My Active Encouragement

There are a few different events that come to mind that have been inspiration or
active encouragement in my life:

First, my sister studied abroad in London in college and I went to visit her. This trip was the first time I was out of the country. When I was over there, I was in awe of all things I saw and learned. I loved making connections with new people, learning about different cultures and exploring new land. This trip made me love traveling and want to see the world!


Next, I have been inspired to run a half marathon. I have not completed this yet- but I am in the process of finding a race to sign up for. I am encouraged to this because I was up in Duluth at Grandma's Marathon. When I was watching the marathon runners cross the finish line, I felt that I could do something like them. Their hard work and dedication inspired me to push myself and do a run. Since then, I have done a 15k and a 10 mile run. My 13.1 miles is on the horizon and I hope to complete one soon!


Lastly, I was encouraged by my coworkers to get my masters. Watching them complete theirs, inspired me to start mine. So, now here I am! But, it doesn't stop here.... This program has been encouraging me to continue my education after I graduate. Now, I am in the thoughts of getting a reading license or certification after my masters is complete. This program has reminded me how much I love to learn and challenge myself!

Thankful, Grateful and Blessed

I am grateful for many things in life, but the biggest thing is my family! I am grateful that I have an identical twin that I have shared much of my life with, a younger sister and brother who I've watched grow up and my mom and dad who have impacted who I am as a person since the day I was born. My family has always been there for me and has supported me through everything. I am thankful for my family because they have brought happiness, laughter and love into my life. Because of my family, I have a good education, the opportunity to travel, and a lifetime of experiences! A lot of things that I am grateful for in my life are because of my family. 

You Are an Artist

“If you work with your hands, your head, your heart and your soul, you are an artist.”

- St. Francis of Assisi

HANDS: When teaching my first graders, I think about teaching and learning with my hands by providing activities that are hands-on. Students are more engaged in their learning when they can use their hands to discover, create and problem solve. As a teacher, I use my hands to be creative and experiment. I try to provide my students with experiences to build and polish their problem solving and critical thinking skills.

HEAD: I am always using my head to think about what is best for my students. I differentiate my lessons to meet the needs of my students at all levels. I am constantly thinking about the whole student and what they need socially, emotionally, and academically. I adjust my lessons based off of their needs and emotions during the day. I remind myself about what is important at particular times of the day- it is important to get through the math lesson or address the bullying issue going on in the classroom? I am constantly asking myself what can wait and what is important. 

HEART: One of the main reasons I became a teacher is because of the love I have for helping and working with people. I truly love my job and look forward to making a difference in people's lives. I use my heart every day to show my students and families that I care about each person I work with. I put my heart into my work by understanding other's feelings and trying to help them. I also accept everyone for who they are and try to teach my students to treat everyone with respect and kindness. We celebrate our differences and use them to teach one another about who we are. I truly love teaching and am passionate about helping others learn and reach their full potential. 

SOUL: I put my soul into my career as a teacher. I chose this career to make a difference and feel a level of fulfillment in my life. I believe I am here to help others and what better way to do that than to teach. Each day I come to work with excitement and happiness to see and teach my students. I believe that I am an important role model for my students and want to inspire them to be the best person that they can be. I take this into consideration in everything I do. I know that my students are always watching me to learn. Teaching has truly fulfilled my life and I could not have found a better career to make me happy and give my life meaning.    

Reinventing Schools

After reading the article, Change as Collaborative Inquiry by Tony Wagner, I saw many connections to the problems we have in our schools today. The biggest connection I made was that our goals are usually "answer driven" instead of being based off of inquiry. Each year we have a list of about five things that are our district and school "improvement plan." When we have list of things set as our goals, we often touch briefly on each instead of taking the time to really improve one thing at a time. This also happens with initiatives we have going on each year. It seems it becomes a revolving door of trying one thing, then moving on before we master the first thing.


At my school we have a group of people that works on our school improvement plan each year. This group involves teachers from each grade level, specialists, administration, special education department, a paraprofessional, and a school board member. This group spends a day collaborating to come up with the school improvement plan for the year. The issues we face is that not everyone is a part of the process (only the group members) and that we usually have a list of about ten things in four different categories. In my opinion, that is a lot of goals to focus on in a year. Most of us teachers, do not refer back to this after getting the plan handed to us. What is the point of spending all of this time on a school improvement plan if we do not consistently reflect on meeting the goals?
As a staff, I think we need to limit our goals, so we can focus on mastering a few things over a period of time instead of trying to do it all at once. This will help us teachers focus on our goals and work at achieving them.

