Arlene Birt

I am so thankful to have a job that doesn't feel like a job. I feel very blessed to be called to teaching and to love what I do. I am in my 30th year teaching first grade at Ephrata Mennonite School, where I also enjoy being the Curriculum Coordinator, serving on the accreditation planning team, and sometimes being involved with secondary school activities. I teach Sunday School and Bible School and do home-school evaluations. Reading, gardening, sewing, crafting, babysitting, and traveling are other areas of interest. One of my goals is "to know Him and to make Him known" and I aim for that in my teaching and pray that my students may see Jesus in me.

Washing Feet

Ah, the challenges in gaga ball. Justin sorrowfully reported after recess, “They were ganging up on me and trying to get me out! I asked them why they were ganging up on me, and they said, ‘Because you’re the littlest.’” Curt and...

For the Lord

Click, click, click! “There, it’s loading. It should be finished in about 30 minutes.” I’m impressed with the tech person’s expertise. My computer had “died” and lost all the data. After I sent the hard drive to a recovery...

This Is the Way: Using Stations to Teach Classroom Procedures

Do you remember singing, This is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth…? I remember playing this singing game as a child, and I've used it with my students, also. Many different actions can be inserted,...

What Did You Say?

“You sound like a bullfrog when you sing,” the child was informed by her music teacher. These unkind words stuck with the child and still hurt as she confided them many years later at her child’s parent-teacher conference. I’ve...

Learning to Serve

“I have an ouchy on my toe,” Savanna announced. As I gave Savanna a band-aid, I asked, “Can you put it on?” I am thinking to myself, “I can’t do feet.” I can help with a lot of things—teeth, noses, hair, but I just can’t help...

My Homework

As we end the first part of the school year, I reflect on these weeks of school and think back to the beginning of the year and the progress made so far. I’m reflecting not just on student progress, but on teacher progress! I...

Watering Seeds

“You know, on school days you have the children more hours of the day than their parents do,” commented a grandma to me on Grandparent’s Day. I have thought about that, and it makes me feel very accountable. Another grandparent...

Camp Read-A-Lot

“Welcome to Camp Read-A-Lot!” Miss F and I greet our students as they enter the “camp.” We hand out name tags and direct the student campers to meet over here and we’ll give directions. We set up the camp in the gym before school...

Turn on the Lights!

Ohhh, what a dark and dreary morning. It’s foggy and misting, and not conducive to a cheerful attitude for this teacher! As I drove to school this morning, I first felt rather downhearted with this weather and the dark morning....

New Year Expectations

For those in the school setting, New Year’s seems to begin in August rather than January. Here we are, though, after a January New Year, and thinking of the fresh start we can have in the middle of our school year. Many of us...

Practice and Review

How can you provide effective practice activities that enable your students to retain what you are teaching? Speaking from her thirty-five years of experience teaching first grade, Arlene addresses practice and review across the...

Glow and Grow

Glow—something you are doing very well; encouragement to continue; area of excellence Grow – something we need to work on; area for growth I have a goal (not yet accomplished) to send home “Glow and Grow” reports with student...

Rabbit Traps

I am teaching phonics, covering a lesson where I just need to give information in a lecture format. There isn’t a learning activity to go with this piece of the lesson. The children are sitting quietly, but do not appear to be...

Restart

Photo by Simon Hattinga Verschure on Unsplash Hmmmm...why won’t this DVD play? I remove the disk, insert it again, and try again. It still won’t play. This is annoying! My class is getting restless, waiting on me, so I try to...

For One

“Somebody will have to be killed before they change it” This statement came regarding an intersection that has been the site of several accidents. Wouldn’t it be nice to change it BEFORE someone is killed? Could we do that just...