Me Matties, tis' time to explore the world and learn all it holds to know! Treasure needs a searchin' and a diggin', but when it's raining between your fingers a grinning you will be. So come with me, let's find the keys!
Brandi Clark
Education:
Oakland University
Rochester, MI
Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education
Additional Ceritificaitons:
Science
Mathematics
State Certification:
K-6 Self Contained
6-9 Science
6-9 Mathematics
A little bit about me...
My journey began as a Girl Scout. I was in scouting even before I was in school as my Mom was a Girl Scout leader for my sister's troop and I often tagged along. My Mom became the learder for my troop as well. Our troop stayed together from kindergarten through 12th grade.
We explored the world. We set goals, devised ways to achieve them and then set about doing so. Each badge required us to try something new, to discover how things worked and how we could apply what we had learned to the real world or through creations we could exhibit. We also traveled. We explored science, history, art, plantearium, and aerospace museums. We went to baseball, hockey and basketball games. We saw live theater, took horseback riding lessons and went camping. We visited zoos, aquariums, botonical gardens and places of historical significance. We even spent a week living in a Native American longhouse while learning the skills used by the Native Americans of Illinois. We learned of career options by exploring hospitals, radio stations, the airport and even the FBI.
But through all of it, what I wanted to do most was teach. I often volunteered as a group or project leader at badge days and daycamps. During my senior year of high school I took the Child Care course offered by the local community college. It was a 15 hour per week course. Six hours of each week was spent learning the specifics of child development, state mandated child care techniques, listening to guest speakers and creating a child care manual and activities guide. The remaining 9 hours per week was spent working in classrooms. Per the program requirments, all 9 hours was spent leading or teaching children. Each quarter we swtiched grade levels; I was assigned to 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classrooms.
I visited 9 colleges before selecting Oakland University. I choose Oakland University because it focused on experienced based education. From the time a teacher enters the teaching program until graduation they are required to work in a classroom for 30 hours every semester. They assign you a different grade level each time, and ensure that all participants have a minimum of one term in a special education classroom and two terms in inner city classrooms. Prior to student teaching I accumulated 210 hours of classroom experience through this program, assigned to kindergarden, 1st, 2nd, and 5th grade, 4th grade special education, and 7th grade mathematics. My student teaching was in a 2nd grade classroom.
The teaching courses at Oakland University also focused on experienced based learning. These included semester long teaching courses on:
K-8th Hands on Mathematics
Project Based Social Studies
Science Taught Through Experiments
Teaching Core Content Through Art Projects
Teaching Core Content Through Music, Theater and Dance
Other vital courses included:
Backwards By Design: Indentify the unit goals, then create lessons that will cause the students to meet those goals.
Projected Based Instruction: methods for implementing group work such that all students engage in-depth with content
Literacy Evaulation and Techniques: during which I earned certifications in the
Michigan Literacy Progress Profile:
Background
Information & Task
Analysis of Data
Comprehension
Essentially, this means I know the proper techniques for evaluating a student's reading skills and comprehension.
Girl Scouts taught me the value of learning through experiences. I choose Oakland University both for the experience it would allow me to have and because they focused on teaching teachers how to teach through experiences.
A few of the Other Basics...
Since graduating I have taught 6th and 7th grade mathematics, 4th grade general education, K-9 itinerant education, and 6th-9th online science.