DIVERSITY EXPERIENCES
Special Education Instructional Aide
During the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years, I worked as a special education instructional aide for the Bismarck Public School District at Highland Acres Elementary School and Roosevelt Elementary School. I worked mainly with students from first grade to fifth grade with different learning disabilities. I provided academic interventions in reading, phonics, writing, and mathematics to individual students or small groups of students. These school years expanded my knowledge of how to use different curricula to teach these students. The different curricula programs I used were: Flyleaf reading; Heggerty phonics curriculum; Connecting Math Concepts; Reading Rewards; Phonics for Reading; Benchmark reading; Step Up to Writing; Daily Language Review; and the Barton Reading and Spelling System. Using the different curricula materials gave me different ideas and ways to teach the content effectively to the students. Through collaboration with the special education teacher, I also learned new and effective ways to present the content to the students to help them better understand what I was teaching. It was wonderful to see these students grow in their reading, writing, phonics, and math skills as the year progressed.
During the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years, I worked as a special education instructional aide for the Bismarck Public School District at Highland Acres Elementary School and Roosevelt Elementary School. I worked mainly with students from first grade to fifth grade with different learning disabilities. I provided academic interventions in reading, phonics, writing, and mathematics to individual students or small groups of students. These school years expanded my knowledge of how to use different curricula to teach these students. The different curricula programs I used were: Flyleaf reading; Heggerty phonics curriculum; Connecting Math Concepts; Reading Rewards; Phonics for Reading; Benchmark reading; Step Up to Writing; Daily Language Review; and the Barton Reading and Spelling System. Using the different curricula materials gave me different ideas and ways to teach the content effectively to the students. Through collaboration with the special education teacher, I also learned new and effective ways to present the content to the students to help them better understand what I was teaching. It was wonderful to see these students grow in their reading, writing, phonics, and math skills as the year progressed.
ED Program Instructional Aide
During the 2017-2018 school year, I worked as an ED Program instructional aide for the Bismarck Public School District at Highland Acres Elementary School and Roosevelt Elementary School. I worked mainly with students from kindergarten to third grade. One student’s ability to verbally communicate was limited due to his disability, so he used different forms of assistive technology to communicate. While working with this student, I was able to expand my knowledge of different forms of assistive technology, such as his iPad and visual schedules, and how they could be implemented. Due to the varying academic, social, and emotional needs of these students, I had to continually assess and adjust my responses and what I was teaching them. The professional development trainings I attended helped me learn about different programs and approaches that could be used with all students, such as the Nurtured Heart Approach and S’cool Moves.
During the 2018-2019 school year, I worked as an ED Program instructional aide for the Bismarck Public School District at Highland Acres Elementary School and Roosevelt Elementary School. I mainly worked with students who were in first through fourth grade. Due to the varying academic, social, and emotional needs of these students, I had to continually assess and adjust my responses and what I was teaching them. For one student, I used the PEAK Relational Training System to assess and teach language, reading, and math skills. For this student, I also used the Pictello, Clicker Communicator, Proloquo2Go, and ChooseIt! Maker iPad applications for his reading and math instruction. For another student, I used the Barton Reading and Spelling System to assess and teach phonemic awareness to improve his reading skills. For a third grade student, I used the Pearson KeyMath - 3 Essential Resources curriculum to assess and teach numeration to improve and strengthen his math skills.
During the 2020-2021 school year, I worked as an ED Program instructional aide for the Bismarck Public School District at Highland Acres Elementary School and Roosevelt Elementary School. This school year presented new challenges with COVID-19. However, this year I was able to learn how to use Google Meets with a document camera to teach students virtually, which expanded my knowledge about how technology can be used to maintain students' learning. I was trained and then taught students both virtually and in person using the RISE Reading curriculum and Key Math curriculum. Both these programs expanded my knowledge of different ways that reading and math could be taught to students. I learned how a Check In and Check Out program works and how to maintain data for it. I had heard of this program, but had not really been directly involved with one until this year. It is wonderful to see the students in this program grow behaviorally and I enjoy interacting with each of them as I check in or check out with them and celebrating with them.
During the 2017-2018 school year, I worked as an ED Program instructional aide for the Bismarck Public School District at Highland Acres Elementary School and Roosevelt Elementary School. I worked mainly with students from kindergarten to third grade. One student’s ability to verbally communicate was limited due to his disability, so he used different forms of assistive technology to communicate. While working with this student, I was able to expand my knowledge of different forms of assistive technology, such as his iPad and visual schedules, and how they could be implemented. Due to the varying academic, social, and emotional needs of these students, I had to continually assess and adjust my responses and what I was teaching them. The professional development trainings I attended helped me learn about different programs and approaches that could be used with all students, such as the Nurtured Heart Approach and S’cool Moves.
