Spring 2023

At the First Year Forum on February 6th we had a panel of graduated Teaching Fellows who have recently started teaching answer our questions about their experiences in the classroom. This was by far my favorite forum, I learned so much and it made me really excited to get into the classroom. What I learned from these teachers will be knowledge I take with me for the rest of college and even into my job interviews and future classroom management.

On February 16th we spent our NC State Wellness Day touring the Maureen Joy Public Charter School in Durham. We got a great tour of the school and then each got to sit in on a class. I sat in on a 3rd grade math class while they learned fractions. After this, we got to ask the administrators many questions and talk about our visit. I absolutely loved this visit, I thought that Maureen Joy Public Charter was definitely a school that I could see myself working at and it was very beneficial to ask the administrators questions about their school environment. Asking these questions allowed me to feel out and prepare for job searching when I reach my senior year. 

At the March First Year Forum we discovered and analyzed our individual personalities by individually reflecting on past events in our lives that were highlights of our life and made us happy or proud. We talked about these moments and how valuable they are to us and how they relate to our core values. Then after discussion we got a partner and made them a vision board by asking them questions about their personal core values. After everyone made and received a vision board we shared them allowed. This activity was so fun and meaningful. It was awesome to get to know the other Teaching Fellows on a deeper level, and I even got to dig deeper into analyzing my own values and personality. I would love to use this activity in my future classroom because I think this activity would be a great icebreaker for students in the beginning of the year.

In April's First Year Forum, we had two speakers from the Kennan Fellows join us to speak about leadership in the classroom and personalizing your leadership style to fit the needs of all your students. We did a gallery walk and discussed the iceberg effect, how on the surface you can only see so much but a student's true personality, home life, and learning style are "under the water" and as teachers, we must work hard to get to know every student bellow the surface. I really enjoyed this forum and I plan on taking what I learned into my future classroom by getting to know each of my students and being a kind and empathetic leader in the classroom.

On April 1st I attended the Teaching Fellow's State Wide Retreat. At the event, I got to meet so many Teaching Fellows from other schools as we played get to know you games and explored how each of us has a different teaching and learning style and how those make us unique as teachers. I found this event very beneficial and educational as we also learned a lot more about the Teaching Fellows program and got to ask questions. I look forward to going again next year and I can't wait to see how the Teaching Fellow program evolves in my next three years.