Get to Know Elaine Waters

Year 2, MHS Freshmen Academy 

 

I am a 1980 graduate of McDowell High School.  I graduated from Berea College in Kentucky with a double major in English Education in 1985.  In 2000, I received my Masters in Middle Grades Education from Western Carolina University.  I earned my National Boards of Professional Teaching Standards Certification in Middle Child Generalist in 2001 and my renewal certification in 2011.  I have completed all the requirements for my School Administration Masters through Appalachian State University except the final exam, which I decided I did not want to take.  Being a classroom teacher is more important to me than being an administrator, at this time. For 17 years, I taught at Eastfield Global Magnet School because I love the Year Round Calendar! I sincerely wish our entire county would go Year Round.  At Eastfield, I have taught all Elementary subjects in grades 4, 5, and 6, as well as the Middle School subjects for 7th and 8th grade English Language Arts, Social Studies, and World Cultures.  I have been a Global Studies teacher and coordinator, as well as the Middle Grades lead teacher.

 

I have been blessed to have taught in a Digital Classroom for the last 5 years, the last 4 years with Google Chromebooks.  My students rarely used paper, except in art work, and almost all assignments were completed using Google Docs (now Google Drive), gmail,

and other Web 2.0 resources.

 

After we got our class set of Chromebooks in early August 2011, Google contacted me, asking for a story about how Chromebooks were impacting my students' learning.  I wrote a short piece about one of my students whose world was changed by this computer.  Google came to my classroom with a film crew in December of 2011 to make a short documentary about my student Malachi, who was our true Chromebook Superhero.  Click here to watch the Google YouTube video about Chromebooks in my classroom, posted in January, 2012.  Much has changed since then!

I have been married to my best friend and soul-mate, Eric Waters, for 29 years. Our oldest son, Josh, is a 2007 MHS graduate.  Our youngest son, Jacob, is a fourth-grader in the Splash Spanish Language Immersion program at Eastfield, where he is learning English and Spanish in a bi-lingual classroom.  I live in a home with three men of varying shades of RED HAIR.  Enough said on that!

Our family loves to travel to historic and cultural sites around the world, and we enjoy ethnic cultural and food experiences in our area.  I am a huge Dr. Who fan, as well as all things Divergent.

Welcome to our class family!