Director of Teaching & Learning Miles Azzeh's Academic Spotlight: Jackie Euler and Katie Maize
Our Lansing USD 469 teachers are incredible at engaging our students in fantastic learning opportunities to reach their full potential every day in our district. To highlight and bring recognition to this great work, Director of Teaching and Learning Miles Azzeh will be regularly shining a spotlight on a stand-out teacher through "academic spotlights."
March 28, 2022 Academic Spotlight by Mr. Miles Azzeh:
Huge shout-outs in this week's Academic Spotlight go to 5th-grade teachers Jackie Euler and Katie Maize for their innovative way of helping kids improve their reading ability. Taking advantage of the current March Madness frenzy, they decided to gamify the learning/practice by creating their own tournament-style competition. Here is Ms. Euler with more information:
"Mrs. Maize and I wanted to find a fun and engaging activity for our classes to review reading skills before the Kansas State Assessments. My class had a blast with this activity, and they worked so hard all week with their teammates. Each team was given five minutes to read a text related to basketball and then had to answer a question that focused on specific reading skills, such as identifying the text structure, the author's purpose, and making inferences. If each team answered the question correctly, they were able to shoot the basketball for bonus points for their team."
As stated, teams worked together to survive each tournament round against other teams from their class. The competition culminated with the championship game between the Auburn Tigers (Luke Hixson and Jordan Jenkins) and the Florida Gators (Maddox Kimball and Jason Duncan). Students from both classes made signs and rooted for their classroom team representative to take home the trophy. Ms. Euler and Mrs. Maize were gracious enough to let me act as the finals judge, and I have to tell you… it was not easy. But a winner had to be chosen, and I went with the Auburn Tigers (sorry, Maddox!).
Here are quotes from some of the participants:
Luke Hixson---Winner--- "This was a fun experience. We got to practice our reading skills while playing a fun game of basketball. I was very nervous about competing against my friends in Mrs. Maize's class."
Landon Olson-- "It was a fun experience. I got to learn while having fun!"
Nichole Mack--"We got to work together with a team to solve reading problems, and it was so much fun doing it."
"I liked how everyone worked together to get to the championship," - Kaylee Cline
"I enjoyed how everyone supported everyone," - Jema Hubbard
Yet another example of the fun, engaging, and worthwhile work our staff members are providing our students each and every single day. Thank you, Mrs. Maize and Ms. Euler, for thinking outside the box and being this week's academic spotlight!