Two Strongest Personal Attributes

I haven’t had the opportunity to integrate the arts into my teaching practices yet. When given the chance to have my own classroom I hope to integrate the arts into every subject. Throughout my Elementary Arts Methods course, I learned how incredibly important and crucial it is to have the arts in the classroom as much as possible. Math and science can easily be turned into hands-on art projects. English can be represented and taught using multiple sources of art, visual and performing, to bring it to life. Art should be used to get student’s minds active and engaged in learning. Visual arts can be used to clarify thoughts and ideas, while the performing arts can increase confidence and make ideas tangible and more understandable for students.
Describe your two strongest personal attributes. Give examples of how these attributes have helped you in your teaching practice.
One of my strongest attributes is my flexibility. My student teaching internship really put this to the test. My internship taught me that in an elementary school anything can happen. Teachers must be willing to change their lesson plans or daily schedule on a moment’s notice. Teachers have a responsibility to be as flexible as possible so that these sudden changes effect students minimally. Teachers also have the responsibility to be flexible in their lessons, or to accommodate the class when a lesson is veering a different direction than intended.
My other strong attribute is my determination. I take on any task given to me, no matter how big or small. I put my whole heart and effort into completing the task and do what I need to in order to finish my goals. I was confronted with many fears during my internship, but never once turned down an opportunity or task because of them. Determination doesn’t come with time limits, I stick to a task until it is completed. This has helped me be a successful teacher because my determination to have all lesson plans done by Friday allowed me to be prepared every week, even if it meant staying late on
Describe a difficult situation with a parent that you experienced. How did you resolve the situation?
I have not personally been in a difficult situation with a parent yet, but throughout my teaching internship I did have to make some tough phone calls to parents.
First, I had a student with difficult behavior problems. One day, during my lesson, this student was yelling out. When I handed out the assignment I went quietly over to this student’s desk to talk about why that was inappropriate behavior. While I was crouched down next to the student’s desk they pushed me over, I had to send the student to the principal’s office and had to make a hard phone call home. We had just had parent-teacher conferences and had discussed behavior improvements so this was a hard phone call home to make.
The second hard phone call I had to make was again due to student’s behavior. This student was caught stealing winter gear out of other student’s cubbies. We were aware this student did not have any snow gear for recess. We had called home prior and snow gear was not in their budget at this time. This was a particularly hard phone call because of the hard situation, but parents still need to be made aware.
My mentor teacher and I ended up getting some appropriate clothing