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Teaching is important to me because I want to make a difference in the lives of my students both academically and personally. I have always loved working with kids and being able to teach them in a classroom setting and help them learn and grow will be an amazing and fulfilling experience. Having the opportunity to be a teacher will allow me to follow my passions and provide a safe and welcoming space for all kids that need that kind of positive environment in their lives.
A learning outcome that I want to foster in my students is problem-solving because it is important for them to be able to form ideas, make predictions, not be afraid to make mistakes, and find solutions. Two instructional strategies that I will use to foster student mastery of the learning outcome of problem-solving is scaffolding intentionally and facilitating whole group discussions. Being able to scaffold student learning will be an essential instruction strategy for problem-solving for students because I will be able to guide their thinking and help them understand how to solve problems when I model how to answer different problems such as math or reading comprehension problems, and then help them work through different problems that are about the same topics either with me, with partners, or in a whole group situation where I can understand their though process and see how they are able to find solutions. Being able to implement whole group instruction during instruction will help students master problem-solving because they will be able to discuss their thinking, relate to peers about how to solve problems, and share and generate new ideas about how to solve problems during learning.
As a professional educator, I believe that I should teach all students within a safe and inclusive environment where I can build trusting relationships with them that will lead to being able to grow in their academics. It is extremely important to me as an educator to listen to my student’s needs while I am also following the curriculum that will be based off of state standards that are being taught at my school. As a professional educator, I believe that students learn at their best ability when their own interests, cultures, and emotions are taken into account during instruction. It is important that all students feel like they are seen and heard in my classroom and being able to provide this to them will allow them to learn and grow. Positive reinforcement is also an important strategy that I will use as a teacher because the students will be able to recognize when they are making good choices, reflect on behaviors, and display appropriate behaviors while they are learning in the classroom. Making teaching and learning meaningful is critical to student’s academic growth because it will engage the students in learning and allow them to think creatively, critically, and reflectively. Another important part of teaching and learning as a professional educator is that students should have some sort of experiential learning in the classroom or outside of the classroom where they are immersed in activities that provide them a chance to work with their hands and bodies and encourages them to expand their comfort zones. Students should also be given many opportunities in the classroom to work with different individuals in pairs or groups where they can build social skills and make new friends. According to the famous psychologist Lev Vygotsky, “adults in society foster children’s cognitive development by engaging them in challenging and meaningful activities” (McLeod, 2022). This proves that my belief that centers around students learning meaningful information that engages them in challenging activities will allow them to cognitively grow and meet learning objectives that will be taught in the classroom. Vygotsky also believed that students learn the most when they have positive social interactions, which supports my belief that students should be ale to different individual in the classroom to build social skills. Vygotsky also believed that “community plays a central role in the process of ‘making meaning’” (p. 1). This theory also proves that educators that provide inclusive, safe, and culturally represented classroom environments give students the chance to learn more effectively.
Two specific assessment tools that I will use to measure student learning of problem-solving are rubrics and portfolios. I will be able to use rubrics to measure how well students are able to use problem-solving during learning on formative and summative assessments when I can assess them on how well they are able to form ideas, make predictions, and find solutions in their work samples. This can apply to math and reading assessments and I can score them on a number scale in each category and give them a total score. I can use these results to determine how I can re-engage them in a new and different problem-solving activity that will test their abilities to use this learning objective. I will be able to use portfolios as an assessment tool to measure student’s ability to problem solve because I can have them complete different assignments over time in a specific subject, such as math and reading, and have them save the assignments over time to showcase how much growth they’ve had with use of problem solving in their work.
My beliefs as a professional educator involving building positive relationships with school stakeholders such as school staff and district staff is that I should be friendly, kind, responsive, and involved in the community in order to show that I care about my school and everybody that is involved with making decisions about curriculum, classes, student involvement, inclusion, etc. It is important that I build positive relationship with my own peer educators all the way up to the school board because I truly care about how each student is being represented and how future decisions can affect my own classroom. Some strategies that I will use to build these positive relationships with school stakeholders include participating in community events that involve my school or school district, asking questions and being responsible to school stakeholders, and respecting boundaries and regulations that are set forth by my own school or school district.
McLeod, Saul. (2022). Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development. SimplyPsychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html.
Stephanie Cornett
Elementary Teacher
3529 Piney Woods Pl, Unit I-103
Laurel, Maryland 20724
(513) 604-1284
sc828212@gmail.com
Northfield Elementary School
9125 Northfield Rd, Ellicott City, MD 21042
(410) 313-2806
Howard County Public Schools
1st grade
Subjects: Mathematics, Reading, Writing, Science, and Social Studies
Host Teacher: Mrs. Tracie Clay
Duration: 12 weeks
During this time, I was able to build positive, trusting relationships with each student in this classroom, grow a wonderful friendship with my host teacher that taught me many different teaching skills, and learn about how to run a classroom and teach curriculum and standards in a way that is meaningful and inclusive for each student.
Western Governors University
Salt Lake City, Utah
Bachelor of Arts in Elementary
Education
2020-present
May 2016-May 2018
Camp Joy
based learning.
such Forestry, Map and Compass, Rocks and Minerals, Herpetology,
Entomology, Freshwater Ecology, Garbology, Mammalogy, Survival in
the Wilderness, and more.
expansion of comfort zones, and higher-thinking skills.
and inclusive work environment.
disadvantaged youth with varying backgrounds and abilities such as
foster kids, cancer, heart disease, amputations, military families, social
justice, diabetes, and more.
