Katie Smith's Bad Reputation

Middle school students have the tendency to carry a bad reputation. Katie Smith has set out to alter this misconception. As early as the second grade Katie recalls wanting to be a teacher- she claims it is because she likes to be bossy, but I suspect it is because she has a way of transforming her classroom into a home for her students. Katie graduated from Sam Houston University in 2011 with a degree that certified her to teach middle school English-Language Arts. Upon graduation, she accepted a job in a small town outside of Bryan where she taught reading to sixth and seventh grade students. She remained with that district for five years before moving to Bryan. It is important to note that at her previous district Katie took a blank piece

In elementary school, she claims she wanted to be a teacher because she liked to tell others what to do; however, this reasoning changed when she went into high school. Throughout high school Katie’s chronic illness caused her to be absent frequently. These absences led some of her teachers to believe that she did not value her education. Her English teacher, Mr. Z, was the only faculty member who made her feel important. Mr. Z is the reason Katie became a teacher. During our interview, Katie frequently spoke about the importance of establishing an environment in which students feel confident and comfortable. Seeing how much her students have grown since the start of the year until now is the reason she continues to school, even on the bad

Her students depend on her ability to work efficiently in a team. Katie spends part of her day in a co-teaching partnership. Throughout the day Katie works directly with one of the campus’s reading resource teachers to develop effective instruction for her students with exceptionalities. In order to develop the most appropriate curriculum for the students at SFA, the reading department (including the reading resource teacher) meets daily to assess and modify curriculum. This is Katie’s first year in a co-teaching partnership and she spoke about the importance of self-reflection when developing effective working partnerships. Fortunately for Katie, she and her partner are both new to the realm of co-teaching. Katie stated that both of them being first year co-teachers made working together significantly easier. Katie said the best exercise she and her partner did to establish a strong relationship was to begin by getting to know each other. Finding commonalities has allowed them to be better partners, and therefor better instructors. On several occasions I have witnessed Katie use her planning period to help other faculty members. While it was never directly stated during our interview, part of the reason her partnerships are so successful is because she had an immense amount of respect for her