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Amy Cirjak - S.T.A.T. Teacher, Lansdowne Elementary
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A native of northeastern Ohio, Amy moved to Baltimore County in 2001 for her first teaching assignment at Sandalwood Elementary as a Special Educator. Amy transferred to Lansdowne Elementary in 2009 to work with new teachers as a Title I Instructional Coach and is now the S.T.A.T. teacher at Lansdowne. Amy earned a Masters degree in Early Childhood Special Education and is currently working on a PhD at Notre Dame of Maryland University in Instructional Leadership for Changing Populations. She lives in Baltimore with her husband and daughter and loves to travel to visit friends and family in many areas of the country. She also enjoys reading and cooking.
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June 2015
Wow! We’ve come a long way! It has been a busy year with a lot of learning. We started not being able to imagine what the use of devices in our 1st-3rd grade classrooms would look like in June or how much we would learn. We didn’t know how we would compare to the other Lighthouse Schools nor did we know how we would appear to the visitors in our own building. Would we be able to pull this off? I say with an abundance of confidence that we pulled it off and it looks GREAT! When you walk into many of our classrooms you will see displays of student work that looks professionally published thanks to the programs we are able to use for research and publication. You will see students highly engaged and invested in their work and some of the best writing we have seen in 1st-3rd grade students in years! Not only would you see these things at our school, but if you left to visit another Lighthouse School you would see the same level of engagement and investment of student learning. As we end the school year, we are turning our focus to next year. We are excited to be adding devices to Kindergarten, fourth and fifth grades. Our goal is to focus on using the devices to increase higher level collaboration among students and continue to engage them in authentic projects that promote higher level thinking. We look forward to seeing our students and teachers excel!
Wow! We’ve come a long way! It has been a busy year with a lot of learning. We started not being able to imagine what the use of devices in our 1st-3rd grade classrooms would look like in June or how much we would learn. We didn’t know how we would compare to the other Lighthouse Schools nor did we know how we would appear to the visitors in our own building. Would we be able to pull this off? I say with an abundance of confidence that we pulled it off and it looks GREAT! When you walk into many of our classrooms you will see displays of student work that looks professionally published thanks to the programs we are able to use for research and publication. You will see students highly engaged and invested in their work and some of the best writing we have seen in 1st-3rd grade students in years! Not only would you see these things at our school, but if you left to visit another Lighthouse School you would see the same level of engagement and investment of student learning. As we end the school year, we are turning our focus to next year. We are excited to be adding devices to Kindergarten, fourth and fifth grades. Our goal is to focus on using the devices to increase higher level collaboration among students and continue to engage them in authentic projects that promote higher level thinking. We look forward to seeing our students and teachers excel!
February 2015
Student led and centered!
Recently, I had the opportunity to cover for two 5th grade teachers to provide them with the unique professional development of observing each other and a class in a middle school. Prior to this year, covering for a teacher, substituting, would require me to direct the class continuously in their learning. This time was different. Both rooms have developed student centered routines for learning that allow the students direct their own learning in stations. In the Language Arts room, the students worked in book groups to read and complete discussions and activities that would later be reported to the teacher. My role was minimized as I only needed to direct them to get in their book groups. The students knew the rest. In the math class, the students received a mini lesson and then worked in small groups at a variety of stations around the room. Again, my role was minimized to being the time keeper and manager of smooth rotations. Behavioral disruptions were nonexistent, even with me as a relative stranger in the room, as students were engaged and in charge and based on the questions they were asking me, they were most certainly learning! It was a pleasure to see these two groups of 5th graders take charge of their learning even for the short hour that I spent with them!
Student led and centered!
Recently, I had the opportunity to cover for two 5th grade teachers to provide them with the unique professional development of observing each other and a class in a middle school. Prior to this year, covering for a teacher, substituting, would require me to direct the class continuously in their learning. This time was different. Both rooms have developed student centered routines for learning that allow the students direct their own learning in stations. In the Language Arts room, the students worked in book groups to read and complete discussions and activities that would later be reported to the teacher. My role was minimized as I only needed to direct them to get in their book groups. The students knew the rest. In the math class, the students received a mini lesson and then worked in small groups at a variety of stations around the room. Again, my role was minimized to being the time keeper and manager of smooth rotations. Behavioral disruptions were nonexistent, even with me as a relative stranger in the room, as students were engaged and in charge and based on the questions they were asking me, they were most certainly learning! It was a pleasure to see these two groups of 5th graders take charge of their learning even for the short hour that I spent with them!
December 2014
What we learned from our Night of Innovation on December 4:
What we learned from our Night of Innovation on December 4:
- We have very talented and excited students: Our students did a phenomenal job sharing their tools and learning.
- Our teachers are dedicated and hardworking, well we knew this, but they proved it again!
