The educational system was built with bias; a bias in deciding where to put funds; bias in material taught, and bias towards who should expect quality education. Today, our schools still teach many of the same values, but with yesterday’s methods. Somehow, we've come to measure success using only standardized tests, ignoring individual qualities, strengths, and interests of students. Instead focused on following arbitrary tasks, largely aimed at training students to pass standardized tests. Because standardized tests have become the foundation for education, creativity in classrooms is stifled. Not only do these tests dictate the curriculum, but also what's deemed important for each given level of education. Standardized tests do not take into account learner differences, out-of-the-box thinking, or the individual qualities, talents, and passions of our children. Requiring students to pass subjective, pre-determined, pass-or-fail scored tests, disservices our entire society. How can we encourage learning, innovation, and preparedness for the ever-changing world if we discourage creativity and individuality? Lumping students together, teaching if they are one, teaches students conformity. Only teaching them what to think, not how they think. Unfortunately, many teenagers drop out due to frustrations and lack of motivation. I saw much struggle among my classmates, the majority on free and reduced lunch, not having internet at home, left with no parental support, and some, like myself, were even battling homelessness. My drive to become a teacher came from my own dismal educational upbringing. I found motivation in attempting to fix these problems. My goal is to reform and fix what I can about our school systems. If I can change the outcome of the educational experience for the better, beyond teaching outdated skills designed for the industrial era, and ignoring modern history; a modern history that will dictate the path that civilization will endure, I will!

My job as a teacher, will be in a few words, to teach students, children, people, to best learn how they learn best! Everyone has a different process of thinking and growing which changes the way their learning process takes shape. There are many factors that contribute to how and what one learns. This creates various levels, styles, and perspectives of learning and growing, based on the combination of each person's individual experiences. The process of learning is unique for every individual and changes over time. It's my job to help students reexamine their ideas and consider learning to relearn, when the situation calls for a change in thinking. If there is anything I know, it's that there’s always more than one avenue towards success for everything. In order to reach that "outside of the box" thinking and find these alternative avenues, we must become open-minded, and aware of the varying levels and perspectives that people can view life from, including perceptions we hold towards life ourselves. My role is to work as a mentor, encouraging students to explore various perspectives on current social problems existing now in our world. Teachers provide information and tools to explore social problems and inequalities. This creates more aware, open minded, and socially conscious people, with skills to determine and navigate our social and emotional worlds. Skills such as problem solving, solution finding, critical thinking, technological skills, along with other 21st century and beyond modes of thinking or learning have become essential to our survival, because let's face it, things will continue to change and develop, so the ways in which we teach people must as well! To achieve this, I will continue to broaden my educational horizons, further expanding my professional development. An effective teacher must always remain a student to life.

My name is Martina Forbs, I am dual majoring in Elem. Education, and Writing Arts at Rowan University. I have huge career goals to majorly transform what happens with our children and teachers in our schools and classrooms. All people are different, diverse, dynamic, you name it; the human spirit is full of vast creative potential! When people pursue the things they are interested in, they grow and build on themselves naturally. There is no one single defined template for learning, that works for all people. Just as there is more than one way to reach many students, in various ways, everyone has different learning needs and requirements. In my eyes, much of learning and growth comes through personal experiences, hands-on situations, or is applicable in real world relationships, situations, and circumstances. I believe that the learning done in schools has to be by the students and for the students, as they take on their own responsibilities of learning. After all, it is their world to inherit too, as much as it is yours or mine. Overall, I'm aiming to transform the way our education system looks and operates, by changing the light in which we view and give credit to ourselves and each other. Through challenging people's ideas of what intelligence and creativity looks like and means for different people living various ways of life in numerous cultures, we find ways to become more inclusive to our diverse society. All of this, begins with completing my degrees, becoming a certified educator, and continuing my education.

