Hello, my name is Elena Yonika and I have had quite a bit of experience working with children.  I think this job is a very good fit for me because in both of my jobs I have instructed, coached and supervised children. I started to like working with kids when I was in high school during the early childhood academy class I took. I took this class for two years in a row because I really enjoyed the children and working on lesson plans. In this class, I thoroughly enjoyed helping children learn new things and found it quite rewarding. This class helped me understand how the students liked to learn in different ways using different activities and having hands-on action tied to their lessons.

When I was at Northern Virginia Community College I enrolled in a class that involved going into a school and working with a teacher. I loved the experience this provided working with the students and also to have that time to see how they learn and ways you can help them when they are struggling. I was able to work with first-grade students and after which I was very keen to work with children at that age because they don’t have any negative attitudes yet and they just love you.

When I retired from gymnastics competition my coach had asked me if I liked being with kids or working with kids and I had told her that I did. After about a year of not hearing from her she called me and asked if I would you like to work for her, of course, I said yes because I loved working with kids. I still work for my old coach today but not as much as before since I am off at school most of the year. But I work for her during the summer. When I started working for Spirit Pro’s I fell in love with it right away because of the children I worked with. When I first started working for the summer camp I knew it was going to be fun because I liked being with kids. I like working with all the ages and love helping them learn new dances and skills.

Overall, my experiences I had were just so rewarding and satisfying that I just can’t stop working with children. One of my favorite things about working with kids is getting to know them and seeing them succeed.  I just love being with children because they put a smile on my face.

This is the Breakdown of the number of students enrolled in school by age and grade. This Data is from the US census of the Longwood area, zip code 23901 for the year of 2000. The pie chart shows the percentage of students enrolled by age, including college and graduate level. The smallest is the 3 to 4-year age group. The largest age group is 5 to 14 years of age. The 20 to 24 age group is 27.5% and is mostly made up of college students. The bar chart shows the break out of students enrolled in public versus private enrollment. The number of students in private schools drops with age. This is most likely due to cost and the lack of privative school in the area.

School Enrollment: 2000  
Census 2000 Summary File 3 (SF 3) – Sample Data

This data shows a breakout of median annual salaries by education and by gender. The side by side comparison shows that males have higher salaries than females at each education level. Although each achieves higher salaries with education level the gap between male and female remains. The difference between bachelors and graduate levels for females does not go up as much as it does for males.

MEDIAN EARNINGS IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS (IN 2017 INFLATION-ADJUSTED DOLLARS) BY SEX BY EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT FOR THE POPULATION 25 YEARS AND OVER
Universe: Population 25 years and over with earnings  
2013-2017 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

The purpose of this project was to get a better understanding of how things are different and how different ages and grades can show a big difference. I did notice that when kids go to school when they’re younger there is more enrolled but when you get up into the higher grades you see that there is less enrollment.

I got my information from the American Factfinder. I went to the education tab and picked from there. This information that I found really surprised me big time and I was not aware of this. I feel that teacher should know this information to maybe get more people to not give up when they get older and go for there dreams.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18muIc8LuvS4_VDv_MpK543cE4H5AkUsEMKa0VpRS-Es/edit?usp=sharing

Classes I have taken at Longwood/ Only been at Longwood for a year now

Grammar: Theory and Practice ENGL-382

Children’s literature ENGL 380

Functions and Graphs Math 121

Numeration Systems Math 310

Conceptual Physics PHYS 103

Human Growth-Soc, Pol, Econ Ins EDU 245

Introduction to Ethics Phil 308

The reason behind this minor Is because they have helped me learn how to work with students at any age but also how to communicate with them. The Philosophy class has helped me understand that you have to teach students right from wrong which means teaching them if it is morally right or morally wrong. Also, this class has helped me teach students how to really describe something or a thing. For example, having them give me a definition of a ball, but also describing it to me. My English 380 class also help me learn to how to teach students how to analyze the characters and how they act and what the point of the book is supposed to do. Also, some of the books we read help the students learn a lesson and they help the students learn good from bad people. The books that are out there for kids do help them learn to communicate with others and teach them how to speak up for themselves. So as a teacher I want them to know that reading some books are good because they have lessons in them and then some teach people to speak up for themselves which is where the communication skills come in. Also having the students read more books will also help them learn to talk to one another about the books they read or someone else has read. The Edu class has help me work with students and understanding how they think and develop in different ages. The math 310 class has helped me help the students understand how they need to show their work and how they need to explain how they got their answer. This helps me, and the students communicate in an easier way. Overall, all my classes I have taken have helped me in a way so can communicate with students and also have fun with them. I still have more classes to take and I am really excited to get to know more ways to communicate with them.