What specific experiences (honors or not) in the past year have had the most impact on your personal and professional trajectory? Articulate specific personal and/or professional goals for the next year.

 

This past school year was definitely an interesting one for everyone. I started the year excited and nervous; excited for my plans and to be with my friends again but nervous for my classes and beginning student teaching in spring. Fall semester I became a lot closer with the other people in my major and now we are a tight knit group who works together to get through our math classes. I’m really happy to be so close to all of them, there’s only five of us too. I also started the first phase of student teaching this spring. Unfortunately it didn’t last long, but it was fun and informative while it lasted. I was at Colerain High School in an algebra 1 and AP statistics class. I really enjoyed working with my mentor teacher and my supervisor, and I was disappointed when it ended so soon. I definitely feel less prepared than I would like coming into next year since I only had half of the experience that I should have gotten. 

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This spring I was also a Peer Leader for a section of Gateway to Honors. I really enjoyed this experience because I got to meet all of my students in the class individually as well as work with a faculty member. I loved working with Neil Chodhury and that definitely made my experience even better. I learned a lot about myself and how I can connect with students and learn about them, as well as learned more about Cincinnati and the Honors program itself. I also was able to grow from the trainings, and I will really miss Meghan. This experience solidified my view that the most important, and best part, of being a teacher is to get to know your students. I want my students to trust me and open up to me, and that comes first with opening up to them.

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I also was in the Italy study tour class, but that ended up being quite the mess. Italy would have been my first time out of the country, but of course it had to be cancelled. It was very disappointing, but very necessary. In fact I would have been in Rome at the time of me writing this. I still was able to learn about the art and architecture of Italy, which was very interesting, and I was able to make a really fun video which kind of got some fame. I originally posted that video on Twitter and TikTok hoping it would go viral, but instead I woke up one day to a bunch of emails from faculty members so that was cool, too. 

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I have several goals for next year, however it was difficult writing this because I don’t know if I will get the chance to accomplish some of these goals. First, I want to form a connection with all of my students in my student teaching placement. This is my primary goal because I want to be there for these students. This is the reason why I wanted to be a teacher in the first place, because I want to help my kids like how my teachers helped me. I wasn’t able to do this in spring because of how it got cut short, so I want to make sure (hopefully) that it happens next fall. 

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I also made a goal for if online classes continue so that all of my hopes don’t rely on going back to college. If classes stay online and I stay in Cleveland, my goal is to learn how to sew. My grandma gave me her sewing machine and I think it would be really cool if I could customize clothes. I have heard that it is very profitable to buy clothes from thrift shops, customize it, and then sell it on Ebay so that could be a fun thing to get into. Also depending on how the situation progresses, I think it would be a cool goal if I could reach out to my high school math teachers and ask if I could help or observe or do anything with their online classes (or in person classes). This would allow me to still get some kind of experience. Hopefully the world goes back to normal for fall, but at least these Year in Reviews were probably very interesting to read.