I knew that I wanted to be a teacher when I was little, but it wasn’t until I was in college that I knew it was the career for me. I started out majoring in elementary education and changed my major at the end of my sophomore year to sociology and then to communications. With less then a year until graduation I changed my mind yet again, this time back to education. Many people said that it was a strange move, but I just couldn’t ignore the facts any loner. I feel that this decision was the best on I have ever made.

Teachers need to bring various skills into the classroom and I feel that I can bring a lot into the teaching profession. I thoroughly enjoyed my field placements and working with children was what brought me back to education. Seeing a child struggle is one of the hardest things about being a teacher, but seeing that same child’s face light up with joy is the best reward for being a teacher. I take an example from my student teaching. During the state mandated proficiency tests I was asked to assist the learning disabled teacher with the instruction of math for the morning. These students ranged in ability from adding to more complex division. While working with one particular boy I discovered the joy in teaching. He was by far the most advanced in math and was struggling a lot to figure out the complex division problems. After working with him for several minutes and teaching him various tricks, the infamous light bulb went off in his head. He was elated to discover that he could do the problems without my assistance and showed his joy to the rest of the class. This made me realize how big of a difference a teacher can make. In that one day, I helped one child’s self-esteem go a little higher then it had been before.

One asset I feel I bring into a school system is my understanding, and use of technology. While doing my student teaching I incorporated technology into my lessons and used technology to better open the lines of communication with parents. For example, when doing a social studies review I used a game titled Game Show Review, which takes a format similar to the game show Jeopardy. I hooked up the LCD projector for the entire class to see the questions and to answer them accordingly. This was a creative way to help the students learn the material while taking on a game show mentality. All of the students enjoy reviewing this way, and it appears they recall more when they are having fun while enforcing various concepts. A second example was how I helped keep the lines communication open between teacher, parent and student. I created a special personal web page for the parents and students to use. On this web page parents could easily find out the homework, class announcements, and a weekly calendar of events, which centered on tests, homework and classroom events. On my first night I had one parents email me and told me that she loved the web page and was grateful to be able to check to make sure that her daughter completed all of her homework. During parent/teacher conferences many parents commented on how much the web page has helped their child. As a direct result from this positive feedback, my cooperating teacher is learning how to create and maintain a personal web page to keep the lines of communication open after I leave.

A second strength I bring to a school system is my creativity. I am a very creative person and I feel this is shown by my use of bulletin boards and other visuals around the classroom. By utilizing creative lesson, I am fostering a better understanding of the concept. Students want to be challenged, but they also want to enjoy themselves.

Another important aspect in teaching is classroom management and organization. The classrooms that I have been fortunate enough to be placed in have all had their unique motivations and organizations. I feel I will motivate children by having them realize how important learning is and that learning is actually a lot of fun. Making each child feel as though they are an integral part of the school day will also motivate him or her to learn more. I think that I will organize my classroom so children can interact with one another and myself. A library is an integral part to the classroom layout as is a section for computers. I will also have supplies spread out in the room instead of one central place. This way when the students need things there will not be a huge wait to get the supplies, and thus making more time for learning and instruction.