Anne McNamara, Countryside Elementary School, Barrington (Grades K-2, All Subjects)
As a special education teacher, McNamara works to empower her students, starting the daily lesson by reviewing the rules and their “I can” statements. She has an end goal in mind when creating lessons for each of her students, ensuring each lesson has an academic and functional purpose. For example, a math lesson that includes sorting (sorting silverware, sorting pencils and erasers, and sorting paint brushes by size) prepares them for jobs in the future.
She makes culturally responsive instruction a foundation of her classroom and focuses on it by providing a diverse classroom library. Her students can choose from books with characters who have different needs and abilities, celebrate different holidays and have problems my students may encounter. She also includes books about kids who have sensory needs, to which many of her students can relate. In addition, McNamara finds ways for her students to help community members and friends, by making cards for people in nursing homes to brighten their days as well as including school administrators like school nurse, secretaries, principal and all staff members who help them throughout the year.
Leave a Reply