Teacher

Identity
Project


Alysha Flietstra
EDUC 102A
My Life and Educational Experiences
23 years old
Married
K-12 : Hudsonville Public Schools
Bachelors Degree in Psychology and
interdisciplinary Health Services: Western
Michigan University
One year of Graduate School for Clinical
Mental Health Counseling and Addictions
Counseling : Western Michigan University
Currently : Post-Bachelors Program for
Elementary Teaching and Special Education
My Life and Educational Experiences
What is my normal?
My usual normal is attending lectures where
the teacher is the head of the room.

Students write notes while the teacher is
talking about information.

Students are graded on tests, assignments,
and group projects.

My Life and Educational Experiences
What are my strengths and highlights?
Student guided learning: Learner is in control of
topics learned. Student can focus on interests
and this creates a higher level or learning.
Group work: Students are responsible for their
part of research and learning. Group work
allows students to interact with peers and reflect
on the work they have done and how it comes
together with the work of the others in the
group.
Student portfolios: Students gather and keep
work that has been down over the course. Etc.
worksheets, projects, quizzes, and assignments.

My Goal
What I see as the ideal is the teacher
being a mentor and leader for the
classroom experience.
I believe students should take ownership
in their learning and overall experience
with the teacher providing resources for
the students to use.
My Goal
My ideal goal for my classroom in the
future is to have many many experiences
for inquiry based approaches.
This allows the students to take over the
classroom to explore, discover, and trial
and error over various topics.
These could be in ways of art, field trips,
games.
My hope is for my students to have hands
on approaches and many hands on
experiences.
My Goal
My dream job will be teaching high
school special education!
Stimulates are a top priority for many of
these students.
It will allow them to engage in sensory
(mostly visual, sound, and touch).
It will leave lasting impressions and help
with memory and overall getting it!
Charting a path to my goal
Work I have yet to do:
Completion of my program
One full year of student teaching: one
semester of special education and one
semester of elementary education.
Building a stronger Christian faith: continuing
on my bible studies, workshops and building a
stronger marriage. (this will allow my life to be
a strong threshold and make me an overall
better person and teacher!)
Charting a path to my goal
Work I have yet to do:
Start substitute teaching. I will gain
experience in the classroom and learn
more about myself as a teacher!
Practice on lesson plans and IEPs
Gain a greater understanding of the
overall teaching profession. (Laws of
Michigan, student assessments, student
rights, etc.)

Charting a path to my goal
Reflecting on any bias I may have:
One of the statements of commitment is having the
belief that all students can learn.
I believe part of making this statement true is to
consistently reflect on my values and bias.
I have to ask myself why I believe the things I do and
when I have a bias about someone, especially a
student, I need to reflect of that and decide what I am
going to do about that bias.
I must always be aware I have that bias and not just
forget about it.
When I have a bias about something my hope is that I
will not only continue to be aware that I have that bias,
but that I will also reflect often on that bias and see if
that bias will change from a bias to a new belief.