During the 2018-2019 school year, I worked as an ED Program instructional aide for the Bismarck Public School District at Highland Acres Elementary School and Roosevelt Elementary School. I mainly worked with students who were in first through fourth grade. Due to the varying academic, social, and emotional needs of these students, I had to continually assess and adjust my responses and what I was teaching them. For one student, I used the PEAK Relational Training System to assess and teach language, reading, and math skills. For this student, I also used the Pictello, Clicker Communicator, Proloquo2Go, and ChooseIt! Maker iPad applications for his reading and math instruction. For another student, I used the Barton Reading and Spelling System to assess and teach phonemic awareness to improve his reading skills. For a third grade student, I used the Pearson KeyMath - 3 Essential Resources curriculum to assess and teach numeration to improve and strengthen his math skills.
During the 2020-2021 school year, I worked as an ED Program instructional aide for the Bismarck Public School District at Highland Acres Elementary School and Roosevelt Elementary School. This school year presented new challenges with COVID-19. However, this year I was able to learn how to use Google Meets with a document camera to teach students virtually, which expanded my knowledge about how technology can be used to maintain students' learning. I was trained and then taught students both virtually and in person using the RISE Reading curriculum and Key Math curriculum. Both these programs expanded my knowledge of different ways that reading and math could be taught to students. I learned how a Check In and Check Out program works and how to maintain data for it. I had heard of this program, but had not really been directly involved with one until this year. It is wonderful to see the students in this program grow behaviorally and I enjoy interacting with each of them as I check in or check out with them and celebrating with them.
Elementary Reading, Writing, and Math Instructor
During the summers of 2018 and 2019 and during the 2018-2019 school year, I worked as an elementary reading, math, and writing instructor at Sylvan Learning Center in Bismarck. Using the Sylvan Sync curriculum, I provided individualized instruction to students who were in preschool through eighth grade. In addition to the Sylvan Sync curriculum, I selected and used manipulatives and table tools to enrich and reinforce the content. At the end of each session, I was responsible for evaluating and documenting each student's progress in his/her curriculum. Working at Sylvan has strengthened my abilities to teach math, writing, and reading to students at varying levels and with varying needs.
In the spring of 2020, I was trained how to use Zoom and Sylvan Sync on the iPad to teach students their individualized reading and math programs virtually. This teaching platform challenged me to think and develop new ways to teach these students different concepts. I collaborated with my supervisors and with my teacher coworkers about different tools that could be used on Zoom to present and teach reading and math content. In the fall of 2020, I was trained how to use Zoom and Sylvan Sync Connect. Sylvan Sync Connect allows me to not have to share my Sylvan Sync iPad screen, which I had to before and has a very similar format to Sylvan Sync on the iPad. Instead the students' parents set up their students' accounts and I log in using my teacher account to submit lessons for them to complete. This put the students more in control of their own learning as they can now write their own answers within the lessons, which could not be done before Connect was being used.
During the summers of 2018 and 2019 and during the 2018-2019 school year, I worked as an elementary reading, math, and writing instructor at Sylvan Learning Center in Bismarck. Using the Sylvan Sync curriculum, I provided individualized instruction to students who were in preschool through eighth grade. In addition to the Sylvan Sync curriculum, I selected and used manipulatives and table tools to enrich and reinforce the content. At the end of each session, I was responsible for evaluating and documenting each student's progress in his/her curriculum. Working at Sylvan has strengthened my abilities to teach math, writing, and reading to students at varying levels and with varying needs.
In the spring of 2020, I was trained how to use Zoom and Sylvan Sync on the iPad to teach students their individualized reading and math programs virtually. This teaching platform challenged me to think and develop new ways to teach these students different concepts. I collaborated with my supervisors and with my teacher coworkers about different tools that could be used on Zoom to present and teach reading and math content. In the fall of 2020, I was trained how to use Zoom and Sylvan Sync Connect. Sylvan Sync Connect allows me to not have to share my Sylvan Sync iPad screen, which I had to before and has a very similar format to Sylvan Sync on the iPad. Instead the students' parents set up their students' accounts and I log in using my teacher account to submit lessons for them to complete. This put the students more in control of their own learning as they can now write their own answers within the lessons, which could not be done before Connect was being used.
