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Amber Genovese is the Content Specialist for Math Grades K-2. She currently teaches Grade 2 at Mary Daly Elementary. Amber fully believes in the utilization of small group instruction during math. Small group instruction allows for the differentiation of needs for all learners. She loves doing place value activities with her students and showing them how to build numbers. She starts every math block with a number sense routine! Amber hopes to help teachers this year with timing in lesson planning. She states, “Speeding up is not always the answer. In fact, it’s almost never the answer! Kids don’t need to be rushed to memorize how to do things. What we want to build is conceptual understanding - how numbers work together, how numbers can be added together, and how numbers can be taken apart. Amber and her husband have 4 wonderful daughters, 4 kitties, and a dog! In her free time, Amber works at a local rescue and fosters kittens until they are ready for adoption. She is an avid reader and loves to learn!
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Denise Demeter is currently the Content Specialist for grades 3-6. Denise teaches 3rd grade at Eastwood Elementary School and enjoys using cooperative learning. She likes cooperative learning because it increases the development of higher learning, oral communication, and responsibilities within the classroom. Students also acquire conflict management skills which increase their self-esteem. Denise uses cooperative learning to teach her favorite unit, Geometry, where students work together to build shapes, buildings, and towns. Denise hopes to share that it is possible to do Math groups with Math Expressions, branching from the class group into smaller, flexible groups in order to hit all progress levels. When not teaching, Denise spends time with her 3 older children, 2 of whom attend university and the other is a Junior in high school. Her favorite activities include going to the gym, playing pickleball, and playing tennis.
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Anita Pratt is currently the Content Specialist for Language Arts grades K-2. Anita teaches at Beardsley Elementary School and enjoys providing explicit phonics instruction to her students. When she teaches decoding, she loves when “the light bulb comes on and students realize they can read real books from the library.” Anita states that if someone were to walk into her classroom, that individual would observe Anita interacting with students, moving around the classroom and checking on the success or needs of students. Students would be playing games, writing, using technology or completing independent projects. Anita wants to support teachers by providing a better understanding of how to take all of the district resources and tools and incorporate those things into their classrooms to make life easier! One of Anita’s favorite genres to teach is non-fiction. Anita loves spending time with her grandchildren and crafting on her Cricut. She also always enjoys baking cookies!
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Suzanne Holcomb teaches 5th grade at Mary Beck and serves as the elementary English Language Arts Content Specialist for grades 3-6. Suzanne enjoys using Turn and Talks in her class. She states, “Turn and Talks are a great way to help students process their thinking.” She also uses a variety of Smekens strategies such as T-charts to organize student thoughts during reading. Suzanne loves teaching historical fiction and narrative nonfiction. Being able to teach social studies through reading makes history come alive for students who otherwise might be bored! Suzanne very much wants to help her colleagues use the most highly effective teaching strategies and materials with their students. Suzanne has been married to her husband Mark for 21 years and she has two sons, Caleb and Ridge. She is very busy throughout the year with 4-H, sports and school!
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Cortney Moreno currently serves as the K-6 Science Content Specialist. She teaches 4th Grade at Riverview Elementary. Cortney loves to incorporate reading and writing into Science. She enjoys teaching plants and animals and how they have different adaptations that help them survive in different environments. One of Corney’s goals is to help teachers increase their use of Science within their classrooms even if just the increase is something small! Cortney’s favorite lessons are any lesson that involves students accomplishing hands-on learning that focuses on answering a question or solving a problem. She has a large family and loves spending time with them! Cortney also enjoys spending time outside, exercising and reading.
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Peggy DeLanghe is currently the Content Specialist for Social Studies grades K-6. Peggy teaches 2nd grade at Eastwood Elementary School and enjoys teaching cultural diversity and celebrating student traditions. Peggy loves to use cooperative learning to teach wants, needs, and monetary standards. Peggy starts her Social Studies lessons as a whole class, branching off into smaller groups, and ending with the students acting as the “teacher” during group presentations. Peggy would like to work with other teachers to integrate Math and Literacy standards into the students' day-to-day Social Studies curriculum. Peggy is both a wife and mother and states that she has gained a vast amount of cultural diversity knowledge from fostering and adopting their youngest son.
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Christina Herrick is currently the Content Specialist for Mild Intervention for grades K-6. She is currently working at Eastwood Elementary School in Mild Interventions for grades 3 and 4. Christina loves showing students how technology can be used to help them succeed in everyday learning. She uses applications such as SNAP&READ to help students who struggle with reading, allowing text to be read to them. She teaches word sound and formation using a snap and slide technique. Her favorite moments are when a student that has struggled has the “light-bulb”moment and they are able to say they finally understand the materials being taught to them. Christina likes to use Wilson plus other methods of intervention when teaching students how to read as well as showing them how great they are throughout their journey. She uses manipulation books and other activities to aid in making learning fun while developing caring relationships between peers. Christina hopes to be a sounding board for new teachers just starting out, giving suggestions and guidance all while learning new techniques. She hopes to be a voice for other teachers at Guiding Coalition meetings and other district Administration meetings as well as getting the Exceptional Learners team involved. Christina’s favorite lesson is teaching students the difference between Fair and Equal. She sets up different scenarios, giving students the opportunity to vote “Fair” or “Equal”. This lesson assists with explaining why a student has special privileges or accommodations that aren’t available to everyone. Christina has been married to her high school sweetheart for 21 years and she and her husband have one son that attends Elkhart Community Schools. Her favorite activities include art, participating in Special Olympics, and volunteering with the Elkhart Civic Theater.
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Shelby Eby is the COntent Specialist for English Learners Grades K-6. She currently serves as the EL teacher at Osolo Elementary. Shelby enjoys using exit tickets with her students and she likes to use question sentence stems or word banks with icons to help students craft their questions. She also spends a great deal of time teaching vocabulary by using semantic mapping. As an EL teacher, Shelby’s schedule is constantly evolving as she works in her classroom with EL students, pushes into General Education classrooms, co-teaches with her colleagues and leads scaffolded reading groups. She loves story retelling with sticky notes. She lives with her husband in Goshen and loves to play piano!
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