Leading
“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith.” Hebrews 13:7
I have been fortunate enough to be placed in leading positions throughout my educational career; I will highlight a couple of these below as well as resources I have created that will help me be a leader in the classroom.
Daycare Teacher
In May 2017, I started working at St. John Child Development Center, located across the intersection from Concordia University’s campus. Throughout the summer, I acted as one of five head teachers in the school-age classrooms. These two classes combined had over 40 kids from kindergarten through fifth grade. Immediately on my first day, I was expected to lead these children in our day-to-day activities and field trips, working to keep them safe in every environment and modeling appropriate behavior for the classroom and the world. I continued this leadership position throughout the 2017-18 school year, the summer of 2018, and in the fall 2018 semester. I am grateful for this experience because it has allowed me to practice my classroom management skills in ways not applicable through field experience.
Vacation Bible School Leader
Every summer from 2011-2016, I was fortunate enough to be a group leader for my church’s VBS in Concordia, Missouri, and in 2017 at St. John in Seward, Nebraska. I helped with all ages from nursery to sixth grade and was able to build relationships with the children and lead them in a Christ-centered setting. Each year helping with VBS was an incredible opportunity, as it was there where I discovered my passion for teaching middle school.
Resources
I created a Sola Scriptura Summary Sheet over the course of my two Christian Doctrine classes. This reference sheet outlines three Bible verses each for 24 different foundations of the Christian doctrine, and I plan to constantly use this as a quick reference in my daily life as I lead my students in their own faith and understanding of the Christian doctrine.
I also created these classroom rules as an activity for my Middle Level Methods class, but I do plan to use them in my own classroom because as a leader, I need rules and guidelines for students to follow that will benefit them and their well-being.
