501 Introduction Post

My journey towards education began in 7th grade, when I was 13 years old. I had always felt dumb in comparison to my classmates, and could never figure out why they could do things that I struggled with. This was a dark year for me. I got lucky though, a resource teacher happened to work with my assigned partner in my Math class, and ended up helping me too. This teacher recognized that I has having a lot of trouble with learning, and reached out to my mom. I ended up being diagnosed with A.D.D, anxiety, and depression; all three of which impacted my ability to learn successfully. Once the proper accommodations were made for me, I went from barely passing to an A/ B student. I finally didn't feel like I was stupid anymore. This turning point is what lead me to pursue a career in education, as I wanted to help people the way my teacher helped me.

I have spent the last 3 years working at Mt. Pleasant High school, and two of those years working towards my Master's in TESOL. Building relationships with my students has been my biggest strength, although I tend to struggle with classroom management and being creative with my teaching methods. This last year has been difficult as we had another change in principals, as well as 18 teachers leaving during the school year (which resulted in many students having some ignorant subs). This years burnout was real.

My last day of school was Friday the 24th, so I haven't really transitioned into summer mode yet (and probably won't until this class is over). My goals for this summer are to get back on track with self-care, spend time utilizing the pool in my building, and learning Spanish so that I can better communicate with my students and know more than just the bad words and simple phrases. I am also trying to keep myself from taking on additional duties this summer and just recovering, but we'll see how that ends up going. I also might end up signing up for another PD with Rhode Island Writing Project! Last summer I participated in RIWP Summer Institute, and I highly recommend these Professional Development opportunities that you can check out here. You do not need to be an English teacher to take any of these!