Professional Artifacts

As a teacher and a student, I am aware of the many struggles that students face every day in the classroom. I realize that for some students, writing can be challenging, and they often become confused with the multiple steps that it takes to write one paragraph. For this reason, I have developed a love of creating support aids and give those to my students. This is one of the best supports I can provide to my students because students can use those handouts to study, complete assignments, and quickly review if they were absent. I want to teach my students to form a community in the classroom and help one another. At the same time, I want to give them the tools to practice self learning and be independent learners. Most of my handouts include definitions, examples, and sentence frames, which benefit my English learners and students with IEPs. 

One of the things that I feel more proud of when I reflect on my teaching is the level of care I put into every lesson I give to my students. There is always a reason and a goal at the end of the class. I like creating my lesson plans before teaching the lesson, and with one or two days in advance, to determine how I can best support my students. In my lesson plans, I outline everything in a systematic yet simple way, ensuring that everyone understands what I will be doing in the classroom. The way I structure my classroom is always thinking that my students know what to expect, what they are learning, and why it matters. As a teacher, this matters to me because I know that even this simple strategy increases their focus and confidence in the classroom. 

It's hard to consider learning something that does not generate engagement in you. This is something that I think about every time I create a lesson and every assignment I give to my students. Most of the time, students dislike Mathematics and English because they focus too narrowly on one thing. However, I am always looking to incorporate options and variety into my assignments to meet the needs and interests of every student. English is more than writing; it's also comprehension, exploration, questioning, interpretation, and expression. I have always tried to provide my students with diverse experiences to foster engagement in the classroom, catering to every student's learning style. I believe in always incorporating an alternative way of presenting the learning to encourage students to actively engage and participate in the learning.