Professionalism
The reason that I love being a teacher is because of how much I love to be a student. I consider myself to be a lifelong learner and am always actively looking for opportunities to grow professionally and personally. Continued learning is life's greatest adventure!
Leadership
My second year, I was asked by my administration to be the 5th Grade Lead Teacher as well as the Head of the Science Department at my school.
I have held both positions for the past three years. I am responsible for the 5th grade students and teachers and assuring that lessons and plans are aligned and taught based on our schedule, planning events and trips, working with curriculum specialists, setting our schedule, helping students apply for middle schools, and communicating with our administration. For my science position, I am responsible for our yearly Science Fair, learning about or creating Project Based Learning activities for the school, and communicating with the district level science lead.
Endorsement in English as a Second Language
I have completed an endorsement program in English as a Second Language at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education, ranked in the top 20 best schools of education in the U.S News and World Report for the third consecutive year.
The course series is on best practices for teaching English as a foreign or second language, consisting of 20 credit hours of course work.
Korean Language
I have been studying the Korean language for about a year, and while I am still fairly low level I make time to study daily. I can read hangeul well, so I am working on building up my vocabulary and improving my grammar skills. Improving my Korean language skills is one of my main driving interests in moving to Korea. What I lack in skill I work to make up for in enthusiasm! My first language is English, but I speak Spanish conversationally as well.
A Note from My Wonderful Seoul-Based Korean Teacher:
Laina는 항상 밝고 긍정적인 학생이어서 함께 공부할 때 행복합니다.
한국어를 배울 때 예습과 복습을 해서 다른 학생보다 빨리 한국어를 배우는 학생입니다.
항상 성실하고 부지런한 학생입니다.
또한, 지각을 하지 않고 시간과 약속을 지키는 학생입니다.
가족을 사랑하고 자신이 가르치는 학생을 사랑하며 자연을 사랑하는 학생입니다.
한국의 음식과 문화와 역사에 관심이 많아서 한국 역사책을 읽는 멋진 학생입니다.
Laina는 무엇을 해도 열심히 , 즐겁게 하는 사람으로 책임감 이 많은 학생입니다.
Laina를 추천하며 Laina를 진심으로 아끼며 사랑합니다. Laina에게 한국어를 가르치는 한국어 튜터 차정란 입니다
(My name in Korean is Laina (레이나) since that is the name I go by in English, instead of Abigail)
Independent Studies:
Social/Emotional Learning and Trauma Informed Care
I work diligently to learn as much as possible about issues that impact my students and their communities. As I have only ever worked in an urban school district, many of my students experience frequent and repeated traumas such as poverty, neglect, abuse, family separation, parental drug use, parental divorce, alcoholism, etc. I have done multiple independent book studies and completed multiple Trauma Informed Care classes so that I am able to reach and help my students more effectively. I also work with my local university, Virginia Commonwealth University, to take 40-hour intensive continuing education classes each summer, generally for science and mathematics.
Leading Professional Development
I have led professional development for my school community on multiple occasions. After completing my endorsement in English as a Second Language, I gave a presentation on multicultural education to my peers that covered pragmatic ways to immediately begin to teach students about other cultures.
I also biannually lead data meetings with other lead teachers, administration, and district officials to demonstrate our student's progress across subjects and grade levels to plan activities, interventions and projects as a school.
Lastly, as the science lead teacher, I have led sessions to assist other teachers in our building on how to instruct their students on creating science projects (not demonstrations or models) and how to set scaffolds and check in dates to assist.