About Me: Virginia Colvin
Hello,
My name is Virginia Colvin and I am near my time for graduation from Longwood University with a liberal arts degree with a minor in English. After graduation, I will be in pursuit of the education field. I also have accumulated all passing scores for the VCLA, RVE, Praxis 1, Praxis 2, and have accumulated professional development points. I have prior experience in childcare, tutoring, a background in library resources, and have studied elementary education at Longwood University. Each of these professional roles has given me the opportunity to work closely with students of all ages, backgrounds, and various learning needs. I have had experience working with not only ages 6months to 4 years old but also K to 5th grade as well from previous academic studies, which included times within the classroom setting. However, from my tutoring, have tutored students in small groups from grades k-12. Therefore I have developed some personal philosophies on leadership and work.
I have found that “great” teachers are great leaders for their students and resources for other faculties/staff. My past experience has given me many great opportunities for leadership roles. From my experience, I found it best to start a subject by helping my students set goals and then teach them the skills they need to accomplish their goals. Then when/if my students fail, I will further support them by asking myself how I can better my students and what excess resources I may consider to teach from a different approach. For my students who succeed in their goal, I have found it beneficial to think of new ways to challenge their thinking by using upper levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Flexibility is key when trying to reach young minds because I have found that every student is different. For example, when I was teaching fraction to decimal conversions to a 5th graders, some would learn better through fraction strips while others benefitted from coloring fraction pies. Neither solution was incorrect, just different like the students are. Therefore a different student may need a different academic approach to be successful. As their leader, I work hard and keep an open mind to find what works best for each student.
I have also found the importance of student praise. Praise is a powerful motivating tool because it allows the teacher to selectively encourage different aspects of student production or output. I have found that student praise not only helps with motivation but classroom behavior as well. I have found that there are fewer classroom disruptions when students are given praise for positive behavior because it sets an example of what behavior is acceptable. However, you shouldn’t go overboard with praising the students because it becomes less sincere and you may lower your expectations without realizing it. Find that middle ground.
I find that it is important to set high expectations for students as well as my colleagues. After all, we all just want what is best for the students.
