even seen some students come back as high school seniors and work with students in enrichment. They’re teaching, and it’s the coolest thing to see. This child is seven years old, and then suddenly 18 and teaching other younger children. Pretty awesome.
Noelle: You’re very lucky and they’re very lucky as well. We’ve had, in our podcast episodes before, other teachers using place-based learning, which is another fascination of mine. I wish that would have been a pedagogical concept when I was in the classroom.
So now I’m sort of living vicariously through those of you who are exploring it, or have brought it in. Do you use any of those place-based strategies within your program, even though you’re blended, but there might be another place-based part of the program at your school?
Melissa: Yes, there’s definitely a big emphasis on place-based and project-based learning. That is a major component of the school. On top of our Structured Literacy and our math, that’s our foundational skills, we are weaving in the project-based or the place-based learning.
Noelle: Is there a lesson or a set activity you do every year or do these cross-curricular ideas come to you and then you plan them out? Tell us a little about a special project or something that you do each year.
Melissa: I use the curriculum we have, Into Reading. [It] is really great with kind of a knowledge piece and all the background information in these bright, big books and read alouds. So that’s a really nice piece that we have. And then we do weave it into what we have going on around us. Outside these walls that are around me, we have migratory birds right now. Those are the Golden Plovers. I just know them by Kōlea, the Hawaiian name for these birds that fly from Alaska. And we’re new on this campus. It’s our second year.
So last school year, we noticed these birds migrating and they’re very solitary. One bird had its own space and the kids were just fascinated. So, we did a whole project about the birds, because why not? It lets us know that it’s winter when the birds migrate and then the whales, the humpback whales come to migrate out here.
With the little ones, I don’t make it to the ocean. When I taught third grade, you would go on whale watching cruises and it was really awesome or watch the whales from the coast. But with the little ones, I didn’t really want them on a boat. So, yes, we use what’s around us and it really does all tie in to all the course subjects at some point.
Noelle: That is just fascinating. What’s the name of the bird? Because I’m going to Google and follow it.
Melissa: Okay, I should know this by now. It’s a plover, P L O V E R. I think it’s the Golden Pacific Plover, and in Hawai'i it’s called the Kōlea. They see it and they go, "Kōlea!"
And the bird flies away because it’s scared of them. It’s really fun. We have the Audubon Society volunteers come out and talk with us. So, we have our experts from the field teach us even more. And then my students will turn around and be the experts and teach the fifth graders or another class on campus about the Kōlea and how we can care for them and keep cats inside so they don’t disturb the population of birds.
Noelle: Oh, that’s awesome. So they migrate as a group of birds, but then once they get on land, they have their own space?
Melissa: Yeah, you don’t really see two plovers or Kōlea together at one time. Then when it’s time to go back to Alaska, they gather on certain parts of the island and they fly back.
It’s really amazing.
Noelle: That is, yeah. I would love to be a 5-year-old there and watching and observing. Is it possible for them to see this from the classroom, from the school campus, or all over the part of the island where they live?
Melissa: So we see this solitary bird, it’s really all over the island, and they tend to be territorial, and they’ll often return to the same place.
Some families will tell me they’ve had the same bird returning. Some of them are tagged, so you know that it’s the same bird. Last year, I think we had three and there’s definitely one this year. They are returning, and they hide up on the rooftops. The children play, and then when the field is clear, they’ll be down in the field looking for food.
So they’re pretty predictable and it’s kind of neat. And then once they’re gone, it’s kind of like, Oh, end of school year. We’re wrapping up. So it, it kind of helps in Hawai'i. We don’t have snow here in O'ahu. For me, it’s fall and winter is when the birds and the Kōlea show up.
Noelle: What are other subjects or disciplines your students are interested about and thinking about, living in Hawai'i and on O'ahu?
What are they curious about the mainland and just globally at age five? What are your kindergartners talking about? What are they curious about?
Melissa: Snow. They’re so interested in what snow is and what it’s like to really be cold because if it hits 70 degrees, they’re going, it’s cold here. Getting on an airplane is a really big deal because that’s how we travel even between islands.
