Teacher Talk Vol 5

by Scott Cleveland
September 15, 2009

Featured in this week's Teacher Talk is the elementary Special Education Department at Elsberry Schools. The department is coordinated by Jill Koch, who begins her seventh year with the district. She also instructs a classroom for the third and fourth grade students who need these services. Mrs. Koch and her teacher’s aide, Kellie Stonebraker, help students in the area of math, reading and language. The kindergarten through second grade students are taught by Debbie Foster, who returns to this department after a stint in a fourth grade classroom. She begins her 30 year in teaching, 20 of which have been in the special education area. Classroom aides for Mrs. Foster include Karla Rimel and Felicia Toeniskoetter who assist in various capacities when they are needed. Students who are enrolled in either of these classes attend at various times throughout the day. Other times student are mainstreamed with a regular classroom.

New to the Elsberry Schools campus this year is an Early Childhood Education Program, which is located in the elementary building. This program currently has five children enrolled in the program and the teachers are eager to see the program grow. All of the students in this program receive a variety of services to meet their educational needs as they grow and develop. These particular types of services were offered elsewhere in prior years but now Elsberry is excited to be offering them to the community. In turn this will give the department an opportunity to work closer with the children and parents from this district. The instructor for this particular program is fifth year teacher, Danielle Riefle.

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