Caffeinated Kalliope

2020-2021 School Year: Special Education (General) Grades 2-3, 2021-2022 School Year: Special Education (General) Grades 3-4, 2022-2023 School Year: Special Education (General) Grades 4-5, 2023-2024 School Year: Special Education (General) Grade 5

My teaching style emphasizes the importance of the growth mindset and building solid relationships with my students. I've found that in this role as a special education teacher working with students accessing the general education curriculum, that most students have this innate desire to grow and feel confident in their learning. Students accessing the general education curriculum despite their exceptional category have a responsibility to learn grade level standards, and I have grown to understand the importance of helping them develop the skills needed to access the content. My teaching philosophy aligns with meeting the students where they are at developmentally, but ensuring that they have ambitious goals to project them further in their learning. Often times this yields high growth on district and state assessments, IEP goals and character development. Two of the main pillars in my teaching philosophy is establishing nurturing relationships with my students and engaging them in understanding their data. This plays on students' innate desire to want to grow, intrinsically motivating them to do everything they can to meet their goals. I've found that when students establish their own goals based on their data, they are more inclined to work towards meeting their goals than the ones I have created for them without their input. Establishing the strong relationship with students allows for corrective feedback to be well received, helps create a safe space for honest conversations about growth, and also gives students the opportunity to receive praise for all their accomplishments. The strong relationship between myself and students allows me to more accurately determine their needs and strengths, as well as motivates me to be a better teacher everyday. Clearly, we as teachers don't do it for the money...we do it for our students.

National Board Certified Exceptional Needs Specialist, Highly Qualified Scores on Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (EdTPA), Rookie Teacher of the Year 2020-2021 at Simkins Elementary School

In my early education I attended Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. Shortly after graduating high school in 2016, I moved to Cullowhee, North Carolina to attend Western Carolina University (WCU) to pursue a bachelors degree in Inclusive Education (K-12 Special Education Degree, K-6 Elementary Education Degree). I am a proud Alumni of the Pride of the Mountains Marching Band, sister of Sigma Alpha Iota, and actively supported the University Participant Program at WCU. In my time at WCU, I participated in numerous service learning and teaching experience opportunities. I completed a two week long Social Studies Teaching Practicum in Kenya, participated in the Transformative Rural Urban Exchange, and for fun I attended Florence University of the Arts to study abroad and complete my minor in Art. Majority of the programs I participated in helped me to understand diverse populations across school settings, understand how to differentiate for unique and common learning needs, and become an advocate for the students I work with to overcome systematic limitations.

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