JK Teacher Creates Company of Student Inventors

Each week Patch sits down with individuals who contribute to the high standards of education in Mahwah, and asks them a few questions to get to know them better.

This week Patch talks to Joyce Kilmer 5^th grade math and science teacher, Christine Imperiosi. During her 29 years teaching, she’s come up with very creative ways to help students understand lessons.

How do you engage your students to keep them interested and focused in math?

CI: “I try to keep the children engaged in math class by using learning manipulatives (i.e. blocks, white boards, tan grams, etc.), games, and of course the promethean board. I find that continually varying my methods keeps the students’ attention.”

How do you prepare your students for middle school?

CI: “I really focus on organizational skills, study skills, and exposing the students to the language and tools that the sixth grade teachers will be using.”

Do you find the students to be more organized in 5th grade or do you have to help them become organized?

CI: “Well, that depends on the students. There are some that come to fifth grade with strong organizational skills and others that need more guidance and effort to help them become more organized.”

What's the most unconventional teaching method you've used and was it successful?

CI: “Most recently, I would say creating the I5 Company. I enrolled all of the students as “employees”. Each of the employees had the job of being an inventor. As inventors they needed to come up with a completely original invention and present it to the company’s “board members” (the other students) & the company’s top executives (my family). The top executives were then charged with the job of voting on the top three inventions that the company would fund & take to market.

The purpose of this project was for my students to understand the process inventors went through during the industrial revolution. I found the students had a better understanding & appreciation for what inventors like Thomas Edison & Alexander Bell experienced. Of course, having the bragging rights of the best invention helped a bit too.”   

Kids will say, 'I don't need math when I grow up. What do I have to learn it for?' What response would you give? 

CI: “I tell the children of an experience I had several years ago. I was at a farm buying fruits and vegetables when suddenly the stand lost its power, but remained opened. When I went to check out, neither the cash register nor the electronic scale were working, so they had to check the weight of the produce on a scale and then calculate the cost using paper and pencil. The cashiers were in a panic because they weren’t sure how to come up with the correct cost. I then look at the class and say see you will always need to know and use addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions, because you never know when or where you will need math.”

How can the students get extra help, if needed?

CI: “Students are always able to come in for extra help during their recess period or before school. Now we have a Flex Period built into our schedule, which allows us to work with the children who may need some extra help or clarification.”

What's one thing people may not know about you?

CI: “People don’t know that I was a dancer. I started dancing as a child and continued into my adult years.”

What's the funniest thing that's ever happened to you at school?

CI: “I don’t know if this is the funniest thing that has ever happened, but it definitely is interesting. When I taught second grade I would read to the children after lunch. The children were sitting on floor around me listening to the story when I noticed this one boy playing with the zipper on his shirt. He decided to pull his shirt up over his face and zip the zipper however when he did this he also zipped his eyelid. At the time both the nurse and principal were at a meeting and lunch, so I had to delicately help separate the lid from the zipper. Fortunately the eyelid was completely intact, just a minor irritation where it was caught.” 

If you weren't a teacher, what career would you pursue?

CI: “From the time I was little I loved playing school and being the teacher, so I never thought of any other career. If I needed to choose another career it would probably be a children’s librarian. I love to read to children and think librarians are much like teachers, in that they help people to learn, just on a much broader scale.”