Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Section Two:
Introduction
In this section of my portfolio, I recount experiences and people who have influenced me
admire, and my resume are compiled within this section, reinstating the idea that becoming a
teacher was not a spur of the moment decision, but rather a lifelong goal.
Educational Experiences
It wasnt until high school, when I was applying to Universities, that it dawned on me
how influential my mother was to me during my primary school years. Growing up, I was
intimidated by school. I never scored well on tests, and I was always upset calling myself
stupid. I threw myself into sports and extra curriculas, and hid from learning as much as
possible because I didnt believe I was smart enough. After years of this, my elementary school
principle called my parents and asked if I could be tested for ADHD. My mother, being very
holistically driven, was torn. Instead of have me tested, scared of being pigeon holed, and put on
medication, she devoted herself to helping me learn, no matter what. We made changes
necessary for me to concentrate, which, in other words means I needed to learn how my brain
worked, in order for me to learn anything else. It took a few years of trial and error for many
things, but I now understand myself and what it takes for me to be successful in a classroom
setting. For instance, when I study, I need to wear earplugs. I write my notes with a blue pen and
I highlight only in yellow. I cannot drink more than one coffee; I need to stay away from
processed sugar, drink lots of water etc. The list goes on. The point Im trying to make is that I
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had to learn how to learn. There is an awesome quote by Albert Einstein that goes something like
this, Everybody is Genius, but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its
whole life believing that it is stupid. I think it was grade 11 when I decided I needed to teach. I
and willingness to make me understand that I was smart is the reason I want to teach
Another experience that has led me to where I am today is in high school, I had a teacher
who really appreciated her students for who they were. I got to know this teacher really well,
because she taught me every year in high school. I remember she would walk into class, and sit
on one of the desks and talk with us, her classes were very social, but they always taught me so
much. This teacher would start a lesson by telling a story, asking to about somebodys opinion of
something, and then having the class discuss it together. We went outside a lot, we did some
really interesting projects but also wrote papers and had tests like other classes. I loved her
classroom management style. She was human, she got to know students on a personal level, but
what really stood out to me is that she let us get to know her on a personal level too. She didnt
march into the class demanding respect, but gained it by respecting us as students. She was the
person who told me that I would be a great teacher. I remember laughing saying I struggle with
being a student, I cant teach!, her reply was thats why youd make a great teacher, Keeley.
She was right. I am accustomed to finding two or three ways to explain something in order to
understand it, to finding tricks or rhymes to remember a date or how to spell something. I think
Work Experience
In high school, I started tutoring a little girl to help her with her French and English
reading and writing. This little girl was not doing well in school. She barely spoke, she had
trouble making friends and had anger issues. Her grandmother was her primary care provider, as
her mother was addicted to drugs and the little girl was taken away by Childrens Aid Society.