My action research that I have done throughout this masters program has allowed me to adapt my instruction and meet the needs of my students. I have set an individual goal for myself to focus on my math instruction and implementing guided math groups. Focusing on this one area has allowed me to spend time researching ideas, implementing different centers, and modify things that aren't working. I take time to reflect on my instruction and if it is successful and meeting the students needs. This allows me to adapt on a daily basis. This change has been a positive implementation in my classroom because the students are learning in a variety of ways (groups, partners, individual), are making choices for their learning, and are learning through hands on with manipulatives, games, etc. The students are also getting a chance to redo their work to show their progress, as they learn at different rates. This change was implemented to be more like the "real world" where you make mistakes, learn from them and try again. I want my students to know that they can learn and do things, but they might not be there quite "yet."

You Only Live Once....

This quote is important to me because it reminds me to live my life the way I envision it. It reminds me to do the things I want to do, treat people kindly, accomplish the goals I set, and enjoy the experiences and adventures in life. 

This quote has inspired me to do things I didn't imagine or plan on doing before; hiking for miles up mountains, paragliding, getting my scuba diving certification, doing community service in other countries, etc. 

 

 I look at fulfilling my life through experiences. I now take the time to travel, meet and connect with new people, learn about new cultures, and try new things. This has been the best way for me to learn, be accepting of others and have respect of our differences. 

Because I live by this quote, I set short and long term goals for myself. I write these goals down on paper and check in with them every so often. This reminds me of what I want to accomplish in my life personally and professionally and to keep working on attaining those goals. 

My life is all about experiences and trying to make a difference in the world. I became a teacher and a coach because it fulfills my life of making a difference. I choose to travel and try new things to give myself new experiences. These fulfill my life each and every day and is my right way of living.

My one life will be enough, because I am choosing to live it the right way.

Adaptation

Throughout my M.Ed. experience I have learned how to adapt to doing my own homework again, but also having more responsibilities as an adult. I have adapted to learning how to balance my teaching, family, friends, homework and coaching responsibilities. During these times I have had to think about what is most important and make decisions on what to cut out of my schedule. I struggle with saying no to people when it comes to helping them out or just getting together and have learned how to say no and be okay with it. This summer I  had to make sacrifices in my personal life to support my goals as an M.Ed learner and my summer plans have been made around my class times and the time I plan for homework. 

My family and friends have been very supportive and flexible as they have had to make plans around my schedule. I am very thankful that I have supportive people who are helping me achieve my goal of attaining my Master's Degree. Without them and their support, this would be a long and hard journey. 

This has been my busiest summer by far with my travels, coaching responsibilities and grad school. I have learned how to balance time, put forth what is most important to me, and achieve my goals. I have done this by adapting my schedule, time, and responsibilities. It has been a busy and fast, yet successful and valuable summer of learning. 

Introvert vs. Extrovert

Thinking about my personality, I tend to think that I am more of an extrovert. But, I do have a lot of times where I believe I am an introvert also. 

Most people who know me would say I am an extrovert because I love to work with people and talk! I am involved in many activities such as coaching sports, playing sports, and volunteering because I always want to be around people. I have recently moved back to the city because I like the all the different people and action that is going on. I really enjoy different social events and will get bored when I do not have something planned. I tend to live my life by diving right into things and choosing experiences with others over having alone time. I am a person that thrives off of taking risks and I make decisions quickly. 

Now there are times where I may seem that I am an introvert. There are days that I do like to have to myself because I don't do that often. I also may come off as an introvert if I don't know you that well. I do tend to be more quiet when you first meet me because I like to observe and decide if I'm going to come out of my shell. 

As an educator, I need to make sure that I am reaching, respecting and appreciating my students being both introverts and extroverts. I need to realize that a quiet classroom is necessary to have during parts of the day, so that students can use that time to think and focus. I also plan to set up my desks different ways throughout the year instead of always putting them in groups. If I put my desks in rows or have the option of an individual spot, I will reach those introverts. Having different sharing options will also reach both students. I will mix it up with partners, groups, recording with technology, whole group, etc. This way I will reach all student's comfort level of sharing. In first grade, we do a lot of group and partner work. I want to implement more opportunities to work independently first and then move to group work so again I am giving both introverts and extroverts their needs. I think it is important for both introverts and extroverts to be put in their uncomfortable situations to learn how to work through them, but I need to balance it for both personality types instead of leading my classroom for mainly extroverts.