About Me...
My name is Jacquelyn Poirier. I am currently a junior at the University of South Alabama in Mobile majoring in Elementary Education. When I graduate in 2011, I want to teach one of the lower elementary grades, either Kindergarten, 1st or 2nd Grade. I love children, and am the oldest of six in my family. I have gained lots of experience in teaching, instructing and caring for children over the years. I babysat as a teenager, I taught at Bible Camp for several years in highschool, and I have training and have worked as a professional childcare provider at a daycare. I have always wanted to go into a profession where I helped people, especially young people. Although that may sound cliche, it's the truth. What is more important than education if you want to succeed in life?
There are many reasons why I am excited to become a teacher. The major reason is that I am passionate about learning and want to help others become enthusiastic about it as well. I want to inspire children to be curious and to always want to know more about the world around them. I want them to get excited about learning. I want to impact these children's lives so that they will love learning, and will continue to have a strong desire to learn after they leave my classroom and as they grow throughout their entire lives. I want to encourage them to be "lifelong learners." Another reason I want to teach is because I think it is important to to motivate young children to become strong, independent, confident and positive individuals who can accomplish anything they set their minds to. I think it's very important to introduce and encourage children to love reading. I think that in education today, a love of reading and books has been thrown under the rug, and I'd like to show kids how to pick that passion up, dust it off, and learn to reuse this valuable resource for knowledge. I also want to instill compassion and empathy for each other amongst my students. These are important life lessons that cannot be overlooked because of academic learning. As a professional, I will work hard to reach my goals with these kids, as well as help them reach their own personal goals.
As far as the educational tools I plan on implementing, not too many of these will be technological, since my students will be so young. I do plan on encouraging them to practice keyboarding as well as writing. This will be necessary in the near future for typing up outlines, papers, letters, and other documents. I will probably introduce them to the Internet: how to access it, and how to look up definitions, facts, current events, etc. I think it is important to introduce the World Wide Web early to young students, as it has become a vital tool for research in education. I will definitely use e-mail and telephone to be able to correspond with the students' parents. They will be able to ask me questions, as well as voice any comments or concerns they may have about their children or my approaches to education. I would also like to do as many hands-on activities as possible, as these engage young children much more effectively than just telling or explaining things to them. My six strategies and plans for teaching are outlined and described below.
My name is Jacquelyn Poirier. I am currently a junior at the University of South Alabama in Mobile majoring in Elementary Education. When I graduate in 2011, I want to teach one of the lower elementary grades, either Kindergarten, 1st or 2nd Grade. I love children, and am the oldest of six in my family. I have gained lots of experience in teaching, instructing and caring for children over the years. I babysat as a teenager, I taught at Bible Camp for several years in highschool, and I have training and have worked as a professional childcare provider at a daycare. I have always wanted to go into a profession where I helped people, especially young people. Although that may sound cliche, it's the truth. What is more important than education if you want to succeed in life?
There are many reasons why I am excited to become a teacher. The major reason is that I am passionate about learning and want to help others become enthusiastic about it as well. I want to inspire children to be curious and to always want to know more about the world around them. I want them to get excited about learning. I want to impact these children's lives so that they will love learning, and will continue to have a strong desire to learn after they leave my classroom and as they grow throughout their entire lives. I want to encourage them to be "lifelong learners." Another reason I want to teach is because I think it is important to to motivate young children to become strong, independent, confident and positive individuals who can accomplish anything they set their minds to. I think it's very important to introduce and encourage children to love reading. I think that in education today, a love of reading and books has been thrown under the rug, and I'd like to show kids how to pick that passion up, dust it off, and learn to reuse this valuable resource for knowledge. I also want to instill compassion and empathy for each other amongst my students. These are important life lessons that cannot be overlooked because of academic learning. As a professional, I will work hard to reach my goals with these kids, as well as help them reach their own personal goals.
As far as the educational tools I plan on implementing, not too many of these will be technological, since my students will be so young. I do plan on encouraging them to practice keyboarding as well as writing. This will be necessary in the near future for typing up outlines, papers, letters, and other documents. I will probably introduce them to the Internet: how to access it, and how to look up definitions, facts, current events, etc. I think it is important to introduce the World Wide Web early to young students, as it has become a vital tool for research in education. I will definitely use e-mail and telephone to be able to correspond with the students' parents. They will be able to ask me questions, as well as voice any comments or concerns they may have about their children or my approaches to education. I would also like to do as many hands-on activities as possible, as these engage young children much more effectively than just telling or explaining things to them. My six strategies and plans for teaching are outlined and described below.
My Teaching Philosophy
Manipulatives for Mathematics
Personally, learning math seems to have been a bit more difficult for me than for other students. I am a very visual person, I needed to be able to see a concrete example when doing math problems in the earlier grades. Since I am sure at some point I will be teaching math classes to elementary students, I will be sure to implement cuisenaire rods into my teaching and lesson plans. These manipulatives will be a helpful visual aid for teaching addition, subtraction, fractions, and simple equations. The use of the cuisenaire rods is another example of the hands-on materials that I think are so vital in education, especially in the elementary grades when you are introducing and explaining the most basic mathematical concepts to the students.
