What is your name? Where do you teach? My name is Cynthia Patton. I teach at Abita Springs Elementary.

What subjects do you teach? I am a self-contained regular education kindergarten teacher who teaches all subjects.

What is your favorite thing about the subjects you teach? My favorite thing about the subjects I teach is integrating the use of hands-on activities, technology and real life experience into each lesson so my students are able to grasp the concept of what they are learning.

cynthia patton

How long have you been a teacher? This is my ninth year teaching.

How has the profession of teaching changed since you started? When I first started teaching technology was not utilized as much as it is in the classroom today.

Why did you become a teacher? Growing up in poverty and not living in the best neighborhood always inspire me to give back to my community by making a difference in children lives through education. I encounter some really good teachers while in elementary, junior high, high school and college. They all encouraged and motivated me to become a teacher.

What is your favorite thing about teaching? My favorite thing about teaching is seeing the growth of my students from the beginning to the end of the school year. Some of my students have never been to school before and I am so excited to see how much they have learned and grasp throughout the school year.

Do you do anything special in the classroom to get through to your students? I provide my students with, hands-on and real life experiences. For example this week in class we are learning the alphabet Aa. In Sept. 25, my students explored the world of apples. My students learned step by step how this special fruit grows, where it grows, how the apple farmer’s collect the apples, how the apples arrive at the grocery store/farmers market and finally into our refrigerators. We also sorted the different types of apples by color and size. Not only will we taste the different apples, we will graph our favorite apple using graph club (technology). The children will group the apples and weigh the different groups. They will also make applesauce and get to eat it doing snack time.

What is the hardest part of your job? The hardest part of my job is not having enough time in a day to accomplish everything I would like to do with my students.

Are you involved in any extra curricular activities at the school? At school I am the co-grade level chair for my kindergarten team. I help to assist the kindergarten grade level chair with planning for our team meetings that are held every other Tuesday.

Do you utilize any special technology in the classroom? I utilize the Promethean Board as a technology instructional tool to integrate reading, writing, math, science and social studies within my daily lessons.

Have you received any grants to aid you in the classroom? I have not received any grants to aid instruction into my classroom.

What do you do during your summer vacations? For the most part I teach summer school, travel with my family and attend summer workshops to learn new and creative ideas.

Do you aspire to become a principal one day? As of now I do not have the desire to become a principal. I love teaching! I do aspire to become a reading specialist one day because I enjoy teaching reading.

What’s the craziest thing that has ever happened while you were teaching? I would have to say that the craziest thing that has ever happen while teaching Kindergarten was having a student get out of car line and get on the bus. When I asked the student why she decided to get out of car line and get on the bus, she stated that she wanted to go home with her friend. I was a nervous wreck and so was the child’s parent. Thank goodness the bus driver brought the student back to school.