Reading a Spoken Word Poem ~ Written and Performed by: Martina Forbs Listening for me, is when my mouth remains still but my ears take off, grabbing a hold of your hands, as we walk through it all again, and again, and again. Thoughts trailing onward, towards new discoveries, beginnings and endings as you recount for me about how, “many years ago when you were a boy”, and about how, you’ve seen so much more than you'd care to admit. But you tell me about it anyways, because really, you’ve never told a soul who'd ever take you seriously before, never mind, give you the time and space to speak up.. And so I listen. Listening, is how I know the trees, and the wind, and the birds, and the bees, all communicating in harmony, through the rustling of leaves, and the swaying of breeze, at the tip top of when fall comes rolling around. Usually around that same time, things start to fall apart for the both of us. The dead weight gets heavy, words get fumbled. When our worlds clash and tumble, Often leaving troubles, I listen anyways, because I know, life’s not through with me, or you, just yet. Listening to me, feels like a warm cup of hot cocoa, on a dreary afternoon. Where the fireplace roars, and there's only space for two in the room, and your mind wanders to something we’ve never spoken about before now. Where you envision yourself in the next 5 years, I question where you will lead, whether or not you know, and whether or not that even matters, but still, I remain silent, observing, open, listening for you to make your move.

With the world increasingly moving more connected and digitized, it's important that people and future generations are able to ground themselves in strong foundational knowledge, such as literacy, math, communicative skills, and the like. Students also need to know where to begin when it comes to living online, with the internet and global communities. They're met with learning to navigate digital citizenship, virtual, and augmented reality, and other new advancements coming into the 21st century. Education is vital for the development of our human species, especially since survival in our world is largely becoming more dependent on how creative and ingenious a person manages to get. I believe people are naturally quite capable of great intelligence and meaningful creation; unfortunately, many people are taught to believe the opposite. They think very little of themselves, or see very little to no value in life itself, in turn, hopelessly believe they are worthless, and that there is no reason to try to explore; to stay, to learn, grow, and remain curious. Oftentimes, the ways we are taught to doubt ourselves is through looking at "making mistakes" as such a negative problem, when really, making mistakes is a perfectly natural and healthy part of any learning process you can think of. Many young children are wrongfully educated out of their ability to creatively think and problem solve because they get stuck in thinking that by failing, or not being "perfect", that they are a failure, and by being a failure, they are no longer of high value, no longer "good enough" or very "smart". This is oftentimes seen through the "one size fits all, standardized testing", when people get into a frantic, hectic, anxiety-ridden frenzy, and start to get high-strung over low scores or the possibility of not receiving such a high one. I believe that testing is important, but it should not overshadow the whole point of what we are testing to see and look for in the first place, whether or what a child has learned or is ready to learn at a certain level. Mistakes and wrong answers cannot be reacted to so harshly during the delicate process of learning, as they are a natural part of it, and can cause such a problem when looked at this way, that students sometimes would rather not even try at all, than risk being in the wrong. Education is important to me because I feel for all the children who are underrepresented, undermined, undervalued, misunderstood, misled, and taught to think less of their own abilities. Learning and teaching strategies and ways to think about how we process our world are how we foster a community of innovative thinkers, and restore the world's balance, allowing our species to continue to thrive alongside the rest of the world.

When I think about self care, I don't think about all of the things I could physically do, but instead, I think about slowing down from doing all the things that I do, and taking the time to breathe. I've learned to accept that in order to be great, I can't be such a workaholic, I have to take a break. I oftentimes have struggled in the past with overworking myself, not ever really knowing when to stop, or what was too much for my body and brain to handle. This sort of obsessive work mentality led me to oftentimes becoming worn and burnt out, both mentally and psychically. Even though my work came out alright, I know it will always be better, and I could always get more done, if I had just taken the time to stop and recover. I think self care is about making some quiet time for myself, a safe and comfortable space to just dwell and sit in my own stillness. A moment to reflect, to analyze, to take a break from all the daily motions of life. A space to reset, and recover in order to be back at my best for the next time I get back to doing anything. Taking a break from the busyness of life in the 21st century is extremely beneficial in ensuring my peace of mind in this crazy, hectic, complex web of life I've gotten myself spun into!