Embedded Files
Who I Am
I was born and raised in Western New York. I graduated from public school in New York and completed my undergaduate degree in New York from SUNY Empire State College. I moved to Virginia in 2018 with my immediate family (parents, sister, brother-in-law, and ALL our animals). I have been working in edcuation for the last 10 years. I started my career working for the YMCA after school prgram my senior year of high school. I started my career in public education after I moved to Virginia. I became a substitute teacher for Buckingham Elementary school. After a year of being a sub I took the next step and applied to be a teacher's assistant. I now work for Fluvanna County Public Schools as a instructional assistant but work very closely with special education. I love everything about my job and the children I get to work with everyday.
I just recently got married. My husband has definitely helped shaped me into not only the person (and wife) I am today, but also the educator I aspire to be. He is so supportive of my decisions and knows how much my job means to me.
I am also a dog momma to the best boy! My husband surprised me with a black lab puppy for our second anniversary. My Rusty boy is my world! He was a part of our wedding day by being one of our ring bearers (along with our two year old nephew).
What I Know
I went into education with a mind set that I was going to be teaching in front of a class full of small children. I have always wanted my career to involve children. I was a freshman in business school when I realized teaching was my true passion, I had no idea what I was doing in business school.
My job at Buckingham consisted of me being an aid in a 5th grade classroom for a new teacher. I loved being involved and working with the students! It came natural to me. During the pandemic I became a kindergarten teacher at a private school. I was able to work with my student's face to face. My curriculum (which I built from the ground up) consisted of academics and independence. By the end of the school year I had almost half my class starting to read books and tying their shoes.
My current job at Fluvanna County threw me for a curve ball. I started working for the county working mainly with special education children. I had very little knowledge of special education and quite honestly it intimidated me. As the school year went on and I was working with the students, I was gaining so much knowledge and realized how amazing these student's are!
Theres still so much about special education that I don't know, especially about Autism. What I do know is no two children are a like. The Autism spectrum is so unique. I have worked with many children that have been on different ends of the spectrum and that have all taught me valuable information. The best thing I learned from my two of my kiddos is how they want to be loved and how they value friendship. My students inspire me to be a better perosn because they left great impacts in my life.
What I Have to Learn
One of my favorite sayings I say to students is "you learn something new every day". There is still much to learn in both being a general education teacher and a special education teacher. I need to strengthen my skills in writing a lesson plan. I would like to strengthen my skills in writing a strong IEP and creating plans to ensure IEP goals are being met.
The Teacher I Will Become
The teacher I aspire to be is a facilitator in student discovery. The philosophy I feel best suits me and the teacher I will become is Progressivism. I strongly believe in students learning with hands on activities and using critical thinking to problem solve. I will be there to help students get started and act as a guide as they ask question and make sense of the world around them.
AI Image
The image above is of a teacher facilitating a class discussion. The teacher will ask a question and then the students will lead a discussion by asking questions, their classmates answering and building off of each other's knowledge. The prompt I used to create this image is, "Create an image of a classroom that has tables with chairs, tables that sit low to the ground with pillows as seats, and tables that are tall with no chairs. There is an open rug where the student's sit in a circle and the teacher sits in a rocking chair leading a classroom discussion. The room is filled with colorful posters and bookshelves with books lining the shelves."
Comments:
Hi Taylor, I see that you worked with kids before the pandemic, how was that? I started working as a SPED Instructional Assistant in 2021 and people say that it's not the same. I will say that being an IA you do get thrown into the deep end but as you get to know the kids it gets easier (and then they go to a new school 😭). I like your classroom image as it shows the fact that you want to be part of the conversation but not the main focus as the kids are looking and talking to each other. You are the guide to keep the conversation on topic not just asking them questions. - Madison Spurlock
Page updated
Report abuse