2016 Teaching Portfolio : Erin Link Essay

Doing field experience at St.Mary’s Preschool has taught me a lot not only about the educational system but about myself as well. I’ve learned over these couple of months that in order to become a wonderful teacher, you have to have an enormous amount of patience and dedication. Teaching isn’t an easy profession and through this experience, my respect for my teachers have grown tremendously. Many students often take their teachers for granted but they don't realize what they do for us.

It is my sincere hope that every student should look forward to coming into the classroom ready for new adventures and a whole new world of information every day. Education continually brings us new adventures just waiting for us to experience its wonder and possibilities. I believe that students, when presented with a wide variety of interesting lessons, can become interested and motivated in a way that they never have before.

I see students as the next generations’ heroes in so many fields. In my vision, I have to inspire students and prepare them with confidence, knowledge, experience and skills. Which means I encourage, communicate, guide, teach, and assess students in order to enrich their infrastructures.

It has been many years since I have been back in the classroom fulltime after raising my kids, substitute teaching, and working part time as a science consultant. My background and experiences have prepared me for this specialized and unique position to be able to effectively work with many teachers to provide strategic and differentiated instruction for their diverse students.

In the realm of the world we call college, there are many different paths one can take. When choosing the path of being an education major, one begins to see the benefits of their choice long before they see their degree. The field experience that is required with the courses one has to take for this major allow students to dip their toes into their field and get real life experience before entering the real world. This semester, I had the opportunity of working at Oasis Tutoring Center. While tutoring at this center, I was not only able to learn more about my ability to teach, but also connect these experiences to the psychology of education.

Over the last two years at the Howard Community College, I have spent truly unforgettable moments with friends and teachers at this amazing community. Initially, I came to Howard Community College to prepare myself for the 4-year university because I was not fully ready for university level academics as I am an international student from Mongolia. Specifically, English was not my strongest subject, therefore, I had to go through the step of community college in order to be ready for 4-year university. Now, I strongly believe that these two years have prepared me both academically and personally for the next chapter of my life. Furthermore, the past years have opened my eyes to a broader spectrum as I am constantly engaging with such diverse

Through the completion of my graduate program in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, I have gained an immense amount of knowledge and a plethora of skills which I have used and found valuable in my seventh grade English classroom. My outlook on student learning and my empathy towards students has also been positively affected by the program. These learning opportunities have led me to become a better educator both inside and outside of the classroom.

I enjoyed fantastic trips with these students including: several trips to Crystal River, Florida to swim with manatees, spending days at an oceanography camp at Trinity Center, Bogue Sound, North Carolina, visiting the Challenger STEM Learning Center in Chattanooga, and our yearly overnight trips to Wesley Woods. I also taught in summer programs for gifted kids at UT and LMU. In 2001 I became an Assistant Principal at Austin-East High School and years later at a middle school. A few years before my retirement, I monitored college prep curricula at several schools at the secondary

Most of my education at West Chester University has been in a college classroom setting. I hope to learn how to apply the theories, techniques, and ideas into practice. I also hope to learn and participate in how to maintain a relationship between schools, families, and the community. I feel that the year-long placement will be more intimate field experiences than I have experienced before, and I am excited for the educational experiences it holds for me.

Lastly, by actively engaging students in a variety of interesting activities that encourage critical thinking and discovery, time misbehavior is minimized. The key is preparation and participation. Having activities and lessons prepared will negate the acts of sleeping, misbehavior, and/or sitting idly for the bell to ring. Furthermore, collaborative strategies can be used to help students become self-reliant learners that take responsibility for their own learning. For instance, when students explain the purpose of learning the material, they can assess their own progress and the relevancy to their lives.

​Throughout my journey as a student at Winthrop University, I have faced many different experiences that have helped mold me into the educator I am today. My journey as an educator has just merely begun, and at this point, it is extremely important for me to use this time for self-evaluation. My time at Winthrop University has provided me with my largest educational experiences, such as my class time in CRTW, my field placement in EDCO 201, and my time working with Clover High School’s Marching Band. These educational experiences have made an enormous impact on my personal understanding of teaching and learning.

Throughout the numerous experiences I have had during my time at Benedictine University, I have learned different lessons and values that will prove important to my teaching career. The different courses, teachers, and schools that I had the opportunity to work with have helped me grow as an educator and provided me with the tools needed in order to be successful.

Ideally, when I graduate, I would like to enter the credential program at Cal Poly Pomona. As an English Education major, I feel like this is the next logical step for me as I seek to move forward on my path of becoming a teacher. The opportunities that await me in the credential program truly excite me because I have always found my studies of English Education to be very rewarding and purposeful. I have found this to be especially true now because I am currently in the process of conducting observation hours at local high schools in Pomona as part of my English Education curriculum. When I am in the classroom, I immediately feel a sense of joy, purpose, and productivity. Outside of the classroom, I do have experience teaching as a leader for a club on campus; I am a Woman’s Bible Study Leader for Cal Poly Cru and I have found this experience of teaching college students to be the most exciting, challenging, and rewarding experience I have ever had the pleasure of being a part of. It can become overwhelming as doubts and deadlines tend to sneak in on me from time to time, but I know that being a teacher is worth every ounce of pressure because of the positive impact that a teacher has the ability to make on a student. There is an incredible statistic that states that “On average a teacher affects 3,000 children over the course of their career” (Bickley). This opportunity stirs my heart like nothing else because when I was in high school, I had an incredible teacher named

All students have a different learning style and can benefit from hands on or real life activities in the classroom.

After graduating, I served as an instructional assistant and afterschool program teacher for the Elk Grove Unified School District. In these roles, I helped integrate students with disabilities and behavioral issues into the classroom and managed a class of more than 20 students at a Title 1 school. My academic background allowed me to be more aware of how collective memory affects development and learning, allowing me to apply a more holistic approach towards student mentorship and evaluation. Furthermore, I served as a Crocker Art Museum volunteer in their Education department, where I was able to combine my interests in art history, education, and community