(St. Leon, IN) – Christina Lecher is a sixth grade science teacher at East Central Middle School.
She has been a teacher since 1996 and wrote that, “each student that enters into the doors of my classroom is truly valued and a special part of each and every day. Learning is an adventure and so is my classroom! I love to have fun, but I also demand respect while holding high expectations for each child to showcase his/her abilities. I have been beyond blessed in both my personal life and my professional life.”
After receiving her grant to purchase Scrabble games and dictionaries, Christina reported that, “East Central Middle Schoolers have put Scrabble games and Scrabble Dictionaries provided by the Dearborn County Retired Teachers to work! Our middle school students, grades 6-8, are busy building their spelling, vocabulary, and math skills with these games. Student discussions are amazing as they work together sorting through the dictionary to see how they can build better words! Our classes usually play once a week in our Trojan Pride Bell ELA classes and our ELA and reading Labs. Students are begging, at least in my room, to play more than that. One student commented, ‘This is the best game ever! What a fun way to work on things that aren’t too fun to learn about!’ I was amazed that out of all of my students, only one had ever played this game. Students worked one week as teams which brought a whole new level of fun to our room. We have a running score board between two classes. They enter the room eagerly on Mondays, looking at the board and stating ‘I can beat that score!’ (I have sixth graders versus seventh graders in a competition.) Providing Scrabble has taken my classroom to a whole new level promoting not only academic skills, but social skills. It is very fun to watch!”
(Dearborn County Retired Teachers Foundation press release)
