Citizenship Class
During the Spring 2015 semester, I assisted with Skyline Literacy's United States Citizenship class. During this eight week course, I taught lessons on various aspects of US history and civics, in addition to assisting the class members with reading and writing concepts and terms. This served as great practice in teaching civics and history content, in addition to incorporating literacy-teaching skills for students who struggled with reading comprehension, writing, and spelling.
Being a part of this experience was one of the most rewarding commitments I have made during the teaching training process. It was delightful to see successful individuals who were excited to learn about about their new country of residence, and commit themselves to being active citizens. |
Coaching
After I ended my ice hockey playing career at JMU, I signed on to become the Head Coach of the team. Although it was interesting to coach players who I was friends with and had previously played with, I have enjoyed using my knowledge of the game to push my players and make sure that they enjoyed their college hockey experience.
During the summers, I have also worked as a Goalie Instructor and Head Camp Director at Sport International Hockey Academy. 2015 will be the fifth summer in which I have worked at the camp. This has been a professional experience where I have traveled to various cities up and down the east coast, directing youth hockey camps. At SIHA, I was in charge of managing a staff, facilitating the daily operations of the camp, and completing many different administrative tasks after the camp day ended. I will continue to be the Head Coach JMU's ice hockey team during graduate school, but I hope to continue coaching once I begin my teaching career after college. |
JMU Teach
During the 2013-2014 school year, I applied with the JMU University Studies program to have an opportunity to facilitate and teach an accredited, college-level class. My course was called "Snipes and Scraps: The Scope of Hockey." This process entailed developing a course syllabus, researching academic work on my topic, drafting lessons for a full semester's worth of classes, and then teaching the course. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching an elective that covered a wide scope of topics related to hockey, and this was a great form of practice for when I begin unsupervised teaching in my own classrooms.
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SafeRides
For about 2 1/2 years, I was a general body member of SafeRides, which is a student organization at JMU. SafeRides is a non-profit organization whose mission is to create a safer community for the city of Harrisonburg. Members work to prevent drunk driving by educating JMU students, fundraising to help support the mission, and providing free rides home for JMU students.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time serving the JMU student body and the citizens of Harrisonburg by providing free, safe, and non-judgmental rides home on the weekends. Responsible behavior is a valued trait and characteristic that I want to make sure that my future students understand. Sometimes, it can be uncomfortable for teachers to intertwine out-of-school activities with their classrooms. I believe that facing this challenge head-on will be beneficial as a classroom leader. |