2023 Inquiry Showcase Program

The Inquiry Showcase and Pinning Ceremony:

Celebrating the Inaugural Class of the new B.A.E. in Elementary Education program

The B.A.E. in Elementary Education at the University of Florida is an initial teacher preparation program that leads to professional certification in grades K-6 with Reading and ESOL endorsements. We partner with the Alachua County Public School district and P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School to prepare the next generation of teachers to be leaders in the creation of more equitable classroom experiences for all children they will serve throughout the entirety of their teaching careers. UF EduGators recognize that teaching is a complex, multi-faceted problem-solving activity that requires ongoing wondering, questioning, and data collection within the classroom in order to understand the impact of educational experiences on students and share those insights with others.

At the heart of inquiry is student learning. It provides opportunities for meaningful professional development experiences for interns and mentor teachers alike. We seek to support teachers who have an inquiry-oriented stance, consistently looking to examine their practice and its impact through classroom-based research. Interns, mentors, other veteran teachers, and teacher educators embody this inquiry-orientation in the teacher inquiry investigations that have been conducted throughout the past academic year and shared with you today.

The Annual Inquiry Showcase and Pinning Ceremony provides an opportunity to discuss inquiry investigations, celebrate accomplishments and generate a community of reflective practitioners to better the teaching/learning experiences of all students. Today, we celebrate the inaugural class of this new Elementary Education program. We honor their achievements as we look forward with excitement towards the possibilities they bring to their future classrooms.

One of our goals is to continue to increase the size, scope and impact of this annual event in order to foster rich, intellectually engaging dialogue about classroom teaching and classroom based inquiry that can have a significant impact on how schools, teachers and teacher education are viewed. We invite you to join us in this effort as we seek to develop the best teachers that the state of Florida has to offer.

Schedule of Events

9:20 – 9:55 a.m.

Room: NRN 1025

Intern: Katherine Kutz

Mentor Teacher: Danielle Gould

Internship Placement: Meadowbrook Elementary School

Title: Implementing Morning Meeting in a Second-Grade Class

Katherine Kutz was experiencing a challenge in her second-grade classroom related to the lack of social skills amongst her students that was causing negative behaviors. She wondered if implementing Morning Meetings would promote a positive learning environment for her students. She collected data during a fiveweek time period through surveys and field notes. Data analysis revealed two claims that focused on positive behavior in the classroom that fostered a positive learning environment.

Intern: Ashley Liddell

Mentor Teacher: Kara Ryan

Internship Placement: Kimball Wiles Elementary School

Title: Impact of Afternoon Meetings in a Third-grade Class

Ashely Liddell was experiencing tensions in her third grade classroom. Her students showed struggles in building community and positive relationships with one another. She wondered in what ways do afternoon meetings influence students’ feelings of community in a diverse classroom. She collected data during a four-week unit in anonymous student surveys, discussions maps, and teacher journals. Data analysis revealed three claims focused on how she and her students experienced growth through the implementation of afternoon meetings.

Intern: Daniela Cueter

Mentor Teacher: Kristen Bradley

Internship Placement: Lawton Chiles Elementary School

Title: Morning Meeting and Reading Journals in a Second-Grade Classroom

Daniela Cueter noticed students often distracting themselves and their peers with non-content related call outs during instruction. She wondered if she could use reading journals and morning meeting routines to allow students an outlet for this need and help support their focus during their lesson. She proceeded to collect pre and post data during a 5-week period, using surveys, student work samples, and behavioral analysis. Her data revealed two claims focused on relations between social connections, student behavior and classroom engagement.

Room: NRN 1029

Intern: Shay Blackmore

Mentor Teacher: Susan Quinones

Internship Placement: Talbot Elementary School

Title: Discussing Dis/ability Among Elementary Learners

Shay Blackmore noticed a gap in understanding of dis/ability amongst the students in her elementary classroom. She wondered how implementing discussion and relevant literature about people with dis/abilities in the elementary classroom would affect her students’ understanding and conceptualization of dis/ability. She collected data through a student focus group, field notes, student artifacts, and a research journal for four consecutive weeks. Data analysis revealed three claims regarding the effects of introducing dis/ability-centered literature and relevant discussion for elementary students.

Intern: Sierra Millinor

Mentor Teacher: Kim Hampton

Internship Placement: Glen Springs Elementary

Title: The Impact of Self-regulation Strategies on Students with ADHD

Sierra Millinor was experiencing a dilemma in her 4th-grade classroom related to the students with ADHD struggling to pay attention during whole-group instruction. She wondered how self-regulation strategies impact student behavior and academics. She collected data during a 4-week time period through student surveys, interviews, Bop It scores, and field notes. Data analysis revealed three claims that focused on how her students with ADHD benefitted from self-regulation strategies.

