Christy Shannon Moore

5042 MacArthur Ave.

Murfreesboro, TN 37129

(615) 604-8305

Curriculum Vitae

Work Experience:

  • (1997) Rutherford County Gifted Teacher (Interim K-5)
  • (1997-2002) Eagleville School

1997-2000-Second and Third Grade Self Contained

2000-2002-Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grade Literature Teacher

  • (2002-Present) McFadden School of Excellence

(2002-2009) Fifth Grade-Self Contained and a Multi-Age Specialty Connection Class in Technology, Magnet School Planning Curriculum

(2009-Present) Fourth/Fifth Grade American History-Six Classes of 150 Students

Education:

  • Ed.D. Assessment, Learning, and School Improvement, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN (2016)

Dissertation-“Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor: Teaching About Discrimination Through Experiential Education

  • M.Ed. Administration and Supervision, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN (2004)
  • B.S. Elementary Education (Grades 1-8), Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN (1996)

Academic/Teaching Experience:

  • 2016-Rutherford County Schools Cultivating Growth for All-Growing a Crop of Empowered Students Through Experiential Students-SOLD OUT Session-July
  • 2016-Experiential Education Exchange-Invited Guest Speaker-“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Reflection is the Key to It All”
  • 2016-Article Submitted for Publication-Journal of Experiential Education (Pending Publication)
  • 2016-Young Business Professionals of Murfreesboro-Invited Speaker-“Making History More Than Dead People and Dates Through Experiential Education”
  • 2013-present-Professional Learning Community Team Leader
  • 2013-present-Grade Level Chair
  • Hosts many teachers throughout the county, state, and Middle Tennessee State University to observe my classroom practices
  • 2015-Experiential One Room Schoolhouse Museum
  • 2015-Association for Experiential Education International Conference Peer-Reviewed Speaker-“Mission Possible: Experiential Education in the Regular Classroom”
  • 2015-National Council of Social Studies International Conference Peer-Reviewed Speaker-“Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor: Teaching Discrimination Through Experiential Education”
  • 2015-STEM International Conference Invited Guest Speaker-“Growing a Crop of Empowered Students”
  • 2015-Differentiated Instruction Conference and Professional Development Sessions-Invited Guest Speaker-“Always Be Closing: The Art of Debriefing”
  • 2015-Eastern Educational Research Association International Conference Peer-Reviewed Speaker-““Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor: Teaching Discrimination Through Experiential Education”
  • 2014-STEM International Conference-Peer Reviewed Speaker-“Getting R.E.A.L. with Students
  • 2014 Tennessee Council of Social Studies Teacher of the Year
  • 2014 Highest State Testing Scores in Social Studies (2015-pilot year for Tennessee Ready standards)
  • 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year
  • National Blue Ribbon School 2013-2014
  • Co-Chair-Social Studies Curriculum Adoption Committee (2013-2014)
  • Common Core-Common Sense-“Quantum Learning: Powerful Practices for Engaging Student (Gr. 3-8)”-Session Leader (2013)
  • Common Core Trained-ELL (2013)
  • Mentoring Pre-service MTSU Teachers (2011-present)
  • Integrating Professional Learning Communities for Singletons by partnering McFadden with Discovery School-created Norms, Common Assessments, and Action Plans
  • Mentoring new teachers by modeling lessons
  • Teaching Brain-Based Learning Session at Oakland Middle School’s 6th Grade Team
  • Developed professional development sessions-“Singleton Solutions in PLC” and “Rigor: What’s the Big Idea?”
  • First Responder/First Aid (2010-present)
  • School Climate Vertical Team Chair (2010-present)
  • Newspaper Opportunities (Tennessean and The Daily News Journal)-“History Comes to Life”, “Living Museums”, and “Civil Rights March”
  • Developed Fourth and Fifth Grade Departmentalization Program at MSE (2009-present)
  • Multiple Grant Recipient
  • Quantum Learning Trained (2008)
  • Team Web Designer (2009-present)
  • Voted Educator of the Month by WGNS
  • Chosen for Rutherford County Leadership Academy (2008)
  • Magnet School Testing Coordinator-Woodcock Johnson iii (2002-present)
  • Certified Writing Coach in Rutherford County (2008)
  • Developed and Created a Middle School Student Council (2000-2002)
  • Principal Internship-SACs, TSSIP, Schedule Setting, M-Teams, Discipline, Sport Tournaments, In-services, Faculty Meetings, Teacher Observations (2004)
  • Blog Development-Brain-Based Learning in Every Classroom
  • Author of Four Historical Fiction Picture Books-waiting on publication

Philosophy:

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”

― John Dewey

As a child, I did not learn the same as others. My teachers told me I could not learn and was not college material. Those didactic experiences not only shaped my academic life but also my educational pedagogy. First, I believe in a growth mindset where all students can learn. Teachers must seek the method that works for each child. For that reason, I believe in utilizing a variety of multisensory techniques in facilitating learning such as experiential education, whole brain teaching, and discovery learning. Second, I believe that education is not information deposited by the teacher into the brains of their students, but it is giving students meaningful well-thought out experiences where their own learning is created. Teachers should promote nature curiosity and the ability of not accepting status quo but asking vital questions in order to make informed decisions. Finally, I believe that it is my highest calling to instill students with a sense of empathy, compassion, and service in the world around them.

"Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn."

Benjamin Franklin

Effective teachers are always learning new strategies to reach their students. Complacency in the education profession is unacceptable. Differentiating through a variety strategies should be developed to reach each student’s unique learning style. Equal isn’t always fair. A teacher’s role is to guide each student to fulfilling his or her own individual potential. Building a passion to learn in students should be a major goal for a teacher. Students must also learn in an environment where they feel safe to take risks, share ideas, and fail.

