First Year Goals

With my recent graduation and initiation into the teaching field, I am

starting to look forward to the future of my career. Throughout my student
teaching and experience from Arizona State University Ive acquired a
foundation of pedagogical skill and classroom content. In my first year of
teaching, I wish to accomplish two specific goals to add to my teaching
repertoire. I want to increase and apply my pedagogical knowledge for
classroom management. During my first year, I expect to incur some
unfamiliar situations. My experience up to this point has prepared me for
content knowledge as well as preparing fun, productive, and engaging
activities for students. However, classroom management is an occurrence
that one must experience to learn from. I hope with the guidance from other
experienced faculty, I can develop my own approach to maintaining a
productive learning environment. In addition, I would like to establish a
lesson plan portfolio that integrates technology so that students become
familiarized with different educational applications. In a modern world, young
adults are highly encouraged to have a basic comprehension of technology
so that they are better prepared for their futures in a career or in higher
education. I plan to implement use of laptops as well as cell phones in both
routine activities and project assessments. My hope is to prepare my
students to be career and college ready by expanding their content and
technologic knowledge.
Five-Year Plan
Continuing my goals in my first year, I plan on taking on more
responsibility within the school in the following years. During the next five
years I would like to become a coach for one of the sponsored sports. I
coached during my college years at my alma mater for badminton and would
eventually like to return to the sport. I think it is a great way for teachers to
get involved and provide a character-building outlet for students. It is
something that Im passionate about; sports were always therapeutic for me
and I would like to pass that along to a younger generation. In addition to my
involvement in extracurricular activities, during my final year in college I had
the opportunity to work at The Arizona Historical Society Museum where I
was able to be a part of a national research competition called National
History Day. For the competition, students work with their social studies
teachers and other sponsors to research and build a presentation that aligns
with the historical theme for that years competition. I believe this is a great
program for the school and myself to become a part of. Students are
encouraged and led through the planning, research, and construction phase
of their projects in a fun and engaging way. Performance objectives and
standards are applied throughout the process to maintain an educational
appeal to the national competition.
Professional Organizations

So much of teaching is the continuation of learning for educators.

Professional development within our discipline produces more relatable,
innovative, and engaging lessons for students. One professional organization
I wish to participate in would be the Arizona Council for Social Studies
(ACSS). The organization is in affiliation with the National Council for Social
Studies as well as 110 other state, local, and regional councils for education.
I value this particular group because they partake in programs for
anthropology, political science, geography, and several other social sciences.
I think belonging to an organization like this would create a robust collection
of resources to use during my teaching. In addition, I agree and fully support
their mission statement as I believe it applies to my class, the purpose of
social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed
and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse,
democratic society in an interdependent world.
As I am interested in spearheading the humanities program at the
school, I believe participating in the American Anthropological Association
(AAA) would better support me in addressing the various facets of the
humanities discipline. The AAA is the worlds largest organization of
anthropological professionals and strives to advance knowledge and finding
solutions for human problems. Though it is comprised primarily of those in
the field, they encourage teachers to join to expand the education of
anthropology. The organization covers the four fields of anthropology, which
can be seen in several standards for a social studies classroom. I think that
belonging to a program such as this incorporates current events and the
continuation of discovery that is pertinent to society and in an educational
setting. In addition, I think it would be exciting for students to be involved
with some of the organizations advocacy programs and create their own
solutions for problems found around the world.