Experience Summary
I graduated from Bethel University in December 2006 with a BA in Elementary Education K-8 with a Middle School specialty in Spanish. I graduated magna cum laude (gpa of 3.8). In college, I completed a research paper written in Spanish about language acquisition in children. I also completed individual courses of both Kindergarten and Middle School education, two classes rarely offered at other universities. Since 2002, I have completed approximately 6 practicums at various intercity and suburban schools. I also completed 14 weeks of student teaching in fourth grade and first grade classrooms. I recently completed my first year teaching Kindergarten at Adams Spanish Immersion Magnet in Saint Paul.
Teaching Style
My teaching style incorporates the Responsive Classroom model, in which proactive rather than reactive teaching is expressed. Students and teacher build a classroom community based on trust, respect and acceptance. Children are involved in creating classroom rules and routines. In the classroom, I continually accommodate for diverse learners, dividing the students by their needs and working with them in small literacy and math groups. However, the students also work together in mixed-ability groups. I am sensitive when planning to institute Gardner's multiple intelligences. Teaching in themes is important to me when teaching younger students especially. For this reason, I believe in incorporating many subject areas, such as literacy, math and science. Finally, I have been trained in both reading and writing workshop. While training, I began to incorporate these strategies in the classroom. It was especially challenging transferring these strategies into Spanish, as the entire day was taught in Spanish. As a teacher, I am professional but also try my best to connect with each student individually. Each student's behaviors are the result of a need that hasn't been met. I strive to discover this need and fill it rather than react negatively toward it. Overall, each student is a unique learner and I embrace these differences and strive to meet each of them.