Nicole Coomer's Professional Blog

I am an elementary education major at the University of South Alabama. I am a recent transfer into the College of Education and am very excited about the shift in career path. I have a four year old daughter who keeps me on my toes and teaches me something almost every day. My plan is to hopefully get a teaching job in southern Baldwin County after I graduate but also to continue on in my education in the years following to work towards a Master’s degree.

I have been working with children ages from six months to twelve on a regular basis for about five years now. It has been very rewarding and taught me a tremendous amount about growth, development, learning environments, and creativity to just name a few. But nothing could prepare me for what I was about to learn this summer about new cutting edge technologies and tools available to educators and learners. Classrooms are evolving—what better time to climb aboard the ship!

Every child deserves the best education possible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Communication and Dedication

I believe the first step in accomplishing this is having an open communication system between the teacher, students and parents/guardians. There are many ways to do this and it is very important not to lose this. It is something that takes time and dedication however very essential in the positive outcome we are trying to reach with our students.

Creativity

Children need room to explore and should never be shut down from it. I believe that we as teacher need to give students tools and encouragement to find what interests them and work with it. Each child has an individual voice and needs to be heard. I am excited about digging and finding what triggers enthusiasm in each of my students. It is something that gets lost when teachers use the “burp back” method of teaching.

Project Based Learning/Technology

I can promise I will not be a teacher in the front of the classroom all day spitting out information. I need to learn too! Project based learning is an area that I feel fairly strongly about and will allow my future students to benefit from. My students will teach me as well. We will learn together as we explore with hands on projects and technology based learning and exploring. ALL of my students will know how to find answers they don’t know by problem solving and using any of the tools they have available.

Life Lessons

Life is about lessons. Childhood through adolescence is the foundation of one’s life and filled with lessons learned. Randy Pausch’s “life lessons” is such an interesting and creative way to look at growth, education, and personal growth from childhood to adulthood. I will never forget the things he said and wrote and will use that as almost a guideline for teaching. Yes, we are teaching children math, grammar, and history, HOWEVER, the most important things we can teach them are life lessons. We are preparing them for the world and to be future leaders and educators.

Life Long Learning