Intern: Rainy Blakely

Mentor Teacher: Lelia Powell

Internship Placement: Chester Shell Elementary School

Title: Discussing Interests with a Student on the Autism Spectrum and How This Effects Their Ability to Follow Directions

Rainy Blakely was experiencing difficulties getting one of her second-grade students with autism to follow her directions especially when it came to getting him to do his work. She wondered how talking about interests with him might help to build a relationship with this student and how it might affect their ability to follow her directions. She collected data during a 4-week period using surveys, field notes, and daily journal entries. After her data analysis it revealed three claims related to how talking about interests with this student affected their relationship as well as his ability to follow directions.

Room: NRN 1033

Intern: MK Jean-Jacques

Mentor Teacher: Rachel Brown

Internship Placement: Hidden Oak Elementary School

Title: Positivity Promotes Productivity in a Kindergarten Classroom

MK Jean-Jacques was experiencing a challenge in Kindergarten classroom related to the incompletion of many in-class assignments by the students. She wondered if there were ways in which positive reinforcement, statements, and rewards could impact a student’s classwork productivity. She collected data during a four-week time period through student work samples, journal entries and calendar task tracker. Data analysis revealed two claims focused on how student productivity increases due to positive reinforcement given by a teacher.

Intern: Breanna McAlpine

Mentor Teacher: Tiffany Powers

Internship Placement: Archer Elementary School

Title: Promoting Productivity Through the Implementation of Positive Reinforcement and Self-Regulation Strategies

Breanna McAlpine was experiencing a challenge in her 2nd grade classroom related to attention span and productivity from a student with a learning dis/ability. She wondered how to implement positive reinforcement in a way that enhanced her overall participation and attention span in the classroom. She collected data during a 3-week period through "I noticed" sheets of paper (field notes) and reflective journals. Data analysis revealed two claims that focused on implementing positive reinforcement and self-regulation strategies to improve productivity.

Intern: Madison Hillgruber

Mentor Teacher: Kristy Moreschi

Internship Placement: Littlewood Elementary School

Title: Social/emotional strategy development for behavior management of a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Madison Hillgruber noticed one of her second graders with Autism Spectrum Disorder and wondered if the implementation of social/emotional strategy development within end-of-day check-ins could positively influence the student's behaviors in math class. She collected data throughout a four-week period using mentor teacher and student interviews, a research journal, images, and student artifacts. Data analysis revealed three claims surrounding if and why social/emotional strategies and regulation skills could be helpful for improving this student’s behavior.

Room: NRN 2025

Intern: Victoria P. Silvera

Mentor Teacher: Layla Ward

Internship Placement: Alachua Elementary

Title: Beyond the Core Subjects: The Effects of Social-Emotional Learning

Victoria P. Silvera was experiencing a tension in her 3rd grade classroom related to student interaction and its impact on core subject learning. She wondered how the utilization of social-emotional learning would impact student productivity. She collected data during a 4-week time period through field notes, focus groups, and student interviews. Data analysis revealed three claims that focused on the effects social-emotional learning has on core-subject classroom productivity.

Intern: Sophia Missigman

Mentor Teacher: Kristina Dorman

Internship Placement: Glen Springs Elementary School

Title: Social-Emotional Learning in a First-grade Classroom

Sophia Missigman noticed that several students in her class were struggling with identifying, describing, and expressing their emotions. She wondered how the introduction of socio-emotional books and activities might impact her student's abilities to regulate their emotions and express themselves in more effective ways. She collected data during a four-week period in the form of audio recordings, field notes, pre and post-surveys, and a research journal. Data analysis revealed three claims focused on how her students engaged with and benefitted from the socioemotional content.

Intern: Katherine Burgoyne

Mentor Teacher: Shannon Zvoch

Internship Placement: William Talbot Elementary

Title: The Effects of Social Emotional Learning on Classroom Behavior and Academic Achievement

Ms. Burgoyne was noticing that students would frequently feel deep emotions, but have difficulties in articulating and navigating them. Ms. Burgoyne focused on implementing self-reflection journals with emotion-based prompts. She collected data in the form of surveys, field notes, and a research journal with student work samples. The data analysis explored two claims that drew positive correlations between these SEL-based implementations and overall classroom efficiency.

Room: NRN 2029

Intern: Katelyn Jones

Mentor Teacher: Molly Davis

Internship Placement: Lawton Chiles Elementary School

Title: Building Relationships with Culturally Relevant and Community Building Activities

Katelyn Jones wondered if there were ways to build academic relationships, especially on a personal level, with her students. She wanted to do this within whole and small groups lessons that were on-going in the classroom, by incorporating culturally relevant and community building activities. She started collecting data over a four-week period in her classroom during a major Social Studies project the students were completing. Katelyn was able to find three claims that focused on her wonderings and her relationships with her students on an academic level and a personal level flourished.

