Language Skills
I am capable of communicating effectively both orally and in written form in Spanish, French and English. Spanish is my native language, and English is my second language. I learned French from living in Québec for 8 years(it was there that I completed (in French) most of my elementary and high school) and then from majoring in French at the University of the Fraser Valley. I will use my language skills in the classroom to help my future students learn how to understand, speak, read and write in French. I will also use my experience to teach them about the French-Canadian culture.
Creative Thinking
Due to my experience working in child-minding, I learned how to use creative thinking in a classroom setting to implement new activities, solve problems and help children learn through discovery and imagination. In my child-minding job, I used my creative thinking to implement new activities(arts, story and dance time) for the children. I also used creative thinking by creating a game with balls to play with them when they wanted to cry because they missed their parents. In addition, I taught children the evacuation plan(in case of a fire) by playing with them: we used our imagination to picture that there was a fire in one of the classrooms, and then we figured out how to get out of the building safely. I am not afraid to try new things and I always use my imagination to develop innovative solutions to everyday problems.
Time Management
From my time homeschooling and taking online university courses, I learned how to manage my time wisely. I set and met specific deadlines, scheduled study times, set specific goals, learned how to use a planner effectively and prioritize tasks. When homeschooling, I created my own study plan(under my parent’s supervision) and was self-accountable in my assignment submissions and tests. This experience is going to be useful for my teaching career as I will have to do lesson planning, prioritize tasks (by distinguishing between non-essential material and essential skills to be acquired), set learning goals to be achieved by the end of the school year, meet deadlines, schedule and prepare for parent meetings and make most of my office hours to help my students to understand all the material.
Emotional Intelligence
I am attentive to other people’s emotions through verbal and non-verbal communication. I can understand other people’s perspectives and help them based on my understanding of their needs and feelings. I also love to reward and praise my family members, friends, and the children with whom I volunteer for their achievements and abilities and can offer them constructive feedback. It is important to have emotional intelligence skills in the classroom because I will need to give the students feedback, reward and praise them for their achievements and be attentive to their emotional well-being. This is especially important in high school because the students are going through many changes, and they will need support. Emotional skills are also important to understand the feelings that lead to certain unacceptable behaviours to know what behavioural strategies to implement with certain students. For example, when I was volunteering in Sunday school, there was one child with autism; with him, I learned to identify when he was being overwhelmed with his emotions to help him calm down so he would concentrate in class.