Get to know me a little bit better...
Activities & Organizations
One organization I am part of at Indiana University is U.N.I.T.E., or Urban Needs in Teacher Education. I have been on the executive board for U.N.I.T.E. for the last three years as the Outreach Coordinator. This position has helped me gain experience with networking and collaboration. These are necessary skills because an important part of being an educator is collaborating with other teachers and staff in your building. In order to be an effective teacher, you need to be able to learn from others. This position has given me the tools to not only learn from Indiana University faculty, but from great teachers throughout Indiana. U.N.I.T.E. has also held workshops and invited guest speakers to give presentations, all on topics of how to meet the diverse needs of high needs students. The biggest take-away for me is learning about the importance of teaching the whole child. I think being aware of all of the things that impact my students’ lives will help make me a stronger educator.
I have also been a member of the Kappa Delta Pi Educational Honor Society since the Fall of 2018. Our biggest event we put on is Literacy Alive, an educational reading themed carnival held at Binford Elementary in Bloomington, IN. Binford Elementary is home to the ENrich after-school program, where English Language Learners are invited to receive tutoring and homework help. Sometimes those students can feel frustrated or discouraged when they struggle with reading, so our main focus is making reading a fun, interactive experience to make them excited again. I was on the decoration committee, so my job was to come up with creative ideas to make the gym feel like they walked into a storybook wonderland! This experience gave me so many ideas for how I can make literacy a focus in my future bulletin board and classroom decorations. I now have a whole list of interactive games students can play to increase students’ literacy skills, rather than handing out packets and worksheets. I think learning should be a positive, magical experience for all students and the creativity I developed through KDPi will help me make that happen.
I’d also like to touch on some of the organizations I was part of in high school, because that is where I found my calling to leadership. The summer of sophomore year I was invited to attend the Hugh O’Brien Leadership Conference (HOBY), a weekend long seminar that helps students apply their leadership talents to become effective, ethical leaders in their home, school, workplace, and community. That following year of high school, I returned feeling empowered to do exactly that. I became the Vice President of National Honor Society, a peer tutor in our special education department, captain of the Varsity basketball team, a peer leader for our annual Natural Helpers retreat, and attended HOBY a second time as a junior facilitator. Being put in roles where I was a leader to my peers has helped me develop the skills to be a strong educator.
Strengths &
Weaknesses
One strength I have is organization, which I think is important to have as a future educator because it helps both your curriculum and classroom management run smoother. A second strength would be time management, which is important for maintaining a structured environment that fosters student growth. Another strength of mine is being able to give clear, understandable instructions and explanations, which is important as an educator because if you are not explicit, the activity will not be meaningful. A fourth strength I have is building relationships with students, I owe this strength to my years of babysitting and spending time around children. This is extremely important as a future educator because it helps create a community in your classroom. The final strength I have is creativity, which I also owe to the years of designing crafts and changing board game rules, to engage the kids I babysit for. Creativity is important as an educator because I am able to make my curriculum interesting and unique.
One area I would like to develop further are my behavior management strategies. I think different students have different needs, which mean the same type of discipline won’t be effective for every child. So, I would like to expand my knowledge and toolbox of strategies, so that I am able to help all children be successful. Another area I would like to develop would be using authentic activities instead of just worksheets. I think this can be really difficult when you only have so much time in a day to fit such a large amount of curriculum. I would like to learn and see examples of how other teachers have been successful with this. The last area I would like to further develop in is expertise in content knowledge. I have been in a variety of different grade levels, which means I’ve seen several different kids of curriculum. But it also means, I have not gotten a chance work closely with just one subject or set of standards.
Special Skills
One skill that would be relevant to my practice as an educator is leadership, because it can help with my classroom management. Another useful skill I have is networking. I was the outreach coordinator for the organization UNITE (Urban Needs in Teacher Education), where my responsibility was to collaborate with faculty, my peers, and other educators. This will be helpful use as a tool for gaining knowledge about pedagogy from other teachers. It will also be helpful to work with other teachers in my building, because I know how to have professional work relationships.
One interest that would be relevant to my practice as an educator is social media. I have experience with running a Facebook and Instagram account for the organization UNITE and running a Twitter and Facebook for the undergraduate educational journal Law and Disorder. This will be a helpful tool as an educator to share my creative classroom ideas with other educators, parents, and staff. I could also potentially run a social media account for the school corporation or for an extracurricular program.
One hobby that would be relevant to my practice as an educator is my basketball experience! I was captain of the varsity basketball team in high school and play on a co-ed intramural team at Indiana University. I absolutely love this sport and owe a lot of my defining characteristics to it. I would love to use my experiences to coach for a team in my school district. Another hobby I enjoy is graphic design. I was the graphic designer for my school magazine in high school and it has been a passion ever since. This could be helpful for working with the journalism department in my school district to help students learn graphic design skills. I could also use this skill as a teacher, to create unique parent newsletters and a classroom webpage.
Effective Teaching
Techniques
One technique that I have observed to be extremely effective is incorporating STEAM projects in the curriculum. I have seen it done effectively in both a kindergarten and a fifth grade classroom, which I think it the beauty of it! I have found that STEAM is a great technique because it does more than just teach the content. It encourages creativity, collaboration, problem solving, and critical thinking. I would like to incorporate STEAM projects into my lesson plans in order to foster authentic learning.
One strategy I have observed to be effective in differentiating instruction, is to use station rotation. I saw this done extremely well during my field placement at Eastern Greene Elementary. First, the teacher gave a mini-lesson on a subject. Then, she had students do a small worksheet, and when they finished they brought it to her to grade for instant feedback. She then used this feedback to sort students in groups. Then, she assigned each group to a different station, based off of how intense their needs were. Students who had no comprehension, were placed in a station with her, so that she could explain the material in a different way. Students who were slightly comprehending it, were placed in a group with a classroom aide to continue guided practice with the content. Students who had basic comprehension, worked in pairs to get more practice with the content. The last group were students who mastered the lesson and their station had a challenging problem solving activity. I thought this was a great way to immediately identify what students needed and address those needs. I think something to note about this activity is that she did this for every lesson. This is so important because a student may really struggle with one subject or lesson, yet master the next one.