Intern: Sophia Purnell

Mentor Teacher: Michael Poole

Internship Placement: PK Yonge Developmental Research School

Title: Using CLSP/UDL

To Engage 6th Grade ELA Students

Sophia Purnell was experiencing a tension in one of her 6th grade ELA classes related to engagement to course content. She wondered about relationship between the use of CLSP/UDL frameworks and student engagement in middle school ELA lessons. She collected data during a four-week period in student surveys, teacher reflections, discussion maps, and student work samples. Data analysis revealed three claims focused on how she and her students experienced and benefitted from the use of CLSP/UDL frameworks.

Intern: Megan Smoot

Mentor Teacher: Hayley Delapena

Elementary School: Hidden Oak Elementary

Title: The Impact of Forming Meaningful Relationships with Students

Megan Smoot was experiencing a challenge in her fifth-grade classroom related to switching internship placements mid-semester. She wondered how she could form meaningful relationships with the students in her new class. She collected data during a 4-week period through field notes, student interviews, and responding to weekly reflective journal prompts. Data analysis revealed two claims that focused on the impact of forming meaningful student/teacher relationships.

Room: NRN 2033

Intern: Issabella Petrone

Mentor Teacher: Amanda Denahan

Internship Placement: Kimball Wiles Elementary School

Title: Integrating Structured Talk and Movement Strategies in a Kindergarten Class

Issabella Petrone was experiencing tensions in her kindergarten classroom related to having to subdue students’ active and sociable nature during class. She wondered how implementing various strategies that promote talk and movement throughout the instructional day would impact her dilemma. She collected data during a four-week window through personal video reflections, student surveys, and semi-structured interviews. Data analysis revealed three claims that focused on how both students and teachers experience and enjoy opportunities for structured talk and movement.

Intern: Sophia Falk (Speights)

Mentor Teacher: Tracy Reece

Internship Placement: Chiles Elementary School

Title: Sight Word Instruction through Kinesthetic Learning in a Kindergarten Classroom

Sophia Falk was experiencing tensions in her kindergarten class when she noticed students were constantly moving around and unfocused during lessons. She wondered how introducing kinesthetic learning activities would affect sight word instruction in her classroom. She collected data over four weeks through pre-test and post-test assessments, anecdotal notes, and pre-survey and post-survey questions. Data analysis revealed three claims focusing on the increase of students' sight word knowledge, engagement, and enjoyment through kinesthetic activities.

Intern: Sofia Gochoco

Mentor Teacher: Amber Matts

Internship Placement Elementary School Name: William S. Talbot Elementary School

Title: Student Variability Within Kindergarten

During the beginning of her senior year internship, Sofia wondered, “In what ways can I offer multiple means of engagement through auditory, visual and kinesthetic opportunities within my lesson plans? How will my students experience the different means of engagement?” She collected data throughout a span of four weeks and created lesson plans that catered towards a different style of learning. She also compared the test scores that correlated with the lesson plans to see if there was a connection. The data analysis revealed a striking claim related to learning styles.

Room: NRN 1025

Intern: Rebecca Woods

Mentor Teacher: Robin Hayse

Internship Placement: Hidden Oak Elementary School

Title: The Effects of Art-Integration with Fourth-Grade Geometry Lessons on FourthGrade Students and Their Teacher

Rebecca Woods was experiencing a challenge in her fourth-grade classroom related to the engagement of students and the teacher with the geometry curriculum at the end of the school year. She wondered if engagement would be bolstered by the integration of art into the geometry lessons. She collected data during a four-week time period through field notes, video recorded lessons, student surveys, and mentor teacher interviews. Data analysis revealed three claims that focused on the engagement of the teacher and her students while integrating art with geometry.

Intern: Molly Szilagyi

Mentor Teacher: Claudia Snead

Internship Placement Kimball Wiles Elementary

Title: Integrating the Arts in Multiple Subject-Areas in Elementary School Classrooms

Molly Szilagyi was noticing a lack of engagement in her first-grade classroom. She wondered if integrating something new into lessons would spark students' interest in different subject areas. Molly decided to implement art in multiple subject areas over the course of four weeks. During these weeks she collected data through student interviews, a reflective journal, and field notes. Molly's data analysis supported three claims based on how art integration affects students' education.

Intern: Melanie Medeiros

Mentor Teacher: Morgan Douglas

Internship Placement: Newberry Elementary School

Title: Arts Integration in a First-Grade Science Classroom

Melanie Medeiros wanted to implement arts integration in a subject that she would be independently planning and teaching throughout the semester- science. She wondered what would happen when the arts are integrated within science instruction. She collected data through interviews, student artifacts, quantitative measuring, reflection journals, field notes, and surveys for four consecutive weeks. The data analysis reflected three claims regarding what happened when the arts were integrated in science.

