FAMILY B-2

Alma L. Hills

Hello! Welcome to O'Farrell and Family B-2. Our goal at O'Farrell is to prepare every student for entrance into college preparatory classes by ninth grade. We start working on that goal the minute a child enters O'Farrell.

As you probably know by now, I am primarily responsible for mathematics and social studies instruction this year. However, because we strive to work in an interdisciplinary fashion at times, students receive instruction in all curriculum areas in each of their classes.

Garry Rollins

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome you to O'Farrell Community School: Center for Advanced Academic Studies. As our students enter a world of scientific discovery, please be advised that parents will take part in this journey as we ll. As my students' science teacher, I will strive to stimulate a desire for scientific research and investigative reasoning. As this journey begins, the child will become more aware of his/her environment and personal health.

My goal for science is to insure that my students are thoroughly prepared to enter high school with the skills necessary to write science reports, maneuver through laboratory activities, and engage in activities that require critical thinking without undergoing unnecessary stress. Having been a science teacher at the high school level for ten years, I am familiar with the types of skills needed to be successful in a high school science class.

Kathryn D. Skube

I want to welcome you to O'Farrell and to my language arts classroom. Nancie Atwell, a former eighth-grade teacher in Boothbay Harbor, Maine said in her book In the Middle : "I learned that freedom to choose and time to read in school are not luxuriesÉThey are the wellspring of student literacy and literary appreciation."

I would also add that freedom to choose what is written and time to write are also essential ingredients in a literate environment. Like Nancie, I know now that writers write as readers and readers read as writers.
Writing and reading are the basics. Language skills, such as usage, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and sentence structure, will be taught through the individualized reading and writing of my students. I try to create an atmosphere in my classroom where students become a more articulate users of language, both written and spoken. Writing is thinking. I want my students doing a lot of thinking as they learn to manipulate language.

Kirk Murray

Welcome to Family B. I am the family support teacher for our educational family. I am the seventh credentialed teacher in the family and I assist in the teaching of all subjects.

My role allows core teachers to plan curriculum, visit other schools to observe alternative teaching techniques, and mediate between students. I share in the management of classroom activities, the development of curriculum, and the evaluation of stu dent progress.

It is typical for me to do anything from "filling-in" for six different teachers for just a few minutes to spending an entire day teaching in one teacher's classroom. At times, when a Family B teacher is working on a major project, I may even teach a mini-unit over several days. My daily duties depend greatly on the need of the requesting core teacher. This is my third year with Family B at O'Farrell and I am looking forward to an exciting and productive year.

Guy R. Duncan

Hi! Welcome to our outstanding family! Unfortunately, I am going to have to leave you out standing in the cold, deep, dark morass known as the void of information about me. Although I share your love of technology, I am still not convinced that just anyone has the right to summon up information about me from any computer which has access to the Web. Perhaps this tells you more about me than anything else I could have written.

Daniel J. McAuliffe

Hello. I'm student teaching in Kathy Skube's sixth grade language arts class this year. I'm not sure who's learning more, my students or me! A majority of our class time is spent running reading and writing workshops, and most of the kids are excelling. A lot of them read more than 600 pages a month! Our classroom is also equipped with ten Macintosh SE's. The students really like typing up final drafts on the Mac's. As for myself, I'm no expert yet, but I'm also enjoying this experience to dabble in the computerized educational gadgetry of tomorrow. I hope I don't break anything!

This page was created by Daniel J. McAuliffe and Guy R. Duncan
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