Michelle Watson

LSEE 412, Capstone

Self-Assessment on Professional Development #2

Before I started my major course for the LSEE major at Humboldt State University, the

only time I actually had experience in the elementary classroom besides when I was a student

myself, was the few times that I had taught English as a volunteer opportunity in Taiwan. From

that experience itself, I had found that students can be stressful and mean. Luckily, I didn’t allow

that those few experiences define what it would be like to teach/ work with children or else I

probably would not be becoming a teacher.

I originally chose to go into teaching through a process of elimination. I eliminated all

other categories of majors because I didn’t believe I could do any of those for a living or in

general and the LSEE major was all that was left. I figured, “Okay, I like kids. Why not?”. It

wasn’t until my first fieldwork class and placement, LSEE 210/310, that I realized that I loved

working with children on their educational journey. In that class, I was placed at South Fortuna

Elementary School in a 4th grade classroom. The experience of that semester had its challenges,

but it was also rewarding in such that I was able to help students to understand content that they

didn’t understand and to have conversations with them about their interests. After that first

fieldwork class, I continued to go to that teacher’s classroom to help out once or twice a week. I

loved it so much that I continued to go even when the teacher changed to teaching a 1st grade

classroom. Each of the fieldwork and volunteer opportunities in elementary classrooms taught

me to be patient. The some of the students I worked with understood the material quickly and

without difficulty. Some of the students I worked with had trouble understanding the content

being taught. With these students I sat with them, had them try to work through the problems and
gave them encouraging remarks and helpful questions to guide them towards a better

understanding. I even had some experiences with students where I was able to teach them social

and life skills through conversations they brought up with me about things that different

celebrities did and experiences that they have had in life. I feel that helping out in the elementary

classrooms has helped me to find how to utilize a balance between my inner child and being the

adult figure in the classroom. With this, I am able to relate to the child but still be the authority

figure. After all of these experiences with fieldwork and volunteering in the classrooms, I feel

that I am now more confident in my abilities to teach children and I am ready to take on the

future.