This semester is going to be a busy one, and I know that there will be times, when I feel like I am not going to make it. However, despite the fact that I have a 20 hour semester load and competition cheerleading season is in full swing, along with basketball games, I know that I will persevere. I have faith in God, that I am in the right place in my life to fulfill my purpose. Therefore, God will get me through any struggle. The first look at the social studies methods Black Board page, made me want to cry, because of all the new stuff and all the big things that were due. However, in class today we participated in an extremely fun scavenger hunt, and I knew that I would have fun in this course, no matter how much work is required. There may be times where I am super stressed, but I know that it will all be worth it in the end.
A little bit about me, my name is Amber Townsend and I am 20 years old, a junior here at Gardner-Webb, and also a cheerleader. I live in Spruce Pine, NC, way up in the mountains where it is always cold. I have a loving mom and dad and younger sister, and I am truly blessed to have them all. I found Gardner-Webb through a cheer camp at my high school, and prayed about if I should go here or not, because this place is ridiculously expensive. I did not think that I would be able to pay for, but I kept praying about it, and decided to apply and tryout for cheerleading. I made the team which gave me a scholarship, and I also received tons of scholarships. I was so amazed at God's amazing power! Coming to Gardner-Webb was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life, and I know it will lead me to greatness.
Teaching is my passion, and there is nothing in this entire world, that I would rather do. When I was younger I would always play "school" with my younger sister, and I would teach her random stuff that I learned at school that day. All of my teachers all throughout my school career were pretty amazing and influential. My favorite teacher in the entire world, was my elementary school teacher, who happened to be moved up to high school music when I was in high school. My music teacher had so much on his plate, all the time. At one point he was the vice principal of my high school, the drama teacher, the music teacher and the band teacher. However, my music teacher always kept a smile on my face and his. The way the children and students looked up to him, made me want to be a teacher like him some day. He would stay after for hours upon hours to help a student with whatever task they asked him. My music teacher genuinely cared for each student he had, and that is the great example I want to follow. I love children so much, and I would love to help them in every way possible. I am so excited to be a teacher one day soon!
Now onto the research, I was looking at different articles pertaining to some problems in the North Carolina education system, and naturally a ton of articles came up. However, I read one article from the Charlotte Observer that was talking about a lawsuit that was against North Carolina schools in 2014, because the students were not receiving adequate teaching. Most of the problems were coming from the low-income schools, and some schools had received record low test scores. The court has filed that as many as 483,000 students were not proficient in reading and math and therefore, they were not getting their basic education. Now this is based completely on test scores, but that number is staggering, and is expected to keep climbing, unless the generation of new teachers step up and help out. I know that test scores do mean that the student does not completely understand, because I am also a terrible test taker myself, and I hate when my final grade is based on test at the end when I have performed well the whole semester.
However, I do hope that us as the new generation of teachers will be able to decrease this number of students who are not proficient in reading and math. I know that with the help of our teachers, we can be the best we can be. I will make sure that when I am a teacher I will have structured plans and fun things to do to engage the students in math and reading, because those are very important aspects of education. I will do whatever I can to see my students achieve.
If you would like to read the full article, the link is http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/article9120011.html
Amber,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you were able to locate an article specific to education in NC. Yes, NC education has been on the news A LOT recently. Hopefully, things have calmed and we will be able to quickly re-focus on the most important aspect of our jobs - the students we serve/will serve.
How do elements of the article relate to the NCTCS?
Am,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog and the information that you included. I personally don't care for test scores determining how a teacher performs or not. However, I do think that a teacher can do all that they can to help student succeed, but it is the students job to learn the material and do their best on the tests. I like how you found an article that talks about NC because it is important to know things that are happening in the state that we might teach in one day. Good job!