Armed with a microphone and self-confidence, one team teaching duo makes sure their lessons are heard, as well as their students' answers.
By VALERIE TAYLOR
Published September 16, 2004
The third-grade class at Spring Hill Elementary is deep into a discussion about friendships, the concept behind The Tree House, the story they're reading.
Teacher Cathy Hogeland walks between the rows of desks and asks the question.
"How can you make up with a friend when you realize the friendship is more important than whatever caused the fight?"
Many hands shoot up.
Hogeland, like a talk show host, walks over to one of the students in her "audience" and puts a microphone to the girl's mouth. The girl takes the mike in both hands and answers as if she's been talking into one all her life, telling what happened and how she made up with her friend.
"I'm so glad you apologized," said Hogeland, "That can make all the difference in the world."
Call it Oprah third-grade style, but microphones have these language arts students jumping out of their seats, hands raised high in the air, eager to answer.
Hogeland's co-teacher, Don Troyan, monitors the students, making sure they're on the right page, helping students who need extra attention and, through his wireless headset, adding comments about the importance of communication.
There's a strange thing going on in this class of 34 - the children quiet down quickly when they're told to, and the teachers aren't yelling. The microphones carry the message loud and clear.
It all started with Troyan, who is also a DJ for weddings and holiday parties, bringing in his equipment to the classroom for holiday parties.
"Then we had the kids singing songs like the multiplication facts," said Hogeland. "Then we thought we'd use (the microphones) to see if it would carry (our voices) better and catch their attention. Then we let the kids have the mike, and it just blossomed."
Troyan thinks the mike gives students confidence. Some children are barely audible when they first speak into it.
"By the end of the year, believe me, none of them are shy when they leave here," he said.
Five years ago, Troyan and Hogeland had already been talking about how they'd like to teach a class together when principal, John DiRienzo, came to his teachers looking for answers to a space crunch.
"We told him, "we think we have an answer to your problem,' " said Troyan.
They've been team teaching ever since. Hogeland teaches language arts, which encompasses spelling, grammar, reading and writing; Troyan teaches math, science and social studies.
Team teaching started gaining prominence in the 1960s, and was seen as a way to handle large class sizes. Today, it's also seen by some as a more effective teaching method, allowing for the inclusion of students with special needs or disabilities into the general student population. And the larger class sizes add diversity in the classroom.
In Florida, team teaching accommodates compliance with the class size reduction mandate, school officials said.
In Hernando, five of the county's 10 public elementary schools have some team teaching, which school officials say will help with the increased enrollment this year.
"I see a great difference (in team teaching over conventional teaching)," said Troyan. "Now I can zero in on my three subjects, and I can really, really get that across to the kids. Also there's more flexibility. The kids are a little more free to move, yet we have a grasp on the behavior because there's a team there."
Hogeland, a grandmother and caretaker of several elderly people, views her teaching partnership with a more maternal eye.
"The children have kind of like a mom and a dad (in the classroom) that they can relate to and come to," she said. "And I like it that while I'm teaching there's someone else searching out those kids who are having trouble."
