Experience Summary
After receiving my Master's degree in Political Science, I obtained my Statement of Eligibility to teach in Florida and was hired to teach a combined 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade class in Social Studies at Lake Eola Charter School in Orlando, during which time I created the elementary Social Studies curriculum for the school. The following year, I taught American Government and Economics at West Orange High School in Winter Garden, Florida. During these two years of teaching, I was also teaching Political Science part-time as an adjunct professor at Valencia Community College in Orlando. After my year of teaching high school, I taught college full-time for a year, then continued teaching college part-time for a year and a half after that. Additionally, while a graduate student, I tutored elementary-aged children in reading, social studies, basic math, and science.
Teaching Style
I believe that all children can learn and are eager to learn if they are properly engaged in the material. If children are shown things within the subject matter that they can latch onto and find interesting, if learning is made stress-free and enjoyable for them, then they will learn and be excited about learning. I strive to make learning an enjoyable process, and to teach children things they may not have heard about before, and will always remember. An example of this is when I taught a unit on the Salem witch trials to my 4th and 5th grade students at Lake Eola Charter School...a subject they had not heard of before and found fascinating....and then to cap the lesson, I directed the children in a modified production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, which we performed for their parents.