Educator Profile

I decided to make my blogs address "Miss Hart". It's a name that I was proud to be called by my classroom full of kids for the one year that changed my entire career. After I graduated from Ohio State in 2014, I was not sure what I wanted to do with my B.A. in History. I have always LOVED history and I wanted to share my interest and my passion for history with students. But after graduation, I was planning on taking a year off and then pursuing licensure to teach high schoolers. I wanted to teach American History and Geography and I was convinced that pursuing my licensure for Integrated Social Studies for Grades 7-12 would be the best route for me.

And then I got a job at an elementary school as a 3rd Grade Teacher's Aide.

Initially I wasn't sure how I felt about these young kids. How could I connect with a bunch of 8 year olds and get them interested in anything I was interested in? How could I get students to listen to me, when I don't fully understand what keeps them focused? Much to my surprise, those kids were so interested in anything that I wanted to teach them. When I was substitute teaching, I found that I had at least ONE kid interested in what I was talking about. Every kid had subjects they loved and subjects that they hated, subjects they excelled at and subjects they struggled with. The most rewarding part of each day was learning how to engage and teach as many students as I could.

When a third grade teaching position opened up at the end of the school year, I was so upset that I didn't have the qualifications to take the job. It was then that I realized that I KNEW what I wanted to do with my life and it was NOT teaching Grades 7-12. I wanted to teach the younger grades and encourage their love of learning, not just their love of American History or Geography.

This course is teaching me how to teach. But this course isn't teaching me how to teach these students in the way that I was taught. Instead, It's teaching me how teach this next generation of students who learn a completely different way.

I think this quote embodies the point of this course:

"If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn" -Ignacio Estrada