Teachers

KBAY Teacher of the Month

Nominate teacher for KBAY’s Teacher of the Month

Click here to see who was named KBAY’s Teacher of the Month in prior months

The KBAY Teacher of the Month for April is Bryan Feci, who teaches 4th grade at Holly Oak Elementary School in the Evergreen School District. Bryan has taught for seven years and is a graduate of San Jose State University.  Bryan will receive a Teacher Innovation Grant for his classes from the Silicon Valley Education Foundation.

When asked what he liked most about being a teacher, Bryan replied, “One of the best parts about being a teacher is knowing that I am guiding their learning.  I think about all the students who have really benefited from that extra help.  I think about the students who have excelled above and beyond because of encouraging words I’ve given them.  I think about all the at-risk students, second language learners, and those with learning disabilities who have improved on state tests compared to the year before. I think about the countless times when a student finally understands a math concept and calls out, “Oh, I get it now!”  Just knowing that I am part of this learning is very rewarding.”

Bryan will use his SVEF grant to take his students to the Lawrence Hall of Science as part of their study of earthquakes. Bryan says, “This field trip will follow our study of earthquakes and plate tectonics to know how and why earthquakes occur.  In our 2 labs at the museum, we’ll also study real seismic data and design different structures to test for earthquake safety.  Our goal as earthquake experts will be to explain about earthquakes and earthquake preparedness by designing 5-minute movie presentations that we will share with other classrooms.  This will be very valuable for many of the younger students at our school who probably experienced their first earthquake back on October 30, 2007.”

            “Holly Oak is a Title 1 school--which means we receive federal assistance based on socio-economic status of our students.  I have 26 students at this time in my classroom.  My classroom each year consists of an almost equal balance of boys and girls with a huge range of academic abilities.  It is composed of approximately 50% Asian and Filipino, 37% Hispanic, 4% African-American, and 4% Caucasian.  Seven of these students are classified as English language learners.  Every year, I hope to help each of these students deepen their love for learning and encourage each one to work hard by making education a priority so that they can go to college.”

Bryan says that the biggest challenge he faces every day in teaching is, “trying to select the most essential instruction.  With a huge amount of curriculum to teach in a single school year, time is never a factor on my side.  It becomes necessary to plan instructional units that are multidisciplinary and to also select the most essential content to teach.  At other times, I also prefer teaching a unit that explores that topic deeply rather than skim across several topics in the same amount of time.  This is my approach to our study of earthquakes.  Rather than rush through a chapter in science about how earthquakes are a type of force that causes “fast changes” to the earth’s surface, I felt this was an opportunity to study this topic completely. This only makes it even more difficult to select essential instruction as I really enjoy teaching almost every part of the fourth grade curriculum.