Professional Experience : My First Grade Teacher

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Jennefer L. Simmons
23648 Seneca Ridge Court
(407) 739-2080

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Stenstrom Elementary School, 1st and 2nd Grade Teacher August 2005- Present
Oviedo, FL
• Created and implemented a blended learning curriculum

The quote, “The best teachers show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see” by Alexandra K. Trenfor, is the perfect embodiment of my first grade teacher, Miss Letemacki. She ignited my love of learning at a very young age in a way that no one else has ever done. Twenty years later, as I sat in my daughter’s first grade classroom, in front of the same beloved teacher, it was solidified in me. Miss Letemacki taught both my daughter and myself to explore the world and accept divergent views. Her passion for teaching and learning was apparent to all who spoke to her. In conferences for my daughter, she spoke to me as a colleague with excitement over the latest trends in education. I don’t remember specifically what I learned but I remember love, excitement, enthusiasm, and the feeling that I couldn’t fail. Her message to me was always clear- do what you love and love what you do- just as she had. Being a teacher was never a choice for me, it is who I am, learned from a single year of privilege in Miss Letemacki’s class.

The education system in America was initially created during an Agricultural age and then re-invented for the age of industry. Over the last several years we have been moving at a hypersonic speed into a Global Information age as well as a time that creates opportunity for creation and breakthrough thinking. Many of us are working feverishly to prepare students for the challenges of this new Global marketplace. I am fortunate to be able to work in a dis...

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...rent in the educational realm. SIM Central Florida and CNL Financial Group have come in to offer trainings for future technology trends. I also organized a professional development day at the DaVinci Center at CNL focusing on STEM Education. I have been a speaker at several STEM conferences focusing on STEM Education at the Elementary level as well as an attendee in numerous conferences on a wide range of topics.
Just as the best teachers show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see, we, as teachers, must also remember that our tomorrows need new and different solutions today. President Lincoln, on the brink of Civil War, noted ‘The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate for the stormy present and future. As our circumstances are anew, we must think anew and act anew.’ I thank you for your consideration and appreciate this new and wonderful opportunity.

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