When we first met, she wouldnt look at me, let alone speak to me. 30 minutes into the lesson,
we sat there, awkwardly staring at a book I planned on reading with her. I finally said, well
good, Ive picked a terrible book anyways! he looked at me and laughed. We spent the last 30
minutes talking about dance, because she loves to dance. The next time we met, we played a
game where we went through the alphabet, saying as many words we knew that started with A,B,
then C and so on. Each time we met, we talked about her day at school, we played a word games,
and sometimes we read. This little girl didnt need a reading tutor as much as she needed
somebody to talk to. Of course, I would make up games that were fun, but that also helped her
with her sounds, letter recognition, and spelling, but I made sure to provide her with an hour
I tutored this young girl until I left for university; during university, I tutored many more
students, all of which have taught me a life lesson or two. I love working with children, and I say
working with them because we learn together. Children are much smarter than we give them
Before I left for maternity leave, I ran a program called Youth Job Connection in
Woodstock at an employment office. This program was designed to aid multi-barriered youth
gain skill in order to find (and keep) employment. The program was offered to students between
the ages of 14-28 and faced barriers such as, poverty, addiction, disability, physical handicaps,
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homelessness, probation etc. I taught participants everything from basic hygiene practices to
interview techniques. This employment position taught me so much about the ways that
socioeconomic status impacts youths ability to learn, and how I I really was when it came to the
population around me. I had one participant who had a very scary demeanor. He was tall, dressed
in ragged clothing, and was always cursing and looked to be on drugs. That gentleman ended up
being one of my favourite people to encounter. In the classroom, Andrew didnt pay attention
more than 3 minutes straight. He had this habit or tick, where he would sway his upper body
back and forth pretty violently, leaning back in his chair and then bending over almost where his
face would hit the desktop. He did this non-stop when he was sitting. The ladies that I worked
with in the office would gossip, saying that we need to remove him from the program, he was too
high on drugs to be able to graduate and find a placement. They advised me to remove him from
the program, and ask him to come back when he was clean, but I couldnt do that. Something
didnt feel right about that. Its true, Andrew used drugs, and definitely needed help conquering
the world of sobriety, but that isnt the reason Andrew couldnt stop moving or concentrating in
class. Andrew had one of the most severe cases of ADHD that I have ever seen. It took me 2
days to figure out that Andrew listened to everything I said, he just couldnt focus sitting in a
chair for that long. Instead, I had to change the whole way I taught the class for that group. I used
play-doh, stress balls, we got up and went outside to learn. And I would often toss a ball back
and forth with Andrew during a lesson. He loved coming to class, he was so smart, too! He
would finish his work lightning fast, and go around and help everybody else. I would let Andrew
take a break a couple times a day where he would go outside and quickly walk around the
building and come back. After Andrew finished the program, I had to refer him to an addictions
counsellor instead of finding a work placement, because, in reality he needed that more. Andrew
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confided in me once he understood how eager I was to help him learn. When he was 12 years
old, his mothers best friend offered him crack cocaine and ever since then he has been addicted.
For the past year, Andrew has been trying to get clean using a methadone program; however his
lack of support is making it very difficult to stay clean for longer than a few days. I still see
Andrew walking around town, he always comes up to talk to me and asks about my life, and
I believe that every person you encounter, whether they be 8 or 28- if you give them the
opportunity, can teach you something. My work experience with youth has taught me so much
about the importance of getting to know ones students. Of course, students need to respect
teachers and authority figures on some level, but I also believe that real respect needs to be
earned and returned. Looking back, I remember so many teachers that demanded respect, but
rather than respect them, students feared them. Looking back through my Work experience, as
well as my experience as a student, highlights the importance of sharing a mutual respect, and
School Observations
While conducting my observation hours last spring, I became really invested in the class
room that I was observing in. I knew the teacher from a previous work experience, so she let me
volunteer there every Friday. Elgin Street Public School is in Cambridge Ontario, was offered
grades jk-6, as well as a French Immersion option for grades 1-6. The school was bigger than the
elementary schools that I am used to in Woodstock. There are almost 500 students, many of
which are minority ethnicities. There were 4 different kindergarten classrooms within this
school, I was volunteering in one that had 21 students; 12 males and 9 females. The classroom
was made up of 9 white students, 5 black, 2 Hispanic, 2 Asian, and 2 East Indian, and a little boy
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from Syria. The week before I observed for the first time, a little boy in the class was telling
everybody that he was planted vegetables on the weekend with his mother. The other students in
the class were asking him questions and seemed quite interested in these events, so the next
week, Ms. Stevenson, their teacher, bought seeds and soil, and they made they all got to plant
their own veggie in a Styrofoam cup. They kept these cups on the window sill and watered them
every morning before class started. Their teacher, Ms. Stevenson was thrilled that the students
School, in Mrs. Heaters grade 1 class. Mrs. Heaters class had 23 students, of many difference
races, ethnicities and cultures. I was asked to work one on one with a student named Bentley.