Room: NRN 1029

Intern: Becca Stephan (Alford)

Mentor Teacher: Jennifer Smith

Internship Placement: Littlewood Elementary

Title: Engagement of ELL Students in a 3rd Grade Reading Class

Becca Stephan was experiencing tensions in her 3rd grade reading class related to the engagement of the ELL students during the lesson. She wondered how the use of graphic organizers would affect the engagement level of the students. She collected data using field notes and journal entries. The data analysis revealed to her a few claims on how graphic organizers could help improve engagement.

Intern: McKenzie Hickman

Mentor Teacher: Kyna Frye

Internship Placement: Kimball Wiles Elementary

Title: Fostering

Engagement in Multilingual Students Through the Arts

McKenzie Hickman was observing a lack of interest and disengagement in her thirdgrade classroom among two students who were English Language Learners (ELLs). She wondered how the introduction of arts-integrated math and science lessons would impact their physical and mental interest in learning. She collected data over a four-week time period through detailed field notes, student-created documents/artifacts, and informal interviews. The data analysis revealed three claims focused on how strategically implementing arts-integrated lessons impacted and benefitted her multilingual students’ engagement.

Intern: Rachel Thomas

Mentor Teacher: Valerie McMahon

Internship Placement: W. W. Irby Elementary

Title: Changing

Home Practice Methods and their Data Effects in Kindergarten

Rachel Thomas was experiencing her kindergartners not participating in home practice and how that related to students’ data performance. She wondered what would happen when various avenues for home practice that fit family's lifestyles are provided for kindergarten students? She collected data throughout a five-week time period through quantitative data, anecdotal notes, and student artifacts. Data analysis revealed two claims that focused on accessible avenues for kindergarten home practice and data effects on students’ home practice growth.

Room: NRN 1033

Intern: Faith Donasco

Mentor Teacher: Jody Sedgley

Internship Placement: C. W. Norton Elementary School

Title: Promoting Student Independence and Persistence in a Second-Grade Math Class

Faith Donasco was noticing challenges with student confidence and resilience during math in her second-grade classroom. She wondered what strategies could foster the students' independence and how peer collaboration could impact their mindsets. She collected data during a 4-week time period through student surveys, field notes, journal entries, interaction maps, and lesson plan records. Data analysis revealed two claims that focused on ways to promote the use of various problemsolving strategies in math so that students could become more independent and confident with their work.

Intern: Alexandrea Thomas

Mentor Teacher: Nicole Regal

Internship Placement: William S. Talbot Elementary

Title: Growth Mindset in a First-Grade Gifted Class

Alexandrea Thomas wondered if implementing Growth Mindset ideas and themes into her everyday classroom routines would better support her students in looking at challenges as opportunities. The data collected consisted of tracking tallies which represented the display of growth or fixed mindsets in students, along with daily journal entries. Data analysis revealed two claims focused on how she and her students benefited from implementing a growth mindset into daily routines.

Intern: Mackenzie Chance

Mentor Teacher: Natalie Andrews

Internship Placement: P.K. Yonge

Title: Third Grade Teacher Strategies and Third Grade Learning

Mackenzie Chance noticed some tension in her third grade classroom when one student showed little independence or excitement in his learning. She wondered if there were any strategies she could use as a teacher to help bring this student more confidence and excitement to his learning. Over a four week period, Mackenzie collected data on the student’s engagement when different teacher strategies were implemented, collecting field notes, interviews, and reflective journals. Data analysis revealed three claims that reflect on how student feelings impact their learning abilities.

Room: NRN 2025

Intern: Abbey Capezza

Mentor Teacher: Kathrine Faenza

Internship Placement: Norton Elementary

Title: Thinking Maps Used to Support Third Grade Student Reading Comprehension

Abbey Capezza was experiencing a challenge in her third-grade classroom related to students having difficulty with reading comprehension. She wondered in what ways small group sessions focused on thinking map strategies could impact informational text comprehension skills and scores. She collected data during a 4week time period through field notes and student work. Data analysis revealed two claims focused on how she and her students experienced and benefited from the use of thinking maps in small group sessions.

Intern: Jenna Reed

Mentor Teacher: Amy Nichols

Internship Placement: Kimball Wiles Elementary

Title: Effectiveness of small group / individual interventions on kindergarten students’ phonics skills

Jenna Reed wondered, if given the opportunity, how would a more one on one or a small group intervention approach be a strategy she could use in order to help students improve upon their phonics skills. She collected data for four weeks while working with the students and compiled progressive notes. In her data analysis, she determined that these methods were beneficial to students in their ability to decode and read more accurately.

