The Teacher’s Academy Celebrates Teachers! June’s Teacher Feature: Lindsey Whalon

In a sleepy little town outside the bustling metropolis of Philadelphia, PA resides a blue ribbon school with extraordinary teachers and lucky students.  Enter into the 3rd grade class of Mrs. Lindsey Whalon and you will be swept up in the engaging activities and contagious enthusiasm!

When I first stepped into Mrs. Whalon’s class, I took in what her students are welcomed with every day. The room is filled with growing plants, an extensive library, colorful walls, student projects, and even laptop computers.  Her students were working on PowerPoint presentations, researching animals and outlining their presentations. Students were actively incorporating the grammar, spelling

and comprehension skills that they learned earlier in the week.

The transition to the current lesson was seamless except for a few disappointed students who did not want to stop working on their presentations…

“Class, Class.” Mrs. Whalon sing-songs a quick attention grabber.

“Yes, Yes,” her students automatically respond and look at her with their full attention, waiting to see what’s going to happen next.

“Find a wiggle spot in 10, 9, 8…”

Her students scatter around the room, quietly but with big smiles in anticipation of the opening activity.  Just in time, her students have found places near friends, about an arms distance away from each other; plenty of room for what was to come.

A “Chillax” video from GoNoodle.com is projected through her computer on the front board.  Her students imitate the goofy dance movements with their arms and legs, quietly giggling and having fun as they work out a little extra energy.  GoNoodle is a website Mrs. Whalon uses to find free brain and sensory activities for her students.  (She is all about frequent “brain breaks” and free stuff for teachers!)

After the “Chillax” activity, Mrs. Whalon directs her students to find a seated spot on the carpet for a quick review of the “Body Parts” unit the students have been learning. As everyone gets settled, up pops another video clip.  This time she uses the popular Brain Pop characters Tim & Moby to explain different functions of body parts with emphasis on the skeletal frame. She stops after each important point in the video to highlight exactly what her students need to know.  Sometimes she asks her students to repeat the information and other times she presents questions for her students to think about, and then respond.

Mrs. Whalon is a tech-savvy teacher but only uses technology when it can enhance the lesson.  When she weaves age-appropriate educational videos into her instruction, her students have a better chance of understanding complex concepts.  Deeper thinking skills are the result when the videos are supplemented by her thought-provoking questions.  Not allowing technology to overwhelm students or take the place of teaching can be a difficult balancing act. Mrs. Whalon uses technology like a tool.  She takes advantage of it only when she knows it will benefit her students.

Only a few minutes have gone by and already the students had a brain-break, review of former concepts and an introduction to new facts they will apply during the hands-on activity forthcoming.  Things are moving right along!

“Today we are going to be putting together a skeleton in an activity called, Mr. Bones.” She uses her own set of materials to demonstrate the activity, highlighting a few actions to avoid (like, attaching the bones with a fastener before she has a chance to check).  She shows them how they can move the “bones” around to recreate the skeleton. Her students are mesmerized by the demonstration.

“You will be using only a few tools for this activity, your brain, your partner’s brain and your hands and mouths so you can share ideas.  I have one more thing to tell you about this activity…”  She hesitates and watches for all eyes.  Her students are once again captivated.  “I know how fast the quickest 3^rd grader got this skeleton assembled.” Guesses from her students begin…

“5 minutes!?”

“2 hours!?”

“Tell us!”

Mrs. Whalon just smiles and says, “I’m not going to tell you until you are all done. I do want to see how fast you can concentrate on doing it correctly.  If it is not correct, you will need to continue to arrange the bones until they are assembled correctly and that will take time.”

For 6 years, Mrs. Whalon worked in different schools, different grades levels and of course with a variety of different students. She developed a classroom and time management style that incorporates positive reinforcement and high expectations. She uses subtle corrections and guided questions to keep even her most active students focused.   She redirects off-task behavior and channels hers students’ energy into a productive, engaged learning with ease.  She likes to offer a challenge to her students to keep them engaged in the activities but can gauge when a little extra support is needed.  She is quick to celebrate appropriate behavior and enjoys watching her students learn difficult concepts.

Mrs. Whalon finally found a home and settled comfortably into a 3rd grade inclusion classroom.  As difficult as those years were, Mrs. Whalon used them to build a strong foundation of teaching experiences, and her students are the beneficiaries of those efforts.

As we walk around her classroom together we observe the intensity of her students’ concentration.  Obviously, these kids have had a lot of experience learning how to collaborate on projects. They listen to each other’s recommendations and agree or disagree.  Sometimes they try and fail.  Sometimes they try, succeed and then high-five each other.  The atmosphere is comfortable enough for a friendly competition to ensue between students as the pairs are excited to share their successes with each other.  Mrs. Whalon’s total focus is on project-based learning.  She makes a quick comment to me in between checking the assemblage of several Mr. Bones, “This hands-on Science stuff is so cool.  These kids are learning things I didn’t even get to learn until high school.”

Mrs. Whalon uses the new Foss Science program and admits to trying the activities herself so she has a better understanding of the process.

“I need to know exactly what they will be going through when I give them an activity.  I also want to have an idea of how much time it will take and what problems the kids might encounter.  Last week my husband came home from work and I had body parts spread all over the family room floor.  He just laughed; he is used to my classroom prep projects all over the house.”