I don’t know if you could hear it, but we’re near Honolulu International and so we have airplanes and military airplanes that fly over all day. Just watching those and just hearing these stories about the places that the kids travel. It’s this really interesting perspective of some children have not left the islands yet.
And so they’re so excited to watch the airplanes. They’re not thinking about what’s new and down there, but they’re also very, very happy to not be cold. We had some days that were, I think, in the high sixties. And they said, I’m not built for this. I like the beach. I don’t know how they’d actually deal with it.
Noelle: I’m with them. You can tell them. I’m from Florida and we have had the coldest season that I’ve experienced in years, like a month of 50 degrees, 40 degrees. And I’m just like, what is happening? I want it back to 80s. Every morning, I’m like, is it cold? Because if it’s below 70 here, we also think it’s cold. And I too, I’m like, "I’m not built for this."
Let’s talk about the virtual asynchronous. Do y’all refer to it as virtual learning? Asynchronous? What terminology were you already using that the rest of the world started using in 2020?
Melissa: Virtual classes, virtual class, maybe we call it Zoom. We’ve gone through different platforms. I think when the pandemic and all that showed up, everybody switched to Zoom. We might’ve already been using it. But yeah, virtual. And then asynchronous, we mostly refer to as independent days. I think our learning coaches know what asynchronous work is. So yeah, pretty similar terms.
Noelle: Now does asynchronous have to be . . . are they watching any lessons or are they doing more interactivity at home, or are they using any digital platforms?
Melissa: With asynchronous, the way I set it up, and it might vary class to class, but for kindergarten, I like everything systematic.That’s me. I have those same modules set up in Canvas every week and the learning coaches can just click through. Some activities might be movement and hands-on and it’s offline, and some might be a video that they watch. I do try and get them away from a screen as much as I can, but a lot of our learning now is in front of a screen in small chunks, within reason and we build in a lot of movement time.
Noelle: Can you tell us about the movement time, Do you have something fun and quick that you could talk us through that we could all visualize?
Melissa: Sure, sure. I’ll give it a try. Let’s say it’s a phonics lesson, and I’m teaching virtually, so I have the kids for about an hour, and we’re moving every couple of minutes. It might be, if it’s a letter sound, or name warm up, they’re also making the letter with their body, making it small, making it a big letter.
If we’re counting words in a sentence, they can do jumping jacks to count the words in a sentence. Every little thing I can think of to get them moving, to keep them engaged helps, because I think children, all of us really, are pretty used to being passive in front of devices and just scrolling. I can see it when they start to get that look and I’m thinking, I’m not a YouTube video. I’m not a video, so I need to keep you engaged.
I’m the teacher on the other side. I’m always amazed by what a kindergartner is capable of doing. They’re writing, they’re drawing, they’re labeling, and they’re holding up their work. So yeah, sometimes some days it takes more encouragement, but sometimes it’s on the fly. You just feel like we’re going to do this because we’ve been sitting for more than five minutes. Something about being in front of a camera makes them more wiggly. They have to move more.
Noelle: That’s interesting. I wonder if it’s because they’re also not getting that immediate reaction. They don’t feel like they’re getting that immediate physical reaction from you like they do in the classroom. Where they’re like, oh, I know she just saw my work. But they can’t tell, is she looking at my little whiteboard? I would love to watch that in action. Watch how they’re, how they are interacting in class, and then talk to them about what are you noticing about Ms. Hawkins? How are you interacting with Ms. Hawkins differently in class versus virtually?
Melissa: That would be an interesting conversation because sometimes when I share my screen, they’re not able to see me. And then all the mics come on and say, "I can’t see you. It’s okay. Can you see the screen? Give me a thumbs up." So yeah, it’s a whole different dynamic. It’s pretty tiring sometimes. I think for them too. That’s why I keep it super fun.
Noelle: During the pandemic, once everybody got their sort of equilibrium back, we were doing some classroom videos with a teacher and the families let the students come into the lesson and be recorded. And all of a sudden I’m like, "Everybody’s eating snacks, right?" It’s just natural. You see a little kindergartner get up and go get cheese crackers and come back. I’m like, "Oh, snack time all the time." And then I’m watching over in another corner, and there’s a kindergartner in their room and they’re doing cartwheels. I’m just like, "I wonder what’s going through the teacher’s mind?" And then I would say, "Please don’t call on them. Don’t call on them." Then they’ve been doing cartwheels and then the teacher calls on them. And she says, "Oh, the story’s about the. . ." So, she was listening the whole time she was doing cartwheels. She might’ve had even more comprehension because she was doing cartwheels and she was still listening to the story. We would have never allowed cartwheels in the middle of circle time or reading time.