Bentley, who had Down Syndrome, learned alongside her classmates for a good portion of the
day, but was pulled out of class for Special Education (reading and writing help) as well as
speech therapy. This was my first experience working with a special needs student, and I am
very fortunate for this experience. When I was in the classroom, Bentley and I worked on her
communications skills. We would talk about things that they were learning in class, help her to
write, and sound out letters of the alphabet. Bentley was very smart, she knew what was going on
in class, and what was being asked of the students, but it was very hard for Bentley to return the
communication, therefore it was hard for us as educators to understand her needs, especially in a
classroom setting.
Classroom Application
Play based learning is a huge aspect of kindergarten in Canada, so this interest was a
great way to introduce the students to the lifecycle of a plant. In their article, Toward a Model
Knowledge Through Play Based Learning, Cutter-Mackenzie and Edwards state, open-ended
play is important for young children because it provides opportunities for exploration and
discovery, which are necessary for supporting learning (2013). That week, I helped Ms.
Stevenson put together a visual aid board for class, with a large flower on it. We constructed the
flower using paper, felt, pipe cleaners, etc. and labeled the flowers parts. Ms. Stevenson sat the
children down in a circle and taught them about the plant, how it needs sun, water, and soil to
grow, and asked the students in the class to point out different parts of the plant. I was glad to be
These efforts put forth by Mrs. Heater and the West Buffalo Charter School further
highlight Sonja Ivics work, presented in her article Communication Skills of a Child with
Down Syndrome at the End of the First Grade of Elementary School. Ivic further demonstrates
that the application of differentiated forms of school work and development of learning and
teaching strategies, based mostly on hands on and visual presentations have proved to be the
most successful for students with Down Syndrome in primary grades while learning alongside
their classmates. This experience really put into perspective the amount of work it is to make
sure all students are given equal opportunities to learn in the classroom.
Philosophy of Education
graduate career, has really opened my eyes to the ways in which educators are shaped. You
always hear people say things like Theres a method to my madness but as a student, you never
fully understand why your teacher or professor teaches things the way that they do. With a
skills I have observed through other teachers, I have developed my own teaching philosophy.
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The School
It is crucial that students are encouraged to learn in school and outside of school, in their
surrounding environment. I believe that life or experience is our biggest teacher, and that school
is the place where students can build a foundation of knowledge. Being aware that children have
so many different experiences and exposures in their lives, school brings students together to
learn from one another, and make sure that all children are learning the necessities of life. In the
schools as institutions that they tend to enclose every activity of the pupil within the framework
of a school subject, while extra-curricula and out-of-school activities, more freely organized, are
treated as less valuable (Frankovi pg. 10). Frankovis idea that extra curriculars are important
too, struck me as important to note. Growing up, I learned so much playing competitive sports,
and those skills and attributes made me the person that I am today. Playing hockey, I learned to
be reliable, I learned to discipline and hard work, I learned how to be a teammate and work
together with my friends. These are important life lessons that have not only made me a better
person but a better student as well. Whether students have the opportunity to play sports, or if
they play outside with neighbourhood friends, I think that life offers so many opportunities to
The Curriculum
One of my professors at Medaille always says that, The word fair is the real F word. I
sometimes feel this way about the curriculum. As a teacher, the curriculum is a basis for what
youre to teach your students, it is governed by the state in order to maintain a more uniform
learning schedule for students of the same grades across the country. There is no way around it,
there must be a guideline for all schools, or there would be no control, and students at school A
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could be learning to bake apple pies in grade five, while students at school B are learning
advanced functions in the same grade. As a future teacher who embodies a student-based
teaching pedagogy, following the curriculum will sometimes be a challenge for me. For teachers,
some of their students grasp new material easily, while other students have difficulty. I will be
faced with challenges when I know that some of my students are not ready for new, or more
advanced material, but I must teach it because the curriculum says that it must be done. It is so
important to have a curriculum, because, school is a scaffolding system, meaning, they must
learn one thing before they can learn the next. If I, as a teacher, do not properly prepare my
students for the grades that lie ahead, I have failed them. All that I can do, is my best.
