Natasha+Cass

My name is Natasha Cass and my titles include: wife, mother, educator, coach, trainer, shoulder to cry on, person to vent to, and graduate student. I taught special education for eleven years before accepting a position as a secondary literacy coach in Knox County this school year. I currently work with teachers at four different schools. I enjoy coaching, modeling, and training reading teachers. I look forward to completing my masters degree through TTU's Reading Specialist program this summer.

My family, pictured above, has been patient and supportive these past two years. I could not have been as successful without them. They give me inspiration and determination.

School Demographics At My Primary School
==== Halls Middle School: The student population is just under 1200 students. 36% of the student population are disadvantaged, 4% minority, and 8% special education. Halls Middle School Report Card for literacy was _. ====

Field Classroom Inventories and Analysis:
This includes the types of questions, classroom tehcniques and the writing techniques surveys.

**Professional Development**
Please see two of the professional developments I designed and presented to reading and content teachers. The Lessons From the Geese Prezi was my opener for Grouping Strategies professional development:media type="custom" key="14864330" In conjunction with the Lessons From the Geese Prezi, I also instructed teachers on cooperative learning and grouping strategies using the following Prezi:media type="custom" key="14864616" I also did a professional development on integrating technology and TCAP review using technology. Please see the following wikipage: http://technology4readingwriting.wikispaces.com/

** Content Literacy Strategies **
1. Vocabulary introduction and practice utilizing [|www.quizlet.com]: One of the social studies teachers was having difficulty teaching the vocabulary for the seventh grade chapters from the textbook. I showed them Quizlet.com and they had one of their honors students create the weekly quizlets for class. The online flashcard site was uploaded to her fusion page weekly. It was extremely successful for the majority of their students to learn the vocabulary covered in each chapter. media type="custom" key="16410850" media type="custom" key="16410942" 2. Webquests: I introduced math, science, and social studies teachers I serve as reading teachers to Webquests. I showed them they could create their own on [|www.zunal.com]and where they could find already created Webquests they could use or edit. The teachers reported back after discovering some Webquests they would love to use that the only problem was getting computer lab time. The only computer lab in the building is in the library and it is difficult to get on the schedule to use it. They did say they may be able to use it in the future and schedule more lab time next year. The following is one of the Webquests I introduced to science teachers. This Webquest incorporates science, social studies, and language arts skills: [] 3. Google Lit Trips: The social studies teacher was thrilled with [|www.googlelittrips.com]when his wing was doing the novel study, "The Watson's Go To Birmingham." He used the Lit Trip for this novel during his social studies class and introduced his students to historical sites and locations from the book. He was very impressed with the site which used Google Earth to explore the locations the characters in the book traveled. []

4. Although I could not get lab time for the social studies class, I did show them several online reports done on [|www.edu.glogster.com]. The social studies and language arts teachers were interested in doing mulitgenre reports as part of the research process of writing the 5 paragraph research paper next year. Multigenre reports require students to research the subject and create a variety of writing pieces that would exemplify what they have learned about that subjects. The students might write poetry, love letters, public notices, music, a recipe, wanted poster, etc. to show others what they have learned through research or learning. Please see one of the glogs I showed them in the fall:media type="custom" key="16413632" Multi-genre writing along with a Civil War presentation that I did for the social studies and language arts 8th grade classes. See pictures and student work examples: These are social studies, math, and language arts teachers along with Confederates. The whole 8th grade team get involved and does cross curricular activities. Students wrote persuasive papers, letters, dialogue, time lines, wanted posters, songs, and more for this group project. 5. Utilizing Word Sort and other similar graphic organizers: I encouraged the science teacher to start using graphic organizers such as word sorts to facilitate students organizing the information and use classification. She did this will classification of animals. It was very effective when she actually had the students use picture/word cards and sort them onto chart paper under the correct classification.

More evidence of attempting to incorporate literacy and technology in the content area classes at my school: Please see the survey I sent to all the seventh grade teachers, including content teachers, who attended the professional development I did on integrating technology and content literacy.

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