What’s your favorite way to explain. . . or maybe not favorite. . . an important way that you explain Science of Reading terms or how you’re teaching certain things in a certain way for Foundational Skills to your learning coaches?
Melissa: That’s a really important question because I think Science of Reading, that’s a big term for people and that it might sound new, even though some of the things we’re doing are not new, and we might not have learned that way. I do learning coach workshops, virtually usually. If I need to, I’ll sit down with a parent face to face and we’ll go over these different routines we have, and we’ll talk about those different foundational pieces. The beginning of the school year, a lot of it is just 30 minute, check in with me. I’ll talk to you about one of these routines that we have, what it means, what it leads to, why it’s important, and what to look for. As the school year goes on, they start to see the routines too.
So, it becomes second nature, I think, for them. But it is new to a lot of people. And we all kind of go, I don’t remember learning that way. But once they see it, they see their children learning. I’ve received a lot of good feedback. I mean, nobody’s complained. I think it’s just we all have to be introduced to it and kind of chunk it for all of us too. It’s a big topic.
Noelle: It is a big topic and chunking it, allowing for grace, fair questions. . . I was having dialogue with teachers the other day and I was just like. Well, is this a short vowel? Have I changed the sound? Am I over-articulating? I was raised in the South and I know we draw out different vowel sounds. Am I hearing it right? Am I articulating it correctly so students can learn it? We all go through that. And I appreciate hearing how you connect families and keep them comfortable with learning, because if you’re not an educator and trained in this, it can feel daunting and a little bit nerve-wracking that is my child going to learn to read because I didn’t learn to read this way.
Melissa: It feels very new to people, but it’s wonderful to see it coming together. We’re really happy with what we’ve been using in the school year and sending home family letters and things that have been provided to the community of teachers. Using Into Reading has been super helpful for families too.
Noelle: This season I’m starting to ask a new question at the very end. And it’s because I am so passionate about the teaching profession. You know, once a teacher, always a teacher. So knowing that we need more teachers in the space, Melissa, tell us why kindergarten, why now?
Melissa: So, kindergartners, they love to learn. Not that other children don’t love to learn, but they just seem to love everything about learning. And they come up with these really fun, creative, insightful ideas and thoughts if you give them that opportunity. They always surprise me, I mean always, and every day’s new. So to see that, not only the growth, from start of school year to middle to end. . . that, and then also just the new about it.
Everything’s so new to them. I feel like I grow with them and I feel like they’re learning coaches. We grow together. It’s a fun time. It’s challenging. It doesn’t come without its challenges, and it can be tiring. But I don’t like everything to be the same all the time.
So if you don’t like everything the same. . . yeah, we have consistent routines, but just new stories and new learning. It’s so much fun and it just keeps me coming back, I guess.
Noelle: Nice. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time. Appreciate you being here on Teachers in America and for sharing some great strategies with us and things to think about as we go through our own Structured Literacy journeys.
Melissa: Thank you for having me.
Noelle: If you or someone you know would like to be a guest on the Teachers in America podcast, please email us at shaped@hmhco.com. Be the first to hear new episodes of Teachers in America by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you enjoy today's show, please rate, review, and share it with your network. You can find the transcript of this episode on our Shaped blog by visiting hmhco.com/shaped. The link is in the show notes. Teachers in America is produced by HMH. Until next time, your friend, Noelle.
The Teachers in America podcast is a production of HMH. Executive producers are Christine Condon and Tim Lee. Editorial direction is by Christine Condon. It is creatively directed, and audio engineered by Tim Lee. Our producer and editor is Jennifer Corujo. Production designers are Mio Frye and Thomas Velazquez. Shaped blog post editors for the podcast are Christine Condon, Jennifer Corujo, and Alicia Ivory.
Thanks again for listening!
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