Tell us the story about how you became an educator!
I realized I was made to teach during my time working at the Orlando Science Center in high school. I was surrounded by passionate and enthusiastic educators and teachers who engaged kids and made learning a special and exciting experience. I was amazed and inspired by the interest and creativity of kids when their emotional needs were responded to and their imaginations were encouraged. The more experiences I had in the field of education, the more I enjoyed being a crucial part of the learning process for all the young minds that I interacted with. After teaching workshops at the School of Arts and Sciences Center, leading lessons in North Florida schools about gardening and nutrition education, and helping WFSU/PBS Kids with amazing educational activities, I am about to graduate from Florida State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and become a full-time classroom teacher!
If you could make one change to the teaching profession, what would it be?
If I could make one change to the teaching profession, it would be the number of tests that we are required to give students. Testing is exhausting for young minds, and it drains their creativity and excitement towards learning. Some of them, if tested enough, start to see school as a chore, and it becomes harder for teachers to engage and inspire these kids. I recognize that testing is important to show the gains that students have made, and can be useful when targeting students’ strengths and needs for improvement, but I believe that an excessive amount of this testing does more harm than good by adding stress and pressures to students’ lives and diminishing students’ intrinsic motivation to learn and succeed.
Do you use WFSU PBS KIDS resources in your teaching practice? If so, how?
My practicum experience this semester is in a fifth grade classroom, and many of them are too old for PBS KIDS programming, but whenever I have the opportunity to work with younger students, I try to bring up PBS Kids! For example, my fifth grade students participate in a “Buddies” program, where each one is paired with a Kindergartener, and on Fridays, they read and play with classroom centers together. One of the centers is using the classroom computers to play games and watch shows on the PBS KIDS website. The kids get so excited when seeing and interacting with the familiar characters and stories, and the old and young kids alike are able to bond and chat about their favorite shows.
What is your favorite WFSU PBS KIDS educational experience or resource?
My favorite WFSU PBS KIDS educational experience is Ruff Ruffman Family Learning nights. With this program, WFSU visits different elementary schools and invites families of students at that school to join them on weeknights and participate in science and inquiry-based activities. Each family that attends receives a lab notebook with questions, vocabulary, and space to write/draw based on the experiments of the night. The experiments are based on an episode of Ruff Ruffman that the group watches together before putting into action. My favorite part about these experiences is when the adults in the family engage in discussion about how to talk science and spark curiosity in their children. They talk about how to incorporate science and inquiry in their day-to-day lives and how to guide their kids’ learning in this particular experience, and then they rejoin with their family and help their child(ren) with the activity, using their new knowledge. It’s a great way to encourage family bonding and amazing at-home educational experiences!