Professional Practices:

•Research is vital to ensuring highly effective teaching strategies

•Communication with invested stakeholders is crucial

•Using data to determine a student’s strengths and weaknesses is essential in showing student growth

•Professional development is mandatory in staying up-to-date with today’s latest trends

•Involvement with community members to enhance curriculum is necessary

•Passion and dedication drive instruction with long lasting results

•Lessons taught through dramatic storytelling, real-world applications, problem solving, and discovery learning

•Music helps students connect to curriculum for deeper learning

I currently teach American History. Most people would site this subject as being the most boring subject in school. Depending on the method history is taught; it can be the most interesting or the most boring. I believe in bringing history to life through authentic experiences, storytelling, music, and drama. Teaching for me is a calling. Many days it is not easy, but I would not trade it for anything. “We must set sail into a sea of uncertainty, knowing full well that storms and rough seas lie ahead. But we must set sail, simply because the stakes are too high. These are our children, our future. They deserve to be educated at high levels, not merely required to attend schools.” (Eakers & Keating, 2012)

Letter from one former student and one former parent:

To Whom It May Concern:

I would like to introduce you to Mrs. Moore, my 4th and 5th grade Social Studies teacher. She defined history for me through her actions and teaching, not through a textbook. I’m glad, because if I hadn’t had her, I might have missed the value and meaning of history in my life.

My 4th grade year, I was very shy. It was my first year at the school. Mrs. Moore was very crazy and loud. She would have the class do crazy things like stand in their chair and do things. One time she made me say, “I am a beloved woman” and do this movement when she called my character’s name. We were studying Indians. That was hard at first, but the longer I had her it got easier to do the crazy things. It ended up being one of the reasons she became my favorite teacher.

She was funny partly because she was clumsy. She’d spill her coffee while she was teaching sometimes and say, “Oh crap!” and keep on teaching (or cleaning up coffee). Also, when people would say things, she’d interact and laugh at what we said. She treated us as people, not like the other teachers who treated us as students. Mrs. Moore was easy to talk to.

She was creative with how she taught us. For example everyday of the week she would do different things. On Telephone Tuesday, she would call a historical person from the past giving us clues as she talked to them. We’d have to guess who it was. She’d talk in a fun dramatic way. She had lots of fun voices, too. Then, there was Wacky Wednesday when she told us a fun fact. Music Monday was fun. We would dance around, out of our seat, then turn and tell a person close to us the answer to her question. She would also match a song to the topic and changed the words to help us remember, for examples the Generals of the war. They were at a camp and they had to sneak out because they were going to be attacked. So she made up a song called “Sneak Out” to the tune of “Freak Out.”

In our history class, we did lots of real life reenactments like going on the Oregon Trail. We had to decide what to take on our trip considering weight and money. Some of us had disease, didn’t make it to the end, or had wagon problems. The immigration process was kind of fun. We had to get through immigration, and we also got to ride on the Titanic. Some kids were 1st class. The room was fancy. I was 2nd class. It wasn’t as nice as 1st class, but I’m really glad it wasn’t 3rd class. Going through what people in the past had gone through during these activities showed us about history, but it also helped us understand it more, even the hard parts. In a way, we experienced them.

She was always looking for ways to make history something we could touch. We even had a living museum that represented time periods beginning with the 1920’s. I got to be Hitler. I acted out a scene and made my costume. The news came and filmed me talking about my teacher. During our Government unit, it was more fun than Government had ever been because she named each table to represent the States. One table name was the taco table. This helped us learn how votes are counted.

What I learned from Mrs. Moore was history is interesting. I did not know what history was before having her. No one had taught it to me. She became my favorite teacher and history became my favorite subject because she told history as a story. She did it in a way we interacted with history. We understood how the people felt because she put us through history along side them.

As you decide who should be the Social Studies Teacher of the Year, I hope you will consider Mrs. Moore. Without teachers like her, kids will never understand how to appreciate the past and what it means to where we are today. I know it’s possible that I’ll never have a teacher like her again. She’s a rare find.

Sincerely,

Student X

Parent:

To Whom it May Concern,

Mrs. Moore has been teacher at McFadden School of Excellence for many years. Fortunately, she has been a teacher to both my children a boy and a girl. I tell you this because of the way she teaches ALL children and how they learn under her direction.

Child 1, my oldest, is a very driven student but a reluctant reader. While in her room along with giving efficacy to all other subjects in fifth grade, she provided an avenue of possibilities for reading that my son grabbed on to. This was the first time in his school career and quite frankly the last that a teacher has encouraged him to read in a way that he chose to do so and even enjoy it. He was very successful in her class because of her firm boundaries and her delivery of curriculum to he and students in his class.

Child 2, my youngest, is a student that could care less about school and hates school work. She struggles with all her other classes but in Mrs. Moore’s room she is shining. Her learning style is one that needs several different approaches for long-term memory and Mrs. Moore gives her those things. She makes learning fun and gives them brain-based strategies for them to learn concepts deeply while enjoying learning. I will also have to confess that Mrs. Moore’s tests are what other parents’ say as hard tests. I have come to the understanding the other parents say that because the students have to think in order to be success full on the test. My child has no problem doing it because of the way she presents the curriculum and the depth and time she gives the students to understand and retain the material. We as parents must encourage our students to think and if they fail give them the means to be successful and that is exactly what Mrs. Moore does on a daily basis.

Mrs. Moore is the best teacher in which has taught my children. She is constantly considering new approaches that are sound teacher practices and increase student learning without killing them with testing and assessments. I appreciate her so much for taking the time to learn these great strategies to use with my children and all students that she comes in contact with on a daily basis. She is never satisfied as a professional and continues to strive to be better and learn more and expects her student to do the same!

Sincerely yours,

Parent X