#1 Introductory

•   Write a brief paragraph introducing yourself to the blogging world

My name is Laura Carver. I am a senior at Illinois State University. My major is Early Childhood Education. I transferred to ISU my sophomore year from Columbia College Chicago, majoring in photography and music management. I explored my artistic side and passion for photography and music, but found it more as a hobby. I still have always wanted to become a teacher when I was little and have a passion for teaching young children. I remember my elementary school teachers and how much I loved them, especially my 1^st and 2^nd grade teachers. I want to be able to be that positive influence in a child’s life, and am looking forward towards student teaching, graduation and becoming a teacher in the future.

•   Review the course learning objectives in the syllabus, the COE professional teacher dispositions, and your own reflections from past clinical and course experiences and map out at least four goals that you carry for yourself for this semester. What do you want to focus on? Improve in? Learn about? Think deeply as this will guide your work in this final clinical experience.

For this spring semester, there are goals I’d like to improve and focus on to help me become better prepared and confident in moving forward to student teaching. In my last clinical I had communication issues with my CT with attendance and other expectations. This has helped me to realize how important this is and how I can improve on this. I want to build a closer relationship with my CT and colleagues and be able to improve on communication.

Another goal I have is to continue working on my confidence and teacher voice. My past teachers have told me to be more firm and enthusiastic while speaking to the kids. I generally have a softer voice and sometimes don’t realize how soft spoken I may be. I feel with gaining more experience and practice will help me to step out of my comfort zones and become more confident with my teaching and my voice.

Another goal I have is to continue practicing classroom management skills. From what I learned, I see how this plays a big role with keeping the flow and structure of the class, which in turn will help with the learning. I want to feel more comfortable with addressing behavior issues and implementing strategies to negate these issues.

I also have a goal to learn more about how to accommodate for students with special needs. I think it is always important to continue learning about the different needs of students and how to accommodate for them, as you never know whom you may have in your classroom. I’ve had some experience with special needs students, but am still yearning for more.

Lastly, I have a goal to improve on my time management skills. I am able to get things done, but sometimes can take longer than expected to do them, whether it is test taking, homework, doing a lesson, etc. I have been working on using my time wisely and making quicker decisions of what I need to do. Especially in lesson planning, (as I learned from my last clinical when I didn’t notice my time was up while implementing a lesson) I need to plan out specifically what the time frames are for each part of the lesson and have a watch with me or keep an eye on the clock to know if I have enough time or if I should move along to the next thing. I will continue to practice these skills to manage my time more efficiently and effectively.