I am proud to be entering my twenty-seventh year of teaching in the Plymouth-Canton Schools at Allen Elementary School.  I received my BA in elementary education from Marygrove College in 1977 and a MA in reading from Eastern Michigan University in 1980.  I love my job and get to do something different each day.  I enjoy the challenge.  Kids, parents, and administrators are still able to surprise me.

When I began teaching twenty-seven years ago, I did not have a set of encyclopedias in my classroom.  My, how times have changed!  Now, with the help of the Internet and computers, students have an infinite number of resources to gather and research for information.  It makes learning so much easier and fun.  

Classroom Environment

My fifth graders come to Allen School with a wide variety of talents, interests, and abilities.  All of them love to use our computer lab and access to the Internet.  Three-fourths of them have computers with Internet access in their homes.  My student teacher, Ji-hyun Hong, has added to our enthusiasm to use technology.  Her American Colonies Unit  was developed to harness this interest and broaden their knowledge of how life was like in the colonial period.

Technology-

Our classroom has 2 PCs for student use.  The school has a computer lab located in the library that the entire school shares.  We have one scheduled period during "A" weeks, and sign up for free lab time during "B" weeks.  We have to rush to sign up, as lab times gets very limited.

The CEO Forum on Education & Technology has developed a School Technology & Readiness (STaR) Chart for the K-12 community. After completing the series of questions, it was determined that on average Allen Elementary is at the Mid Tech level.  The survey evaluates the school in five areas.  Below are the results for Allen Elementary School in each area.

Here is the bulletin board display Ji-hyun Hong made  for the hallway at the end of the unit.