Section Two: Teacher Candidate Background Experiences

Introduction

Welcome to Section Two of the Elementary Portfolio Project, this section will explore

my background experiences as a teacher candidate. In this section I will provide an overview of

my educational background and work experiences, philosophy of Education, resume, school

observations, and classroom applications. I have worked in education for the last ten years in a

variety of places. All these experiences have proven to me time and time again how much I enjoy

working with children specifically in the field of education.

Teacher Candidate Educational Background and Work Experiences

Education Experiences:

Elementary:

In Elementary school, I was not one of the students who did very well. School was

difficult for me and I struggled through a lot of my elementary experience. I had trouble reading

and writing and this caused me a great deal of stress from a very young age. My mother would

spend an hour with me every night helping me with my reading and writing. I dreaded this extra

tutoring time because it was such a struggle for me. In grade one, I was pushed aside because I

did not excel with the other children. I knew at that very young age that something was wrong,

and I was falling behind. What I did not know until I was older was that I had dyslexia. I have

developed strategies to work with my dyslexia so that it is no longer an issue but the struggle I

experienced while I was young had a profound impact.

I would never forget how it felt to fall between the cracks making me feel as though I was

not intelligent or worthy of help. Thankfully, I had a very supportive mother to help me along in
my education. With her guidance developed learning strategies to aid me in my learning

disability. Being a student with dyslexia has been a major influence in choosing to work in the

education field. I wanted to work with kids who were going through the same struggles that I had

in school. I felt that it was important to not let them fall through the cracks and make sure to give

them the extra support they needed and deserved. I wanted to work with these children to give

them the strategies they needed to succeed. I also wanted to make sure children experiencing

what I did, didn’t feel that they were unworthy or incapable of doing well. I also did not enjoy

my educational experience and I want to make sure that the children that I work with do enjoy it.

When I completed my Highschool, I decided to go to Conestoga College to become and

Educational Assistant.

College:

Educational Assistant seemed like the obvious next step to take in order to work with

children, specifically those with learning disabilities and special needs. The program gave me the

tools and experiences I needed in order to work in the school system with these students. The

two-year program consisted of classroom instruction and practical experience through field

placements. I learned current educational theories and practices, behavioral strategies, learning

and classroom strategies and the role and responsibilities of an Educational Assistant. The most

impactful course I took through the program was Student Growth and Development in

Educational Settings. The course expanded on human development theories, it covered concept

of child and youth development related to social, cognitive, physical, emotional and

communication areas. It put meaning behind the strategies educational assistants and teachers

use in the classroom. The course would discuss a strategy, then explore the theories and research

behind it. I enjoyed the course because it clarified how, why and when I should be using these
strategies with students in the classroom. It was a very practical and impactful course that I still

reference today in my job as an Educational Assistant. The other course that was especially

enlightening was Approaches to Autism. Anyone who has worked with a student with ASD

knows how difficult it can be. Each student is individual, and you have to take the time to learn

how to work with them. However, the course Approaches to Autism provided me with a variety

strategies to decrease the change of aggression and help prevent crisis situations from

developing. The program also provided me with the opportunity to work in two different schools

over the course of eight months and gain hands on experience working with students. After

becoming a certified Educational Assistant, I decided to continue my education through Wilfrid

Laurier University and gain a degree in Youth and Children’s studies.

University

The youth and children’s studies program looked at the many different perspectives,

using psychology, criminology, media studies, indigenous studies, health studies, literature and

history. The program provided me with a range of skills that helped me approach social, cultural,

educational, legal, and health issues that face children and those who work with them. While

completing my degree, psychology became a second passion of mine. I enjoyed learning about

the many aspects of the mind and human behavior. These areas interconnected with my other

areas of interest in youth and children and education. One of the courses I took required that I

completed 80 hours of volunteer work in a placement with youth. I did a placement with an at-

risk youth center. This center gave youth a safe place to hang out in the evening. It got the kids

off the street and under the supervision of adults in a fun and understanding environment. While

