Evidence of Innovation and Stories of Growth: Perspectives From a Current Resident

• In Event: 52.072 - Professional Development School Teacher Residents: Storied Journeys With Implications for Partnerships and Teacher Recruitment, Development, and Retention

Abstract

This presenter will share her initial thinking about student learning and engagement after having participated in AFT. As a beginning boundary spanner, she has been part of the ‘story telling team’ at AFT this year, working to gather video clips of learning engagements and pedagogical choices she observed, making visible her initial thoughts and wonderings about learning and teaching during her first weeks as a graduate student and AFT teacher resident. At the point of the AERA presentation, she will be completing her teacher residency and will have additional understandings to share.

She articulates her journey to finding teaching as a vocation, saying:
When I was in high school I decided that I wanted to work with children with autism. I started exploring different types of therapies. Teaching never seemed like a viable option for me and I continued to explore other fields throughout college. But I never found a field that matched how I wanted to be able to use my passion and creativity. I got my first teaching experience right after college, working at a community college as a mentor to students with disabilities and I loved it. Then I spent the next two years as a behavior therapist. During this time I was with the learners in their homes and in their schools. This is when I saw that teaching was more than opening the teacher guide book and reading off a lesson plan. I saw that it involves using your creativity to develop engaging lessons and activities and that developing relationships with the students makes them want to learn from you. Now I am in my M.A.T. special education with an autism concentration. If I had been exposed to a program like AFT I may have found my path sooner.

She intends to share video clips of pivotal moments she observed and reflected upon from her initial experiences with AFT to document and discuss her early understandings of pedagogy, student engagement, and her view of learning and teaching. In considering the lessons she took from her initial summer experiences working as a teacher resident in AFT, she reflected,

Being on the story telling team gave me the opportunity to talk to the students before, during, and after their preparation and implementation of their lesson plans. I learned what goes into creating an engaging lesson plan. I also learned to always have a back up plan and to be prepared for some students to just not be as interested as you thought they would…. Every day that I interviewed the students they talked about how they had surprised themselves and how they had a new perception of teaching.

She noted that in her next steps of her practice, she is going to take the lessons learned from this experience, keeping in mind “the value of taking a little extra time to create a more engaging lesson to keep students interested and create a memorable activity” as she begins her work as a year-long teacher resident.

Author

• Victoria Cox, Georgia State University