Experience Summary
I've got around 8 years of college and university work under my belt, and I am getting ready to finish a BA in Elementary Education from Western Governors University. I love teaching. I got the teaching bug while teaching English as a Foreign Language in China. I taught there for almost 9 years altogether, 1 year in Beijing, 7 years in Tianjin, and 1 year in Taiwan. I now work as a substitute teacher for Lewis County Schools and I also volunteer in the school library where I help struggling students with reading.
Teaching Style
I am very active in the classroom and I believe in making learning fun and enjoyable. There are so many ways to help children learn, yet many of them are not used for one reason or another. If information must be memorized, I like to put it to song or a rap. Other methods of learning that are very useful are concept maps, discussions, and performing. Another very successful method that I've employed is having the student actually teach me rather than me teach the student. It is VERY effective.
My Hobbies
I like to garden, both vegetables and flowers. I also like to cook, especially Chinese food (REAL Chinese food, not American Chinese food). I work outside in the yard a lot. I love animals, especially horses, and I'd probably have a farm if I could. I also enjoy traveling, seeing new places, and meeting new people and their culture.
| Algebra |
Proficiency: Experienced
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| Algebra can be easy! There is no reason why students should have to struggle with it. I've seen many reasons why students haven't gotten an A in it, and that's usually because they just aren't focused or can't seem to get motivated. Another problem with Algebra has been making connections with real life. It's very hard for a lot of kids to "get into" something when they can't see the use of it. Those real-world connections really need to be made. |
| Algebra I |
Proficiency: Experienced
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| Algebra can be easy! There is no reason why students should have to struggle with it. I've seen many reasons why students haven't gotten an A in it, and that's usually because they just aren't focused or can't seem to get motivated. Another problem with Algebra has been making connections with real life. It's very hard for a lot of kids to "get into" something when they can't see the use of it. Those real-world connections really need to be made. |
| Basic Learning Skills |
Proficiency: Experienced
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| I teach students various reading comprehension strategies such as summarizing, imaging, concept mapping, and numerous repair strategies. I also teach the students to use both text features and concept maps for science and social studies. |
| Elementary |
Proficiency: Experienced
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| I'm an Elementary Education major, getting ready to finish my last semester of classes at Western Governors University. I also substitute teach for Lewis County Schools, and I volunteer in the library by assisting students with their reading. I've passed all my Praxis exams required for being a teacher in the state of Kentucky, and I LOVE KIDS. I also spent almost 9 years teaching English as a Foreign Language in China, 1 year in Beijing, 7 years in Tianjin, and 1 year in Taiwan. I've taught students from 3 years old all the way up to around 65 years old, which included pre-school, up through all of the grades of grade school, and even into college and university-level courses. |
| Elementary Grammar |
Proficiency: Experienced
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| I concentrate on students not only writing correctly, but also speaking correctly. Students who struggle orally typically struggle with writing, too. Students must be able to express themselves and also the concepts that they are learning orally and then in writing using correct grammar. I spent almost 9 years teaching English grammar in China. |
| Elementary Math |
 This is one of my top subjects!
Proficiency: Experienced
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| A method I commonly employ in teaching math, especially math that involves processes, is to bring the student to the place where he or she both understands the concept and is able to orally explain it to me. After that, I have the student explain the process in writing. It is amazing what a difference this makes for the child's learning and mastery of the concepts. I also use a lot of manipulatives and hands-on learning strategies. |
| Elementary Phonics |
This is one of my top subjects!
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| I love teaching phonics. In China, I even created my own phonics program for use in a Korean kindergarten. Phonics is critical to a child being able to decode new words. In addition to phonics, I also teach students other decoding strategies, such as chunking. |
| Elementary Reading |
This is one of my top subjects!
Proficiency: Experienced
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| Teaching reading is another one of my favorites. It is critical that a child reads, and rereads. After getting a child through a page in a storybook, we go back and work on any words that I had identified as problematic for the child. I teach the child various decoding strategies, such as phonics, chunking, identifying smaller words, the silent E, etc. I then have the student reread that page. If there are still words that the student is having problems with, we work on them again, and then reread. With each rereading, I time the student and point out to him/her how much he or she has improved. Being able to clearly SEE progress makes such a difference in the child's overall attitude and motivation. |
| Elementary Science |
Proficiency: Experienced
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| Science is great, and it's important to get kids interested in it early. Science can be brought to life by making connections between what is happening in class to what is happening in real life. Science concepts can be learned through concept maps, chants, rhymes, and various hands-on activities. I blew some 6th graders away by spontaneously setting Newton's 3 laws of motion to a jazz rap. Learning really can be fun. |
| Elementary Social Studies |
Proficiency: Experienced
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| Social Studies can actually be interesting! I teach the student to use concept maps, visualizing, and text features to increase understanding. We can even act out what is happening in the text! |
| Elementary Study Skills |
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| I teach the student to actually incorporate the learning skills that I teach into his or her daily study routine. |
| Elementary Vocabulary |
Proficiency: Experienced
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| Working on vocabulary does not have to be boring. I teach students to sort, categorize, and organize words according to spelling, structure, parts of speech, etc. There are many kinds of games and exercises to do with vocabulary in order to both learn and spell the words. To take ownership of new vocabulary, we can make up funny stories spontaneously and tell those stories to each other. |