I completed my hours, I grew to know a lot of the youth and their stories. Many of the kids came
from very difficult home lives that impacted their day to day experiences. This experience was

very enlightening. I learned that I could make a difference in their lives just by sitting and

spending time with these kids and listening to their stories. I would help them with their

homework when they brought it in. I would listen when they needed to be heard. I gave them an

opportunity to show off their talents in a monthly talent show. Just by doing these simple things,

I had a positive impact on these kids. Becoming a teacher was the next natural step in my

academic career. It combined all of my passions and goals and truly makes difference for the

children that I have and will work with as an educator.

Work Experiences

While completing my Educational Assistant certification with Conestoga College, I had

the great experience of completing my apprenticeship hours within two local Elementary public

schools. The first school I worked within was Ayr Public School, where I mostly worked within

a kindergarten classroom assisting the teacher with everyday learning needs. The second school I

worked in was Cedar Creek Public school which is where I worked with a variety of grades, but I

spent a lot of my time within a grade 7 classroom, primarily working 1:1 with a young boy of

complex learning needs. In both schools I worked with children of varying levels of learning

needs. Working with a variety of students helped prepare me to work in a classroom where some

of the students may have learning needs that may need to be accommodated. During these

apprenticeships is when I first learned how to assess students, by monitoring their progress and

keeping detailed files on the students I worked with. The information I gathered on each student

would be shared with the classroom teacher, the information also was assessed by myself and the

teacher in order to develop individual lessons/accommodations for the students I worked with. I

will continue to use this knowledge that I gained during my apprenticeship as an educational
assistant in my future career as an educator. It has helped to prepare me and develop strategies to

accommodate students and teach them in a variety of ways. Understanding that student’s

learning a variety of ways and students have different needs has been a positive learning

experience for my professional development. It has given me the ability to modify and

accommodate lesson plans as necessary for the students that will be coming in and out of my

classroom throughout the years to come.

In the summer of 2018, I worked as an Early Childhood Educator with Paris Childcare.

This was a great experience for me because it gave me the opportunity to be a classroom teacher

to the pre-school children. It was particularly exciting opportunity because prior to this job, I had

only worked as an assistant to the teacher but never as the teacher of the classroom. I used a lot

of my prior knowledge that I had gained working in a kindergarten classroom during my first

apprenticeship placement within Ayr public school, to help guide me with managing classroom. I

would prepare classroom materials daily and organize activities that developed children’s

physical, emotional and social growth. Each week we would cover a new letter of the alphabet

using Jolly Phonics, I would have the children sing a song about the letter and complete an art

craft that integrated the letter and the song. I made sure to keep the learning fun and exciting in

order to maintain the children’s attention, which can be quite difficult when working with 18

kids all under the age of 4. However, a lot of the pre-school classroom teaching hinges on play-

based learning. While the children were playing, I would take the time to go around the

classroom and teach mini lessons with one or a few students who were playing together. Such as

teaching them about the basics of area by asking them how many blocks they could fit in a box

and if they could fit more of the big blocks or little blocks. These little lessons were always fun
for the children because they truly do enjoy learning even if they do not know that is what they

are doing.

In September of 2018 I began working as a supply educational assistant with the

Waterloo Region District School Board. Within two months of picking up supply positions in

several schools across the board, I was offered a term educational assistant position with Tait

Street Public School in Cambridge, Ontario. The experience with Tait has been the most

influential and constructive experience I have gained thus far. Tait is a very high needs and low

socioeconomic status school, making it a very intensive learning experience for me. I worked

with several students who had learning disabilities, from ASD students, complex needs students

to students with dyslexia, ODD and ADHD. The first few months working with Tait were

extremely stressful because I had to get to know each of the student’s, their needs and what

strategies worked with them. Many of the students would run out of class or become

physical/aggressive to avoid work. I had to develop a variety of strategies to work with the

students safely and keep them in the classroom, all the while helping them learn something along

the way. Working with each of these students taught me a lot about managing student behavior

in the classroom. I will use the extensive knowledge and experiences I have gained from this job

in my future career as an educator.