December 2018-August 2019
Cal-Wood Education Center
August 2019-May 2020
KinderCare Learning Center at UCAR
My overall growth as a teacher thus far is clearly abundant. Throughout student teaching, I have been able to practice so many different skills that make a great teacher. I have been able to experience lesson plan development, curriculum understanding and implementation in activities, how to use different forms of assessments in the classroom for analyzing, how to differentiate instruction based on student’s needs, how to handle tough conversations with parents and other staff members, and how to continue to create a safe and warm learning environment for my students.
A specific professional development activity that I used to grow as an educator is using a reflective journal during student teaching to write down my experience in the classroom everyday and reflect on specific teaching skills that I was good at, some that I touched on briefly, and some that I needed a lot of area of improvement in. For example, during my reflective journaling I discussed that I did a really good job at recognizing the needs of all the students in my classroom when I differentiated instruction by using a two-group model for learning in math. I also discussed that I was able to use a formative assessment in the classroom, but I could have used different tools for it to help every student. I also discussed in my reflective journaling that I needed to work on supplying different types of hands-on manipulatives for students while they are independently working on their math worksheets, such as a number line or two-sided counters and ten frames. Using this professional development activity has helped me deepen my knowledge of subject matter content that I teach because before I engaged students in instruction, I was able to review the curriculum and standards that I needed to teach and make sure that they aligned with the math content that I was presenting that day. This is a skill that I will be able to carry with me as an educator because I will be able to dive deeper into the curriculum for my school district, build amazing lesson plans based off the curriculum, and be able to reflect on how well I integrated the curriculum in my lesson after I teach, to always be improving as an educator. A specific professional development activity that I used to enhance my use of content pedagogy in the classroom is participating in an educational technology crash course where I had a meeting with my host teacher where we reviewed specific websites and technology that is used in the school district for content understanding, curriculum, and standards and how to implement them in the classroom with technology. I was shown many different resources that I could use to enhance my use of content pedagogy in the classroom such as a list of websites for educational games for students in different content areas such as math or reading, educational books and videos for teachers that they can use to enhance their understanding of specific content areas that they teach according to grade level, and activities for each standard in every grade level that can be implemented in the classroom to engage students in learning. I will be able to use technology from my school district better because of my experience learning about it with a current teacher with years of experience using it to teach. Being able to have this skill will enhance my future career as a teacher involving content pedagogy because I understand how to use different technological resources about content to further enhance learning in the classroom.
Every week I would gather with the entire 1st grade teaching level teachers to analyze student data in specific subject areas in our classrooms. During these meetings, we would discuss how we are differentiating instruction in our classrooms to meet the needs of students that have differing abilities, specifically in math and reading. We would make plans to pull specific students from classrooms and place them with other teachers that are teaching specific content, otherwise known as ability grouping. Before we pulled students, we would discuss how well they did on specific assessments that determined if there were at, above or below current grade level standards. Based on the data from these assessments, we discussed what the best course of action was for each individual student. After coming to a thought-out conclusion, we would move students to different classrooms based on their abilities. For example, if a student was falling below in math, they would be pulled from their homeroom teacher’s classroom and sent to a different classroom with a different teacher that was teaching at their ability level with other students all at the same ability level. Being apart of these meetings will influence the planning and modification of my future instruction because I understand how to determine if students are at, above or below grade level standards for specific subjects like math and reading. I will be able to move students and use specific teaching strategies such as a two-group model in the classroom to make sure that I am allowing every student to learn what they need to base off of their own abilities and current challenges they are facing in the content. This collaboration helped me grow as an educator because I learned that to be an exceptional teacher, I must make sure that every student feels like they are being challenged, they are given help when needed, and they are placed in an environment that is most conductive to their individual learning.
The National Education Association (NEA) is a professional education organization that contributed to my development as an educator. The NEA provided an article on their website that addresses different tips for teachers to help them engage with families that I chose to read to enhance my future career as an educator. One tip that stood out to me from this article is to “host a focus group or listening session to find out how families feel about their interactions with the school” (Gross, 2022). This tip was great advice for me as a future educator because I learned that it is important to maintain a positive relationship with my student’s caretakers so that we can work together to create a learning environment that is most supportive for their children. It is important to listen to my student’s guardian’s concerns so that I can address them appropriately with my principal and work on solutions to improve my classroom and my school. The article also discusses the importance of face-to-face conversations with parents and discussing the PTA with parents. These strategies will also contribute to my development as an educator because I will remember the importance of having positive interactions with parents and guardians and making sure that I am involving them in the school community as much as I can to enhance their experience and their child’s experience with the school.
A specific goal for how I want to grow as an educator is that I want to learn more ways to implement standards into activities that I want to do with students. For example, I have expansive knowledge about different group activity games, and I want to be able to chance those activities so that they meet specific content and standards that are being taught in the classroom. A goal that I have for myself is to create a binder that has a list of different activities that is sorted by standards that are being taught according to my grade level, where I can pull out an activity and get it prepared for when I want to use it in class. It would be a great idea to have things ready to go so that I can be prepared if something doesn’t go right in my current lesson and have backups available for use just in case I need them at that moment in time. The binder with a list of activities that is sorted based from content and standard that I am currently teaching in the classroom is an example of a professional growth activity that I can create during my planning time that will help me accomplish my goal of implementing standards into activities that I want to do with students.
Gross, Hannah. October 2022. 7 Tips for Engaging with Families. neaToday. https://www.nea.org/professional-excellence/student-engagement/tools-tips/7-tips-engaging-families.