Section Two: Teacher Candidate

Background Experiences

Introduction

This section is about my experiences in

education. I started out in daycare and worked my way

to the public schools system, and really enjoy working

with the elementary grade students. I really enjoyed

working in the classrooms, I love to interact and learn

new things about my students. During my work in the

education field for many years and have experiences

from working with affluent students to students that

come from the low income families. I love to interact

and learn new things about my students. Students can

teach us so much about them if we as educators take the

time to listen. My students always kept me informed

about current events and what happening in the

entertainment world. I’ve worked in other career fields

before and I have never felt as happy as I do when

working with children. You never have the same day

twice when working in the classroom and that what

makes it so great. New experiences every day to enjoy

with my students.

It’s so many engaging things that I as a teacher can use

in my classroom. Education has changed so much over

the years from when I was in school. There are so many

resources available to students and teachers now that

everyone in the classroom should feel supported. With

so much research out there now about different styles of

teaching, I feel that the students have so many ways to

grasp the information given. During my studies at

Medaille, I had to complete one hundred hours of field

experience at a school that operates on Saturday. I also

had to create a philosophy of teaching, which showcases

my ideas on education and my philosophy on my

contribution to the classroom.

Teacher Candidate Educational Background and

Work Experiences

I am a wife and mother of two children; my son just

finished the Second grade and my daughter attends Head

Start. My husband is a former Marine and is currently

working as a mixing tech, although his long-term goal is

to become a firefighter. This worries me because of the

dangerous nature of the job, but he supports me with my

goals so I will support his in return. My goal is to

become an elementary school teacher in the Buffalo

Public School System. I stepped away from education

for a while and worked as a customer service

representative for Geico. I was told that it was a good

paying job with excellent benefits and room for

advancement. Although I did find this to be true, I

wasn’t happy there and felt that my true calling was in

the classroom. So when the opportunity to become a

teacher aide presented itself online, I applied for the job.

I knew that it was going to require me to take a cut in

pay and with the expenses we have, especially daycare, I

also knew this wasn’t going to be an easy transition. At

first, my husband couldn’t understand why I would take

such a pay decrease with all of our financial obligation. I

told him that it was something I can’t explain- that some

careers aren’t about how much money you can make. He

eventually came around and admitted that when I am

working with children I’m happiest version of myself.

Now I currently work as a Teacher Assistant at City

Honors High School. I mainly worked with the 5th and

6th grade this year in the ELA classrooms. This is where

I met Mary Luongo, the 5th grade ELA teacher. I shared

with her that I want to return to school to complete my

Master’s Degree, but was concerned because I work full

time and I am a full-time mom. She shared with me that

she was my age working as a Teacher Assistant when

she decided to go back to school and was married with

two children. She constantly said “it’s never too late”

and that she would be my reference if I decided to

pursue my dream. After many conversations and some

soul searching about the matter, I finally filled out an

online application for Medaille. The reason that I picked

Medaille College is because the program I am applying

for specializes in working with adult learners with jobs

and responsibilities outside of school. I have been out of

college for several years now, and I want to be able to

obtain a degree while balancing life with a family and

career. I currently work in the field of education and am

looking to advance in this field. I also like the idea of a

private school setting. Medaille, like my former college

Villa Maria, has smaller class sizes and more interactive

classroom which I enjoy. With pursuing a graduate

degree in education, I am looking forward to the support

of the staff that can use their experience and apply it to

how they teach the course. When doing my research for

graduate programs, it was important to find a program

that has the field I wanted and also a pathway for

someone like myself- a wife and mother of two who is

returning to college after several years- a way to be

successful. I am looking forward to the opportunity to

continue my education at Medaille, and pursue my

educational goals. As a teacher, you share a very

important part in a child’s life by helping them realize

what they want for the future, and helping them reach

those goals. Although I am no longer a child, I have

realized what I want for my future and am looking to

Medaille College to help me reach my full potential.

School Observations and Classroom Application

During my time a Medaille I had to complete one

hundred hours of field work. It was broken down into

fifty hours each semester, with fifteen ENL hours and

fifteen hours with special education students. Out of the

all the hours, half of them needed to be grades 1-3, and

the other half needed to be 4-6. We did the hours in a

few different schools, with various activities available to

the students and parents. The first school we attended

was at Charles R. Drew Magnet School, they offered

Saturday academy which ran from 9am -12:30pm. The

students were fed a cooked breakfast as well as lunch.

The teachers have stations set up for the students and we

were asked to put stations up as well. After breakfast the

students went to each station with their parents to

partake in the activities. The stations we had set up

pertained to a certain theme that the Saturday academy

was working on that week. After the first half of the

morning, half the students went on a tour of the science

museum that was connected to the school and do an

activity. The second group will do an activity in the

cafeteria area. I really enjoyed my time at the Charles R.

