Hey Everyone,
My name is Brad Plummer, and I am a Secondary English Education Major here at Eastern Washington University. This will be my 5th year of undergraduate studies. I was born and raised in northern California, and after graduating from high school, I went to Sierra College, a community college in my hometown, for two years and received an associate's degree in natural science. A few days after graduating from Sierra College, I moved up to Washington with my family and started going to Eastern, where I have now studied to be a teacher for the past two years. I have greatly enjoyed my entire college experience, but now that I have only a few classes left to take, I find myself looking forward to what lies beyond undergrad.
I received my placement at the end of spring quarter, so I am now in my second quarter of student teaching, and I will be student teaching full time this spring. I have been given the opportunity to work with two excellent and highly qualified teachers, which I am very grateful for. Being able to get actual field experience has been very illuminating and has given me a greater sense of what the teaching profession entails. I strongly believe that we learn to teach by teaching, and I feel that there are a lot of things about the profession that we cannot fully understand until we experience it for ourselves. For this reason, I am really enjoying my student teaching because it has given me numerous opportunities to learn about the education process, the teaching profession, and myself. I have taught several lessons at my placement school, and each time I learn something new. After reflecting on my teaching and receiving some critiques, I feel that I have narrowed down my strengths and weaknesses down to a few areas.
One of the biggest areas in need of improvement is my voice. I am a generally laid-back person, and tend to be more soft-spoken. Because of this, I sometimes don't speak loud enough for my students to hear. My tone also runs the risk of coming across as unenthusiastic, so I am constantly aware of and seeking to improve on my expressiveness and projection while speaking. The other main area in need of improvement is my classroom management. Many of my students have given me feedback that I need to be more strict while I am teaching. I need to have better control over my classrooms so I can maximize effectiveness and facilitate learning.
One of my strengths as a potential teacher is that I am confident while I am teaching. I have a strong and thorough understanding of my content area, and I believe in myself and my ability to teach. Another strength of mine is that I am very passionate about what I teach. I love literature, writing, and high-quality discussions, and I have a strong desire to share my passion with others. I am also a very adaptable person and feel that I can make changes and adjustments to accommodate various circumstances. Additionally, I am always open to receiving feedback, and I am always looking to improve upon and perfect my teaching skills, which will serve me well as I move forward into the profession.
I have several goals for this course. My first goal is that I want to learn various strategies and techniques that will enable me to help my students comprehend and interact with the diverse array of literature that they will encounter inside and outside of the classroom. My second goal is that I want to become a better public speaker by participating in classroom discussions and lessons. My third goal is that I want to learn how I can share my passion for reading with my students and instill an appreciation, if not desire, for reading; I want my students to want to read, and I want to learn ways that I can help them see the connections between the text, themselves, and the world they live in.
I am very excited to begin another year at Eastern, and I look forward to working with you all.
No comments:
Post a Comment