Welcome to my master's portfolio! My name is Erin Kovach. I grew up in rural, midwest Wisconsin on a dairy farm. Now, I live in the Madison area with my husband of four years. We recently purchased our first home and love showing it off during game nights with friends. My husband would like to add a dog to the mix, but as of now my house is still bark-free. After all his help with my grad school work and being my absolute rock during the National Board process, I may have to give in. In our free time we take ballroom dancing lessons, our favorite being the hustle. We also love to travel; our most recent destinations being Seattle/Vancouver, Niagara Falls, Mackinac Island, Hawaii, and an upcoming trip planned for Australia/New Zealand.
I’ve always been a learner - I love school and like the process of learning new things. Therefore, completing my masters and National Boards seemed like the logical next step in my career, even though at that point I had only been teaching for two years. I entered the program with zest; learning about new strategies, especially in science, because though I enjoy science, my professional experience with the subject was very limited. I found out quickly that balancing being a new teacher at a district in constant curriculum flux was more difficult than anticipated, especially since I set an ambitious timeline for myself. I gained a new appreciation for the students in my room that do not love school/learning and for those that struggle to balance home and school life. It wasn’t the lesson I expected to learn, but was probably more valuable than anything else since I had never been of those mindsets. Please don’t take that lesson wrong, I still learned from my classes, from the reflection exercises in the National Boards, and I definitely grew professionally. It’s just that my biggest growth and take-away came from my biggest challenge.
Speaking of my students, I teach multi-age 7-8 grade Science and 8th grade English in a small, tourist suburb of Madison - New Glarus. I love the small-town nature (most of the time) and know most students in the middle school regardless if I have them in class. Each grade hosts 80 - 90 students. There are about 30 students in a class, which is a fairly high head count for this district. The district has grown large enough to be at capacity for the staff we currently have, but is still too small to hire the additional staff needed to bring class sizes back down through the entire district.
Though situated close to Madison, New Glarus does not host the same diversity. Focusing on the middle school, none of the students are learning English as a second language and 92% identify as white according to the Wisedash portal. Additionally, 2.5% identify as black, 2.5% as Hispanic, 1% as Asian or American Indian, and 2% as two or more races. About 20% of the students have an economically disadvantaged background. This number grows as local factories grows. In New Glarus, the differences between economically advantaged and disadvantaged are stark - both in regards to the amount of money and achievement. In addition, 9% have an IEP. All of the students in special education have at least two mainstream classes, but the majority are in normal education classes all day.
Through the past two years, my classroom environment has shifted. I’m specifically focusing on Science, as I spend 80% of my time teaching Science and have more freedom in how the class is structured. I have switched to standards-based grading, piloting the system for the school last year, because I believe it best supports students’ learning. Many of my master’s classes helped me in this realization and the projects I chose (though I wasn’t fully aware of it the first year) were geared at supporting this new mindset in teaching. Now, my class rarely has tests. Instead, students complete “Prove-It Projects” in which they must demonstrate a set of learning objectives. These projects are open-note and open-resource because the emphasis is on learning thoroughly enough to explain concepts, not just memorize answers. The National Board process helped me solidify this change in mindset as I focused on students explaining their work conceptually.
Overall, the masters and National Board experience was deeply personal, enlightening, challenging, and practicing changing. I truly believe that myself and my students are better for it and I hope you enjoy taking a sneak peak at some highlights of my work.
I’ve always been a learner - I love school and like the process of learning new things. Therefore, completing my masters and National Boards seemed like the logical next step in my career, even though at that point I had only been teaching for two years. I entered the program with zest; learning about new strategies, especially in science, because though I enjoy science, my professional experience with the subject was very limited. I found out quickly that balancing being a new teacher at a district in constant curriculum flux was more difficult than anticipated, especially since I set an ambitious timeline for myself. I gained a new appreciation for the students in my room that do not love school/learning and for those that struggle to balance home and school life. It wasn’t the lesson I expected to learn, but was probably more valuable than anything else since I had never been of those mindsets. Please don’t take that lesson wrong, I still learned from my classes, from the reflection exercises in the National Boards, and I definitely grew professionally. It’s just that my biggest growth and take-away came from my biggest challenge.
Speaking of my students, I teach multi-age 7-8 grade Science and 8th grade English in a small, tourist suburb of Madison - New Glarus. I love the small-town nature (most of the time) and know most students in the middle school regardless if I have them in class. Each grade hosts 80 - 90 students. There are about 30 students in a class, which is a fairly high head count for this district. The district has grown large enough to be at capacity for the staff we currently have, but is still too small to hire the additional staff needed to bring class sizes back down through the entire district.
Though situated close to Madison, New Glarus does not host the same diversity. Focusing on the middle school, none of the students are learning English as a second language and 92% identify as white according to the Wisedash portal. Additionally, 2.5% identify as black, 2.5% as Hispanic, 1% as Asian or American Indian, and 2% as two or more races. About 20% of the students have an economically disadvantaged background. This number grows as local factories grows. In New Glarus, the differences between economically advantaged and disadvantaged are stark - both in regards to the amount of money and achievement. In addition, 9% have an IEP. All of the students in special education have at least two mainstream classes, but the majority are in normal education classes all day.
Through the past two years, my classroom environment has shifted. I’m specifically focusing on Science, as I spend 80% of my time teaching Science and have more freedom in how the class is structured. I have switched to standards-based grading, piloting the system for the school last year, because I believe it best supports students’ learning. Many of my master’s classes helped me in this realization and the projects I chose (though I wasn’t fully aware of it the first year) were geared at supporting this new mindset in teaching. Now, my class rarely has tests. Instead, students complete “Prove-It Projects” in which they must demonstrate a set of learning objectives. These projects are open-note and open-resource because the emphasis is on learning thoroughly enough to explain concepts, not just memorize answers. The National Board process helped me solidify this change in mindset as I focused on students explaining their work conceptually.
Overall, the masters and National Board experience was deeply personal, enlightening, challenging, and practicing changing. I truly believe that myself and my students are better for it and I hope you enjoy taking a sneak peak at some highlights of my work.