Kelsey McCormick

1 December 2018

1001

I was have never been a great student. In the past I have been lazy and unmotivated and just

simply never wanted to do the work. I also have only ever had one teacher who really challenged me in

school and made me want to be there and learn. After being in school for most of my life and only

having one great teacher it made me realize I want to change that. I want to be the teacher that the kids

enjoy. I want my students to love coming to school and learning new things. Going into teaching I

believe I can handle any situation that is thrown my way. Being a nanny to families I have handled

children with all types of learning disorders like Autism, ADHD, ADD, Down Syndrome, Dyslexia, and

Bipolar disorder. Knowing how to communicate with these children will give me an advantage in the

coming years of teaching.

When it comes to teaching I don’t believe in any one style of teaching. Ever child learns so

differently that the class needs to be taught a lesson that incorporate a variety of styles. The broad

category that students fit into is visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic learners. Now children

can fit into more than one category, but by incorporating these learning styles into teaching I believe

your students can get the most out of what they are learning. I believe that people can learn from past

peoples success and failures. With the knowledge I currently have about historical educational event I

can see how far education has come. This makes me have a greater appreciation for school and teachers

and even students who have worked hard to change schools for the better.
 There are so many teaching strategies I want to incorporate that I could write a whole separate

paper on it. Besides the four I have mentioned before, here are a few of my favorite teaching strategies.

One of the biggest strategies I will be doing is trying to focus more on the students’ good behavior and

paying more attention to their good behavior opposed to their negative behavior. I believe that reward

children for good and not bad behavior will teach them how to get the rewards. I will also incorporate

cooperative learning. I think that group work is very important. Children, and just people in general,

should learn how to work with a group of other classmates/people. There is no job in the world where

you do not have to work with someone. So teaching them, at any age, to work in a group is important.

Lastly, I want to teach with a goal setting strategy. The goal setting process is an excellent way to

encourage students to take ownership of their learning.

Moving forward in this career the one quality I need to work on is slowing down. I tend to jump

on a hamster wheel and go, go, go. When I begin teaching a class I am going to need to slow down and

take my time to make sure the students understand the work. I also need to work on not being so stuck

to a plan. I tend to get anxiety when I am running behind. Being a teacher I might now always need to be

on time and I need to work on bring okay when things are behind schedule. I already possess a lot of

good qualities for being a teacher which is great for me in the future. This is my second year at CSN and

after this year I will take my praxis, graduate UNLV, and finish my schooling for my Bachelors and then

Masters degrees.