Educational Experiences

1. Academic Background

1.1. Started at East Georgia State College in 2016 - Graduated with my Associate's Degree in May of 2018.

1.2. Started at Georgia Southern University in the Fall of 2018 - Graduated in December of 2020 where I received my Bachelor's Degree and my Reading Endorsement.

2. Professional Background

2.1. I started teaching in Burke County at Waynesboro Primary in January of 2021. I started as the STEM teacher because their music teacher quit in the middle of the year.

2.2. I stayed in Burke County at WPS the following year where I began my teaching career in the classroom with second grade. This was in August of 2021.

2.3. In August of 2022, I came back to my hometown and began teaching at Jenkins County Elementary as a first grade teacher.

2.4. Altogether, I have been teaching 4.5 years.

3. Assessment and Differentiation

3.1. We give a variety of assessments where I am currently at. They range from being on paper, to being online. We just recently started doing online assessments for data purposes. I find that students do worse on online assessments than they do paper. At this age, they do not have much knowledge or use with computers, so we are still guiding and teaching them about all the things.

3.2. Differentiation is something that I think I need more help and knowledge in. This is something I really struggle with. I hope to gain a new found understanding with differentiation that will benefit my students, as well as myself.

4. First Grade

4.1. Most of my kids are 6-7 years old.

4.2. I teach all subjects - Reading, Math, Science, and SS. We are self contained in first grade.

5. Mind Mapping in First Grade

5.1. I feel like Mind Mapping would be challenging with first grade. I definitely think it would be January before letting them create one on their own. I do think it would be a great tool to use to discuss material for the week. Like with whatever topic we are doing, create a mind map on the board together as a class. This would get them familiar with it, while also enhancing their knowledge on a certain topic. Then, in January, let them log in and maybe create one altogether as a class. I think slowly introducing it would work best with this age group.

6. A Little Bit About Me

6.1. I got married to my highschool sweetheart in Decemeber of 2021. his name is Will Dixon and he is a farmer.

6.2. We had a sweet baby girl in March of 2023. Her name is Landie Cate.

6.3. My favorite subject by far to teach is reading - specifiacally phonics. I love this component of reading and watching the kids' light up when they learn or master something new. Our school system is currently having to go through a 2 year reading training called LETRS and it has been very neat and interesting to go through. We are just starting our second year in it and I am interested to learn some new ways to teach reading.