Michelle Watson

LSEE 412, Capstone

Self-Assessment of Professional Development #3
When we choose a major, there are always required classes that we must take. It always

seems like a hassle, but it is always useful and worth it. At this point in time, I have now taken

all of the major courses required for the LSEE major at Humboldt State University. Each major

course had the purpose of furthering my education on how to teach children the subjects as well

as helping me to review the subjects themselves. They help me to become a well-rounded future

teacher who is capable of being able to teach multiple subjects to my future students. I have

taken an art class, some language arts classes, math classes, a music class, science classes, a

language development class, and a theatre class.

I was excited to take the two different visual and performing arts classes because I have a

major love for executing art in different ways. For the visual arts class, we learned about the

different aspects of art. We learned the fundamentals first so that we could teach it to future

students. We also worked on how to plan a lesson on art, artists and styles. As for the performing

arts class, I chose to take the theatre class over the dance class because I felt that I would get

more out of the theatre class. This class helped me to work through some of my difficulties with

public speaking an performances. I feel that this will help me in the long run for if I ever need to

address a room full of adults. I was also able to learn how to incorporate different theatre

activities into different lessons to make learning more fun and effective for students.

The language arts, math, language development, and science classes were all extremely

helpful. I had gone through so many years of school and didn’t retain some of the information I

had learned because I didn’t think I would ever need to use it again. For example, some of the

very specific Parts of Speech, how to work through math problems in different ways, and the
different things that affect speech and learning. Thank goodness for these classes or I would not

have been able to review and relearn some of the forgotten information in these subject matters.

If I didn’t relearn or review some of this information, I would not feel confident in my

competency in teaching the subjects to my future students. If it wasn’t for these classes, I also

wouldn’t have been able to write a lesson plan; my first lesson plan was written in one of these

classes.