Developing as an Educator

CSTP Self Assessment

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The results of my CSTP Self Assessment are actually very similar from the beginning of the 2019/2020 school year to the end. The CSTP categories are listed in the same order, despite the fact that for some answers I ranked myself differently. At first, I thought it meant that I had not improved, but after trying to reason through the results and reflecting on my work, I realized that the categories I am stronger in are likely always going to be my strongest aspects. The fact that I teach a subject where students always have gaps in their knowledge and understanding of the content means that CSTP will always be my priority.

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Professional Goals

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1. Learning Italian

I began teaching myself Italian with no intention of having it aid me in any way to teach. However, during my first year as a teacher, I ended up getting a few foreign exchange students, one of whom cam from Italy. This student made me realize that knowing any additional language, no matter how unlikely I am to actually need it, will only benefit me. I thought the only other useful language for me to learn would be Portuguese since I already know Spanish and many of the immigrants that come into California come from Central and South America....right? Either way, what I learn about the Italian language and culture is something I can also bring into the classroom.

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2. Learning American Sign Language

When it comes to providing support for my students who have verbal communication issues, I can think of no better form of differentiation than learning sign language. In my opinion, it is a rather ignored language when I hear people talk about interests in learning new languages, but it shouldn't be. I often see businesses displaying information in multiple languages to help customers, but I never see any attempts to help out anyone who cannot talk. I used to work as a cashier, and I always felt bad when the only thing my mute/deaf customers could do was point at pictures of something they wanted. Considering that I also have parents of students who can only communicate using sign language, learning it will be my priority after I am done learning Italian.

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3. Work with local businesses

As the teacher of a subject that has so much real-world applicability, I think I have a huge opportunity to make an impact on the community surrounding the school. Interestingly, my school is situated in a town where people seem to value locally owned businesses (particularly restaurants). In the future (near future I hope) I wish to contact the local communities in the hopes of providing my students with opportunities to apply what they learn in the classroom, help the local businesses, and provide work experience. Unfortunately, as a new teacher I am rather swamped, but once I have this job down and I do not have to spend so much time lesson planning, those businesses better watch out.

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4. Work with a bank?

Okay, I am not sure about this one, but this idea came from some Wells Fargo workers. I invited a few representatives from Wells Fargo to come to my classroom and introduce basic financing ideas to the students (with the relation to math being how loans and money in bank accounts change), and they explained to the students how credit scores affect communities (apparently the businesses that are brought into cities/towns are based on the community's average credit score). I got the idea that maybe through a partnership with a bank or two I can help the town's community improve by properly educating students about finances. I have no idea if this is a decent idea, or if I am even allowed to do this (have yet to talk with my principal), but the students seem to be very interested in this idea. To quote them "it is what (they) wished school spent more time teaching".