My journey to becoming a teacher began at Montgomery College, then I went to and graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park. Like many others, I am continuing my learning and teaching skills by earning my masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction: Reading Specialist Licensure Track from the University of Kansas. As I previously mentioned, this school year was my first year being team leader. This year has been chaotically organized due to adapting how to teach virtually and then hybrid during a pandemic while also earning my masters degree. But it has been eye opening, rewarding, and motivating. It has taught me how to work with other teachers cooperatively and collaboratively to make a positive impact in our scholars’ lives.

Working as a teacher and team leader has been enjoyable and rewarding regardless of the grand amount of work and responsibilities it comes along with. Helping scholars, families, and other teachers is worth the amount of time and work I have put into my job.

Thankfully, this year has been a blessing in many different areas of my life and I am happy to have been in this program because all of the professors and classmates have been supportive, patient, and understanding.

This electronic portfolio is a gateway to the work I have completed in the M.S.E Curriculum and Instruction program. It will provide examples of teaching work samples, knowledge, and ideas that I implement or will potentially implement in my teaching. This portfolio will also be broken down into sections: Teaching and Learning; Identities, Communities, and Inclusive Learning Contexts, and Professionalism and Leadership. Each section will have a rationale and example indicating my continuous growth in professionalism, equity, and instructional resources.

As a child, I struggled with reading and writing and my family was not sure how to help me improve in my literacy. At the time, my family was learning how to speak English and were not comfortable with asking for support on how to help me improve my reading and writing skills. But I was still fascinated with reading books to be taken away from reality for a moment and learn about different topics and perspectives. I was also fascinated with writing about my day in my diary even though I did not know how to fully articulate my thoughts and feelings into writing. My passion for wanting to learn how to help scholars enjoy how to read and write stems from my own literacy experience. Not only do I want to help scholars improve their literacy skills and enjoyment for literacy but I have also wanted to learn how to involve families in a welcoming and effective way. That way families can feel comfortable reaching out to school members on how to help improve their children's reading and writing skills at home. The M.S.E Curriculum and Instruction Program has helped me learn strategies on how to teach reading and writing to all scholars as well as learn how to create professional learning sessions to reach teachers and family members so they can use effective and purposeful literacy strategies in the classroom and at home. Now that I have gathered information and resources to support scholars, staff, and families to improve scholars' literacy skills, I plan on using my masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction: Reading Specialist Licensure Track to become a Reading Specialist at an elementary school, in the near future, so I can plan and facilitate literacy opportunities for teachers and parents/guardians so we can all help improve scholars' learning, lives, and opportunities.