"The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose." - Richard R. Grant
Growing up in a very cultured Greek home that holds traditions, costumes and religion as a high importance in life has helped develop me into the person that I am today. Also, these factors helped shape the identity that I have as a person and a teacher. Playing sports in high school and striving to live a healthy lifestyle has put me on the path to becoming a physical education teacher. It was AUSL and my National Louis courses that have prepared me to become an urban educator. Urban education and school reform are things I never identified with before, but through my residency year, my passion and motivation to become a champion teacher my identity have grown to identify more with the urban setting, our students, and the communities we work in. I can proudly say that I feel apart and can identify with urban education now and in the future.
The above picture is an early moment in the residency program. I was teaching a throwing and catching lesson with a group of first graders.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Providing a quality education starts with a champion teacher. Through a no nonsense nurturer approach and a wide variety of engaging instructional tools, an individual can help close the achievement gap in struggling schools. In addition, a champion teacher must also display qualities of unselfishness, dedication, collaboration, and grit for their students, administration, and their colleagues.
APPLICATION VIDEO FOR AUSL
The video clip below is a three minute clip that I put together for my application into the Teacher Residency program for AUSL. It is a video montage of individuals that I have worked with, and who have mentored me in my young career as an educator and coach. They put into words their impressions of me, how they have seen me grow, and where they see me in the future as a professional.
WHY AUSL?
Before being accepted into the residency program I read and learned a lot about AUSL from it's website and attending one of the informational meeting. I slowly became a believer and excited about being a part of AUSL's mission, philosophy of school unity, school reform, and real change in Chicago's struggling schools.
I was working at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire my first year after graduating college. I thought to myself what kind of significant difference can I have on a student body that has been on a strong and steady path to college since they were sixth graders. I don't want to teach everyday and go through the motions of being a teacher, and be "just another teacher" to my students.
I believe AUSL and the urban education setting gives me a chance to truly make a real difference to a particular student body where helping a student reach high school is significant in their life. To be a part of something big, bigger than myself and a paycheck, is truly full filling in my eyes.
RESUME & COVER LETTER
My resume below will outline my work experience that dates back to my first year as a volunteer football coach for Niles North High School when I was a sophomore in college. My cover letter helps explain how AUSL's philosophy and my own values and beliefs are interrelated in defining what it takes to be a champion teacher in the urban classroom. I also believe these two documents help illustrate the extra work I did to gain experience outside of the classroom in my path to becoming a champion teacher. This is not to take away anything from what I gained from my undergraduate and graduate courses because they gave me perspective, knowledge, and skills in becoming a teacher. On the other hand though, I feel the experiences I had outside of the classroom were irreplaceable because those experiences put my skills to the test. I was able to reflect on real experiences, use management skills in real situations, and develop resiliency which my college courses could not provide.
NLU COURSEWORK Below is my identity policy paper that I wrote in ELE 527. This was one of the more challenging paper that I have ever had to write but when I look back on my work I truly see the value that came out of completing this assignment. Through out the term we had readings from books such as "So Much Reform So Little Change", "Bad Teacher: How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture", and "The Flat World of Education". These books talked about school reform in Chicago as well as through out the nation. What was so valuable was the informative writing of both sides of the argument on school closings and school reform. This helped me gain a wider perspective of the debate of turnaround schools, and helped shape my view point and identity on turning around schools. In this paper I focus a lot on building relationships, community building outside as well as inside the school, and making connections to the text.
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 My MRC and mentor teacher have been huge factors in my growth this past year. One piece of advice that has stuck with me and that I will take into next year is when I was told, "Next year will be hectic and you will have a lot of responsibility. Take it one day at a time and get really good at one thing in your first year. The rest will come in time and with hard work." That one thing that I will be really good at will be my classroom management skills. My principal, resource team, and colleagues will be able to identify me with how good my management will be next year. I believe that no matter how good a teacher's lessons are or how great their assessments are on paper it does not matter if they can not get their class in order. Our students next year will identify me as the teacher who means business and is serious about teaching and learning...yes, even in gym class. |