Special Education Instructional Aide
During the 2019-2020 school year, I worked as a special education instructional aide for the Bismarck Public School District at Prairie Rose Elementary School. This year provided many new learning experiences as I was in a different school than I had been in previous years and it was the first year I was not the ED program instructional aide. I learned new ways to document student learning and different ways to use different manipulatives both from my aide coworkers and the teachers. In aide meetings each week with the school instructional coach, we collaborated and problem solved both academic and behavioral concerns about the students with which we worked. We received training on how to program different reading and math activities into ChooseItMaker to use with our students on their Chromebooks. Learning how to use and create ChooseItMaker activities provided all of us with another avenue to help our students grow in their reading and math skills. Learning how to use RazKids and all the resources it offered helped me to provide more differentiated reading instruction, especially since the books on RazKids were leveled. To help the second grade student I was mainly working with on his writing, I received training on how to use different parts of the Clicker 7 program on the computer. Using this program I was able to create writing activities that were more at his level than what the rest of his class was currently working on in writing. It was so wonderful to see his writing skills grow as the year progressed. This school year at a different school expanded my knowledge of different technology programs that could be used to enhance student learning. Through working and collaborating with different people I learned so many new methods of how reading, writing, and math could be taught.
During the 2019-2020 school year, I worked as a special education instructional aide for the Bismarck Public School District at Prairie Rose Elementary School. This year provided many new learning experiences as I was in a different school than I had been in previous years and it was the first year I was not the ED program instructional aide. I learned new ways to document student learning and different ways to use different manipulatives both from my aide coworkers and the teachers. In aide meetings each week with the school instructional coach, we collaborated and problem solved both academic and behavioral concerns about the students with which we worked. We received training on how to program different reading and math activities into ChooseItMaker to use with our students on their Chromebooks. Learning how to use and create ChooseItMaker activities provided all of us with another avenue to help our students grow in their reading and math skills. Learning how to use RazKids and all the resources it offered helped me to provide more differentiated reading instruction, especially since the books on RazKids were leveled. To help the second grade student I was mainly working with on his writing, I received training on how to use different parts of the Clicker 7 program on the computer. Using this program I was able to create writing activities that were more at his level than what the rest of his class was currently working on in writing. It was so wonderful to see his writing skills grow as the year progressed. This school year at a different school expanded my knowledge of different technology programs that could be used to enhance student learning. Through working and collaborating with different people I learned so many new methods of how reading, writing, and math could be taught.
After School Program Supervisor
During the 2017-2018 school year, I worked as an after school program supervisor for the Bismarck Public School District at Roosevelt Elementary School. I worked with thirty students who were from kindergarten to fifth grade. This job experience helped me to grow in my classroom management skills and plan activities in which all students could participate. I had to continually assess and adjust the activities I planned for these students based on their ages, interests, and responses to different activities. Unpredictable circumstances, such as the students’ moods or behavior, required me to be more flexible and sometimes change the activities I had originally planned.
During the 2017-2018 school year, I worked as an after school program supervisor for the Bismarck Public School District at Roosevelt Elementary School. I worked with thirty students who were from kindergarten to fifth grade. This job experience helped me to grow in my classroom management skills and plan activities in which all students could participate. I had to continually assess and adjust the activities I planned for these students based on their ages, interests, and responses to different activities. Unpredictable circumstances, such as the students’ moods or behavior, required me to be more flexible and sometimes change the activities I had originally planned.
Missouri River Educational Cooperative Youth Leader
During the summer of 2016, I worked as a Youth Leader for the Missouri River Educational Cooperative at Fort Lincoln Elementary School in Mandan. I worked with and taught children who were from kindergarten to fifth grade. This job experience helped me to continue to grow in my classroom management skills and in my ability to adjust my lessons as I was teaching. I mainly prepared and taught lessons to a small group of six to eight kindergarten students. The scheduled amount of time for small groups combined with the energy and mood of those students required me to continually assess and adjust my lessons as I was teaching.
During the summer of 2016, I worked as a Youth Leader for the Missouri River Educational Cooperative at Fort Lincoln Elementary School in Mandan. I worked with and taught children who were from kindergarten to fifth grade. This job experience helped me to continue to grow in my classroom management skills and in my ability to adjust my lessons as I was teaching. I mainly prepared and taught lessons to a small group of six to eight kindergarten students. The scheduled amount of time for small groups combined with the energy and mood of those students required me to continually assess and adjust my lessons as I was teaching.
Diversity Practicum
During the summer of 2015, I was a teacher's assistant at Camp Luther at Martin Luther School. I worked with children six years old through eleven years old who were from the first to fifth grades. The children were from various ethnic backgrounds and their home lives as well as their learning styles varied. While working there, I had the opportunity to provide support to one of the children that needed more one-on-one support due to sensory issues. This experience helped me to continue learning the difference between teaching a whole group and individually to children from various backgrounds, abilities, and grades.
During the summer of 2015, I was a teacher's assistant at Camp Luther at Martin Luther School. I worked with children six years old through eleven years old who were from the first to fifth grades. The children were from various ethnic backgrounds and their home lives as well as their learning styles varied. While working there, I had the opportunity to provide support to one of the children that needed more one-on-one support due to sensory issues. This experience helped me to continue learning the difference between teaching a whole group and individually to children from various backgrounds, abilities, and grades.