NAME:
Mrs. Maria Illich
SCHOOL:
St. Francis de Sales
CLASS:
2nd-5th Grade Reading Resource; 6th Grade English
SCHOOL PHONE:
713.774.4447
A member of Who's Who Among America's Teachers, Mrs. Maria Illich holds a B.A.
in English and an M.Ed. from the University of St. Thomas. This is her
twenty-second year to teach for the Diocese of Galveston-Houston. In her spare
time, Mrs. Illich enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her family.
Her only child, Katherine, attended St. Francis de Sales as well as the High
School for the Visual and Performing Arts and is currently attending the Rocky
Mountain College of Art and Design. Her husband, Greg, is a massage therapist
and tai chi instructor.
I believe in nurturing and challenging each student to develop to his or her
fullest potential in a spiritual and academic community guided according to
Roman Catholic principles. I believe that this occurs in a partnership with
parents. I believe that instruction should be meaningful and appropriate
according to each student's grade and reading level. Various teaching
techniques are utilized with an emphasis on the Neuhaus multi-sensory
approach since this method uses a student's strong channel/s of learning to
develop his/her weaker one/s. Equally important is the technique of
recalling prior knowledge in order to process and assimilate new knowledge.
With younger students and other emergent readers, a focus on phonological
awareness skills develops their decoding abilities. Once fluency occurs,
techniques that strengthen comprehension are specifically targeted. Equally
essential for all students is the continual acquisition and assimilation of
new vocabulary. All students should read on a daily basis; studies
consistently show that those students who read the most outside of school
tend to be the most successful in school.