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Week 1 - Introduction

Hi! My name is Jess Berg, and I am an aspiring Elementary School teacher! I live in Littleton, CO with my husband, 12-year-old son, and puppy, Olive. I love and cherish spending time with my family! 

I have spent the past six years as an instructional paraprofessional, and I have fallen in love with teaching. I want to be a teacher because I am passionate about lifelong learning, I love the daily challenge- no two days are the same- and I get a lot of enjoyment out of helping students learn, grow, and realize their potential. 

The school I am at is in a suburban area with a majority of white, middle-class families that primarily speak English. The first-grade classroom where I focus for my practicum has 21 students that are ages 6 & 7. All students previously went to kindergarten and most went to preschool. There are two students with significant disabilities (Down syndrome and Spina bifida) who have IEPs and modifications as well as three additional students with IEP's for speech and learning disabilities. There is one student who has been through significant trauma, and one MLL student whose home language is Mandarin Chinese. My mentor teacher has been teaching for 14 years, 11 of them at this school, and she has her PhD in education. I hope to be as calm and flexible as she is someday, she's an amazing model of what I am striving for!

Some specific areas I will focus on during this course include asking good questions that promote deep thinking and reflection, creating and implementing differentiated instruction tools to help reach all students and that contribute towards an inclusive classroom, and effectively use a variety of formative assessments to make sure that students are understanding the content being taught.




Comments

  1. Teaching Science and Social StudiesJanuary 23, 2025 at 2:29 PM

    Love this Jess!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chava FleisherJanuary 26, 2025 at 7:23 AM

    Jess, it sounds like you have an incredible mentor teacher, as well as a classroom that provides lots of opportunities for you to learn from.
    I like the course goals you chose - it sounds like you understand many important aspects of teaching that go past the content being taught.

    ReplyDelete

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