Sarah OConnor-AUSL Admissions Essays

Essay 1: Why do you want to become an urban school teacher in an underserved community? What life experiences and skills do you possess that would enable you to connect with your students and inspire them to learn?

Closing the achievement gap in urban education is a seemingly daunting task, one that has confounded researchers for several decades now. Educators have been unable to bridge the gap in achievement levels. However, each day brings new opportunities to transform students into literate, moral and responsible humans. I believe that teachers need to be leaders within the classroom this is essential to bridging the gap in achievement. There are several key areas where I have shown this leadership. Of the utmost importance is the acquisition of basic literacy skills during the early years. Literacy is the cornerstone of all higher education; without these skills, students are ill-prepared for the challenges presented by life in modern society. My freshman year at Saint Louis University, I worked for Jumpstart, a federally funded pre-school literacy program that works towards the day that every child in America enters school prepared to succeed. For fifteen hours each week I would travel to inner St. Louis to work with a four-year old preschooler whose reading skills were far behind her peers. When we began she was unable to hold a book right-side-up, but by the end of the year, she was able to legibly write both her first and last name, as well as name the sounds of every letter. It was a completely rewarding experience to see the joy on her face when she realized she could read words with minimal assistance. It was at that point that I realized that transformative power of literacy, particularly within an urban environment. Throughout my volunteering, practicum and work experiences, I have constantly worked to ensure that the students who I have worked with have access to age-appropriate books at their schools and home. Last Christmas, I spearheaded a book drive with the America Reads program to provide books for kindergarten and first grade students at a local school. Hearing the stories of how the students read the books I provided to their families was illustrative of the allure of reading, even beyond the classroom. This allure is foundational, and motivates students to learn on their own. However, this desire to learn cannot come only from books. Teachers must be leaders within their classrooms too often teachers seem to be broken by the system or teach to the standardized tests. I believe that teachers need to be fully invested in their classrooms and students, not teaching just academics but educating the whole child. Children need to learn how to be people. They need to learn life skills that are essential to thriving in modern society self-confidence, responsibility, and empathy. Teachers are great vectors for this information, but they must be innovative when adapting their curriculum to each and every student. My involvement with America Reads allowed me to work as a tutor in an inner city public school in the St. Louis area. I was assigned to work with a small group of struggling students, focusing on a young boy who had an un-diagnosed case of selective mutism. Initially, this boy was very anxious around me and had no interest in receiving my help. He refused to talk to anyone at the school. During my time at the

school, I tried various strategies to help him in the classroom, as the school was only providing him with speech therapy once a week due to limited resources. In addition to basic one-on-one tutoring, I worked on his motor skills, tracing the letters so that he could familiarize himself with them. As the year went on, we built a relationship and he began to mouth words to me when we were working together. I distinctly remember the first time I heard his voice. I asked him to read a story to me, and instead of mouthing the words or just running his finger across the page, he spoke in a loud whisper. After he was finished reading the passage, he looked up at me and smiled, and I realized what a huge obstacle we had just overcome together. He was in real danger of being lost within the labyrinth of public education, but now has a better chance of succeeding and attaining higher education. However, innovation is not the be-all-end-all of education within an urban environment. With the increasing levels of immigration from all over the world, teachers must be able connect to a multicultural milieu of students and keep them engaged in the learning process. In the fall of 2008 I studied abroad in Madrid, Spain. I was able to teach a beginners English as a Second Language class twice a week. I created a basic curriculum and sought to educate adults on the essentials of the spoken English language. The class of twenty students was comprised of adults from both Spain and South America, and some classes evolved into discussions about common misconceptions of each of our cultures. Though students walked away from the class with basic conversational English under their belt, they also seemed to understand more about other cultures. Simple exchanges between students of far different cultures were able to break culture barriers and create tolerance. Bridging the achievement gap will not be is a multi-faceted endeavor. Educators are but one-step in the process. Teachers must become facilitators of learning, creating students who will become lifelong learners that are invested in the educational process. A student who is invested will be committed, and will take responsibility for their own learning, which is half the battle in bridging the achievement gap. We need to help students become truly passionate about their own education. The aforementioned principles have the power to be truly transformative, and they are the focal tenets of my teaching philosophy. My classroom will be a model of these principles in order to show others the impact an innovative education can have. By being involved within my classroom, promoting literacy, and working to educate the whole of each and every child, I believe I can make urban schools successful and transform the lives of all of my students.

Essay 2: Tell us about a leadership experience you have had and what you accomplished in that experience.

I never thought an Ashlee Simpson song could be used as a learning tool before the fall of 2008, when I taught a beginners English as a Second Language course in Madrid, Spain. I taught the class while I was studying abroad as a student at Saint Louis University. As an education major, I anticipated little difficulty in teaching my native language to adults. But teaching the English language to twenty native Spanish speakers was more difficult than I previously thought. My first day was a train wreck. My students were able to learn basic vocabulary, but they couldn't seem to understand context. If I was going to have any success in a short amount of time, I knew I'd have to try something unconventional. After my first day, I threw out the lesson plans I had worked on. I knew my students had voiced an interest in music two of my male students were salsa instructors- so I decided to incorporate popular English songs into my new curriculum. The next day in class, I was teaching my students the days of the week, and I used Pieces of Me by Ashlee Simpson. Gone were the tired expressions. My students looked energized because I found a way to trigger their interest. I followed the original objectives I had created for the course, but found popular songs with slow melodies and relatable lyrics to interest my students. With lyrics in hand and a portable CD player on loan from my host sister, those last nine weeks of class were amazingly effective. The Beatles song Help introduced emergency words, and Bostons More Than a Feeling served as a springboard for a discussion of different feelings. My students participated in a scavenger hunt to practice directional words they learned in songs, and we shared knowledge of cultural slang. While my class learned what a bummer means, I learned aguafiestas, party pooper. Music made it possible to bridge language gaps and relate to my students. The class not only helped my students to gain a basic knowledge of English, it helped me to learn more about cultures and teaching styles. I could have simply used my time in Spain to practice my Spanish, meet new people, and travel Europe. Instead, I grew as an educator and a person through the service to the greater Madrid community. It is my hope that through my ESL course in Madrid, my students now have the ability to communicate with English speakers on a basic level, use their English to get a job, and continue their studies with a more advanced course. Through every teaching experience that Ive had, whether it has been with inner city kindergarteners, suburban preschoolers, or 30 year old salsa instructors, I have learned how important it is to know my students. With the full knowledge of who I am teaching and what is important to them, I am able to create learning experiences that maximize the growth of each of my students.