Experience
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
My first few months at Hope I struggled deeply with the lack of diversity I was seeing in classrooms. Being from the suburbs of Chicago I was accustomed to an ethnically diverse community, and I attended a high school where white students were not in the majority. In the fall of my Senior year I was placed at Crestwood Middle School in Kentwood, and I was thrilled to be in a significantly ethnically diverse placement for the first time in my education at Hope. Driving forty five minutes away to find a pocket of diversity was well worth it to me, and I had an amazing time with my students.
While it took me some time to adjust to the demographic of West Michigan, I came to realize that the classrooms I experienced were diverse in other ways. At the elementary level I had many students with cognitive and/or emotional impairments, and was been able to witness great examples of how to support those students. I also had similar experiences with students at the secondary level, in addition to diversity of gender identity and sexuality. When it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion in the classroom, I have found that it is vital to have a flexible perspective and a safe, positive classroom climate to make all students feel heard and seen regardless of ethnicity, ability, or identity.
Experience
Lions Park Elementary School
In the fall of 2024, I had the opportunity to be the long-term substitute music teacher at Lions Park Elementary School in Mount Prospect, school district 57. I had such a blast, and I took it as an opportunity to expand my skills as an educator, and learn how to put on productions with more than 450 students. Lions is a wonderful community, and I felt as though I was able to learn something new every day from both the students and faculty members. While at Lions, I put together a Veteran's Day tribute performance with all 450 students, as well as three separate winter concerts for second, third, and fourth grade.
Experience
Student Teaching for the Hudsonville High School Choirs was such a dream. During my time at Hudsonville, I was able to assist with the Spring musical (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), as well as choosing and teaching the music for the Revue Show at the end of the year. In the last few weeks before the musical, I was given the responsibility of teaching the Revue Show music to the students who were not in the musical. Additionally, I often ran sectionals, warm-ups, attendance, Wacky Wednesday games, and of course--made an immense amount of copies!
All of Chamber Choir
Members of Chamber Choir
All of Treble Choir
Each student and faculty member featured in these photos consented to have their photos taken, and gave me permission to use them in my professional portfolio.
Experience
South Elementary
Throughout my time at South, I worked with the third, fourth, and fifth grade students in the general music classroom. One of the first responsibilities I took on was singing and playing the entrance songs for each grade. My cooperating teacher uses ukulele often in the classroom, and it was exciting to incorporate ukulele into classroom teaching, as I have been playing the ukulele since I was in fifth grade! My CT and I took on a very efficient team-teaching style, and I feel as though I learned so much about time management, efficient planning and co-planning, and behavior management in the classroom.
Experience
Jamestown Lower Elementary
My elementary CT and I have one travel day per rotation, and on those travel days we taught at Jamestown Lower Elementary. At Jamestown I was with second grade, first grade, and an emotional impairment class. While I only had about 15 days at Jamestown, I felt as though I was able to make strong connections with the students and understand the developmental differences between lower elementary students and upper elementary students.