The Connection

Dogwood Elementary School first-grade teacher, Christie Attanasio, was presented with the Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) 2014 Outstanding First-Year Teacher award.

While Attanasio’s classroom looks more or less like the typical first-grade classroom—adorned with colorful posters summarizing some grammar rules, math and science concepts, and work the students have done—the structure of her class and the way she interacts with her students is truly exceptional. She manages to work with the students in small groups, while also allowing them to learn and reinforce concepts both individually and with their peers. By fostering a learning environment that encourages cooperation in addition to independent work, Attanasio has been able to create friendships between her students that allow them to learn together both inside and outside of the classroom.

TWELVE OF THE 18 first-graders in Attanasio’s class have either learned or are learning English as a second language. While this language barrier may seem like a challenge for a lot of teachers, Attanasio has created a classroom where the students can support each other by not only translating from English but also teaching Spanish to those who may have not spoken it in the beginning of the school year.

“At this point in the year, I noticed that the students are much more comfortable translating and helping one another if they don’t know words in English or in Spanish or whatever language they speak since there are a lot of different languages here,” Attanasio explains. “At the beginning of the year, they were much more shy and hesitant and shy to help one another but now that they’ve formed their friendships and they feel safe and are much more excited to take risks, they are willing to go out of their way to help one another.”

In addition to encouraging students to value and appreciate the importance of learning, Attanasio also encourages a light and upbeat environment, especially when she feels that the students need it. In between lessons, she plays a song or some sort of an educational activity that allows the students to move around and even dance. This time, called “wiggle time,” is known as a “brain break, which is great for transitions to get wiggles out before the next activity or sometimes even mid-activity,” Attanasio explains.

In addition to the emphasis Attanasio places on academic learning, she also presses a great deal of importance on social learning, by not only showing the students how to respect one another through her own interactions with the students, but also by expecting them to follow a certain set of behavior guidelines listed in a contract which all the students signed in the beginning of the year. Students are also expected to have “peace talks” amongst themselves if a disagreement arises between them that Attanasio feels they can resolve on their own.

ATTANASIO CREDITS the school’s support for her ability to have created such an effective and purposeful classroom. “I really feel that the award should have been a Dogwood award, because I have been so helped and so encouraged by so many people this year,” she recounts. She explained how the school’s policy of having home visits at the beginning of the year helped her build a strong foundation for her relationships with her students and their parents. She mentions that she “worked really hard at the beginning to get to know them all at the beginning of the year not just academically, but to know their families.

“We also spent a lot of time at the beginning of the year talking about our hopes and dreams, what we wanted to learn in first grade, what we were excited about, and just learning about the students. I’ve learned that once the students know you care about them, not just in school but their own life, they’re more willing to open up and I think that’s the key to really unlocking the potential in a child,” Attanasio said.