Life-long Learner

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena..." Theodore Roosevelt

Presenting at EdCAMP

To live by the words of Theodore Roosevelt, I jumped into the arena and stepped out of my comfort zone to present our GEM Curriculum during our EDCamp to fellow colleagues as well as teachers from the New Hyde-Garden City Park School District. I also presented with my fellow TEDEd advisors on our TEDEd clubs. I was very excited to be a part of these opportunities. That was not to say I wasn't nervous! When a moment of doubt would creep into my mind, I remembered how I constantly encourage my students to take on challenges, take risks, and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. I had to lead by example and go for it. I am so happy I did because we met great people and had the chance to learn from our colleagues, all the while sharing our passion - to spark the minds of our STEAM students!

Masters in TESOL

I received my Masters of Science Education in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (K-12) at Queens College. Not only did my coursework help me better service my ENL students, it also taught me how to reach ALL of my learners through different modalities of teaching.

Education Technology at Molloy College

I continued my education at Molloy College in Education Technology. The decision to continue education in technology is very important because our district is at the cutting edge of technology and these classes helped me enhance my curriculum with the use of technology.

Mineola Professional Development

I am grateful for the professional development opportunities that this school district has offered me. Over the past several years, I have really enjoyed participating in numerous Growth Mindset courses as well as the Neuroscience of Engagement. The strategies and knowledge that I learned from these courses are seen in my classroom daily. This year I chose to continue with the Growth Mindset PDs. I enrolled in the independent study GM pd. Even though we have yet to finish this session, I have learned how to integrate various tools and strategies to help our youngest learners foster a growth mindset.

Other Professional Development

My fellow colleagues and I have participated in various BOCES Trainings on how to implement the New New York State Science Learning Standards to our students. These workshops were all hands on which gave us first hand experience on how our science lessons should look in the classroom. I love participating in these because I leave the trainings feeling empowered and excited to bring new strategies back to my classroom.

What does Lifelong Learning look like in the STEAM Lab?

Our students are constantly striving to always do their best. This is evident in their pride of their progress within their badge books. Before our badge books, our youngest learners may not have understood the value of report cards and these report cards weren't very meaningful to them. Now with the badge books, even our pre-k students value and understand what their goals are and what they are trying to achieve. This is the genesis of lifelong learning at this young age. Students have a goal set in their mind and they are continuing to try and achieve that goal at their own pace. I recently put up a bulletin board in my classroom that says "Working Towards..." with our badges of that trimester up and visible. This way they always know what our end goal is for a specific activity or experiment.

Below is a video of a student who took it upon her self during recess time to draw the brain and was so excited to share her knowledge of the brain parts with me. How exciting!

growth_mindset video.mov

The mission of the Mineola Union Free School District is to inspire each student to be a life-long learner, pursue excellence, exhibit strength of character and contribute positively to a global society.

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