School Observations and Classroom Application

I have spent many hours observing teachers within their classroom, who all vary in their

degree of teaching experience. I have observed first year teachers, all the way to teachers who

are working their last year before retirement. What always stands out most to me is how evident

it is that these teachers love their job and the students they work with. Of course as educators you

need to have classroom management, follow curriculum standards and the ability to teach a
variety of learners, but if you love your job and the students, you create a natural positive

learning environment where the student’s want to work and learn with you. What this

observation shows me is that making sure to create that bond with your students is a very

important component of teaching and classroom management. The classrooms I have observed

in have a positive and constructive flow to them, which I hope to have in my own classroom in

the future.

The most effective teachers I have observed understand that students learn in a variety of

ways. These teachers seem to follow Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and

understand that by making sure to connect to as many of those intelligences as possible when

teaching a lesson is the most effective way to reach most of the students. Teaching every student

as though they learn the same way often leaves many students behind unless the classroom has

an educational assistant available to help those students who did not understand the lesson the

first time it was taught. Many of these teachers have learning centers for ELA and mathematics

because it allows students to gain their knowledge from a variety of ways which increases the

likelihood that they will understand the lesson. I will make sure to create lessons that

accommodate the many learning styles and I will likely do this through learning centers just as

the teachers I have observed have done in their classrooms.

In my observations, effective teachers use Bloom’s Taxonomy to develop higher order

thinking by building off of student’s lower level skills and teaching lessons that build off of each

stage of learning. For example, effective teachers would choose a story and build many of their

lessons, including language, math and science, surroundings that story. In one of the classes I

observed in the teacher used the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle to teach many

curriculum standards and subjects. She used the language from the book as several of her
language words of the week, which she then had students practice and work with them through

out the week in a variety of ways. She also used the book in her science class to teach the

students about the life cycle of a caterpillar/butterfly. She even went as far as using the book with

her math lesson to teach the students about symmetry by using butterfly wings as an example of

symmetry. I loved the way that she not only had to the students build off of their knowledge one

step at a time, but she also helped the students create connections within their learning by having

many of the lessons surround the one story. I will implement this teaching strategy within my

own classroom because I think it is an excellent way to keep students engaged and encourage

higher order thinking step by step.

Philosophy of Education

My personal philosophy is that all students learn in their own way for the reason that

there are different types of learners. I believe that using multiple methods of teaching is the most

effective way to reach all students and ensure that no student falls behind. I lean heavily towards

Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences; Gardner’s theory suggests that everyone is

stronger in some areas more than in others and those areas interconnect and form our unique

selves. As an educator I believe that students learn in many ways and what may work for one

may not work for another student. I hope to enable each learner to engage in their education by

integrating lesson plans that supports their unique type of learning.

As an educator, I feel that it is vital to understand that students learn in a variety of ways

and it is our role to accommodate all learning types. The eight different intelligences

(Armstrong) include; linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic, musical,

interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. Each student will be stronger in some areas than in

others. For instance, one student may be strong in intrapersonal and musical skills while another
may be strong in interpersonal and logical-mathematical skills. A great way to accommodate

these different learners is through learning centers. With learning centers, you can either have

groups rotate through the different learning centers which would give them the opportunity to

excel in one center and take a risk in another where they may be more uncomfortable. Another

option would be to create learning centers an allow students to choose their own group where

they feel they would be able to do their best work. These centers can always be modified to

accommodate the specific classroom environment.

There are many ways to accommodate the many forms of intelligence in the classroom.

Teachers need to develop lesson plans that will give all students the opportunity to tap into their

area of strength. Giving all students the opportunity to do well at different times builds self-

confidence and empowerment. As well, encouraging students to help their peers in areas where

they may not be as strong will help to build a positive classroom community. Effective

educators are those who can reach all students and bring them along together. That is my

personal philosophy of education.