Intern: Chelsea Nicholls

Mentor Teacher: Diana Diaz

Internship Placement: William S. Talbot Elementary School

Title: Use of Funds of Knowledge and Incentives to Guide First-Grade Reading Motivation

Chelsea Nicholls was experiencing tensions regarding motivation towards learning how to read in a first-grade general education classroom. She wondered how differentiating phonics instruction to a student's individual interests and incentivizing them would impact performance and motivation. She collected data during fourweek period through student surveys, field notes, and student artifacts. Through her data analysis, three claims concluded that her student's motivation and performance benefitted from this individualized instruction.

Room: NRN 2029

Intern: Jocelyn Standard

Mentor Teacher: Katharine Julseth

Internship Placement Elementary School: Carolyn Beatrice Parker Elementary

Title: Intrinsic Motivation Encourage for a Third-Grade Student

Jocelyn Standard wanted to investigate how factors such as parental involvement, educational beliefs and values, time management, and teacher relatedness could affect a student's intrinsic motivation. She collected data over a 5-week period using field observation notes, student surveys, parent-teacher discussion notes, and redirection data to build this inquiry. Data analysis provided three claims that demonstrated growth in her student's intrinsic motivation, and ultimately, his behavior and academics.

Intern: Hayli Duncan

Mentor Teacher: Leigh Wheeler

Internship Placement: High Springs Community School

Title: The Benefits of Autonomy-Supportive Language in First-Grade

Hayli Duncan wondered how implementing autonomy-supportive language could support her students. She collected data during a three-week time period through field notes, daily student surveys, and student grades in ELA and Math. Data analysis revealed three claims that focused on how she and her students experienced and benefited from the support.

Intern: Sydney Connell

Mentor Teacher: Samantha Bell

Internship Placement: Wiles Elementary

Title: Daily Goal-Setting and Behavior in the Classroom

Sydney Connell wondered how introducing daily goal-setting to certain students in the classroom would impact their behavior. She thought this could give students the opportunity to decide for themselves what they want to achieve for the day and see if this impacted their behavior. She collected data in an eight-week span by collecting daily goal-setting papers and a research journal for each student. The data analysis revealed three claims on how the implementation of daily goal-setting impacted her students.

Room: NRN 2033

Intern: Mikayla Armstrong

Mentor Teacher: Jennie Golowenski

Internship Placement: Wiles Elementary

Title: Active, Hands-On Learning in a Second Grade Science Classroom

Mikayla Armstrong was experiencing tensions in her second-grade science classroom related to engagement with science content. She wondered how active, hands-on learning experiences in science classrooms could support student engagement. She collected data during a five-week time period through student interviews, pictures, videos, and student artifacts. Data analysis revealed three claims centered around active, hands-on learning experiences in science classrooms to support student engagement.

Intern: Savannah Pearson

Mentor Teacher: Jessica Bartnick

Internship Placement: Talbot Elementary School

Title: Hands-on Learning Math Instruction in First Grade

Savannah Pearson wondered how hands-on learning could increase motivation and engagement among her students, and help them relate better to math content. Over a period of four weeks she collected data in the form of student work, student surveys, and field notes. Two claims showed her experience with hands-on learning and how it benefited her students and her teaching.

Intern: Katia Negroni-Martinez

Mentor Teacher: Ashley McFall

Internship Placement: Talbot Elementary

Title: How implementing visuals into instruction can impact student engagement in a second-grade classroom.

Katia Negroni wondered how the implementation of visuals could increase student interest in the lessons and impact the level of student engagement. She collected data during a four-week time period through anonymous student surveys, field notes, quantitative measures of student achievement, and interviews. Data analysis revealed three claims that focused on how introducing visuals into instruction can enhance student engagement.

Room: NRN 1025

Intern: Marra Grohowski

Mentor Teacher: Carmen Krause

Internship Placement: Kimball Wiles Elementary

Title: Finding Joy: Recognizing and Naming Emotional Catalysts in the Classroom

Marra Grohowski was curious about how people experience and name positive emotions and interactions in a first-grade classroom. They wondered how joy could be invited, encouraged, and supported in the classroom as well as how that joy would be experienced by every member of the class. They collected data during a four-week time period through field notes, pictures, and videos. Data analysis revealed three claims that focused on how students identify, discuss, and experience joy every day.

Intern: Cheyanne Mihalinec

Mentor Teacher: Virginia Christner

Internship Placement: Newberry Elementary School

Title: Educating a Kindergarten Class on Emotional Self-Regulation Strategies in and Outside of the Classroom

Cheyanne Mihalinec was experiencing a tension in her kindergarten classroom related to students experiencing a high amount of emotional stress every day in the classroom. She wondered if students learned more about emotions and how to control them/calm themselves down if the amount of stress would decrease. She collected data during a 4-week time period through surveys, reflective journals, and field notes. Data analysis revealed two claims that focused on the decline of emotional stress due to learning about what emotions are and how to regulate them.

