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Mrs. Kayla Myers » About Mrs. Myers

About Mrs. Myers

Welcome to TAG!  I am excited to begin my fourth year as the UP TAG Specialist.  My journey in HPISD began as a Bradfield Elementary Fourth Grade teacher, and prior to that experience I taught in Plano ISD in both fourth grade and fifth grade classrooms. Graduating from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor Degree in Human Development and Family Studies and a Master Degree in Elementary Education, I quickly fell in love with extending the learning of my TAG students in the regular education classroom through differentiation practices. I followed this passion to learn more about how to challenge my students every moment of the day through the SMU Gifted/Talented Endorsement Program.  That passion has become my role at UP which is to seek to open up opportunities for a challenging learning environment every moment of every day.


This summer has been quite eventful as my family welcomed our new baby girl, Merritt.  Her big brother, Charlie, is overjoyed with his new role and proudly parades his baby sister in and out of his school.  My husband and I aren’t sleeping much yet, but we are filled with love and all the baby cuddles we can handle.


I am excited to start this school year and meet the many new faces of my school family.  Every student holds a special place in my heart and I strive to make every child feel loved and supported in the TAG classroom.  I believe this makes taking risks in learning and significant growth possible. I look forward to partnering with you to build a challenging yet supportive environment that invites your child to grasp at opportunities to make great strides in learning.

 

Posts

Bring in your family holiday cards or pictures!

I love to decorate the classroom door with your family holiday pictures or cards if you can spare one.  Please send one anytime before the winter break!  
Thanks! 

Introduction to TAG Math Mentors

Hello TAG Math parents,
 
I would like to start an after school opportunity to match up TAG math students with each other based on individual needs and skills.  Any given time throughout the year your child can sign up to have an opportunity to receive help as the MENTEE or provide help as the MENTOR in these once a month skill based after school meetings.  If I notice a student needs some extra guidance in the skill area, I may even reach out to you specifically to have your child attend for extra practice.  The first Math Mentors meeting will be held January 15th from 3:15-3:45 in the TAG classroom.  The skill that will be reviewed is number sense (multiplication and division review).  Please talk this over with your TAG math student and sign up!  Please note that if Mentor spots fill up your child may be asked to wait for the next opportunity as I would like a one to one ratio of Mentor/Mentees. 
 
Mentor Form
 
Mentee Form

TAG Math Wednesday Folder

Hello TAG Math parents,
 
I have been diving right into lesson planning where Ms. Fun left off, and I have a set of graded papers to come home in this week's TAG Math Wednesday folder.  As a reminder, this will be the way I send home papers and collect parent signatures.  The dates you should be expecting grades are listed on the parent signature page.  I will keep track of your feedback and our communication throughout the rest of the year on that one page.  Thank you for partnering with me to track your child's progress and growth in TAG math.  

Third grade pig heart dissection was a hands on learning success.  Dr. Thornton took the time to go one person at a time to show every part that we have been learning about since September.  Thank you, Dr. Thornton and all the parents who can to participate.  

Mrs. Myers is back :)

I am so excited to be back at school today.  I was greeted with so many warm hugs and words of encouragement.  It brought tears to my eyes and reminded me exactly how much I love this school and your kids!  Today, we hit the ground running with math lessons. I will be at meetings tomorrow so every class has an assignment to work on with their TAG cluster to show me when I am finished with meetings and TAG math classes resume on Wednesday.  We also have the 3rd grade Explorations class pig heart dissection on Wednesday so that will be an exciting day! I cannot wait to see how the inventors of 2nd grade Explorations have been doing along with the 4th grade Enigma research! In case you didn’t get a chance to thank our long term sub, Ms. Fun, I thanked her a million times over for taking such good care of our kids.  She loved every moment and left my classroom orderly and right on track in the curriculum. Ms. Fun will be missed, but she has promised to come say hello anytime she is at UP. I am looking forward to a productive three weeks filled with reconnecting with my students, filling in gaps in learning, and evaluating what curriculum adjustments need to be made for the Spring semester.   Thank you again for the warm welcome back!

