Hello! My name is Lisa Munoz and I am a first year teacher at MaCES in Maywood, CA. I have been looking into different resources to help me develop as a teacher and since I work with Freshman I thought this would be a great resource to look into. I currently teach Biology and Marine Biology but we are a brand new school and are expanding our curriculum soon. I just wanted to say so far from what I have seen this is an amazing approach and I'll have to spend much more time looking into it in the near future. 

Hello!

My name is Susan Murphy, and I am a Reading Intervention Teacher at Dublin Scioto High School in Dublin, Ohio. I am getting ready to wrap up my 18th year. I have only been working as a reading teacher for about 2 years now. My first 16 years had me teaching various levels of English classes as well as some theatre. Within the past year or two, my school has been working on trying to create a more guided approach in transitioning our 8th to 9th grade students. This school year, we have focused on the needs we have as freshman teachers and what we see as struggles in our freshman students. We are one of three high schools in my district. On the surface, Dublin is (overall) an affluent district, but my school contains the largest population of students on free and reduced lunch as well as the largest special education population. We struggle more with students who are coming to us from very diverse and troubled backgrounds. But because we are under the "Dublin" umbrella, I do feel like our issues are sometimes overlooked. I have wanted to begin a freshman initiative for a while now - something to give more support and assistance to our 9th graders in order for them to be more successful throughout their high school years. We are now at the point where this may become a reality. I appreciate this site and hope that it can help me with any questions I may have as we begin to build our program. Thanks!

I am an Assistant Principal in Pleasantville, New Jersey at Pleasantville High School. I have recently been charged with bringing back and overseeing our Freshman Academy. I have never done this before, so I am looking for guidance from those who have. We are an urban district with approximately 900 students 9-12. I want to do as much as I can for our Freshman in an effort to see them through the four-year plan. I welcome any advice, documents, ideas, etc. I love to share as well.

I have been in education for 25 years. I was a teacher of ELA for many of those years teaching 6-12 grade, gen ed, special ed, and alternative high school ELA. I have been an AP in an elementary school, middle school, and high school, where I hope to stay for the remainder of my career. I am a mother of two amazing adult children, 23 and 27 and a wife of 28 years. I do not tweet or use Instagram, as I don't really understand them, but I use Facebook. LOL.... I look forward to networking with fellow educators.

Renee Irwin