UniverseAsText.com is Ms. H’s place to reflect on her profession and her teaching experiences. It is important to note that the views and ideas expressed on this site are those of the author alone, not necessarily of her employer or affiliated school district.

MY CURRENT GOALS:

*Blogging at least once a month

*Interacting with other blogging educators

*Keeping my idealism, motivation, and passion alive during Year Four of my teaching career

*Changing the world, ever so slightly, for the better

THE JOURNEY SO FAR…

July 2012: Goal accomplished: Becoming a true (and even slightly seasoned!) member of a teaching community. I am really starting to build important and lasting relationships with the staff and students that I work with each year. A definite highlight of 2012 was giving the commencement address at graduation. Despite major upheaval in my personal life, my teaching career has kept me grounded, fulfilled, passionate, and confident about the gifts we all have to offer one another.

July 2011 Goal accomplished: Succeeding during my second year as a public school teacher. Despite a new job in an unfamiliar community, I was welcomed into a new teaching family that offered me more support and friendship than I could have ever expected. I now find myself in a department of young, passionate visionaries. What can’t we do leaning on each other? Political turmoil shakes Wisconsin education, but we’re coming up with new surprises for our students regardless. I am proud to start another year at SFHS.

August 2010 Goal accomplished: Having a great experience during my first year as a licensed teacher in a public school district. My first and last year with MPS was great. I loved the experience of teaching seniors, middle schoolers, and a high school elective all in the same day. I helped direct the Black History Month program and the middle school drama club, watched the twelfth graders grow from kids into adults, and the seventh graders experience critical thinking for the first time. I adore working with urban kids, and regret the district’s downsizing of teaching positions. I would have gladly stayed.

August 2009 Goal accomplished: Having a great experience during my first professional teaching experience this summer. I had an excellent run at St. John’s, finding out many things about the special situation of teaching in a private school, teaching remedial students, teaching boarding school students, and teaching all-boy classes. It was a great five-week “primer” to help me stay sharp for the school year.

May 2009 Goals accomplished: Evolving from serious student to star teacher, succeeding during my second student teaching semester. These past eighteen weeks have been a wild ride, but I am proud to say that I have conquered an extremely difficult urban student teaching placement, and I’ve done it with style. I have grown incredibly in my classroom management skills, and I’ve had countless opportunities to experiment with my pedagogy, always pushing for the most meaningful, engaging, and fun lessons possible. I can’t thank my students enough for teaching me, and letting me teach them. Now a college graduate, I am ready to take on the world of professional teaching.

December 2008
Goal accomplished: Surviving and thriving during semester one of student teaching. I did very well in my first teaching adventure and learned a ton. More than ever, I am gracefully growing into my new role as an English teacher, who is already building an inventory of lessons, texts, and other teaching resources. I am excited to move forward!

May 2008 Goal accomplished: Coming to terms with the teacher identity. After a particularly challenging semester, if I can say I learned one thing, I can say that I’ve started to view myself as a teacher… Not just someone who will be a teacher someday, but someone who is a teacher now. The transformation has begun! For more on this, see any post, but especially anything posted June-July, 2008.

March 2008
Goal accomplished: Passing the Praxis II. Despite my negative feelings toward this test, I passed it with flying colors, scoring a 191 out of 200. (You need a 160 to get certified to teach in Wisconsin.) Though it fell slightly short of my standard of perfection, I was pleased with my result. For insight about my pre-testing thoughts, see post “(Mostly) Denouncing the Praxis II.”