My teaching journey started out in a unique way. I had 10 years of classroom experience as a paraeducator where I worked with different grade levels, including 3 years in an RSP room which ended up helping me tremendously in working with and understanding struggling students. I was fortunate to work with my CTI coach two years before she became my coach, which I believe helped create an even stronger bond than we might have had. 

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My very first day of teaching started out with a student who ran around the room jumping on other students, kicking things, throwing things, and laughing at students who got scared of him. I had moms crying in my doorway, scared to leave their babies in the chaos. I will never forget that first day. I decided that I would become the type of teacher who will be able to make all of my students feel comfortable and safe, and who will be able to reach those students who seem so difficult. I am still working on becoming that teacher.

 

After three years of teaching kindergarten at Skyline North, I made the leap and took a second grade position at Barstow's new Fine Arts Academy. It was a difficult decision because I was not unhappy at Skyline. Actually, I was very comfortable there and could have stayed teaching kindergarten there forever and been happy. I knew that I wanted to push myself to be the best teacher I can be, and I felt like I needed to leave my comfort zone and go out to learn new things in order to do that. I definitely learned new things, and not what I thought I was going there to learn. At times, I thought I made a mistake, but I realize now that I needed to learn these things, and I needed to push myself, and it did help me get closer to becoming the type of teacher I want to be.

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Another new challenge came in March of this school year. Covid 19 began spreading worldwide and schools shut down. I am thankful to have the background in Learning and Technology from my Master's program to help me navigate through this new adventure called Distance Learning. I got to work right away setting up accounts from educational websites, sending login information to families through ClassDojo, and finally decided to create a Classroom Website to give my students somewhere to "go." It is difficult, but I believe we will come out stronger from this.

 

My CTI coach was a sounding board for me while I dealt with any and all situations in the classroom. This second year of CTI was tough as I found myself struggling more than I thought teaching in a new school. I was not working with the familiar faces I had grown to think of as family, and that was harder than I expected. I did learn a lot, especially teaching a different grade level.