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Mrs. Roy-Dahline
Mrs. Roy-Dahline was my second grade teacher. She was very fun and upbeat, while still being challenging, and I had her for both first and second grade. What she did was not as important as how she made me feel about learning. I have never felt as smart in my whole life as I did in her class. -
Third Grade
My third grade teacher, Mrs. Paigle, was a licensed Special ed. teacher teaching a normal class. Therefore, many of my classmates had cognitive or behaviorial disabilities. I felt very suppressed and bored in third garde, and began having minor behavioral issues of my own. Everything I felt during this time is exactly what I don't want my students to ever experience. -
Fourth Grade
My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Anderson, was another fantasticly challenging teacher that helped restore my faith in education after the previous year. To this day I remember particular things about her class that simply model excellent teaching. -
Fifth Grade
In fifth grade I again experienced having a really good teacher. Mr. Petruzzi was one of the most exciting, funny, and possibly eccentric men I have ever known and I hope to model him in my own classroom. -
Horse accident
In sixth grade I had a near-death experience with a rodeo horse that really impacted every avenue of philosophy in me. More than anything, It has shown me the value of life, and the amazing way that the universe has a unique "plan" for us all. -
Eighth Grade
In eighth grade I was homeschooled after having got into too much trouble from fighting. While my mom did the best that she could, she was busy with my little sister so I did a large part of my schooling on my own. -
Senior Year
During my senior year I had some very ggod instructors, and some very bad ones. The good ones, Mrs. Sunnell, Mrs. Perrault, and Mrs. Carlson really opened my eyes to critical analysis. Meanwhile, Mr. Christy and Mr. Kruse exemplified the teacher that has lost all interest in teaching and sees it only as a vocation. -
Art History
During my first semester in college I only passed one class becase I started as a pre-med major and took too hard of classes in content areas that I truly had no interest in. The class I passed was Art History, a challenging upper-dividion course with Dr. Crocker. At a time when I was losing passion for what I though I wanted, I found where it truly lay; In History. -
First Semester at UMD
I came to UMD as an undecided continuing ed. student halfway through the year because I had dropped out and missed enrollment. During this semester I found out that my purpose was to become a teacher of social studies. In short, the combination of classes I took led to a profound awakening within myself, and a desire to better the world by helping people grasp some of the complex concepts that took me so long to understand and implement on my own. -
Lies My Teacher Told Me
In one of my courses at UMD titled "Women, Race, and Class", One of the required texts was Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen. That book solidified my desire to become a teacher so that I could play a small but truly effective role in making the world a better place for future generations through history, geography, civics, economics and social studies education in general of the current youth. It taught me to reflect and strive to improve. -
Science, Technology, Society
My Science, technology, and Society course taught by Joan Kwako had a major impact on the way I view the world. One area in particular is my view on the implementation of technology in educationa and its greater implications on society. This part of my philosophy is constantly developing even more so than others, but the process was started during this class. -
Became God-Parent
Last year I became a God parent for the son of one of my high school best friends. The birth of little Donaldhas altered my perspective on what it really means to be a parent, and the amount of work/stress that goes into it. In terms of my education philosophy, that has helped me realize the extent to which parents are trusting educators to do right by their children. This is part of the reason I strive to be a phenomenal teacher. -
Technology Certificate
This summer I recieved my certificate for educational computing technology. The process of receiving that piece of paper served to revolutionize the way I view education, particularly the effects that generational differences have on student-teacher communication abilities, and what technology can do to improve or cripple the situation. -
Wrestling Captain
During my senior year I was the captain of my wrestling team. I am extremely passionate about the sport, and did the best I could to lead my team. Instead of always focusing on improving myself by facing tougher guys, I would focus on growing the team as a whole by practicing with less talented guys too. Many people thought this was at the expense of my own training. In short I realized the importance of equality of education (or training) because it made the whole team drastically better. -
Every Day
I have a hard time pinpointing specific events that have shaped my educational philosophy, because I did not always want to be a teacher. Only recently have I even began thinking about and valuing the importance of education. However, thats not to say that I am not enthralled by it. Every day my ed philosophy is altered in some way because iimprovement is always on my mind and in my reflections.