- Our community is excited and thrilled to take part in this initiative.
- Discovery Education is a great partner!
- Danny from Daly is the best tech support we have ever found!
- We work really, really well as a team!
- Students couldn’t wait to show off their learning and were volunteering to participate in the digital showcase.
- We’ve made a LOT of progress in our movement to a student centered learning environment.
- Other teachers and communities are VERY interested in what we are doing. Several teachers from around the state came to check us out!
- Our students know a lot more about demonstrating their learning than we thought they did!
November 2014
As we prepare for the holiday season our devices are no longer brand new, the daily challenges of using our new learning tool are fading and our focus is on teaching and learning. The teachers in my building are focused and worried about their students learning. Are they learning enough? Are they learning fast enough? Regularly, I am asked to discuss lesson planning and implementation from a “Am I doing okay?” perspective. Each teacher’s concern is real and legitimate, but I assure you, they are doing it well! Their concern is based from the newness of the experience. As we move forward, we are focusing on finding mastery in our craft - teaching students. We are looking to find confidence and mastery in implementing our curriculum. We are pushing ourselves to use the devices beyond a substitution level and are pushing our students to complete short focused research resulting in creating something be it a Discovery Education board or a paper life cycle, the emphasis is on the learning! So, we continue to move forward, look ahead and stay the course!
As we prepare for the holiday season our devices are no longer brand new, the daily challenges of using our new learning tool are fading and our focus is on teaching and learning. The teachers in my building are focused and worried about their students learning. Are they learning enough? Are they learning fast enough? Regularly, I am asked to discuss lesson planning and implementation from a “Am I doing okay?” perspective. Each teacher’s concern is real and legitimate, but I assure you, they are doing it well! Their concern is based from the newness of the experience. As we move forward, we are focusing on finding mastery in our craft - teaching students. We are looking to find confidence and mastery in implementing our curriculum. We are pushing ourselves to use the devices beyond a substitution level and are pushing our students to complete short focused research resulting in creating something be it a Discovery Education board or a paper life cycle, the emphasis is on the learning! So, we continue to move forward, look ahead and stay the course!
October 2014
On the 28th day of school things look dramatically different than the first week. Our vocabulary has changed as we talk about “devices” rather than “netbooks,” “Wixie” rather than “Pixie,” mouse skills, head phones and trouble shooting. We started the school year with lessons on device care and logging in, never imagining the number of steps required to type a user name with capital letters and numbers! Those struggles have disappeared as some students, even first graders, have memorized their log in information. My sense is that teachers are beginning to feel braver, taking chances to integrate additional tools and are beginning to develop their troubleshooting tool belt. They are starting to see some of the short cuts available through BCPS One, like assigning practice activities rather than copying worksheets and giving different activities to different groups of students. Now, when I enter classrooms, I am seeing students learning in a more blended environment. They are using digital text alongside paper and pencil organizers to practice reading strategies, or communicating on a discussion board or Padlet. We have also just begun to realize the potential within Wixie as students are able to create projects to demonstrate their learning and teachers can view each students’ work within the web based tool. Our students remain excited to use their computers saying, “I can read online,” or “I am impressed at how the devices work, how all the wires and buttons work together for us to do our work.” Our students, especially the 4th and 5th graders can now answer the question, “How are you doing in school?” with a specific response about their grades, never before having the ability to log in and see their grades at any point and time. We are looking forward to seeing what happens in the next 28 days!
On the 28th day of school things look dramatically different than the first week. Our vocabulary has changed as we talk about “devices” rather than “netbooks,” “Wixie” rather than “Pixie,” mouse skills, head phones and trouble shooting. We started the school year with lessons on device care and logging in, never imagining the number of steps required to type a user name with capital letters and numbers! Those struggles have disappeared as some students, even first graders, have memorized their log in information. My sense is that teachers are beginning to feel braver, taking chances to integrate additional tools and are beginning to develop their troubleshooting tool belt. They are starting to see some of the short cuts available through BCPS One, like assigning practice activities rather than copying worksheets and giving different activities to different groups of students. Now, when I enter classrooms, I am seeing students learning in a more blended environment. They are using digital text alongside paper and pencil organizers to practice reading strategies, or communicating on a discussion board or Padlet. We have also just begun to realize the potential within Wixie as students are able to create projects to demonstrate their learning and teachers can view each students’ work within the web based tool. Our students remain excited to use their computers saying, “I can read online,” or “I am impressed at how the devices work, how all the wires and buttons work together for us to do our work.” Our students, especially the 4th and 5th graders can now answer the question, “How are you doing in school?” with a specific response about their grades, never before having the ability to log in and see their grades at any point and time. We are looking forward to seeing what happens in the next 28 days!
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