Background
The past six years, I have been teaching English Language Arts through special education services to students in sixth through eighth grades. Prior to teaching in a K-12 setting, I worked for Whole Foods Market in several leadership and administrative roles over the course of fourteen years.
I have a true teaming background from my experience at Whole Foods Market; I thrive when I am working toward a common goal and under a shared mission and vision. In my position as a teacher and case manager for special education, I have established and maintained excellent rapport with my students and their families. I have a reputation as someone who is caring and willing to go above and beyond, yet someone who is direct and has strong ethics.
When our school had to close during the COVID-19 pandemic, I continued to work diligently and created quality virtual instruction for my students which included computer “how to” videos, interactive instructional videos, electronic assessments, discussion posts, video conferencing discussion, and video-supported guided and individualized practice.
Between my teaching and corporate experiences, I have gained strengths that are a great fit for instructional design. In addition to my experiences, I have a proven strong work ethic, and I am trustworthy and dedicated.
Strengths
- Organization and time management: I can develop curriculum and instruction and prepare to deliver it daily for three grade levels while managing a caseload of ten to twelve students. I can manage that workload while also performing extra duties of Functional Behavior Assessments and co-sponsoring the school robotics club.
- Course development and design practices: I practice backward design; I author formative and summative assessments, often using electronic platforms to provide immediate feedback and adaptive learning experiences; and I use data to drive instruction and to evaluate course effectiveness for revision.
- Educational technology: I use Google Classroom which is a Learning Management System with third-party add-ons and extensions; I create instructional and interactive video lessons; I create interactive instructional activities, aids, and review.
- Writing, presentation, and facilitation skills: As an ELA teacher, I have had more writing intensive courses than the typical bachelor's degree candidate which should serve me well as an instructional designer. Presentation and facilitation skills became second nature to me while working at Whole Foods when I would commonly give training to well over a hundred team members at once. But nothing dismisses reservations more than standing in front of a middle school audience for 6 years. They will tell you straight away if they like the lesson, how they are feeling, when they don’t like your new haircut, or even when your shoes are higher heels than you usually wear. They have no filter.