Resume

Introduction.

My professional resume is my gathering of experiences, both work and volunteer, that

have contributed to my personal and professional growth and guiding me in finding my path as

an educator. In the attached resume I have included many experiences that I hope will

demonstrate to the reader my wide range of abilities and vast skillset. This collection of

experiences has contributed to my ability to teach students and my knowledge and development

as an educator.
 Darlene Drover
12 Palmerston Avenue, Brantford, Ontario
519-635-8313
dd3222@medaille.edu

CERTIFICATION:
Elementary Education, K-6

EDUCATION:
Master of Science in Education, Elementary Education, Anticipated
December 2019
Medaille College, Buffalo, New York

Bachelor of Liberal Arts, Honors Youth and Children’s Studies,

Graduated May 2018
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario

Educational Assistant Certification, Apprenticeship, Graduated May 2011

Conestoga College, Kitchener, Ontario

RELATED EXPERIENCE:
Supply Educational Assistant
Waterloo Region District School Board, LTO Tait Street Public School
Cambridge, ON
August 2018 – present
 Worked with children of varying levels of learning needs
 Created daily lesson plans that developed children’s physical,
emotional and social growth

Early Childhood Educator

Paris Childcare
Paris, ON
Summer 2018
 Prepared classroom materials and organized activities that developed
children’s physical, emotional and social growth
 Maintained children’s attention by presenting materials in a fun and
exciting way

Educational Assistant (Apprenticeship)

Cedar Creek Public School
Ayr, Ontario
October 2010 – February 2011
 Educational Assistant (Apprenticeship)
Ayr Public School
Ayr, Ontario
February 2010 – June 2010
 Trained in Primary and Junior classrooms
 Worked with children of varying levels of learning needs
 Monitored educational progress by keeping detailed individual charts
and files
 Created daily lesson plans that developed children’s physical,
emotional and social growth
 Collaborated daily with classroom teachers to keep activities running
smoothly

Youth Worker
Argus Residence
Cambridge, ON
Summer 2018
 Role modeling important life skills for the youth living in the
residence
 Implemented agency behavior management procedures and monitored
client’s behavior

VOLUNTEER:
Nutrition for Learning
Chalmers Public School
Cambridge, ON
January 2017 – May 2017
 Promotes and assisted developing health food choices for those who
participated in the program
 Prepared nutritional breakfasts for children with emphasis on
providing convenience and nutrition
 Provided students with appropriate portions with respect to dietary
restrictions and child development

Youth Service Assistant

Why Not Youth Centre
Brantford, ON
October 2013 – March 2014
 Assisted in programs that fostered social development, personal
growth and empowerment of at-risk youth
  Role modeling important life skills for the students attending the
program
 Developed and implemented activities that met physical, emotional,
recreational and educational needs of the youth
 Implemented agency behavior management procedures and monitored
client’s behavior

TRAINING:
Behavior Management Systems Training, November 2018
Educational Assistant Certification, May 2011
Red Cross Standard First Aid & CPR/AED Level C & HCP, June 2018

TECHNOLOGY:
Microsoft Office
Google Docs
Smart Board
Elmo Projector

Conclusion
I hope that you enjoyed reading through Section Two: Teacher Candidate Background

Experience of the Elementary Portfolio. Many of the experiences I highlighted in my resume

have, both inside and outside of the classroom, have led me to my personal philosophy of

education. My education and work experiences have helped me grow and develop in the field of

education. I hope to apply this growth and development that I have gained, to my own goal of

becoming an elementary school teacher.

In Section Three of my Elementary Portfolio I will introduce several artifacts that will

demonstrate my ability of an educator. I have gained these artifacts during my schooling with

Medaille College. These artifacts I have developed while completing my Masters of Education

program display my ability to graduate and move forward in my profession as an educator of the

children who are our future.