Contact+Me!

__**About Me:**__

Hello, my name is Kelsey Brogan. I am a senior at Illinois State University, majoring in Elementary Education. This website is designed to inform students about the different aspects of the Dominican Republic. It is part of a greater website that focuses on the continent of Latin America. The activities found on this website are written for various elementary levels.

//Please feel free to email me with questions or comments at:// kabroga@ilstu.edu



My Educational Philosophy as I work towards graduation:

As I reflect upon the nine moral and intellectual virtues, I realize that I need to look deeper into myself to find the teacher I desire to become. Although all nine are very important aspects of teaching, there are three in particular that I feel an extra pull of passion for. The three virtues that will form my personal teaching foundation include- sensitivity toward the varieties of individual and cultural diversity, interest in and an ability to seek out informational, technological, and collegial support, and contagious intellectual enthusiasm and courage enough to be creative.

The first virtue I chose was the sensitivity toward the varieties of individual and cultural diversity. This is a moral virtue. It emphasizes the importance of awareness and respect for the differences and uniqueness’s of individual students. In order to be successful, I will need to practice cultural fairness. Cultural fairness stresses the importance of not only acknowledging and accepting different cultures within my classroom, but also celebrating them. Before I become a teacher I need to take classes or join clubs that inform me about a number of cultures, especially those that I have never been exposed to. It would also be beneficial if I observe in a variety of schools that are made up different demographics outside of my comfort zone. As part of celebrating each culture, I will need to find lesson plan ideas on how to integrate different cultures into different lessons. To get such ideas, I could search for lessons on the Internet, ask experienced teachers, or search through lesson plan books.

The second virtue I chose was the interest in and an ability to seek out informational, technological, and collegial support. Whether it’s a behavioral issue, cultural barrier, lesson plan conflict, lack of supplies, or a concern in relation to an inclusion situation, this intellectual virtue states that I am not afraid to take the initiative to search for resources and ask for help. Currently, I am given a number of valuable teaching resources. To help me be successful later on, I need to organize and tab the resources that I feel may be become useful in my future. I need to take note of the any websites my teachers mention and explore them for myself. Throughout my clinical hours, it will be my responsibility to seek out teachers and consistently ask for their guidance, viewpoints, or ideas. I could even go to my local library and ask what resources that have available for me to use as well.

The third virtue I chose was the contagious intellectual enthusiasm and courage enough to be creative. This virtue is intellectual and states that I am going to serve as a motivator to my students, going beyond the ordinary, and doing whatever it takes to reach out and pull them into learning. I think the best thing I could do to keep up my enthusiasm for learning, is to surround myself with passionate teachers. I could even go and listen to motivational speakers that share success stories in relation to teaching. In becoming creative, I hope to attend as many teacher workshops as possible along with visiting a number of children museums. Children museums are often filled with a number of hands on activities that I could modify for the use of my own lessons.

“He who dares to teach must never cease to learn.” (Anonymous) By becoming a teacher, I am committing to a life long journey of learning. Not only will I be learning about new teaching methods, content methods, and my students, but I will also be learning about where I am at as a teacher and where I strive to be. I will be able to learn as much as I want to learn, and the more I learn, the more I will be able to impact my students and their futures.

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Created April 1, 2010; Revised April 2, 2010 Created by Kelsey Brogan; Contact my at kabroga@ilstu.edu Copyright 2010