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February 2012 Teacher of the Month

Kim Cosmas
3rd/4th Grade Teacher
Robert Sanders Elementary School
Mount Pleasant School District

February’s KBAY Teacher of the Month is Kim Cosmas who received a Field Trip Grant to take approximately 120 third graders to the Fujitsu Planetarium. Listen to Kim’s KBAY interview.

Grant Gives Students A Solar System Adventure

In November 2011, all the third grade students from Robert Sanders Elementary School and their teachers got on two school buses to take a field trip to the Fujitsu Planetarium at De Anza College. Thanks to a field trip grant from Silicon Valley Education Foundation, the visit to the Planetarium enhanced the students’ knowledge of the solar system so that it was much more than two dimensional lessons. Kim states, “The other third grade teachers and I were trying to make the study of the solar system come alive for our students and taking them to the Planetarium was a good way to do that.”

During the field trip, students watched the “Cosmic Journey: A Solar System Adventure.” According to Kim, “With the show we saw there, the planets and the Solar System became real. The images were really stunning... When the planets came overhead in the Planetarium, many students lifted their hands up to try to touch them -- they were that realistic.”

Kim explains that, with the limited time she has to teach her entire curriculum, sometimes the interactive parts of the learning process - like hands-on activities that make abstract concepts more concrete - are pushed aside. “By taking the students on the field trip as part of their immersion within all of the concepts of space that they’d been studying, we were hoping to increase their desire to learn more about the universe and open their eyes to careers that they may not even have thought of had they not gone to the Planetarium.”

According to Kim, the images the students saw at the Fujitsu Planetarium have given them a much richer view of the solar system than they would have had through a textbook study of the universe. “Now, during class when the students are answering questions about the different planets, it’s easy to tell that they are still visualizing the images as they gaze upwards when they think about the solar system.”

Balancing Teaching to the Standards While Engaging Students

There are a million challenges that teachers face every day, but the biggest challenge is the question of balance. Kim ponders, “What can I do to make sure students are gaining mastery of what they are supposed to learn while keeping them engaged, but still follow the frantic pace of teaching all of the many, many standards that are supposed to be taught?”

Being with her students is what Kim likes most about being a teacher. “I love listening to my students when they get excited about hearing their vocabulary words in a book that we’re reading, and when they groan when they have to stop - yes stop - reading their books.”

About Kim

Kim has been teaching for six years and has taught kindergarten and second grade classes. She is currently teaching a third/fourth grade combination class. “I was really nervous about being able to teach a combination but overall I’ve really enjoyed it. Not only are my kids completely awesome this year, but they’ve really pushed me to do a better job of teaching the curriculum because they are so eager to learn.” says Kim.

Read more KBAY Teacher of Month stories.

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