Kathryn Laurentius

When starting the class for the first time, learning and pronouncing students names correctly is extremely important. This is something that will set the tone for the semester off well. 

It is important to be as prepared as possible. There are a lot of things that are out of our control as educators or things we feel like we do not have enough time for. Planning is something that I feel gets easier with time and the more years you teach. 

Leading by example is a great reminder for all educators. The students will model your professionalism and view your example as how they should act in the classroom and in the professional environment. 

I enjoyed how this course covered four different strategies for instruction. I think the key is a combination of them to use in your classroom and varying your instruction thought out a unit of study. 

Being positive is important for students, and I also think in the classroom it can be contagious. I can tell how if I am in a grumpy or negative mood how quickly it rubs off on those around me and the opposite is true for when I am overly positive and grateful. This can sometimes be a challenging task but it is important for ourselves and our students. 

I had never heard of the VIA Institute before and plan to explore that more to potentially use it with my students in future activities. I know how important know your stengths and weaknesses can be in all areas of life. 

The importance of reflection was really impactful for me. I do a lot of reflection-based assessments in my classes with students but I rarely take the time, myself, to reflect in a meaningful way. I know adding more reflection time will help me be a better educator. 

I enjoy learning about the different ways to use and apply PERMA. It is also helpful and refreshing to hear about the emphasis on prioritizing your well-being. As educators, I feel like that is often frowned upon or put on the back burner. I look forward to learning more about positive psychology. 

I learned more about the importance of advisory councils. I know they are very helpful but it is something I struggled with early in my career. Another thing I learned was the different ways for multiple CTE programs to collaborate. I also really liked the idea of having the SBE students present to the school board as I see many different benefits in that idea. 

The biggest takeaway for me is the idea of adding industry certifications to my SBE. I want to further research this and see how I could add that as an additional benefit for my students. I see a lot of benefits to this and could see where my admin would really like that added benefit aswell.