Michele Luck

State:

Indiana

Testimonial from a participant:

“Michele is a great motivator and energizer. The time in class just seems to fly by because of the hands on activities. I always leave her classes looking forward to the upcoming school year so I can implement the ideas shared in class.” J. W. Lafayette, IN

PLS Courses I Teach:

- Brain-Based Ways We Think and Learn®
- Teaching Through Learning Channels®
- Achieving Student Outcomes Through Cooperative Learning®
- Purposeful Learning Through Multiple Intelligences®
- Differentiated Instruction for Today's Classroom™

Year started with PLS:

2005

Why I love teaching PLS courses:

I love interacting and sharing ideas with the many talented teachers who are taking PLS courses. I learn something new everyday from my participants when I facilitate a course. The courses are designed to give teachers opportunities to implement new techniques in their teaching, and I love to be the one encouraging the participants as they practice the new skills.

Education:

- Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education, Ball State University
- Master of Education, Indiana Wesleyan University

Teaching Experience:

- First Grade: Nine years
- Second Grade: One year
- First and Second Grade Remediation/Enrichment: Two years

Related experience, recognition, awards, etc.:

- Completed four years of C.L.A.S.S. training
- Created a brain-based thematic curriculum with a First Grade team
- Trained elementary teachers in Writers Workshop for staff development
- Eisenhower Grant Recipient in Math and technology alignment
- Eli Lilly Partners in Education Grant recipient in Science and Health

What I love most about teaching:

I love to motivate and encourage people. It’s a perfect fit for teaching. What is better than seeing that “Aha!” moment in a student’s eye when you make learning come alive?

My favorite moment in teaching:

I was teaching gravity to first graders. We did all of the typical hands-on experiments, but I wasn’t convinced they really understood the concept. How could I get them to express their thoughts about what they were learning? I popped in the School House Rock VHS and cued it to the Gravity song. After watching the cartoon and listening to the song, I had the first graders work in cooperative groups to create a song that described what they had learned about gravity from our experiments. I was nervous, but as the groups sang their original songs in front of the class using tunes from Nursery Rhymes, I was amazed at the level of learning that had occurred. I was so proud, I had the groups sing their gravity songs to the Music teacher! The students had made such a connection to - gravity, they were still singing their songs at the end of the school year!