Gina Passini

Background

About Gina Passini

I am teaching in Brevard County Public Schools in Florida in a 1st Grade General Education classroom for four years now. I deliver all academics while also providing accommodations for students with disabilities. I am almost finished with my 22nd year of teaching! I taught in Almaty, Kazakhstan for 1st Grade students in the PYP IB curriculum for my 18th year of teaching from 2019-2021. I was teaching reading, writing, math, science, and social studies in English to students whose first language is not English. All of this is taught an international curriculum framework which focuses on the development of the child as an inquirer, both in the classroom and in the world outside. It encourages international-mindedness in students and a positive attitude to learning so that students become life-long learners. I am certified in IB Professional Development: Making the PYP Happen in Category 1 and Orton-Gillingham: A Multi-Sensory Reading Methodology that helps students with reading difficulties. While I have taught grades Kindergarten-6th Grade and feel confident teaching any of those grades, I feel most effective with primary teaching with beginning reading and early number sense in Special Education, General Education, and International education. I believe in professional development and constantly improving my instruction. Besides enrolling in recent classes such as IB Professional Development and Orton-Gillingham, I also believe reading professional resources to help improve my instruction. I am currently reading Inquiry Mindset: Nurturing the Dreams, Wonders, and Curiosities of Our Youngest Learners to help improve student inquiry. While teaching Special Education, I have worked with a wide range of students with learning, mental, emotional, and physical disabilities in grades Kindergarten through Sixth grade. I adapted and made various accommodations for the general education curriculum and taught various grade levels simultaneously for reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and social skills to students with mild and moderate disabilities. I also maintained several behavior plans, wrote and implemented Individual Education Plans, and discussed student progress with parent, teachers, counselors, and administrators throughout the year. While teaching General Education, I coordinated regularly with the other teachers on my grade level team to maintain consistency in the curriculum. I really enjoyed developing creative learning opportunities for student's education, social, and behavior growth.