Growing up with a single mother was all I ever knew. My parents divorced when I was three, so I never remembered what it was like to experience life with both of them. When we moved back to my moms hometown life was rough for us, we lived in my grandparents basement and my mom worked constantly so we could afford a house. When I was about 7 my grandpa bought a house and rented it to us, and we finally got to experience a home of our own. My entire childhood my mom never let me know if we were struggling, she hid it so well. She worked tirelessly to be able to afford me the things I desired and now that I am grown up I realize what a sacrifice that was. No matter if we had one hundred or just ten dollars she always kept a smile visible. I would say the hardest parts of my childhood were when I had to visit my biological father. I would get on a plane and leave my mom who was my best friend behind. I cried constantly begging to go home, back to the love I always felt when I was near here. I know she struggled just as much but hid her sadness as best as possible. Not being able to see my mom was one of the hardest challenges I ever faced and it broke her heart to see me like that. She pretended to be fine when I called because she wanted to be strong for me, this quality sticks with me to this day and keeps me uplifted. She fought hard everyday to ensure my safety and happiness. She taught me how to be kind and strong. Watching her fight for us and for the life we deserved my whole childhood inspired me to push on. As I grow up to go to middle school and high school I often thought of her moments of courage as a sign that I would be alright. Struggling with depression and anxiety was a huge black cloud over my life but I always went back to everything she did for me. I will never forget the sacrifices she made for me and the fights she fought to keep me safe. As I grow throughout college I will carry these values she taught me and always admire her. I hope to be just as great of a mother as her when I have children.

The specific curriculum standard I chose to base my poster off of was phonics and word recognition. Teaching phonics should aid in the children's ability to sound out short and long vowel sounds. This will also lead to being able to pronounce new words with the same letters. The recognition of words is also extremely important because it eases learning to read. Also using a popular song or using the common words a lot can strongly influence how quickly they pronounce a new word. I chose this curriculum because I believe reading is one of the most important topics covered in schools due to the fact that it helps them to converse. The visual elements of color theory, layout, and imagery are factors that largely play into how kids learn. Bright and fun colors make the topic more appealing to look at, grasping their attention for longer. The layout is also key especially when learning a new word because you want them to be able to see the word put together then broken down for easy pronunciation. Imagery is arguably the most important aspect to retaining an academic concept because it allows children to have something to relate that word to. One example of this is the word bed as they learn to say it every time they see a bed they are more likely to sound it out and eventually say the word in a flowing manner. Visual learning is critical in modern K-12 classrooms because children's attention spans are dwindling. After years of working with kids in many different settings I have discovered their patience getting shorter and shorter. Visual learning is a way to keep the children engaged while still teaching valuable material. Not only this, but visual learning makes the children more likely to retain the material because it seems more personalized. With younger kids this is especially true because they do not have the capabilities to learn by themselves. However, visual learning is also an amazing teaching habit to practice in middle schools and high schools as well due to the fact that they are often not engaged. Visual learning makes it so they must engage and pay attention. Giving students a information book to read is unhelpful because often times they do not read it. When learning a new topic the information needs to be shown and explained face to face. Visual learning allows students to resonate topics with specific moments or phrases you said during the lesson. These memories help the students to remember more information during tests and quizzes as opposed to simply writing notes. Writing notes can be beneficial but they also need personal and visual aspects to prove effective. Without visual aspects learning seems bland and uninteresting.

My drive to become a teacher came from my great grandparents passion for teaching, and the immense support my teachers always showed. My great grandparents were both teachers for over 30 years. To this day she continues to talk about her classes and how much the kids meant to her. Growing up I got to see them still working as teachers and I always wanted to be just like them. Oftentimes my great grandma would bring me home the classroom supplies she did not need and I would play school. Every year for at least 12 years I wanted to be a teacher so I could follow in her footsteps. My teachers throughout grade school, middle school and high school became my ultimate inspirations when determining my future career. They always kept the kids best interests in mind, and adjusted the lessons based on what did not seem to work. Their constant drive to leave a lasting impact on each and every student. My teachers were always my very best friends, I would often talk to them about struggles I was facing because I knew they cared. Their constant overflowing love for the students pushed me into exploring becoming a teacher. After discovering the joys of being a teacher, I decided to get some experience with kids. My very first job was at an after school care center, I interacted with kids in kindergarten to sixth grade. This job gave me real insight into handling kids and their minds. I got to experience how to handle children that misbehave, and determine which grades I was interested in. I worked at this job for three years until I decided I wanted to gain more knowledge about younger kids. I now work at a daycare where the children range from two months old to fifth grade. During the beginning of my job I had fifteen or so hours of training to complete. During these training sessions I got to discover how kids minds work, develop, and think. This training is preparing me for teaching methods. During my time at this daycare I discovered my love for the younger grades which lead to my decision of the degree in early childhood education. Every day I get to be at my job I fall more and more in love with the idea of positively impacting the education the future children will have. Having worked in two childcare settings I can not imagine my life not working with kids. I want to be a safe space for children to come to. I want to be able to be remembered by my students and change their lived for the better. I can not wait to expand my love for children into my love for my career. Children are truly amazing and always have something to teach you as well. Thank you for your consideration in helping me pursue my dream.