Erica DiClemente
Educator. Coach. Learner.
Looking Ahead
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As an educator, I am a lifelong learner. Every day I am looking for ways to improve and enhance my teaching and coaching practices. In doing so, I have developed three long term goals. I have organized these goals in the order in which I aim to accomplish them. First, I want to continue learning about new technology that can be integrated into my classroom (whether that classroom is virtual or in person). Second, I want to bring positivity and fun back into the classroom. We all go through difficult times and sometimes we might get down. I have created this goal to benefit myself, my colleagues, and my community. Positivity and fun leads into my final goal of becoming certified to practice yoga in a classroom setting. I am sure that I will develop smaller goals along the way, however, these are the three goals that I plan to focusing on.
Technology in a New World
Working through my Master of Arts in Educational Technology program, I have learned many new ways to integrate technology into my classroom to enhance my instruction. After moving to remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, I relied on technology in order to continue educating my students. I was able to use many resources I learned about during my online courses and I even learned new ones day by day simply by going through the process of online teaching. I know there are still many resources out there that I do not know about and that is why I created this goal. I have chosen to make this my first goal to obtain because of how it can impact my teaching in the Fall of 2020. We need to be prepared for just about anything right now be it remote teaching, in person teaching, or hybrid teaching. No matter what way we teach, technology will play a major role in this process. If I continue expanding my knowledge of new technology and ways to integrate it into my classroom, I hope to benefit myself as a teacher and coach, my students, and my community. Below are a few resources I plan on using to achieve this goal. Each image is linked to a website with more information.
© Canvas Instructure
Canvas Instructure is the platform that Detroit Country Day uses for teacher websites. I used a basic layout for my homepage up until remote teaching. I will use resources and professional development opportunities to increase my knowledge to benefit my students and parents
© Google for Education
I have already Google Certified for their level 1 program and I took so much great knowledge away from that training. I used much of this knowledge both in my classroom, coaching, and teaching remotely. I want to continue this journey by completing the level 2 certification program as well.
© Hudl
Hudl is a software that our Varsity lacrosse team uses to watch film to help improve our athletes awareness and skills. If I become more familiar with this, I can help the other coaches create and edit film for our team.
Positivity and Fun
My second goal was created with my students, athletes and school community as the main targets. No matter what age your target audience is, it is important to maintain a positive and fun environment.
Students
Lower elementary students have this amazing amount of energy that I want to build off of in a positive manner. By expanding my knowledge of how to develop fun, engaging and interactive lessons I hope to spark a great amount of motivation from my students that makes them want to learn more.
© The Ron Clark Academy
The Ron Clark has been one of my biggest inspirers as an educator. He has books, videos, and online professional development opportunities that will help me obtain my goal. I would feel so lucky to have an opportunity to attend their school for training.
Athletes
At Detroit Country Day, students are required to participate on an athletic team. Practices and games are after school and sometimes can occur on the weekends. This is a big commitment for athletes to make on top of school and any other extra curricular activities they participate in. I want to continue to bring positivity and fun into daily practices and help my student-athletes develop a mindset that it is not all about winning but what you learn and how you grow along the way.
© US Lacrosse
US Lacrosse provides great resources for coaches to continue their growth and knowledge of the sport.
Mindfulness and Yoga
School Community
Negativity can spread like rapid fire and take over a community of people. Sometimes negativity can just be someone having a difficult day and that energy flows out to others. If I can help spread positivity throughout my school community, I hope to overpower negativity and raise people's spirits.
© We Are Teachers
We are Teachers is a website full of great blog posts that can inspire me. The specific page linked above is about ways to spread sunshine in a school community.
Life can get crazy and sometimes we all need a simple reminder to stop and breathe. No matter your age, stress and anxiety can impact one's life tremendously. I recently began practicing Yoga and it has made such a positive impact on my mental health that I want to bring it into my classroom. In a course I took online, I wrote a blog post entitled Anxiety and Technology. While creating this blog, I learned how anxiety can cause conflict in a child's life at home, school, and in relationships. Combining my research of anxiety in children and my own personal practice of yoga, I began exploring ways to bring mindfulness and yoga into the elementary classroom. I decided to make this my final goal because I believe it will take some time to master. Many programs I found cost money and require many hours to be put in in order to get certified to practice yoga in the classroom. Below are a few resources I found most useful.
© Little Flower Yoga
Little Flower Yoga offers online training to get certified to teach children yoga. The first topic that drew me into this program was the chair yoga which I can see being transferred into my classroom easily.
© Cosmic Kids
Cosmic Kids has a variety of opportunities to offer such as books, guided meditation scripts, and online certification programs.
Conclusion
© Stop, Breathe & Think Kids
Stop, Breathe, and Think for Kids is an app that can be used in the classroom to help students practice mindfulness in a kid friendly, fun way when they need a break.
Thinking about my future as a teacher and coach is difficult with the times we are currently living in. The world is constantly changing and it is up to us as educators to continue guiding our students towards success in their futures. By setting these goals, I am showing my commitment to my community to be the best that I can be. By continuing my knowledge of technology, creating a positive and fun environment, and becoming certified to teach yoga in elementary schools I hope to leave a positive impact on myself, my students, my athletes, and school community.