Charlotte Garriga, Lake Park Elementary School

Teacher Feature
Charlotte Garriga, 1st-grade Teacher, Lake Park Elementary School

All 16 years of Charlotte Garriga’s teaching career have been spent at Lake Park Elementary School. Garriga, a 1st-grade teacher, takes a few moments to share about her goals and dreams as a teacher.

When I was 5 years old my aunt, who was a teacher, gave me a copy of the book Charlotte's Web. I was thrilled to have a book with my name in it. Through her and many others in my life, such as my grandmother, Sunday school teachers, high school teachers and youth group leaders, I developed a love for learning and acquired their infectious spirit for teaching and helping others to learn. It was a dream come true when I finally got to go to college and pursue my education degree.
Charlotte Garriga

Each and every child is not just ours for a brief nine months but for the duration of their elementary career in our building. For example, I have a student who had a really close relationship with his kindergarten teacher last year. This year she and I are working together to help him be successful and feel more self-confident in doing his work. She checks on him daily and sends him home with a special hug. We celebrate his achievements by allowing him to return to the kindergarten classroom and share with her as needed. We frequently visit about what else we can do to give him a boost.

Sincere encouragement and respect for each child is vital to a child’s success in school. If we expect the students to respect us then we have to first show and model respect to them. We need to set high expectations for our students and then help them find and then model those ways to achieve the expectations.

Being flexible is also important because we are dealing with humans, not robots. Things come up that get in the way of a child’s learning, and it is critical to help them develop strategies and skills to work through those bumps in life. I never allow them to say "I can’t," and I never give up on them.

Our 1st-grade and 2nd-grade teachers analyze students’ spelling assessments and together place each student in a word study group that addresses students’ specific spelling needs. Then once every two weeks we get together and discuss our concerns, strategies and goals for the students. Often, our discussion leads us to how we can better help the child or children who are not making gains, and we leave with a plan to address those needs.

There are many ways I find out if my students are learning. Literacy assessments other assessments give me a lot of data to interpret. However, the biggest and best way I know my students are learning is through watching and interacting with my students throughout the school day. As the students read books, compose and share their own writings I see numerous examples of their learning.

It is so important to encourage and expect your student’s parents to be involved in the learning process. Through the parents' involvement the student sees that everyone is working together and is on the same page to help him or her achieve success in acquiring skills and learning to be a productive citizen.

I set high expectations and provide ways for parents to be involved. On the first day of school a book baggy is sent home with directions for the parent and student to read to and with the child each night. The parents sign the reading log and return it the next day for a new book. If it fails to come back I follow up with a phone call to personally encourage the parent to read with his or her child. This is the best and easiest way they can be involved and make a difference in their child’s education.

Checking their child’s backpack and going over daily papers is another way for the parents to build communication about the school day. Simply asking the child to explain what he or she did on a paper will initiate conversation.

Every Friday each student takes home a personal "Home Journal" that includes a letter the child has written to his or her family. The child’s job is to read his or her letter to the family. Then the parents or another family member writes a message and reads it to the child to be returned on Monday. In doing this activity the child sees the parent modeling reading and writing and the value of being able to communicate through writing. Included in a weekly Home Journal is a correspondence sheet between the teacher and parent. In this way I am able to keep the parents aware of assignments not completed, behavior and accomplishments each week.

I also extend an open door invitation to the parents at the first of the year encouraging them to come and be part of their child’s day. Enjoying lunch with their child, attending a school assembly, assisting in the classroom by reading with students are simple ways they can become involved at school. I just want them to be visible so the child knows their education is valued.

Each and every day contains great student success stories. A child finally being successful at recognizing and identifying each letter and its corresponding sound is a great success because it opens the door for him or her to put the letters and sounds together to form words to begin reading. Helping a child find a new way to handle a conflict is a great student success because in finding that new problem solving strategy he or she can develop better social skills to communicate with others. From small steps like these come the future success stories of students becoming productive citizens of the community.