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Mr. David Leonard
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Cobb Mountain Elem School
Hometown:
Cobb, CA
Class Information:
Room Number: 4
Students per Class: 25
Class Description:
I currently teach a class of 25 third grade students. My students compete in Word Masters, a nation wide analogy competition, three times a year. The Readers/Writers workshop model is present in my classroom as well during our language arts time. We also spend a good deal of time using kinesthetic learning techniques to grasp mathematical concepts such as place value, spatial relationships, geometry, measurement, and multiplication/division. With a firm hand-on grounding in these concepts, my students are well prepared for more abstract mathematical concepts. There is a great deal of collaborative learning that takes place whenever we're writing, solving analogies, problem solving in the math lab, or doing scientific experiments. This kind of team building strengthens the classroom community, and allows students to share and reinforce new skills or observations. This can make for a noisy, albeit productive classroom.
Position:
Teacher, Reading Specialist
Needs:
1. 5 to 10 Macbook Laptops capable of video editing and podcast creation using iMovie, and the iLife suite. 2. 3 to 5 Flip cameras. 3. A networkable hard drive for holding class photos, movie clips, podcasts, and other data. 4. Apple Airport Extreme - as a means of connecting each of these macbooks to the hard drive.
My Philosophy:
My desire is to integrate 21st Century skills (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/21st_century_skills_english_map.pdf)into my classroom, and overlay them onto the standards I'm already teaching. I believe this type of enhancement will better prepare my students as citizens in the modern world. Our district is hopefully going to install Interactive Whiteboards in the coming year, but I feel that students need to hold and use new technologies at their desks to truly attain the skills necessary to be demonstrate their proficiency applying these skills.
Personal Information:
College and Degrees:
University of California, San Diego - B.A. in Anthropology, emphasis in Archaeology SonomaState University - Multiple Subject Teaching Credential SonomaState University - M.A. in Education - Teaching Reading and Language Sonoma State University - Reading Specialist Credential
Activities:
Some of my favorite activities are spending time with my family, playing with my preschool age daughter, hiking, photography and Photoshop, playing trumpet & guitar, and cooking at home.
Favorite Books:
I enjoy reading fiction mostly. Anything by Phillip K. Dick, the Mars series (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson), The Stand by Steven King, Contact by Isaac Asimov, Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov.
Favorite Quotes:
The past is history, the future is a mystery, and today is a gift. That must be why they call it the present.
Interests:
Education, the reading process, photography, prehistory - the Incan and MesoAmerican Archaeology, and music.
Employment History:
This is my 5th year as a teacher. I currently teach at the school where I did my student teaching. After student teaching, I began working as a Kindergarten teacher for three years, which I loved very much. I began pursuing my masters degree at the end of my third year of teaching because the reading process was fascinating to me. Thereafter, I began working in my current position as a 2nd/3rd grade teacher.
Why Do I Teach?:
As a way of adding a bit of positive energy into the future. I'm grateful for the education I received as a child, and hope to help the struggling readers of today, like I was long ago. Life would be so much less interesting if I didn't love to read.