Rebecca Miller

October 28, 2016

Dr. Jim Josefson
PDP 450

Senior Portfolio
As part of Bridgewater Colleges liberal studies program I have been
able to gain an education that incorporates more components than just what
my major requires. During my time at Bridgewater I have been able to see
diverse perspectives, experience the problems facing my community,
understand issues that affect people outside of the United States, and
volunteer my time to have a better understanding of the profession I will be
going into after graduation.
Personalized Education Program
Throughout my time at Bridgewater I have been working on earning
my teaching license. I remember sitting in the very first education class
(EDUC 140) and wondering what I got myself into even though it was only an
introduction to the profession. During one of the very first classes I was
assigned to write an autobiography which stretched me to my limits by
making me think about my life up to that point and what made me want to
teach. I had never given this much thought, and then I was told that this
would also be used when I applied to the Teacher Education Program (TEP)
which I did not feel the least bit prepared for. This document, Supporting

Item #1: EDUC 140 Autobiography, was the second of two drafts completed
the fall of my freshmen year. It tested me to think about myself in ways I had
not thought about before and got me to start thinking about my future and
what had inspired me to pursue the profession I was planning to make into
my career.
Later in my education career, after be admitted into the TEP, I was
asked to do another task that was a first for me. I was asked to create a list
of four goals I had for the upcoming practicum I would be participating in.
While I have always been a goal oriented person, I had never narrowed
things down and looked at the little goals that help one achieve the big
goals. In Supporting Item #2: EDUC 201 Goals I was assigned to create four
goals that I would work on while I was in my practicum experience. As my
time at Bridgewater continued I was expected to come up with goals for
every practicum and the goals I selected became more specific and helped
me to better myself as a future educator. As I look toward graduation I realize
that I have other goals that will help me achieve my ultimate goal of
becoming a teacher.
I have several professional goals for once I graduate college. The first
of these is to never stop learning. This is my first goal because we live in a
world that is always changing. I find it to be important to never stop learning
in order to stay the most up to date on everything in the world whether that
means learning about the latest technology or going to conferences to see
the latest teaching techniques. Another one of my professional goals is to

help my future students understand that learning is not something that just
happens in school and that it is important to never stop learning. All too
often kids think they only learn while at school, but some of the best
teachers I have worked with have shown their students and me that learning
can be so much more. I hope to be able to teach my students the same.
As a Liberal Studies major I have had ample opportunities to practice
my oral communication skills. Through various presentations to my peers
and teaching lessons in the local schools I have developed as a public
speaker. I have also had the opportunity to learn how to use the SmartBoard
technology that is commonly used in local schools. In Supporting Item #3
and Oral Communication Skill: EDUC 406 Lesson 2 you can see a lesson I
developed for my science unit in my curriculum class. This is a lesson that
uses the interactive SmartBoard technology to help students learn about
circuits for their science SOL. This was one of many opportunities I had to
use this technology to teach students.
Engaging Diverse Perspectives
One of my most challenging classes here at Bridgewater was Dr.
Josefsons Introduction to Political Science. I originally took it because it
satisfied one of the general education requirements, but I knew it would be
challenging. What I did not expect, however, was how much I would learn
and how this class would challenge the way I had previously thought. I would
never say that I am an expert on any kind of history or political science, but I
had no idea how much it has changed over time. I included Supporting Item

#4: PSCI 220 Assignment 1 because it was the first assignment I submitted
for this class. This was also one of the first times I realized that political
science goes way back and has gone through many changes over the years.
What started out as a class that was I using to satisfy a requirement turned
into a class that challenged what I thought I knew and became one of my
favorites of the semester.
Ethics and Community Responsibility
During the later semesters of my time at Bridgewater, the push for
public discourse became very prominent in many of my classes. One of these
classes was Sociology 101: School and Society. Dr. Hayes periodically held
classes that promoted this public discourse and then had us write reflections
on it to be turned in. Supporting Item #5: SOC 101 Gender Inequalities Essay
was one of the reflective essays I wrote following a public discourse session
discussing gender inequalities. Through this discussion I was able to see the
gender inequality problems that still exist today. Originally, this was
something I thought was not a big issue, but I had not thought of how
women are portrayed in the world of athletics. This class helped me see
many different problems that my community face on a regular basis,
especially with gender inequalities.
Global Citizenship and Intercultural Competencies
After having my eyes opened to problems in my community by my
Sociology 101 class, I then took Sociology 335: Immigration in the
Shenandoah Valley. While this class mainly focused on immigrants who

landed here in the valley, it also looked at why they moved here in the first
place. When looking at why people moved to the Shenandoah Valley my eyes
were opened to the issues affecting people all around the world. This class
was set up to where it used public discourse as a way to teach, which was a
very unique experience. When we came to each class we were expected to
have a printed copy of the assigned reading and a one-page typed response
answering a question or two that was posted on Moodle. One of these
essays, or PDMs as my professor called them, was entitled The Deported
which is Supporting Item #6. When I arrived to class that day I was placed
into a small group to begin the public discourse about what we read. From
that we transitioned to a class discussion which is the part of the class that I
gained the most insight about global issues. After hearing everyones
opinions, experiences, and interpretations of the assigned text I was able to
see the issues that face the world through a new lens.
Experiential or Service Learning
One could say that my entire career at Bridgewater was experiential
learning. By being a Liberal Studies major I found myself in many different
practicums. Each practicum focused on the various components of teaching
and when grouped together gave me the whole picture of what the
profession is really like. This semester I am student teaching and have been
the main teacher for about six weeks now. This has by far been the most
influential part of my education. I have learned what works really well and I
have fumbled through things that do not work quite as well or the way I

planned them. One example of this can be seen in Supporting Item #7:
Progress Report Week 9. Every week my cooperating teacher and I fill out a
progress report to be submitted to my advisor. This particular week was one
in which I took my fifth grade reading group through the entire writing
process, which proved to be more difficult than I imagined. I figured that
since they were one of the higher ability groups that I could be a little more
hands-off during the process, but I learned that I should have been more
hands-on. Looking back, I should have known this due to the fact this was
the first major writing assignment of the year. Overall, students did well on
the writing, but I walked away with plenty of notes on how to improve this
activity for the next time.
My time here at Bridgewater has been filled with many different
learning experiences, trials, and tribulations all of these which have helped
me to grow as an individual. I am not the same person I was when I walked
on campus freshmen year, and I am glad for that. I have grown into someone
who is able to look at diverse perspectives critically and analyze them to
come up with my own ideas. I have had many opportunities to learn about
my community responsibility and global citizenship. I have experienced what
I will be facing once I leave Bridgewater as opposed to reading it from a
book. By learning and experiencing all of this at Bridgewater, I have the tools
to continue to learn every day and help others to see the importance of
learning and all the opportunities they have to do so.