Drew Magnet School, the children were engaged in a lot

of fun activities and they got to do things in the science

museum. This school services the community around the

school. Some of the teachers volunteer on Saturdays to

run activities for the students and families. The students

have a beautiful view of the museum from the library

and while at Saturday academy admission is free for the

participants. They have vendors available for the parents

on things like health care coverage and free books for the

children. This program is provided through Say Yes

program, which provide proper resources for students to

graduate and attend college. Another site that we went to

was Buffalo Prep, we got to observe the 7th and 8th grade

ELA, Science and Math blocks. I must say that I was

very impressed at how much knowledge the students

had. They were working on projects that were very

advance for middle school students. For the ELA

portion, the student was making a magazine that dealt

with controversial issues. Some of the topics was women

rights, politics, abortion and so on. The students had to

research the topic then make some type of contribution

to the magazine with either a comic strip, social media or

some other type of display. In Science class students

learned about different types of bacteria and how they

form. We even did an experiment to show how bacteria

forms and becomes resistant. I learned so many different

things about how bacteria flies through the air and gets

on things even when you use the bathroom. All the

things from Science class I put in my “back pocket” to

use in future lessons. The math block gave some good

strategies on how to solve math equations. The teacher

paired the students into groups and had them work on

certain strategies and then share them with the class. I

really enjoyed both placements, I learned a lot and got

the chance to meet parents and students from many

different schools around the area.

Philosophy of Education

My philosophy of teaching is a reflection of my

views of what the roles of the education system as a

whole. The mission of the school should be to provide

exceptional education to all students, no matter the race,

socio economic status or religion. So many times we see

a divide in the education system. The better schools

have more resources, those resources go to the students

that live in affluent neighborhoods. Most schools that

are in the Urban school district that serve the lower

income families usually have limited resources and

sometimes do not have adequate staffing. There needs to

be a way for all schools to have the same resources and

give the same effort of all students across the board no

matter what side of the tracks they are on. I always hear

that the right to education is fair but never equal. I feel

that this shouldn’t be the case especially when we are

talking about our children who are the future.

Curriculum should be child lead and not to achieve score

on state test. The children should have lessons that

interest them and gives teachers a platform to be creative

in their teaching. With all of the testing that goes on in

schools now, teacher are limited in what they can teach.

ELA, Science and Math are state test that students have

to take starting in the 3rd grade. These test are used as

data to give schools their ranking and to assess the

teachers. How much pressure are we putting on these

teachers to get these students to produce they high test

scores so the school can look good on paper. I do not

feel that testing is an adequate way to get data from

students. Some students aren’t good test takers and that

doesn’t mean that they weren’t able to obtain any

information. It could be many different factors to why

they didn’t perform well on that test. The philosopher

that I reference a lot during my studies is

Vygotsky(Mcleod, 2019). His Zone of Proximal

Development I have found to be true in most of the

classroom I have been in. Students seem to retain

information better when working with a skilled peer.

Cooperative learning can be very useful in the

classroom. Students get to the opportunity to see their

peers master a subject then get to teach it to them.

Technology in education is huge. There are so many

different ways to incorporate technology into the

curriculum. Most schools have iPads or Chrome books,

so that students are able to access certain learning

activities online. There are so many online resources that

teachers can use to assess and challenge students.

Kahoot, for example, is a technological tool that teachers

can use to assess the students knowledge on a certain

subject area. Students log into the website by putting in

the code provided into a smart phone, iPad, or

Chromebook. Once the students put in the code they are

able to create a nickname for themselves while playing

the game. The nickname should appear on the computer

screen. The teacher will set up a series of question that

the students much select a multiple choicer answer. Once

the students answer the score will appear of how many

students picked which answer, it will also show who was

the fastest five students to answer the question. The

teacher can use this data to assess the student knowledge

on how well they are doing in a specific subject. The

classroom community is very important. In classrooms

today there is a very diverse number of students. Many

students are come from another country and barely speak

English. We as teachers need to make sure we are

learning the background of our students to make sure we

are building that relationship with them and their

families. There also needs to be knowledge of the

different holidays the children in your classroom

celebrates, so that those students can be accommodated

during that time. For example Ramadan, students that

participate in Ramadan have to fast for a certain amount

of hours. Knowing this the teacher can accommodate

this student during the lunch period to maybe go to the

library instead so they don’t have to watch the other

students eat. Knowing these things help build those

relationships and helps those students and parents feel

comfortable and welcomed in your classroom and that

will equal better success for that student. Including the

parents in the education process is huge. Even if you

don’t have a lot of parent participation, trying to find

ways to bridge that gap will help support that student.

