ADVANCED Professional toolkit

HAN21080231

NOVEMBER 1, 2023
BRITISH UNIVERSITY VIETNAM
Name: Nguyen Thi Yen Linh
Date: November 1, 2023

In 2010, I read an autobiographical memoir "Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window,"
written by a Japanese author, telling a captivating collection of early memories describes an
ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that incorporated education with enjoyment,
liberty, and love. Ever since that day, I have cultivated the aspiration of becoming an
educator with integrity. To take steps towards making it happen, I evaluated my
professional growth and came up with a plan for the future.

I. KNOWING MYSELF
1. My Strengths and Weaknesses
One of my strengths that is applicable to the education sector is my awareness of people's
behaviors and emotions - and how they influence their communities; this also signifies that I
appreciate every individual, listen to their demands, and can empathize with them on a
variety of levels (Reyes et al., 2012). Higher levels of engagement have been shown to be
positively correlated with academic success (Dotterer and Lowe, 2011; Reyes, Brackett,
Rivers, White, and Salovey, 2012). According to Hamre & Pianta (2007), a learning
environment that has strong interactions with teachers who are attentive to students’
behaviors and expressions; shows signals of being compassionate, caring, and helpful in
which achievement is highest. In general, I believe this skill has potential to drive me further
as long as I take time and effort to nurture it.

Second, more than ever, educational leaders are in need. Based on previous experiences
where I mostly played leadership roles, such as Chairman of a local innovation center, or
Head of Operations of a student creative startup ecosystem, I am confident about my
leadership skills to a certain point. By being a leader teacher, I can serve as a mentor, coach
or peer assistant or work in curriculum planning, learning design, or assessment creation.

Despite the above strengths, I have one biggest weakness that needs to be overcome, which
is professional qualification. Pursuing Education field strictly requires you to have a
professional record of self abilities.
Since I decided to follow my passion quite late, I did not choose Education as my
undergraduate major and have never participated in any formal training courses before. I
lack the chance to attend any forums, seminars, or educational events up until now, which
has limited my access to professionals in the field.. Even though this shortcoming can be
solved through various traning programs, a soon-to-be graduate's financial situation is now
indispensable.

2. My Values
I believe that no matter what field people work in, everyone should have their own
professional philosophy. Mine is “Every student should have a healthy beating heart, a love
close to nature and a kind heart to those around.”. To be particular, any form of education
should provide superior nourishment for the development of the brain, a healthy and
entertaining environment, a provision of moral principles, the ability to imagine and focus to
create and finally, the love for quality literacy.

II. FUTURE SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

1. My Goals
As 2024 approaches near, I have set certain professional objectives for the coming year.
Firstly, I want to get my IELTS 8.0 certificate before June in order to evaluate my ability and
come up with a plan to start non-profit teaching programs for underprivileged kids in my
hometown. Since I am the one who creates the curriculum, instructs the class, and keeps an
eye on every student, starting this class will provide me with the most genuine experience.

Education as preserved as transmitted of cultural heritage (Miller, 1984). In addition to

providing the greatest education possible for kids, I want to instill in both young and old
people a love for the cultural and artistic qualities of the Kinh Bac, a countryside area of
Vietnam. The program focuses on: Promotion of Kinh Bac cultural craft villages diversity,
preservation of artifacts and cultural sites, as well as recognizing renowned writers,
musicians, poets who wrote for Kinh Bac - their ancestral home. I will start implementing
the first cultural program in mid-March, 2024.

2. Training and Development Opportunities:

To accomplish the set goals, I have thought about building a roadmap for myself as follows:
After December 18, I plan to study for my IELTS goal at a private boarding school while
working as a teaching assistant and managing the overall operations of the school. This job
has fulfilled my priority requirements, which include: having advanced IELTS classes with a
strict schedule since I have had a fairly strong foundation in English; opportunities to
observe how teachers and students interact in a real classroom; and finally having a
compensation that I can save up to invest back in myself. I can use my personal savings for
professional courses that will tackle my biggest weakness.

Next, during the time I'm not teaching, I will spend time going to creative arts and cultural
centers of nearby provinces such as Hai Phong and Vinh Phuc to learn how they operate and
how they attract the interest of the local people in old values and strongly preserves them
until now. Making a proposal for this cultural project is one of the things I can do in this
period. I will use this proposal to send invitations to creatives to lead art workshops. Some
of the names I have been contacted lately are Mr. Bui Hoai Mai from Hien Van Village, Ms
Tan Vu from Tan House Tearoom, Mr. The Lu - a popular translator, a poet and a painter. All
partnership proposals will be send out before January ends, so that we can confirm the
presence during Feburary then begin our first event on March. The program will continue
weekly.

In the action plan above, I wrote about the origins of my career which can be pursued
through wo main goals in the first half of 2024: Teaching experience and Building a network
of relationships with local artists. These two goals will be achieved through an internship at
a private school within 3 months and my team will operate at maximum capacity to meet,
connect and maintain sustainable relationships with people.

Word count: 1,003 words

Reference list

Dotterer, A.M. and Lowe, K. (2011). Classroom Context, School Engagement, and Academic
Achievement in Early Adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40(12), pp.1649–
1660. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9647-5.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence : why it can matter more than IQ. New York:
Bantam Books.

Miller, R.J. (1984). Transmitting ‘Culture’. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 15(4),
pp.323–326. doi:https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.1984.15.4.05x1357e.

Reyes, M.R., Brackett, M.A., Rivers, S.E., White, M. and Salovey, P. (2012). Classroom
emotional climate, student engagement, and academic achievement. Journal of Educational
Psychology, [online] 104(3), pp.700–712. doi:https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027268.

Wulf, G. and Lewthwaite, R. (2016). Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation

and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning. Psychonomic Bulletin &
Review, 23(5), pp.1382–1414. doi:https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-015-0999-9.