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| Autobiographical Narrative |
| I have taught in the Lawrence Public School system for the past seven years. During that time my first two years were spent teaching first grade at Deerfield Elementary School. I had a very positive experience and worked on developing and implementing the Animated Literacy Program, a year prior to the district adoption. In my third year of teaching, I opted to move to a kindergarten position at Centennial Elementary School. It had always been my dream to return to my alma mater and teach children of this age group. When I began teaching kindergarten, I realized the advantage I had been given by teaching first grade. I felt as though I really had a feeling of where the children needed to be by the end of their kindergarten year. During my years of teaching, I have also been very involved with my schools and district by being a member of the following committees and organizations: Centennial Summer Library Program (9yrs), Centennial PTA (5yrs), Technology Cadre (3yrs), Math Network (2yrs), Centennial Site Council (3yrs), Centennial Social Committee (5yrs), and Foundation Follies Participant (6yrs). During the summer of 2002 I became aware of a master’s program through Baker University. This program was formed by a connection between the Lawrence Education Association and Baker University and was specifically designed to meet around teacher work schedules, so to earn a master’s degree. Myself and sixteen other Lawrence Public School colleagues ranging from grades pre-k through senior high school excitedly signed up. In late June 2002 we began our journey to getting a master’s degree in education with a specialty area of technology. The past year has been a challenge with a full time teaching job and a full load of master’s classes, as my cohort group opted to finish the entire program in a period of eleven months (holidays off) with a completion date of June 26, 2003. Completing this program came with sweet and sour emotions, after spending so much time with the teachers and other colleagues on a weekly basis, it was hard to say goodbye. I have made some very close lifelong friendships of which I hope will continue to grow in the future. At the closing of the 2002-2003 school year came an emotional yet inevitable disappointment as Centennial Elementary School, my alma mater school was doomed to be closed forever. With this sad ending came happy beginnings as I have been given the opportunity to teach first grade once again at my new home, Broken Arrow Elementary School. I am looking forward to new challenges and experiences at a new school. |
Final
Reflection: Self-Evaluation I feel that I have gained a better understanding of the importance of a strong knowledge base. I have worked very closely with my professors who are specialists in the fields in which they teach and have tried to literally soak in their love of research and need for best practices. It is in the support of these best practices in which myself and other colleagues were taught, the real meaning and the application of best practices that will follow me back to my classroom in the years to come. During this past year I have improved my written communication skills in my Learning Theories class where I had to re-teach myself research methods and paper writing techniques in order to write papers in new scholarly MLA formats that were concise and professional yet to the point and purposeful. My communication skills and commitment to do well and encourage other classmates to strive for the same, have been the powerhouse that pushed me to do my best in all assigned tasks, both verbal and non-verbal. I had an abundance of opportunities to be a single partner to one individual or a group of multiple people, of which came high expectations and accountability for seeing a project through to the end and then later taking the time to reflect on how it could have been improved. Organizational skills were a must when looking at this past year. With having courses that overlapped and other day to day responsibilities, being organized was one thing that I could rely on to keep me on track. Deadlines and schedules were a bit challenging at times, but given the appropriate work time and access to resources including, technology made these processes much easier to deal with. Having the support of family, friends, teachers, and other colleagues helped greatly in my ability to prioritize personal and professional workloads and time lines. I have definitely improved my efficiency in my decision making skills. I have had to decide what it was that I wanted to do, how hard I was going to work and how much time it would take to get the specified job done. Work under a great amount of pressure at times and with the help, support and collaboration with others this pressure was at times lessened. I made it a point to be to each class on time, ready to learn and open to new approaches, thoughts and understandings of what it was that would make me a better professional each and every day. I was encouraged by teachers and colleagues to become a more intuitive critical thinker during this master’s process. I have had many opportunities to hear the opinions of others, make meaningful connections to never-explored ideals and form personal thoughts and guidelines of which I may have not had in the past. I have taken this new knowledge and tried to apply it to everyday life as I continue to seek out the answers to my questions. It is through my ability to better understand the world around me that I can enhance my problem solving techniques to better myself as a professional educator. Overall my time as a Baker University Master’s in Education student has made me look at what I do as a teacher, through more well rounded, more aware, and more knowledgeable eyes. Being challenged with this wonderful opportunity, has truly changed me as an individual to be a more informed educator. |