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Legein_Personal Philosophy Statement of Learning

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University of Connecticut Transcript, 2016 - 2021

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University of Connecticut Transcript, 2016 - 2021

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University confirmation that I will be certified to teach Secondary English Education in the State of Connecticut.

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2021 Verification Letter for Masters Students w endorsement area

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My motivations for teaching English have been a part of me since before I can even remember. Reading, writing, and learning, have always been essential in my life, because they were what I always knew would propel me forward. Books I read and the writing I did, both in and out of school, made me feel connected to something larger than myself and the small bubble of the world I inhabited. Learning how to read and write in school made me a critical viewer and participant in the rest of the world, and gave me empathy for stories that I could not see for my own eyes. I want to teach for this same love of understanding lives other than our own.

I believe in a constructivist approach to teaching, where students themselves are the catalysts for their own learning and understanding. Giving students choice and autonomy in the types of texts they read and writing they complete is part of this. I think also that in this age, a focus on interdisciplinary reading skills, media literacy, and research literacy need to be at the forefront of the classroom. There is endless information coming at us from our phones and computers all the time. It’s easy to accept things at surface value. Teaching with a Traditionalist mindset just doesn’t work anymore. Students don’t care to memorize quotes or write analysis papers on the significance of symbols, they want to feel like what they’re doing is important and worth their time. It is only a disservice by us as teachers, if we do not consider and honor student’s funds of knowledge and respective identities in the types of materials and lessons we offer them.

In my own teaching practice, student needs and identities will be the center focus. I hope that I can choose literature that is representative, and design lessons and assignments that reflect students' lives and learning. Like Paris and Alim in their article “Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy”, I want to encourage students to view themselves as more than just students, as community members, family members, and human beings. As writers, readers, and audience members, I hope to teach them to view themselves as critical thinkers, consumers, activists, and artists.

Organizing the sequence of class materials is a vital part of classroom success. In my experience, complexity and difficulty of materials typically grows over the course of the year. Successful teachers scaffold, build, and transition from one unit to the next, to keep students growing and engaged. Also, unfortunately, standardized testing deadlines do exist and some materials may need to be covered before the date of the test to make sure students are prepared. In my opinion, when organizing unit plans around essay conventions, genres, and traditionalist practices, students may miss the importance of the class or become disengaged. They, or at least I as a student, like to know how these practices are applicable to their real lives. Basing unit plans and sequencing the year around larger ideas such as art, social justice, science, race, class, gender, etc., makes every day matter, and every lesson valuable. Teaching language arts conventions within the larger topics or ideas can help students feel like reading and writing are skills applicable to their lives outside the classroom.

I want to develop a learning environment where students feel like the text is a tool for understanding their own lives, and the lives of others. I think that having students read stories in different modes is vital for them in learning how to write their own stories. I hope to create classroom expectations that will allow students to feel open in sharing their opinions and thoughts. I also want to give students the chance to connect this text to their own lives, maybe by having them write their own creative pieces. One’s identity is always being reflected upon in secondary school, and students will greatly benefit from being able to use the texts we bring to them in the English classroom, as a means of reflection and self-identification.

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The scope of this research does not leave the room necessary enough to detail the kinds of high level systemic changes needed to attain equitable opportunities for students of all backgrounds and circumstances. What I aim to do through this inquiry is highlight what I believe to be an understudied area of research, and one that’s vital to improving community connections within education right now. Writing center spaces within secondary schools have a high degree of potential to connect home communities to the school community, while valuing students as advocates for their position in learning. My research and writing aims to answer these questions: In what ways can writing centers function as a site of community engagement in schools? How can writing centers promote students as leaders and directors of their own learning? How can students be encouraged to motivate, teach, and learn from each other?

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My research and writing aims to answer these questions: In what ways can writing centers function as a site of community engagement in schools? How can writing centers promote students as leaders and directors of their own learning? How can students be encouraged to motivate, teach, and learn from each other? My inquiry project is centered around practices in writing centers, and their role in the larger community of a school and district. I think that writing centers and it’s staff can be utilized to promote community engagement, but I want to do further research into how that’s possible especially during distance learning times. Searching in this inquiry direction gives me hope in knowing there are many creative and unique things people are doing in writing centers now. Another branch of my research relates to student self efficacy, health, and wellness. Writing centers are places where students gain confidence in their writing abilities, as well as where tutors gain confidence in their own knowledge and teaching ability. I believe that putting student priorities first will influence the way communities engage with one another. I believe that implementing mentorship and tutoring practices within the writing center can lead to an increase in self-efficacy for all students involved, as well as an increase in community engagement.

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Annotated resource collection to help myself, students, and other teachers advocate and plan for the necessity of student tutors within writing centers. This resource collection is intended to engage and support teachers and students in facilitating a student-tutoring program, in a way that prioritizes the needs of the community first. Some examples of the resources I hope to include are materials on teaching and preparing tutors for their work, texts advocating for community based practices within writing centers, as well as digital tools that I believe will best serve writing centers during this time of distanced learning and beyond

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Central Focus: Helping students to grapple with and understand the nature of human good and evil through our core text Lord of the Flies, and through the lens of reader response theory.

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Central Focus: What does it mean to be a “good reader?”

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Grammar: Wordy Expressions Screencast Video   

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Grammar: Wordy Expressions Screencast Video   

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Central Focus: Students will understand how to avoid wordiness in their writing in order to reduce redundancy and doublespeak.

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30 Day Unit on Lord of the Flies for 10th grade English.

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Lord of the Flies: Tribe Island Group Assessment 

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Lord of the Flies: Tribe Island Group Assessment 

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Daily Class Guide: Writing Thesis Statements and Claims

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Daily Class Guide: Writing Thesis Statements and Claims

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Student Work: Writing Thesis Statements and Claims 

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Student Work: Writing Thesis Statements and Claims 

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Student Work 1_Thesis Statements and Claims

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WISE Integration of Technology Philosophy

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WISE Integration of Technology Philosophy

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Assessment Plan: Argumentative Essays and Complex Characters

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Assessment Plan: Argumentative Essays and Complex Characters

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Everything is Loud and Nothing is Words- A Relationship in First Chapters  

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Long River Review | UConn's Literary & Arts Magazine

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Could someone put me back where I belong?

Little lady nesting doll, small and small and small and small and candy cane mouth, red curls and all round curves, sterile smirk lacquered slick with soft glint

Take your pick from all sizes hollow on the inside fill it how you'd like, (I am painted, skin).

Maker made me complete, how can I, doll, debate?

(he loves to crack my bodies open)

From the seams of the belly breakage so crisp, no spillage each body splayed idle side by side each body smaller a little less there is to hide all the pretty history unwoven, broken, all toppling over
A new layer begins and this time there's no hinge because in all this His I've forged a real skin over broken shells of somebody's else I don't wanna open up anymore Yes, I am, endlessness, and this is metamorphosis, this is the life of women, and women, and women, and women.

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Matryoshka by Theresa Legein | Long River Review

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Could someone put me back where I belong? Little lady nesting doll, small and small and small and small and candy cane mouth, red curls and all round curves, sterile smirk lacquered slick with soft glint Take your pick from all sizes hollow on the inside fill it how you'd like, (I am painted, skin).