Lynn Armstrong, kindergarten teacher, Rosa Parks Elementary
Kudos to Lynn Armstrong, Lake Washington School District’s “Staff Star” for June 2010.
Lynn Armstrong, a full-day kindergarten teacher at Rosa Parks Elementary, challenges her students by believing in their ability to learn. By integrating technology into daily lessons and becoming involved in the home lives of her students, Lynn allows students to believe in their potential – and reach it.
The Rosa Parks school community is a diverse one. In Lynn’s class last year, 18 of the 21 students’ families were from outside of the United States. Lynn uses the diversity of her classroom to her advantage by turning the second languages spoken by her students into a learning experience. Before a guest enters Lynn’s classroom, they see the bulletin board outside exclaiming, “It’s a Small World!” with family photos of all of her students mounted on a map of the world. A student-made flag of their native country is also included with the photo.
“Families educate me regarding various cultures, multi-generational family dynamics, ethnic foods, dialects, work ethics, international educational systems as well as a new awareness for geography and languages,” said Lynn. “By understanding the family, the culture, the work situation, and the social importance for success, I can help provide stability and unique support that benefits and engages each individual child and family throughout the year.”
Every morning, Lynn’s students gather in front of the interactive white board (called an ACTIVBoard) to talk about the calendar. Students explain what day of the week it is, what day of the month it is, how many days they have been in school, how many school days are left and they even discuss the weather: how many days has it been sunny, cloudy, rainy, etc. They use different tools on the ACTIVBoard to demonstrate their knowledge.
A big part of this exercise is to talk about numbers. They start out in English, but then Lynn invites the students to tell the class how to say each number in a different language. On a visit last year, guests heard students count in English, Japanese, and Polish. One student shared how to say the numbers in their second language and the other students repeated. Allowing this peer-to-peer learning to occur encourages other students to want to share their knowledge of other languages as well.
In addition to challenging her students, Lynn also finds a way to connect not only to the kids but to their parents as well. One example of this is the fact that she makes home visits for first quarter conferences. “By having this personal background knowledge of each child, I can modify instruction and conversations to stimulate interests and engage students in more personalized learning,” Lynn said about these home visits.
In addition to using technology in her own classroom, Lynn also works with other teachers around the country to integrate technology into their lessons. As a member of the ActivClassroom Council, Lynn works on product development and technology realization at Promethean’s headquarters in Atlanta, Ga. Lynn’s participation at the Seattle Northwest Council of Computer Educators conference has motivated her to try new and innovative lessons in her classroom as well as designing new professional development classes to inspire teachers across the district. “It is my belief that technology is the way to engage students at a higher level of participation and understanding while being an efficient and progressive administrator who is educating digital natives,” said Lynn.