This May, we’re excited to highlight our fabulous teacher, Ms. Keigon Lehn. This is Ms. Lehn’s second year as a full-time teacher at the Phoenix Academy – she has also taught two years of summer school with us!
Ms. Lehn currently teaches third and fourth grade. We visited with her about her time at Phoenix Academy and what’s been going on in her classroom this past year!
Why did you go into teaching?
I started taking childhood development classes at the local community college, and I started trying to apply those practices and saw them working. That led me down the child development path. Eventually, I want to get a master’s in child psychology. Right now, I’m really loving teaching and the students. I really love helping people, and at our school, I know I’m doing as much as I can to help our local students. I really do what I can to make this a safe space for them all.
What do you like about teaching at Phoenix Academy?
I really love the environment here. It’s a very supportive feeling. Our small class sizes make it easier to reach students – it’s more beneficial for them. We teach them at their level. They’re always being supported exactly where they need to be.
What’s something you’ve been working on in your classroom so far this year?
I’ve done a lot more group work this year. I’m trying to do a lot more collaboration. It’s been really cool to watch them all interact and problem-solve together.
We’ve also been teaching new curriculum this year, Wit & Wisdom. We continue building off books for weeks. We’ve read the Starry Messenger probably fifteen times, and not one student is sick of it. They keep getting all these new meanings and conclusions from the book every single time we read it. The curriculum is just really amazing. We also just finished up our under the sea module last month, and they just made didactic panels about sharks and giant squid, which was really cool.
I’ve also been trying to do a lot more family engagement activities. I invited the families to come to the school on Saturday to paint a buddy bench, and we had so much fun, we came back on Sunday to finish painting. It was so fun to hang out with the students and their siblings and their parents.
Tell us about some wins from this year.
My class this year – almost every single one – is reading at least a third-grade level. They’ve had some insane growth. I’ve had students move from a Kindergarten reading level all the way up to a third-grade level just within this year. I’ve had some kids jump 20 points in their MAPs school between the fall and winter tests. It’s incredible.
Thank you, Ms. Lehn, for everything you do for students at the Phoenix Academy!