Mrs. Trower

Year joined Stella Faculty:

September of 2015

Personal:

I have the most amazing husband and between us we have five children and one daughter-in-law. I am addicted to Pinterest where I have boards about many of my favorites things: Harry Potter, books in general, Quilts, Cross Stitching, Scrapbooking, Decorating, and Recipes, just to name a few.

Teaching Philosophy:

My teaching philosophy is simply that I need to give my students the skills and tools they need to be successful in the next step of their academic career. I want to ensure that my ELA students can comprehend what the author is really saying, and not just what was written on the page, and that all students can navigate the oceans of information available to them to effectively and efficiently the kernel of knowledge they are seeking.

Describe what students will learn in your class:

Library lessons encompass many things. I try to instill a love of reading by sharing my own enthusiasm about the books in our collection. We do author studies, feature different genres and once a year we hold the Stella Book Award contest so that the students have the chance to vote for their favorite book within three different categories. We also spend time on proper library procedures and how to find appropriate information both within in the library itself and in the digital world. Students in the upper grades will hone their information seeking skills as they complete projects. Every project requires a Works Cited so that students get comfortable with proper citation formats and it becomes a good habit for them before they reach high school.

In ELA, students will continue with spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and writing to express themselves, but almost everything we do stems from the novels or short stories we read together in class. I model a great deal of note taking, and strategies to make connections from text to text, text to world, and text to self. Many of our books are about children around the same ages as the students and so they find it easy to relate to them. I try to have a lot of fun along the way.

Favorite Quote:

You can’t ask a librarian for just one! “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities” – Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. and then there’s “Remember, (Cedric) if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy…” – Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire