_Teachers who inspire know that teaching is like
cultivating a garden and those who would have nothing to do with thorns must
never attempt to gather flowers.
Author Unknown
Mission
_
Self-directed, enthusiastic educator with a passionate
commitment to student development and the learning experience. Skilled in the
design of challenging, enriching, and innovative activities that address the
diverse interests and needs of students. Possesses outstanding communication
skills. Presents information in a variety of ways, emphasizing relevance of
class material to the world beyond the classroom. Active team member who
effectively collaborates with all levels of staff members and establishes
quality relationships with students.
_
![Picture](/uploads/6/7/6/3/6763469/770192332.jpg)
_
I feel that in order to be an
effective teacher, one must be a good gardener. In an ideal world, the teacher
could quietly tend to her garden of students, watching as they grow into
knowledgeable adults. Reality shows that most students require more attention
and TLC before they become a beautiful bouquet.
Though I'm entering the sixth year of my career, I’ve been a teacher for most of my life. After two traumatic brain injuries, my younger sister, Tracey, has struggled with school; her IQ classifies her as “educable mentally retarded.” Our parents, both blue-collar workers with only high school diplomas, were usually too tired after to help Tracey with her assignments or did not understand what was being asked. It fell on to me tutor her.
Each night, I would look over the concepts taught to her that day and modify the content in a way that she could understand. I hadn’t yet had any formal instruction in teaching, and my methods were mostly derived from common sense. I could not understand why many of her teachers could not do the same. As I aged and attended college, I attended IEP meetings to help her teachers understand how she learned best. By then, Tracey was in high school, and she had drifted through nine years of classroom instruction. Though she made significant progress every year, she was still educationally far behind her classmates. It was during her struggle that my teaching philosophy first germinated.
While studying at Assumption College, I discovered Dr. Howard Gardner’s categories of intelligence and individual learning styles. Over the past five years, I’ve implemented a differentiated, multimedia curriculum designed to activate my students’ intelligences To teach a unit on Holocaust literature, for example, I offered different levels of texts so that every student would be reading at his or her instructional level. Documentaries and photos helped to reach my visual-spatial learners, audiobooks. For my musical students, I introduced the class to traditional Jewish prayer songs and songs of the partisans and the concentration camps. I offered a diary project for my intrapersonal learners and cooperative learning activities for students with interpersonal intelligences. Groups were also asked to create a skit, based on a scene from their book, which activated students’ bodily-kinesthetic intelligences.
As the seeds mature and grow, their needs are constantly changing. I, the conscious gardener, have to tailor my actions to their individual needs. The key to differentiating is assessment-based instruction. Formative assessments are a way to track and inform students of their progress and help them to build on their strengths and remedy weaknesses. Information I gather about each student helps me to understand their strengths, learning styles, preferences, needs, interests, and readiness to learn. Developing a student profile helps me to plan for my instruction, which ensures that each student will be successful (universal design – instruction that is “necessary for some and good for all”). I also use summative assessments at the end of each unit to assess student learning and the efficacy of my teaching. Finally, my coursework at the University of New England, has made me familiar with diagnostic literacy assessments that I can use to assess students’ strengths and weaknesses, and remediate them accordingly.
At the end of the year, despite the fragrant bouquet she has created, the teacher’s work is never done. Through student evaluations, colleague suggestions, professional development classes, internet resources and the reflective journal that I write in after every lesson, I am constantly working on my craft. For example, I chose to pursue a Master’s degree in Literacy from the University of New England because I wanted to become familiar with best practices in literacy education so that I could best serve my struggling readers, especially with the federally-mandated Response to Intervention program. Each year, I see myself striving to become a better gardener for every class of tender seedlings.
Though I'm entering the sixth year of my career, I’ve been a teacher for most of my life. After two traumatic brain injuries, my younger sister, Tracey, has struggled with school; her IQ classifies her as “educable mentally retarded.” Our parents, both blue-collar workers with only high school diplomas, were usually too tired after to help Tracey with her assignments or did not understand what was being asked. It fell on to me tutor her.
Each night, I would look over the concepts taught to her that day and modify the content in a way that she could understand. I hadn’t yet had any formal instruction in teaching, and my methods were mostly derived from common sense. I could not understand why many of her teachers could not do the same. As I aged and attended college, I attended IEP meetings to help her teachers understand how she learned best. By then, Tracey was in high school, and she had drifted through nine years of classroom instruction. Though she made significant progress every year, she was still educationally far behind her classmates. It was during her struggle that my teaching philosophy first germinated.
While studying at Assumption College, I discovered Dr. Howard Gardner’s categories of intelligence and individual learning styles. Over the past five years, I’ve implemented a differentiated, multimedia curriculum designed to activate my students’ intelligences To teach a unit on Holocaust literature, for example, I offered different levels of texts so that every student would be reading at his or her instructional level. Documentaries and photos helped to reach my visual-spatial learners, audiobooks. For my musical students, I introduced the class to traditional Jewish prayer songs and songs of the partisans and the concentration camps. I offered a diary project for my intrapersonal learners and cooperative learning activities for students with interpersonal intelligences. Groups were also asked to create a skit, based on a scene from their book, which activated students’ bodily-kinesthetic intelligences.
As the seeds mature and grow, their needs are constantly changing. I, the conscious gardener, have to tailor my actions to their individual needs. The key to differentiating is assessment-based instruction. Formative assessments are a way to track and inform students of their progress and help them to build on their strengths and remedy weaknesses. Information I gather about each student helps me to understand their strengths, learning styles, preferences, needs, interests, and readiness to learn. Developing a student profile helps me to plan for my instruction, which ensures that each student will be successful (universal design – instruction that is “necessary for some and good for all”). I also use summative assessments at the end of each unit to assess student learning and the efficacy of my teaching. Finally, my coursework at the University of New England, has made me familiar with diagnostic literacy assessments that I can use to assess students’ strengths and weaknesses, and remediate them accordingly.
At the end of the year, despite the fragrant bouquet she has created, the teacher’s work is never done. Through student evaluations, colleague suggestions, professional development classes, internet resources and the reflective journal that I write in after every lesson, I am constantly working on my craft. For example, I chose to pursue a Master’s degree in Literacy from the University of New England because I wanted to become familiar with best practices in literacy education so that I could best serve my struggling readers, especially with the federally-mandated Response to Intervention program. Each year, I see myself striving to become a better gardener for every class of tender seedlings.