1. I am Misha Croley, a Kindergarten teacher at Ridgeview Elementary School. I attended Boones
Creek Elementary, Boones Creek Middle, and I am a graduate of Daniel Boone High School. I received a
Bachelor of Business degree from East Tennessee State University in 2001 and a Master of Education Degree
from Milligan College in 2005. While attending Milligan, I taught one year in Kingsport City Schools. For five and
half years, I taught at Lamar School. While working at Lamar, I taught half a year in 2nd grade, four years of
Kindergarten, and one year in 1st grade. I was recognized as Teacher of the Year during the 2010-2011 school
year. I have thoroughly enjoyed my two years as being a part of the Ridgeview Raptor Team. This year, I was
honored to be recognized as the Ridgeview K-4 Teacher of the Year.
I am a life-long resident of Washington County. My husband, Steven, and I have been married for eleven years.
We live in Jonesborough with our two daughters, Riley (6 years) and Emmi (3 years).
Our class actively participates in workstations and guided reading groups every day. Today, the
children will be actively engaged in one of four different daily workstations, while I work with small guided reading
groups using Words Their Way. By implementing the program, Words Their Way, my children have shown a
greater understanding of both phonemic awareness and reading strategies. The program allows them to actively
explore words using a hands-on manipulative approach. Ipads are also used to help reinforce the Words Their
Way skills. Our independent workstations help reinforce reading strategies from the Common Core State
Standards. At poetry, children learn one or two poems a week about our weekly theme. We do shared readings
of the poems each day, put them in our poetry book, illustrate them, and highlight to recognize the sight words.
This helps us build fluency and confidence in our ability to read. Afterward, the children also visit computers to
practice reading skill strategies by using technology. At word work, the children practice sight words, word
families, and CVC word spellings to help with reading skills. The children also visit listening and library
workstation where they actively listen to a book on CD. The students complete a listening response sheet where
they rate the book and illustrate and write about their favorite part. Afterward, the children visit the library center,
where they pick new books and practice reading independently or with a partner from their book boxes. At the
writing station, we practice writing skills by creating books, cards, letters and writing the room. Each day, the
children participate in a “Share Time” to reflect about the learning that has taken place.