Oh, the Places I’ve Been!

As I reflect on my personal and academic goals written two years ago, I realized how I met my initial goals and how my goals have changed.  One of my goals was to secure a teaching position that would grant me experiences beyond recognition and challenge my expertise.  I started to achieve that goal by having a teaching position in Shanghai, China for 4 years.  I taught first grade for 2 years and kindergarten for 2 years.  Now, I feel that I will be achieving that goal again by moving to Italy and teaching pre-kindergarten with a completely different curriculum.  This is helping me to gain different experiences with different cultures and different teaching methods and is challenging my expertise by following a completely different curriculum.

My second goal was to further explore the challenges that children face with reading and writing, especially those challenges where English is a second language.  I have found that I have worked towards achieving this goal with the various classes I have taken with my Master’s courses and my daily teaching experiences in China.  I will further achieve this goal by working with a different culture and different age group of students where English is a second language.

My third goal was to improve my knowledge and teaching style on one of the most challenging, rewarding and beneficial subjects in Elementary school: Literacy.  I have worked towards achieving this goal with my Literacy concentration through the Master of Arts program and also through some of my electives.  I have learned new programs to use within the classroom and also programs that students can use at home to help assist in the acquisition of reading, writing and oral skills.  I feel that this goal also will be further achieved with my move to Italy.

By Carley Hackney