Dear Mrs. Maple, 

My name is Lindsey Hall and I took this class so that I can get more hands on experience with kids and to be able to learn how to work with them and to be able to have a positive impact on them. I also took this class so that I can see a little better if this is what I really want to go into and to see if I can work with kids in this way. Some of the things that I like to do in my free time are reading, drawing, and hanging out with my friends and family. I have a job working as a coach at Flips Gymnastics that I love. I love being able to teach them new things and seeing them grow and continue to get better. 

Throughout the years that I have been in school there have been a lot of teachers that have made a positive impact in my life. One teacher in particular is Mrs. Hutson. She always made me laugh, and I felt comfortable talking to her about anything. I felt like I could ask her questions, but I could also joke around with her. Which was a really good thing for me because I can be very antisocial and scared to talk to some of my teachers, but having her be so nice and open to talk about anything really helped me start to open up and it taught me that it is okay to ask for help when you are confused about something. That really changed me and made me want to be able to have that same impact on other people. 

What I think it means to be a good teacher is that you need to have a lot of patience with the kids. You need to be able to take a breath when things get frustrating, because sometimes the kids don’t know any better or they need to learn that what they’re doing isn’t the right thing. Another thing that you need to be able to handle a bad situation in the best way possible because you need to teach them how to solve something in a respectful manner and not in a harsh way. Also you need to be able to show positive body language and teach them how to have good social skills and to be able to communicate with other people in a respectful way. Two of my strengths are that I am able to learn quickly and get the hang out things and also be patient with the kids because I understand that it can get hard for them and that they can get easily frustrated. Some weaknesses that I have are that at times it can get very difficult for me to keep my cool and at times I can bring in personal emotions that don’t relate to the classroom but I am working on getting those under control so that it doesn’t affect the kids in any way. 

What it is that I would like to get out of this class would be to learn more about what actually goes on in the classroom and to further my knowledge of how younger kids work and how they learn. I want to see if this is something that I am capable of doing and that I would enjoy doing for many years. I am hoping that being in this class will help me decide if I am capable of becoming a teacher. I would like to thank you for this opportunity to further my education ands the opportunity to help kids.  

I'm not entirely sure what my future professional goals are but I would like to be able to present myself with confidence and be kind to everyone that I meet. What I think will be important for my profession would be to be kind, polite, and patient with those around me and to treat others how I would want to be treated because not everyone thinks or learns the same way so some people might be a little behind others and that's okay. 

what you learned during your Service-Learning experience. How would you

respond? 

I learned that it is super important to have patience and to not get upset when a child doesn't understand something right away because they are just starting to learn something new so they aren't going to get it right away. They are going to mess up a lot before they start to understand what is going on. So you have to be willing to wait and correct them until they understand what they are doing.

Scenario: A child with high functioning asperger's syndrome. 

Mr. Devet 

Lindsey Hall

A: 4 years 

A: Take more classes to get a higher education or take different classes specifically for teaching stuff. 

A: Being a neutral party in people's personal lives and being there to help them.

A: All the time, many teachers that teach the same subject talk so they can teach the same things on the same day.

A: Interesting, he was a 22 year old white male, teaching in a school that was mostly blacks.

A: 1. It is manageable if you don't have kids in your first couple of years of teaching. 

    2. 2 days off for personal days and then 10 days of sick days

    3. Every two years it is stressful when you have to renew the contract, but it is not that different from other jobs.

A: He doesn't agree with it unless it is for a club or something, until after that person graduates.

A: 1. Problem solving

2. How to work in a group

3. How to complete tasks that they don't want to complete.

A: Trying to create a classroom where people want to work in and making students feeling personally accountable for themselves.

A: Observation, and self evaluation. Like what is going okay and what is not going okay, and the amount of effort students put into their work.

A: Depends on the day, can range from normal stress to rip your hair out and not knowing what to do.

A: Get a plan together and stick to it the best you can.

A: Around 10 hours

A: Hanging out with all of the students.

A: Preparing and grading papers.

A: How much behind the scenes stuff that happens between coworkers, like drama or political things.

A: Someone with high empathy, patience, and having a desire to be a good teacher. 

A: Other teachers, or from previous years.

A:  Yeah, lessons fail all of the time. 

A: 1. At the second week of aug. and week after football ends and at the end of vacations.

2. Yes

A: No, and he is really bad at it.

A: Yes, the students are the ones that pay for it the most

A: Try and get ahead of the problem and build up a good relationship with them

A: Deal with it, it is just their way of joking around, if it gets too bad he talks to them about it.