Hi, and welcome to Cultivate the Future! Like most women, I wear many hats. I am a Daughter, a Wife, a Mother, and a Friend. I am also an Educator. This blog will focus on the "educator" side of me, but some of the other bits may show up from time to time!
As a little girl, my favorite game to play was "school". I'd sit alone in my room, writing up imaginary class lists, teaching lessons on my Smurf's chalkboard, and administering spelling tests to my invisible pupils. I've always wanted to be a teacher. As a teen, I began teaching preschoolers in children's church and in VBS. This experience only solidified my desire to have a career in teaching. After cadet teaching in high school in a Kindergarten class, I enrolled in college as an elementary education major.
Throughout college, I had the opportunity to visit many different schools-inner city schools, suburban schools, township schools, and private schools. During this time, I worked as a summer day camp counselor for several years, with various groups of children, ranging in age from preschool to third grade. I developed my own curriculum and led our preschool camp program during my last year as a camp counselor. I had wonderful student teaching experiences in second grade and in kindergarten. I was fortunate to have excellent and supportive supervising teachers, whom I consider to be mentors.
After receiving my degree in December of 1997, I began substitute teaching. After only a few assignments, I ended up with a long term subbing situation. I taught second grade for nearly a semester. My assistant teacher and I made a great team, and I learned a lot from both my students, and my colleagues. I was hired on permanently to teach first grade the following year, but sadly, had to decline when my husband (the chief bread winner) was offered a position in Mississippi. When school started back up, we had not moved yet. I was called upon to start off the school year in the same classroom that I had worked in previously because the teacher had died suddenly. I worked there for a couple of weeks before we moved to Gulfport, Mississippi.
After arriving in Mississippi, I worked in a day care center for a while. At first, I worked as a sub in the baby room (my favorite!), as well as the toddler room. Occasionally, I worked in the young three's room, which was sort of like being thrown in with the lions! Yikes. Finally, I was given my own pre-k class, and had just settled in, when I was hired to teach full day kindergarten in a school district about 45 minutes away. I started teaching in December, and had to jump in quick and figure out all of the curriculum. I ended up spending two and a half years at that school. I worked with Saxon Math, Success For All, Peabody Language Development and Writer's Workshop. Some of these programs I loved, some of them....well...not so much, but I won't comment. In the classroom, we did lots of literacy enriched learning centers, emergent writing and reading activities, and phonics and whole language based reading instruction. Many of our students began the year not even knowing how to write their own names, and left for first grade with the ability to write in sentences (with some "real" and some "invented" spelling). Kindergarten is such an exciting year to teach, as the students have the potential to grow so much!
Eventually, my husband received a job transfer back to Indiana, and we happily moved back home to be near our families. While in Mississippi, I gave birth to our daughter in 2000, so I decided to be a stay at home mom for a while. Not content to actually "Stay at Home", I joined a MOPS, Mothers of Preschoolers group, and served various roles: adult discussion group leader, publicity director, and steering team member. After having my son in 2003, our finances necessitated that I go back to work.
In August of that year, I started working at Sylvan Learning Center part time as a tutor. As a tutor, I gained experience working with students of all ages. Whereas most of my prior teaching experience had been mostly with preschool through third graders, I was now working with middle schoolers, high schoolers, and even adults, as well as the young ones. While the primary ages remained my "favorites", I found that many of the same teaching techniques and skills can be applied to older students with some adjustment. This was actually a confidence booster for me, and I was no longer "afraid" of teaching the older kids. Over time, my role at Sylvan evolved. I ended up serving as the Assistant Director of Education. While I still tutored sometimes, I also administered tests, conferenced with parents and teachers, and monitored student progress and adjusted programs as necessary. As I was in a supervising role, I also interviewed and trained new teachers on occasion. I loved my job at Sylvan, but the economy took a toll on the business,a nd they could no longer provide me with the hours I needed. I was also feeling the pull to get back in the classroom!
In January of 2011, I started working as a Title 1 Instructional Assistant at a local elementary school. I enjoyed working with small groups of students in grades K-4, and assisting teachers in the classroom. Our Title 1 funding changed, however, so at the beginning of the new school year I became the RTI Assistant, instead. I still teach small groups of students throughout the day, but I am also repsonsible for setting up and attending Data Reviews for RTI students, and collaborating with classroom teachers, our principal and resource teachers to draw up RTI plans for students new to the RTI process. My days are filled with assessments, documentation, meetings, teaching, interventions, lesson planning, and lots of smiling little faces!
I enjoy my job, but I would love to have my own classroom again someday. While I enjoy working with all grade levels, I have to say that my heart really lies with the Kindergarteners and the first graders. They are so enthusiatic about learning and life!
