Prompt:
Write a brief paragraph introducing yourself to the blogging world
Review the course learning objectives in the syllabus, the COE professional teacher dispositions, and your own reflections from past clinical and course experiences and map out at least four goals that you carry for yourself for this semester. What do you want to focus on? Improve in? Learn about? Think deeply as this will guide your work in this final clinical experience.
Write a brief paragraph introducing yourself to the blogging world
Review the course learning objectives in the syllabus, the COE professional teacher dispositions, and your own reflections from past clinical and course experiences and map out at least four goals that you carry for yourself for this semester. What do you want to focus on? Improve in? Learn about? Think deeply as this will guide your work in this final clinical experience.
Hello Fellow Teachers and Bloggers!
My name is Jessa, and I am a 21 year old Early Childhood Education Major, with a minor in business, at Illinois State University! I was born and raised near the city of Chicago, Illinois. I have always loved working with children. When I was younger, I wanted to be a Pediatrician. When I entered high school, I lost my grandfather to cancer, and I lost a friend to pediatric cancer. I decided to pursue a career in pediatric oncology- or to work with child cancer patients. However, a field trip to a hospital and learning what being a doctor entails (being around a lot of blood!) definitely changed my mind. I really enjoy working with children, but never really thought of myself being in a classroom all day with them. A family friend of mine ran his own day care center, and I decided it was a great idea, and decided to pursue that same dream. So, here I am, in my last semester at Illinois State before student teaching, and less than a year away from graduation! I am so excited for what the future will hold.
Before graduating ISU, there are definitely a few things that I need to work on for myself before stepping out into the real world. Throughout my past clinical experiences, both of my cooperating teachers mentioned to me that I need to work on my confidence. I struggle with this not only in teaching, but in the real world too! I think that more experience as well as more time in the classroom teaching the children myself will help me to build my confidence. Another goal that I have for this semester during my clinical session is to expand upon my teaching abilities. From past semesters, I have only been able to build lesson plans for math and literacy areas. These are areas that even as a child I knew I was strong in. My weaker areas are science, social studies, the arts, etc. These are the areas that I have fewer memories to build off of and less confidence in. I hope that this semester I am able to build solid lessons across all of the content areas. I would also like to form closer bonds with my colleagues this semester. I hope that I have a good relationship with my cooperating teacher and improve upon my relationships with my fellow classmates in the ECE program. The last goal I have for myself is to find different ways to work on classroom management. In the past, I have struggled with this. However, most of my experience is with the younger children. This year, I am placed in a second grade classroom. While I am excited, I am nervous for the bigger kids! It is way out of my comfort zone, but I am excited to get the chance to experience this age and see what their classroom is like.
Enjoy your week Bloggers!