Intern: Artie Romberger

Mentor Teacher: Kristen Schendowich

Internship Placement Lake Forest Elementary School

Title: Benefits of Trauma-Informed Teaching in a Fifth-Grade Classroom

Artie Romberger was seeing a disconnect in their classroom fifth grade science class. Learning science content and maintaining a healthy emotional state at the same time was a struggle for some students. When looking into why, they realized they had many students with trauma. They collected data through surveys and informal interviews over the course of four-weeks. They realized two things that benefited students and them as they taught with trauma-informed teaching and an asset-based approach.

Room: NRN 1029

Intern: Brianna Gram

Mentor Teacher: Kimberly Wilson

Internship Placement: Talbot Elementary

Title: Arts Integration in a Second Grade ELA Classroom

Brianna Gram was experiencing a lack of focus and engagement in her secondgrade ELA classroom. She wondered what she could do to further engage her students in everyday reading instruction. She also noticed how creative her students were, and how much they enjoyed art. She began to implement different types of art in her everyday instruction. She collected data during a four-week unit in anonymous student surveys, artifacts, and interviews. Data analysis revealed three claims focused on how arts integrated lessons fostered engagement and creativity in the classroom.

Intern: Malou Carty

Mentor Teacher: Steavi Ratliff

Internship Placement: Littlewood Elementary

Title: Integrating Music Throughout a Language Arts Class to Improve Engagement

Malou Carty was experiencing tensions with classroom engagement with five students through different periods of and fourth-grade classroom. She wondered if including music throughout the classroom activities would help student engagement and increase in class work completion. She collected data during a 5-week period through a pre and post survey, daily journal, and engagement tally. Data analysis revealed two claims that focused on how music helps with student engagement and participation in her ELA classroom.

Intern: Isabella Sarmento

Mentor Teacher: Sarah Spears

Internship Placement: Shell Elementary

Title: Implementation of Art and Music on Third-Grader’s Learning Engagement and

Behavior

Isabella Sarmento was experiencing some tension regarding behavior in her thirdgrade classroom. The hardships were noticed more during lessons and transition times. She wondered if the implementation of art and music in her classroom can help develop more positive engagement and behavior during the day. She collected data using field notes, observations, and a post-student survey. Data analysis highlighted three different claims that focused on the experiences shown throughout the inquiry as well as the benefits that came from it.

Room: NRN 1033

Intern: Grace Winkel

Mentor Teacher: Bobbi Scott

Internship Placement: Oak View Middle School

Title: Increase Engagement and Classroom Management Strategies in a 5th-Grade Math Class

Grace Winkel was seeing a disconnect with her students' engagement in a 5thgrade math class. She wanted to figure out if the implementation of a competition behavior management system called “Table Wars” would increase her students’ classroom engagement and create fewer classroom disruptions. She collected data throughout four weeks including the daily tallies each table earned, student reflection, and the comparison of test scores before and during the data collection period. These four data points explained students' overall engagement in class and their opinions about “Table Wars.”

Intern: Julia Musso

Mentor Teacher: Neal Haines

Internship Placement: P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School

Title: Exploring Engagement During 3rd-Grade Collaborative

Discussions

Julia Musso noticed that students were having difficulty staying focused during collaborative turn-and-talk discussions in class. She wondered how incorporating various strategies, specifically sentence stems and partner rotations, into lessons would impact engagement. She collected data during a four-week period in the form of field notes, student engagement surveys, and goal-focused engagement plans curated for each student involved. Data analysis revealed three claims focused on the relationship between collaborative discussions and engagement and how students can get the most out of their conversations.

Intern: Hailey Brown

Mentor Teacher: Alicia Stevens

Internship Placement: Newberry Elementary School

Title: Integrating the Arts into Third-Grade Classroom Management Strategies

Hailey Brown was experiencing a tension in her 3rd grade classroom related to classroom management. She wondered if incorporating the arts into her classroom management strategies would improve student engagement. She collected data during a 6-week time period through behavior charts, photos, videos, and reflections. Data analysis revealed three claims that focused on whether student engagement increased as a result of implementation.

Room: NRN 2025

Intern: Elyona Nabor

Mentor Teacher: Kristen Dean

Internship Placement: Talbot Elementary

Title: Student Reflections in a Fourth-Grade ELA Class

Elyona Nabor was experiencing tensions in her fourth-grade ELA class related to student behavior and engagement. She wondered how the introduction of student reflections would impact student behavior and engagement. She collected data during a three-week period through student surveys, teacher checklists, and teacher reflections. Data analysis revealed three claims focused on how students reacted to reflections and the impact of these reflections on the class.

