The KBAY Teacher of the Month for August is Rachel Hager, who teaches 6th grade Earth Science and 7th grade Life Science at Buchser Middle School in the Santa Clara Unified District. In addition, Rachel teaches Video Production and the school’s Leadership class in her role as ASB Advisor. This is Rachel’s 5th year at Buchser and 10th year in teaching. She has a BA in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz and earned her teaching credential at CSU Monterey Bay.  Rachel will receive a Teacher Innovation Grant for her classes from the Silicon Valley Education Foundation.

 

Rachel used her SVEF Teacher Innovation Grant to purchase digital audio recorders and a FLIP camera to create an Endangered/ Extinct Species Video Project and for electronic portfolios. She says, “Students learned about the history of life on Earth. Students researched one endangered or extinct species and wrote a narrative of original work and cited sources. They found electronic images and gave credit to their origins as well. Students then recorded a voice over using the digital audio recorders and imported their images into Windows Movie Maker and added transitions, titles and credits. The top video projects will be hosted at Next Vista for Learning (www.nextvista.org) and were entered into the California Student Multimedia Festival. All projects got uploaded on schooltube.com. Recording on audio recorders enhanced the overall quality of the videos because then students will not have to just have background music and titles. The audio narrative is more informational than titles alone.” These projects can be seen at the endangered species project site which Rachel designed for this project at https://sites.google.com/site/survivalorextinction/ and the finished videos can be seen at www.Schooltube.com using the search word: Buchser

 

“The use of technology in the classroom truly engages students. It also prepares students to become proficient using tools they may need to use someday in the workplace. The grant I received through SVEF helped me to purchase equipment that I needed for students’ projects which were being entered in the California Student Multimedia Festival. I was in the Foothill College Merit Teacher program, which is a program designed to promote a synthesis of content, technology, and pedagogy that will have a measurable and positive impact on education in the Silicon Valley and beyond. As a result of being in the Merit program, I designed the Survival or Extinction Video project"

 

Rachel says of her school and program, “Buchser Middle School is located in the heart of Silicon Valley in Santa Clara. We serve approximately 1,000 students in grades 6-8. The cultural makeup is about 1/3 Hispanic, 1/3 Asian and 1/3 Caucasian, with other cultures present as well. I am doing this project with all of my seventh grade science students. I have 155 students of various backgrounds. I have 30% English Language Learners, low socio-economic students, and several mainstreamed special day class students who are autistic.”

 

When asked what she liked most about being a teacher, Rachel replied, “I really love teaching Life Science, because it is really about everything! I recently had the class dissect frogs in order to observe the anatomy and draw similarities with human anatomy, but it really left me feeling very sad. I realize that what I like about life science is that it's LIFE science. So next year, I am not sure if we are going to dissect frogs, but I certainly want to raise frogs. What would truly be wonderful is to raise California Red Legged Frogs because that's a way we can make a difference and learn at the same time. I notice when I am enthused about a topic, that's when my students retain what we've learned. It's not book work that they usually remember but the stories about a particular topic. I really feel it's important to spread the word about the present extinction crisis. Humans have never really experienced anything like this before. It's important to find out first that is happening, then second, instead of feeling discouraged, ask, what can we do, it has to be positive and forward-thinking. Beyond teaching Life Science, I really like being with the students. They're at fun age.”

 

Speaking of the biggest challenge she faces in her classroom Rachel says, “The biggest challenge is meeting all of the different learning styles embodied in the students that come to my classroom. Everybody learns in different ways. I like to have my classroom arranged so that students can work in cooperative groups. I have students sit in a group of four students which is the way I design my room for managing supplies and labs. This has its pros and cons. When I try to go back to the linear table designs, I lose the table groups which are essential for the way I teach. The down side is that 7th graders, along with everybody else, like to talk. I try to steer the conversation to enhance learning. Sometimes, 7th graders can talk too much. Near the end of the school year, I brought in silk worms for each table group. It was engaging, and we observed the entire life cycle and we are learned about reproduction. Naturally, students can get very enthused in science and I try to harness that energy to maximize learning.”