Please welcome our TAG long term sub, RuthAnn Funderburk!  She will be taking over for me on September 5th until I return on December 4th.  I am thrilled to have someone so kind and loving to support TAG learning and extend the curriculum with her own expertise.  Ms. Funderburk taught 4th grade at Hyer Elementary for 12 years where she was given the honor of teacher of the year in 2006 and later served as her grade level chair for 2 years.  She earned her graduate degree from SMU and did additional course work in the area of Gifted and Talented Education.  We are so lucky to have her and the students are going to have an excellent learning experience with RuthAnn.  I will be partnering with her to ensure TAG curriculum doesn't miss a beat while I am out.  I will miss seeing your students' sweet faces everyday, but I am so happy to know that they are in such good hands.  

Happy Summer!

Thank you so much for the very generous class gift!  I am blown away by your thoughtfulness.  I truly mean it when I say that teaching your children is gift enough.  Your support means the world to me and I am overwhelmed by your kind words, gifts, and encouragement throughout the year.  As the fourth grade class moves on, I will welcome all the new to TAG upcoming 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders with great excitement.  They have quite a legacy left by the upcoming 5th grade class to look up to.  Have a great summer everyone!   Mrs. Myers

Thank you!

Thank you for the wonderful 2017-2018 school year.  It has been my joy to watch your children learn and grow into the amazing young learners they are today.  I will miss seeing them more than you can imagine over the summer. Thank you for the teamwork and support with all of the amazing guest speakers, presentations, projects, and just the everyday homework and accountability practice that goes into making each year a successful learning environment in the TAG classroom.  I hope you enjoy your family time in the summer with some hands on learning and real life experiences. I will be back to set up my classroom and train our long term sub for my maternity leave the first week of school in the fall. As soon as I have more information on who that lucky person will be I will let you all know.  After the TAG classroom is set up and the sub has an understanding of the lessons, I will be out taking care of Baby Myers from Sept. 4th-December 3rd. In my place will be a carefully selected individual with every lesson planned out in advance so that it can be a smooth transition for your students when I return. Thank you all again for the amazing school year. See you at the new school!


Kayla Myers

Attention 4th Grade Explorations Parents

Dear 4th Grade Parents,

In place of the annual Scots U field trip this year, we are excited to bring NuMinds to our 4th grade Explorations classes in May! This will be a terrific “in-house field trip” to pair with our robotics unit. The program will allow our students to participate in new programming and robotics activities not currently in our district, building on what they already know. We’re excited about the problem solving, critical thinking, and fun this new program will bring.

Due to small spaces and lots of moving parts, we are unable to accommodate parents. We will be sure to take lots of pictures!

Kim Brooks

Nu Minds: http://numien.com/

NAO Robot: https://www.ald.softbankrobotics.com/en/robots/nao

 

Curiosity Expedition- 2nd Grade Explorations Parents

The UP TAG Second Graders are nearing the end of their Curiosity Expedition.


They want to share the results of their research with you! (2nd Grade Exploration Parents)


Come learn about:

Tsunamis (Emily)

Solar Eclipse (Gus)

Volcanoes (Jax)

Ice Age (Lincoln)


When: 2:30PM on Thursday, May 10th

Where: UP TAG classroom

3rd grade pig heart dissection

A special thank you to Dr. Manhas to guiding our third graders with their pig heart dissection.  They were amazed!!!!  Check out pictures on our instagram page UPTAGMYERS

Greg Tang Math Camp Survey

I have been working with Greg Tang Jr. to bring a Greg Tang Math camp to Dallas. They have had success in cities across the US but this would be the first on its kind here in Dallas. I will partner to teach the camps alongside him. Before committing to this endeavor, I would love to have some valuable feedback for planning for this if you might be interested. These camps would be open to anyone (not just TAG students) currently in grades 2nd - 4th. Please take the survey below to help guide my planning. Thank you! Note: This would be an outside school hours activity with a fee decided upon by Greg Tang. Last year the fee was $350 for the week.