Teacher believes working with kids ‘her calling in life’
Published: March 2, 2006
Teaching is both Delisha Rodgers’ passion and calling.
Rodgers, who teaches one of the three PACE kindergarten classes at Garrett Primary, also teaches in LISD’s extended-day and summer programs, and volunteers at her church’s annual Vacation Bible School.
“I just love working with kids – I think it’s my calling in life,” Rodgers said with a smile. “When people ask me how many kids I have, I sometimes say, ‘22.’
“Then, I realize that they’re asking how many kids of my own I have, and I say, ‘three.’”
On Wednesday morning, the students in Rodgers’ class were busy at the various literacy centers located throughout the room. While one group of children listened to books on tape, another alphabetized cards with words printed on them, and then highlighted the Word Wall words they spotted in editions of The Lufkin Daily News.
Rodgers said another of the literacy centers deals with “word chunks.” The students are given the last few letters of words and encouraged to create different words using the beginning sounds.
Rodgers led one group of students through a guided reading exercise. As the boys and girls took turns reading passages from the same book, she offered pointers and helped them sound out the words that gave them problems.
When they finished, Rodgers gave them all small prizes, and said, “You all have read so well today. I can tell you took your books home and read them like I asked you.
“Who are the characters in this story?”
When the students responded with answers like “Emma,” “Matthew” and “the big boys,” Rodgers nodded and said, “Very good.”
Rodgers went on to ask her guided reading group questions about the book’s setting, and what the main characters did to solve the problem.
PACE stands for Program for Academic Curriculum Enrichment and is Lufkin ISD’s version of the old Gifted and Talented classes. Rodgers said while her students learn the same things as children in regular classrooms, the pace is faster and the subject matter is more in-depth.
Giving an example, Rodgers said she recently asked the parents of students in Garrett Primary’s three PACE kindergarten classes to help their children do research on famous African Americans in honor of Black History Month.
Then the students cut out pictures of famous African Americans like George Washington Carver, Harriet Tubman and Muhammed Ali, and wrote some of things they learned about each person. Those items, along with pictures of the students who wrote them, are displayed in one of Garrett Primary’s main hallways.
Rodgers said her students have also studied U.S. presidents like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy in honor of Presidents’ Day. She said they have done things like make “log cabins” out of pretzels and write journals with the things they would ask the presidents if they could meet them in person.
One wall of her classroom also boasts posters with facts and information from the author studies the kindergartners did on their favorite writers – people like Eric Carle, the author of the beloved children’s book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”
“These days, kindergarten students are reading by the end of the school year,” Rodgers said. “I tell them that reading is important, and I try to think of fun ways to encourage them to read on their own.”
Rodgers said she tries to touch on a variety of subjects in the hope that her students will find a topic that grabs their interest enough that they want to read about it further. She said over the course of a year, her kindergartners learn about ocean life, transportation and space travel, American history, animals, dental care and even some paleontology, or the study of prehistoric forms of life through the study of plant and animal fossils.
Students in Rodgers’ classroom also work with “math buckets” as part of the Bridges math curriculum for kindergartners. She said they do a lot of hands-on learn with blocks, or manipulatives, that is designed to lay the foundation for the math skills they’re expected to learn in the higher grade levels.
“One of the things I love most about this age group is that their minds are like sponges,” Rodgers said. “When they write about what they’ve read, and I see just how much they’ve learned, it lets me know that I’m doing my job. And I get a sense of joy from seeing them get excited about learning.”
In addition to the literacy centers, Rodgers’ students also get to do “choice centers” that include “Music Muscle,” blocks, and dramatic play, which is designed to encourage the kindergartners’ imaginations.
A Lufkin native, Rodgers said she grew up “right down the street” from the Garrett Primary campus. After graduating from Lufkin High School, she started her education career as a teacher’s aide helping Dorinda Wade (now the principal of Dunbar Primary) at Garrett Primary. Back then, Wade was one of the campus’ PACE kindergarten teachers.
While Rodgers was working as an aide, she took night classes at Angelina College and Stephen F. Austin State University, where she majored in elementary education. All total, she has been working in the Lufkin ISD system 12 years – five as an aide and seven as a teacher.
When she interned, Rodgers taught third grade. She has also taught fifth- and seventh grade English/language arts. She also worked as the teacher for the daycare that had been set up for the 4-year-old children of LISD employees.
When Wade became the principal at Dunbar Primary three years ago, she recommended Rodgers for her old PACE kindergarten classroom. She has been teaching her PACE kindergarten class ever since.
In addition to helping with extended-day and summer school instruction, Rodgers also teaches an occasional continuing education class for children at AC during the summer months.
“I love teaching,” Rodgers said. “I can’t see myself ever doing anything else.”
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: