Colleen Roy

March 1st, 2021

1.2 Self-Assessment

Professor Mahady
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Interest

From a very young age, my life has been intertwined with a variety of athletic activities such as

field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, gymnastics, and dance. Currently though, I am a dual athlete at

Seton Hill University, playing field hockey and lacrosse. I have always enjoyed playing sports,

challenging myself to improve the skill set needed for each sport and to improve my cooperation

skills while interacting with teammates. Aside from the athletic field, I am very interested in

nature and the outdoors. I enjoy taking time to just breath in the fresh air while hiking or

exploring unknown places. I love to be outside riding four wheelers, eating picnic lunches, and

roasting marshmallows around a campfire. I have a huge sense of wanderlust, always eager to

travel and dive into new locations. My preference would be any area that is quiet and wooded. I

have traveled to many places in Colorado and fallen in love with the vast landscapes seen out

there. I hope to continue my travels both in and out of the United States. One of my goals is to

actually travel to every single state in America before I turn 50.

Another interest I have is in terms of education. I have always had a deep love for learning and

discovering new things. Each day I try to learn one new thing, whether it be about something

seen in the news or just about a certain leaf I saw on a walk. I am a firm believer in the fact that

one should never be complacent and should always crave to learn as much as possible. This ties

into another interest that I will mention, which is teaching. Ever since I can remember, school

has always been one of my favorite places. I love the joy and excitement each day brings in

terms of the possibilities of what can be learned. School is a place for students to feel loved and

valued in a way that is unique to any other location. I hope to make each of my students feel like

this as well. A final interest of mine would probably be my family. I love spending quality time

with my family, whether it be playing a card game, sitting around the table chatting, or heading
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out on our next adventure. I love every minute I get to be around my people. I don’t know if

there are really strengths and weaknesses in relation to an interest, but I will say that sometimes I

can let my interests fall second to the interests of others. I have a hard time saying no and I really

do aim to please everyone. In this course, I hope to gain more of an understanding of my interest

in curriculum development. I decided on this masters program because of an initial pull toward

instruction and curriculum design, but I want to learn more about all that curriculum has to offer.

Personality

In reflecting on my own personality, I would say it is very complex and dependent on who I am

interacting with. Based on the personality test taken for this class, I am classified as an INFJ

(introvert, intuitive, feeling, judging). This is a pretty accurate representation as I would classify

myself as an extroverted introvert. There are times where I like to be the center of attention, but

also times where I am just trying to fit in with the crowd. I am definitely a very sensitive person,

although I have been trying not lean so much on my emotions and more on concrete information

when making decisions. This could be considered a weakness, since the emotional side of myself

can cloud my judgement at times. My personality can also be quite strong, and I love a good

debate, but I have been practicing the art of silence and observation. I’ve learned that one can

gain a lot of understanding by saying absolutely nothing and just listening. Depending on who I

am around, my personality can shift from being dominant to bottled up. I think my personality

could best be described as bubbly and optimistic, while also being loving and supportive. That

would be a positive in regard to my personality.

I do think it’s important to mention too that when looking at my personality test results, the first

two letters I and N, were less than a 10% difference from the other option. This means that

essentially, I am right on the line for two of the categories received. Personalities and personality
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tests are so intriguing to me because of how different the results are and how a certain list of

questions can use an algorithm to determine what I am like. I think my personality type of being

intuitive and feeling will help me to come off as genuine and nurturing to my future students. I

am hoping that my introvert personality won’t cause me to doubt my abilities in the classroom,

but instead that it will give me confident to try new things after reflecting and observing other

teachers. I believe my personality will shift a little as I continue to grow older each year. I don’t

think there will be any major shifts, but I do think that the close categories will either get closer

or will shoot in opposite directions. I am hoping to learn more about how my personality can be

best seen in terms of the coursework we will be completing this semester. I love that we used this

personality test as somewhat of an icebreaker.

Leadership

My dad has instilled in me since a very young age, the importance of leadership and always

striving to be a leader in anything that I do. I immediately picture him in my head telling me to

be a leader before every athletic event whenever I see the word leadership. I would say that my

leadership style can be displayed in different ways depending on my surroundings, similar to my

personality. Traditionally though, I am a lead by example kind of person. My leadership strength

lies in my personal motivation and drive to always want to improve. I believe that the best way

to show dedication and commitment is to walk the walk rather than just saying some

motivational words. I think in terms of athletics, this can be seen in the intensity I bring to each

practice, always pushing myself to be better than I was the day before. In the classroom, this can

be seen in my diligence to stay organized, to help out others, and to show the students how great

school can be. I really don’t think I have any leadership in terms of curriculum because it is

something new for me, so that could be considered a weakness to some extent.
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I would also consider myself to be very vocal leader at times as well. Looking at athletics once

again, I can be seen as the person constantly cheering people on during drills or a game. I have

been practicing how to balance this vocal leadership with the listening I mentioned earlier in

regard to my personality. Leadership is something I am continuing to work on each day,

especially in the classroom. I feel like I am not as confident due to my lack of experience in the

classroom along with not wanting to come off as overly confident as well. Being a leader in my

mind requires a grace and a natural calling. My dad always tells me that I have natural leading

abilities, but if I’m being honest, I don’t know if I agree with him. I try my best to lead others on

what I believe to be the right path, but I don’t have a lot of confidence in making that decision of

which path to even choose. That would be another weakness, my lack of confidence in my

leading abilities. A leader should be someone who is sure of themselves, and I really need to

work on that. I hope to gain a better understanding of to develop my confidence in terms of

leadership in this course.

Communication

Communication is a huge part of my everyday life, as I’m sure it is for a majority of people. I

would say that I prefer written communication when it comes to expressing my thoughts and

ideas about a given topic. For example, I would much rather write a paper than give an oral

presentation on something. On the contrary, when it comes to general communication, I would

much rather talk to someone face to face than through a text or an email. I think this is because I

truly feel much more involved in an oral conversation. Talking out loud and using intonation and

facial expression adds a whole other layer to nonverbal oral communication that I believe can’t

be matched in a written response. Moving onto another pro of written communication is the way

that words can transform you and make you feel like you’re in a completely different world.
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Thinking about how an author communicates through imagery and storytelling, there are times

where a good book has held me captive for hours at a time. I believe my strengths lie in my

passion for writing and talking, I love to experiment with new words and imagery in my writing

and speaking. I am always looking for an opportunity to learn more about how to best

communicate with different types of people.

In terms of education, I think it will be very important for me to be comfortable using both oral

and written forms of communication when teaching, interacting with students, and when

interacting with parents and colleagues. I do believe I am well versed on both oral and written

communication in the classroom having experience with given written feedback and calling

home to speak with parents about how their child is doing an awesome job. A weakness in terms

of communication in the classroom would be in my use and understanding of buzz words. These

are words or phrases that educators use in regard to the profession like zone of proximal

development or Lexile reading level or differentiated instruction. I want to be able to sound

intelligent and professional, which is something I struggle with. With COVID-19 happening this

past year, I have also had a chance to grow my oral and written communication using different

modes of technology such as Zoom and Google Meets. Communicating with other human beings

is something that I believe will always be around, so I am excited to keep learning and finding

new ways to improve my oral and my written communication skills.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is a term I will admit that I don’t commonly use or reflect on, so I had to

look up what it was. According to the internet search, emotional intelligence has to do with a

person’s ability to control their emotions and use them in the best way possible. I would say that

I have a pretty good amount of emotional intelligence. I do struggle with letting my emotions
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overtake me at times, whether it be out of anger or sadness or even excitement. The ability to

manage emotions is something I am working at every day. I also can have trouble with how to

best express my emotions in a way that is healthy and effective. Empathizing with others and

communicating my emotions are two of my strong areas in terms of emotional intelligence I

believe.

When looking at emotional intelligence in terms of my vocation in the classroom, I think that I

have a good grip on using my emotions to help guide decisions and overcome any conflict that

may arise. I think this can be seen when looking at the personality test taken for this course, as I

am more of a feeler than a thinker. I am very self-aware and have no trouble feeling empathy for

others. I do need to improve on how to regulate my emotions in intense situations. I am

definitely still growing and maturing, and I think that this ability to regulate my emotions will

come with time as I learn to be patient. Emotions can be sometimes seen as a weakness, but I

believe they are one of the greatest strengths. There are so many things in this world that can

cause us to lose the emotional connection we have with one another. People who are able to lean

on a strong emotional foundation are destined for success in my eyes. Emotions are part of what

make us human beings. After reflecting on this section, I’ve decided that I’m going to take time

each day to check-in with my own emotions, tracking how I am feeling each day and evaluating

what might be the cause of different emotional patterns. I am hoping to continue to learn how to

understand my own emotions so that as a future educator I can better handle emotional situations

in the classroom.

Technology Skills

Technology is something I have pretty much grown up with. While I wasn’t part of the

generation who came out of the womb knowing how to use an iPad, I did always have a tv in my
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house and I got my first smart phone in high school. As for my technological skills, I would say

that I am generally pretty up to date on the newest forms of technology. I know how to operate

all of the google avenues (google slides, classroom, Gmail, forms) and the Microsoft avenues

(word, PowerPoint, excel). Where I believe I have the most knowledge though is in educational

technology. Throughout my college career I have taken three technology-based courses that have

shown me different ways to integrate technology into lessons in a way that greatly enhances the

students’ understanding. I am a google certified educator level 1, which just means that I took an

online course that tested my skills on different google technology formats like google docs,

google slides, google forms, and google sheets. This has been a huge help in my time as a

substitute teacher.

I also have learned a lot of new technology skills through observation and then implementation.

For example, I spoke with my corresponding teacher this past fall during my student teaching

about making a game for students that was online and interactive and ended up creating a

jeopardy game that the students loved. I also created my first bitmoji classroom and am a current

member of six different google classrooms at the school I work at. COVID-19 has really amped

up the use of technology in the classroom. Teachers have been forced to use technology as their

primary means of communication with students for some of, if not the entire current school year.

Technologies like zoom and google classroom have exploded in usage. Prior to last year, I don’t

know if I had ever even heard of zoom. I personally find technology to be incredibly intriguing

and although I am nowhere near an expert, I do feel like my technological skills have greatly

improved over the last few years. If I had to pick one area of improvement in terms of

technological skills it would be in excel or google sheets. I still have some difficultly with data

input and transferring data from other technology into spreadsheets. Despite being a traditional
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paper and pencil girl at heart, it is crazy to see the impact technology has had and continues to

have on the world we live in.