A letter to my Future Self

Write a letter to your future professional self from your current perspective. What’s important to you now that you want yourself to remember?

Dear Me,

     Although these teaching classes seemed dumb and a waste of money, they helped you connect to teachers and understand their role in the classroom and how to work with them when you wanted to run groups and guidance lessons.

     Each year, try to go to an ASCA conference, they are always so much fun and have a ton of resources to use with students. They also will help you keep up to date with the school counseling world and what your role should be in the school.

     If you haven't already, go and start your second license in Mental health, it is something you always wanted to do and it will make you so happy. You really enjoyed Practicum and did amazing.

     Work hard and stay humble. Be okay with silence, sometimes the students need an extra minute to think. Don't stress, you always get everything done, even if it seems impossible. This is the job you always wanted to do, so don't get run down. Go to the gym instead to run off steam.

Sincerely, Your younger you

Consider the future

Consider your future. Where do you hope to be? For each of the time periods, ask yourself about your professional goals and your personal goals.

•One year from today:

• Professionally: I hope to be getting ready for my first full year as a school counselor in orange or Seminole county.
• Personally: I think I will be starting to plan for my wedding, I want a long engagement so I think this time of the year would be perfect.

•Five years from today:

• Professionally: I will start working on my second license towards my mental health career. 
• Personally: Maybe I will be considering having kids and moving into a new house.  

•Ten years from today

• Professionally: I will have a private practice on the side, while still working in the schools as a school counselor.
• Personally: I will be done having kids and my family will be traveling together.

•At the end of your career: I will have been both a school counselor and a mental health counselor and hopefully I have written a few articles or journals and maybe even been published.

Think back through your elementary and secondary schooling experiences. Recall a teacher who was known as being a successful classroom disciplinarian.

Reflect on why and how that teacher was successful.

What strategies did they implement?

What was your relationship with that teacher like?

How did the teacher respond to misbehavior?

One of my favorite teachers was also one that commanded a classroom. I believe she was one of my middle school language arts teachers. She was younger than most of my other teachers, but she connected with the students and I remember always feeling like she was listening. I remember being called out for dozing off or talking multiple times, but then when it came to needing someone to talk to she was there as well. From what I remember about the classroom experience was that we sat in groups and worked with those groups, she would pull people aside while we would work, if she needed to discuss something, and she always layered poor news with good news.

Understanding Yourself: Culture and Classroom Management

1. High or low context culture?

• I do believe I can count on using my own knowledge and reading cues in a situation in order to get the message.

2. Monochronic or polychromic?

• I prefer a buzz of things happening at the same time, I am more polychromic.

3. Past, present, or future?

• I believe I value the present and the future, those in my life seem to view things the same.

4. What's the nature of time?

• Tine is limited, we should not waste it.

5. What are the power distances where you live?

• I believe there is a big power difference between those who have it and those who desire it.

6. Individualism or collectivism?

• I respect and value loyalty to a team.

Classroom Assesment Technique

Interviews:

In grad school we used interviews to get a greater understanding of the field we will soon be working in. I think there is a lot of information we can learn from books, but there is nothing like hearing real life experiences from someone already in the field. I do not know much about using interviews as assessment tools, but I think it would be beneficial to use in the classroom as long as there is a designated list of questions the students must get answered.

One of the research articles I found mentioned that interviews can "provide an important simultaneous opportunity to explore what the students have learned, from the interview itself as well as from their ongoing real-time and real-life negotiations."

A fun way to incorporate interviews into the classroom could be to have students interview older grades about what is going on in their class, as a way for them to ask about experiences and what to expect in the following years.

Traffic Lights of Planning

What has stopped you in your tracks when you think of planning?

Right now, this class is my last teaching class and the last "teaching" lesson plan I have to create. When I have to sit down to finish it, I begin to think of all the other things I have to do for my actual counseling courses and clients. So maybe it is procrastination, but if it was a lesson plan having to do with small groups or guidance lessons, I think I would feel more inclined and excited to finish it.

How have you begun to move ahead in planning or what is assisting with your growth?

The book and resources I have found on the internet are really helpful in the planning of my lesson. I have also created lesson plans in the past and use to teach, so that also helps me as well.

Do you feel comfortable planning- explain?

I feel very comfortable planning, I believe I have all the resources around me to succeed, as well as the background knowledge. I also think I like my topic I want to create so I do not see it being to hard to create my lesson plan.

Connect, Extend, Challenge

In the "Connect":
I think technology is more useful than I thought. I can see how it is important to stay relevant with the times to keep students engaged.
 
In the "Extend":
There is not much that really made me rethink my prior knowledge besides the fact that I learned how SMART goals can be related to goals and objectives for teaching.


In the "Challenge":
I thought reading about the theories was interesting, especially the developmental, those are very similar to the theories in counseling. I do find challenges in connecting all the various medias. Also, from previous experience and after reading the ESOL module, and taking the TSL class I can see how working with ELL students can be difficult and time consuming, it is important to make sure they have all the help they need.

