Inspiring Minds

I teach first grade at Lowe Elementary School; my class is made up of twenty-four very diverse seven year-olds; they come from all over the city of Louisville, from a variety of socio-economic situations. Each student brings a unique personality to our classroom community, and they all work hard to become “smarter and smarter” and to “go to college”. Thirteen students are boys and eleven are girls. Of these twenty-four students, three of them are English Language Learners. Additionally, eight students receive tier two interventions and two receive tier three interventions in reading. In math, five students are tier two and four are tier three. I also teach one student who receives ECE services for a developmental delay. Within my class there is a wide achievement gap.

During the months of September and October this semester I spent time at two different schools in four different classrooms. Being able to observe different classes and teachers at Westside Junior High and South Live Oak Elementary was a very new and exciting experience for me since I can’t say I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. My experiences at these schools gave me a better insight into the differences between schools, classrooms, and teachers. The purpose of this field experience was to get 10 observation or tutoring hours in an elementary or junior high setting. I chose to observe a

Preparing to teach young children is an intense process, Tal agrees when he says “Leading the classroom proactively while remaining alert to various people, behaviors, and others factors necessitates thoughtful and complex planning” (145).

Having discovered my calling to work with nontraditional students, I took a position with St. Charles Youth and Family Services as a Teacher of Experiential Education. This position allowed me to interact with urban students from MPS who were expelled, court ordered or Special Education students who were deemed best suited to self-contained program. I loved the challenge every day. Every student was so different, but they all wanted and craved the same thing… acceptance and unconditional love. I wanted more.

Teaching demands a lot of creativity and being able to adapt to different situations and environments. However, in order to experience lasting success, more than pot luck, charisma and spontaneity are required. Planning is essential. Planning and preparation gives a certain level of confidence. Whether it is a single lesson or a whole course, planning allows you to design the learning journey you wish to take your students on. In designing, you can make sure that you are catering for all your learners’ needs. This includes sufficient differentiation; for SEN needs as well as your gifted and talented students. In planning you can ensure that your lessons have a definite beginning, middle and end and have clear aims and targets. At this stage you will also prepare and plan resources. Also, you must plan your assessments. How will you know when the students have learned what you set out to teach? How will they know? How are you going to prove that learning has taken place at the end of the course? All these points will be addressed in the planning stage of the teacher training cycle.

The elementary educators both viewed the strengths of the program as flexibility to servicing the students, and being able to work with students in small groups. The middle school teacher thought that the participation of the general education teachers in the program was a definite strength. Among the weaknesses, teachers thought scheduling was difficult, and there is not enough staff to service the students. Also, teachers thought it was difficult to provide consistency of services and communication throughout all the buildings in the district. The middle school ELL teacher also noticed a lack of formal assessments and progress monitoring to help meet the changing needs of the students. The teachers’ goals addressed these weaknesses. They wanted to improve communication, and consistency of the ELL program, learn more about assessing Ells and ensure that the current ELL program moves forward. The elementary teacher also thought it was important to keep ELL students a priority even though our district doesn’t have many students who qualify. I also thought it was interesting that the middle school teacher also wants to provide general educations teachers with more support and guidance. I think that is a great goal that will help the students and the teachers!

Taking on the role as a teacher puts me in a leadership role. I chose for my artifact the ESO online training from Mr. Moss, EDEE 4330 Math class. Math seems to be the subject across the board most people is afraid of, but the ESO training provided fatal information for student’s success. I understand that I am responsible for setting an example for my students that I would be proud of them to emulate. I would love for my students to follow in my footprints and make a difference in others’ lives. It has been said, “it takes a village to raise a child”, and I know that I can be most effective when I reach out to families, colleagues, and the community, to employ the approach. It takes all that to raise well-adjusted productive members of our community, being it locally or

On September 30th, 2016, I observed a class at Ramirez Charter School in Lubbock, Texas. I had the opportunity to observe a third grade class led by Mrs. Yu Kim Johnson. She was assisted by a student teacher from Texas Tech, Abby Crutcher. The main focus of this observation was to observe all areas of the school and analyze how each contributes to or distracts from a positive, productive learning environment. Throughout this experience, I was able to get an idea of what could make a classroom negative or positive.

