My Third Year at UC: A Reflection
My third year at UC was an incredibly busy, but important one. On my personal life front, my parent took in three foster children, which I found exciting as I had sisters for the first time! This also meant that I would have to travel home (four hours north) more than I was planning to help my parents with the new family situation. My foster sisters moved to their permanent home in early June and was sad to no longer have sisters at home!
I also took on new leadership roles for my junior year at UC. I was Vice President of the Darwin T. Turner Ambassadors, Event Chair for the CECH Ambassadors, a mentor for CECH Ambassadors, and a data collector for a research project one of my professors was doing. Having such a busy schedule forced me to really focus on organizing my schedule, planning out finishing homework, and making time to do somethings that I love. After much reflecting on how busy this year has been and how busy next year will be with co-hort, I decided to only continue with one leadership role (CECH Ambassador) so that I fully commit to my work and teaching.
This year would not have been the same without two professors in particular, Dr. Sally Moomaw and Dr. Billi Dziech! Sally was my wonderful professors for two different classes during fall and spring semester (and will be my professor again next fall). She also provided me with the opportunity to be a data collector for her research. She really involved me and my fellow data collectors in the development of the research and has sparked my interest in doing more research (perhaps in graduate school someday!). Billie was an inspiration as I took her class Youth Abuse (an honors course) and went on a wonderful service trip with. She knew how to handle difficult subjects in a way that made the students think, but also allowed for laughter!
This year was also my first year of student teaching and, fortunately, I had a wonderful experience student teaching preschool and kindergarten. For my preschool experience, I was placed at Cincinnati Early Learning Center: East Walnut Hills. I was nervous about stepping into the preschool classroom as teacher (rather than an observer), but, by the end of the day, I knew I was meant to work in early childhood education! At the end of fall semester, the director of the preschool even offered me a job for the summer! As such, the summer before my senior year of college, I will an associate teacher for 14 children and my classroom will be next door to the one I had my practicum experience in! For spring semester, I worked in a kindergarten classroom at North College Hill Elementary. I found it very interesting how preschool and kindergarten differed in terms of child development and educational standards. I loved my kindergarten experience and am looking forward to student teaching first grade at Fairview-Clifton German Language School for my final year at UC!
I also took on new leadership roles for my junior year at UC. I was Vice President of the Darwin T. Turner Ambassadors, Event Chair for the CECH Ambassadors, a mentor for CECH Ambassadors, and a data collector for a research project one of my professors was doing. Having such a busy schedule forced me to really focus on organizing my schedule, planning out finishing homework, and making time to do somethings that I love. After much reflecting on how busy this year has been and how busy next year will be with co-hort, I decided to only continue with one leadership role (CECH Ambassador) so that I fully commit to my work and teaching.
This year would not have been the same without two professors in particular, Dr. Sally Moomaw and Dr. Billi Dziech! Sally was my wonderful professors for two different classes during fall and spring semester (and will be my professor again next fall). She also provided me with the opportunity to be a data collector for her research. She really involved me and my fellow data collectors in the development of the research and has sparked my interest in doing more research (perhaps in graduate school someday!). Billie was an inspiration as I took her class Youth Abuse (an honors course) and went on a wonderful service trip with. She knew how to handle difficult subjects in a way that made the students think, but also allowed for laughter!
This year was also my first year of student teaching and, fortunately, I had a wonderful experience student teaching preschool and kindergarten. For my preschool experience, I was placed at Cincinnati Early Learning Center: East Walnut Hills. I was nervous about stepping into the preschool classroom as teacher (rather than an observer), but, by the end of the day, I knew I was meant to work in early childhood education! At the end of fall semester, the director of the preschool even offered me a job for the summer! As such, the summer before my senior year of college, I will an associate teacher for 14 children and my classroom will be next door to the one I had my practicum experience in! For spring semester, I worked in a kindergarten classroom at North College Hill Elementary. I found it very interesting how preschool and kindergarten differed in terms of child development and educational standards. I loved my kindergarten experience and am looking forward to student teaching first grade at Fairview-Clifton German Language School for my final year at UC!