Habits of the Mind

Habits of the Mind By: Costa and Kallick

Project Zero's Studio Habits of the Mind

How will you behave intelligently when you don't have the answer, when faced with problems, uncertainties, and enigmas?

At first, when reading the Habits of the Mind I was drawn to Listening with understanding and empathy, Thinking flexibly, Finding Humor, and applying past knowledge to new situations. However, after concluding the entire reading, I understand that I can use each habit of the mind in a variety of situations. Each plays a part in decision making and learning and it is important to be aware of each option.

In the future there will be multiple times I will have to make an intellectual decisions when I do not readily have the answer. I have found that I am very right brained and I try to take things apart and really look into my background knowledge for my first educated answer. In counseling we are taught to think ethically and critically and always consult when we don't know the answer.  When faced with problems of uncertainties it is important to remain level headed and think flexibly for all options. I also like the point that Costa and Kallick make about how students are always trying to approach tasks as if it were the first time, it is important for educators to teacher students to recall information from their past, to help them in the future. I believe we all learn from our mistakes, some better than others, so using past knowledge for future problems is a vital part in growing intelligence.

 What does intelligent behavior look like to you?

The word intelligence in the school setting is shown by success in classes and grades and excelling past your peers. But to me intelligence is a state of mind and built upon experiences. I think it is such a vague term that is used in such a narrow way. Especially after reading the article above, I find that we all have different levels of intelligence and we all have different strengths. So with that being said, intelligence seems to be a strength within each individual. Intelligent behavior, in my opinion, is thinking things through before action, along with looking inward and thinking of others before you make a specific action. I grew up being taught I must get As and Bs (that is considered smart). I also must treat others the way I would want to be treated. But with growth and insight from other intelligent professors and supervisors, I have learned that yes As and Bs are good, but its about the process that helps you grow, and its not how you want to be treated but how others need to be treated. Knowing those to things, to me, is a sign of intelligent behavior. Self-awareness.

What is your role in advocating for ALL students?

Creating a safe school environment for all students, includes creating a safe school environment of those within the GLBTQ community as well. This is by far a very important national conversation. The way we handle topics such as bathroom privileges discussed in the article from California in 2013, AB 1266 allowing transgendered students to select school facilities by their self perceived gender rather than their birth gender; is important as educators, because we become the role models for our students in how they should also respond.

As a future school counselor, I believe I will have a very huge part in talking with kids about such topics as this. I think the most important thing to do is to educate. In the school community I plan to serve as an ally to the GLBTQ community and advocate for all students. It is important that children of all ages learn to accept others differences, and I, as a school counselor, hope to model that level of acceptance I expect they would give one another. 

With anti-bully campaigns and lessons, I hope my future school will stand together to discourage wrongful mistreatment of students. The GLBTQ community is a different culture just like any other country or nationality out there. In order to respect on another, we must learn about one another. I think creating an open environment for free discussion and questions about different life styles is important, along with creating a safe environment for those who are different. I plan to have a "safe box" outside my office for those who want to talk to me about any topic deemed necessary. That is one step I would make to modeling my office is a safe place and I am a safe person to talk to, for all students.

Developing Your Stance Toward Education

1.What is the good? Who is the good person living in the good society?

          In Education, to me the good is helping students and others grow around you. School becomes a community. I've learned in my school counseling classes that I will become in parentis to my students, like a parent. Students spend most of their days and years with us as they are growing up. It is up to us in the education system to help mold them into wonderful people of society.

          The good person living in the good society is and can be all of us. We all have the potential to be great. One of the quotes I found when trying to answer this question was "A good education can change anyone, but a good teacher can change everything". It reminds me that you never know what impact you are making on someone else's life, and you never know what part of their journey you are impacting.

2.What is the purpose of education?

To produce high achievement.

Socialization. Equal opportunity.

To create opportunities so that individuals can develop along unique paths.

To create hard working individuals who will contribute to society.

to enrich.

3.What should everyone learn? Why?

          How to learn from their own mistakes. Sometimes it is not about the end product but about the journey. It is okay to fall and mess up, but it is more important how you got up and out of it and how you can learn from it. One profession once told me, its not about where you start the race or how your moving through it, but its that you finish. There is so much pressure on doing things the right way, but there is not just one right way to succeed in life, its what works best for you.

4.What is the nature of learning?

Introspection. Building on previous information.

Thinking beyond "I" to "we".

Problem solving. Understanding.

Growing.

Creating a life.

Enriching.

5.What is (excellent) teaching?

          Being passionate about what you are teaching and doing your best to enrich as many tinny humans as you can.

          An Excellent teacher is a life long learner who is also flexible and willing to change with the times in order to help her students grow and really engage in what they are learning.

6.What does school do? 

Provides leadership.

Structure.

Exploration.

A place to find independence.

A community.