Teaching Lucy

I am a highly qualified teacher with experience in a variety of educational settings. Throughout my nine years in the classroom, I have taught third, fifth, sixth, and ninth grade primarily in Reading and English/ Language Arts. I have taught in urban education environments including Los Angeles, CA; Gary, IN; and Chicago, IL, as well as, suburban environments including Lake Forest, IL. Teaching in schools that serve a high-risk population and have limited resources challenged me to be creative, relentless, and compassionate. I strive to develop rigorous instructional materials that are engaging and relevant to students' lives while fostering mastery of Common Core standards.

Teaching doesn’t mean telling students what to do but rather helping children become the people they want to be. Teachers are often an influential part of a child’s education, and effective teachers understand that their role is to support and empower children to direct their own learning. Teachers should create authentic learning environments, in which children’s intrinsic instincts for learning, as well as, their interests, talents, and curiosities are not only acknowledged but are recognized as foundational components of a child’s education. Learning should start with children’s goals, and teachers should support children in pursuit of those goals. Teachers should foster a love of learning and be mindful of the many reasons that children stop loving learning, which often reflect the constraints of the school environment not the child’s potential. In addition, teachers should be listeners more than speakers. As listeners, teachers should seek to understand the whole child beyond academics to the child’s social and emotional health. In doing so, teachers build children’s confidence and foster their ability to express themselves. Teachers are not only responsible for helping children gain a better sense of self but for helping children develop an understanding of other perspectives, so they can discover, question, and contribute to the world around them. Teachers should model a growth mindset and reinforce the idea that learning at times can be messy and involve failure before success. Moreover, teachers should maintain the belief that all students can learn and achieve mastery of learning skills, yet students need to be able to work at their own pace. Teachers can hold high expectations for all children while differentiating to meet their needs and helping them reach their goals.

The best honor I have ever received as a teacher was when my students awarded me the "Freedom of Expression" award. In giving me this honor, they explained how they felt that our classroom community provided them with the opportunity to develop and explore their ideas and perspectives on topics connected to the world within and outside of our classroom.