My name is Tessa! I'm a sophmore this year and I am majoring in elementary education! I'm from Woodbridge, Va and have lived there my whole life. I have two older brothers and one older sister who had a big influence on me throughout my childhood. I grew up around both sets of my grandparents and many of my aunts, uncles, and cousins which has shaped me into a very family oriented person. Teaching is something that I have wanted to do since I was young, but as I got older more and more people discouraged me from pursuing it due to the salary. I started thinking about what other careers I would want to pursue, however nothing interested me as much as teaching did and I could not find anything that I would have wanted to do more. My mom is a big believer in following your heart and worrying about money later, and she is the biggest supporter I have in my journey to become a teacher.

Organization is something that is super important to me. I know a lot about how to stay organized and manage time effectively. I think that these skills are very important and I can help pass them on. Compassion and patience are also traits that I think are very important for people to have. My parents have always instilled these skills in me, and working at a retirement living community helped strengthen them a lot. Not only do I think that it is important to practice these in everyday interactions, but I find it especially important for teachers to demonstrate these to their students.

I still have so many questions and so much to learn about becoming a teacher. The things I am most anxious to learn about are classroom management skills, designing lessons that are inclusive of exceptional learners, and creating effective and personalized formative assessments, to help students excel on summative assessments that are a mandatory part of the curriculum.