Granton Interim Administrator and Kindergarten Teacher Discuss Keeping Kids Engaged

Monday, March 8th, 2021 -- 12:01 PM

-The Granton School District continues to find fun and unique ways to engage their students.

The COVID-19 has been a challenge, but has also provided unique opportunities for Granton teachers to connect with their students.  I spoke with Granton’s Interim Administrator Jame Kuchta and Kindergarten teacher Annette Woller and they discussed those opportunities in more detail.

Mr. Kuchta:  “We have Annette Woller with us, a Granton teacher and coach.  And she’s been in the district a long time and has her own kids attending the school.”

Annette:  “I have been teaching 20 years in the Granton School year.  I’ll be starting 21 in August, so it’s kinda exciting!  So, I have seen kids and now I have those kids’ children, so it’s going all full cycle, and full circle, for that matter too.  I’ve been a teacher for 23 years.  I taught 3 years at a parochial school up in Athens before I came to Granton.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “I see many creative activities in your classroom, Mrs. Woller.  And this year, of course, has had some unique circumstances and I see you teaching synchronously different times.  Can you tell us about the iPads and some of the programs you use?”

Annette:  “We have 1:1 in Kindergarten for the kiddos.  They are all set up with Google classroom.  Ironically, they’re gmail.  They don’t know how to read email, but that’s how they get their meeting links and stuff.  Some of the apps they really enjoy using during small group time are the PBS games or PBS website where they can do some interactive games with Sesame Street and those kinda things.  That is the hot topic in Kindergarten."

"There are some other games that we’ve used in the past that have really cool manipulatives.  But because, obviously, with COVID, and the touching with the manipulatives, we can’t use those so much this year.”

“The other games that are a real big hit with our kiddos are called Tigley games.  There’s alphabet games, there’s adding and subtracting, there’s letters, there’s reading words and all those kinds of things.  So, those are the hot ones in our classroom.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “So, at Kindergarten age, of course, students are learning to form their letters, they’re working on very basic math skills, counting, and putting the letters together, writing words and sentences.  So, that’s a big deal for our students.  And she does a great job with our students in Kindergarten.  But she also works with some older kids and she’s a coach and has been a coach for years.”

Annette:  “Yes, ironically, I coached when I was teaching in Athens.  I would teach in Athens until 3:15pm and then I would drive down here to help coach Middle School Basketball.  So, that was 20 years ago."

"And then I took a break when my personal children were younger and needed me to be more of a mom and at home.  And then when my own children got into Middle School, I decided it would be a fun way to work with them, spend a little more time with them, so I picked up Middle School Basketball coaching again and I’ve been doing that ever since.  I believe, probably, 6 years."

"But before that, in my younger years, I was the Varsity Assistant Volleyball Coach.  I helped with that.  That was a lot of fun when we had a volleyball team.  That was 10 years ago when we had a volleyball team.  It’s kinda fun.  It’s definitely different.  God bless middle school teachers!  And they say the same about Kindergarten, but I don’t know!  That’s a tough one!”

Mr. Kuchta:  “Again, we’re really blessed to have her.  Being in a small district here in Granton, she does wear many hats.  She’s also our primary contact person for our Granton Facebook page and is the person that gets to post and monitor our Facebook.  Is there something you’d like to share about Facebook?”

Annette:  “I hope everyone is enjoying the different posts that we see.  We try to get a lot of activities from different teachers and different age groups.  We’re trying a new method now.  We’re going to see if we can put out more feelers for our olders kids and the teachers upstairs.  If you ever have any questions just use the Facebook Messenger app.  I get those and I send it to whoever it needs to go too.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “Well, she’s a leader, especially amongst our Elementary teachers, and, being here with this many years of experience, they certainly lean on her expertise and we really appreciate that.”

Annette:  “You’re very welcome.  I love Granton.  It’s a great school.  It’s a great district.  It’s a great community to work for.”

Question:  “With all your years of experience, I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of changes in the classroom.  Do you enjoy learning about these new methods that come down the pipeline when it comes to teaching kids?”

Annette:  “Yes, I really do!  I know not a lot of people like change and they like to stick with what they know.  And, I’m not going to lie, it’s a little uncomfortable at first.  I always tell the kids ‘I’m learning with you, so bare with me.’  And I’m always really honest with the parents too."

"This is brand new for me, so if you have questions we’ll work on it together.  But I do like learning new things, trying new things.  If it’s easier for the kids to learn, it may be a little more difficult for me as a teacher to learn something new.  You know, that old dog, new tricks thing.  But if it’s easier for the kids it’s 100% worth it.”

Question:  “Based on the longevity of many of the teachers at the Granton District, it must be a great place to work.”

Mr. Kuchta:  “Absolutely.  We’re a great place for students.  We have tremendous community support.  And the longevity, I think, speaks volume for the district.  We do have some younger, newer teachers, but really a good mix of experienced professionals and younger ones as well.”

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.