My values have always been posted when you enter my website — I am Committed to empowering learners to never stop gathering knowledge. Since I grew up outside and, on a farm,, I see the ability to gather knowledge in the everyday small tasks we do and just by being outside. Therefore, I would love for my future classes to be able to go outside and bring place-based learning into my practicums if the coaching teacher allows it.
I value creativity, love, learning, kindness and understanding (compassion). I believe there is room in the classroom to be all these things at once, to have a creative mindset while having a love for learning with a kind and understanding atmosphere which makes a classroom inviting and open to collaboration.
I have several scholarly goals, both for myself and for my future classroom. My short-term goals include completing the education program while taking advantage of as many Pro D opportunities as I can while in the supportive group of my cohort. I have learned from my first practicum how important creating a consistent schedule is not only for studying but also for lesson planning. I have realized that my professors are here to help me and guide me when I need it, so I am setting a goal for my future to lean on my professors and peers as I need to. My short terms goals for the classroom are to gather as many resources and knowledge from my coaching teachers as I can because they have so many years of experience. My main goal coming from my first practicum is to find ways to increase motivation in the classroom and to offer more collaboration time to my learners so they can be a part of forming our classroom community.
My long-term goals are to gather more knowledge about assessment and to create a rubric for an English classroom that is of a holistic nature. I have gravitated towards 6-point scales because it gives more room for growth but without putting so much pressure on students. Another long-term goal is to get better acquainted with the approaches to inquiry and gather resources that are hardcopy for me to keep in my classroom and refer to when I need to. I have come to terms that I am a book person and that I need hard copies of resources to look through because that is the only way it sticks with me for long periods of time.
The path I am on right is one of gathering. Gathering knowledge, gathering resources, gathering connections, and gathering experience. This has been a lifelong path of mine because I have always been curious about how the world works and how relationships are made and fostered. This connects to my future path because I am interested how students learn and how I can be the best teacher for them. Which means staying positive and constantly gathering.
My current weaknesses as a student are using time wisely and I need to start making time for the things I do not like to do, but still need to learn and try not to stick to the creative fun things so much because than I leave not enough time for me to complete the undesirable things. I can achieve this goal by avoiding distractions while I am studying and set achievable goals for every study session.
My current strengths are the ability to take risks, surround myself with positive people (predominantly individuals in my cohort) and I take constructive feedback and turn it into classroom or project adjustments.
Over the course of this program, I have developed more patience to achieve my goals because I can only be the best teacher I can be if I have patience (My 2021 word) and be gentle on self when going through the unexpected turns (losses and sadness or frustrations and stresses) because this is all very much part of the journey, which is only 16 months long… a very short time compared to what my teaching career will be!
