Elky Dorman

Learning Specialist

Fluent in Spanish, Mrs. Dorman has Cuban heritage and grew up in Miami, Florida. She loves children and chose teaching to make a difference in the lives of those who struggle.

Impacting Students
Once students have written an essay for a teacher, I ask them to color code all parts of the essay. This visual helps them see and identify all the different parts of the essay. This exercise allows them to see areas they are lacking in. If a piece of the essay is unclear, this shows them that. Students then go back and edit some more adding and deleting details as needed. It is very effective.

Lifelong Learner
I recently attended a conference on executive functions in the classroom and motor activities for improving self-regulation, attention and memory. I have incorporated these activities in my classrooms in order to calm the brain and ready it for learning and also to center the students when they begin to get distracted. These motor activities also help to teach executive functions. I have found these activities to be very effective.

Favorite Teaching Moment
Every time I reach a student and help him be more successful is a favorite teaching moment. To see students motivated and engaged in learning and feeling comfortable in my space to ask all the clarifying questions they have is a gift.

Favorite Childhood Memory
I loved to spend the summers with my grandmother in Naples, Florida.

Other than Graland, I Support ...
St. Jude Children’s Hospital, U.S. Army, veterans causes, Blue Bench, Lois Lenski Elementary School, St. Thomas More, ISPCAN (International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect)

Joined Graland in ...
2009

Education
Florida International University, Miami, Florida/Bachelor of Science in Special Education Varying Exceptionalities