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Mathews 1
Mathews 1
Maisy Mathews
Connie Christensen
EDU 201
Early Education has always been a huge part of my life and, now that I am majoring in
this field, it always will be. Ever since I was young and in Early Education myself, I have always
loved the feeling and even the smell of school. Kindergarten was my favorite and the majority of
Elementary School was just full of fun, excitement, so much learning and growing, and overall
great memories that I still look back on today. I had so many great teachers and the fact that my
mom was PTA president made it even more fun. Watching her participate in so many events I
was in, being a part of the school, and helping make the school what it was inspired me and
helped me grow to love school. That is where my passion for the school and for teaching started.
As I got older, middle school became one of the worst and toughest years of my
education, and I would have considered myself the average girl who had a good number of
friends but was a huge nerd deep down. I say this because I started noticing the groups forming
and I would watch their behaviors and so I decided to adopt the behavior of what’s considered
the “teacher’s pet”. I always talked to my teachers, I never had missing work, always
participated, and I was always rewarded by my teachers with phone calls to my mom and after
school parties for students who had no late work or something of that sort. Building that personal
knowledge and skill set helped me become who I am today. I am proud and love being
considered a nerd, which is a great characteristic and attitude to have when becoming a teacher.
There is so much to learn and you have to love school and teaching in order to become an
I had a lot of teaching experience within high school because I was in the Early
Childhood program area and I got to do an internship as well as work with kindergarteners. It
helped me explore my interest in teaching more and on top of that my program area teacher
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encouraged me to become a teacher because she said she saw my gift and how good I am with
children. That inspired me and sparked a fire in me. Once when I took this class and I started my
internship in a class of third graders, I got to explore more of my interests and now I am leaning
towards older kids. Being in the internship has helped me better understand the cognitive
development of children within different age groups as well as the importance of how to teach
these ages. I have been enjoying studying the classroom environment, what to look for, and how
the teacher performs. It’s been exciting and has helped me get a visual of how a classroom
After learning so much about teaching and watching it in action, I have built a few beliefs
from the philosophy I go by as well as philosophical orientation(s). Within the book, Becoming
A Teacher by Forrest W. Parkay, on page 116 it explains the constructivist perspective and
transmission perspective. Out of the two, I can definitely say I am on the constructivist
perspective side. I believe that students should be able to learn on their terms and in their own
way a majority of the time. I don’t think transmission perspective, which is very structured
based, is efficient enough to reach all students. Some students don’t learn with just reading the
directions and doing, some students need a visual representation, or they need to experience the
topic, just like I do. I think that is why I am for constructivist perspective more because of the
fact that I do prefer that type of teaching to be taught to me as well. At the end of chapter four of
this book, there was a philosophical inventory test that shows what philosophy you go by. My
result was the existentialism philosophy, which is the belief that individual and emotional
over the importance of rational theories. It also explains how people should define themselves
through personal choices. This resonates with me very well because I do believe in those
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statements and I think exploring individuality is so crucial and important in order to become
successful in life.
One of the biggest historical events that have set the stage for me was Sarah Pierce’s
Female Academy. Her event started in the dining room of her home with two students and grew
up to 140 female students from almost every state and from Canada as well. Pierce’s curriculum
was based off of practical knowledge and skills instead of the classics such as cleaning, cooking,
and becoming a mother. Pierce also created female seminars which was a way to train women
for higher education. Pierce’s academy helped women eventually be able to vote and she
changed history. This event was huge because she gave women freedom and the ability to learn
more than just household work. One of the reasons why I am typing this essay right now is
A few instructional strategies that are important to me are abstract thinking, active
learning, active participation, activity centers, compare and contrast, and sharing ideas. All of
these strategies listed are important to me because they represent not only cognitive learning, but
it also encourages physical learning as well. I think the sharing ideas strategy is super useful and
effective because it helps encourage others and students are working together as a team which is
a great aspect to have within the classroom and for students to learn to do. There are so many
students who are different from the way they think to their physical appearance and it’s
important to share those difference with the class and help students learn from one another. That
is why I will approach student learning, student diversity and variability, and assessment fairly
and respectively. It is crucial to make sure you think of every students’ needs and their
background needs to be considered when it comes to teaching and testing. I will make sure every
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student feels comfortable, that they are never judged for who they are and what they are capable
of, and to make sure they learn to the best of their abilities regardless of race, ethnicity or gender.
Last but not least, there are a few characteristics and skills I will need to posses in order
to continue this career. The most important ones in my opinion would be hard working,
passionate, helpful, smart, kind, giving, optimistic, accepting, flexible, encouraging, positive,
formal, and instructive. These characteristics is how I want to be and hope to be within this field
as well as everywhere I go because I think these characteristics are crucial to have. I have gone
so far within this field and I am so excited to explore so much more of it. I am going to keep
studying my degree and I hope to graduate with a bachelor’s in Early Education by 2022. I was
already offered a substitute job from my internship school and I am planning on working there
once when I get my associates as a sub. Once when I finish my internship hours, I am planning
on asking the principle if I could still come volunteer at least once a month. I think that would be
exciting and would help me get more experience in order to learn more about this field which
will benefit me in the long run. I want to keep trying to get internships and more and more
experience within teaching. I would like to explore different age groups and grades such as
fourth, fifth, and middle school. I also would like to pursue the field of science within teaching
since I have such a huge passion for science and math. I am so excited to keep pursuing this path