Learning is different for everybody. Some students are better at learning kinaesthetically,
while others are auditory learners or visual learners. However, I believe that all people learn and
are very influenced by the people/environment surrounding them. Albert Banduras social
learning theory suggests this through what he calls observational learning. In his article
Children pay attention to some of these people (models) and encode their behavior. At
a later time, they may imitate (i.e. copy) the behavior they have observed. They may do
this regardless of whether the behavior is gender appropriate or not, but there are a
number of processes that make it more likely that a child will reproduce the behavior
I believe that students are a product of their environment, and we have to understand that
as educators.
The Learner
Each student is an individual. This being said, each student learns differently and at
different paces. They also feel very differently. As a teacher candidate for primary grade levels,
it is important to recognize that our students are still very much children. We are not only their
teacher, but a role model, a social worker, and a caregiver. Our students are going to need much
more than just a foundation of academic knowledge from us. For instance, a child might go to
bed at 7 pm on school nights, they are out the door by 830 am, and then return back home at 4.
From this example, students are only at home after school for approximately 3 hours before they
go to bed. These young children are spending the majority of their awake time at school, with
whom to care for them but us. This is why it is so important for us to be all that they need us to
be. I am prepared and willing to be as much as I can be for these children, so I can foster in them
Assessment
the material being taught, but in order for the teacher to reflect on the way that they are teaching.
I firmly believe that assessment needs to be varied in the classroom. There needs to be plenty of
formative assessments, no matter how small or insignificant seeming they are. I have been in
some classes where, after the teacher conducts the lesson they ask where their students stand. All
the students hold up either one, two, or three fingers. Three fingers would signify I completely
understand, two fingers would signify I think I understand but I have some questions and one
finger would signify that the child does not comprehend the material being taught. This is an
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easy, and quick way for teachers to check in on their students. However with summative testing,
I believe that various types of testing should be considered, such as projects, Bristol board
presentations, or even pencil to paper tests. I think that because all learners have different ways
of learning, they also have different ways of explaining what they know. As teachers, it is so
The Teacher
As a future educator, I want to inspire my students to reach for the stars and make a
difference in the world. I think it is important for students to believe that with hard work and
perseverance, they can impact the world in a positive light. This is an aspect of Social
Reconstructionism that I admire and would love to adapt to as a teacher. Looking back, I dont
remember a time where I ever thought I would, or could make a difference in the world. I cannot
recall a time that I or my classmates talked about a social problem, tried to understand it, and
came up with some ideas on how to make a difference. I also believe that it is necessary for
be respectful, kind, and thoughtful individuals. Teaching students subjects such as math and
science is great, but I also believe a good teacher inspires their students, and hopefully makes
I also believe that teachers need to create a relationship with their students. It is so
important for teachers to understand their students and get to know them on a personal level in
Classroom Management
I believe that the classroom should be made a safe place where all students feel
comfortable to take risks in their learning. The classroom atmosphere needs to be friendly and
inclusive where students are allowed to have fun while they learn. I think its also imperative that
teachers know their students as well as the students families, and maintain a level of
Resume
PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
Driven and professional graduate Student with ample dedication to the success of all students. Eager to not only teach
but to learn as well. Hard working and motivated individual seeking the opportunity to advance knowledge in education and
teaching of the French Language.
Conclusion
To summarize, I believe that I would be a great teacher because of the influential experiences
that I have had. Starting with my own experiences as a student. As a primary student, I know
what it is like to not understand the material at hand. I am well versed in explaining things more
than one way in order for it to make sense to me or somebody else. I believe I have the passion
and the commitment to be a teacher who makes a difference. Also, my experience tutoring and
working with troubled youth has given me insight of the different types of students that I will
come across. I think my experiences inside and outside of a classroom, taking the time to
understand people, has further emphasized my abilities to be an inclusive and flexible teacher for