Intermediate Teacher Feature: Emily Loggins

This week I want to introduce you all to Emily Loggins, our intermediate teacher featured for the week.  Not only was Emily new to us this year, Emily was at home for the first 8 weeks with her sweet little baby. 

So after giving Emily some time to readjust to school life and adjust to life as a working mom, I decided it was time to pop in and visit Emily and introduce her to the world (or at least to Sexton Elementary School).  I often look for the little details that set everyone's teaching style apart.  In Emily's room I didn't have to go far.  You know the saying, "a picture is worth one thousand words?"  Well if this picture of Emily and her decorated door is any indication of the teacher that Emily is in her classroom, I cannot wait to continue to see her in action: 

How much fun is her spooky door?  She is in the doorway, and her kiddos are peering out the windows.  

While we are so thankful for all the helping hands that helped Emily's class stay afloat during the first 8 weeks of school, it is simply not the same as having the full time classroom teacher there.  Emily's room is full of life and real student engagement.  While I was visiting this week, students were having real academic conversation, using rich vocabulary, genuinely celebrating each other, and challenging each other to express better thinking.  The walls are coming to life with student work and her room is filled with best practices across the board.  One anchor chart that caught my eye was a piece of module work comparing two like articles:  

It is all the little care to detail that turns a typical classroom into a family.  It is exciting to watch Emily's class become a family and it is exciting to have Emily here as part of the Sexton Stingray family!!!!