Ms. Fisher

“Everyday is a new adventure!”

During a “normal,” non-Covid year, Ms. Fisher is an eighth grade special education teacher, an integral part of the eighth grade team. She supports children with IEPs in their eighth grade academic classes. However, for the 2020/2021 school year, Ms. Fisher was asked to take on a new role with her classified students because Lebanon Township principals needed to pull classified children out of mainstream classes so they could attend school more frequently than the hybrid plan allowed (four days as opposed to two days each week). As such, Ms. Fisher was scheduled to teach Social Studies to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classified students.

Ms. Fisher was faced with multiple challenges. She needed to “brush up” on the sixth and seventh grade Social Studies curriculum and do so quickly. Her students span three grades where maturity, responsibility, development, and focus differ dramatically between those grades. Ms. Fisher didn’t have an existing webpage that could be modified for her new role or, despite her familiarity, a need to use Google tools as a special education teacher. She worked quickly to become proficient. 

Furthermore, students remain in the same classroom for three hours, save for bathroom breaks, which is challenging for anyone. To top it off, her sixth graders have Social Studies last. As anyone can imagine, the sixth graders are “done” by the time Social Studies rolls around. One day, the sixth graders cheered upon Ms. Fisher’s arrival. Unsurprisingly, they were not happy to see her; they were happy because her arrival signaled the end of the day was near. Needless to say, Ms. Fisher had a challenging task this year. 

However, Ms. Fisher is succeeding. She is creating a fun and engaging classroom for her students. She incorporated exciting projects for each grade, one example for each follows:

• Sixth: Students chose a world landmark (e.g., Eiffel Tower, Machu Picchu, Great Wall) to research and present to their classmates. They selected their landmark based on which one they wanted to visit. For fun, students imagined they went to your landmark and shared where they would have their picture taken and why. One student wanted a silly picture of himself punching through the fallen wall of the Coliseum. 

• Seventh: Students identified an explorer and were tasked with teaching a lesson about the explorer. To engage the students, Ms. Fisher asked students to compare and contrast their explorer with a partner’s explorer. Students found similarities and differences to their surprise. Two girls were amazed at the number of similarities between their explorers. 

• Eighth: Students researched a Revolutionary War spy and responded to guided questions (e.g., How was spy so important?). For fun, students were asked to pick a song to represent their spy and explain why. One student chose Katy Perry’s Roar to the delight of their classmates.

Ms. Fisher also found a current events podcast for children called “Kid News”. The students enjoy the format and discussing current events. They are frequently challenged to identify three facts, formulate two questions, share one opinion. Students are learning how to process the current event and then express an opinion on a specific topic. 

Ms. Fisher has found this year to be challenging and stressful, comparing the stress to her first year of teaching. She frequently walks to take a break and clear her mind. In doing so she frequently “finds” her great ideas. She loves her students and approaches teaching them positively, sharing “Everyday is a new adventure.”