I 'm currently serving as a 2013 Corps member for Teach For America. I joined teach for America because I believe in their mission that all students deserve an equal an excellent education. I also joined because they work with schools where students are growing up in poverty and low income communities; a resemblance of my past. You see, we become our worst critics and even the mir image of success vanishes when our thoughts become clouded with fantasies; imaginative thoughts of the impossible. I longed for success, making it clear that the riches were of no importance to me. To others it appeared that I yes she, is writing her own story; untold was the beginning.

Currently, I am student teaching at Alfred E. Zampella PS #27 School in the district of Jersey City. The school is located in a busy city, next to John F. Kennedy St. which is especially busy in the morning and during rush hour. This results in several late students on a day to day basis. On the other hand, this school is also highly accessible and as a little over a thousand students. The school has grade levels from kindergarten to 8th grade, and has a mix of general, special, and inclusion education classrooms. Typically, families that enroll their students into this school are of lower-middle socio-economic class, and tend to be majority Hispanic, Indian, and African American, with few Caucasians and Asians. This school provides a variety of special programs for their ESL students and special need students. Students may be offered speech language pathology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, ESL programs, reading recovery, and counseling.

I currently work for Chesapeake Public Schools in Chesapeake, Virginia where I am currently a sixth grade science teacher at Western Branch Middle School. Chesapeake Public Schools is one of the highest ranking school systems in Virginia. What sets it apart from the others is the care it takes for his employees and students. Like most public school systems, Chesapeake requires extensive background checks, training, and enrichment courses in order for an employee to be acceptable for the job. Because a majority of the system’s staff works either with or for children, training on how to talk to and manage children from a variety of different cultures, backgrounds and socioeconomic status’ is a must.

The ELL team within District 427 is a small but effective group of 5 individuals. The teachers and administrators that are involved with the ELs are extremely passionate and constantly working with the numbers that they have to better service their students. The team meets frequently and is in constant contact within one another to help each other overcome obstacles that are occurring within their classrooms with their EL students. Although the team is small, they are only servicing a small population, and always open to change. If the EL enrollment were to increase, the team would increase as well. Their goal is to ensure that all of the students are being serviced for all of their needs for success.

I learned quickly that being an effective teacher is an art that takes time and devotion. Many times, teachers are not provided with the necessary materials in order to maintain the various learning styles in a classroom. It is up to the teacher to create an environment where students can succeed. This is a full time job, meaning that a teacher’s work is not done once they leave the school. A teacher must contribute a significant amount of time and effort in order to see positive results in the school and in his or her own classroom. After observing my cooperating teacher’s strategies and learning more about the profession, I knew that I was going in the right direction with my life. I took a significant amount of knowledge away from this experience and have continued to strive to be the type of educator that I was blessed to work with during this experience. .

In that class, the student learns about different teaching methods and how to care for children. As part of the curriculum, we volunteered at Long Elementary as teacher aides. Working with 4th grade students and observing an everyday class room was such an awe-inspiring experience. I had a completely new perspective about teachers. I have so much more respect as before. Teachers put so much time and effort into helping children for their benefits. I knew from the first day I helped with Ms. Williams’ 4th grade class, how much a teacher is a positive influence on children. There is an overwhelming feeling when you help a student with a problem and in return they give you the most heart-warming smile. The experience at Long Elementary helped me make my final decision on whether I wanted to teach elementary or secondary school. As much as I enjoyed helping elementary students, in my heart I knew secondary school was the path God had in store for me.

Being a teacher is not an easy task as many people could think. To be a teacher does not only imply to know the subject to be taught, it also includes being willing to constantly improve oneself integrally, as much as updating the resources and materials one uses in teaching. Reflecting and analyzing over and over again the best way to teach to learn and how to make students to extend what has been learned. The many hours spend in the classroom will never be enough to plan lessons, prepare materials, review pupils tasks and exams, as well, all the administrative requirements one has to cover for whatever institution we work. Besides all this a good teacher, a professional one, will have to find the time to keep preparing to improve