There are so many different ways to communicate with

parents from class dojo, email, newsletters, to the

Remind app. All ways to keep parents updated on what

is happening in your classroom.

Resume

Introduction

My resume is made up of all my work experiences which

is mostly in education. I have included the various

trainings that I have completed, along with my education

experience. My undergraduate degree is in

Individualized Studies. This is where you name your

own degree and select the courses you want to take. I

chose Preschool Management, where I could be in a

management position at a child care center. I did change

careers briefly, but I soon realized that teaching is my

passion. I left Geico and started my journey back into the

classroom starting out as a Teacher Aide. From there I

went on to become a Substitute Teacher and that’s when

I started my first semester at Medaille where I am

majoring in Elementary Education. When looking at my

resume you will see that I have taught in many different

classroom and have a wide range of experience which I

use in the classrooms today.

My resume

Chaniqua Bailey

24 Manhattan Ave | Buffalo, NY | 716-560-6822 |

turncm60@gmail.com

Objective

To obtain a successful career as an elementary school

teacher where my experience, dedication and love of

teaching can help shape a child’s future

Skills & Abilities

New York State Teacher Assistant Certification

CPR and First Aid Certification

Second Set of Eyes Certification

Therapeutic Crisis Intervention Certification

Experience

Substitute Teacher, Elmwood village Charter School,

Hertel 9/2018- Present

● implement lessons and manage the classroom in

teachers absence

● work with students in small-group setting to

implement lesson plans

● correct classroom assignments

Substitute Teacher, Buffalo Public Schools

9/2018- Present

● implement lessons and manage the classroom in

teachers absence
 ● work with students in small-group setting to

implement lesson plans

● correct classroom assignments

Teacher Assistant, Stanley Falk School

7/2018 – 8/2018

● Assist teacher with implementing daily lesson for

high school students during summer session.

● Assist the teacher with daily classroom

management

● Implement goals for students with IEP’s and

IFSP’s into daily lesson plans

● Implement student behavior management

techniques and crisis intervention when

necessary
 Teacher Assistant, Buffalo Board Of Education

1/2018 – 6/2018

● Assist with supervision of the children

● Assist teacher with the needs of the classroom

such as correcting assignments and working with

children to complete lessons

● Assist with management of cafeteria during

lunch

● Work with students in small-group setting to

implement lesson plans

Auto Sale Representatives, Geico

5/2016 - 12/2017

● Assist customers with daily insurance questions

● Add/ replace vehicles to existing policies

 ● Review state standards and insurance rates with

the customers

● Review motor vehicle reports and violations as

well as the implications with customers

● Responsible for the retention of customers

Teacher III, CAO Head Start

12/2008 - 3/2015

● Prepared lesson plans and activities for students

● Implemented goals for students with IEP’s and

IFSP’s in daily lesson plans

● Differentiated instruction for students in

classroom
 ● Completed observations on content areas as well

as social emotional, cognitive, physical and

language development

● Administered medication on an as-needed basis

Education

Medaille College- Buffalo, NY- Masters of Science

Present

 Pursuing a Master’s Degree in Elementary

Education

Buffalo State College – Buffalo, NY – Bachelors of

Science 5/2018

 My Bachelor’s degree is in Individualized

studies: Preschool Management.

Which is a degree that you create your own field of

study and individual pathway.

Villa Maria College- Buffalo, NY – Associates of

Science 12/2004

 My Associates degree is in Early Childhood

Education

which is from birth through second grade. \

References

Mary Luongo

ELA Teacher, City Honors High School

716-553-1991

Mluongo@buffaloschools.org

Tandy Hamilton
Assistant Principal, City Honors High School

716-816-4302

Thamilton@buffaloschools.org

Kathryn Nuchereno

Special Education and CTE Teacher, Stanley G. Falk

School

716-359-6375

knuchereno@falkschool.com
Conclusion

This section showcases who I am as a teacher. I

discussed what led me to Medaille to pursue my Master

In Education degree. I also listed my philosophy of

education, which shows what my beliefs are about the

education system and what my hopes are for my

classroom and students.

Before starting this program I had an idea of

what type of teacher I was going to be. Since starting this

program that has changed immensely. I had it all figured

out on how my classroom was going to be so well

managed and structured. But I have since learned that

education is not so simple.

There are such a wide range of students with so

many different needs, and being a good teacher means

being able to differentiate the curriculum for all of them.

Also building those relationships with students, how can

I make students trust me with their hopes and dreams.

How can I get my students trust me enough to go

through this learning process with me. These are

questions that I ask myself before entering a classroom.

I want every student that I come in contact with to gain

something from being in my classroom. All the things

that I have learned throughout this experience at

Medaille, I will