Self Assessment Essay - Nhi Chau PDF

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At the beginning of the year...

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Running Head: AREAS OF GROWTH AND PLAN FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

Self-Assessing My Professional Growth Areas and Developing a Plan for Further Development Nhi B. Chau Texas Woman’s University

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Self-Assessing My Professional Growth Areas and Developing a Plan for Further Development After completing the self-assessment surveys, I noticed that I did better on questions about the idea of being an educator than those about the understanding and skills necessary for becoming a teacher. For example, for the 30-question survey, I answered “undecided” on only one of them, which I will elaborate on below. While as for the 17-part survey about my understanding and ability to work with different groups of students, I selected “medium” or “low” on six of them. As I explain below why my response for certain characteristics is “undecided,” “medium,” or “low,” I will also demonstrate what I plan to do to improve in these areas. When being asked about if I look forward to subscribing to professional journals, I put “undecided” as my answer. I have been subscribing to the Association of Texas Educators (ATPE) newsletter for a year but have not found it very useful. Many things in the newsletter are not relatable to me because I still have not fully considered myself as a teacher yet. Because of this experience, I would not say that I am very excited about subscribing to professional journals, especially if compared to other aspects of becoming a teacher. To improve this, I will try to read different professional journals to determine the types I like and subscribe to these journals. I can also ask my professors, classmates, and other people in the field about which journals they like and why. Then I will take a look at the recommended journals and subscribe to those I find relatable. I rated myself “medium” on my understanding of culture, race, and ethnicity. Though I am from Vietnam and do have a good understanding of various Asian cultures, I am not entirely

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confident in my understanding of other cultures, races, and ethnicities. I have friends who are Caucasians and Hispanics, so I know about their cultures a bit more than other backgrounds. To improve in this area, I will do research on my future students’ backgrounds to understand them more. I will get to know them on a more personal level by asking them to share their cultures and life stories. In addition, I will share my story and set the tone for my classroom environment so that students feel like they can talk to me. I will ask my colleagues and people around me to share their experience and learn from it with an open mind. I put “medium” as my answer to the level of understanding social class differences. Though I am aware of the differences in social classes, I cannot say I completely understand the experience of people in a different class. I used to think that only struggles of people from lowincome families are valid, and difficulties that people from higher-income families experience are not. Even though I do not believe so anymore, it is still hard for me to understand what everyone goes through because of their social rankings. To become better at this, I will read more research papers about what life is like for people across all social classes. I will talk to my future students frequently to learn how they are doing and respect their feelings when they go through hardships. I will also try my best to create a safe space where people can share what they experience as a result of their social class status. In this way, I can expand my knowledge and also help my students become familiar with these differences. I selected “low" as the answer for my ability to work with students with disabilities because I grew up not having any interaction with them. I believe that though people with disabilities may need to do things a bit differently, they are able to achieve great things and reach their potentials. However, I tend to just freeze when being around people with disabilities because of the lack of experience. I am currently in a course called Learners with

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Exceptionalities which has taught me a lot about how to work with students with disabilities and has shown me opportunities to get to know them more. I will make sure to practice what I learn in this class and improve myself by utilizing the available opportunities. For my ability to work with gifted students, I selected “medium.” Growing up, I have always been considered a gifted student because of my ability to create art and to grasp new concepts very quickly. I have been in programs that kept pushing my limits and challenged my skills. However, I am not entirely sure I know how to give my future students, who are considered gifted, what I have been lucky enough to receive. Besides, I recently realized the negative effects that being in these programs had on me. Because I have always been pushed to be better, I never felt like any accomplishment was enough and that my achievements determined my self-worth. I certainly do not wish that feeling on anyone, especially my students. Therefore, I find it difficult to balance giving gifted students opportunities that maximize their abilities and not making them feel like they have to constantly achieve something to feel worthy. I will definitely look into opportunities that are available for gifted students and consider, from my own experience, if they would be a positive or negative experience for my students. I will also ask for opinions from experienced educators on their strategies and learn from their advice. This is my second year in college and in the education program, so I know I still have a lot to improve. I appreciate that I get to do an assessment to determine how prepared I am to be a teacher and what areas I would like to see growth in. I hope the rest of my classes in my degree plan will further my teaching development and my experience with other educators will provide me with good lessons and advice....