Introductory Post: A Little About Me

• Write a brief paragraph introducing yourself to the blogging world
• Review the course learning objectives in the syllabus, the COE professional teacher dispositions, and your own reflections from past clinical and course experiences and map out at least four goals that you carry for yourself for this semester. What do you want to focus on? Improve in? Learn about? Think deeply as this will guide your work in this final clinical experience.

Hey there! My name is Margaret Welbourne. I am 22 years old and a senior at Illinois State University majoring in Early Childhood Education with the Special Education letter of approval. YAY! I am from a small town in southern Illinois called Jerseyville. Not many people know where it is or have even heard of it. For those of you who don't know, it is right around St. Louis; I consider St. Louis my Chicago. I have known that I want to be a teacher since 1st grade, mainly because my 1st grade teacher had such a great impact on my life. I have 2 nephews and 1 niece who have captured my heart. Last semester when I was placed in a first grade classroom for clinicals I told my nephew Lane, who is in 1st grade, and he whined "UHHH!!! I want you to be my teacher!" Him saying something as simple as that really just melted my heart and made me realize just how much I want to be a teacher. I want to be a teacher because I want to be that person that children feel comfortable talking to and look up to as a role model. I want to make for sure that my students are provided with the best opportunity for education to support them as learners. I want to incorporate different activities into the curriculum that support their needs, interests, willingness to learn. 

The first goal that I have set for myself this semester is to boost my confidence. I am generally a fairly shy and soft-spoken individual. From my previous clinical experience, my cooperating teacher and I both agreed that confidence is something that I need to work on. I need to have confidence in myself when I am teaching lessons and not be afraid of messing up. Even if I do mess up, I need to acknowledge the mistakes I make and move forward and learn from them without it getting to me. 
Another goal that I have set for myself is to work on my classroom management. This is something that in the past I have struggled with implementing right away. It is important for me to set my expectations for the class right away. I have learned that while presenting lessons to the students that the classroom rules and expectations need to be address before the activity as well as reminding the students throughout the lesson. 
I would also like to work on building better and stronger relationships with my CT. In the past during my clinical experiences my CT's expectations weren't always clear on what it was exactly she would have liked me to do. I had a CT who would have me do something with the students and then would raise her voice at the students when they were doing something with me. This would make me feel as though I wasn't doing it right or would really just confuse me. 
The last goal I have set for myself this semester is to really get to know the students in my classroom. It is really important to understand their strengths and weaknesses. I want to be able to meet each student's individuals needs when I am implementing each lesson to make sure that they are being provided with the optimal learning experience to promote their growth as learners. 

 EXTRA! EXTRA!
Here are 17 Signs You Were Meant To Be A Teacher from fellow blogger, Kate Bailey.