Intern: Bailey Owens

Mentor Teacher: Melissa Baker

Internship Placement: Archer Elementary School

Title: Social Emotional Journaling and Emotional Self-regulation

Bailey Owens noticed an overwhelming increase of outward emotional expression in the beginnings of her internship in a second-grade classroom. She wondered if social emotional journaling consistently, every day, could work to increase students' self-awareness of their emotions, thus bettering their ability to self-regulate. She implemented this activity during a four-week period collecting data in the form of field observations, student samples, and a student feedback survey. Data analysis revealed three claims focused on students’ abilities to recognize their emotions and how they were able to regulate their emotions.

Intern: Savannah Lents

Mentor Teacher: Christina Thomas

Internship Placement: Archer Elementary School

Title: Interactive Notebooks in A Third-Grade Magnet Classroom

Savannah Lents was curious about the use of notebooks as a teaching tool for her third-grade students. She wondered how student engagement, creativity, and organization could be impacted by the use of interactive notebooks in the classroom. She collected data over a period of four weeks by taking photographs, recording videos of in-class instruction using notebooks, and conducting a student survey. Data analysis demonstrated three claims about how student's unique needs as learners shaped their experiences using interactive notebooks.

Room: NRN 2029

Intern: Riley Thoresen

Mentor Teacher: Carrie Wells

Internship Placement: Wiles Elementary

Title: Strategies and Opportunities to Reduce Test Anxiety

Riley Thoresen noticed that her students experience high stress and often shut down on Fridays, due to weekly benchmark tests. She wondered how strategies and opportunities to relieve stress could affect their test scores in a positive way. She collected data over several weeks and provided many opportunities for students to make test revisions, ask questions, have test reviews and connect with their cultural funds of knowledge to motivate them before the tests. Data analysis revealed two claims focused on how students’ anxiety and stress levels often were connected to their test performance.

Intern: Kaitlyn Alvarez

Mentor Teacher: Milenis Jimenez

Internship Placement: W.W Irby

Title: Integrating Brain Breaks in a Second-Grade Classroom

Ms. Alvarez was noticing different emotions coming from her students on assessment day. These emotions ranged from stressed to overwhelmed. Due to these strong feelings, she saw students not focusing to the best of their ability and start to give up. Knowing students benefit from brain breaks, Ms. Alvarez wanted to see how brain breaks help students' cognitive benefit and engagement. Data analysis revealed that students benefit from having a brain break in between assessments and the classroom culture is more positive.

Intern: Hannah Waters

Mentor Teacher: Kylee Sexton

Internship Placement: Joseph Williams Elementary

Title: Online Learning Among Gifted Students in a Second-Grade Magnet Classroom

Hannah Waters was noticing disengagement during traditional classroom instruction amongst her gifted students. She wondered if she could supplement traditional instruction and content with online learning programs to increase engagement and spark interest in her students. She collected data for a month’s time span using student surveys, documents and artifacts, quantitative data, and student interviews. Data analysis revealed three claims focused on how she and her students experienced online learning and the pros and cons that emerged.

Room: NRN 2033

Intern: Jaycie Bodzo

Mentor Teacher: Shellie McSwain

Internship Placement: Meadowbrook Elementary

Title: Mid-Year Transition in Kindergarten

Jaycie Bodzo noticed a shift in her kindergarten classroom placement after a student joined their class mid-year. She wondered about the student's behaviors that were contributing to this classroom shift and wanted to know how his mid-year transition to a new school might be influencing him. She collected data during a fourweek period through informal interviews with the student, field notes, a daily identified victory and challenge for the student, personal reflections, goal oriented behavior sheet data, and quarter grade data. After analyzing this data, she inferred three claims about her student and how his mid-year transition might be affecting him and how he relates to his environment.

Intern: Ella Brookins

Mentor Teacher: Kimberly Gibboney

Internship Placement: Lawton Chiles Elementary School

Title: Team Building Activities Relating to Peer Relationships

Ella Brookins was experiencing tensions in her 2nd grade classroom related to the relationships among her students. She wondered what would happen to her student’s relationships when planning and facilitating team building activities. She collected data during a 5-week time period through student surveys, interviews, videos, and images. Data analysis revealed three claims that focused on team building activities relating to student relationships.

Intern: Kaitlynn Baxley

Mentor Teacher: Felicia Hanley

Internship Placement: Chester Shell Elementary School

Title: Seating Arrangement and Engagement in a Fourth-Grade Classroom

Kaitlynn Baxley was experiencing a tension in her fourth-grade classroom related to student engagement during class. She wondered in what ways the seating arrangement could affect one student's engagement during whole group, small group, and independent practice. She collected data during a four-week time period through field notes and student surveys. Data analysis revealed two claims that centered around the student’s level of engagement during whole group, small group, and independent practice.

