This is my first official year as a teacher. I wanted to become an educator because I enjoy working with kids. It’s important for children to have role models in their lives, and being a role model or additional role model for my students is important to me.
I was a student teacher last year and I was a part of NEA Aspiring Educators for three years while in college. The program helps support and develop the next generation of teachers.
The Aspiring Educators program allowed me to attend conferences and connect with teachers in different districts throughout the state. I served as the Delaware State Education Association aspiring president last year and two years in DSEA Aspiring Educator leadership. What I took from the experience is that educators have a lot of power to impact their students’ lives. The program lets young educators discuss new ways of lifting up students and relating to them in ways that haven’t always been done in the past
Regardless of the classroom format this year because of the pandemic—whether it’s in-person, virtual, or hybrid—I’m looking forward to meeting my students and helping them grow as people. I’m a fourth-grade teacher and, in my district, students enter middle school in fifth grade.
So, I’m excited to help them reach the point where they’re fully prepared and ready to enter middle school.
With all my lessons, I want to shift towards a student-led classroom that empowers kids. I want to share my expectations with my students, and then have them step in and take things over. I want to also incorporate social and emotional aspects of teaching into my lesson plans because it’s just as important as what's in their textbooks. This includes lessons on building relationships, how to treat other people, and how to manage and regulate their own emotions.
That’s one of my key takeaways from the Aspiring Educators program: we need to continue evolving as educators to build better relationships with our students to show them that they’re loved and supported.
