Dispositional Goals

By the time that I have completed my student teaching term I will be able to:

 Empathize with my students’ strengths, disadvantages, and circumstantial funds of

knowledge to know how best to regard them as individuals and reach them as
learners.

 Develop deep and lasting relationships with my students in which they feel
comfortable coming to me with their struggles and triumphs, and appreciate my
aspiration and ability to help them become life long learners.

 Understand my own short comings and blind spots when it comes to the vast array of
variety that my students will bring to the classroom; quickly address my own
subconscious prejudice and intolerance; and know where and whom to turn to in order
to find solutions for – and alterations to – my teaching style and strategies in order to
best help my students grow.

 Comfortably and unselfconsciously present my difficulties and shortcomings with

planning, classroom management, and resource curation and creation to my
colleagues, peers, and mentors to learn from their wisdom with the goal of growing my
own teaching practice.

 Demonstrate an excellent model of accountability, integrity, and responsibility to my

students in both my professional and personal life in order to help them to become
both upstanding individuals and virtuous citizens.

 Maintain stability and patience, and manage stress in myself in the face of difficulty,
adversity, and chaos in my classroom and personal life.

Instructional Goals
By the time that I have completed my student teaching term I will be able to:

 Command respect in my classroom through a strong presence as a teacher, through

both my verbal and physical communications with my students.

 Create a fair and unbiased classroom by consistently implementing my own system of

rewards and punishments, while always being sensitive and attentive to my students’
unique circumstances and dispositions.

 Feel confident in the classroom space by increasing my familiarity with the range of
tools at my disposal, and the variety of resources my school provides me to manage
and educate my students.

 Collaborate effectively with my cooperating teacher and inter-and intra- departmental

colleagues, and make significant contributions to the overarching departmental plans
 and curricular goals, as well as implement those goals and objectives in my own
classroom and teaching of the material.

 Modify and adapt my teaching practices in order to best reach the diverse needs and
interests of all my students, regardless of their faceted backgrounds and diverse range
of abilities.

 Comfortably and unselfconsciously evaluate my progress as an educator and mentor,

finding my weakness and ways in which to address these shortcomings, through daily
self-reflection and observation.

 Internalize and synthesize the curriculum and standards in order to best know how to
relay it to my students, taking in to account each of my students’ ability levels and
dispositions.

 Understand how best to help both my special education and gifted and talented
students access the math and science curriculum.

Community/Cultural Goals
By the time that I have completed my student teaching term I will be able to:

 Become an advocate for my minority students, understand more deeply and

completely the cultural heritage of all of my students, and know how best to apply the
curriculum to their individual cultures and religions.

 Apply a proactive model of cultural competence in my classroom to not only assist my

culturally marginalized students, but to educate all of my students on the importance
of being sensitive and accepting of all of humankinds idiosyncrasies.

 More deeply appreciate the affect that my own cultural heritage, upbringing, and
white-privilege has on my teaching methods, predispositions, and subconscious
biases in order to better appreciate the affect my persona has on my students and
classroom.

 Advocate for my students both in and outside the classroom through outreach to their
families and communities, and through active participation in school and community
events and services.

 Incorporate culturally relevant pedagogy and content into my own instruction in order
to best reach all of my students.
Statement
Who am I as a teacher? What is my work and purpose?

First and foremost, I strive to be an inspiring educator and enact positive change in my
students lives. Throughout my own youth, my teachers were devoted not only to their
subject matter but to their students. The encouragement provided by the teachers and
mentors in my life instilled in me the belief that I can do anything I put my mind to. It is
this belief that I would like to pass on to my students, giving them every opportunity to
succeed. I feel it is my responsibility to impart my own experiences to others with the
goal of enabling them to develop the skills they need to pursue their own ambitions.

In college I strove to combine my passion for science and math with my love of the
outdoors. Through my studies I learned to see the math and the physical sciences as a
way to not only understand the natural world, but to deepen our appreciation of its
beauty and splendor. I endeavor to use this viewpoint to help inspire passion for STEM
in my students. I believe that an appreciation for nature can be a powerful tool to tie
diverse subject matter together and make school exciting, stimulating, and relevant.

My own experiences have shown me that a strong education is the greatest gift you can
give to a child. It is a teachers duty to pass on their experiences to others, enabling
them to develop the skills they need to pursue their own ambitions, while creating a life-
long love of learning. I have always sought a means to help better this world. I found my
avenue through guiding and coaching; teaching allows me the chance to make a
significant difference in my students lives, and in return give me a way to do something
great.

I have found my own greatest joy in learning, and hope to pass the desire to be a
lifelong student on to my own pupils. This is because I care passionately about my
students, and find myself drawn towards the kids who struggle, whether it is with the
material or with social activities. Helping them to see the value of learning and self-
growth is the ultimate reward for an educator.

As a teacher, my greatest aspiration is to leave a progressive, enlightened and positive

impact on our world.