2023 Graduates

We honor and welcome the following interns into the teaching profession:

Kaitlyn Alvarez

Mikayla Armstrong

Kaitlynn Baxley

Shay Blackmore

Rainy Blakely

Jaycie Bodzo

Ella Brookins

Hailey Brown

Katherine Burgoyne

Abigail Capezza

Malou Carty

Mackenzie Chance

Sydney Connell

Daniela Cueter

Faith Donasco

Hayli Duncan

Sophia Falk (Speights)

Sofia Gochoco

Brianna Gram

Marra Grohowski

McKenzie Hickman

Madison Hillgruber

MK Jean-Jaques

Katelyn Jones

Katherine Kutz

Savannah Lents

Ashley Liddell

Breanna McAlpine

Melanie Medeiros

Cheyanne Mihalinec

Sierra Millinor

Sophia Missigman

Julia Musso

Elyona Nabor

Katia Negroni-Martinez

Chelsea Nicholls

Bailey Owens

Savannah Pearson

Issabella Petrone

Sophia Purnell

Jenna Reed

Artie Romberger

Isabella Sarmento

Victoria Silvera

Megan Smoot

Rebecca Stephan (Alford)

Jocelyn Standard

Molly Szilagyi

Alexandrea Thomas

Rachel Thomas

Riley Thoresen

Hannah Waters

Grace Winkel

Rebecca Woods

We are deeply grateful to all of the following individuals for their ongoing support of the inquiry process and the planning of this inquiry conference.

Mentor Teachers

Valerie McMahon, Felicia Hanley, Steavi Ratliff, Leigh Wheeler, Layla

Ward, Danielle Gould, Kathrine

Faenza, Virginia Christner, Kristen

Bradley, Kimberly Gibboney, Kim

Hampton, Nicole Regal, Kristen

Dean, Alicia Stevens, Natalie

Andrews, Kristina Dormna, Jody

Sedgley, Rachel Brown, Tiffany

Powers, Jennifer Smith, Carmen

Krause, Amanda Denahan, Melissa Baker, Kara Ryan, Sarah

Spears, Ashley McFall, Amber

Matts, Robin Hayse, Diana Diaz, Hayley Delapena, Carrie Wells, Shellie McSwain, Shannon Zvoch, Bobbi Scott, Michael Poole, Kimberly Wilson, Christina

Thomas, Jennie Golowenski, Neail

Haines, Jessica Bartnick, Lelila

Powell, Kristy Moreschi, Susan

Quinones, Kyna Frye, Tracy

Reece, Samantha Bell, Milenis

Jimenez, Morgan Douglas, Kristen

Schendowich, Katharine Julseth, Molly Davis, Amy Nichols, Claudia

Snead, Kylee Sexton

UF Supervisors

Michael Scofield, Kelly Wynns, Zach Coulter, Cindy Naranjo, Vicki

Vescio, Amanda Pate, Michelle

Mills, Ashley Purdy, Christine Lord, Rachel Silva, Jennifer Hitchcock, Kim Malphurs, Rebecca McDaniel, Caryn Finney, Leah Drake, Valerie Freeman

Dean, College of Education

Glenn Good

Associate Deans, College of Education

Tom Dana, Senior Associate Dean of Operations

Tina Smith-Bonahue, Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs

Erica McCray, Associate Dean Personnel Affairs, Inclusive Excellence, and External Engagement

Thomasenia Adams, Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Development

UF School Directors

Alyson Adams, School of Teaching and Learning

Brian Marchman, P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School

Alachua County Public Schools Interim Superintendent

Shane Andrew

Elementary Principals

Holly Burton, Libby Hartwell, Cory Tomlinson, Mistie

Rodriguez, Richard Bell, Sharon

Sailor, Lynn McNeill, Jim Kuhn,

Tanya Floyd, Beth LeClear, Justin

Russell, Brad Burklew, Christiana

Robbins, Vicki McAlhany, Elena

Mayo, Kelly Jones, Laura

Creamer, Edward Haukland, Christopher Beland, Heather

Harbour, Katherine Munn, Anyana Stokes, Carrie Geiger

Elementary Education Program Coordinators

Tim Vetere

Lina Burklew

Chonika ColemanKing

COE Academic and Program Support

Lori Dassa

Elayne Colón

Kim Roberts

Robin Rossie

Ashley Sprague

UF/PKY Faculty

Course Leads

Jon Mundorf, Blake

Beckett, Suzanne

Chapman, Amber

Moss, Hyunyi Jung, Rose Pringle, Maya Israel, Caitie

Gallingane, Valentina Contesse, Danling

Fu, Elizabeth

Washington

2021-2023 BAE Elementary Education Advisory Board

Jennifer Petit-Frere, Christopher Beland, Anyana Stokes, Tiana

Richardson, Jon

Mundorf, Jacquatte

Rolle, Christopher

Busey, Tim Vetere, Chonika ColemanKing, Lina Burklew, Beverly Finley, Amy Shockley