User:Sblai007



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Personal Information
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My name is Shelby and I am a 28 year old graduate student at Old Dominion University. I currently reside in Chesterfield, VA. I have one sister and two dogs (Josie and Kayla) at home. The two dogs technically belong to my sister but are considered family pets. Josie is a pure breed American Staffordshire Terrier and will be 3-years old (21 in human years) in December. Kayla is a Rhodesian Ridgeback and Lab mix and just turned 2-years old (14 in human years) this past August. Kayla is a highly intelligent and loyal dog but is big. When I need a pick-me-up, the doggies know how to do it. I love to swim and love to do things outdoors. I love the beach and taking pictures. I love being out in the country. I like going mudding and I love John Deere Tractors. I am very crafty and love doing craft projects. I love to read and write my own poems. I am extremely creative.

 I am a brother of Alpha Phi Omega. I pledged Fall 2004 with the Togo West Pledge Class at Christopher Newport University, Alpha Delta Xi Chapter. I am currently a transfer brother in the Old Dominion University Chapter, Alpha Beta Omega. Alpha Phi Omega is a Co-Ed Service Fraternity that promotes Leadership, Friendship, and Service. Everyone is considered a brother no matter of gender. We have fun doing service projects and hanging around. Alpha Phi Omega has ties to the Boy Scouts of America. We are founded on Scouting principals. I am the recipient of the Chapter Distinguish Service Key from Alpha Delta Xi Chapter. I also have attended three fraternity APO LEADS Leadership Development Courses. The three courses I have attended so far are Launch, Explore, and Serve. I only have to attend Achieve and Discover to complete the APO LEADS.

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Professional Information
 Education'''  MSEd Elementary Education (PK - 6) with Initial Licensure, Old Dominion University, in progress BS in Psychology with concentration in Early Childhood, Christopher Newport University, May 2007 Associates in Arts and Science Transfer, John Tyler Community College, May 2003 

Teaching Experience  Substitute Teacher, Chesterfield County Public Schools, March 2008 to present Preschool Teacher (3-year olds), Childtime Learning Centers, February 2008 to April 2008</li> <li>Junior Kindergarten Teacher, Precious Time Child Development Center, September 2007 to February 2008</li> </ul>

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Teaching Philosophy
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My teaching philosophy contains two parts. The first one is what the ideal teacher is. The second part looks at what I think are two of the major issues I see in teaching today and possible solutions to these issues. I have an aunt and a second-cousin who are both teachers. My aunt works in an elementary school setting. My second-cousin works as a high school English teacher. I consider my aunt to be not only a season teacher but one with a wealth of information.

The Ideal Teacher

<P> To me the ideal teacher is one who is there for her students. The teacher cares about her students and encourages them to do well in their studies. She would be easily approachable by the students if the student was having difficulty or a problem in their life. She would be able to pick up on student's behavior and know if there is something wrong. She would engage her students in the class through small group collaborations, hands-on activities, and make learning fun and interesting. The teacher would have at least one Parent/Teacher Conference every marking period. This would be time for the teacher to allow the parents to know not only how well their child is doing but also to point out any problems and possible solutions their child maybe having. The teacher would start out the conference by letting the parents know at least three positive aspects about their child. The teacher would then talk about any problems or difficulties their child is having, and then finally end on at least one positive aspect. This would ensure that the parents do not focus on just the negative or problems their child is having. The teacher would be flexible with the meetings in time and location. If it means the teacher has to go to the home of the student at 7 PM then the teacher would be willing to do so. If a student in the class is having difficulty with an area of the curriculum, the teacher would be willing to offer free tutoring after school hours to help the student. The ideal teacher would either initially plant the seed of knowledge and learning or foster the seed that had previously been planted. When the students reflected on their teachers they had, they would think that the teacher touched their lives. This is what the ideal teacher is like.</P>

Two Major Issues I See in Teaching

<P> There are two major issues in teaching today. The first major issue is the lack of parental involvement in schools. A lot of parents today just do not care about their child's schooling. They act like it is something they are forced to do and if they were not forced then their child would not be in school. These parents disrespect the teachers at times and their student finds out or sees it and the student thinks it is ok to be that way. I have seen this first hand when I substituted in a 7th grade Language Arts class. A student told me after being corrected several times and made to serve a lunch detention that her mother would could up to school and curse me out. The same student also cursed out the other teacher in the class. I talked to the School Resource Officer and found out this is a common occurrence. I was shocked because when I was in school, parents actually cared about their child's schooling and were heavily involved. This is actually very sad. A possible solution to this is to try and get more parents involved in a Parent Teacher Association and ask parents to help out. If it was required that a parent had to attend a Parent/Teacher Conference every marking period then this could result in more parent involvement. If a teacher sent home a project every month that the child had to do with their parent or guardian then it would force the parents to take an interest in their child's education. It would also benefit the child because the child could not only see the importance of education but also have reinforcement in a particular lesson planned for that month.</P>

<P> The second major issue deals with how students are being assessed and taught. In Virginia, it is mandatory that students take the SOL's and pass them. The individual school's accreditation rides on how well a student does on the test. Some teachers have started to teach to the test when teaching their students. The problem with this is that students are not learning and having critical thinking skills reinforced. This is especially true in secondary school grades. Students then go to college and are not fully prepared to succeed. One of my old professors told me a true story about how a few of his students in one of his classes were this way. He said that a student asked, "What is on the test?" and he responded, with the basic guide of what could possibly be on the test. The student then says, "No, what is actually going to be on the test?" and the student got a shock when he refused to tell him exactly what was on the test. This reaction was because the student had been taught to the test in high school and really did not know how to take a massive amount of information and try and critically think about what could or could not be on the test. I have heard that some school systems have gone back to focusing more on critical thinking. Putting more focus on critical thinking skills is one way to solve this issue and better prepare our students for college and/or the "real world". Another solution is to re-engineer the SOL test to make it where teachers would not be able to teach to the test but would be required to spend more time on critical thinking skills.</P>