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Go to "My Career Goals"
"My Education"
Currently, as of the year 2000, I am a senior,
a student, at California State University at Fullerton. I have attended this campus for three years
and I am finally graduating this Spring, of the year 2000. I graduated from my high-school,
Rancho Cucamonga high-school in 1997
and began attending California State University at Fullerton (CSUF) the fall of 1997.
I began attending CSUF with the intentions of obtaining a degree in a
field that would allow me to become an elementary school teacher. My major
at the beginning was Liberal Studies. After my first year of of general
education courses and Liberal Studies courses, I decided to change my
major to Child and Adolscent Studies. The Liberal Studies courses that were
manditory were not fulfilling my personal needs and wants. I thought that
the Child and Adolescent Studies major was more appropriate because the
focus of the courses were on the development of children. Whereas, the
focus of the Liberal Studies major, in my opinion, was on providing information
to its students that would potentially assist them in the passing of the Multiple
Subject Assessment Tests (MSAT).
As I was near completion of the Child and Adolescent Studies' and
general education requirements, I realized that I did not have the number of units
necessary to graduate. Therefore, I decided to double major with Psychology.
Psychology provided me with information about the development of people's
behavior, personality, learning, memory, abnormal behaviors, and sociological issues,
which in my opinion could be helpful for a teacher. Back To The Top
"How My Education Relates To My Career Goals"
By studying under these two majors, I hoped to gain at least the minimum
amount of knowledge that is necessary in order for a teacher to be efficient and
effective. Child and Adolescent Studies has provided a foundation for me in
understanding how children develop into healthy adults. The foundation that this
major has provided includes the development of physically, socially, emotionally,
and mentally healthy individuals. It has also opened my eyes in understanding the
concept that there may be underlying variables that are affecting the development
of a child in any oneof those areas, that may not be visibly noticeable. Psychology
has provided with the knowledge of how to observe individuals for those variables that
may not be immediately noticeable. By taking other possible varaibles into
consideration, such as socioeconomical status, birth order, parents intelligence,
and so forth, I will be able to adapt my curriculum for my students so that they all
achieve success and knowledge.
Another form of information that has influenced my manner of observing and
interacting with children, is the cultural background of children. I am not refering
to ethnic background. In other words, I have become more familiar with the study of
individualistic versus collectivistic cultures for example. The values, morals,
and expected behaviors in cultures that are different from the dominant culture that
is still present in many school districts, the Caucasion culture, may lead to different
performance or behaviors in the classroom. Also because the dominant Caucasion culture
is changing in many cities, some children have adapted their personal cultures to
accepting some views of the dominant and minority cultures that they have been exposed
to. Keeping all of these and many more ideas in mind will create a better classroom
environment for my students. Back To The Top
"My Career Goals"
Elementary teaching is something that I had decided to do after volunteering
my senior year i high-school at a local elementary school. I helped out in the first
grade and enjoyed the interaction with the children greatly. The learning that I saw
taking place was inspiring. After my volunteering, I decided to become an aide in a
local school district in order to gain more experience in a classroom setting. Also,
I wanted to make sure that it was the profession that I wanted to continue my education
in. I am currently working in the Orange Unified School District as a Full Inclusion
Aide. In other words, I am an aide in the classroom that helps a child with a disability.
My job is to work one on one with the child and to help the child become socialized as
much as possible. The child that I work with and many other children with disabilities
that are in the program, are mainstreamed in a regular classroom. That is, the children
are not placed in a special day program or special education classroom.
Many children that have autism, down syndrome, cerebral palsy or other mental
or physical disabilities are now being placed in regular education classrooms. New laws
are being passed to improve the civil rights that these children have. As for myself, I
see the positives of this program daily. However, my plans are not to remain in
special education. Instead, I would like to begin with teaching, maybe become an
administrator at some point in time, or perhaps change my path to do some work in the
field of psychology. As for right now, the only thing that I am certain of is that I will
be attending graduate school to obtain a credential and a masters in education and then
begin teaching at the elementary level. After that, I have no clue but to follow the
path that lies ahead of me with many different paths. Go To The Top
Click HereIf you would like to e-mail me.
Also if you would like to participate in a quick "gambling" experiment Click here
My schedule for this semester is as follows:
| Courses | ||
| Days | Morning | Evening |
| Monday | Social, Personality and History of Psych | Info. Processing and Geology |
| Tuesday | Nothing | Learning and Memory |
| Wednesday | Same as Monday | Info. Processing |
| Thursday | Nothing | Learning and Memory |
| Friday | Same as Monday | Nothing |
